Page 77 of This Monster of Mine

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Sarai had joined hands with one of the Wretched.

Helvus hadn’t come knocking in the five days since she’d Probed him, either because he didn’t want her talking about what she’d seen, or because Kadra was looming over her shoulder more than ever.

Temples throbbing under the noonday sun, she transcribed their last case of the day: two street rats accused of stealing bread. In a test of their bargain that he’d shield her, she’d lied to the irate baker’s face that the girls hadn’t taken the bread and witnessed Kadra’s rare smile once again as he’d sided with her, breaking his thus-far ironclad rule of not lying as if their bargain mattered more.

As the bazaar emptied, she snuck glances at him smoothly offering the baker an aurei’s recompense for his lost loaves. Walking past the young bread-thieves, something fell from his hands with a pickpocket’s stealth. The younger one examined the pouch of aurei that had materialized in her hands with bafflement. The other gaped as Kadra angled his head toward the bazaar’s exit. Her grip on her pen slackened, ink blotting the verdict at the realization that Kadra had just slipped the children enough aurei to buy bread for years with no one else the wiser.

Rumor says he was a street rat, found in an alley as an adolescent. Her heart twisted at the memory of Cisuré’s comments.Tetrarch. Murderer. Street rat.None of the titles fit.

The urge to clear her mind was so strong that upon Cisuré’s invitation to grab a drink while their Tetrarchs conferred—without any broken noses this time, she’d specified—Sarai accepted.

Dinner was a lively affair. Anek shared tales of a bizarre case that week—a man who’d insisted that he was one of the Naaduir reborn—Cisuré shuddered after having visited Edessa’s outskirts for the first time—“it’sfilthy”—and Harion cracked lewd jokes the deeper he got into his amphora. Sarai was the issue.

“You’ve been scowling at your soup for an hour.” Cisuré touched her elbow when Anek went to refill their plate. “Is something wrong? Has Kadra been piling work on you?”

Harion let out a drunken chuckle. “Is that all he’s doing?”

Sarai set down her spoon. “It’s just a case.” Relating the morning’s encounter with the bread thieves, she omitted her lying and focused on Kadra’s donation. “Just thinking of the children.”

Cisuré stared at her plate, features tight.

A serpentine smile played on Harion’s lips. “Are you sure it’s thechildrenyou’re thinking of and not our national madman?”

A muscle below her eye twitched. “Yes.”

“If you say so. Now, calm down and don’t cause another scene,” he added when her jaw tightened. “Gods, you can take the barmaid out of the bar, but she’ll bring the bar with her.”

She was seconds from dousing him in soup when Anek sat down, effortlessly projecting their voice.

“By the way, lecher, I’ve just run into three women who each insist that you’re sleeping with them and that the others are lying. They’re locked in a squabble outside, if you’d care to sort it out. There’s a crowd gathering.”

Sarai snorted as Harion turned a becoming shade of green and raced outside. She mouthed her thanks to Anek when Cisuré spoke, looking serious.

“There’s no reason to be conflicted. Kadra didn’t help those children.” Ice seeped into her voice. “He bought their goodwill, and everyone else’s.”

“No one saw him do it. It was a fluke that I—” She jumped when Cisuré’s fist hit the table.

“Kadra deprived those children of proper, soul-building work. Like you had. Now they’ll blow through that money and always expect a handout.That’swho he is.”

A cool silence descended over their corner table. Sarai stared at her oldest friend in stupefaction. Anek contemplated their throwing knife, brow furrowed. Surprise flickered on Cisuré’s features like she hadn’t expected the reaction.

“It may sound harsh,” she added hastily. “But Tetrarch Aelius says—”

Anek groaned. “Please stop there. You can pontificate on Tetrarch Aelius another night.”

Cisuré reddened. “You say that, but you’d be kneeling at his feet, if he were here.”

“I would. But because he’s a Tetrarch, not a god.”

Cisuré’s chest swelled. Before she could launch into a tirade, Anek placed a few denarii on the table and patted her shoulder in farewell, nodding to Sarai as they left. Cisuré’s features flushed in anger.

Sarai expelled a long breath. She hadn’t expected Cisuré to stay the same after four years, but her diminished empathy was a bitter surprise. Time truly was the cruelest of the gods.

“You know Kadra’s insane, right?” Cisuré whispered after a moment.

“Of course.”

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