“Why—”
“Traitors,” said Hot Sauce vehemently. “Fat cats. Zombie lovers.”
Nona was a little bit tickled at the idea of Pash and We Suffer being called fat cats and zombie lovers; she didn’t like Crown being called either a fat cat or a zombie lover though, and certainly not a traitor. She said, “Not all of them. Some of them are good.”
Hot Sauce said, “Are you…？”
“No,” said Nona swiftly. “They sometimes … talk to us, my family,” she added. Hot Sauce only said, “Yeah, well. They sell us guns.”
Lying there, faces close, Nona had the comfortable feeling that she and Hot Sauce had crossed another barrier; just like the time she had been asked to join the gang, and the time she had told Hot Sauce she loved the city. It was painfully sweet lying there whispering—even if it was half-truths, or quickly shut-up truths, spoken softly so that Kevin and the teachers didn’t hear you—sweet enough that she reached out and touched Hot Sauce on the hand without thinking, without remembering all of Camilla’s warnings not to touch anyone. But Hot Sauce didn’t mind. She put her fingers over Nona’s, and Nona thrilled to it.
Hot Sauce said, “You’re nice. I wish you were my sister.”
Nona’s cup of joy was full. “I’ll be your sister if you like.”
“Never had sisters. Only brothers,” said Hot Sauce.
“Younger or older?”
“Older.”
“Were they nice?”
“Yeah.”
“How did they die?” asked Nona.
Hot Sauce thought about it. “Don’t know,” she finally said. “They were setting up the turrets. One of the minions made it through with a sword. They’re nuts about swords. Wild. I practise with one. So I won’t freak out like my brothers did. We couldn’t get close though. Afterward. Thought they might be scarecrows.” When she saw that Nona didn’t understand, she added: “Dolls. Lures. They look like normal bodies lying down … or sitting or standing … but when you go too close they explode. Bones, everything.”
Nona squeezed one foot, and then another. Her toes got terrible pins and needles, but she liked the sensation when she unsqueezed, that sudden sense of relief.
“What happened after that?” she asked.
“Our base? We surrendered. White flag. Let them in,” said Hot Sauce. “My cousin put all the fertiliser we had in a truck. Drove it into their troop. They don’t sense tech. Don’t believe what they say. Engines or anything … He got a bunch of them when it exploded, minions, wizards, both.” After a pause, she said: “It got him too.”
Nona said, “I wish nobody had been got.”
This time it was Hot Sauce’s turn to not understand. “It’s okay. First necromancer who gets in range, I shoot,” she said.
Nona shuddered again, all the way from her hips to her toes. Hot Sauce patted her hand and said pragmatically, “You have air-con sweats.”
“No,” said Nona, and it was the first time she had admitted it to anyone, or at least anyone who wasn’t herself. Some deep well of need and terror welled up in her, and then—before she could walk it back, and without even really wanting to—she did it.
She told Hot Sauce the Secret.
Hot Sauce thought about it. She looked at Nona, and then she thought about it again.
“There’s a clinic in town,” she said. “The Angel works there. Not always. Some evenings.”
Nona clapped her hands together softly in sheer delight. Pyrrha always said it was her most disgusting habit.
“That’s how you knew she was a doctor,” she said. “That’s why she helped Honesty.”
“Yeah. I went to see her once,” said Hot Sauce, a little grudgingly, as though she didn’t quite want to share. Then she unbent and said, “I’d been shot at.”
That explained a lot.
“Did you have a bullet in you?”
“No. It missed. Broke my collarbone when I dodged.” Before Nona could say anything else, Hot Sauce said: “Your problem. Talk to her.”
“It’s not going to help,” said Nona.
Hot Sauce flicked her nose thoughtfully. “There’s an organ market,” she said. “Sometimes they’re cheap.”
“No, no. Don’t worry, Hot Sauce. Please. And don’t tell the others my Secret,” added Nona in a hurry, alarmed. “You are literally the only one who knows. You know … in case something happens … You have to keep this between you and me, you have to promise. You have to promise right now.”