believe you can help me find something I need.”
Kate didn’t know what he was talking about, and she didn’t care. “Where is my uncle?” she asked, sounding far braver than she actually felt. “He’s not one of the Skilled. He’s not what you’re looking for.”
“I know that.” Silas tugged his sword from the floor and raised it a little, enough to make Kate flinch. “I knew it as soon as I saw his face. The eyes do not lie, Miss Winters.”
“How do you know my name?”
“I have been ordered to find you,” said Silas. “And I believe you may be of use to me. But first . . .” He turned to Edgar, whose face was a picture of terror. “First I must put down the boy.”
“No!” Kate shouted. The blue blade whipped up to Edgar’s throat and stopped only a hair’s breadth from his trembling skin.
“No?” said Silas. “Why not?”
Kate glanced at the dead body out in the barrow alley. “Because I . . . I’ll go with you,” she said. “You don’t have to hurt him. He’s not in your way. He won’t stop you from taking me. Will you, Edgar?”
Edgar shrugged his shoulders as much as the blade would allow. “I was going to give it a bloody good try, actually.”
“I’m not going anywhere if you hurt him,” said Kate. “And I certainly won’t help you.”
“You will do as I say, or you will die right here next to your useless friend.”
Kate thought fast, not knowing what to do, but Edgar had a plan.
With Silas distracted he took his chance, heaving on the green curtain with all his strength, making the rusted curtain pole break from the wall and spilling the wooden rings from its end. He had hoped to catch Silas beneath the fabric, but it was too heavy, and the curtain flopped straight down on top of his own head instead. Edgar scrambled blindly across the floor, dragging the curtain along, with Silas right behind him. Kate grabbed the weighing scales from the floor and threw them at Silas’s knees, cracking the metal hard into his kneecap. The collector did not stop. He did not even limp; he just strode on, calmly chasing Edgar down until the boy finally managed to squirm from the curtain and bolt straight out of the shop door.
Silas stopped at the threshold, and Kate watched Edgar skid upon the bloodstained cobbles as he ran past Kalen’s dead body. Her heart sank, and fear gathered like a lump in her throat as she realized he was not coming back.
The door at the back of the shop was blocked by a rack of fallen shelves, and a killer now stood between her and her only chance of escape. She was alone, unarmed, and there was no way out.
Silas sheathed his sword and turned on her. “The weak always run,” he said. “There is no honor in killing a coward. Do not disappoint me by trying to do the same.”
“You didn’t give him any choice,” said Kate, trying to convince herself that it was true, that somehow Edgar had to leave her behind. “What do you want?”
“You are a rare girl, Miss Winters. A diamond in the festering filth that makes up the rest of this worthless town. I have questions for you and you will answer them. Answer them to my satisfaction and your life will be made easy. Defy me and you will find me much less friendly than I have been thus far.”
“You killed a man,” said Kate. “You burned my home, took my family, and you just tried to kill my friend.”
“Yet here you stand, untouched. Why do you think that is?” Silas walked toward her, and with every step the air felt colder. Fear trickled up Kate’s spine, but there was nowhere for her to go.
“You were the one who brought the bird back to life,” he said. “You are the only one I am interested in. You will help me find what I need.”
“I didn’t do anything,” said Kate. “I don’t know who you think I am. But you’re wrong.”
Silas’s hand snapped forward and grabbed Kate’s face, clutching her cheekbones as he stared into her eyes. His grip was river cold and would not let her wriggle away. The dead gray of his eyes moved like fog trapped behind circles of glass, and Kate found herself staring at them, unable to look away.
“I am not wrong,” he said. “Your uncle has no more Skill in him than