didn’t complain. I had to dig for information. Some thought he was creepy. Some were just uncomfortable. Then about three to four months ago, they started coming out of those sessions…different? They wouldn’t talk for the rest of the day. They didn’t remember the appointment. They didn’t know who I was talking about.”
“He was removing evidence of himself,” Monica muttered hotly. “That fucking monster.”
“Yeah…” I didn’t react. I felt cold. I encased my heart in ice for what I knew would be my task later in the evening. “And Nakul?”
“Oh, yeah…His last meeting with that guy left him all sorts of messed up. He wasn’t happy anymore and was insanely paranoid. He kept saying someone was in danger, but he couldn’t tell me who. Everyone just assumed he had snapped again, and the progress with him was fucked. Everyone in the northern cell block is a little, if not completely, insane. They aren’t normal prisoners, you know that.”
“No, they aren’t,” I agreed coolly. “What happened yesterday? The day of the breakout?”
“You showed up, and something felt off. Eliphas made himself scarce to work on new spells for the prison’s defenses. He never missed a visit with you. He liked to poke at you because he used his updates on you to help Nakul. See, Nakul really liked hearing about you for some reason.”
“I’m his niece and the last female of our species. Most of the nagas like getting news about me as long as it’s me not being dead.” I tried to smile, but it wouldn’t form. My face stayed in its blank state. “Then Tarak walked me through the prison.”
“Yeah. I went to Eliphas and caught him pulling down the defenses slowly, so no one would notice,” Kartane said, looking away. “I tried to stop him, but then the detonation spells went off.”
“Ah shit,” I said, rolling my eyes to look at Raphael and Monica behind me. “How did we all miss that only Eliphas would have been powerful enough to lower all the prison’s defenses?”
“Everyone was too busy trying to hide or stay alive,” Monica retorted. “Everyone outside the prison was worried about what the criminals would do in our city. You were worried about not getting killed while killing them. He had us distracted too long to notice it in time.”
“Yup.” I looked back at Kartane. “What happened to his eyes?”
“I have no idea,” Kartane said, shaking his head. “He had them when I saw him.”
“Do you think he…took them out himself for the ruse?” Raphael asked. “Think about it. Kartane reveals he knows Eliphas was dirty. He was being blackmailed by this healer, then Kartane threatened to expose him. He needed a real good act to get us to completely forget about him as a possible suspect in the breakout and the hit on you.”
“Ah, shit. Which means he’ll be able to put them back in. We kill Kartane, he ‘finds’ where Kartane hid his eyes, and everything is right in the world.” I shook my head slowly. “And it all would have worked if I had died in the prison during the breakout like planned. I’ve made it through every layer of their trap—the explosions, the first couple of inmates, and the one I interviewed under the same compulsion spell. Wesley was recaptured by the Phoenix Pack. I killed Levi and those two fucking werewolves Hasan was keeping. I survived Nakul, the ticking time bomb sent to me in case none of the others worked.”
“Who knows how many more are under compulsion spells to kill you. It sounds like everyone Eliphas did therapy with was subjected to it or at least had their memories wiped of his existence.” Raphael rubbed his face, looking away again. “This is deep.”
“To kill someone like Kaliya, it has to be,” Monica explained nonchalantly. “You don’t go after someone like an Executioner without contingency plans. That’s asking to screw it up and get killed. They did everything they could, so this would go off in the way they wanted. It’s ingenious.”
“And very supernatural,” I muttered, looking at my roommate. “It’s just not normally done with an entire prison of dangerous and deadly criminals in such an affront to the Tribunal at the same time. Or with this much magic. This is probably the largest assassination attempt I’ve ever heard of.”
“But why?” Monica asked, looking between Raphael and me. “Why does this mystery man want you dead?”
“Because if I die and Cassius isn’t available, interested parties get to put Raphael back