Since I had a knife in my right hand, I reached down with my left and slowly slid the ebony tube out of the pouch on my belt. I held the tube up high and then slowly turned it around, making sure that Clementine saw the flash of Mab’s sunburst rune on the smooth wood.

Her eyes narrowed, and she studied me a moment longer.

“Put it on the ground, and roll it over here,” she said. “Real easy-like. Or the girl dies.”

I slowly bent down and did as she asked. The tube hopped and skipped across the stone, heading toward her. Clementine raised her foot, then brought her boot down gently on top of the tube, stopping it. Still keeping her eyes and her gun on me, she bent down and picked up the tube.

“Opal, you keep your gun on her,” Clementine said. “You too, Dixon. I want to make sure that Ms. Blanco gave us what she promised she would.”

I gave her a bright, carefree smile. “Why, Clementine, would I lie?”

“Certainly,” she replied. “I would.”

Apparently, Clementine was more familiar with the tube than I was. Instead of taking a moment to figure out how to open it, she immediately pressed on the ruby in the middle of the sunburst rune. Interesting, that she would know to do that.

Clementine slid the paper out of the hollow tube, unrolled it, and read the sheet. Opal and Dixon kept their guns trained on me, and I stayed perfectly still, not wanting to give them any reason to shoot me or, worse, Eva.

Clementine scanned the sheet for the better part of two minutes before she was satisfied. I kept my eyes on Dixon—and the shadow that was creeping closer and closer to him. Another minute, two tops, and Owen would be ready to make his move, as would Bria and Xavier in the rotunda.

When she finished reading, Clementine rolled the paper up, slid it back into the tube, and stuffed the whole thing into her pants pocket. Then she looked at me again.

“You know, I’m rather surprised that you gave it back to me just like that.”

I shrugged. “It’s just Mab’s will. What do I care about that? It’s not like she left me anything. Although I am curious about why you want it so badly. Care to share? After all, you’re just going to kill me anyway.”

“You’d better fucking believe it,” Clementine agreed. “But I’m not dumb enough to tell you anything, especially while you’ve got that radio clipped to your belt. Why, who knows who might be listening in?”