“Hold up. Just wait for one second.” Orion darts in front of me, blocking my path. “You’re going to go running off to the other side of Covenant, and you don’t even know if he’s right? Or telling the truth?” I pause just long enough, and he seizes on my hesitation. “You brought me in on this and asked me to help. So let me help. Let me reach out to my connections and double-check that South Parish is even where we need to be going.”
I shift on my feet, already chafing at the idea of having to wait longer instead of just storming a parish and ripping it to shreds with my teeth until it gives up all its secrets. “I don’t want to waste even more time.”
“Hey, Clint buddy,” Orion calls over his shoulder without looking away from me. “How long you figure before your folks decide to do something reckless with those sisters?”
Clint hesitates, but Dani crosses her arms so her pistol lies across her biceps, pointed at his head. “Two more days at most. After that they’ll probably figure no one is coming and sell them off with the other indentureds for some cash.”
“There you have it.” Orion spreads his hands wide. “You can stay put for a few hours and let me do a little legwork. Or you can waste half a day—or longer—running around the whole city. It’s your choice.”
Well, I guess when he puts it that way…
“Fine. We play it your way. But I’m not waiting for very long.”
“Fair,” Orion says, nodding. “Now we just need to figure out what to do with Clint here—”
Dani fires off a round from her pulse pistol before he’s even finished speaking, the high-pitched blast cutting through the room and causing both Orion and me to flinch. Clint slumps over sideways onto the floor, eyes closed.
Orion gapes at Clint’s perfectly still body, face ashen. “What the hell is wrong with you? Why did you do that?!”
Dani sniffs, unaffected, as she goes back to the desk and starts loading record tablets into her rucksack. “Dead men can’t talk. Come on. Someone probably heard that and will be headed up here to check it out.”
A deep hurt settles into the creases of Orion’s face, and he turns his gaze on me. Like he’s waiting for me to react, to say something, to prove myself better somehow by objecting to what Dani just did. But I’ve never been as good as he’s always believed me to be, and if Dani hadn’t done it, I probably would’ve.
Because she’s right. Dead men can’t talk, and they can’t give up any information about where you’ve been and what you’re planning to do next.
“Leave it,” I tell him softly. “We can’t do anything for him now.”
I don’t miss the disappointment that washes over his expression, but when I give him a nudge, he turns reluctantly around and heads for the door. I follow right behind, and as I’m walking, I hear Dani hurriedly throw the last few tablets into her rucksack and hustle up behind me.
It takes half a second to spin around and pin her against the doorframe with my hand gripped around her throat. “Sorry, where do you think you’re going?”
Dani frowns, looking genuinely confused. Maybe even a little hurt. “With you. To help get your sisters back. I told you, I’m not in the business of letting innocent people get hurt.”
I laugh, but there’s no mirth to it. “And what makes you think I would want your help?”
She sucks in a sharp breath as my fingers tighten, digging into her skin. “Because if the Gold Towners are laying a trap for the Butcher, you’re going to need all the help you can get.”
I stare at her familiar-unfamiliar face, picking out the pieces I know—the sloping shape of her eyes, the little wrinkle between her brows, the bow of her mouth—and the pieces I don’t—the glint of rage and revenge deep inside that she’s kept buried all this time.
“We’ll manage,” I say, finally taking my hand off her neck and stepping back. She shudders with relief, touching her fingers softly to her throat. “I never want to see you again. Ever. The day I lay eyes on you again is the day I send you to the Depths.”
Turning my back on her, I shoulder past Orion and out into the hall.
The floor is empty and quiet. My feet stumble a little beneath me as I head for the stairwell, and I have to grab the wall to steady myself and stay upright. My skin feels flushed and sweaty,and the dull ache in my old stab wounds explodes into a hot, throbbing pain that radiates up my chest and neck and into the back of my skull.
Orion pauses next to me, his mouth twisting with concern. “What’s going on with you? You don’t look so hot.”
“Neither do you,” I snap, and he rolls his eyes. “I just need a little water, that’s all.”
I’m suddenly shivering hard underneath all my layers, sweat plastering my short hair to my forehead. The scene around me swims in and out of focus, from stairwell to plant life, dry cracked air to curtains of rain. Orion steps up close, ducking his head to see my face.
“Val? Val, are you okay?”
I lick dry lips. Everything around me seems to soften and shift like liquid. “I don’t feel so good…”
He says something, but his voice is muffled and his words sound foreign. I can’t understand what he’s saying. Why is he even still talking?
“No,” I say, shaking my head. “Stop…”
