Page 128 of Foul Days

Asen frowned. “No. Why?”

“Because I suspect our little trip to the Zmey’s palace has pushed it to its limits. And I suppose you have no idea how your wife made it?”

Asen’s gaze drifted to the floor. He mumbled something.

“What was that?”

He sighed. “I’m not a witch, and I don’t really know how these things work, but … I think she might have embedded her shadow in it.”

Kosara shuddered. “Why do you think that?”

“You’ll think I’m mad.”

“I promise I won’t.”

“I see her sometimes. In the corner of my eye. I thought I was going insane at first, that the grief had got to me. But now … I think she’s still here. With me.”

Kosara swore internally. Karaivanov’s daughter had most likely been an inexperienced, self-taught witch. Her attempt to seal her shadow inside the ring could have ended in disaster. And who was to say it wouldn’t have effects for Asen, given that he’d held onto his wedding ring. It could end in disaster still, once the ring finally broke under the strain of all the curses it had soaked up. Embedding a shadow could be as dangerous as embedding a monster.

Kosara looked around the cage, in case she could spot the shadow of Asen’s wife hiding in the corner. She wasn’t there.

“You should have told me earlier,” she said. Asen didn’t answer.

Even if the ring was as volatile as Kosara suspected, it could have proven useful if she’d known about it. If only Asen hadn’t kept it a secret. Kosara sighed. It seemed that she wasn’t the only one with ghosts in her past.

“What did your boss say when she learned you married Karaivanov’s daughter?” Kosara asked.

“She didn’t say anything because she never learned. Boryana and I married secretly. I thought that things would work out, eventually. That I’d arrest Konstantin, and she’d understand and forgive me. We’d go to see him in prison sometimes. Once we had children, we’d take them to meet Grandpa.…” He shook his head. “I was young and foolish.”

I’ll say. “What happened?”

Asen took a deep breath. It sounded hoarse, as if there was something stuck in his throat. “Konstantin killed her.”

He fell silent. The rain kept on falling. The raindrops drummed on the floor, measuring the seconds of uncomfortable silence: tap, tap, tap …

Kosara scrambled for something to say that wouldn’t sound insensitive or hollow. “I’m sorry to hear that,” she said finally. Good job, Kosara, you managed to sound both insensitive and hollow. “How did it happen?”

“I was getting close to catching him. We’d set a trap for him one night at the docks when he was expecting a large shipment of smuggled objects. But then, he found out I was with the police. Don’t ask me how, I still haven’t figured it out. So, he told me I had to let him go, or he’d detonate the bomb he’d hidden under our bed. Boryana was there, I’d…” He took another deep breath. “I’d asked her to stay home. She’d normally be helping her father, but I was so scared she’d get caught in the crossfire, I…”

He stopped talking. Kosara didn’t look at his face to check if he was crying. She could hear it in his voice.

“He hid a bomb under his own daughter’s bed?” she asked.

“I don’t think he truly meant to hurt her,” Asen said. “I think he was just trying to scare me, but he got the timing of the bomb wrong. No one is that much of a monster.”

Kosara stayed silent. She’d met plenty of monsters that bad, and worse.

“The worst part is he buried her in Chernograd, just to spite me. I mean, she left Chernograd when she was four, why would he bury her there, other than to prevent me from visiting the grave?” Asen took a deep, uneven breath. “And you know what I keep thinking about? What if it’s my fault?”

“It’s not your fault,” Kosara said. She heard the echo of her own thoughts in that last question. She’d asked herself the same every day, ever since Nevena died.

She almost felt like untying him now. Almost.

Asen took another deep breath. “But what if it is? What if he killed Boryana because he suspected she’d been feeding me information?”

“You mean she wasn’t? You were married.”

“I never told her I was with the police. For all she knew, I was a petty criminal from the Docks, and I never intended—”

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