“Hmm, oh, right...” he said to the wall. “Okay.”
I glanced at Sabrina. She was curled at the foot of the mattress, watching Tristan pace like I was. She hadn’t uttered a word since I woke up, so I didn’t know what to make of her silence, or Tristan’s reaction.
“So, uh...” He scratched the back of his neck. “Can I get you anything? The books say you mortals break really easily. Is your head okay?”
“I’m f—”
“Tell him it’s not,” Sabrina sliced in. “Tell him you need to ice your wound.”
I frowned at her, but did what she said. It was only a few hours before that I promised to do less arguing with Sabrina, and more listening to her.
“Ice. Got it.” Tristan took off out the door like the ice would save my life.
“Sab—”
“Silence, girl, and listen.” Sabrina rose up, staring her slitted eyes down on me. “When he comes back, he’ll have questionsss. Nothing but questionsss. He has only held himself back till now out of shame for manhandling and hurting a woman,” she said. “This shame will fade, and then he will want answers. Heed me, and heed me well, you must not tell him why you’re here.”
I shoved up on his pillows and winced at the stab of pain that went through my skull. “Why not? I’ve already given up that I’m a human woman. Is telling him that I’m here to find my sister really a bigger secret than that?”
I reflected in her expressionless eyes. “What is it you think will happen if you do tell him your sister was taken by the very men who lay dead on a bed of stone? You,” she hissed, “a human mortal woman—everything a witch must be.”
“He— He—” I shook, swallowing hard. “He’ll think I did it.”
“And why will he think this?” she snapped, voice hard.
I sunk down just as slowly as I rose up. “Because I gave him a big, fat motive.”
She dipped her head—correct answer. “But truthfully, even though my purpose is to guide you, I don’t know how much help I can be to you now. Everything has changed.”
“What? What are you talking about? What’s changed?” I asked. “Is it because that vampire professor is on my tail, because as long as I never say the B-word again, I’ll be able to—”
“No, it is not him.” There was an odd quality to her strange, whispering voice. One I’d never heard before. “I put this down to your head injury and the following shock. That’s why you haven’t taken in exactly what the death of your nestmate’s captors mean.”
I tensed, jaw clenching. “I know what it means! I was supposed to find them, follow them, and interrogate them! They were supposed to lead me to Dora, and now they’re gone.” Tears prickled behind my eyes. “For a whole month, all I had to go on was one grimy school patch. Then, I made it all the way here. I was finally in the same fucking realm as those bastards—let alone the same building, and now...” I looked away. “I have nothing to go on.”
A deep, heavy silence filled the room.
“See?” Sabrina said. “Clueless to the last. You still cannot see what is right in front of you.”
Anger ripped through my chest. “Excuse me?! What the hell is your problem!” I burst out. “If you’ve got something you’re trying to say, just spit it out already! Stop kicking me when I’m down, you legless bitch!”
A strange, hissing noise dripped from her mouth. “Legless bitch?” She laughed some more. “That’s quite humorous, human. Well done. It is good to see you haven’t lost your fighting ssspirit. You’ll need it for the challenges to come, because this is what your shock is preventing you from seeing.
“It has been an entire month since your nestmate was taken,” she said. “One whole month her captors have walked these halls free and unaccosted, but yet it is today—today of all days—that they are brutally murdered and dumped in a public place to be seen by all. Why?” Her reptilian eyes held me fast. “What’s changed, human?”
My jaw worked, dread leeching into my bones. “I... They—”
“What’s changed?” she demanded. “Why is it they suddenly needed to die?”
“They... The only thing that changed is...” My voice was nothing more than a thin rasp. “I’m here.”
“That’s right. You’re here. Now that I’ve seen the faces of the men who took her, I can tell you they were no one special or important,” she said. “In all likelihood, they were nothing more than a bunch of lowly thugs tasked with delivering your nestmate to their true master. They were not worth killing... until you found yourself in the one place you shouldn’t be.”
“But how?” I croaked. “How can whoever they are know that I’m here? Did the glamour fail? Can some demons see through them?”
She was shaking her head before I finished. “Your glamour was cast by Lord Lucifer himself. His power is absolute. His contracts are absolute... and that may be why you were discovered.”
My head snapped up. “Why I was discovered? Because of the contract?”
