Page 127 of Foul Days

“Kosara, you have to believe me,” Asen said. “Why would I be trying so hard to solve this murder if I worked for Konstantin?”

Kosara had considered this and had come up with a theory somewhere between her fifth and sixth glass of rakia. “Maybe you’re not trying to solve the murder at all. Maybe you’re just pretending to be so you can follow me here and steal my shadow.”

“Right. I put my life in danger countless times so I could steal your shadow.”

Kosara shrugged. It didn’t seem that far-fetched. People had done stupider things for a witch’s shadow.

“What is it then?” she asked. “Why are you branded with Konstantin’s sign?”

Asen let out a sigh. Then he started speaking without looking Kosara in the eyes. “I was working undercover. My first assignment when I joined the police was to infiltrate Karaivanov’s gang. They gave me the case because I was a boy from the Docks and Karaivanov would never have suspected me. He instantly liked me, since I could string two sentences together, unlike most of his recruits. I had to agree to the brand when he insisted, you have to understand—”

“You know that this brand binds you to him forever? That it’s like an oath that you will always be loyal to him—only it’s even more powerful than an oath, because it’s actually imprinted on your stupid chest?”

“I know.”

“And you expect me to believe you agreed to something like that just so you wouldn’t break your cover? You’re either even more naïve than I thought, or you’re lying to me.”

“Believe what you want. It’s the truth.”

He tried to get up on his elbows so he could look her in the eyes, but she’d tied him too tightly. Finally, he gave up and lay back down.

“The reason,” he said, “I agreed to be branded is that spells don’t work on me. You know this. You’ve seen it. For me, this isn’t a powerful magic symbol—it’s just an ugly tattoo.”

“So, you already knew you were immune to magic when you started working for him?”

“I discovered it shortly after, when one of Karaivanov’s cronies tried to kill me with water magic. He was jealous that the boss liked me better. He was going to fill my lungs with water, and then, once he was sure I was dead, throw me into the river. It would have looked like I’d drowned. No one would have questioned it, given the amount of drugs and alcohol Karaivanov was burying me in.”

Asen stopped talking when Kosara began sucking on her wounded finger.

“Continue,” she said. “The spell didn’t work?”

“It didn’t work. I thought I must be unique. That there must be something in my genes that protects me from magic. I didn’t figure it out until recently, when you started asking questions. Magic stopped working on me right after I got married.”

“And when did that happen?” Kosara asked, trying not to sound bitter.

“Not long after I began working for Konstantin. I wasn’t completely honest with you earlier. The first reason he liked me so much was because I was useful. The second reason was that I’m his son-in-law.”

Kosara realised she was staring at him, her mouth hanging open. She forced it shut. “You’re married to Konstantin Karaivanov’s daughter? How? Why?”

“We met when I started working for her father. We did a few heists together, one bank robbery, several smuggling operations. We fell in love. We got married. I didn’t know she was a witch.”

“What exactly did you expect Konstantin Karaivanov’s daughter to be? A joiner?”

“Actually, she wanted to study architecture. At some point in the future. Once we’d saved enough money.”

“By robbing banks.”

“By robbing banks. She didn’t want to live in her father’s shadow. That must have been why she hid from me that she was a witch.”

Was a witch, not is a witch. Oh dear.

“But she enchanted your wedding ring to protect you from magic,” Kosara said.

“Obviously.”

Kosara chewed on the inside of her cheek. She’d never heard of magic this powerful before, and her instincts told her two things: one, there was no way it worked without any limitations; and two, Karaivanov’s daughter couldn’t have used her own magic to power it. She simply couldn’t have survived a power drain this massive, even if she’d been the strongest witch in all of Chernograd.

“Do you know how many spells the ring can absorb?” she asked.