Her mother’s eyebrows shot up. “We?”

Nita remained silent.

“Who is this ‘we’?” Her mother slowly leaned forward, like a shark scenting blood in the water. “Nita, darling, did you make a friend?”

Nita swallowed. She didn’t like the way her mother said that. Didn’t like the fear that fluttered in her stomach when she thought about her mother meeting Kovit. Because all her mother would see was an opportunity for money. Kovit would be dead and dissected before Nita could blink.

Nita rose. “I need to go.”

“Sit down.”

Nita froze at her mother’s tone, flint and iron. That was not a voice you disobeyed. That was a dangerous voice.

Nita looked around, but they were alone in this part of the park. No one to help. No one that her mother had to perform for. Nothing to stop her mother from being her mother.

Nita sat down.

Her mother smiled, hard and flat. “Good girl.”

Nita flinched at the endearment. Like a pet dog.

“Now, tell me about this friend.”

Nita shrugged and remained silent, avoiding her mother’s gaze.

Her mother hmmed softly. “Well, that’s interesting. I know you didn’t have a friend before you were kidnapped, so you’ve met her—”

Nita tried to keep her face blank, but something must have been telling because her mother course-corrected.

“Him. So you’ve met him since then. So that leaves meeting him here or before, at the market.”

Her mother tilted her head and considered. “Given that you’ve been so hunted here, and you’ve had such success at repelling attackers, I’m inclined to believe you’ve had help. Which means you met him at the market.”

Nita’s heart thundered in her chest, and she didn’t move, trying not to give anything away.

“But you came back claiming no one had survived the market. If your friend had been another captive, then you would have led him to INHUP with you. You came to INHUP alone, I checked in on that. Which means whoever this was couldn’t go to INHUP. So not another harmless unnatural victim.”

Her mother’s smile was long and thin. “And there was no one else at the market except dealers and monsters.”

Nita clenched her fists in her lap, under the table and hidden from view.

“Given the black market kerfuffle over you now, I can’t imagine you’d have befriended a dealer. Or that you’d trust one. And I don’t see how you’d have had the opportunity to meet one during your captivity, except your own. And I doubt you befriended them. So that means it’s a monster who’s not a dealer. Someone who’s willing to help you hide from hunters, someone you must have had frequent contact with at the market.”