Urow's face swung into view, his fangs bared, eyes burning with mad rage. She saw him drop the enormous crossbow. He had been meaning to mount the thing up on the roof for ages. It was too heavy for him to wield. How silly.
His eyes met hers. His lips moved, but she couldn't hear him. He looked so scared, like a lost child. Don't be frightened, darling. Don't be.
She could feel the darkness encroaching, ready to pounce on her. She tried to reach out to him, to touch his face, but her arm wouldn't obey.
I think I'm dying.
I love you.
Chapter Seventeen
CERISE slumped in a chair, painfully aware of William waiting next to her like a dark shadow. He didn't seem to want anything, he just . . . stood guard over her. It was absurd - she was in the family house - but for some odd reason it made her feel better.
Across from her, Richard leaned against the wall, watching William with sharp eyes. The rest of the family mulled about. People came and went. Cerise didn't pay much attention to them.
"How strong are you, William?" Richard asked.
"As strong as I need to be," William answered.
Richard's face showed very little, but she had been reading his expressions since they were kids and she found concern in the minute bend of his mouth. Something about William deeply troubled her cousin.
The door swung open, and Ignata stepped out, wiping her hands with a towel. Cerise rose from her chair.
"Mikita has two broken ribs," Ignata announced.
"What about Aunt Pete?" Erian asked.
Ignata squared her shoulders, and Cerise knew it was bad. "Mom lost her left eye."
The words punched her. Cerise rocked back. She should've dumped the damn body into the river. First Urow, now Mikita and Aunt Pete. Urow and Mikita would recover, but eyes didn't grow back. She'd managed to disfigure her aunt for life.
Ignata pulled at the towel, twisting it. "We aren't out of the woods yet. The cadaver was full of tiny worms. When the body exploded, both of them were showered with bone shards and decomposing tissue. The worms are circulating through their bloodstream. So far all of them seem to be dead, but I don't know if that will persist."
"Transparent worms?" William had a look of intense concentration on his face, as if trying to remember something.
"Yes," Ignata said.
"The parasites will activate only when the temperature of the body drops below 88.7 degrees Fahrenheit. Do you know how to purge malaria?"
Ignata nodded. "And we have Chloroquine."
"What's that?"
"It's a type of medicine people in the Broken use to stop malaria."
"Give it to them," William said.
Ignata pursed her lips. Her gaze found Cerise.
"Do it," Cerise said.
Ignata turned and went back into the room.
Cerise glanced at William. "Did you know the body would explode?"
"No."
"But you knew about the worms?"
William nodded. "Sometimes the Hand does it to keep the altered bodies from being examined by their enemies."
"Why didn't you warn me?"
"My memory doesn't work that way. If you'd asked me specifically about worms or if the Hand ever infected their operatives with parasites, I could answer."
That wasn't the way normal memories worked. William had done something to himself, Cerise was certain of it now. He was enhanced somehow, just like the Hand's freaks. Either he was one of them or he'd made himself like them in the name of revenge.
Cerise wished she could open his head and search it. Since that wasn't possible, she would have to settle for going with her instincts, and they told her he wanted revenge, yearned for it, the way a man dying of thirst yearned for a drink. When he spoke about Spider, his whole demeanor changed. He tensed, his eyes focused with predatory alertness, his body ready as if it were a coiled spring. She wanted to find her parents with the same desperation.
And now it had cost her aunt an eye. How the hell was she supposed to live with herself after that? How many more injuries would it take?
Often wrong, but never in doubt. Right. "Richard?"
"Yes?"
"The Hand has a tracker. They may track the body down the river. Let's put some sharpshooters on our side of the wards. If they show, maybe we could even out the score."
"Very well." Richard turned, stabbed William with a long look, and left the room, Erian in tow.
"You're still winning," William said.
"Urow is hanging by a thread, my aunt is blind in one eye, and my other cousin has two broken ribs."
"Yes, but they're still breathing."
Good point. So why didn't it make her feel any better?
Ignata reemerged, carrying a box. She set it on the table. "Wallowing in self-hatred or self-pity?"
"Right now it's hatred for the Hand," Cerise told her. "When I switch to self-pity, I will definitely let you know. I should've dumped the body overboard."
"Oh, please." Ignata rolled her eyes. "Mom had the time of her life playing with it. I've told her again and again: wear the damn goggles. Kaldar stole those special for her. I told her, Mikita told her: wear eye protection, Mom. But no, the lot of us are apparently stupid. We don't know anything, and she can see just fine, and when she wears her goggles, the lenses fog up ..."
Ignata pulled the towel off her shoulder and threw it across the room.
"It helps to throw something heavy," William said.
Ignata waved him off. "You, hush. Look, Ceri, we all make mistakes, and we pay for them, especially if they're made out of arrogance."
Ignata plucked a vial from the box, and the scent of dirty socks and rotten citrus spread through the room. Valerian extract.
"So as much as you'd like to own this particular mistake, it belongs to my mom. She owns it all by her own lonesome self and she knows it. If she had worn the goggles, she'd have gotten away with a couple of broken ribs like my brother."
Ignata counted off ten drops into a glass and poured some water into it from a bottle. "Drink. You need sleep."
Cerise took the glass.
"I wouldn't," William murmured.
Ignata fixed him with her glare. "You - be quiet. You - bottoms up. Now."
It was only valerian, and arguing with Ignata was like trying to reason with a pit bull. Cerise gulped the water in one big swallow. Fire and night rolled down her throat.
"What did you put in this?"
"Water, valerian, and a very strong hypnotic. You have about five minutes to get to your room and shower, or you'll pass out where you stand."