Page 95 of Mistress of Lies

Naomi’s eyes went as wide as saucers. “Wow.”

“You know how to use it?”

“Stab them and run?”

Shan laughed. “Basically. You’ll be fine.” She passed her a coin, more than Naomi would normally make in a month, and added, “Get yourself a proper sheath for it. I don’t want you accidentally cutting yourself.”

The girl slipped the coin away into one of her hidden pockets, but she kept the dagger clenched in her fist. “Yes, ma’am.”

“Anyway, I interrupted you,” Shan said, courteously. “You were saying?”

“Right.” She drew her shoulders up again. “I found something out.” She leaned in, dropping her voice. “They just found another body, not even an hour ago.”

Shan grabbed the girl’s arm. “Where?”

Shan had Bart see the girl back to her brother, ordering them home for the night and bribed them with another piece of shiny gold. It was more than she was used to spending in a night, but she didn’t want to risk it, even if Bart was watching her with surprise in his eyes. The girl was a good bird, she had a bright future ahead of her, and she shouldn’t waste resources.

It had nothing to do with her being so young. Shan was not going soft.

Besides, she still had a body to see.

Dameral was dark and quiet. The crowds that had been present and thriving at dusk had already dispersed, and Shan never felt so exposed as she did then. But the empty streets at least allowed her to make good time as she hurried down to the waterfront, to the place her bird had said the body had been found.

She quickly glanced up at the moon, tracking its movement across the night sky. It had only been a couple of hours—maybe they hadn’t moved it yet. Maybe they hadn’t touched anything. Maybe she could actually find something.

Shan threw off her hood as she approached the perimeter, the spray off the sea kissing her skin. Several members of the Guard were already in position to keep civilians away, blocking off the area where the edges of Dameral clashed against the ocean.

Not that anyone was attempting to get closer. The sector was completely shut down—everyone hidden behind locked doors, as if that was enough to protect them against a determined enough Blood Worker. But Shan wasn’t going to shatter their illusions of comfort. Even she wasn’t that cruel.

Slinking around the perimeter, she searched for a familiar face to grant her access, when she was stunned to see a shock of familiar golden hair. Samuel stood at the edge of the pier, hands in the pockets of his coat, staring out across the water. The breeze caught his hair—loose and unbound—whipping it back and forth in a way that shouldn’t have been so striking.

She hadn’t seen him in days, not since before Isaac had come to her. He had refused her messages, and Isaac’s as well, and they had both decided to give him what he seemed to want—time.

But time had run out and, and damn it all, she wanted to comfort him, to let him know that she was still on his side, but she couldn’t bring that up now. Not when they had a corpse to examine.

Stepping across the perimeter, she passed by the Guards, holding her head high and acting as if she belonged. No one ran to stop her, though she did earn a few strange looks. As she came up beside Samuel, he turned his head and tried to offer a smile.

It came out closer to a grimace.

“I understand,” she said, quietly. “The circumstances being what they are.”

Samuel nodded, then took a step back to take in her outfit. “Been a while since I’ve seen that.” His smile was more natural this time.

A small flare of warmth rose through her. Very few people had seen her as both sides of her herself, the Lady and the Sparrow, and fewer yet seemed comfortable with both of them, expecting one or the other to beg a mask. But that wasn’t the truth—the truth was far more complicated than that. She was both in equal measure, moving between the noble and the spy with a fluidity that couldn’t quite be pinned down.

“How did you come to be here?” Shan asked, and Samuel gestured down to the shallow beaches below them to where Alessi stood, directing her Guards with a quick and efficient hand.

“A note. Didn’t you get one, too?”

“Possibly,” Shan admitted. “But I wasn’t home. I do have other sources of information.”

“Ah, right. Foolish of me to assume that you didn’t find your way here on your own.” Holding his arm out to her, the perfect gentleman, he added, “Let’s not waste time. Alessi’s holding everything for us.”

Samuel grabbed a lantern of witch light and led Shan down a short flight of stairs, leaving behind the warehouses and the docks, heading to where the ground turned to sand. The tide was low, exposing a harsh beach filled with stones and shells, and the moon cast a wan and faint light. Samuel held the witch light, illuminating the ground in a span of a couple of feet in front of them as they walked in silence.

The body was closer to the docks than it was to the sea, looking oddly sad and forlorn. Alessi stood near it, waiting for them as they approached. “It’s not the body that I’m concerned about,” she said, skipping right past the greetings and straight into business.

At times like this, Shan really appreciated Alessi. There was no need to pretend at propriety and pleasantries now. Shan was thankful that she wasn’t wearing one of her dresses as she stepped around the body—a quick glance showed that it was the same kind of death as the previous victims. Desiccated and papery, drained of life and vitality. Only this time, the body had been drained and then thrown onto the beach, salt and sand crusting its dark hair—

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