She stared at her hands on her lap. The agent Patchaya was looking for was dead. He’d been tortured, mutilated, and murdered by Kovit in one of Nita’s plans for capturing Fabricio that had gone terribly wrong. Not that she could ever admit it.

“Did—Do you know the agent?” Nita asked.

“Yeah. I know him.” Patchaya gave Nita a strained smile. “I’m supposed to be working on this unicorn murder case in Montreal, but I was secretly glad you gave me an excuse to come back to Toronto and see how the search for Bran was coming.”

“Oh.” Nita looked at her fingers on her lap, trying not to imagine how terrible Kovit would feel if he discovered he’d tortured and murdered his sister’s friend.

Nita decided it was best to change the topic before it got dangerous. She cleared her throat. “So, Agent Vidthuvitsai—”

“Patchaya. Or Pat.”

“Patchaya.” Nita corrected herself.

“And you are?”

Nita considered how much to say, and then settled on “I’m a friend of Kovit’s.”

Patchaya let out a shaky half laugh. She brushed a hair from her face with a trembling hand.

Nita blinked slowly. “Are you okay?”

Patchaya nodded sharply. “I’m fine. It’s just been a long time since I heard his name. Not since . . .”

Not since their mother was killed and Kovit was left alone, ten years old and frightened, on the streets of Bangkok to fend for himself.

“How is he?” Patchaya asked, finally looking up.

Nita smiled softly. “He’s all right.”

“Is he . . .” She choked, as if she couldn’t get the words out.

“Is he what?”

“He was always such a thoughtful child, you know. He’d do anything for his friends. He always tried to comfort me when I was scared, even though he didn’t understand what was happening.” Patchaya swallowed heavily. “I hoped the world wouldn’t change him, that what he was wouldn’t warp him. That he wouldn’t turn out like other zannies. That he wouldn’t become like our mother.”

A weird mixture of guilt and nausea bubbled in her stomach. “Oh.”

Patchaya took a deep breath and met Nita’s eyes. “Did he turn out okay? Is he good?”

Nita’s stomach tightened, and the lies felt sticky on her tongue, like she could taste Mirella and Fabricio and that dead INHUP agent’s screams. “He’s good. He’s a good person. He’s not like other zannies.”

Patchaya’s shoulders slumped in relief, and she smiled up at Nita, eyes a little watery. “Good. That’s good. I’m glad.”

She wiped her eyes softly, and Nita looked down, uneasy at her own lies. But she couldn’t ever tell the truth. That the “missing” INHUP agent Patchaya had been friends with had been gleefully tortured and murdered by Kovit. That he was still himself, but he was also exactly the monster Patchaya feared.