drown Zorax and me alike with its potency. I wanted to protect Carragheen, even with all the reasons I had to hate him racing around my subconscious. Zorax hesitated, and I considered using my Glock again to remind him to keep going.
When he spoke, it wasn’t to answer me, but to turn the interrogation on its head. “Why are you so worried about Kraken’s son?” Suddenly, out of nowhere, he assumed a look befitting his station, as one of the leaders of the most technologically advanced and impressive species on the planet. He looked old, potent and shrewd.
But he didn’t scare me. “I worry about a lot of things. It’s the cop in me.”
But he could see through me, and I realized I’d given myself away. I was sure I detected a trill of victory in the half-curl of his lip. He knew he had me. “You can’t trust him, you know.”
The words shocked me. Weird, really. I’ve spent my whole life not trusting anyone, and I’ve forged my suspicion into a career. But, for some reason, all the various, contrary pieces of me really wanted to trust this one. Carragheen.
Despite the marriage thing.
Despite Mom’s oblique mutterings.
Despite only knowing him five minutes.
My body wanted to trust him. My cells wanted to trust him. But it seemed nothing was what it was supposed to be anymore. Maybe I couldn’t rely on anything, not even my own cells.
I didn’t want to know more, but I couldn’t help myself. It’s like all those things you shouldn’t do. Pick a scab. Buy another packet of cigarettes when you swore you were giving up after the last. French kiss your Mom’s assistant in the mayoral chambers. We shouldn’t do these things, but they suck us in like moths to the flame.
‘Cause we’re only human. Even those of us that are half-fish.
“Why shouldn’t I trust him? Sounds like you guys are bosom buddies if he’s cutting you in on all his secrets.” My words caused the little curl of triumph to inch higher.
“Dear girl, I might find him useful, but I’m not a woman, with a vulnerable heart. You see, he may not have told you this, but he’s married.”
I laughed, and the curl dipped fractionally. “Yeah, yeah, Zorax old news.”
But he could see he was losing me, and changed tack. “The woman is just the beginning. What about the little girl? Is she old news too? What did Carragheen tell her mother, I wonder, before he took little Tila away?” He was purring, and his words were like a sucker punch to my solar plexus. He could sniff blood, and pressed home his advantage. “You know he sent the mother away, of course? But why did he take the girl? Why does he make her mother grieve?”
The words were out before I could stop them. “Tila? She loves him.” I was remembering Axel Rose and lullabies.
“Perhaps, Rania,” he staked my heart softly. “But her mother asks for her every day. He sent his wife away, but he took the girl. Because he could. Because of who he is.”
I couldn’t work out why my mind wanted to believe this. I knew it was a red herring, a diversion thrown up to lead me away from the question I’d been asking Zorax.
The real question, “why did you come?” And “how did you know where to come?”
I was remembering Carragheen’s face when Lecanora told me about his situation. I’d known there was more. But Zorax wasn’t finished with me yet.
“Don’t trust him.” Zorax was wrapping me up in his silky voice, and I was drowning in the sensation of those tones. His voice was a powerful weapon, his trade tool. He saw the doubt, curdling like sour milk at the back of my eyes. I thought about the entry in Cleedaline’s journal.
The second one.
How did Carragheen know about a second one? And why hadn’t he mentioned the second one to me? He said he’d heard of Imogen’s disappearance from the girls.
But the girls didn’t mention a second one.
My mind was suddenly scanning the things Carragheen had told me, holding them up under my internal microscope for spotting deception. He’d stopped the Throaty Three from telling anyone about Imogen. He’d told them he would deal with it. Why? Why hadn’t he gone straight to the Queen, or one of her advisers?
Then I remembered. He’d disappeared. Carragheen. Just before I’d gone down, near the cave, just before the weapon had gotten me. I hadn’t been able to see him, just