“Where’s Bit?”
“Bit’s dead.” He took a big breath, even though I knew he didn’t need air. “I need help.”
A couple of no-no words slipped out.
I don’t wanna deal with this right now! It’ll slow me down when I already don’t have time!
“I didn’t know who else to trust, Kerry.” Hinge lifted his head and his little purple pupils blinked up at me.
Son of a whore. I’m stuck with him, ain’t I?
I mean, what were my choices? Turn him over to the Council, who’d kill him outright? Send him back to the Diabolical Market, where he’d be eaten without Bit’s protection? Toss him out and hope he survived on his own?
Gemma’d kill me if I did any of that.
The thought struck me outta nowhere. She’d never even met Hinge, but I knew what she would do—what she’d expectmeto do— if she was here.
With a heavy sigh, I made the choice I could live with and accepted he was my problem.
“So how’d you get here?” I looked him over and saw he was dusty and dirty. “Without being seen, I mean.”
“Stuck to the shadows. I hid on the last ferry over the Hudson, snuck across Lower Manhattan, and took the Brooklyn Bridge walkway after dark. Simple.”
“Guess you’re probably pretty tired then.”
“Yes.” He grinned. “It’s a long walk from Hoboken.”
“Come on.” I picked up the old-school suitcase. “You can clean up, then crash in my room for a while.”
#
“Whatever caused it to happen,” Rome scowled at me, “you should have given him mercy long ago.”
“I know, I know!” I threw up my hands. “I thought about it lots of times. But he’s just a kid, and he’s survived on hope for centuries. And he’s a miracle worker.”
“A miracle worker?” Gigi narrowed her eyes at me. “And when we needed one for Jax, you keptsilentabout him?”
“He wouldn’t have been any help.” I met her dark blue eyes. “All of Hinge’s power, every bit of it, is used to hold his bones together. It’s the jelly stuff you can see when he moves.”
“All right, Kerry.” Mira crossed her arms and leaned against the wall. “Start at the beginning and tell us the whole story.”
“There’s not that much to tell.” I shrugged. “He was born sometime in the early 1800s. While he was still a kid, a bound demon got wind of him being a miracle worker and tried to trick Hinge into loosening his chains. Hinge has always been smart, though, and knew him for what he was. Instead of freeing the demon, Hinge bound him tighter.”
“So the demon was pissed and sought revenge?” Mira asked.
“Of course it did. They’re spiteful, vengeful things.” Rome looked from her to me. “Hinge must be pretty powerful, if he could tighten a demon’s chains.”
“Oh, yeah, he’s a strong lil monster,” I agreed, “but not strong enough to win against a prince when he came to suck out his soul.”
“A prince?” they all said at once.
“Yup. The first demon was a duke. When word of what happened spread through Hell, a prince axed the duke, saying anyone weak enough to fall to a child wasn’t fit to rule anything. Then he seized all the duke’s power.” I smirked. “Demon politics are pretty straightforward like that.”
“Straightforward and cut throat,” Jax muttered.
“Go back to Hinge’s story.” Gigi clapped her hands at me, and I raised my eyebrows. “I want to know what happened.”
“Well, after offing the duke, the prince couldn’t let Hinge live without losing face himself, so he sent his shadow after him. Hinge fought for all he was worth, but fell. The shadow was hurt pretty bad, so once it was convinced Hinge was dead enough, it faded back to Hell.”
