Nick nods to Cormac, who offers a bag to the woman who misgendered me.

“Should be seven,” Cormac says.

Brother Hutch. Steven. The rookie. Wedding ring. Three others whose faces I didn’t recognize and should have.

The ears come out one by one. Each is held up to the sun, pinched between the woman’s gloved fingers, her eyes narrowed as if searching for something. The ears look strange all on their own, discolored and rubbery. Like they came from a costume shop and got fake blood all over them. As she clears each one, it gets placed on the bench beside her. A little parade of body parts, all ears, all left ears. Probably so the Watch can’t be accused of doubling the numbers.

She pulls out a mangled, fleshy mess. Brother Hutch’s left ear. Or what remains of it.

“The hell is this?” she demands.

“An ear,” Cormac says. “What does it look like?”

She turns it over, inspecting it one more time. “I’m not calling you a liar, but I am saying—” Without breaking eye contact, she flings it into the grass beyond the pavilion. “Not good enough.”

I almost protest, but Nick says nothing so I say nothing too. He just crosses his arms, eyes flickering shut as if begging himself to keep his composure.

Thankfully, the rest of the ears are fine. There are six now, a little two-by-three set resting by the woman’s thigh.

That’s when she gets to the Grace tooth at the bottom. She hands it over to Joey.

“And this?” he says.

Nick answers, “An abomination tooth.” Not a Grace. Abomination. I tuck the vocabulary away for later: abomination. Leviticus 20:13—If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination. Deuteronomy 22:5—The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman’s garment: for all that do so are abomination unto the LORD thy God. Mom’s voice, hissing behind my shoulder the way the Devil spoke through the fangs of a snake in Eden.

“What makes you think this is worth anything to us?” Joey says.

“It’s another thing out of the city.” How is Nick’s voice so calm? “It’s what you asked for.”

“For all we know, this is from one of those little—” Joey makes a skittering motion with his hand. “Those little bastards. Not anything dangerous.”

A lot of Graces aren’t actually the massive, terrifying monsters the Angels have adopted into their ranks. Graces like those are a rare blessing, where the mass of mutations creates something useful. Most of the time, your body shatters into something just shattered. Dad and I found one a few days ago: a person turned inside out, lungs bulging as they gasped for air again and again.

That’s when it dawns.

The Vanguard are too afraid to do this themselves.

With all the skulls and flags, the firepower and muscle, they can’t handle what the Watch does. They’re too scared to fight back, so they’re using kids to do it instead.