Page 570 of Lodestar

“What are you doing?” she cried, the words still faintly slurred.

“How did you know Muñoz was hunting Star?”

Her head rolled on her shoulder but she started snickering until Conor backhanded her. “That’swhat you’re asking?”

“What should he be asking?” I queried, stepping closer to Temper.

Her eyes peeped open. “Funny when you try to stop something from happening and you make it happen anyway.”

“Stop with the bullshit, Temper,” D growled. “Answer the question.”

“Own flesh gonna kill me. What would Uncle Gene say?”

“He’d say you’re a traitorous cunt.”

“Doubt it.” Temper groaned. “He likes me. Never liked you. Everyone always likes me, Lucinda. You’re the one everybody hates.”

“She’s wrong,” Conor groused. “I like you, D.”

D sniffed. “I like you too, Conor. We vibe.”

“Can anyone join this ‘vibe' party?” I mocked, but I nudged D in the side too.

“Throat. Hurts.”

“Well, let’s try to take your mind off that.” Conor kicked the chair with his foot so she tipped backward.

Right onto Reinier.

“Oh, my God! It fucking touched me!” she cried, scuttling over the floor, away from the rotting corpse, like the spider I supposed she was.

That was when I had a ‘eureka’ moment.

Alessa had told me that the Kuznetsovs were like spiders. That they had webs in every corner of a person’s house.

A paukin English was a spider.

Why had that only registered now?

With my mind elsewhere, D proved she was focused on her target. Her hand slid out to snag Temper in her hold. The moment she had a grip on her wrist, Temper was shrieking and clutching the now-broken joint to her chest. “Answer Conor’s question. Or I’ll stop playing nice.”

“I knew Star wouldn’t forgive me for betraying her! I-I figured that would make her cut me some slack,” she growled.

“You put Muñoz on her tail?”

She sniffed. “He owed me one.”

“He was a Sparrow.”

A burst of laughter fell from her. “You’ve no idea, have you? None at all.”

“Do you know how I killed Reinier, Temper?”

She grimaced at the corpse. “I can smell it. Electricity.”

“I have the same toy in my go bag.” As she tensed, I nodded. “Exactly. You don’t want to fuck me around. You want to answer what I ask or I will make sure that you suffer?—”

“We’re sisters-in-arms! We served together!”

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