Chapter Seventeen. Skin in the Game #2
“I don’t know,” Christina said. “Only your mother could have answered that.”
Three-Legged Lee had spoken of his god’s desires like they communed personally.
It seemed reasonable that being the earthly vessel for a higher entity would open the god up to the conduit just as the conduit opened to the god.
And yes, the gods were fleeting, flowing from oath to oath and conduit to conduit, chasing hot blood, but they weren’t simply wells from which power was drawn.
They required rules and rituals. They were jealous, and Adeline found it difficult to believe they wouldn’t be able to make themselves known in some way.
She sucked a lungful of the incense and tried to sift through herself, but it was impossible to know now what was just her imagination.
The goddess had to be tied to her somewhere.
For Tian, came the forceful reminder, and the twinge of the wound on her other arm.
That night, while waiting for the others to arrive, she had thought a dozen times that Tian wouldn’t make it.
With the seconds stretching around Tian like death itself, Adeline had thought to try anything—thought about blood.
She had found Tian’s knife and cut her own arm.
She had come as close to pressing her wet wrist to Tian’s lips when she stopped herself from the ridiculousness, and then the others had arrived.
“Pek Mun was supposed to see my mother the day after she died.” She was throwing caution to the wind, but she needed to see Christina’s reaction while she had her close and distracted. “They were supposed to talk.”
Christina’s jaw worked. “I know.”
Adeline grabbed her wrist, catching the needle a breath away from pricking her skin again. “You knew?” Christina’s gaze was heavy. The butterfly bled there, only half finished.
“I don’t know about what. She just said your mother called.”
Adeline scanned her, trying to decide if she was lying. “I think Pek Mun set that fire.”
“Then you’re crazy.” Christina tried to pull away, but Adeline tightened her grip.
“Pek Mun is the only one who knew where we lived. She knew more about my mother than the rest of you. And—” Her speculations about her mother forcing Pek Mun into a choice would get nowhere with Christina, but last night she’d realized something else more damning, more tangible.
“Her mother is in bed with Three Steel.”
“No. Her mother pays…” Christina seemed to realize what Adeline had, when she went through Anggor Neo’s list of brothels yesterday, unable to sleep. “The Crocodiles.”
Who were, of course, in league with Three Steel now.
And wasn’t it suspicious that Pek Mun had called up the White Man so easily?
That she’d known his politics, could so easily tell his men what to do?
“Her mother’s brothel is on the list of places with these girls with magic. It’s the most recent one.”
“Mun and her mother haven’t spoken since she joined Red Butterfly. What her mother does has nothing to do with her. Mun has done nothing but make sure the Butterflies are safe.”
“She’s made sure we’re weak.” She had lost Christina already, but she couldn’t stop.
She wanted to lash out at someone and this was what she had left.
“She won’t choose a successor, tells everyone not to fight back unless it’s her personal problem, then she can do anything she wants.
Tian told me—how the Boars took over one of our strips and she didn’t even want to fight them for it, when we have fire—”
“Did Tian also tell you that Mun joined Red Butterfly because of her?” Christina interrupted.
“Tian ran away from her mother’s brothel at fifteen and Mun followed because she was worried for her.
She could have stayed home. She was meant to marry someone, she wouldn’t have minded, she didn’t have to be doing any of this. ”
“She can have it, then,” Adeline said abruptly. “Pek Mun, since she’s so dedicated. She can be Madam Butterfly. I’ll support her. Whenever she’s ready.”
It finally clicked for Christina. “You’re only saying that because Tian got shot and you saw the envelope.
Right? You’re only saying that because you’d rather things happen to Mun instead.
” When Adeline didn’t respond, Christina really did wrench herself away, leaving the tattoo unfinished.
“Go. I don’t want to talk to you right now. ”
Instinctively, Adeline went to check on Tian’s room. Only this time, as she was about to pass by, she heard Pek Mun’s voice from within, and then Tian speaking, sounding like she’d been dragged through sandpaper but alive nonetheless. “You have to go talk to her.”
Adeline stopped short, hovering by the door as Pek Mun’s reply came. “That can wait.”
“No, it can’t. This is important. Three Steel is doing something dangerous—” Tian’s voice hitched. Pek Mun said something scolding, to which she replied: “You act like I’ve never been shot before.”
“You haven’t.”
“Three Steel is using girls with magic, Mun. Your mother is on Anggor Neo’s list. You need to find out what’s happening there.”
“You know it’s not my business anymore.”
Adeline pressed closer, vindicated. But at the same time, she remembered how hopeful Tian had sounded, thinking Pek Mun would finally join the cause.
She couldn’t find it naive anymore, having seen the full force of Pek Mun’s will when she truly did want something done.
Of course Tian would want her on their side.
Of course Tian couldn’t give it up, if that was the overwhelming attention that Pek Mun had given her since she was a child.
Even now, Tian’s voice threaded between pleading and anger.
“Please. Someone just tried to kill me for Fan Ge, and you won’t even scratch them.”
“That’s not what happened and you know it. You were just in the Ox’s way. And there’s a piece of skin downstairs that tells me he’s not going to be a problem anymore.”
“Fine, fuck the Ox. Fan Ge’s been telling people he wants Adeline. I want the bastards down.” A mumble. “Kick him in the balls.”
“You’re still not funny.”
“I’m just saying, do you think he tattoos his—”
“Tian.” What a bitch, Adeline thought. It was a valid question. “Even if he wants Adeline, he’s not going to try anything this open unless we’re stupid enough to give him the chance. So we don’t give him the chance. Problem solved.”
“What do they want with her?”
“Tian.”
“Coward.” There was a long pause. Then, without vehemence, Tian said, “Mun. Would you let me do it?”
“Kick him in the balls?”
“Be Madam Butterfly.”
This silence was longer than the first. The familiar conviction in Tian’s voice spun up Adeline’s memories of the previous night, that had been momentarily waylaid in the aftermath of the Ox’s attack. Take it. Take it. Take it.
Adeline subconsciously touched the place on her arm where she’d cut herself to draw blood.
Healed by Ah Lang for a pretty fee, passed off as an injury from the fight, even though the Ox hadn’t been carrying a knife.
If Pek Mun had thought anything of it, she hadn’t confronted Adeline then.
But Adeline knew better than to assume it meant she hadn’t noticed.
Had Tian told her what Adeline had offered?
And if Tian had told her, had she also mentioned how tempted she had clearly been?
Pek Mun still hadn’t replied. Adeline pressed closer, wondering if they were whispering, but it was silence all the way through. Perhaps that was enough of an answer in itself.
“You just want to do anything you want,” Pek Mun said at last. “Lie down.” A thump, and a curse. “Fine. I’ll go talk to my mother, if that makes you stay put.”
“Do you care about anyone besides me?”
“No,” Pek Mun said shortly. Then she was moving too quickly. Before Adeline realized what was happening, she had opened the door, bringing them face-to-face.
Adeline flinched. Surprise flitted across Pek Mun’s face, but it disappeared so quickly Adeline might as well have imagined it.
By the time Tian sat up, alarmed, Pek Mun wore the familiar mask of cool condescension.
She stepped out into the corridor, shutting the door behind her, closing Tian away and standing with Adeline in the hallway.
“I didn’t kill your mother,” she said.
Adeline stared at her. Of all the things she’d expected her to say, after the conversation she’d just overheard, it hadn’t been that.
There was never a moment with Pek Mun where she didn’t feel three steps behind, where Pek Mun didn’t find the singular scenario she hadn’t prepared to confront.
Pek Mun’s mouth pursed. “I asked Tian to go to the White Orchid that night because I was going to see a Needle. That’s where I was, and if it will get you to get out of Tian’s head with this insane idea, then I can take you to ask him. ”
“Why were you seeing a Needle?” Adeline challenged.
“My mother is dying,” Pek Mun said bluntly. “Slowly. I’m giving her blood.”
“I thought you weren’t on speaking terms.”
“That doesn’t mean I want her dead. I didn’t tell Tian because my mother didn’t treat her well.
But she is my mother. And I didn’t kill yours.
I had no reason to, which I’m sure you know somewhere in your head.
What Tian doesn’t need is fewer people to trust.” Pek Mun had come within reach, looking down at Adeline.
“I’ve taken care of her since she was thirteen.
I’m the only person who can say that, now that your mother is dead.
You can think what you want of me. But if you endanger her any more, I will string you up, and I don’t care about your choice.
” She wasn’t even smug. “I’m going to see my mother tomorrow.
I’m going to ask her about the list. You can come and see for yourself. ”
“I will,” Adeline said, taken aback.
“Tian needs to sleep again. Don’t bother her.” Pek Mun made to leave, then stopped and clicked her tongue. “You should beg Christina to finish that tattoo. It’s embarrassing.”