Page 43 of Fortress of Ambrose
“Come on, Jay. We were fun, weren’t we?”
“I don’t look back on us with the fondness you do.”
She throws down a cotton swab dirtied with blood. “How could you say that? It was me breaking your heart that turned it to steel.” Her chin rises. “I wear it like a badge of honor.”
“So what is your angle this time? Coming here. What badges are you auditioning for now?”
She steeples her hands.
“The truth.”
Her expression shifts, the mischievous purse of her lips melting into a deadpan stare. Her gaze drifts past me. She turns her back to me, pulling at the stack of clothes I set down. She yanks the ratty string at her back, and the bow from her corset comes undone.
“The truth is, Beaulah believes you still have feelings for me.” She wiggles in her top, loosening it before reaching inside the corset, pullingat the bone of it. Out comes a small blade. It clangs on the floor. “She says a first love doesn’t just go away.” Yani pulls at the next bone in her corset. Another blade. When she’s done, there are half a dozen razor-sharp daggers on the table.
“She sent me here to sway you to my side and bring youand magicback to her.” The shapeless corset falls to the floor, and she pulls the sheer top off. “And to kill anyone who gets in my way.”
“And you have no intentions to obey?”
“Not this time. She didn’t do right by Charlie, doing experiments to bind him to toushana, letting him die like that. I can’t get past it. I said what I had to to get out of there.” She holds out her arms. “There. I have nothing else to hide.” She turns in a circle before snatching the dress from the table. There is a mark on her back: a cracked column wrapped in a vine of roses. She tosses the dress overhead before plopping on a stool and dragging her dinner over to her.
“I’ve never seen a mark like that before.”
She hunches over her plate, shoveling food. “Yeah. And?”
“Does it mean anything?”
“It means everything.” Metal scrapes her plate. “It’s the mark of the future. Adola’s mark.”
A shiver runs up my arms, and it sends my heart knocking into my ribs. Adola, making a move for her own independence. Could House of Perl be an ally? Or was this another layer to Yani’s master manipulation? “What do you know?”
“Just that I picked the right side. That’s all.”
I watch her eat in silence, finishing every crumb on her plate.
“How long did it take to find us?”
“Audubon wasn’t exactly eager to help. He made me…” She grimaces. “Entertain him before giving up the address.”
“You should have stabbed his eyes out.”
“I carved them out of his skull.” She takes another big bite.
I smile, and cold licks my insides, the Sphere’s dark magic stirring. “Good.” A beat passes.
“She picked me first, you know? For her little experiment. Putting toushana in a person. But after the first session, I told her no.” She sits taller. She may lie to my aunt, but standing up to her? I’m not sure I buy it. However, if she believes I’m starting to trust her, that will only loosen her tongue.
“Do you know anything about the Dragunhead’s whereabouts?”
“I’ve heard things. But I couldn’t tell you what’s true. He hasn’t been at Hartsboro. Beaulah’s done with him, or he with her. That’s all I know.” She pushes her plate away. “I also hear the darkness could eclipse the sun soon.” She smiles darkly.
Darkbearers rising up, taking over. Impossible.Before the brotherhood crumbled, our raids of safe houses turned up many descendants of Darkbearers and someactualpracticing Darkbearers: the target with the red ball cap at Yaäuper Rea; Stryker, the boy my aunt kidnapped. How many more is Beaulah protecting? The Sixth Ward comes to mind. And the other neighborhoods ransacked by dark magic that Quell mentioned.
If this is true, Darkbearers would have to be organizing somehow, somewhere.
I grind my teeth at the guilt twisting in my chest. I should be out there, using the power Idohave to stop this carnage.
“Scared silent?” She mocks me.
