Arthie pressed on. “In cold blood, like you just killed the Siwangs?”
“The Siwangs were living on borrowed time from the moment they went against me,” the Ram said. Was she speaking of the moment the Siwangs had joined Arthie and the others? Or something else?
The carriage rumbled through the heart of White Roaring. The city was still as tense as it had been before Arthie had left for Ceylan, frightfully quiet even as shouts echoed from the direction of the Athereum. “You and I are quite similar, Arthie.”
Arthie didn’t like the sound of her name out of the woman’s mouth. She wanted to say she could never be anything like the colonizing monster sitting before her, but that wasn’t true.
Lady Linden was calculating and clever. She had started from nothing and clawed her way to the top. She may not have had an establishment that doubled as something else, but her entire identity did.
“Am I wrong?” the Ram asked.
“Posture all you want,” Arthie said, but the Ramwasn’twrong. Arthie had climbed into this carriage to learn what she could, yes, but also to do what the Ram had done to her: distract her.
“Ambition is a lonely place. What we see as growth, others see as greed.”
“Or is it lonely because we work to isolate ourselves?” Arthie asked. She had opened her mouth to keep the Ram talking, but she was surprised to find that her question was a genuine one.
Shehadworked to isolate herself. From Jin, from her crew, from Matteo.
The Ram tilted her masked head, eerie and stilted, as if she pondered over Arthie’s question for a moment before deciding to ignore it altogether. “In the Siwangs’ case, they were always liars; it just so happened to work for my needs. But a mutation is a difficult thing to hide, isn’t it?”
Arthie went still. Shaw had said the Ram knew of the Rippers, but not how they were truly coming into existence. How did the Ram know of the mutation?
“They thought they were being coy, hiding it from me. That wooden spoon Bloodworth tells me everything, every assumption they fed him, every detail he wanted to brag about until it was clear to me what was truly happening. See, a Ripper vampire is precisely what I needed. What I wanted from the Siwangs was a cure for the mutation, which would lead to a way to control it,useit, but I suppose I’ll have to make do without,” the Ram said with a shrug.
She spoke of their deaths as if she’d forgotten to place her potted plants out in a rare rainfall. She spoke of Ripper vampires as if they weren’t dangerous and indestructible.
Worse, she spoke freely. Arthie wasn’t even having to push for answers.
But if the Ram knew the truth about the Ripper vampires, did Arthie and the others need to fear their existence here in Ettenia?
“Nothing to say?” the Ram asked.
“What did you want me to say?” Arthie asked. The Ram had simply assumed Arthie knew about the Ripper vampires, and Arthie wouldn’t give her any more than she needed to know.
“Tell me, do yourfriendsknow you’re a vampire?”
Did the Ram see a monster when she saw Arthie? Did she see something despicable, something in need of utilizing for her own needs? She didn’t appearafraidof Arthie.
“I’m not one for hiding who I am, unlike you,” Arthie replied, lying through her teeth.
“And are you always hungry?” the Ram asked. “While walking among humans on the street, while standing in your erstwhile tearoom? Do you crave their blood?”
Arthie gave the Ram a look, unsure of her tone. It sounded almost… pensive. “I’m a vampire, not a rabid animal.”
“Is there a difference?” the Ram asked with a derisive scoff.
Arthie once saw no difference either—it was why she had chosen to consume coconut.
But that was enough of this conversation. “Did you ever imagine your daughter choosing criminals on the street over living with you?”
The Ram didn’t have to remove her mask for Arthie to see she’d struck a nerve. She stiffened as though Arthie had slapped her. Her fingers clenched, no differently than when Matteo extended his claws.
And Arthie ventured to make a guess.
“You wanted to kill her like you do anyone else who stands in your way, didn’t you? Pity that was so hard. Greater pity, I suppose, that she escaped.”
The Ram’s reaction was instantaneous. She launched herself atArthie. The carriage tipped, and outside, the driver shouted, steadying the horses. Arthie had her arms up in an instant, and though she was smaller and the Ram larger, it still required far more effort to push the older woman away than she had expected. The Ram slumped back in her seat, seething as she straightened her mask.
