Bone Deep(68)

Bone had not known though she’d sensed other eyes. “I did. He tried to get me to tell him of what we did there.” The screams of the children he’d thrown over the cliff to persuade her resounded in Bone’s ears.

“He was there watching. I may never understand his motivation but he did not tell Joseph until later what happened that night. It’s why Joseph hasn’t killed us before.”

Ice cold. The rage washed over her now, calling her to duty. “Joseph knows about the boy. We are aware he suspects who the boy is. And Joseph cannot kill what he cannot catch.”

“He knows. And we have all been fooling ourselves if we think Joseph hasn’t guessed every move we would make,” Blade said, and in her voice were the melodic tones of death. “And she knows as well—what we did, what she gave up that night—and she wants what she considers hers back.”

“Then we will kill her as well. The boy is ours,” Bone promised. She didn’t understand her sister’s mood. Doubt had no place in their plans and yet it sounded as if Blade were filled with it. “I do not care that Joseph has guessed every move. It’s the truth the thought makes me happy because in the end, everything we planned has been seen through and he is running now, Blade. We are so close.”

Blade sighed. “We cannot kill her, Bone. You cannot kill her. She is like us, but different. She is like Ninka but stronger. Not as strong as us but perhaps harder in a different way.” Blade lowered her gaze to the ground and took a deep breath. “She was Nameless. He didn’t even allow her a name but he took her life much as he took ours. She was to be his to replace the loss of his wife.”

Bone was frozen now, fear an incipient staccato beat at the base of her skull. “What are you telling me, Blade?”

“She is hunting us. As I hunt the boy, she is hunting me but she is coming for you first. She remembers what you did that night, Bone. She holds you responsible.”

Bone wanted to scream at the pain of that night. She had been ten years old and had dealt death many times by then but that single night she’d done the unthinkable. She hadn’t known what to do and so she’d done nothing.

Death.

Her fear was quickly replaced by white-hot rage that built and built into an inferno. “Let. Her. Come.”

“She has watched us suffer, Bone, not lifting a finger to help us and she will not stop until the boy is with her and Joseph is dead by her hand. I cannot fight two fronts,” Blade responded.

Bone stared at Blade. “You have held this information close to you and I would know why,” she demanded.

“I asked my sisters to help another. I brought this upon you. With the burdens we all carried, none of you needed more, but she became mine the moment we were taken to the big house and made to lie with our captor. I heard her cries as Joseph raped her and I vowed that no matter what happened I would help her live so that she could know revenge as well. When her belly swelled and she began to bleed, I couldn’t handle it myself. I needed my sisters. And you were all there.”

Bone nodded. Revenge she understood. Loyalty she understood.

“But now she comes for the boy and that I will not accept,” Blade whispered savagely.

“She has dogged us for years, Blade. You should have told us sooner that she harbored resentment,” Bone chastised.

Blade shrugged. “I did not know she even suspected it was you, Arrow, and Bullet who helped. She was broken and I thought her mind a vast empty space that could not be recaptured. When I realized she had survived intact, that Joseph held her and continued to try and breed her, well, I was unwilling to risk my sisters for one who wouldn’t help herself.

“She was as much a victim as any of us,” Bone said, the words scraping her throat.

“She was and she was not,” Blade returned. “She made a decision that changed her course. From that point on she was no longer mine.”

“You speak in riddles now, sister. Tell me.”

“I thought her gone, of no concern. As the years passed I heard no more of her but when Bullet came to Arequipa she was there with Grant. And she was in China with Arrow. Whether she was helping there or not I haven’t been able to determine. Since then she has been preoccupied searching for the boy. It wasn’t an issue until recently and she amped up her efforts. It was as if you engaging with Asinimov stirred her anger. She was in the woods the night Asinimov rescued you. That is too close. She has become a threat that must be dealt with.”

“So I will lead her from here,” Bone assured her. “She will not be close when you take down Nodachi and get the boy. She wants what is not hers to have.”

“She thinks the boy is hers, Bone, and you know it. She is out there and she will not give up. Grant is helping her.”

Shock ghosted through Bone. She’d known a woman was following them, knew Grant was helping her but for some reason verification made it all the more real. “She is but another player in this game. If she wants me, if she feels I am responsible for her loss that night, I will accept my share of the blame and she will move on or die.”

“She is trained but not as we are. I would that you did not kill her,” Blade requested. “Remember, she too suffered the unspeakable.”

“You speak on one breath of her no longer being yours. With the next you caution me against harming her. Make up your mind, Blade.”