Malcolm shook his head and itched at his own eye, almost like an afterthought. “Damn.”
Gabriel said nothing.
Lore cringed. The Presque Mort attained their power to channel Mortem the same way anyone else might: dying, just for a moment, and then coming back. Usually, it was due to accident, injury, or illness. Because channeling Mortem was against holy law, someone who’d survived such an experience had two choices—avoid Mortem as best they could, or join the Presque Mort. The manner of the near-death experience mattered, though. Those who’d sought death out—gone to deathdealers—weren’t eligible, since the Presque Mort were technically part of the clergy.
In the first few years after the Godsfall, there’d been another option. There still was one, far beneath the earth, in the deepest tunnels of the catacombs. But no one talked about the Buried Watch anymore, not since the last Church-recognized Night Priestess went mad.
Malcolm jerked his thumb toward the door. “When should we expect him?”
“Any minute now.” Gabriel crossed his arms. “He had to collect the informant first. So she could make sure we had the right one.”
“We definitely have the right one,” Malcolm scoffed.
Lore frowned, the expression twisted to grotesquerie by the gag. An informant?
The door opened. An older man with iron-gray hair and a long white robe glided in first, a golden pendant formed like a heart with sun’s rays hanging around his neck, a large teardrop-shaped garnet at the heart’s apex. He turned to face her, and Lore bit down on the gag, hard.
One side of the man’s face was handsome, almost angelically so. But the other side was a mass of burn scars, dark purple with age, carving twisted runnels from chin to hairline and turning that side of his mouth to a permanent smirk.
She’d heard of this man’s face, though she’d never seen it up close. The Priest Exalted, Anton Arceneaux, leader of the Church and the Presque Mort. King August’s twin brother.
And behind him, a woman with graying blond hair under a familiar faded scarf. A woman who wouldn’t look at Lore, even when she made a sharp, disbelieving sound behind her gag.
Val.
She must be dreaming. With all the drugs and Mortem still in her system, the Bleeding God Himself must somehow have reached into her brain to play out a nightmare.
Val flinched. “You didn’t have to gag her,” she snapped, eyes shooting daggers at the Priest Exalted. “Afraid she’ll make fun of your face?”
The Priest Exalted simply arched his unscarred brow. “Supplicants are making prayers upstairs in the South Sanctuary.” His voice was silk-smooth, cultured tones that made sense for the Sainted King’s brother. “And the Church is more crowded than usual as we prepare for my nephew’s Consecration this evening. I’d rather not have them disturbed.”
“Then tell her you’ll stick her if she makes noise.” Val stood directly between the Bleeding God’s tapestried hands on the wall, as if He was welcoming her home, reward for a job well done. “Don’t gag her.”
A pause, then the Priest Exalted—Anton—nodded. Gabriel moved behind Lore, untying the knot that held the gag in place.
“I’m sorry,” he said quietly, then moved away.
Even ungagged, Lore didn’t have anything to say. Words had left her. She just sat there, sore mouth agape, staring at Val.
Val, who still wouldn’t look at her. “It’s her,” she sighed wearily. “Just like I said.” Her piercing gaze went from the floor to Anton. “Is that all you needed?”
The Priest Exalted nodded once. “Your inventory will be returned to you,” he said, “and the certificate of pardon can be picked up from the court justice in the Northwest Ward at your convenience.” The side of his mouth that could move quirked up. “The first official crown-sanctioned poison runner. What an honor.”
“Eat shit,” Val muttered.
“Same to you,” Lore spat. She knew how to bury sadness, but anger was a tool, fresh and near at hand. “So you’re going to be a privateer, Val? You turned me over for a contract?”
She expected answering vitriol, but Val’s shoulders sank. “I didn’t have a choice. They knew about Cedric.”
Her fingers were already numb from being tied behind her. But Val’s words were enough to make that numbness spread up her spine, through her chest.
Val finally looked at her. Tears brimmed in her eyes. “Mouse, I—”
“Don’t call me that.” Tunnel mouse, Val had called her when she was young, for her hair that couldn’t decide whether it was brown or blond and landed somewhere indiscriminate, for the place where Mari had found her, at the mouth of the catacombs. Even after Lore grew up, she was still mouse. “Does Mari know? Did she decide that a contract was worth killing me for, too?”