Page 125 of Thief of Night
That was true, but he was still an excellent lever to push. So excellent that it was easy to put off the future for another day. If she didn’t do what she promised, he’d hunt her down. He’d have to. He couldn’t allow her to know his secrets unless she compromised herself too. Until they were guilty together.
“Now, I must concentrate,” he said, heading toward the back door. He kicked leaves as he made his way across the lawn.
It took twenty more minutes for anyone to summon Charlie back into theroom. When they did, she had no idea what to think because no one looked happy.
“We have an answer,” Vicereine told her. “Red can stay a Blight, butyoumust remain in your role as the Hierophant. Keep doing well or I will make an example out of you. You know how alterationists can remove desire or pain? Well, Charlie Hall, fail us, and I will take everything. I will hollow you out.”
Charlie nodded once. This was them giving her what she wanted. Of course it had to come with a threat.
Vicereine went on. “Some among us don’t believe that you can be the Hierophant without being a gloamist. It’s never been done by anyone who wasn’t.”
“I can do it,” Charlie said.
“Succeeding at what should be impossible is your most annoying trait,” said Bellamy.
The flush of victory was heady enough for her to want to burst out grinning, but she couldn’t. Not quite yet. “About that,” she said. “There’s something I have to tell you. It’s about one of your number. He’s betrayed you.” She turned toward Mr. Punch.
The professorial puppet lurched unsteadily to his feet with such force that the man woke up suddenly, blinking before his eyes went blank again. “You forget yourself.”
“I really don’t,” she said, and then she explained the scheme. “It started with Rooster and Archie, but somehow Mr. Punch found out, so he got dealt in. I don’t know if he discovered what they were doing until after he took over the Cabal from Malik, or if he’d known it before and that helped him to advance to the top position, but—”
“Are you going to let her lie like that? About one of us?” Mr. Punch’s puppet lurched toward Vicereine, pointing a hand at her.
Bellamy stepped between them. He glanced toward Charlie. “Go on.”
“I know he worked with Mark, who Rooster sprung from prison in exchange for harvesting shadows. Shadows taken from new gloamists, who would have probably become Cabal members. Who certainly would have been alive.”
“As a well-known liar, you tell a compelling story,” said Mr. Punch, speaking through the man. “But do you have any proof?”
“Sure,” Charlie said. “I blackmailed you into taking my part against Vicereine and Bellamy. Why else would you have done it? I promised I wouldn’t say anything if you did, but as you say, I’m a liar.”
Bellamy laughed in delighted surprise.
“You lunatic,” Mr. Punch’s puppet spat. “You mad bitch.”
“You would have fucked me over the first chance you got,” Charlie told him, allowing herself a small smile. “You’re just mad I got there first.”
“Only you,” said Bellamy. “Only you would have the nerve to use something like that as proof.”
“But you believe me,” said Charlie.
“We believe you,” said Vicereine. “Now get out.”
On shaking legs, Charlie left the alterationist stronghold, walking toward the Porsche, adrenaline singing in her veins. She drank in gulps of cold, crisp air. And she grinned up at the cold sky, at the stars shining down on her. She grinned and couldn’t stop grinning.
She had just turned onto route 9 when a police car began tailing her. Just before the bridge, the lights started.
Charlie pulled over, cursing her luck. Of course, she couldn’t have an hour of triumph over the world before the world batted her back down. Of course, Adeline wasn’t going to let Red just drive off with a car if he wasn’t doing what she wanted.
Charlie took a deep breath and prepared to try to talk her way out of this.
Stolen, officer? I had no idea. My boyfriend said it belonged to him. Remy Carver? That’s right. Is there a problem?
Two more police cars, sirens going, pulled in ahead of the Porsche on the side of the road, boxing her in. Well, she supposed it was a valuable car and it wasn’t like there was much going on locally. This was a town that had to regularly collect drunken college students from unlocked living rooms, where they stumbled in and fell asleep on floors.
“Get out of the car and put your hands where I can see them.” The voice boomed from the vehicle behind her, spoken through a horn. “Get out of the car now.”
Charlie stepped out.
