“The iron hidden in the walls.” Parvenah lifted her faded, bloodshot eyes. “Why? Do you seek to free me?”
“Yes.”
“And what payment do you demand for such a service?”
“Nothing.”
“Nothing?” Her tone told me how much she believed me.
“Uh, well, I guess I’d ask you not to kill us once you’re free.” I rubbed my chin with one hand. “But I know what it is to be a slave. That’s reason enough.”
Parvenah stood, grimacing as her body creaked.
“Oh my goodness!” Gigi gasped, and we both looked at her. “I just realized what you’re weaving! It’s the suppression fabric we’ve been seeing everywhere lately. The same as the demon blanket!”
“You sure?” I asked.
“I nearly suffocated under a hood made of it a few days ago.” Gigi shot me a sharp look. “I’d know it anywhere.”
“You’ve been making this stuff for the skin peddlers?” Rage boiled in my gut, and I did not trust myself to move too closely to the peri queen. “For theAlchemists?”
“I had no choice.”
“What about Reilly Argaud’s uniform?” Gigi asked her. “At the Box, he and the other prisoners were wearing jumpsuits made of it.”
“The production ofthatfabric is strictly controlled by the Council of Wardens. What I weave is an imitation of it. That is how my power works. I cannot create, only imitate.”
“Are you the only one making it?” I asked.
“So far as I am aware. I soaked the warp with my tears.” The peri queen straightened her shoulders and looked me in the eye. “’Twas the only sabotage I could manage, but better than none.”
“And what does that do?”
“The fabric begins to decay after the first use.”
“So without you, the slavers and Alchemists’ ready supply disappears, and their current stock has a limited shelf life.” Gigi turned to me. “That would be good.”
I agreed, then turned to Parvenah.
“Gigi is a watcher who can teleport in short hops. Where do you want her to take you?”
“I need only leave the confines of this cell. Once I am freed, I can restore myself and return to the atelier.”
“This seems too easy.” Gigi’s eyes darted around like she expected a monster to leap out at any moment. “If she’s a prisoner, where’s her jailer?”
“Og is dead,” I told them.
“Impossible.” Parvenah glared at me.
“He’s dead all right. I killed him myself last night. How did he manage to capture you, anyway?
“He was my warden, not my capturer.” Parvenah frowned. “The trap was set by a nephilim named Samuel Castle.”
A growl built in my chest, and whatever my face was showing, it made her back up.
“That guy again,” Gigi muttered. “What was the bait?”
“Long have I desired to free my brothers’ sons, who were enslaved by an old enemy. Castle is in league with their current master.”
