“I gave you my strength,” said North.
No, thought Alex. I took it. But she doubted North would appreciate the distinction.
“I know what you did to those men,” said North. “I saw when you let me inside.”
Alex shivered. All the warmth and well-being that had poured into her as she’d soaked
in the milk bath was no match for the thought of a Gray rattling around in her head. What
else had the Bridegroom seen? It doesn’t matter. Unlike Darlington, North couldn’t share her secrets with the world. No matter how many layers of the Veil he pierced, he was still
trapped in death.
“You have enemies on this side of the Veil, Galaxy Stern,” he continued. “Leonard Beacon. Mitchell Betts. Ariel Harel. A whole host of men you sent to the darker shore.”
Daniel Arlington.
Except he’d said Darlington wasn’t on the other side. A murmur rose from the shapes
behind the Bridegroom, the same sound she’d heard when she waded into the Nile. Jean
Du Monde. Jonathan Mont. It might not even be a name. The syllables sounded strange and wrong, as if spoken by mouths not made to form human language.
And what about Hellie? Was she happy where she was? Was she safe from Len? Or
would they find each other behind the Veil and make their own misery there?
“Yeah, well, I have enemies on this side too. Instead of looking up my old buddies, how about you find Tara?”
“Why don’t you seek out Darlington’s notebooks?”
“I’ve been busy. And it’s not like you’re going anywhere.”
“How glib you are. How sure of yourself. There was a time when I had the same confidence. Time took it. Time takes everything, Miss Stern. But I didn’t have to go looking for your friends. After what you did to me at Tara Hutchins’s residence, they came
looking for me. They could smell your power on me like stale smoke. You’ve deepened the bond between us.”
Perfect. Exactly what she needed. “Just find Tara.”
“I have hope that repellent object will draw her to me. But her death was brutal. She may be recovering somewhere. The other side can be a dismaying place for the new dead.”
Alex hadn’t thought of that. She had just assumed people crossed over into some kind
of understanding. Painlessness. Tranquility. She looked again at the surface of the water,
that wobbling reflection of the Bridegroom, at those monstrous shapes somewhere behind
him, and shivered.
How had Hellie passed into the next world? Her death had been … well, in some ways,
compared to Tara, compared to Len and Betcha and Ariel, she had passed in relative peace.
It was still death. It was still death too soon.
“Find her,” said Alex. “Find Tara so I can figure out who hurt her and Turner can put
him away before he hurts me.”
North frowned. “I don’t know that the detective is a good partner in this endeavor.”
Alex leaned back against the curve of the crucible. She wanted to get out of the water
but she wasn’t sure if she was supposed to. “Not used to seeing a black man with a badge?”
“I haven’t been holed up in my tomb for the last hundred years, Miss Stern. I know the
world has changed.”
His tomb. “Where are you buried?”
“My bones are in Evergreen.” His lip curled. “It’s quite the tourist attraction.”
“And Daisy?”
“Her family had her interred in their mausoleum on Grove Street.”
“That’s why you’re always lurking around there.”
“I’m not lurking. I go to pay my respects.”
“You go because you’re hoping she’ll see you doing your penance and forgive you.”
When North was mad, his face changed. It looked less human. “I did not hurt Daisy.”
“Temper temper,” crooned Alex. But she didn’t want to provoke him further. She
needed him and she could make a gesture toward peace. “I’m sorry about what I did at the
apartment.”
“No, you’re not.”
So much for peace. “No, I’m not.”
North turned his head away. His profile looked like it had been cut for a coin. “It wasn’t an entirely unenjoyable experience.”