Chapter Nineteen Shan

Chapter Nineteen

Shan

S han entered the morgue with her hood still raised, her face hidden and the note clutched in her hand. There had been another body found—left brutalized and bloody in the streets. The Guard had got to it before her birds could find her, thanks to the damned opening of the House of Lords. But Shan did not have to worry. The Eternal King had kept his promise, inviting her to meet with the lead investigator and examine the body at her leisure—though it would be best if she were quick. Blood Working was strong, but the longer they kept the body in suspended animation the more contaminated it would become, the two sources of magic mixing together until it was impossible to tell one from the other.

She had come at the first opportunity, leaving Bart to handle all her official business while she handled this, waiting only till night had fully fallen and most of the Guard had retired. She was, after all, still supposed to be circumspect, and though the King promised in his note that the lead investigator was sworn to secrecy, Shan knew she had nothing to fear.

The lead investigator was Delia Alessi.

"Alessi," Shan said, by way of greeting, lowering her hood as she stepped into the glow of the witch light. Alessi stood from her perch by the window, looking out over the night-darkened sky of Dameral. She bobbed her head once in greeting—as effusive as Alessi ever was—and gestured towards the metal slab in the middle of the room, and the covered shape that could only have been the body.

"It's strange, Sparrow," Alessi said. "Having you here with the permission of the King instead of sneaking you in during the dead of night."

Shan shrugged, carelessly confident, and stepped closer. "Things are changing, Alessi, and this is only the beginning."

Something hard glinted in Alessi's eyes, a blue so pale they could have been ice. "Indeed, they are. I suppose congratulations are in order for winning the King's favor?"

"I haven't won it yet," Shan said, watching the careful changes in Alessi's expression. "But I will soon." She knew that the girl hated the King as much as she did, perhaps even more so. For all that the Eternal King had done to destroy her family, at least she still had relative wealth and luxury. Even the poorest of the nobles had far more than Alessi's family could ever hope to have.

Shan kept her smile cold and cruel—not a promise, she was not foolish enough to make such things, even to such loyal subordinates. But a hint could be wonderfully reassuring, and she trusted Alessi to know how the game was played. She had tried for years to get one of her birds into the palace, but she had never succeeded. The Eternal King was too smart for that—his servants too well vetted, too loyal. If she was to succeed in her plans, this was the only possible way.

Vengeance was slow, almost painfully so, but Shan wouldn't let that stop her.

"Right." Alessi crossed her arms over her chest, fixing Shan with a surprisingly firm glare. "While you're doing that, I hope you don't neglect your other responsibilities, Sparrow. It's been hard to reach you as of late."

Shan bristled at the tone that Alessi turned on her. How dare she? "I am playing an important role as Lady LeClaire. Besides, you can always turn to Hawk with information." That was what Bart was there for—he was there to handle things in her absence, and now that she was playing Lady LeClaire, he had stepped up to the role admirably.

Alessi shook her head. "Of course. That's how it is."

"How what is, Alessi?"

"Nothing," the girl spat, but Shan reached out and grabbed her arm.

"I am not unreasonable, Delia," she said, her voice low. "I know that you care about this work, it's why I recruited you. If you have concerns, you can talk to me."

Alessi stared at her for a long moment, her blue eyes unreadable. "It's nothing. Just some frustration at how long things are taking."

Shan let her pull away, even though she had a feeling that wasn't the full truth. But she couldn't force Alessi to confide in her, and even if she could, trust was a delicate thing. "I know. As am I. But we cannot change a nation in a night."

Alessi sighed. "Of course, Sparrow. Forgive my outburst."

"There is nothing to forgive." She took a step back. "Now, the body?"

"Right this way." Alessi stepped over to the metal slab, pulling off the sheet that had hidden the corpse from view the whole time.

Shan gripped her own arms, digging the points of her claws into her own skin as she fought back a scream. It was far worse than she had anticipated, even with the notes the Eternal King had sent her way.

She had been but a child when she had first attended one of the Eternal King's annual sacrifices, dragged there by her father to see their ruler in his full glory. To understand the power that lived in her veins, and the place Blood Workers held above all the Unblooded. Her father had held her in front of him, not allowing her to turn her face or hide from the brutality of it.

She had only been nine years old.

After that, she had stopped trying to fight her father, had embraced her magic in all its brutal glory. She had learned all the Blood Working had to offer—all the good and evil, all the potential and the pitfalls.

But nothing had prepared her for this.

Her stomach turned, bile making its way up her throat as she studied the corpse. The remains of the woman—for it was a woman, no more than five and twenty—were all that was left of a once vital life. Her eyes were shut, her hair fanned out underneath her head. Shan ran her fingers across the strands, golden, yes, but brittle to the touch, as if all the life had been sucked out of it. Her skin was little better, papery and thin, over desiccated muscles that been drained down to the bone.

There were deep cuts in her forearms and thighs where the blood had been carefully drained. It wasn't like the King's sacrifice, which was done with brutal, ruthless efficiency. This was slow, methodical— academic . The multiple wounds meant the blood was likely being drawn for some arcane purpose, but Shan hadn't the faintest idea what. And with the way the cuts were made, it would have been done while she was still alive, and it would have been excruciatingly painful. But the end results were the same.

It was as if someone had taken all the blood and moisture and squeezed it out of her, leaving behind only this broken, brutalized body.

"Were you able to identify her?" Shan asked.

"Jessica James," Alessi said, softly. "Unblooded. She owned a bookshop in the dock district."

The name sounded vaguely familiar, and a cold pit settled in her stomach as she asked, "What bookshop?"

Alessi stepped aside, flipping through a file that she had left on an adjacent table. " Pages ."

Shan clenched the edge of the slab—it was the proprietress of the shop her brother liked to frequent, the one who had imported a variety of Tagalan books for him. Histories, novels, books on mythology—all things they had lost when their mother had fled.

He would be heartbroken to hear of her passing.

"How unfortunate," Shan said, with a forced air of calm as she made herself relax, her fingers popping off the table. "Were you able to discover anything else?"

"With Blood Working?" Alessi shook her head. "Nothing more than the obvious—she was drained for power. We did a mundane autopsy just as a well, to cover our bases, but the results were the same." She gestured to the Y-incision on the corpse's chest, where they had cut into her with their scalpels and rooted around in her body, looking for clues.

What a disgusting way to do medicine, Shan thought as she studied the rough stitches that had sewn poor Jessica back together like a broken doll. And people dared to call Blood Working unnatural?

Still, she had to try. Raising her hand, she let one claw hover over the corpse. "May I?"

"You can try," Alessi said, shrugging. "There is very little blood left, though."

Shan took Jessica's hand in hers, sorry for adding to the desecration that had already been done, but there was no other choice. She drew the tip of her claw against the inside of the corpse's wrist, where the pulse would have been on a living body, digging for the slightest bit of moisture. Of blood.

Alessi watched with a sharp eye as she rooted around, pressing through the skin and the ruined flesh to the bone. When Shan removed her metal claw from the dead flesh, there was the slightest stain on it—the color of rust.

It would have to be enough.

She sucked her claw into her mouth, her whole body rebelling against the blood that hit her tongue, bitter and acrid. Her senses screamed out— dead, dead, dead —but more than that, it felt corrupted. This was vile, wrong and against the few laws of nature that Blood Workers still adhered to.

Shan turned and spat on the floor, desperate to get the taste out of her mouth, and Alessi rushed to her side, pulling a flask from her jacket.

"Here, Shan," she said with surprising kindness, as she held the open flask to her lips. Shan tipped it back, the burn of pure liquor spilling past her lips and washing away the remains. She coughed and sputtered, turning away from the corpse and shaking. "It is vile, isn't it?"

"It's wrong," Shan agreed, and Alessi stepped back, her face shadowed. "What?"

"This is what happens with the King's sacrifices," Alessi hissed. "They are just the same, and yet we praise him for it."

Shan shook her head quickly, glancing around even though she knew they were alone. "Alessi! Be careful when you speak treason."

"I speak the truth!" she spat back, and Shan shivered at the pure hate there. But the anger passed quickly, replaced with a calm that was far more terrifying. "Just remember your promise to me."

"I will," Shan swore. "We will see justice for these souls."

Alessi shook her head. "I meant the King. He's the real monster we need to fear."

Shan held her breath, not knowing what to say. "You know that I am working towards all of our goals."

Alessi shook her head. "Yeah, I know. Now you'd better get out of here before the shift changes. I'll put things to right."

For a second Shan hesitated, knowing that she should say something, anything, to comfort Alessi. To let her know that she wasn't in this alone. But that wasn't her way, and besides, Alessi was a good bird. She had never failed her before. Shan just flipped her hood up and stepped towards the door. "Let me know if anything else happens and keep an eye out for my instructions."

There was so much she had to tell Alessi—about the investigation she was running, about needing to loop in Samuel as well. But this wasn't the time. Her rules were simple. In and out, no lingering.

"I will, Sparrow," Alessi responded, sounding tired and drained. "And good luck with the investigation."

"You as well."

Alessi's smile was brittle. "Please. What I'm doing is just a formality. Now that the King has called you in, we both know who he's going to be looking to."

Shan didn't know what to say to that—it was, after all, true. So, she simply nodded and turned away.