“It isn’t just a few pills! It needs surgery,” the doctor said. “It has almost no chance of surviving.”

“But they’re tough, right? These half-men, they build them tough.”

“They build them for killing.”

Exactly.

Mahfouz seemed to read her mind. “This isn’t some fairy tale where beauty tames the beast, Mahlia. Even if you save it, it will not do your bidding. Half-men have one master only. You might as well try to tame a wild panther. It is nothing but a killer.”

“It didn’t kill Mouse.”

Doctor Mahfouz threw up his hands. “And tomorrow perhaps it will rip him limb from limb! You can’t know its mind, and you can’t control it. This creature is nothing but war incarnate. If you traffic with it, you bring war into your house, and violence down upon yourself.”

“Violence?” Mahlia held up the stump of her hand. “Like this, you mean?” She glared at the doctor. “You ever think maybe if we had guns and a monster like this, those soldier boys would think twice about coming after us? You ever think that if we had this thing on our side, we could get away from here for good?”

Mahfouz was shaking his head. “That creature brought the soldiers down on us in the first place. If you seek its company, you will shower all of us in blood. Please, Mahlia, we’ve already lost our home because of it. Is this how you want to lose your life?”

Was that what she was doing?

Mahfouz pressed on her uncertainty. “Violence begets violence, Mahlia.”

Mahlia stared at the wounded monster—the teeth marks, the blood, the stinking rot of its wounds. The carrion scent of its breath. Was she crazy? Maybe the half-man was just like coywolv. Always vicious, even if you raised it from a pup.

But what if it was something else? It hadn’t killed Mouse, even when it could have. A soldier boy would have done him in a second, but the half-man had let him go. That had to count for something.

Mahlia set her ear to the creature, listening for the slow thud of its heart. It took almost a minute before she heard it. Huge and thick. Heavy. The heart must have been as big as her head. Crazy big. Crazy dangerous.

She thought of Soa, looming over her: coywolv eyes in the body of a young man. Thought of the lieutenant and his casual way of cutting off her air when Mahfouz didn’t jump fast enough. All kinds of deadly there, and she hadn’t been able to do anything.

The half-man’s heart thudded again under her ear.

Crazy big.

She began inspecting the wounds. What are you like when you’re healthy? How much fight you got in you?

The doctor seemed to finally understand that she wasn’t listening. He waded toward her, pushing through the dangling banyan roots.