Page 38 of This Monster of Mine

Four years ago.Sarai froze. “When did Othus die?”

Cisuré’s eyes widened, following Sarai’s train of thought. “It has nothing to do with the Fall,” she insisted.

“When?”

“Three days later.” She averted her gaze. “But he was a Tetrarch. There’s no connection.”

Isn’t there?Could Othus have been the other man with Kadra that night, who’d been reluctant to cover for him? Was that why he’d been killed?

Cisuré sighed. “You worry me, you know?” She pulled back Sarai’s sleeve to displaynihumbandzosta’s crimson glow on her armilla. “A rune used to alter appearances is suspect as is, and you’re using it inhistower.” Her eyes took on a familiar dullness, some splinter of memory resurfacing. “He has more blood on his hands than Marus. One slip and he’ll kill you. I wouldn’t even know how to retrieve your body.”

Sarai slung an arm around Cisuré’s shoulders. “I’ll be careful. He won’t see it.”

“You need to get out of there. I’ll help.”

Not yet.Not until she got the answers she’d entered it for. Pricking her finger, she wiped the blood overzosta,turning it dark to conserve magic. “Well, I’ll need some of this four-thousand-aureus salary if I’m to purchase a domus. The journey here emptied my purse.”

“Oh, that won’t be difficult.” Cisuré launched into an explanation, which slipped past Sarai’s ears as her mind wandered back to Aoran Tower’s enigmatic master.

Vicious. Sadistic. Cold eyes cutting into whomever was fool enough to meet them. A man who’d apparently killed his foster father and pushed her off Sidran Tower.

Yet the pieces didn’t fit. The humor that wove in and out of his face was empty, like he’d long ceased to find the world interesting. Harion would’ve delighted in her shoddy writing, but Kadra hadn’t mocked her, or made any reference to her being a northern barmaid. And he’d wanted her opinion on Jovian’s corpse.Why? Does my opinion actually matter to him?

She swallowed a laugh at that thought. Like a man who lounged about elbow-deep in blood and wine and poorly knotted robes had any interest in what she thought. His chest resurfaced in her head and she bit back a curse.Gods, if that appears again, I’m jumping off Sidran Tower on purpose this time.

Its black spire loomed ahead, as though the gods wanted her to try. The single balcony at the tower’s top taunted her. Had Jovian fallen over that railing too? Had he smashed into the same cobblestones and bled outbefore Kadra? Her bitterness was a nocked arrow. By Wrath, she should spend all that focus on his chest determining how best to pierce it.

Forcing her gaze toward Aoran Tower didn’t help. It couldn’t be Jovian’s place of death. In keeping with his paranoid protection of his home, Kadra’s abode had only two egresses on the upper floors: her window and his. Even then it was a short drop, barely enough to break a leg.Two out of eight towers down. And Sidran Tower remained the most likely suspect.

Cisuré pointed at something, and Sarai nodded without comprehension. Sometimes she wondered if it was for the best that she couldn’t remember what had raced through her head as she’d hurtled toward the ground. Some days, she wished she could do as Cisuré said and leave it all behind.But all it took was a flinch away from a man or pained understanding of the years she’d lost while others fell in love and saw themselves as lovable. She couldn’t. The rage was part of her now.

“Sarai, are you even listening?” Cisuré waved a hand in front of her face.

She blinked. “Yes.”

Cisuré squinted at her suspiciously. “As I was saying, that’s Tetrarch Aelius’s tower. He’s been there for nine years, since election.”

Sarai eyed the elegant structure in the east, its walls the same blinding white as Aelius’s robes. Like Aoran Tower, it had no exits higher than fifteen feet. Unlike Aoran Tower, the main doors were visible, an intricate twist of birchwood and silver. To her surprise, not one fulgur scutum was erected near the structure. Then again, Aelius could probably fend off any bolt.

Apprehension struck her.I’m meeting the Magus Supreme of Ur Dinyé.“What does Aelius want me for?”

“TetrarchAelius. We may fraternize with them, but they’re our rulers.” Cisuré’s voice softened. “Don’t be nervous. He’s a humble man and, unlike Kadra, he’s done much for the country.”

Her brows rose at her friend’s pink cheeks. “Fond of him, are we?” Vengeance had become Sarai’s master, but Cisuré seemed to have chosen a worthier contender for her heart. No wonder Anek had teased her at the Robing.

“I’m notfond. He’s a decade older! I admire him.”

“Right.” Sarai grinned, remembering how Aelius had watched Cisuré at the Robing. “Did you two know each other before yesterday? He looked at you like he knew you.”

“Before?” Cisuré flushed. “No, he reads people in seconds. He was probably confirming that I was a worthy Petitor.”

Makes sense.There had been something equally familiar in Kadra’s gaze at the Robing. As though he’d seen right through her … and found it amusing. Sarai scowled.

Cisuré laughed. “You thought of Kadra, didn’t you? Cheer up, you’re meeting a proper Tetrarch now.”

“Don’t you meanTetrarchKadra?”

“Like he deserves the respect! What he does is ungodly.”

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