Incarnate

“I don’t know what happened to him.” She checked over her shoulder. Distracted. Agitated. It was natural, considering the war going on around us, but not for Li. She liked conflict. She liked opportunities to see me hurt, and here I was without the one person who meant everything to me, worried he was dead, and she was distracted? “Is that where you went?”

 

 

“He was in prison. Now he’s not.” I stopped halfway down the walk and straightened my shoulders. The sore one stung, but I tried to make my expression frozen with anger, like she did. I didn’t want her to know how much I hurt.

 

“Why do you think I’d do something to him?” Her familiar sneer returned.

 

“You always do things. It’s what you are.” I lifted my laser and let my free hand rest on the rosewood handle of Sam’s knife. “You tried to make my life miserable, make me believe that no one could ever care about me. But you’re wrong. Sam does. Sarit, Stef, and the others do. I’m not a nosoul.” My hand shook as I took aim. “Now tell me what you did to him.”

 

Her mouth dropped open.

 

At first I thought it was shock because I’d finally stood up to her, but then her expression went slack and her eyes focused on nothing. One last flicker of rage, and she crumpled.

 

Dead.

 

I staggered backward. A dragon wouldn’t fit inside, and a sylph would have been more obvious. I hadn’t done it.

 

A man stepped out of the shadows, over my mother’s body, and lowered a handheld laser like mine. “You must be Ana.” Odd that it took only one small man with a laser to kill her. He didn’t look like much. Short. Clipped auburn hair. Pale.

 

Oh. I knew those features, though I’d never seen him before.

 

“I’m Menehem,” he said. “We should talk.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Chapter 29

 

Darkness

 

I KEPT MY laser aimed at his chest. “You killed her.”

 

“Yes.” He raised his eyebrows. “Wasn’t that what you were here for? I thought I’d get it over with. You weren’t going to stop accusing her of murdering Dossam, and she wasn’t going to admit to it. She didn’t, by the way. She’s been here with me.”

 

My jaw ached from clenching it as he strode toward me. I held my ground. “But the battle—”

 

“Yes, that’s where she was going. And she could have done a lot to help people, but honestly, I didn’t want her to.”

 

This, too, was like drowning. My questions were like drops of water, enough to fill an ocean. “I don’t understand.”

 

I hated feeling stupid. I hated having to ask. And I hated being delayed, kept from finding Sam. If Li hadn’t killed him, he was somewhere in the city. With dragons.

 

I steeled myself. “Tell me everything or I’ll shoot holes in your arms and legs.” As if I had that kind of skill.

 

But he didn’t know.

 

“Okay.” He headed inside the house, stopping just before he hit shadows. “Aren’t you coming?”

 

I nodded toward his hand. “Your weapon.”

 

He rolled his eyes and tossed it on the walkway. “I have no plans to harm you.”

 

“You’ve given me no reason to believe that.” I didn’t lower my laser as I followed him to the door. Li was motionless on the doorstep, ice already collecting on her face. If I touched her, she’d be cold. “Are you working with Meuric? Did you attack Sam and me after the masquerade?” He was smaller than the man who’d tossed me around the street, but I’d been terrified then. I was terrified now, but at least I was armed.

 

Menehem grabbed my laser and flung it out the door with his. “No, I’m not working with Meuric or anyone else. I didn’t attack you, and I didn’t send sylph after you. If I’d wanted to hurt you, you’d be dead now. Never take your eyes off the person you’re threatening.”

 

My heart stuttered and tried to catch up with itself, but I nodded, using the door frame to hold myself up. The cold stone chilled my hands. I jerked back. “All right. You’ve made your point. I’m a lousy interrogator. Now are you going to tell me why you abandoned me, why you killed Li, and why you want people to die?”

 

He motioned me to sit. Li’s parlor was sparsely furnished, holding only a few chairs and tables. Once, she’d had swords and axes displayed on the walls—hers were real walls, not like Sam’s—but she took down the weapons when I moved in.

 

We left the door open, both of us angled toward it. And Li on the ground, a clean hole in the back of her head. “When she comes back,” I said, “she’s going to kill you. Probably several times.”

 

“She won’t come back.”

 

I jerked around. “Of course she will. Everyone comes back.” Except Ciana. Maybe except me, too. We couldn’t know unless I died, but it didn’t seem likely.

 

And there was that thing Meuric had talked about, something that was supposed to happen next Soul Night. . . .

 

He shook his head. “I’ve been working your whole life to redo what I managed only once. I stopped a reincarnation.”

 

“What?”

 

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