“All I ever wanted was to make you proud, you know?” I wiped my cheek roughly. “I wanted to hear you say it, just once. That you were proud of me.”

Stupid, all the things I had demanded of her. That I still, impossibly, tried to demand of her now. I lowered myself onto the bed beside her. Touched her hair. The scalpel lay between us and I knew what needed to be done, but all I wanted was to curl up beside my mother and let Aytrium burn.

“It’s not fair,” I whispered, and the words stuck in my throat. I shook my head. “I—”

Like a viper striking, bands of lace whipped around me. My limbs seized, and I cried out. The ropes tightened, pinning me to the spot.

“That was very touching, Raughn,” said someone behind me. “I’m almost sorry to interrupt.”

I wrestled with the invisible bindings, and they shrank painfully around my arms and legs. Too strong, far too strong; I had never encountered this kind of power before. The lace had a humming, seething quality, like water under immense pressure.

Abruptly, my body swung around so that I faced the doorway, my legs forced straight to hold me up. Verje grinned.

“I’d have thought you’d be in more of a hurry,” she said, stepping inside the alcove. “Well, to be honest, I’d have thought you would be eager to flee the city entirely, Renewer.”

“Get away from me,” I said. It was difficult to breathe.

“Asan must be spitting mad that you slipped through her fingers. Where was she keeping you anyway? We’d reached the stage where we were considering releasing an inmate of the Renewal Wards to sniff you out. Eater, that would have been a mess.”

“Like the Haunt you released from your estate?” I hissed. “Did you infect him yourself?”

“Don’t be crude.” Verje glanced over her shoulder, as if she had heard something. Clearly, she was on edge. “Besides, you’re hardly one to talk, are you? Finn Vidar probably has some opinions about the topic of infection.”

“Get his name out of your filthy fucking mouth.”

“Touchy.” She walked closer, and lowered her voice. “He was very uncooperative. Celane and I paid him a visit in Judicial Custody, you know. Compulsed the life out of him, but he still wouldn’t tell us where you were hiding. He just kept repeating Asan’s story over and over.”

I lashed out at her with my lace, but it struck her protective net and rebounded harmlessly.

“In the end, Sacor gave us the tip we needed.” She picked up the scalpel I had dropped. “About his sister? Be a shame if Enforcement found out she was leading the murderous insurgents. That could end very badly for her.”

“Liar,” I snarled. “You killed those Sisters, and Asan knows it.”

Verje lifted up my left arm and pushed back my sleeve. Her lace drew tighter.