suppressed but it still multiplied while the shards were embedded. Now I'm healing at a record rate.
I'll be on my feet in a few hours.»
«You understand that she doesn't love you?» I kept my voice calm.
«I know that.» He swallowed. «For the final rite, she has to eat a human child. She'll do it
because she is weak and then there will be no turning back.»
«If your roles were reversed, she wouldn't do the same for you. She's using you.»
«It doesn't matter what she does. It only matters what I do.»
He quoted me. Nice. Hard to argue with your own words.
I dreaded what I had to say next, but it needed to be said. «Rescuing her won't resurrect your
sisters.»
He winced. «I was weak back then. I couldn't do anything. I tried, but I couldn't. I'm stronger
now.»
And there it was. Four years of being trapped in a house with a loup father who raped, tortured,
and ate his children one by one, with Derek powerless to do anything about it. He saw his sisters in
Livie's face. He couldn't let go any more than I could let go of my blood debts. He would persist
until the rakshasas killed him.
THE INVALID DECIDED HE WANTED TO BE MOBILE and I lent him my shoulder.
Together we managed the trip to the kitchen, where Jim, Dali, Doolittle, and Raphael were eating
little chocolate cookies. Dali was nursing another cup of coffee next to Jim.
Across the table, Raphael was playing with a steak knife. The good doctor on his right looked
like a man who'd run to Marathon and then was told he had to run back. He saw Derek and his eyes
bulged. «So help me God, I shall have to kill you myself, boy. What are you doing out of bed?»
Derek grinned. Dali winced. Doolittle's eyes bulged a bit more. Jim remained stoic and Raphael
just smiled.
I deposited Derek into a chair. «Why is it that you always gather in the kitchen?»
Dali shrugged. «That's where the food is.»
Jim glanced at me. «We must get the Diamond.»
«Agreed. The Diamond is too dangerous to the Pack. The rakshasas intend to use it as a weapon
against you.» I stole a cookie from the stash. «We have to get the Diamond. And Cesare's head.»
They looked at me.
«Why the head?» Doolittle asked.
«Because it's easy to carry and I can torture it for a long time.» And I didn't just say it out loud,
did I? I checked their faces. Yep, I did.
«How do you torture a head?» Dali asked.
«You resurrect it and make it relive its death.»
Jim cleared his throat. «We can't steal the Diamond and we can't buy it.»
«The only way to get it is through the Games,» Raphael said. Apparently Jim had brought him up
to speed.
«You got something in mind?» Jim asked me.
«The tournament begins the day after tomorrow. It's a team event. We get Saiman to enter us
into it.»
«What makes you think he'll do it?» Jim asked.
«The question is, how did the shards get from the gem to the rakshasas? Somebody is helping
them. Somebody with access to the stone. Saiman hates them. They threatened him, attacked him,
and embarrassed him by killing his minotaur.»
Dali came to life. «He had a minotaur?»
«Yep. He dragged him here all the way from Greece and Mart nuked him in ten seconds flat.
Saiman hates the Reapers.» I smiled. «But he can't really do that much to them. Once he finds out
that somebody provided the Reapers with shards, he'll be livid. We offer him two things: a chance
to go against the Reapers in the Pit, and an opportunity to find out who within the House is aiding
them and why. He won't pass it up.»
«Okay,» Jim said. I realized he had already worked through it in his head. Why exactly was he
using me for his mouthpiece?
«What about Livie?» Derek asked.
«They are very arrogant.» I glanced to Dali for confirmation. She nodded. «Once they recognize
you, chances are they will surmise we have entered the tournament to rescue her and will bring
Livie out to taunt us. That's our only shot at her, because there is no way we could storm their
flying barn and survive.»
«They should be too overconfident to pass it up,» Dali said.
«Once we go in, there is no turning back,» Jim said. «It's the Reapers inside and Curran outside.
If you're going to back out, now is the only time you can do it.»
The kitchen fell silent. They mulled it over.
Jim reached behind him and handed me the phone from the counter. I dialed Saiman's number.
He picked up immediately. It took me less than a minute to outline my proposal.
Ominous silence claimed the other end of the phone.