“But why would the Alchemists care about her? Did they know she was the miracle worker?” Mira asked. “If so, how did they find out?”
“The shadow, of course,” I said. “If it’s the same one in all these stories, he told his minions—that is, Hubler and his buddies—who and what he wanted.”
“Why didn’t the shadow just thaw her out himself?” Jax wanted to know. “He’s the one who petrified her to begin with. It’s not like he wouldn’t know how to undo it.”
“Maybe the Alchemists were working behind his back. Maybe they were going to free her and double cross him.” Gigi shrugged.
“Wouldn’t put anything past them,” Kerry snorted, “including being dumb enough to try blackmailing a prince of Hell.”
“Back to my question, though. Why didn’t the shadow unthaw her himself when he was ready for her?”
“Well, for one, like we just said, Clem had hidden her. The shadow had no idea where to find her.” Rome pointed out. “For two, he might not have ever wanted her free, but now that she is, he wants to take her off the board permanently.”
“Why not just kill her to begin with, then?” Gigi asked.
“That would be wasteful,” Kerry shook his head. “Killing is pretty final. Petrifying her, he still had her in his back pocket in case he ever needed her. You have to remember, demons play a long game.”
“The long game is all an immortal perspective sees,” I agreed.
43. I Never Stood a Chance
Rome
Later that evening, I found Kerry sitting on the side of his bed with his face in his hands.
Uh-oh.
“Hinge says the shadow you drew is the same one who killed him.” I sat on Jax’s bed. “No one can get a hold of Amanda Greenaway, but Gigi texted a photo of your sketch to Kyo, and he said it’s the same shadow he saw in her memory from when she was petrified.”
It was only confirmation of what we’d already guessed, but he groaned as if I’d punched him in the liver, which, in case you’ve never experienced it,hurts.
“I ain’t never gonna get her back, am I?” he muttered.
“That’s your taint talking. We’ll find her.”
“Yeah? In how many pieces?”
He dropped his hands and raised his head, and I inhaled sharply. His eyes had less life in them than that corpse we’d found in the mountains.
Gigi was right. The rage either burned out or was smothered by hopelessness.
“She told you herself that she was safe,” I reminded him. “Stop imagining the worst. Anyway, I’ve been thinking. Could wetake a bit of Hinge’s power? Just a smidgen to have proof of a miracle worker? He wouldn’t be exposed to any risk, and we only need enough to convince Hubler. If we could use it to trick him into meeting with us, we’d have an opportunity to get the seal from him.”
“Setting a trap didn’t work so great last time. Why would it work this time?” He fell onto his side and threw his legs up on the bed.
“It would buy us time, at least.”
“Time? What does time matter against demon princes and necromancers and djinn? Against corrupted wardens and traitors on the Council?” He covered his face with his hands again. “I never stood a chance of getting her back, did I?”
“Listen—”
“Lemme alone. I wanna sleep.” His muffled voice cracked at the end.
A furious tiger was hard enough to handle, but a desperate one would require a kind of motivation that I feared none of us could provide. With a heavy frown, I got to my feet and went to find more rational minds.
#
Mira
