Page 91 of This Monster of Mine

“Yes,” she whispered, and he nodded, fingertips brushing across her jaw.

Hunger unfurled her in with the speed of a striking snake, nearly clawing out of her skin. Flushing, she gripped the door handle for balance. His hand dropped to the desk, a disturbing intensity in his eyes as they searched her features.

She looked away. “I’ll be off. There’s no need for an assault charge. Try not to ignite a civil war in the Tetrarchy while I’m gone.”

“Very well,” he said quietly.

Twisting the handle, she ran out of his office, halting at the station’s stables to drag slow, calming breaths. Yearning rippled through her at the echo of his fingertips grazing her jaw and his visible anger at her bruises. He’d killed two Guildmasters to protect her.

Gods help me.Perhaps it wasn’t that he didn’t care. Perhaps, just perhaps, in their equally closed-off ways, they both cared too much.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

News of Helvus’s death and Admia’s imprisonment spread across Edessa like wildfire over the next few days. The particulars of both, however, didn’t make the grapevine’s cut. All people knew was that Admia had killed Helvus and that Sarai had Materialized his last moments and ruined his reputation. Depending on how much the owner cared for Helvus, Sarai got varying reactions at taverns. One had served her a double helping of chicken stew. She’d gotten a plate of shit in another.

Reports of the scuta being faulty were quickly dismissed as nonsense. Coupled with the fact that Aelius hadn’t officially set the matter down for trial, and scutum manufacturing was paused as the Metals Guild regrouped, demand was sky-high.

She’d found out the hard way.

Making rounds throughout Kadra’s Quarter, she and Gaius had stopped at homes with more than one scutum and politely requested if they could purchase it from them. She’d tottered out of the first domus soon afterward, ears ringing after a thousand bellowed curses that their lives were worth more than any amount of coin. She’d barely gotten a word in with anyone else.

“You northern folk really think you’re something.” A woman had beaten at her laundry like she wished it was Sarai’s face. “Wait in line for your own.”

“Do you know how many times these scuta have saved me?” Another had gesticulated wildly with a kitchen knife. “Who do you think you are?”

Another put it more succinctly. “Get lost, northern whore,” he snarled.

She quickly abandoned the idea.

“I’m starting to see why Helvus fooled everyone so easily,” she groused to Gaius upon returning, dejected, to the Hall of Records.

“Stormfall is a terrifying thing to endure regularly,” he explained. “For four years, the scuta have represented hope. No one likes to have that taken away. Even Tetrarch Kadra can’t legally force anyone to give one up.”

“At least we’ve Admia,” she said wearily. “She saw the iron dust too. They’ll have to believe it when I Materialize the evidence.”

Gaius’s wince said he wasn’t so sure.

Days blended into a week at the Hall of Records. She scoured the Archives Jovian had frequented most, going through indexes he’d consulted and books he’d borrowed, all to no avail. Gaius hovered at her elbow in case Metals Guildsmen were hiding between the shelving, and Kadra’s vigiles discreetly patrolled the entire area. Every night she emerged empty-handed.

Almost a week after Helvus’s death, she snapped another of Jovian’s favorite books—The History of the Sidran Tower Girl—shut in the Hall of Records.This is useless.She needed concrete proof to pair with Admia’s testimony.

Just four pieces of evidence would prove everything. Something that linked the Petitor deaths together as murders, something that linked the murders to the scuta, something that proved the scuta were faulty, and something that showed Helvus’s clients were behind it all. Any less and she’d reveal only part of the truth.

Mulling over what Decimus had mentioned on their first visit, she frowned, recalling that Jovian had been investigated for treason prior to his death.

Heading to the Sealed Records archive, she made her request of the archivist only for him to gape.

“Petitor Jovian’s criminal record?” He looked at her like she’d gone mad. “Why would he have one?”

It was her turn to stare. “I was told that Tetrarch Aelius had sealed it after his death.”

“Absolutely not.” The archivist withdrew a massive index covered in spidery writing and thumbed through it. He flipped the book to show her all the entries on the month of Jovian’s death. “We didn’t seal anything pertaining to him.”

Then why had Aelius told Decimus that he had?

“Were there any other archives Jovian frequented most?” She’d combed through the ones for missing persons, family trees, and Urd Guilds.

“I do recall seeing him in Homicidium often. He was always digging into death, whether the Sidran Tower Girl or all those poor Petitors.” The Sealed Records archivist gave her a pitying glance. “I suppose he was as worried as you are about the job.”

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