Subtle Magic by Beth Kery

Author:Beth Kery [Kery, Beth]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

On the way back to the penthouse, Duse and Bale argued hotly over what they’d

found. Duse was wired. He knew that it had been Asmoday that had killed Liz. The two

of them were in such a heated debate that Duse looked back in surprise when Jax

suddenly spoke up on a completely different topic.

“That woman—Christie Mortensen. Why don’t Watchers help women like that?”

“What do you mean?”

99

Beth Kery

Jax just shrugged and stared out the side window. “Women like Christie and Liz

Elliot. We should do more for women like that. Humans walk all over them.”

Bale glanced over at Duse, clearly at a loss. “We are trying to protect them by

investigating, Jax. That’s what we were doing there today.”

None of them spoke for several seconds, deep in their private thoughts. “Watchers

should do more for them,” Jax stated quietly after a while. Neither Bale nor Duse said anything. Jax’s sullen statement was hardly something you could argue with.

Or deny.

* * * * *

Later Bale paced in front of Duse’s carved desk as Duse finished his conversation

with Sherry Morton. “Did she know anything about other women dying under similar

circumstances in other states, or other countries?” Bale asked when Duse hung up the

phone.

Duse shook his head. “She’s going to look into it, though. She said she’ll warn her

friends in the police department to expand their investigation. In the meantime, we

have to add something to Asmoday’s bond that would prohibit him from seducing First

Change women,” Duse said with determination.

“You know I can’t do that, Duse. It is an alteration to his sentence. Day has to be

tried again for the new charge.”

Duse slammed both of his hands against his desk hard. “Gods to Battle, Bale! You

suspect Day of murdering those women as surely as he murdered Helen. How can you

protect him?” Duse roared.

Bale didn’t flinch but his face tightened. “I can protect him because I stand for the law of our people. In your position, the same should be said of you,” Bale said quietly.

“I’m sending Che to interrogate him, Duse, and to watch him. I can’t alter his sentence until he’s been retried for what he’s allegedly done, but I won’t allow him to harm

anyone else.”

Duse stood up abruptly from his desk chair. “Why are you sending Che? Why not

me?”

Bale just watched him steadily for a moment before answering. In the ensuing

seconds, Duse became aware of how tense his corporeal body was from rage. He

breathed out deeply. Bale had been waiting for him to become fully aware of his own

anger.

“You’re too invested in this, Duse. As I am. I won’t allow you to interrogate

Asmoday for the same reason that I wouldn’t stand as final judge of him for what he

did to Helen. We can’t be sure if he was the one who attacked Skylar, but I know that’s what you believe. As such, you’re too personally involved. You’ll notice,” he said with a touch of asperity from emotion, “that I didn’t allow myself to do it, either. Besides, you wouldn’t want to be away from Skylar for an extended period of time, would you?”

100

Subtle Magic

Duse slowly sank down to his chair.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.