“I’m in a delicate situation, and the Penitents are a blunt instrument. I’d rather talk to someone with a mind of his own.”

“Penitents have minds.”

“They possess minds. It’s not the same thing.”

He balled his hands into a mound of bone, skin, and muscle. “The more you talk, the less this sounds like an anonymous tip, and the more like you coming to your ex-boyfriend for a favor.”

She nodded.

“I can only do so much for you. I only want to do so much for you.”

“I need someone I can trust. That’s all.”

“Tell me what’s happened, and I’ll say whether I can help.”

“Can you keep this private?”

“The door’s closed,” he said. “Those windows are double layered with empty space in the middle. The walls here are thick. No one will hear us.”

“And you won’t tell anyone what I’ve told you here?”

“If you ask me to do anything official, I have to tell someone.”

“But you won’t say the information came from me.”

He clenched his jaw, and relaxed. “Not unless I have to.”

“I need more of a promise than that.”

“I can’t give it.”

She exhaled. “Okay.”

“Are you sure you want to say whatever this is? Once you tell me something, you can’t untell it. I’m not in the job of ignoring crimes. They break that into us, too.”

She remembered Edmond Margot’s desperate eyes. “I’m sure.”

“What’s happened?”

“A theft,” she said.

He blinked. “I thought you said this wasn’t Penitent material.”

“It’s not a normal theft.”

“I’m sure,” he said. “What’s been stolen?”

“Souls. From an idol.”

Outside, the Penitents’ shadows shrank as the sun reached noon. “Interesting.”

“No one has ever drawn power from our idols without permission. It should be impossible. The pool is one of the most heavily warded places on the planet. The caldera of Kavekana’ai doesn’t even exist in this world anymore: fly over it and you’ll see only solid lava.”

“But someone’s stolen from you.”

“A poet. An Iskari named Edmond Margot.”

“How?”

“I don’t know how. Margot himself didn’t know he was a thief until this morning.”

“He stole accidentally? What does that even mean?”

“He went looking for inspiration, and in a moment of terror or genius or both he found an idol. He thought she was a muse, and he used her power to write poems. Took a crime and turned it into art.”

“And you want me to arrest him for this.”