Chapter Four
ZARI'S HEART HAMMERED furiously against her chest as she raced down the steps. There could only be one reason the Marquis of Sangre would seek her presence in the dead of the night, and uncaring of convention, she hitched the full skirts of her dress all the way up to her knees. In the kingdom of Chalys, it was not a "done" thing for a lady to reveal anything above her ankles in public. But she didn't give a damn. All she wanted was to get to Mihail as quickly as possible, and accidentally tripping on her own gown would only be a pointless waste of time.
Finally, she was past the magical barrier that turned her whole school invisible, but before Zari could call out, the sound of her footsteps already had the marquis swinging around to face her.
NO!
She skidded into an uneven halt, skirts falling loose from her suddenly limp fingers. Mihail's handsome face was so much graver than usual, and it terrified her. "You have news of him," she guessed shakily. "Don't you?"
Instead of answering, the marquis moved forward, and she had the silliest urge to run away. What you didn't know couldn’t hurt you. Wasn't that how it went?
But it was too late now, Zari thought numbly as she watched the marquis slowly open his hand.
A rock.
He was holding a rock.
About three inches in diameter, with jagged edges that pressed abrasively against the marquis' palm.
Just an ordinary rock, except for its bloodstained surface, and she knew, she just knew. Didn't have to have visions to know—-
It was Alexandru's blood.
Her Master's precious blood that this damn rock had been soaked in, and she bit her lip hard when it started trembling. So much blood, she kept thinking. Just so, so much blood that he had to bleed, for this rock to drown in such vivid redness...
"One of our spies found this," she heard Mihail say.
"Where?" She was unable to lift her head, unable to take her gaze away from the rock in his hand.
"Sundown Wild Forest in New York. Our man works as a forest ranger, and he received a civilian report about a strange-looking carcass. Upon inspection, he realized that it was a changeling demon..."
"And the demon had the rock in his hand," Zari finished.
"Not quite." Mihail's lip curled. "According to our enemies, we've found Alexandru's killer and his murder weapon."
Zari was almost tempted to roll her eyes. Her Master, killed by a piece of rock? She shook her head, muttering, "They're idiots, if they think it's that simple."
"Exactly what I was thinking, too," Mihail agreed.
Her gaze drifted back to the rock the marquis was still holding. "So that rock..."
"I think you already know, milady."
Zari's throat tightened.
"My brother's message is written in his blood, and you alone will be able to read it." Determination blazed from the marquis' gaze, and for a moment, it almost felt as if she was seeing her Master.
Those green eyes...
The same green eyes that her Master had...
"Do your work, soul seer, and show us how we can get Alexandru back."
The Devil and His Apple
Chapter Five
MICAH'S WORDS ECHOED endlessly in Zari's mind as she climbed up the stairs leading to the same station exit between Broadway and Battery Place. Just as her boss not so subtly ordered, she had applied for a paid case, but just as expected...
Zari rolled her eyes as she remembered how things went down this morning at B2. Since the other trappers already hated her guts for being a pet and Micah's so-called favorite, she had decided to apply for the lowest-paying case, thinking that this would cut her some slack.
Unfortunately, it only made the other trappers think Zari was rubbing their noses on the fact that she didn't need to work for money. It was no secret that the Marquis of Sangre considered her family, not to mention the fact that she was also Alexandru's designated heir and thus owner of million-dollar estates and God knew what else.
Maybe she should care more about correcting their impressions, try a little harder at befriending the other trappers so they wouldn't think she was a stuck-up bitch, but...whatever.
The past year had turned her into quite the closet pessimist, and she wondered if her Master would still think she was cute once he realized how much she had changed.
So you better hurry up, Master, Zari thought. Or else it would be all your fault if you come back and find out I'm no longer the Zari you know. So please...
And even though she knew it was plain stupid—-
She found herself standing to the side as soon as she reached the top of the steps, and then she closed her eyes and waited.
Come back now.
But again, it was just radio silence, and in the end all she could do was open her eyes...
Optical peeing for the win.
Zari angrily wiped her tears with the back of her hand even as she forced herself to get moving. Unlike yesterday, the crowd was noticeably thinner outside Bowling Green, and by the time she made it to The Battery, the whole place was practically a ghost town.
Guess that makes sense, Zari thought. A dozen dead kids didn't exactly make the world a better place, and as tough as New Yorkers supposedly were, they were humans still, and thus naturally terrified of things that went bump—-
"This smells like a bad place."
The words, uttered in a singsong tone, had Zari quickly shaking her head. "It's fine, don't worry." She didn't bother lowering her voice, knowing that there wasn't anyone around to think her crazy for talking to herself. "This was a bad place, but not anymore—-"
"You're sure?" A woman's upside-down face suddenly popped up in front of her, and Zari barely managed to keep herself from yelping.
One eye missing, lips a grisly shade of red, and long, dark locks that only covered the left side of her scalp. The other half was bald and completely burnt, and so was the rest of her body, which was a crisp shade of black save for patches of vein-less skin.
"Elsa!" Sheesh, she almost had a heart attack a second ago. "Please stop doing that."
The still-upside-down ghost only blinked her one good eye at Zari. "Truly not a bad place?"
"Yes." Zari nodded fervently. "Truly." Elsa had become rather overprotective towards her lately, and the last time the ghost thought Zari had been in trouble, things had gone way, way south.
Like, dismembered evil men kind of south, and while Zari was grateful for Elsa saving her life, the ghost's rescue attempts tended to be somewhat unnecessarily messy.
So for now...
"It's alright," she said soothingly. "Really." Elsa's hair was basically the ghost's craze-o-meter, and only when the long knotted locks, currently standing on their ends, gradually settled back into place was Zari able to breathe a little more easily.
After that, she only had to continue distracting Elsa for a few minutes more, and once the ghost was busy playing with her doll, Zari was finally free to examine the crime scene.
Thirteen square meters, according to the police files on the case, and thirteen feet deep. Just the number thirteen all over, and it had her wondering if she was dealing with a satanic ghost.