Though the narrow blade did little extra damage, he tightened his jaw against the horror of cutting into her. He felt as monstrous as those who had carved apart her childhood, scavenging for any treasure. “Who won, angel or djinni?”
“I don’t know. They screamed as they fought, and the frozen ground boiled into steam that blinded me. I ran, but too slow. There was a burst of light—angel gold or djinni yellow; I don’t remember—they were too much alike. I fell.”
“Something hit you. And it’s still here.” Sweat stung the corner of his eye. All his previous surgeries had been on lifeless feralis husks, not soft, shuddering flesh. “That battle you witnessed was your penance trigger, one end of the fault line that ended with your possession.”
“By the time I staggered back to the house, the mourners had come and gone, only muddy footprints left behind. No one noticed I’d been missing.”
Sid gave the knife a tiny twist. On a spurt of blood, the embedded object surfaced in a gleam of glassy gold.
“I guess the djinni won that battle.” He grabbed a towel from a clean stack near the dishwasher and pressed it against her knee. When he pulled back, the wound was already closing, and the shard was nestled in the middle of the bloody cloth. To his demon’s mesmerized vision, the shrapnel—just a bit shorter and narrower than his finger—flickered like the last flame of a dying campfire. “No wonder your teshuva’s been on the blink; this fragment came from an angel’s sword.”
CHAPTER 17
Alyce was relieved she’d left her wool coat hanging on the back of a chair when she’d gone down into the verge crypt with Sidney. At least she had something to hide her drenched, stained clothes. Across the empty diner, he revealed the sword shard wrapped in the bloody towel to Liam, Archer, and a half-dozen other muttering talyan.
She sat with Nim and Sera. Jilly had stayed at the warehouse to mastermind the night’s hunt. Apparently, the league had chosen new prey.
Or maybe it had been the other way around. She rubbed the back of her thigh. The knot that had been there so long—longer even than her possession—had flattened. She knew when she looked again, it would be gone, just as the limp and other wounds had disappeared. Dared she hope the scar tissue that had tangled her mind would vanish too?
“I ruined another pretty dress,” she told Nim.
The talya woman shrugged. “I’ll introduce you to the miracle of bleach in the delicate cycle. And credit cards.”
Alyce let out a relieved sigh. “The league has strange machines for everything.”
“Nothing strange enough to let us zip between realms on a whim,” Sera said.
“Is that what happened to Thorne?” Nim sat back. “Corvus opened the verge, but he had no control over it. Jonah and I were with him in the no-man’s-land at the end, and he and his djinni were as shit-themselves scared of falling into the tenebraeternum as we were. It might have been where they came from—where all demons come from—but it was no place they want to go back.”
Sera drummed her fingers on the table. “So, what did Thorne want with the verge? You say he implied the djinn are talking behind our backs, and we already fought them once at the church. If they are gathering, by definition it can’t be for anything good.”
None of them had an answer, so they sat in silence.
Therese bustled up. “What can I get you?”
“Answers?” Nim suggested.
“Tea?” Therese countered.
Sera nodded. “And bring four cups.”
Therese returned with a tray of unmatched china. She poured for all of them, stared at the fourth cup a moment, then sat. “Liam may close the diner. Because it is dangerous, he says.” Her accusing gaze shuttled between Sera and Nim.
“Don’t look at me,” Nim said. “I eat danger for breakfast. But I think that’s not what Liam wants you to serve.”
Sera nodded. “When he suggested you move the diner here, he thought it would be a good opportunity.”
“It has been,” Therese said. “I would have lost everything when my last landlord sold out.”
“By good opportunity,” Sera clarified, “I think Liam meant unlikely to have strange men creeping around in the basement.”
“There are many strange men creeping around the basement right now,” Alyce pointed out.
Therese tipped her teacup toward Alyce in an approving salute. “Exactly. Is this danger confined to the basement?”
Sera opened her mouth, then closed it when Nim said, “Not really confined, no.”
“Life is risk,” Therese said. “That I know, even if I don’t understand all you are doing.”
“You should tell her,” Alyce said. “No one wants to be kept in the dark.” She contemplated that a moment. “If they have the choice.”
Sera cleared her throat. Nim drank her tea.
So Alyce hunted for the words to explain to Therese. “A slave woman, Tituba, near my village outside Salem, was accused of witchcraft. She disappeared; probably she was killed. Could you run? If you had to?”
Therese shrugged. “It’s never that easy, is it? The chains are not always so obvious.”
“I still feel them too,” Alyce said.
“Tituba,” Nim said abruptly. “That’s Nigerian for ‘atone.’”
Sera stared at her. “Excuse me?”
Nim shifted in her chair. “Since Jonah spent so much time there, I’ve been reading about African demons.” She quickly took another sip of tea.
Therese pushed her cup aside. “Demons?”
“That is what is in the basement,” Alyce said. “That is what sits with you now. Lodged within our souls.”
Sera and Nim groaned in tandem. “You make possession sound so … creepy,” Nim complained.
Therese blinked at them. “You are possessed. By demons.”
“Repentant demons,” Sera said. “We’re good guys.”
Therese glanced toward the male talyan. “And them?”
“Bigger good guys,” Nim said. “What’s in your basement is … not good. And we wanted to keep it buried.”
“But it is not your battle,” Alyce said, “so you should be able to run away if you choose.”
Therese stared at her cup. “I don’t know what to say.”
“Besides ‘You all are stark raving mad’?” Nim nudged sugar packets across the table. “Here, these help.”
“Demons,” Therese mused. “That would explain things.” She pulled her cup back to her and dumped in three sugars. “I won’t run. And not because I am such a slave to my fear that I am too stupid to run.”
“Then you’re doing better than I did,” Nim said.
Therese shook her head. “I think you are doing much good. How can I help?”
“You already do,” Sera said. “By giving us a reminder why we’re here.”
“I left my home once. If nowhere in the city is safe, then I would rather do what I can.”
Perhaps his demon had warned him of the talk behind his back, because Liam approached their table, hands on his hips. “Therese,” he started.
She stood. “You can’t close the diner. This is our place. All of yours. And mine. We will make our stand here.”
He lifted an eyebrow at the talya women. “You sharing trade secrets?”
“No secrets,” Alyce said.
“Not anymore anyway,” Nim amended.
Before Liam could demand an explanation, Alyce stood and went to find Sidney. He must have explanations by the dozen by now.
He was helping Pitch push the shelf back into place. “And we need to finish draining the crypt before we can seal the hole in the floor. I wish a bolus of concrete could do the same to the verge.”