I wasn’t gonna go into the gruesome details of what the prince did to Hinge. They could fill the blanks in themselves.
“Hinge knew he had seconds left, so he bound his soul to his bones. It was all he could think to do. He wasten.” I made a face. “But something went wrong. That’s why he’s still ten and he always will be.”
“Why didn’t he go to an outpost or the Sanctuary?” Gigi wanted to know. “Surely one of the biblios could have foundsomethingto help him in the Archives!”
“Doesn’t sound like there was enough time,” Mira said.
“Even if he did get there, they would have destroyed him.” Rome stared at his clasped hands. “The Council would have deemed him an abomination and ordered his immediate termination.”
“It’s like people who have themselves cryogenically frozen.” Jax nodded. “They believe the technology to be revived will exist in the future. Hinge must have thought the same way. ‘Save myself by whatever means necessary now; fix it later.’ ”
“Yeah, little boys don’t think too far ahead.” I half-smiled as bitterness filled my mouth.
“How did you find out he was a miracle worker?” Gigi wanted to know. “I assume he and Bit were keeping it a secret, especially any time they were around the Diabolical.”
“I was in and out of the Market from the time I was twelve, so we sorta grew up together. Well,Idid. He gave mesome information once that saved my life. Then I returned the favor. It went back and forth like that a few times. Late one night, I was hiding from … someone at the Market and holed up with him. We got to swapping stories and, since my demon was asleep, Hinge told me about his past.”
“And you were able to keep that knowledge from your demon?” Mira growled. “I couldn’t keep anything from my devil!”
“Different kinds of relationships,” I muttered. “I hid a lot of things from my demon. It was curious about him, but it smelled Bit’s corruption lingering on him and figured he’d pissed off the wrong person and got himself Cursed or something. Demons are easy to distract, too. Anytime it got too interested in Hinge, I sidetracked him with something.”
“And who’s Bit?” Jax asked. “Hinge said he was dead.”
“Bit is—was—a neph who corrupted himself before his first century. For reasons I don’t know, he turned his life around and wanted absolution. Protecting Hinge became his penance. He’s been with Hinge almost from the beginning.”
“What was Bit’s real name? We can ask Hank or Gina if they knew him. I bet they’ve met a corrupt neph or two in their time.”
“I dunno.” I shrugged.
“Should we ask Hinge what happened? Is it important to know how Bit died?” Gigi asked.
“Maybe. Maybe not. I’ll ask him later.”
“So now, with his protector gone, Hinge came looking for a new one.” Jax smirked at me. “You got a prob-llama, bro.”
“End him.” Rome’s voice was quiet, but firm. “Put him out of his misery.”
“Could you?” Mira hissed at him. “Couldyoukill an untainted boy—a miracle worker—who came to you for help?”
“I think there’s too much we can learn from Hinge to discuss ending him right now.” Gigi stood and settled her hands on her hips, then looked at me. “You said Hinge has been around for two hundred years?”
“Yes.”
“Lots of things keep coming back to two hundred years ago.” Rome narrowed his eyes. “We should get some dates and make a timeline. See what matches up, and when.”
“Good idea. I’ll see if Travis can start that.” Jax took out his phone and started texting.
“Kerry.” Gigi turned her head and her wide eyes met mine. “Gemma told me the story that Clem shared that night Jax was hurt. She also said you had a memory of running into a shadow at a party or something?”
“Yeah. I accidentally walked through him on Midsummer’s Eve.” A shudder jerked through me at the memory.
“And he threatened you. Can you repeat what he said?”
“He said that if I wasn’t more careful, I’d need a miracle worker to put me back together, and he’d personally taken care of the last one of those two hundred years ago.” I rattled the words out, then my brain stopped, backtracked and looked at them closer.
“Holy crap,” Jax breathed.
Everyone else seemed just as stunned, and a ball of ice formed in my stomach.
