Chapter 29

"You're one cool cucumber,"Kit says when I open my eyes. "I don't know if I'd be able to sleep under such circumstances."

"I wasn't sleeping, per se." I sit up. "How screwed am I?"

She perches on the edge of the bed and puts down the stack of papers she's holding. "The good news is they won't kill you outright. I had to use all my oratory skills to pull that off, but Kain helped."

"He did?" I move from the bed into a chair opposite her. That doesn't sound like the vampire I know.

She turns into Kain. "He's not as bad as he seems. He's just in a shitty position. Since he's the head of the Enforcers, everyone blames him for not preventing the murders. Clearly, he's decided to shift some of that pressure onto you."

As I thought. "Makes me feel so much better. What a saint."

Kit shifts back into herself. "The head of the Enforcers before Kain left very big shoes to fill."

I take in a deep breath. "What's the bad news?"

"You've got three more days to find the killer," Kit says. "And, if anyone else dies, that's it for you."

"Pucking great." I leap out of the chair and start pacing the room. I'm failing. Failing badly. If I don't get my act together, Mom stands no chance.

"I swear I did my best," Kit says. "But when Kain told everyone about Hekima and Albina's death, Gertrude made it sound like they voted to spare you in the hope that you could solve this thing. She said we needed to revote. Then Kain chimed in to give you another chance. I told them you can't prevent someone as powerful as one of us from murdering, but they didn't care." She shimmers, transforming herself into Eduardo. "You're lucky a few negative ninnies like their beauty sleep so much. As unbelievable as it sounds, the vote could've gone worse. One of the options was to kill you now."

I grimace, stopping in front of her. "Why don't I feel lucky?"

"If you want, I can help you escape." She turns into me. "There's going to be a Mandate ceremony soon, and we can disguise you to sneak out along with the guests. I can pretend to be you for a while, give you a head start."

Tempting. Very tempting—and very nice of her to offer.

Regretfully, I shake my head. "I need Isis to heal my mom. Besides, Kain has my DNA. I don't want to have to look over my shoulder for the rest of my days." It's the same reasons I had to turn down Valerian's offer in the beginning.

Like it or not, I have to see this through.

Kit turns into Isis. "You're also lucky no one's killed her yet."

She's right. That wouldn't be good at all. "Speaking of luck," I say, pushing away the upsetting possibility, "did Chester vote for or against me just now? He had an alibi, but I still wonder if he could be behind it all."

"He voted to give you another chance," she replies in Chester's voice while still wearing Isis's face. "Chester can be a pain, but I don't think he's the culprit."

"Fine," I say tiredly. With the adrenaline leaving my system, the sleep deprivation is hitting me again, hard. I sink back into the chair. "Now what?"

Kit assumes her preferred anime blonde guise and hands me the stack of papers. "Kain made everyone write down what they were doing during the murders. They all swore to go to sleep in a bit, and Kain will check everyone's compliance shortly. The idea is that you'll dreamwalk in the rest of the Council as soon as possible."

"Not a bad idea." I glance at the papers. "I haven't finished connecting with everyone, though."

"That's where I come in. I'll walk you into the right people's bedrooms." She waggles her eyebrows lasciviously.

Ugh. Leave it to Kit to make the necessities of my power feel dirty.

"There's another problem," I say. "Some of the people I suspect didn't attend your meeting."

"Kain thought of that also. All but Eduardo"—she points at a highlighted section on the top paper—"were in the company of fellow Council members at the time of the murders, so you can clear multiple people for the price of one alibi."

"I already know what Eduardo was doing, or at least what he said he was doing."

"Kain mentioned your difficulties with his werewolf nature." Her forehead creases in a concerned frown. "What will you do?"

"I figure I'll start with the others and leave him for last. The more people I clear, the worse he looks, right?"

"Makes sense. Well, if you're ready, how about we—"

There's a knock on the door.

"Yes?" Kit asks in my voice.

"It's Nina," says a familiar voice.

"Come in," Kit says, fully transforming into me.

Nina walks in. Her gaze flits between Kit and me. "With all this waking up in the middle of the night, I guess I should be grateful I'm not seeing triple."

"Thank you for your vote," Kit says, still as me. "You're one of the good ones."

Nina heaves an exasperated sigh. "Can whichever one of you is Kit give us privacy?"

I look at Kit, and Kit looks at me.

"I can do this all day," I say.

Kit pouts.

"What I have to say wouldn't interest you that much, anyway," Nina says reassuringly.

Kit's pout gets poutier.

Nina raises her hand. "I solemnly swear we're not going to Netflix and chill without you."

"Fine." Kit trudges toward the door. "Be like that."

"If you leave looking like me, Firth might try to kill you," I say to Kit's back.

Her nails grow to the size of talons. "In that case, I'm definitely not changing. Might be fun to see him try."

Outside the door, I hear Filth say something nasty. Before I can figure out if he's calling me a B- or a C-word, a thud stops his rant in its tracks. In the silence come heavy footsteps.

Nina rolls her eyes. "I wonder if she turned into Colton or some orc."

"Anything's possible with her." I tilt my head, studying Nina. "I think I know why you came."

She sits on the edge of the bed. "Kain said you cleared me already, which means you've been into my dreams."

"I did and I have." I draw in a breath. "And I saw the black windows."

"So you did. Do you mind?" She points at one of my water bottles.

"Not at all."

Before I can get up and give her a bottle, she uses telekinesis to make it fly into her hand. Swiftly, she drains it and then sits, chewing on her pierced lip.

"You came to me," I remind her as the silence wears on.

She floats the water bottle back. "Sorry. This isn't easy."

I smile reassuringly. "Just start somewhere, see how it goes."

She fiddles with her nose ring. "I'm Leal's dead man's switch."

"You're what?"

She takes a deep breath. "I allowed Leal to make it so that if he dies, I'd know damaging information about his killer."

I gape at her. "You know who killed him?"

"That's just the thing." She plays with a stud above her lip before touching the one above her chin. "Until I know for sure who did it, the information won't reveal itself to me."

"I don't understand."

"I thought you knew about black windows," she says. "You're a dreamwalker like him."

"I kind of do," I say cautiously. At least I do now, having read his notes. "They're a way to hide a dream."

She nods. "A dream that can be someone's memory. Or my own."

"So the black windows I saw in your—"

"One contains something I desperately wanted to forget. Whatever it was, forgetting it was the payment for letting Leal use my subconscious as a safe." She wraps her arms around her slim frame.

"And the other windows?"

"Each will be about something someone on the Council didn't want anyone else to know," she says. "Those windows are programmed to show me a dream about someone that I believe caused Leal harm."

I sit up straighter. "What if you had killed him?"

"My own memory would come back to me." She visibly shudders.

"A memory of what?" I ask, frowning.

"I don't know," she says softly. "That's the whole point. After Leal did his thing, I forgot what it was. All I remember is that I don't want to remember whatever it was."

Huh. So I was right when I thought she might have a trauma loop. After Leal created her black window, she forgot whatever it was—not the healthiest way to deal with problems. Then again, if the memory was truly impossible to live with, repressing it might've been her only good option.

Nina extends her hand, and I feel myself levitate. Before I can blink, my back is brushing the ceiling.

"Hey!" I flail my arms and legs—to no avail. "What are you doing?"

She stares at me unblinkingly. "I want to make sure you really hear what I say next."

I stop flailing and give her my full attention.

"If you go into my dream and make me recall whatever Leal locked away, I will kill you when I wake up," she says evenly.

Whew. I was worried she'd demand something impossible. Relieved, I bob my head. "Got it. That really got through, I swear. For good measure, I'll stay out of your dreams, period."

She lowers me to my feet, and I sink into the chair, knees shaking.

"You may want to enter my dreams," she says as if nothing has happened. "It's worth taking a look at the other windows. They might contain clues as to who the killer is."

I lay my palm over Pom's black fur to calm my racing heartbeat. "Do you know which window is which? I wouldn't want to accidentally—"

"I know the one to avoid."

Pom's fur goes from black to light orange.

"How would I even—"

"Leal would fly into the windows from time to time," she says. "I remember seeing dreams when he'd do it, but I would forget them when I woke up."

Interesting. I'm learning something about dreamwalker craft after all. "He'd just fly into them?"

"That's what it looked like to me, but it might be more involved than that. He said he risked losing his power for the day each time. A few times it even happened, and we'd have to resume our dream collaboration the next day."

Oh, puck. That could be seriously problematic. "In my current position, losing my power for a day would be tantamount to suicide. You were there for that vote. You know that."

She shrugs. "Perhaps consider the black windows your last resort?"

I nod slowly. She's right; I don't have to try some crazy, unproven technique. Yet. "Let's see if I can find the killer without them. Speaking of, I should probably start soon."

She stands up. "I'll get Kit for you."

"Thanks." I give her what I hope is a warm smile. "And if you could go to sleep afterward, so I have the option to check out those windows, I'd appreciate it."

"Remember what I said about my own black window." She glances at the spot on the ceiling where she'd pinned me, then at the table I would've crashed into if she'd dropped me.

I gulp. "Don't worry. I remember."

"Great."

She leaves, and I resume pacing.

When Kit doesn't immediately return, I decide to go into the dream world to see if some of the sleepers I haven't cleared are ready for me.

I ignore Felix and the still-sleeping werewolf and locate one of the Councilors from the list of those who voted to kill me. According to the papers Kit brought, this guy was having cocktails with a few other Council members. Since I've already seen the room, I go into his dream to check if he was really there.

He was indeed. In one fell swoop, I clear him and everyone else sharing cocktails.

When I wake up, it's to the sight of a large male orangutan eating a banana.

"Kit?" I say to the ape. "Please tell me that's you."

The orangutan morphs into Kit and tosses the half-eaten banana into the trash. "I wanted to see if it would taste better when I'm in that form." She grimaces. "It didn't."

She leads me to the bedroom of an older guy. I wait an hour for him to reach REM sleep before swiftly ascertaining he's not the murderer. I clear the next Councilor the same way, and the next five as well.

With each not guilty verdict, I grow more and more worried. What will the Council do when I tell them I couldn't figure out who the murderer is?

Nothing good.

"What time is it?" I ask Kit. "How many people are left?"

She looks at her watch. "It's eight in the morning. Vickie, the siren, is our last suspect."

The last suspect. What will I do if she's not guilty? I guess that will be the time to risk either my sanity with the werewolf or my power for the day with Nina.

Vickie is in REM sleep when we arrive, as expected. REM periods become more prolonged toward morning. I touch the siren's forehead and end up in the dream world. Most of the Councilors are gone from the tower of sleepers, but Nina, my possible plan B, is still sleeping. So is the werewolf, who's plan C, where c stands for crazy.

I check the siren. She really had been playing the piano, as she told Kain.

I exit the dream world, and Kit and I leave the siren's apartment—only to bump straight into Kain.

"Update," he demands.

Kit keeps moving. "I'll be in my room, getting my beauty sleep."

"Can you give me five minutes?" I ask Kain.

He grudgingly agrees. I turn away from him and use Pom to go back into the dream world.

Pom greets me, and I tell him what happened on the way to the tower of sleepers.

"So by process of elimination," he says, "it's the werewolf."

I nod mournfully. "Which blows. They'll make me go into his dream to check, and he'll make me go insane."

"It's all moot now." Pom points behind me, and I whirl around. "He woke up."

He's right. The werewolf isn't in his nook anymore.

I exhale the breath I was holding. "It's just a stay of execution. They can ask him to go to sleep again."

Pom's fur darkens. "Maybe whatever you find inside Nina's black windows will be so damning you won't need to dreamwalk in him in the first place."

"Maybe," I say and seek out Nina.

She's still asleep.

Oh, well.

Here goes plan B.