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“It’s not like that,” he gritted out. “Zari—-”

Her voice started to rise. “Right now, I can’t stop myself from thinking about why you were looking for me in the first place. God...” Her voice broke. “I just can’t stop thinking like I’m a tool to you. That you came back here because you might need me to see—-”

“IT’S NOT LIKE THAT.”

“How can I believe you,” she cried out, “when I know that it’s forheryou’ve become a hunter? That you want her to be proud of every successful hunt, that you want to prove everyone wrong, the people who stood in your way—-”

He hauled her into his arms. “It’s not like that.” He cupped her face, wanting her to see the truth in his eyes. “It’snotlike that.”

But she didn’t answer, and her body remained cold and unresponsive in his arms.

“YOU DON’T NEED TO HIDEyour sadness from me.” The practical advice came from Rhapsody as they headed to the dorm where Miranda Donnelly lived.

Her Master had been gone for three days, hunting down the demon she had seen in her vision.If she had one iota of sense in her, Zari thought miserably,she wouldn’t care that Alexandru was gone.

Zari heard herself asking, “How did you get to be so strong? How do you do it? How have you survived without your Master for so long?” Pained bewilderment had her shaking her head. “I mean, you’re under suspicion for murder and you don’t even seem to care.”

“I don’t.”

Zari’s jaw dropped.

“I know I didn’t kill that man. The Master knows the same thing. He believes in me. That’s all that matters. He won’t let anything happen to me.” The other girl’s face remained expressionless all throughout, and her voice was a mirror of it.

“I wish I could be as strong as you,” she muttered.

“I’m not being strong, Lady Zari. I’m only being practical.”

They stopped in front of Miranda’s dorm. “Well, what we’re about to do isn’t practical.”

The tall girl beside her nodded. “I agree. So why are we doing it again?”

“Because it’s the only thing we can do. We have no evidence against her, I don’t want to battle a demon, and I’m too impatient to wait for additional information about her Master. She’s our best bet.”

“So we will be playing the good cop, bad cop routine?”

Zari nodded. “It should work.”

It didn’t.

Fifteen minutes in the Madonna’s presence, and Zari and Rhapsody had only succeeded in making more enemies for themselves. Although Miranda had agreed to speak with them alone, she hadn’t really done much talking. Also, she wasn’t alone. Instead, the other girl only cried her eyes out and managed to look like the prettiest bully victim in school, the way her big blue eyes welled up with unshed tears.

“I just don’t understand why you’re doing this to me,” Miranda sniffed. Her soft voice shook with every word, and around them Zari could feel the girl’s friends glaring even more malevolently at them.

She said in a low voice, “We know it’s you who did it.” She added quickly, “And we have evidence.”

A beat of silence before Miranda shook her head, her angelic face pale with hurt incredulity. “How can you utter such lies?”

“It’s not a lie. And we just thought we would like to give you a chance to confess what you’ve done rather than have the enforcers take you away.” Zari paused before saying meaningfully, “Before your Master finds out the truth.” It was a shot in the dark. If Miranda’s Master was somehow behind the murder, then she had just given herself away.

The other girl didn’t answer, simply shaking her head like a dejected pup.

When Zari and Rhapsody turned away, Miranda’s friends immediately crowded around her.

“They’re still glaring at us, aren’t they?” Zari said under her breath to Rhapsody as they reached the end of the road.

Rhapsody nodded. “You lied to her, didn’t you?”

“Yes. I did.”