comfortable, and Kate was glad to have somewhere she could be alone.
“I’ll cook us some food,” Mina said on her way out. “You can’t have eaten well since you left home. Take as long as you need here and come along to the front room whenever you’re ready.”
“Thank you,” said Kate. “For bringing me here and telling me about Edgar. I don’t know if he would ever have told me himself.”
“You don’t have to thank me, child. I am sure he would have told you everything, given time. The boy is quite taken with you. Though I am not certain even he knows it yet.”
Mina smiled as she left and Kate made sure that the door was propped open before sitting down on a cushioned chair. Edgar’s letter was still in her hand. She unthreaded the string, unrolled the page, and began to read.
Kate,
I know you’ll have questions, but if you’re reading this it means I can’t answer them yet. There are things you don’t know about me. Mina will explain if you still want to know, but believe me, you have more important things to think about right now.
Mina says she knows where Artemis is! One of Da’ru’s men bought him from the wardens at the station. She’s making him work for her now. The Skilled know how to get to him and Mina’s promised to take you there whenever you want to go.
You can trust these people, Kate. They’re my friends.
I hope you’re okay. Stay safe, and don’t worry about me. These wardens aren’t as smart as they think. I’m sure I’ll think of something.
See you soon.
Edgar
Kate read the letter twice.
She had left him behind. Edgar had risked so much to help her and she had left him behind.
Kate rolled up the letter and tucked it away. If Mina knew where Artemis was, she had to speak to her. If there was a chance she could find him, she had to know for herself.
She caught her reflection in a mirror as she left the room. She looked tired. Her blue eyes were washed out and there were black veins appearing within the blue that had never been there before. She looked away from the glass, refusing to think about what those veins might mean, and walked out into the corridor.
A muffled shout from the front room made her stop halfway.
Kate froze. The window next to the front door was hanging open. She was sure it had not been like that before. She looked down the corridor. The entire back of the house was built into the ground. If something bad happened, that door was her only way out.
She walked toward the front room, concentrating so hard on listening for Mina that she did not feel the floorboards flex beneath her as someone closed in from behind. She did not see a faint shadow pass across the wall, or smell the scent of blood upon the air.
Kate peered into the front room and saw Mina lying still upon the floor.
Too still.
She bolted for the door, only to be grabbed before she could even push her key into the lock.
“Very well done, Kate,” said Silas, pressing his hand over her mouth before she could shout for help. “I see your friend had something to do with your escape. Perhaps I underestimated his skills after all.”
Kate squirmed in his arms but he would not let go.
Silas pushed her into the front room, forcing her to step over the dead woman on the floor. Mina was lying on her side, her eyes wide and empty. In her hand was the third picture card, the one she would not let Kate see. On it was a picture of a skeleton laid out on a platform inside a tomb: a picture that could only represent one thing. Death.
Instinct made Kate reach out a hand to try to touch the dead woman, desperate to recall her spirit to life as she had done with Kalen, but Silas held her back, refusing to let her try.
“At least you are showing more confidence in your abilities,” he said, smiling at her as she struggled against him. “The Skilled will believe you did this. They will not protect you, now that you have murdered one of their own. None of them know that I am here and you will keep it that way, unless you think your new friend needs some company on her journey into death?”
Silas tightened his grip so that it hurt, and Kate stopped struggling.
“Good.