Page 95 of Grave Robbing and Other Hobbies (Grave Concerns 1)

Chapter Twenty-Three

Troy helped with the transfer, and I only caught a glimpse of a struggling body as they’d worked him downstairs since they kept me far away. He stayed in the basement for a long time, since there wasn’t any chance that he’d let me enter that room without being absolutely sure Paul had no way of moving. Even after the other wolves who had come to help left, Troy remained out of sight.

The sun had started to peek above the mountain ranges, which meant for the remainder of the day, Kase was stuck inside. I’d sat outside and watched it after Kase had retreated, like some last hurrah.

Maybe it was the stress of the upcoming interrogation, how I still had so few answers about anything, trying to judge so many different personalities, that everyone looked as me as if I was supposed to understand or know anything and I just didn’t. Whatever it was, I felt overwhelmed and stretched too thin.

Once I couldn’t sit still anymore, when I couldn’t ignore the reality of the day any longer, I headed for my room. I needed a few minutes of silence to recenter, to close the door and pretend forjust a moment that I had no one relying on me but myself.

I’d let myself down enough times that I was a pro at that.

How I’d gone from having no one care where I was or what I was doing to having people needing me, to having people depending on me for things that felt far too important.

The door to Kase’s room sat cracked open. I knew he’d planned to attend the interrogation, but perhaps he’d wanted a little rest as well before that.

Voices floated out of the room, and I paused.Grant.

I’d recognize his voice anywhere. Then again, Grant was in charge of dealing with the wards and much of the magical protection, and Kase had hired him, so they had to be friends, right?

Still, the lowness of their voices set off alarms in my head, something that said this wasn’t right. No one spoke like that when everything was on the level. I stopped at the door, closing my eyes to drown out all the other senses and focus on their words.

“How safe are we here?” Kase asked.

“Safe enough. But if we really are dealing with Lucifer, no wards I have are going to make a difference.”

“He won’t come himself. It’s not his way. He doesn’t like to get his hands dirty. Do you think Ava can actually drive back his influence?”

“She’s done it before. I don’t think she knows how she did it—it seemed like instinct. Still, Olin went from mindless to speaking.”

“What does that mean? What is she?”

There was a slight pause, then Grant’s voice seemed to come from a different place in the room, as if he were pacing. “I don’t know. I did every test on the blood I got from her and everything I find reads human or inconclusive.”

My blood?

“I didn’t hire you for you to not give me answers. You told me from day one you could figure it out. That was why I hired you and not a guild mage, because you swore you could determine what she is.”

“Of course I said that. I’ve never had a person defy every test I know before. It’s like me asking for you to put a vampire into the sun so they’ll burn, but you do it, and they don’t burn. We’re dealing with someone unprecedented here.”

Kase made a soft sound, one that came out like a growl. “I swore to Colter that I would figure out exactly what she was. I can’t go back empty-handed, and you don’t want to anger the coven elders, either.”

My stomach rolled with each word they exchanged.

Grant had been working for Kase the entire time. Not just to help, as I’d been led to believe, but because they wanted to know what I was. It had been a ploy from the start, and I’d been the idiot who had fallen for it.

I looked down at my hand, at the scar there from where he’d sliced me. He’d needed blood for the wards, but I remembered the careful way he’d sheathed the blade—covered in my blood—and had put it in his satchel. I remembered the way he’d winced after I’d told him that I finally fit in when we’d been tangled up in bed with Hunter. I was nothing but an easy target and a job.

He’d known all along he was betraying me, that he was working for Kase to uncover my secrets for a price.

And Kase?

He’d acted like I mattered when I’d been nothing but a job for him, an errand from his precious coven leader. All the times I’d thought he wasn’t led around by Colter were my own stupidity.

His words came back to me, the ones he’d told me that first night after I’d woken up. ‘Keep asking questions and you’ll end up dead.’

He’d told me I’d never dealt with him before, and it seemed I’d underestimated how right he was.

I pushed open the door, and the creak of the hinges caused both men to swing their gazes my way.

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