I let the knife drop and took a step back.
Sebastian turned, smiling. “I should know better by now. But seriously, how? There was no one in the hall to give me away.”
“They gave me this room after my curae,” I managed, my heart still pounding. “Me and the floorboards are old friends.”
“I’ll surprise you one day. Put some clothes on. No phone.”
“It’s two a.m.”
“We’re going for a ride.” That beautiful smile. “There’s something you need to see.”
The Brick was waitingfor us near the front gate.
I was dazed, on the serrated edge between sleep and adrenaline.
“This better be good,” I said as the car started. “I have archery in the morning.”
“Thought you’d given up on that.”
“Veronica hasn’t. She’s worried about the next competition.” She was worried about me too.
“Can’t have the Lindqvists winning.” Sebastian turned the car south, toward the city, and quoted Elizabeth: “If you can’t do something on zero sleep, you don’t know how to do it.”
I didn’t know how to do anything. My grandmother’s wisdom was from another time, when my mind was smooth and shatterproof.
“Tell that to Veronica. Or does she know we’re doing this?”
He shook his head. “Not family business.”
I wanted to believe him—culling was family business.
Peter had made countless mistakes before the orders had come down. He’d been given many chances, and was never a prodigy in the first place.
Surely they’d give me more than a month to heal.
Unless Bianca had already unleashed her revenge. If the elders thought I’d revealed our family secret to the Lindqvists, that might be enough—on top of me losing my aim, crying in dance class, and vomiting when rabbits were beheaded.
“Can you give me a clue where we’re going?”
“No,” Sebastian said—too quickly. Then he laughed. “Can’t I drive my favorite cousin to a mysterious location in the middle of the night?”
My attempted smile didn’t work, like my face was made of borrowed parts.
“Jess,” he said. “Where’s this coming from?”
“When I met with my mother this morning, Elizabeth was there.”
Sebastian tapped the steering wheel. “Disconcerting.”
“After we discussed Mary’s curae, they brought up my blooding.”
“In New York? Or Peter?”
It was strange, hearing him mention Peter so casually. As if he hadn’t shut me out for three months.
“New York,” I said. “They never debriefed me.”
“After an improvised kill? Why the hell not?”
