Her mother was permanently about thirty.
Nita had always figured it was an illusion, much like what she’d just done.
But she wondered—with a body that could self-heal, and the ability to appear young . . . How old was her mother?
It was a slightly disturbing thought, because Nita wasn’t really sure.
They slowly finished their food, still awkwardly not looking at each other. Kovit was polishing off the last of his fries when he froze, staring at something beyond Nita’s head.
Nita stiffened, and slowly turned around. There was no one there.
“Excuse me!” Kovit called to the waiter. “Can you turn the volume up on the news?”
The waiter shrugged and obliged.
Nita blinked, and opened her mouth to ask Kovit what was happening, but he held up a hand and stared intently at the TV screen.
Nita looked up at it. The caption below said TEEN MURDERED BY UNICORN IN MONTREAL. The screen showed a school photo of a smiling white girl with long blond hair.
“Miss Lyon was found at four in the afternoon by a man walking his dog. Her eyes were open, and missing their irises, which prompted the man to call INHUP immediately.”
The eyes were the window to the soul, as the saying went, and anyone who lost their soul was missing their irises. It was the signature of a unicorn attack.
Someone onscreen was now talking about unicorns. They looked like human men, and could steal a soul with a simple kiss, or in some cases, even a touch. They could only steal unstable souls, though, souls that weren’t comfortable in their bodies. Most children and teens, and many younger adults, had unstable souls, which was where the virgin association started. But the truth was, lots of people who weren’t virgins or who were older also had unstable souls. Instability of the soul had less to do with age or virginity and more to do with mental stability and being settled in one’s body.
The horse concept, explained the man on the television, was because in the past, unicorns would lure people away to eat their souls. However, if the soul was too established in the body, they needed to destabilize it before they could eat. So they would “mount” the youth and pierce them with their “horn.” Raping the victim usually caused sufficient trauma to destabilize the soul so that the unicorn could eat it.
Nita made a face and looked to Kovit. “Is there a reason we’re watching this? Unicorns are creepy.”
His mouth tightened, and his eyes stayed on the screen. “Zannies are creepy too.”
“I never said they weren’t,” Nita agreed pleasantly. “Is this a friend of yours or something?”
“I don’t know any unicorns.” His mouth twisted in distaste for a moment. “That’s a lie. I met one once. It tried to eat me. I was unimpressed.”
Nita snorted. “I met one too, when I was a kid. It also tried to eat me.”
Her mother had whisked her away and killed the unicorn. Nita’s chest tightened at the memory. It would be easier if her mother were all evil, then Nita could hate her. But she wasn’t, she was kind too.
Like Kovit.
Nita turned her eyes back to him, just in time to see him visibly stiffen, eyes widen as he stared at the screen.
“And now we’re back to Agent Vidthuvitsai, the INHUP agent in charge of the investigation here in Montreal. Agent Vidthuvitsai, tell us, are there any suspects currently?”
Onscreen, a small brown woman with long black hair smiled a PR smile at the reporter. “I’m sorry, at this time, we can’t disclose details of the investigations.”
The woman had thick dark eyebrows and a slight hook to her nose. Mid-twenties, pretty, but there was something older in the set of her mouth and the tilt of her head. Her eyes were dark and thoughtful, and somehow deeply sad.
Nita frowned and turned back to Kovit. His fingers were clenched tightly around his napkin, and his eyes were glued to the screen.
The same dark eyes as the woman on the screen.
Nita’s eyes widened, and she whipped back to the screen, but the news had shifted onto something else.
Kovit slumped in his seat, swallowing.
“Was that . . . ?”
“My sister,” he whispered, horror slowly overtaking his features. “My sister’s an INHUP agent.”
Thirty-Six
NITA STARED AT HIM.
Kovit rarely talked about his sister. But Nita remembered the few anecdotes he’d told her. How she’d hid him from INHUP when they came in to kill his mother. How she hadn’t cared that he was a zannie and had saved him. They’d seemed close.
When Kovit had left Nita in Brazil, he’d told her he wanted to find his sister and meet her again. He hadn’t talked about it much since, but judging by the rawness of his expression, she was just as important to him as she had been before.
“She’s not far from here,” Nita whispered. “If you wanted to meet her. Montreal is only an hour by plane. Less than a day by train.”
He opened his mouth, then closed it. Finally, he said quietly, “I know.”
She hesitated. “Do you want to go?”
“We have to deal with Henry. And Fabricio.”
“I know, but after?”
He shrugged, looking away.
Nita frowned. “You said you wanted to see her. She’s so close. Why wouldn’t you go?”
He was quiet for a long time. The dried blood in his hair had cracked a little, and a few strands fell in front of his face.
“What if she regrets saving me?” he whispered.
Nita reached over to put her hand on his, but hesitated. She hadn’t realized how accustomed she’d become to casually touching him in the past few days. She lowered her hand, worried he’d move away again. “What if she doesn’t?”
He smiled, just a slight curl of his lips. “There’s a part of me that hopes that. That imagines finding her and having a tearful reunion.” His smile twisted, warping into something self-deprecating. “But I wonder if it isn’t better to keep the memory as is. Remember her as the person who saved my life, who loved me unconditionally, rather than face the reality that she and I are now very different people. Whatever relationship we could build now would likely be complicated and painful for both of us. And not end well.”
Nita couldn’t deny the truth of that. She didn’t know what she’d do in his situation. Cling to a memory, or bring the memory back to the present and risk tarnishing it forever?
She understood his reluctance—especially given how poorly his meeting with his internet friends had gone.
“Just because she’s in INHUP doesn’t mean she doesn’t still love you,” Nita whispered.
Kovit snorted. “Well, I suppose she could be corrupt.”
“Maybe she’s there to try and change the Dangerous Unnaturals List and remove zannies from it.”
He rolled his eyes. “And that’s why she’s hunting unicorns.”
Nita admitted, it did seem a bit far-fetched. “Unicorns are on the list too. It could be a steppingstone job.”
He sighed and shook his head. He was silent for a moment before murmuring, “I can’t believe she joined INHUP.”
“Canadian INHUP at that.”
He shook his head. “I don’t think she joined in Canada. But all the recruits are trained at the central headquarters in France. And they all have to do a term in a foreign country before they become certified and go to their full-time jobs. It’s pretty common for them to be shuffled all over.”