Part 28 (1/2)

”I have a feeling Pixie is going to be the one doing the interviewing,”

Adam said with a grin that faded as he looked at me. ”Do you want to tell me what you were talking about to your father? Or should I tell you?”

I blinked in surprise. ”You tell me? Er...”

Pulling out of his pocket a slim green gla.s.ses case, he waved me over to a corner of the room, where we could talk without being disturbed. Without saying anything, he popped open the lid and poured the apports onto my hand.

They were all green. My fingers closed around them as I looked up into his eyes.

Glacial blue, they gazed back at me with understanding. ”You look so human, sometimes I forget that you're half polter. Which means that in addition to having inherited the abilities to meld into shadows, move with increased quickness, and generate strength abnormal in mortals, you manifest apports in times of stress or great physical output. Those are yours, aren't they?”

”Yes,” I said, suddenly breathless.

”I figure it's this way: when Spider left you upstairs, you were retching as the result of a headache. But you didn't stay upstairs the entire time being sick.

You followed Spider down the stairs, sticking to the shadows, keeping yourself unseen as he met with Meredith, and sneaked down to the bas.e.m.e.nt. It wouldn't have taken much effort for you to silently sneak up behind the men, knocking Meredith out, and killing Spider before he had the time to turn around.”

The apports grew hot in my hand. I unclenched my fingers, placing the stones on the table.

”Then you pulled the bookcase down on Spider's body, arranged the scene with Meredith, and sneaked back upstairs to the bathroom without anyone seeing you. With your quickness, the whole thing probably took...what, a minute? Two at the most?”

I cleared my throat, unable to say anything.

”You know,” he said, giving me a considering look, ”if it wasn't for the apports, I would never have known the truth.”

”That's not quite what happened, although it's close,” I said, my emotions a tangled knot that sat heavily in my stomach. ”I followed him downstairs after he tried to grab Pixie. He knew I'd seen him. All I wanted to do was warn him to stay away from her, but he must have figured I'd tell you about his connection to Bethany.”

”Your cousin?” Adam asked. ”What was his ... Wait a second. You said Spider was having s.e.x with her. Are you saying now that Meredith also had something to do with her death?”

I nodded, bile burning my throat. ”They both raped her.”

”Why, for the love of all that is good, didn't you tell someone?” he asked, his voice rough.

”I didn't know until we got here. It's like I said: upstairs, in the room I went to lie down in, Spider gloated about Meredith and him having had s.e.x with Bethany. He said something that I didn't pay attention to at first: he said she had cut her own throat. That fact was never made public, so it meant he must have been there when she killed herself. He and Meredith killed her just as surely as if they'd cut her throat themselves.”

”You should have told me,” he insisted.

”And what would you have done? It was his word against mine. I had no proof, no tangible proof, that he or Meredith had anything to do with her!”

”So you killed him in revenge.”

There was a coldness in his voice, a coldness that stung. ”No, I didn't. As soon as I saw him with Pixie, I knew what he would do: he'd use and destroy her just as he did my cousin. I followed him to the bas.e.m.e.nt to warn him away from her. I kept to the shadows, and heard the two of them talking about Pixie as they went downstairs to the bas.e.m.e.nt. I admit that I coshed Meredith on the head; I wanted him out of the way so I could warn off Spider, but I guess Spider thought I was going to attack him, too, because I didn't have time to say a word to him before he grabbed me and threw me up against the bookcase.”

The memory of that moment a.s.sailed me: pain exploding in my head as Spider grabbed my hair and banged it against the bookcase, his eyes lit with an unholy pleasure, his mouth twisted and snarling.

I wrapped my arms around myself and sank to the floor.

”What was it you had that he said he'd have when you were dead?” Adam asked, squatting next to me.

I couldn't look at him, speaking to my knees instead. ”Amanita didn't hear exactly what he said. It was actually 'I'll have her when you're gone.'”

”Meaning Pixie.”

I nodded. ”Until that moment, I wasn't fighting back. Death seemed like such a pleasant escape from the sorrow of knowing my husband killed my little cousin. But he swore he'd have Pixie, and the next thing I knew, he was lying at my feet, dead.”

”You ... er ... exploded on him? Like you did as a child?”

”It was in self-defense this time, but yes. Just as unintentional, though...and just as deadly.” A sob rose in my throat.

”Let me see your head,” Adam said, his face expressionless.

I leaned forward so he could run his fingers along the back of my head. I winced as he found the sensitive spots.

”You probably have a concussion,” he said, tipping my head back to look deep into my eyes. ”You have three good-sized lumps back there.”

”Polters are strong,” I said miserably, overwhelmed with sorrow-both for what had been and for what might have been.

”So strong that they can kill easily in self-defense,” he said, nodding. ”And so rather than tell me all this, you decided to frame Meredith for the murder.”

I looked up at him, blinking away tears. ”No, that was never my intention. I knew that as soon as the seal was lifted, I'd have to tell the watch what happened. I killed my husband. It was an accident, and done in self-defense, but I killed him. I am prepared to face the consequences of that. But I figured I had twelve hours to make you see the truth about Meredith.”

He was silent for a few minutes. ”Earlier, when you were talking about how sure you were that Meredith was a murderer, you weren't referring to the death of your husband, were you?”

”No. But there was nothing I could tell you that you'd believe, especially if you knew I just killed my husband. I thought... I hoped that if the truth about Meredith was revealed, his connection with Bethany would come out. I had no idea that Savannah held the key to all that until she turned out to be a Guardian.”

”I told you I would do whatever I could to see that your cousin's rapist was caught,” Adam said gently, putting an arm around me. ”The watch would never have let them get away with it.”

I made a frustrated gesture. ”Thus far the watch hadn't connected the two of them to her, and I had no proof, nothing to convince them. And before you say that wouldn't matter, please remember that I did tell you Meredith was a murderer-but you demanded proof, and that was the one thing I didn't have.”

I ran my hands through my hair, my throat tight with unshed tears. ”I had no choice, Adam. I just had no choice. I had to take the chance that I could prove the truth about Meredith before the seal was up.”

”We'll let that point go,” he said.