Chapter 35

Pom appears at my elbow."Hey! How're things going?"

Usually I wouldn't worry the little guy, but since his fate is tied to mine, I give him the bad news—and as I speak, he turns ever-darker shades of black.

"It's so unfair," he says when I finish. "You did your best for them."

My hair goes fiery without my conscious direction. "Don't get me started."

Pom's huge, lavender eyes turn overly bright, his fur lightening to gray—a rare color signifying deep sadness. "I don't want them to hurt you. Can you take me to their dreams? Maybe if I beg, they'll change their minds."

My chest tightens. My looft is clearly more worried about me than himself. I fluff his fur. "I don't think that would work, but you just gave me an idea. Before they execute me, I'll tell them about you, mention that you're a protected species on Gomorrah. Maybe they can attach you to someone or something else. They've got goats, for example, or maybe they could—"

"I've been meaning to tell you something." His ears turn a deep beet color. "I was still early in my development when I attached to you at the zoo. Once I got to know you, I let myself grow something like your circulatory and nervous systems—and now they're irreversibly interlinked with yours."

He can't mean—

"I can't be removed without killing us both," he confirms, reading my face. "I didn't tell you because I didn't want you to call me a parasite again. Or a tumor."

"A tumor? Come on, what kind of a monster do you think I am?" I give him a hug, my eyes watering. "Sweetie, I never would've wanted to take you off my wrist in either case. We're symbionts for life. I'm just sorry I screwed up so badly, because now that life is going to be very short."

"It's not your fault," he says. His ears fade to gray again. "It's the stupid Council."

I sigh in silent agreement and take to the air, floating among the impossible shapes decorating my palace's lobby.

Pom loops around me. "I wonder who the killer actually is. That's ultimately who's to blame."

I flick the tip of one of his ears. "That's a great question. Everyone on the Council seems to be not guilty."

His ears turn light orange. "Could it be someone noton the Council?"

I stare at him. It's unlikely, but… "Maybe, Pom, maybe. Access to the castle is restricted, but people do get in. For instance, Felix and Ariel will be at a Mandate ceremony."

The rest of Pom turns light orange. "Could someone have hidden in the castle after such an event? Maybe that's who's killing the victims."

Huh. It's possible. I sink both hands into his fur as my mind flips through the alternatives. "What about the monks? One of them could've done it. They're the closest to something like a butler—and in Earth mysteries, it's always the butler who's done it."

Pom wriggles out of my hold and circles around me. "I thought the monks didn't have any powers."

"They don't. That's why no one suspects them. Killing the most powerful Cognizant isn't easy."

"Then who else could it have been?"

I have no idea. I rub my forehead. "Someone good at sneaking?"

With no answers to give him, I can't face the hope and trust in his eyes. Floating over to a prism mirror, I stare blankly at my iridescent reflection. It has to be someone from outside the castle, someone from outside the Council's domain entirely. As busy as they've kept me, I've had no time to notice who might be—

The mirror reflects a dream manifestation of a lightbulb above my head as the idea hits me.

There is someone who's able to get in and out of the castle on a whim. He did it the very first day I was there.

"Valerian!" I exclaim, whirling around. "Valerian uses his illusionist powers to make himself invisible."

Pom's lavender eyes widen, his pupils transforming into red hearts. "But don't you want him?"

I'm not going to dignify that with a response. "Think about it. His power is uniquely useful against powerful Cognizant."

"How so?"

"An illusionist can make you see anything." I change our surroundings to illustrate my point, creating a room where the ceiling is the floor and the floor is the ceiling, with pucks scampering across the walls. "An illusionist can use his powers to make others do the dirty work for him, so Valerian could've made Ryan see an enemy where his wife stood, causing him to shoot her with his own arrow." I change our surroundings to the scene of Tatum's death, the arrow protruding cruelly from her chest before conjuring up a translucent Valerian, who sends an arc of his mojo at the elf.

Then I show Pom what happens from Ryan's point of view: Tatum becomes Eduardo and begins screaming at the elf, telling Ryan what he's done with his wife, calling him a cuckold and worse. Eventually, Ryan snaps and, raising his bow, shoots the "werewolf" in the chest.

Except, of course, it wasn't the werewolf. It was Tatum.

"Huh," Pom says. "Go on."

I dispel the crime scene and make a cliff appear. "Valerian could also have made it so that Ryan walked off the cliff on his own—no push needed. Or he could've made himself invisible and simply pushed." I make that scenario play out in front of Pom. "Or maybe both. Maybe Ryan realized he'd shot his own wife instead of an illusion, so he committed suicide."

"It tracks." Pom's ears wiggle. "But what about the others?"

I recreate the bird attack crime scene. "Valerian could've made Gemma think Leal was her enemy, and then had hersummon the birds to kill him. For that matter, he could've made the birds see something tasty where Leal was standing, thus causing that attack." I create Leal and turn him into a bowl of grain.

Pom turns black. "Illusionists have too much power."

"Yeah. Yeah, they do." I recreate Gemma's torn body. "Here again, Valerian could've made someone strong—probably Eduardo—see an enemy attacking, so Eduardo ripped the ‘enemy' in half. Or he could've shown Eduardo the illusion of Gemma provoking him, until he snapped and killed her. He could've even used his powers to drive that werewolf insane at JFK, to make sure the Enforcers were away."

Pom bobs his head, his eyes bigger than usual.

I'm on a roll now. It's coming together so clearly. "Finally, Valerian could've shown Eduardo something that drove him to choke Albina to death." I create a bedroom with Albina lying in bed, then swap her for Ryan the elf. "Alternatively, the choking might've been part of sex play, but Valerian could've made Eduardo think that Albina was asking him to squeeze harder. He could've used illusion to hide any sign she was choking."

Pom's ears droop. He looks sick. "What about Eduardo? Could you make someone give themselves an injection using illusions?"

"Sure," I say. "Valerian could've made himself invisible, then waltzed in and swapped the syringe with steroids for the one with the REM drug." I recreate the scene. A translucent Valerian watches as Eduardo accidentally kills himself. "For all we know, Valerian was still there, invisible to us when we found the body."

Pom's fur trembles.

I turn the translucent Valerian more opaque and study his perfect features. Can someone with such a gorgeous face be a killer?

What am I thinking? Of course he can. Besides, who says Valerian even looks this way? He might look like a leper with missing teeth and—

"You think they'll stay the execution when you tell them all this?" Pom asks.

I make Valerian disappear. "Well… this theory has a major flaw: I have no clue why he would kill all these Councilors. Motive is a pretty important part of crime investigations. Without that, plus some kind of proof, the Council won't listen to me. At the end of the day, this is just a wild theory."

"I still think you should talk to someone," Pom says. "Maybe Kit will think of a motive. How about we go into the tower and see if someone from the Council is sleeping?"

I shake my head glumly. "I'd need my powers to enter other people's dreams."

"You haven't recovered yet? I thought that's how you create stuff like this." He waves a paw around us.

"Just changing my surroundings doesn't mean I have my powers back. Even humans can learn to do something like this, à la lucid dreaming. To really know if I've recovered, I need to try to enter someone's dream."

"Let's do that, then." He torpedoes toward the tower of sleepers, and I hurry to catch up.

"Felix and Ariel aren't here," he says when we get to the nooks.

I take a quick glance at where a few of the Councilors would be if they were sleeping, but they aren't there. "Maybe it's daytime in New York."

"Then why is Bernard sleeping?" Pom points at the mustachioed man's room.

"He's been keeping odd hours." I make my way over to the clouds representing more dreams in the poor guy's trauma loop. "I guess I could use him to see if my powers are back. That'll give us a clue as to how long it's been in the waking world."

Pom gives me a baffled look. "You're going to finish Valerian's job? Even though we think he's the killer?"

"I don't have to finish the job. I could guide Bernard through the rest of his trauma loop but not do what Valerian actually hired me for. Then again, I think I should finish it."

Pom's ears twitch quizzically.

"If I finish, when Felix goes to sleep, I could ask him to send word to Valerian that the job is complete, so he remits the funds as promised. Killer or not, Valerian's got lots of money."

Pom turns an indeterminate mix of colors. "I guess."

I approach the sleeping Bernard. "I'll deal with his remaining dreams in the trauma loop first, then decide."

"Good luck," Pom says, bouncing up and down.

I give him a wave, make myself invisible, and touch Bernard's scarred forehead.