“How far are you willing to go?”
“All the way.” Kerry didn’t hesitate.
“It would require sacrifice.” Hinge tapped the paper on his mandible.
“I can slit a throat. You know that.”
“I saidsacrifice, not just killing someone.” Hinge’s pupils circled, as if he were rolling his eyes in exasperation. “Could you slit Jax’s throat? Or Gigi’s?”
Kerry’s mouth opened, then snapped shut. With a fierce frown, he rammed his hands into his pockets and turned toward the window.
“No one’s slitting any throats, Hinge.” Mira planted her fists on her hips. “Don’t cause more trouble than we already have by suggesting things like that.”
“Allow me to give you some advice,” Hinge muttered at her. “ ‘Come not between the dragon and his wrath.’”
“And here’s some advice from King Lear foryou: ‘I will be the pattern of all patience. I will say nothing’.”
Hinge didn’t like that.
“ ‘I am sick when I do look on thee,’ woman.”
“ ‘Would thou wert clean enough to spit upon,’ little runt.”
“Wait.” Jax was brave enough to butt in. “Did you two memorize lines from Shakespeare just so you could insult people?”
Both ignored him and sparred on, much to his entertainment. His head swiveled from one to the other as if he were at a tennis match.
Kerry kept his back turned, but the darkening window reflected his face well enough. Seeing it, my brain threw up its own quote from Shakespeare.
“There is no more mercy in him than there is milk in a male tiger.”
Mira and Hinge were getting pretty heated. I knew Mira was doing it to draw attention away from Kerry, but Hinge was taking it seriously, and I half-wondered if I should step between them.
“ ‘Not in the legions of horrid Hell can come a devil more damned’ thanyou, lady,” Hinge sneered.
“My dear boy.” Her voice turned to honey, which should have been warning enough. “Don’t you know? ‘The devil will not have me damned, lest the oil that’s in me should set Hell on fire’.”
I snorted. I couldn’t help it. It was such a Mira thing to say.
“Let it go, Hinge,” Kerry said over his shoulder. “She’s just trying to get a rise outta you so everyone forgets that I’d slitanythroat, including my own, if it would save Gemma. I won’t, though, because she’d never forgive me for it.”
And that’s hisonlyreason? Gemma wouldn’t like it?
I glanced over at Mira. Our eyes met and held.
Yeah, she’s thinking the same thing.
“Hinge,” Jax said, “did you know a necromancer named Khaydari?”
“He came through the Market once or twice a year. Even though I wondered if he might have some ideas about how to fix me, Bit warned me to stay away from him.” The little skeleton grinned. “I didn’t need the warning. When Khaydari stared at you, you got the sense he wanted to dissect you down to your marrow.”
“Did you know he worked for the Alchemists for a while?” Gigi asked him.
“No, but I’m not surprised. Those guys pay well.Reallywell.”
“Is that what Khaydari was in it for?” I asked. “The money?”
“Not at all, but supplies and equipment are expensive. Khaydari’s goal was to recreate life. A real Dr. Frankenstein. I half-think he’s responsible for Mary Shelley’s novel. He began his experiments in the early 1800s.”
