“No?” she asked. “Well, it’s for the best. If they decide to appear for you, you’ll see the whites of their eyes first emerging in the gloom, then the wispy shape of their human form. By that time, it’s far too late and one of two things would have happened. They’re ready to listen to you and bend to your will like you do to me.” She giggled and tugged at a loose strand of my hair.
I jerked backward. “Or?”
“Well, or you’re one of them. The latter looks a much higher possibility at the moment. Haven’t you wondered where all those missing village women ended up? The bumps in the walls, the falling ash...”
I swallowed, trying very hard not to think of all the times I’d touched the ash.
“Anyway, onto more joyful subjects. Beautiful work with the Sheriff. Although, once again, the Collectors were sorry to have missed you. I thought bringing you back to your hometown would loosen your fonder memories, but anyone would think you were deliberately avoiding them?”
I pursed my lips but said nothing.
“Tut, tut. Well, at least I get to spend some quality time with you. Much earlier than expected too.”
“They’re okay though, right? You haven’t harmed them?”
“Of course not. You’re the only one who can harm them now. We’re all relying on you. Such a fun weight of expectations settled on those perfect shoulders.”
“Why didn’t you come when I called for you?”
She flicked her hand as if batting away my irritating question. “I must not have heard, I am incredibly busy, my dear.”
I held in my groan. She would’ve known, I’d even opened my veins to spill a drop of magic to summon her. She would’ve felt it like an elastic pulled tight around her soul, or whatever lived in its place. I took a steadying breath, it was time to broker the deal. My intestines writhed deep within me. It felt as though they snaked up into my chest and squeezed my heart. Thump. I swallowed, willing my voice to be strong. “I’ve paid my debt, though. Yes?”
The candle guttered as she heaved a sigh.
I forced the sarcasm down and tried again. “I want to make a deal.”
She backed away, lowering the flame until she merged with the twisting shadows. “I’ll think about it, child.” She paused. “Meet me at the Red Blush tomorrow night and we’ll discuss the details. Sounds awfully risqué, don’t you think?”
“Wait! Don’t leave me?—”
The candle snuffed out, leaving a meager trail of crimson smoke suspended in mid-air. Goddessdamn her!
I crawled around the room hitting the walls and pushing at the ceiling. Was I inside the walls? In between floors perhaps? Please let there be no bodies in here. My knee caught on a rough board and pain seared through me as my flesh sliced open. Warm blood seeped down my leg.
I pummeled the wood, splinters embedding into my fist. It gave way beneath me, widening a small crack between the floorboards. Digging my nails into the grooves, I wrenched them back until I could fit through the opening and drop down into the dark room below.
A cool, sharp blade dug into my throat. I raised my arms a millimeter to shove it away, but a voice growled, “Stay still.”
Someone fumbled in the gloom. A glass shattered, a few small trinkets clattering. Finally, flint was found, the blade never wavering from my throat. My raging pulse vibrated down it, the swoosh of my carotid forcing itself around the solid obstruction. One slip and I would be dead. At least it would be to a human and not to the spirits slinking through the walls.
Single-handed and clumsy, the flint eventually caught and a taper lit. “Tam?” The curve of the saber shone in the candlelight, its sparkling pommel grasped by familiar hands, but he didn’t move the tip from my neck. “What. The. Fuck.”
“Eloquent, my friend.” I moved the blade aside and it fell slack between us. Rubbing my neck, I cataloged the injury to add to all the others I'd sustained that night. “Do you sleep with that under your pillow, big boy? No wonder you don’t have many nighttime companions.”
“Is that what you’re here for, Tam? Because women don’t usually just fall from my ceiling.” Clement put the candle on a small dresser beside a narrow bed and sagged back into the messy covers. “There’s a door, you see. For next time.”
I laughed. Or tried to, but it came out a strangled whimper.
He patted the mattress beside him. “Tell me.”
I hesitated until my ankle throbbed in warning. Why not? Sure, he had an actual mausoleum above his room, complete with a mattress and terrifying lack of escape, but maybe he didn’t know it was there.
Or maybe he had never used it.
“Did you really try and save that woman?” I lowered myself next to him, my thigh touching his.
He nodded. “I did slip her a knife, but I was too late. She didn’t manage to use it.”
