Page 29 of Speak No Evil

“Scout’s honor.” AJ holds up three fingers.

“Shut up. You were never a Girl Scout.”

“Yeah, and I can’t exactly turn off your natural reaction to my biology, so I guess we’re both liars.”

“How does that make me a liar?”

AJ scoffs. “I don’t know. It just sounded good.”

So we talk. Or rather, I talk. AJ listens in that fae way of hers. The way that makes it seem like I could tell her every deep dark secret and it would be alright.

The way that leaves me hollowed out and echo-y when I’m finished. Hollow but with space for more good. More laughter. More fun. More friends.

“You’ll have to tell Veruca,” she says as we head for the kitchen, because six days with no food is too many days.

“I know. I couldn’t then, but I think I can now.”

Chonk appears from around the corner and jumps into my arms. “Hey, fat cat. Where ya been? I could have used the company.”

You and the lords needed to figure this out yourselves without my superior intellect guiding the way.

I drop him faster than Lucifer’s used butt plug. He stink-eyes me from the ground. “Did you just fucking talk to me? In my head?”

Yes. How do you think the big dummies got to you in the bad place?

AJ puts a tentative hand on my shoulder. “Jade? You OK?”

The cat—er, thetalkingcat—jumps back into my arms.I’m glad you’re better, Stinky.

“Stinky?!”

“Jade?” AJ’s voice borders on serious concern before I acknowledge her.

“Sorry. The cat’s talking in my head.”

AJ’s brows pull together. “Jade, hallucinations are a serious, though not uncommon, side effect of—”

She goes quiet, statue-still, as Chonk presumably speaks in her mind. “Oh, OK. Never mind then. Talking cat. Got it.”

The three of us arrive in the kitchen to find it utterly destroyed. Without missing a beat, AJ offers to buy me lunch, if I can make myself presentable in less than ten minutes.

I take the bet and meet her in front of the basilica, more than a little surprised that none of the lords had stopped me on the way out.

I mention as much to AJ.

“Ah, yeah. Well, I might have threatened them with my mortuary skills.”

“What?”

AJ shrugs. “The perfect murder with no evidence if they bothered you before you were ready.”

I laugh, appreciative of her foresight and strange skill set. “You could, couldn’t you?”

“Could what?” she asks as we get in her car and she aims us for the shopping district.

“You could commit the perfect murder, couldn’t you? No trace evidence. No way to catch you.”

She smiles at me. “Yeah, I could. And that’s how you know I wasn’t a part of the murders happening here.”

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