“If you can use them to bribe Duckett, they’re worth keeping. His tasks are risky. He makes people go into the residences and steal for him. More often than not, they get caught.”

She winced and reached for her shoulder. I took the Sterno from her hand and placed it between us. “Gomeisa did this,” I said.

“He gets bored of the cards after a while. Doesn’t always like what they show him.” She lay on her back, pulling the pillow under her neck. “It doesn’t matter. I don’t see him very much. I don’t think he’s even in the city most of the time.”

“Were you his only human?”

“Mm. That’s why he hates me. I was in exactly the same situation as you, taken in by a Reph that had never chosen a human before. He thought I had potential, thought I could be one of the best bone-grubbers in Sheol I.”

“Bone-grubbers?”

“It’s what we call the red-jackets. He thought I’d earn that color. But I disappointed him.”

“How?”

“He asked me to do a reading for one of the harlies. They thought he was a traitor, that he’d tried to run. I knew it was true. The reading would have incriminated him. I refused to do it.”

“I didn’t want to do it. She still saw what I was.” I rubbed my temple. “And now Seb’s dead, too.”

“Amaurotics die all the time here. He would have been bones whatever you did.” She sat up again. “Come on. Let’s eat.”

She reached over to her wooden chest. I stared at what was inside: a packet of coffee granules, cans of beans, four eggs. “How did you get those?”

“I found them.”

“Where?”

“One of the amaurotics hid them near his residence. Leftovers from the Bone Season supplies.” Liss took out an iron pot and filled it with water from a bottle. “We’ll eat like queens.” She pushed the pot over the Sterno. “How are you holding up, Jules?”

Our voices must have woken him. He pushed off the sheet and sat cross-legged. “Better.” He pressed his nose with his fingers. “Thanks for the meds, Paige.”

I nodded. “When do you take your test?”

“No idea. Aludra’s supposed to be teaching us about subliming, but she spends most of her time kicking us around.”

“Subliming?”

“Turning normal objects into numa. Those batons we were using the other night, when you came to see me—they were sublimed. Anyone can use them, not just soothsayers.”

“What do they do?”

“They exert some control over the nearest spirits, but they can’t be used to see the æther.”

“So they’re not really numa.”

“Still dangerous,” Liss said. “Rotties can use them. The last thing we need is an ethereal weapon Scion can use.”

Julian shook his head. “Scion would never use numa. They’re repulsed by clairvoyance.”

“Not by the Rephaim.”