Chapter 4
FOUR
I returned the cart and mule to the surgery, careful to watch the shadows for any sign of the outsider.
He knew where I worked, but the apartment above Bernard’s business blended with the rest of the building.
Painted brick continued to a second level, where the windows were boarded up, and the lights inside didn’t spill to the streets below.
The stairwell leading to the upper level was concealed inside the building.
Bernard didn’t wish for anyone to know we lived there. A dedicated surgeon, he still required his own breaks from the endless demands of the sick. There was always another case—or someone bleeding across the desk.
“Where the hell have you been?” Bernard leapt from a thread-bare couch when I entered the flat. “The bodies—”
I dug into my coat and tossed him the coins he was due as my associate in the body trade. “Off to the buyer. How’s my mother?”
Bernard’s tense demeanor relaxed with the weight of today’s earnings in his hand. He fell back onto the couch, propping his feet up. “Sleeping now. She was restless when I came up, back to pacing the halls. I think something is agitating her.”
I glanced at the hall stretching the length of the building, mimicking the surgery setup below.
Mother’s room was at the end, next to my own.
On a good day, Bernard and I would take alternating shifts up here, checking in on her while the other worked.
Today had not been a good day. “What do you think, then? An infection?”
He leaned against a rolled armrest, thinking for a moment. “No, not necessarily. She’s been like this for a few months now, but only recently did I realize the full extent of her decline.” A sigh filled his chest, slipping away slowly. “And I fear it is my fault for triggering her.”
I waved him off, heading to the corner kitchen to search the cupboards. For a surgeon and his assistant, there were few hours in the day available to shop for food, and there was almost nothing there. Neither of us could cook, anyway. I grabbed a can of soup to heat over the stove.
“She’s fading, Bernard. Has been since the day I was born. Whatever thread you pulled, it was bound to unravel, eventually.”
“Sylvaine is fading.” He acknowledged the simple truth. “But that doesn’t mean we watch her go without trying to help.”
“You’ve tried to help her, remember? Even your Archetype couldn’t heal whatever is wasting away her mind. You think you can play a god in your surgery, Bernard, but—” I twisted the burner too high, nearly scalding myself.
“I don’t believe in gods, Nina. That’s why I fled the Academy.”
I scoffed. Bernard Broussard was a trained healer, educated and licensed by the Academy.
He’d gone through years of training, received his Archetype, that of the noble Vitalis, ordaining him as a member of elite society.
He could have practiced wherever he wished, being given such a bloodline—anywhere in the New City, if he had so chosen.
Vitalis was the Archetype of life. Many of the powers associated with the Vitalis bloodlines were related to healing, but Bernard rarely used his magic.
If anyone thought he was using his Academy education in the Fissures, far from the Magister’s oversight, they’d have shut him down immediately. Possibly even taken him to the mines.
“Do you ever regret leaving?” I asked. “Would you have still left the Academy, knowing the life that was waiting for you?”
The old surgeon was quiet, staring down at his hands.
Bernard said, “You know, I once argued with a man about whether the world should be controlled… or understood. I was headstrong as a student, once believing the Academy had pure goals, using the bloodlines to care for the city. In my youth, I believed these privileges had been earned through hard work and dedicated study, but the charm of the institution quickly faded.” He paused.
“Unfortunately, that man died before I could tell him I’d changed my mind.
Before I could tell him he had been right all along. ”
I said nothing, watching the liquid come to a boil. The silence was filled with a grief that no longer had edges, worn down from time. “He died over an idea, Bernard.”
“Your father didn’t die for an idea, Nina. He died for you, in the hope that perhaps one day, you would understand why.”
I didn’t understand. I couldn’t. What had been so important to risk his life over at the Academy, when he had both me and my mother waiting at home? When he knew she was getting sicker every year, and that his daughter would need someone to help her bear the weight of the world?
He left us when I was six, and I never could forgive him for it. Instead, I had Dr. Broussard, my late father’s best friend from the Academy, and the one who had taken us in when he was killed in a campus rebellion.
A few stale biscuits were left on a plate beneath a tea towel. I bit off a mouthful before changing the subject. “I’m sorry I stayed out so late. I wanted to be here to make sure she ate something, but perhaps we’ll go see the chemist tomorrow, if her mood is worsening during the day.”
“You don’t want to take the day to spend it with someone else?” He smirked.
I shot him a glare. “Matthieu is strictly a friend—”
“I wasn’t talking about Matthieu.” One eye peeled open to stare at me. “What the hell did I walk into this evening? Flirting… with a patient? And a Cursed of all people.”
“That was nothing,” I spoke too quickly. Bernard gave me a doubtful look, but after witnessing the outsider’s true nature, I was ashamed of myself for having ever entertained him. “I hope never to speak about him again. If you see him around, you should call the police.”
Bernard’s knowing smirk fell to a hard frown. “Did something happen? Did he bite you? Do you understand what a Cursed can do with your blood, Nina?”
“He didn’t touch me. And yes, I know.” Thankfully, I’d kept clear of his teeth. One drop of blood, and a Cursed could not only use someone’s code, but could control them for a time as well.
I waved off his concerns. “I was just pretending to be nice to him since he was obviously the one who killed the other men on our table tonight. Knowing what I know now, I should have left him to bleed out in the waiting room. He’s dangerous, Bernard.”
If he didn’t believe my half-truth, he didn’t challenge me, either. Instead, he shut his eyes again. “You have a friend waiting for you, by the way. Came all the way from Opal’s.”
I nearly choked on the bread squeezed down my throat. “What?”
“What?” He shrugged. “I figured you wouldn’t—”
I was halfway down the hall before he could finish, forgetting the simmering pot. Could the outsider have tracked me here? Used someone to find out where I lived? The dice were cold in my pocket, but I didn’t trust them to warn me of their master’s approach.
I should have tossed the bloody relics into the canal, dropped them literally anywhere in the street to throw him off my trail.
I wasn’t even sure myself why I’d kept them close, only that the power inside them was intriguing enough to hold on to for now.
If this lunatic was set on killing me, it would be reassuring to have some real magic within reach to defend myself.
Light spilled from the space beneath my bedroom door. I threw it open, ready for a fight.
“Hell, Nina! Put that thing away before you hurt yourself.” Bria leapt from her seat on my bed, eyes narrowed at the knife I’d snagged from the kitchen.
“Bria.” I sighed her name in relief, tossing the dull blade atop my dresser. “What are you doing here?”
Her admonishment softened. “Fair enough. Opal told us to shut down immediately, and after some idiot shot at you, I wanted to make sure you were still in one piece.” She was still wearing her dress from the bar.
Her eyes roamed over me in a quick assessment, and she nodded to herself in approval. “I also came to deliver this.”
She lunged forward and slapped me hard on the shoulder, lancing a dull pain down my arm.
“What was that for?” I asked, reeling back.
“For not listening!” she hissed. “Hell, Nina, for someone so intelligent, you can be so…” Her lips pressed tight in a struggle. “You can be so stupid! Why didn’t you just stay put?”
I pressed the door shut behind me, keeping our conversation from reaching my boss.
He had no idea I had swiped a dangerous relic wanted by a madman, and I preferred to keep it that way.
“I’ve interrupted lots of your meetings.
No one’s ever wanted to kill me for it!” Recalling the bastard, I crossed the tight room to check the window, making sure it was sealed shut.
Bria had her arms crossed when I turned to her again.
“I’m sorry I messed up your meeting. I was just pressed for time tonight, and you know more than anyone that I need the money. ”
Bria was unconvinced, shaking her head. “That doesn’t mean you have to be reckless on top of everything. You aren’t as desperate as you always claim you are. Your mother needs you, Nina. Without you, what would happen to her?”
I asked myself the same thing every night, always plotting the same ending.
Bernard couldn’t take care of her on his own.
She’d most likely get sent to the labs at the Academy because of her condition, experimented on by initiates and engineers for educational purposes.
Everyone was a resource for the Academy, willing or not.
“I’m doing my best, Bria.” My defense was pathetic. I wasn’t doing my best. I was doing what I had to. Unfortunately, my circumstances didn’t allow me to rise above my station without risking everything in the process.
Hence, the body trade.
“If you need extra money, I can get you some shifts. With your face, the tips will pour in.” She spoke softer this time. “What do you need extra money for, anyway? This place can’t be expensive.”