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Mal turns, leans down to be on eye level with me, and throws his hands out, yelling, “What is the plan here?”

My eyes widen as I yell back, “Why are you yelling at me?!”

“Because I’mpissed!” He returns, and the snake pupils of his eyes expand and contract sharply. “Youbabysit him for over twenty-four hours and be excited for the day!”

He has a good point.

“You keep going off and doing your own thing like we’re supposed to know what you’re doing!”

“Mitri knows,” I meet his level-four scowl with one of my own.

“Great!” His giant arms fling up and drop down to his sides again. “The guy least likely to tell anyone shit knows what we’re doing. We can’t lose!”

“Well, I’m sorry!” I scream back as Kimi rushes up and holds the silver ball to Mal’s face with both hands.

“Apologize to Mitri two,” he snarls and practically jams it up Mal’s nose to emphasize.

“Of course,” Mal says calmly, snatches the ball back, and throws it again. I might be mistaken, but it looks like this throw was harder. It definitely goes further.

“NO! BAD MAL!” Kimi rushes back after it.

“Now,” he rubs his eyes in frustration. “Where were we?”

“I don’t know how much I can tell you,” I reply with a tense frown. “I don’t trust you.”

His hand drops from his face, and he looks at me with resignation. “I need to know we have a damn plan, Beatrice. All the preparation in the world won’t help if the entire team isn’t on the same page.”

That’s fair, damn him. Who knew non-manipulated Mal would be more than just a hulking beast. Double damn.

“I will use my power to get in there as fast as we can and drag them out here. If hexes are in the house, we’ll have a better chance of helping them out here.”

“Okay, and the stop we made?” Mal seems to agree.

“Sage. I’m thinking sage bombs down the stairs and waiting for some of the smoke to clear? Or we can each hold a bundle as we go in. Better than nothing, right? It was Mitri’s idea.”

“And hetoldyou about it?” Mal’s teeth grind together audibly as he scowls at Mitri. The level-seven glare doesn’t have any effect. “You’ve known me for how long, and you barely even talk to me!”

“You are experienced and know what we can expect. She does not,” Mitri’s explanation would probably be taken better if he actually used a little inflection behind them. And did he just insult me?

“Are you taking her under your wing?” He asks incredulously. “I don’t think a Mender needs to be hanging around a damn killer.”

Mitri’s blank eyes sharpen and focus on Mal in a way that makes me very uncomfortable.

“Can we just shelve this argument for later and focus on saving people, please?” I step between them desperately with my hands spread to push them apart if necessary.

“Alqarf!” Mal stomps away a few steps and rubs his face with both hands.

Mitri returns to the house and picks up the basket of sage Ben dropped by the steps.

“Well, we’re screwed.”

I jump away from Kimi’s voice coming from behind me. He’s holding the tape ball under one arm and shaking his head sadly.

“I never asked, do you have a will? I’m in it, right? I want your truck,” he says with a sweet smile.

“No. You never will be. Andfuck no! Stay away from my truck!”

“You’ll be dead,” Kimi calls to my retreating form. “You’ll never know the difference!”