Page 70 of A City of Smoke and Demons
He smirked. ‘Only if you hold something for me in return.’
Analise rolled her eyes. ‘Come with me.’
He followed her to the lab, where there was still no sign of Charles. Analise led Ezra to the cage and pulled the cover off. He took a hasty step back.
‘I hate rats.’
‘Really? I thought you’d be kindred spirits.’ Analise laughed at the look he gave her. She opened the cage. ‘Grab him for me, will you?’
‘Absolutely not.’
‘I need to work out how it’s alive, how what’s going on inside it keeps its heart beating.’ She showed him her roadmap of the dead rat.
‘Won’t it be the same inside that one?’ he asked, pointing at the live rat.
‘Yes, but I want to know what its life feels like,’ Analise said, frowning. ‘That’s not exactly right. If I’m going to try and save a Familiar, I need to know the difference between life and death as afeeling.’
Ezra looked at her for a long moment, then sighed. ‘If I get bit—’
When he shoved his hand into the cage, the rat went feral, squealing and flinging itself against the bars. He closed his fingers around it finally, managing not to get bitten. ‘Now what?’
‘Out of the cage—I need you to hold it so I can touch it.’
Grumbling, Ezra lifted the squirming rat free and held it with both hands, one wrapped around the rat’s throat, the other around its back legs. He looked like he was going to be sick. ‘Did I mention I hate these things? It’s probably got the plague, Analise.’
She looked at the terrified animal. ‘You won’t catch the plague.’
The rat looked so small and helpless in Ezra’s large hands that Analise felt sorry for it.
‘Here goes,’ she muttered, and placed the tips of her fingers on the rat’s exposed belly. Her magic moved through its body, death colliding with life in a shower of sparks. Analise followed its internal systems towards the furious beating of its tiny heart. It was like her magic was drawn there. She could feel the life inside the rat, like she had with the bird that day in the courtyard at the convent. Life was warm, like sunshine. As her magicmoved closer to the rat’s heart, death reached out and swiftly swallowed that raging rhythm.
‘Shit,’ Analise said, withdrawing her magic.
‘It’s dead,’ Ezra whispered. The rat was limp in his hands.
She sighed.
‘But it’s only just dead,’ he reminded her. ‘Bring it back.’
‘Ezra, I don’t know how. I took its life—’
‘Where did you put it?’
Analise looked at her hands. Her fingertips were tingling. ‘On the bench,’ she whispered.
Once Ezra set the rat down, Analise placed both hands over it. Life and death were in her fingers, hovering there, waiting. The rat was already dead, so the death magic in her veins … stepped aside. It had nothing to hold on to so Analise focused on returning what she’d stolen.
Nothing happened at first, but then her hands were filled with squirming animal. She could feel its heartbeat surging, feel the blood pumping through that tiny, furry body. Quickly, she scooped it up and sat the stunned rat back in the cage, then stepped back.
Ezra was staring at her. ‘You’re scary as fuck, you know that?’
Analise swallowed. Her heart was racing, blood pounding in her ears. She shook her head, shocked at what she’d managed to do. She scrawled a note to Charles, fingers trembling, and left it on the rat’s cage. The animal blinked at her.
‘Thank you,’ she told it. Then to Ezra, ‘Are you scared of me?’
‘I’ve always been scared of you.’ A faint blush spread across his cheeks as he cleared his throat. ‘I need to go and wash my hands.’
Blackwood wanted Analise to use her magic to interrogate a Familiar.
