The marshal was gone.
The cool kiss of a blade touched my neck, biting just below my ear. He hadn’t pulled me back, but he didn’t need to. His breath tickled the hair over my ear. The knife did all the talking for him. “If you don’t like Suteran, all you had to do was say so.” He’d angled himself to the side, knowing not to stand directly behind me to avoid any backward head-butt I may have been considering.
My whip collapsed into a coil of metal chain on the countertop. And my magic fell away with it.
“That’s one fancy whip. Almost like it has a mind of its own.”
“Maybe it does,” I replied softly. If he was going to hurt me, he would have already.
He shifted slightly. The gritty edge of the knife dug in. I didn’t feel it cut, the edge was too sharp, but I felt the trickle of blood slide down my skin and inside my collar. He leaned his hip into my lower back, careful to keep the pressure on without hurting me.
“Do you have anything else inside that coat you’re considering flinging at me?” he asked.
“Wouldn’t you like to know.” He had probably already rummaged through the dozen pockets. He wouldn’t have found anything. The coat knew when to keep its secrets.
“I know it’s not the food. Suteran is damn good. So why the sudden hostility?”
His tone held an edge. It wasn’t as sharp as his knife, but it still cut open old wounds. The blade nicked over old scars. Gooseflesh scattered down my neck and farther. It had been a long time since someone had gotten the best of me—warfae excluded.
“How’d you afford this place?” I asked.
“I told you. Previous work. Now why don’t you answer my questions, seeing as I’m the one with the knife?”
“What does it matter? You’re just going to hand me over to Crater’s men anyway.”
Quiet swelled, softened only by the humming of the circulation filters. “You hacked into my PI?”
“Hacking is so… clumsy.”
“All right. You whispered your way in.” He shifted against my back. “Do you think you know me, Kesh Lasota?”
I knew no human could outmaneuver my whip. I knew Marshal Kellee liked to bend the rules to suit him. And I knew he had no reason to keep me alive, or keep me safe, if not for the bounty.
“I had nothing to do with Crater’s death,” I told him. “The miners will kill me and ask questions later.”
“I believe you.”
I smiled. “But it doesn’t matter what you believe, right? You’re just in it for the v?”
The knife vanished, along with Kellee’s weight against my back. I dabbed at the blood on my neck and turned, catching a glimpse of sharp incisors behind his slightly parted lips. I’d expected to see anger on his face, maybe some resignation. The heat in his glare burned away any snide remarks. He breathed too hard for someone under control, and for the first time, an icy finger of fear traced down my spine. I hadn’t believed he would kill me, but something had changed.
He turned his face away and swallowed. The bloody knife trembled in his hand.
“I’m not about to sell you out.” He ground out the words, still looking to the side.
No, I see that now. You’re about to kill me.
“Whatever you say, Kellee.”
He flinched at the sound of his name and drew in a deep breath. It seemed to center him enough for him to look me in the eye without snarling. But something slithered behind his skin, something he kept so well hidden that I only now began to understand just how dangerous Kellee might be.
What are you?
“You have a hard time trusting people,” he remarked, moving around the counter to resume emptying his Suteran takeout. He moved differently. Gone were the smooth, confident gestures of a man in control. Now he moved as though with every grab at the food cartons and every snatch at the cutlery he was teetering on the verge of snapping. “But you need to trust me.”
Was he joking? I’d be a fool to trust the thing I’d seen lurking beneath his skin. He was wound so tight he almost charged the surrounding air.
He dumped a plate in front of me. “Eat the damn food.”
The spread looked delicious, fruity with something like noodles and brightly colored vegetable slices tossed in. Was it drugged? My stomach growled.
He growled deep and low at my hesitation. “I won’t harm you. But you’re testing my patience, Lasota.” He stalked off and disappeared toward the back of the apartment. I heard a door close.
If Marshal Kellee didn’t want the bounty, what did he want from me?
I eyed the door—my escape route—knowing what I had to do, but running wouldn’t solve this. He would find me again. I picked up a green shoot covered in syrup and bit down. He was right. The food was good. I was halfway through the dish when I realized the marshal had taken his bloody knife with him.
Chapter 8
Whatever lurked beneath the marshal’s skin didn’t appear to be there now. He’d emerged from the back of the apartment without the knife, served up his takeout, carried it to the table by the window and tucked in as though I wasn’t in the room.
I leaned back against the counter and watched him eat, the silence pulling thin between us. The next person who spoke would set the tone. If I threatened him again, he’d likely kick my ass again. He wasn’t fae fast. He was faster. Almost a blur. I didn’t sense any magic on him, but then, the magic I knew about was fae-based. And everything I’d seen of him so far indicated he wasn’t fae. So what was he?
He finally finished his food and leaned back in his seat, in no hurry to talk. Behind him, through the window, the station’s framework glittered, illuminated by the blink of passing shuttle lights.
“What are you?” he asked.
I wanted so badly to ask him the same. “What do you mean?”
“It’s a simple enough question.”
“I’m human. Obviously.”
He pressed his lips together. He didn’t like the way I sidestepped his questions. He was probably used to suspects spilling their secrets every time he flashed his badge.
After taking his time to consider my answer, he angled himself in the chair to face me. “All right, here’s what I don’t understand. You wield tek, and that weird glow you sometimes summon is magic. Somehow, you can combine both. That shouldn’t be possible. Tek and magic repel each other. Always have. We both know you’re not fae. But you’re not human either. What you do… it defies everything we know about human capabilities. Humans can’t wield magic. So, what are you hiding, Kesh Lasota?”
He was closer than he knew. “It’s not magic you’re seeing. It’s just enhanced tek.”
He wasn’t buying it. “You interfere with any complicated tek in your immediate surroundings. I can’t imagine it’s a conscious skill. It’s something built into you, a latent ability. Were you born with it?”
It had been trained into me, the tek-repelling. Plant-based secretions had been poured under my skin until it became part of who I was. But I wasn’t about to tell him that. The truth of me? It was out of bounds. The marshal didn’t need to get involved.
He had asked enough questions. Now it was my turn. “Why are you keeping me here?”
“I’m not.” He stretched out a leg and leaned back against the window, folding his arms across his chest. “You can walk out that door and hitch a ride off Juno anytime you want.” He appeared to be relaxed, but he could spring from that position with the barest physical tells. I’d hunted hundreds of killers. Fought hundreds more. The marshal moved like them, but in a way that hid what he was capable of. Most killers wore their brutality like a badge, but not him. The image of himself he presented was a mask, hiding the truth inside. We had that in common, at least.
“So, if I ask you to take me back to Calicto, you will?” I tested.