Page 79 of This Monster of Mine

She knotted her shaking fingers. “I had a few questions on a case before Tetrarch Kadra’s time. The Sealed Records archivist recommended you.”

His chest puffed up. “That’s kind of him. What can I help you with?”

“What do you know of the Sidran Tower Girl?”

He sighed. “Ah, the investigation that cost me my career. I heard you weren’t from Edessa. She’s a legend here.” He dropped his voice. “You’re this Quarter’s Petitor, so you may as well know, but she isn’t a dead one either.”

Sarai tensed. “Hold on. You knew—” She stopped before she could give herself away. “The Sidran Tower Girl’s alive?”

“Only a few vigiles and healers knew back then. Everyone else got the same story for procedural reasons.”

“You couldn’t have her assailant know she was alive.”

He looked pleased. “Exactly. Thing is, she couldn’t remember how it happened, and Tetrarch Othus forbade a Probe.”

Because he knew Kadra was there that night.“Wouldn’t searching her memories have been the easiest way to find the culprit?”

He shook his head. “Tetrarch Othus, Elsar bless him, was never one to reveal the workings behind his orders. Few days later, he told us she was a pleasure worker and to cease investigation.” Martinus sat back in his chair. “He’d just lost his Petitor, so I figured it was the grief talking, but then he asked for her records. I brought them over, and he up and threw them into his fireplace and blamed me for it.”

“Why …” She struggled to speak past the ache in her throat. “Why close the case?”

Martinus shrugged. “It’s a classic tale. Working girl sleeps with some wealthy scion, gets jilted, and goes to the extreme in a display of petulance. It happens. I’m not saying that made it right. But he had his reasons. That case was cursed.”

“How?”

“Every healer that touched that girl and all the vigiles who questioned her vanished the day before he closed it.”

Fear swallowed her whole. She undid her suddenly tight collar. “They died?”

“Fled the city. Not so much as a parting letter. It was eerie enough that I didn’t object when he wanted to stop investigating. But I became theonly one who knew she was alive.” Martinus stared at his plate. “Next day, Othus was gone too. And I bundled the girl off.”

“How did Othus die?”

He winced. “Bludgeoned to death in an alley. The damage was extensive. Hands in pieces. The Lugens couldn’t begin to guess at what happened.”

I can. Chilled, she swallowed. “I heard rumors that … Tetrarch Kadra could have been involved.”

To her surprise, he laughed. “I doubt it. He didn’t get along with his old man, but he was furious at his death.”

“There weren’t any suspects?”

“Tetrarch Othus was too powerful for a mere criminal to have taken him down. A foreign spy was our best guess, but there’s practically no catching those.” He hesitated. “Petitor Sarai, I don’t know what Othus was hiding or why he used me as a scapegoat. I didn’t want to damage his name, so I accepted the blame. But I will say, there was something odd. He made every person in the know swear not to tell Tetrarch Kadra that the Sidran Tower Girl had survived. Refused to include him in the investigation.”

Slowly, as if manipulated by some magic, her head swiveled to Martinus.That can’t be right.But the words crescendoed in her head, ripping through her nerves.Because there was only one reason why Othus would have kept the truth from Kadra. Only one person who couldn’t know that she had survived the Fall.

The man who’d pushed her.

“No.” It came out as a croak.

“Oh yes. Elsar only know why, but Othus was never kind to Kadra. Great Tetrarch but not much of a father.” He gave her a stern look. “Don’t you go telling Tetrarch Kadra either.”

“I won’t.” Her voice was strung tight, inches from unraveling. “Thank you for your time, Martinus. And for what it’s worth, I don’t think Tetrarch Othus deserved your loyalty.”

Insisting on paying for his meal, she kept up a serene facade until she left the tavern. Then, she emptied her stomach on the grass.

Tetrarch Othus made every person in the know swear not to tell Kadra.

Spitting onto the ground, she braced herself against a tree.He wouldn’t have harmed a fourteen-year-old girl.But hadn’t she heard his voice while bleeding out? Hadn’t she seen ample proof of his sadism?He’s a monster. That’s what monsters do.Cisuré had been right.

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