Arkady rolled his eyes in slightly over-the-top disgust, but for a bad liar he was doing well.
“That’s right,” he said bitingly. “You don’t, and no matter what you think? You don’t know my sister either. I let you keep your job last time because Yana should have known better, but not interested is not interested.”
That was the cue, and Cash’s contribution to the plan. Abigail looked around nervously and then focused on Harry.
“Don’t listen to them,” she said loudly. “He’s a monster. You can’t let them get married. It’s a travesty. I told you that, Yana. I told you it wouldn’t happen.”
Well, they’d originally hired her to serve wine. It would have been too much to expect her to be a good actor too.
Harry closed his eyes for a second. Then he threw water on Jerome again—who spluttered in surprise—before he turned to glare at Abigail. “What did you do?”
“What had to be done!” she said. “This marriage iswrong.It won’t happen while there’s breath in my body!”
Luckily the collapse of Harry’s hopes and dreams for his career blurred his judgment enough he didn’t question the drama of that. He lowered the camera and glanced at Arkady.
“I can explain.”
Epilogue
“YOU’RE LETTINGhim live?” Kohary asked with a hint of surprise as Shanko delivered a cup of tea to Donna, still in her human wedding drag. She took it from him, sipped neatly, and left a bright red smudge on the china.
“He wants to die,” she said. “And I’m in no mood to indulge him. If he wants death, he needs to earn his bonus, and this year’s is already down the drain.”
Kohary considered that and then nodded. He stood up and fastidiously straightened his cuffs. “Fair enough,” he said. “The Worm thought you’d forgiven him.”
“Then he’s delusional with regrowth,” Donna said. “I’ve never forgiven a debt in my life. Caspari, show the Left Hand to the door?”
Cash considered arguing but pushed himself up out of the chair instead. He opened the door for Kohary and politely ushered him out. They walked in tight, wary silence through the halls, until Kohary broke it.
“How is she?” he asked with an odd hunger in his voice. Then, to remind himself, “Your daughter.”
“Ellie,” Cash said. “And she’s okay. She liked camp, as it turns out. She said it was like twenty-four seven ice hockey. Only everyone is the goon. If she’d ended up your ward, she’d have probably thrived.”
Kohary nodded stiffly. “I am glad she didn’t,” he said. “It’s no life for a child… or a partner. Your Left Hand isn’t expected to want something the Council doesn’t.”
It was a very old secret, and it felt insane to talk about it like this, even veiled as it was.
“She’s my kid,” he said. “Humanity suits her.”
“I know,” Kohary said. “One day, something else might too. If you need… anything? I owe you, for Shanko. You saved me a chase.”
That wasn’t it, of course. Cashhad, but that wasn’t the marker he could lay down in front of the Left Hand if he ever had the balls for it.
“I won’t,” he said. It sounded cruel, felt cruel in his throat, so he softened it. “But ifshedoes, she’ll know who to ask for.”
Cash walked Kohary into the aboveground hotel and through the mortal guests. The indentured servants that Donna had pressed into nice suits and the role of partygoers mingled discreetly. A night and a day up here was their bonus for the year.
In reception, Arkady waited in one of the big wing-backed leather chairs. He didn’t bother to come over to say goodbye to Kohary. They just traded nods and a hard look. Then Kohary took his leave.
Cash supposed he could too as he watched Kohary go. His job here was technically done, although it was a shame to miss the wedding feast.
“You gave me the weekend,” Arkady said. His fingers touched the back of Cash’s neck in a featherlight caress that tickled. Then he hooked them in his collar and pulled him back a step, out of the sun. He’d lost a whole layer of skin to Shanko’s attack. “And I have plans for it.”
Cash turned into his arms and looked up at him. He didn’t know how much Arkady had heard at the trailer park or what he wanted him to have heard.
“Still want to rub Yana’s nose in me?” he asked.
Arkady kissed him, sweet and so desperate it knocked Cash off balance again. “I nearly lost you, idiot,” Arkady said. “Shanko could have killed you. All I want is you, alive and where I can touch you when I want.”
