Page 52

Mira

The knock at the door made me frown.

Gina had returned, taken Hank to the Box to finish interrogating Spider Legs, and come back to check on Lilas, who was still sleeping. Knowing Lilas would be upset when she learned what happened, Gina decided to go out and buy “a little something to cheer her up.”

The knock came again, and I wondered if she’d forgotten the key. Since the boys were locked up in Rome’s room for some reason and Gigi was checking on Lilas, I went ahead and opened it.

At first, I thought no one was there until I looked down and saw a little skeleton holding a battered blue suitcase.

“That’s a mighty good Halloween costume, kid, but it’s February.”

“It’s not a costume.” I got the impression it was scowling at me. “Kerry Harker here?”

Squinting, I examined the little creature closer and, yeah, I was pretty sure it was telling the truth.

That was no costume. Those were real bones, complete with pits and scuffs, that were held together by some white gel.

From the dark recesses of the eye sockets shone purple pinpoints of light that I assumed it used to see.

There was a gold bracelet rattling around one wrist, and the left arm was engraved with long lines of elegant symbols.

“You can stare at me all you want later.” It sounded cranky. “But I need to see Kerry Harker.”

I didn’t know whether to let him in or not. I mean, I’d already gotten in trouble over the weeping reaper, so I made a play for time while I decided.

“What’s that inscription?” I tilted my head to his left arm.

“None of your beeswax.” He bent his arm behind his spine.

When did I start thinking of it as a him?

“I can read.” Folding my arms, I gave him a quelling look, even though I was bluffing. I didn’t know Angelic from Infernal.

“It’s a Bible verse, okay? ‘Against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.’ There!

Satisfied?” The skeleton would have been sneering at me if he’d had skin.

“Now tell Kerry that Hinge needs to talk to him!”

I didn’t get the sense that he was fibbing, and that was quite a long verse to make up or pull out of the blue. He’d recited it too easy, as if it were his mantra.

Well, I guess he’s no demon if he has Scripture carved into his bones.

I pushed the door open and stepped aside.

“Tell him yourself.”

#

Kerry

“Hinge?” My jaw dropped. “How did you find me?”

“You still got my knife, remember?” He drilled his big toe bone into the carpet and kept his head bent. “I made it, so I can track it.”

“Where’s Bit?”

“Bit’s dead.” He took a big breath, even though I knew he didn’t need air. “I need help.”

A couple of no-no words slipped out.

I don’t wanna deal with this right now! It’ll slow me down when I already don’t have time!

“I didn’t know who else to trust, Kerry.” Hinge lifted his head and his little purple pupils blinked up at me.

Son of a whore. I’m stuck with him, ain’t I?

I mean, what were my choices? Turn him over to the Council, who’d kill him outright? Send him back to the Diabolical Market, where he’d be eaten without Bit’s protection? Toss him out and hope he survived on his own?

Gemma’d kill me if I did any of that.

The thought struck me outta nowhere. She’d never even met Hinge, but I knew what she would do—what she’d expect me to do— if she was here.

With a heavy sigh, I made the choice I could live with and accepted he was my problem.

“So how’d you get here?” I looked him over and saw he was dusty and dirty. “Without being seen, I mean.”

“Stuck to the shadows. I hid on the last ferry over the Hudson, snuck across Lower Manhattan, and took the Brooklyn Bridge walkway after dark. Simple.”

“Guess you’re probably pretty tired then.”

“Yes.” He grinned. “It’s a long walk from Hoboken.”

“Come on.” I picked up the old-school suitcase. “You can clean up, then crash in my room for a while.”

#

“Whatever caused it to happen,” Rome scowled at me, “you should have given him mercy long ago.”

“I know, I know!” I threw up my hands. “I thought about it lots of times. But he’s just a kid, and he’s survived on hope for centuries. And he’s a miracle worker.”

“A miracle worker?” Gigi narrowed her eyes at me. “And when we needed one for Jax, you kept silent about him?”

“He wouldn’t have been any help.” I met her dark blue eyes. “All of Hinge’s power, every bit of it, is used to hold his bones together. It’s the jelly stuff you can see when he moves.”

“All right, Kerry.” Mira crossed her arms and leaned against the wall. “Start at the beginning and tell us the whole story.”

“There’s not that much to tell.” I shrugged.

“He was born sometime in the early 1800s. While he was still a kid, a bound demon got wind of him being a miracle worker and tried to trick Hinge into loosening his chains. Hinge has always been smart, though, and knew him for what he was. Instead of freeing the demon, Hinge bound him tighter.”

“So the demon was pissed and sought revenge?” Mira asked.

“Of course it did. They’re spiteful, vengeful things.” Rome looked from her to me. “Hinge must be pretty powerful, if he could tighten a demon’s chains.”

“Oh, yeah, he’s a strong lil monster,” I agreed, “but not strong enough to win against a prince when he came to suck out his soul.”

“A prince?” they all said at once.

“Yup. The first demon was a duke. When word of what happened spread through Hell, a prince axed the duke, saying anyone weak enough to fall to a child wasn’t fit to rule anything. Then he seized all the duke’s power.” I smirked. “Demon politics are pretty straightforward like that.”

“Straightforward and cut throat,” Jax muttered.

“Go back to Hinge’s story.” Gigi clapped her hands at me, and I raised my eyebrows. “I want to know what happened.”

“Well, after offing the duke, the prince couldn’t let Hinge live without losing face himself, so he sent his shadow after him. Hinge fought for all he was worth, but fell. The shadow was hurt pretty bad, so once it was convinced Hinge was dead enough, it faded back to Hell.”

I wasn’t gonna go into the gruesome details of what the prince did to Hinge. They could fill the blanks in themselves.

“Hinge knew he had seconds left, so he bound his soul to his bones. It was all he could think to do. He was ten .” I made a face. “But something went wrong. That’s why he’s still ten and he always will be.”

“Why didn’t he go to an outpost or the Sanctuary?” Gigi wanted to know. “Surely one of the biblios could have found something to help him in the Archives!”

“Doesn’t sound like there was enough time,” Mira said.

“Even if he did get there, they would have destroyed him.” Rome stared at his clasped hands. “The Council would have deemed him an abomination and ordered his immediate termination.”

“It’s like people who have themselves cryogenically frozen.” Jax nodded. “They believe the technology to be revived will exist in the future. Hinge must have thought the same way. ‘Save myself by whatever means necessary now; fix it later.’ ”

“Yeah, little boys don’t think too far ahead.” I half-smiled as bitterness filled my mouth.

“How did you find out he was a miracle worker?” Gigi wanted to know. “I assume he and Bit were keeping it a secret, especially any time they were around the Diabolical.”

“I was in and out of the Market from the time I was twelve, so we sorta grew up together. Well, I did. He gave me some information once that saved my life. Then I returned the favor. It went back and forth like that a few times. Late one night, I was hiding from … someone at the Market and holed up with him. We got to swapping stories and, since my demon was asleep, Hinge told me about his past.”

“And you were able to keep that knowledge from your demon?” Mira growled. “I couldn’t keep anything from my devil!”

“Different kinds of relationships,” I muttered.

“I hid a lot of things from my demon. It was curious about him, but it smelled Bit’s corruption lingering on him and figured he’d pissed off the wrong person and got himself Cursed or something.

Demons are easy to distract, too. Anytime it got too interested in Hinge, I sidetracked him with something. ”

“And who’s Bit?” Jax asked. “Hinge said he was dead.”

“Bit is— was —a neph who corrupted himself before his first century. For reasons I don’t know, he turned his life around and wanted absolution. Protecting Hinge became his penance. He’s been with Hinge almost from the beginning.”

“What was Bit’s real name? We can ask Hank or Gina if they knew him. I bet they’ve met a corrupt neph or two in their time.”

“I dunno.” I shrugged.

“Should we ask Hinge what happened? Is it important to know how Bit died?” Gigi asked. “Maybe. Maybe not. I’ll ask him later.”

“So now, with his protector gone, Hinge came looking for a new one.” Jax smirked at me. “You got a prob-llama, bro.”

“End him.” Rome’s voice was quiet, but firm. “Put him out of his misery.”

“Could you?” Mira hissed at him. “Could you kill an untainted boy—a miracle worker—who came to you for help?”

“I think there’s too much we can learn from Hinge to discuss ending him right now.” Gigi stood and settled her hands on her hips, then looked at me. “You said Hinge has been around for two hundred years?”

“Yes.”

“Lots of things keep coming back to two hundred years ago.” Rome narrowed his eyes. “We should get some dates and make a timeline. See what matches up, and when.”

“Good idea. I’ll see if Travis can start that.” Jax took out his phone and started texting.

“Kerry.” Gigi turned her head and her wide eyes met mine. “Gemma told me the story that Clem shared that night Jax was hurt. She also said you had a memory of running into a shadow at a party or something?”

“Yeah. I accidentally walked through him on Midsummer’s Eve.” A shudder jerked through me at the memory.

“And he threatened you. Can you repeat what he said?”

“He said that if I wasn’t more careful, I’d need a miracle worker to put me back together, and he’d personally taken care of the last one of those two hundred years ago.” I rattled the words out, then my brain stopped, backtracked and looked at them closer.

“Holy crap,” Jax breathed.

Everyone else seemed just as stunned, and a ball of ice formed in my stomach.

“And you know the shadow belonged to a prince?” Rome looked at me with raised eyebrows.

“So my demon said at the time.”

“All this time, we were under the impression he was hunting Amanda.” Jax glanced up from his phone. “But she wasn’t the only miracle worker around two hundred years ago, was she?”

“Travis was clear that she was,” Gigi disagreed. “The only one known to be alive, anyway. I’ll double check with him, though.”

“Maybe the shadow has been looking for Hinge all along.” I pushed myself out of the couch and started to pace. “He uses an alias. He has— had —a guard whose corruption taint drowned out his Divine smell. He hangs out where the Diabolical would least expect him.”

“And,” Mira added, “he’d been left for dead. No one knew what he’d done to stay alive.” “It appears someone figured it out. Could it have been the traitor?” Gigi grabbed Jax’s arm.

“Things have been unraveling these past few months.” He took a deep breath as he put his hand over hers and squeezed. “There is no other explanation that I can see.”

“Until we know more, we have to still consider Amanda as a target.” Rome looked at each of us. “And not a word gets back to the Council about Hinge. In fact, the less people who know he’s a miracle worker, or even alive—sort of—the better.”

Gigi suddenly flapped her hands in front of her face like she did when she had a brainstorm.

“Draw your shadow, Kerry! Then ask Hinge if it’s the same one who did that to him!”

“We’ll have Amanda look at it, too,” Jax said. “Should have thought of that long ago. What if it’s the same one who petrified her?”

“Unlikely,” I scoffed. “As Clem said, Hell has a lotta princes.”

“We know at least one prince was involved with either Hinge or Amanda Greenaway’s misfortune,” he disagreed.

“We keep stumbling over one, anyway.” Rome lifted one shoulder. “Doesn’t hurt to see if it’s the same one in all these stories.”

“Sure,” I said. “Lemme get my sketchbook.”