“What do you want?” Han demanded. “I don’t have anything worth stealing this time.” Unless you mean to chop off my hands again, he thought, but he wasn’t going to bring that up.

“Call them off,” Shiv whispered, glancing about as if they might be overheard.

“Call who off?” Han asked, bewildered. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Those…those things.” Shiv licked his lips. “Your demons. Call them off or I’ll cut you. I’ll kill you, I swear. I got nothing to lose.”

“You’re talking about those…those monsters?” Han asked, his mind clearing. “I can’t call them off. I don’t even know what they are.”

“So it’s coincidence, is it, that we beat you up in the street, and right after, they come hunting me?” Shiv tried to sneer, but sneering’s not easy when you’re as scared as Shiv seemed to be.

Han shook his head. It was like the Maker’s hand was pointing at him all the time. He’s the one. Blame him.

“I don’t know who they are,” Han said, lowering his voice. “I just ran into three of them, north of here.”

“And you come out of it alive?” Shiv forced a laugh. “Fought ’em off, did you?”

Han just shook his head wordlessly, keeping his eyes on Shiv’s blade, his hand on his own.

“I can kill you, you know,” Shiv said wildly, cutting the air with his knife. “I’m better’n you with a blade, one on one.”

Han knew Shiv was right, but he was not about to admit it. “I don’t want to fight anybody,” he said, and that was the absolute truth.

“Why would you? You got demons to do your fighting for you.” Shiv swung his head from side to side, as if the monsters might suddenly appear. “The Southies, they’ll turn on me, you know. Give me up to save themselves. There’s eight dead a’ready, and they…” His voice trailed off and he swallowed hard, as if he’d said more than he meant to.

Han regarded his enemy with more sympathy than he’d ever have imagined possible. “Maybe you should leave,” he suggested. “Hide out somewhere until things…cool off.”

“You’d like that, wouldn’t you?” Shiv snarled, on the defensive again. “All of Southbridge under your lordship.” He raised his scarred hands, spreading his ringed fingers, indicating their surroundings. “I built this,” he said. “I fought for it. It’s my turf. Mine. I got no place else to go.” His voice actually broke at the end.

Han recalled the demon’s snakelike hiss, and shuddered. “There’s some things you can’t fight,” he said softly.