Only Ashes Remain (Market of Monsters, #2)

by Rebecca Schaeffer

“Would you want a zannie as your doctor?” “No!” Nita jerked away. “Of course not!” “Why not?” “They’d be more likely to make the pain worse for their own pleasure than heal it.” “Is that so?” Adair smiled. “But they can sense your pain. They know exactly where and how it hurts. They’ve felt thousands of pains and have a vast swath of data to compare it to. Do you think their diagnosis would be better?”

“Lots of other creatures’ bodies have properties.” “But other dangerous ones?” Adair shook his head. “Ghouls eat people, but they’re not on the list. Their corpses also do absolutely nothing.”

“I know. Why do you think I trade in information? Cash alone would never be enough to keep my species off the list. I make my bribes in knowledge.”

“I want you to find out why the heir to the Tácunan fortune, the doted-upon son of Alberto Tácunan, Fabricio, is running to INHUP and selling out people who save him for petty cash.” Adair leaned forward. “And why the hell he hasn’t gone back to his father’s mansion in Argentina.”

How could she get out of this? Then the door opened, and Nita’s mother stood there. Her hair down, red streaking through the black like it was dripping blood. “Hello, everyone. What did I miss?”

Her mother put the paper down slowly and slid it back to Levesque. “So you’re saying you saw that my niece was kidnapped, sold on the black market, and attacked when she got out, and you thought to yourself, I wonder if she’s been the villain this whole time?”

“Never trust that the police have your best interests in mind.”

“Who are you? In the chatroom, who are you?” “May.” Her gun shook in her hand. “I’m May.” Hadn’t Kovit said he was closest to May?

“Didn’t you tell me earlier you liked my morals? That it was better having a zannie with lines they wouldn’t cross?” “Oh, I do! It’s much better.” Henry nodded for emphasis. “So much easier to control them. It’s hard to control people who aren’t attached to anything.”

“Are you afraid of me?” Henry laughed. “Hardly. You never hurt people you know. I’ve been safe for years.” “Yes.” Kovit agreed, voice distant. “I never hurt people I know.” Then he met Henry’s eyes, and his voice was a promise. “This won’t hurt.” He reached out and snapped Henry’s neck in a single swift motion.

“Kovit, stop.” “Why?” His eyes turned to her, dark and dangerous and utterly shattered. “You don’t like the sound of her screams? Or is it just any screams you didn’t cause yourself?” “That’s not—” “You stand there and judge me, but you’ve killed more people in the last week than I’ve killed in my life!” Nita flinched.

Black scales rippled across his skin, almost crocodilian. His head was a little too long, and more than half of it was filled with a giant mouth, large enough Nita could probably stick her whole head in, if not for the teeth. Razor-sharp teeth, each one as long as a finger, but half as thin. Hundreds of them, each overlapping, creating layers of jagged, vicious teeth. His eyes covered the rest of his face, yellow and slitted, like a dragon. His nose was flat and almost invisible, and he had no ears or hair, just smooth black scales and a ridged, bumpy spine starting just between his eyes, going up over his head and down along his back.

“He’s a monster. Why are you protecting him?” “Why did I protect you when he wanted to throw you out?” Diana asked. “Because it was the right thing to do.” Her jaw clenched. “And you’re far more of a monster than he is.” Nita raised an eyebrow and looked at Adair. “Have you seen him?” “I judge by actions, not appearance.” Her voice was cold.

“Why didn’t you tell me you felt that way?” Kovit shrugged and turned his face away, his messy hair tumbling over his eyes. “I don’t know. I didn’t think it mattered.” “Why wouldn’t it matter?” Kovit snorted. “Nita, when you want to do something, you do it. You never listen to my cautions.”

“You asked if I was sure, you didn’t tell me not to do it.” He looked away. “It’s your decision.” Nita closed her eyes, replaying all the times he’d asked her to think something over twice. All the times he’d hesitated.

“I really thought your mother would kill the dealers. If it makes any difference. I never thought they’d actually succeed.” Nita’s face was hard as stone. “If my mother had been there, it might’ve made a difference. But she wasn’t.” Fabricio wept. “I’m sorry.”