Page 54

“Good. Let’s go.”

Sonder

As soon as the door to his car shut, she twisted in the passenger seat, whirling on him. “You bloody bastard!”

“Oh, come on now. You’re not that big a fan of fuckingDomhnall, are you?”

Fuck. He shouldn’t have revealed he knew the prick’s name, but he was done with this charade after all they’d talked about today, revealed subtly.

“I don’t mean about him, you eejit. I mean about not letting me studyourspecimens.”

“That’s rich, Atta,” he shot back. “Youstoleone from me.”

“And yet I have no idea what happened with the others, do I? Are you even going to tell me?”

“I’d planned to take you to see the Stage 4 gravesite after I dropped my friend at home, considering she didn’t bring her own vehicle, but here we are.” He threw his hands in the air. “Now she’s abandoned at night.”

Atta looked like he’d dumped a cold bucket of water on her. “You were out on a date?”

Heat lit in his chest. Was she envious? “Does it matter if I was?”

“No.” She crossed her arms and faced the dash. “Did you wear that stupid mask?”

“What do you think?”

He watched the calculation on her face as she tried to work out all the times she’d glanced at him throughout the night with that look that was driving him out of his skull. He could walk it all back right now if he wanted to. Make her believe she’d been wrong about who he was.

Butfuck, he didn’t want to.

“She is a friend,” he said softly, and Atta turned her face toward him, but didn’t look at him directly, her eyes pinned on the steering wheel.

“All right.”

Without another word, he pulled out of the parking space and drove them to Trinity Cemetery. She was still quiet. More guarded than she’d been with him in weeks. He wanted to reassure her. Tell her it wasn’t a date. That he and Marguerite had ridden together from college and met up with their friends. That he couldn’t stop thinking abouther. Hadn’t thought about another woman since the second she walked into his classroom that first time. No. Since the first time he’d seen her at Achilles House with a corpse she’d already opened.

Sonder was no eunuch, but he’d always been focused, driven. Pursued books and ideas and science far before women. They were a means to an end, a way to sate his primal hunger, not woo and build a life with. Atta was different. She appealed to every sense he had and never knew was there.

He turned off his lights and parked in the same spot as last time, hidden by brush.

He looked at Atta and she was peering out into the dark, but she ran her tongue over her bottom lip and he bit back a groan, exiting the car with haste.

“The Stage 4 is?—”

“Lauren,” Atta said sharply, handing him a shovel from the backseat. “Her name is Lauren.”

“Lauren,” he amended. “She is buried under the tree, just there.” He pointed and was surprised when Atta followed his direction, then whipped around to face him, her eyes wide.

“Under a hawthorn tree?”

“Yes. Is that significant?”

“It was on the coins we found last time. Do you still have them?”

“I do. In my lab at home.” He’d been correct about their properties being abnormal, possibly as foreign as the flora.

Her demeanour changed, intrigue slipping in, and he wanted to dive into it. “You have a lab at home, too?” Before he could answer, she went on, her face screwing up adorably in thought. “Didn’t you say you wanted to show me something?” She paused, considering. “Wait. No.” She shook her head. “Never mind. Come on.”

They approached the fresh mound of dirt beneath the tree and bent down in unison. Atta ran her fingers over the soil, inspecting it.