Page 79 of Hospital for Immortal Creatures

“And where was he?”

“Toilet. Overdid the chilli last night.”

“A spicy dish? How convenient.”

“I don’t know.” Zacharia shrugged. “It’s not that uncommon lately. Many creatures eat human food.”

Mikhail didn’t voice his distaste for some creatures’ eating habits. It wasn’t unusual for species who didn’t require food to exist, to consume it for the simple pleasure of consuming it. However, another uncommon occurrence bothered him. The Oracle, Mary Clare… A second attack, potentially also centred around Amelia’s presence at the Hospital?

Coincidences don’t exist.

“So the murderer knew Mary Clare and called her over at a time he knew the wing would practically be empty,” he said.

“Sounds like it.”

“Hmm. But doesn’t Elisanda Grace know that as well?”

“She does, but she was here for the lab assistant. He’s supposed to be here at this time, regardless of the shift swaps.”

“True.” Mikhail stood and scanned the rest of the room. “Question everyone—creatures who work on this floor or came up earlier today. Two murders in a week… Someone’s clearly targeting the Hospital. The question is, who?” Mikhail opened the fridge, scanning the contents: blood bags, meat, bread, butter… Chocolate. He wrinkled his nose. “I’ll call the Tribunal to handle the body and send an agent to investigate. It might be time to announce Kaliope’s death, too. They could spot something we missed, and they’ll be twice as vigilant. That should frustrate the murderer. Either way, our attempt to avoid panic failed miserably.”

“How do we explain why we didn’t announce the witch’s murder sooner to the Tribunal?”

“We’ll tell them you took the box without looking inside, brought it over to me, and I put it somewhere and forgot about it until it started stinking. Might seem strange none of us caught the odour from the beginning but we can claim it didn’t reek at first. They can’t prove when the decay started.” Mikhail moved towards the kitchen drawers and opened them one by one without searching for anything in particular. Cutlery, napkins, a corkscrew. “We help them often enough for them to not fixate on such a minor detail.” The pain in his ribs pierced through him. “If you only knew what happened in Alberobello…”

“I can see they beat you well,” Zacharia said.

“Mildly put.”

“Actually, I already know what happened. I talked to Constantine before you arrived. He told me he couldn’t do his tricks with the Beyond. Makes me think whoever killed our chambermaid might have known our necromancer can’t get in touch with her soul.”

“Or hasn’t even thought about the fact that we have one on our team?”

“Maybe. But there’s something else,” Zacharia said.

His ominous tone made Mikhail bristle. He had already received enough bad news – and experiences – for one day.

“I checked our staff records and this Mary Clare lady?” Zacharia glanced at the corpse. “She’s one of the two chambermaids who take care of the woman you sent me to kidnap.”

Mikhail sighed with relief, to some extent – that much, he knew.

Zacharia’s phone buzzed with an incoming call. He answered while Mikhail inspected Mary Clare’s face once again. When had she realised her efforts were in vain? What had she felt at the thought of her defeat? A lost battle. Surrender. The end of her Sisyphean efforts.

“Speaking of the human…” Zacharia’s voice pulled Mikhail out of his thoughts. “She’s attempting to escape.”

“What do you mean?”

“Looks like she tricked the twins into thinking she needs a surgeon. They took her to the ground floor after Nyavolski examined her—”

“Wait, you’re talking about Amelia?” Now Mikhail’s full attention was on the hybrid.

“Yes. She was in Radiology. Helena Nyavolska mistook her for one of the human staff working here and threw the twin from her ward. Of course, the twin refused to leave, but was surprised to find out Nyavolska is a member of the Council now and she couldn’t disobey her. She figured that instead of explaining herself, she could just wait in the lobby. The human managed to escape past her into the reception room, through the tunnel to the ambulances…”

“And no one found it odd that a human who is not staff was wandering around so freely?!”

“Well, no. She must have used some potion to mask her scent. That’s how she fooled the twin, who didn’t notice her as she strolled right by her with a group of creatures. You know hybrids rely mostly on their sense of smell…”

Mikhail clenched his jaw. “And then?”

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