This Savage Song (Monsters of Verity #1)(55)

She was coming toward him. The metal girding she’d bound him to ran vertically up the wall, and he dragged himself to his feet, wrists sliding up the bars until he was at full height.

“I saved your life,” he said.

In response, Kate brought the tip of the iron spike to his throat. It was still stained with Malchai blood, and the scent turned August’s stomach. Kate’s eyes were feverish, but her hand was steady.

“A thank-you would suffice,” he said.

“Why were you at Colton?” she demanded.

“My father sent me.”

“You mean Flynn.”

“Yes.”

“Did he want you to kill me?”

“No. He wanted me close to you in case the truce broke. There aren’t many things in this world Callum Harker cares about, and Leo thought you might prove valuable as leverage in the fight.” August leaned forward against the metal tip. “And for the record, it’s going to take more than this to hurt me.” As if rising to the challenge, Kate pressed down, but the point didn’t break the skin.

Just then, a cell phone buzzed on the concrete floor beside the violin case. Kate turned toward it, and horror washed over August. “You left it on?”

“I took out the GPS,” she said, crouching to retrieve the cell. She frowned at the screen.

“Kate,” he said, tugging against the zip ties. He swore. They were threaded with metal. “Who is it?”

She straightened. “Home.”

“Don’t answer,” he said, wishing for the first time he could change a person’s mind instead of just loosening their thoughts. Her thumb hovered over the screen. “Kate, someone sent those Malchai to kill you.”

Kate stared down at the cell. It stopped buzzing. And then started again. “They broke their oaths,” she said. “Just like Olivier.”

“Who’s Olivier?”

“They’re hungry and restless,” she went on, voice half lost beneath the phone’s ringing. “And sick of following orders.”

August twisted against the ties. “That wasn’t some random attack back there. It was calculated. Someone went to a lot of trouble to make sure you died and I was there to take the fall.”

Kate hissed a single word under her breath. The phone was still going but instead of answering, she turned it over, and slid the battery out. The buzzing died. She said the word again, and August realized it was a name.

“Sloan.”

He’d heard that name before. Leo spoke of him the way he spoke of most monsters, only worse.

My father keeps a Malchai as a pet.

“Would this Sloan start a war?”

Kate shot him a look. “Death and violence, isn’t that what all monsters want?” August didn’t rise to the bait. “Look, I don’t know,” she said, pacing, “but I’m pretty sure he wants me gone, and if he could frame Flynn in the process—I don’t know anyone else who’d think that many steps ahead. Most of the Malchai are single-minded killers. Sloan’s . . . different.”

“Do they listen to him, the other Malchai?”

“I’ve been home for nine days, August. I haven’t really noticed. So far his favorite hobby seems to be tormenting me.”

“If he’s involved, then you can’t go home. You . . .”

He trailed off as he heard the sound of cars coming to a stop, an engine cutting off. The sounds were low, muted, and Kate hadn’t heard them yet. She was still pacing.

“Kate.”

Car doors opened and closed.

“Kate.”

Footsteps.

“Kate.”

She turned toward him. “What?”

“You have to untie me,” he said, trying to get his hands free. The zip ties were too tight, and even though the metal didn’t hurt, it made the bonds hard to break.

“Why would I do that?”

“Because someone’s coming.”

A door slid open somewhere below, the sound loud enough, finally, for her to hear.

“They must have tracked you here.”

“No,” she said, shaking her head. “I took the GPS out of the phone.”

In the corner, the cab driver stirred. A cell jutted out of his pocket.

“Shit.”

Footsteps echoed on stairs. Kate hurried to the window, shouldering her backpack. She drew a lighter from her pocket, a small silver knife snicking open from one end, and sliced through the plastic sheeting with the small but vicious blade, revealing a bruised sky beyond. For a second he thought she was going to leave him there, pinned to the wall for Harker’s men to find, but then she came back.

“I was going to turn you in to my father,” she said. “When you got in the car this morning.” She slid the knife between the zip tie and his skin. “It would have been so easy.”

“So why didn’t you?”

She looked up. Swallowed. “You didn’t look like a monster.”

August held her gaze. He wanted to say I’m not, but the words got stuck. “And now?”

Kate only shook her head and gave the knife a swift pull.

But the zip tie didn’t break.

She frowned and tried again. Nothing.

August paled. “Please tell me you have a way of getting these off.”