“They killed him.” Another coal puncture, below the first. Kai fought to keep still. The blade was too close and sharp for heroics, or for fear.

Think. The girl thought Kai had killed Margot. She wanted vengeance. She could have killed Kai while she slept; either she was a hardened torturer, and kept Kai alive to suffer, or she didn’t want to do the work. She wanted to be talked out of it.

Oh gods. This was a sale, then. Of a sort. Twilling’s acronyms and lists bubbled up unbidden.

“You killed him,” the girl repeated.

“I wanted him safe. I offered him shelter. He refused.” Technically true. “Can we just. I mean.” Step one: identification. “I’m Kai,” she said. “Can you tell me your name?”

“Don’t lie to me.”

“I’m not lying. Kai is my name. What’s yours?”

Scales shifted and gears spun in the girl’s mind. Her face twisted. Hesitation. Sensible. An exchange of names was an exchange of power. Without names you filed other people into boxes: murderer, conspirer, betrayer, lover, friend. The knife at Kai’s throat would kill her, but anonymity would let the girl drive the blade home.

“Izza,” the girl said.

“I only met Margot twice.” The cuts on her neck burned when she swallowed. “He seemed like a good man.”

“You killed him.”

“I didn’t.”

“You sent a Penitent, and the Penitent did.”

“I asked the Watch to arrest Margot, to keep him safe.”

Izza’s weight settled on Kai’s stomach. “A Penitent strangled him to death.”

She struggled to breathe. “Gods.”

“Gods have no part of this.”

“Penitents don’t kill people.”

“That’s what I thought.”

Penitents didn’t kill, but this girl wasn’t lying. Kai’d expected assassins, Craftwork or poison or knife, rough work in a back alley to make the death look like a mugging gone wrong. The Grimwalds were powerful, but could they subvert a Penitent? The concept barely made sense. “You’re serious.”

“I am.”

Step two: needs assessment. “You’re here because your friend is dead, and you want revenge.” She saw a drowning face in a deep pool. “You can kill me to make yourself feel better. But that won’t get you what you want, because I didn’t kill him, and I want to know who did as much as you.”

“Tell me,” the girl said, through clenched teeth. “Everything.”

Step three: the solution. “No.”

“I will hurt you.”