Page 51 of Caretaker

She took my bottle of water and drank, then wiped her mouth on the back of her hand. “See,” she continued, “there aren’t a lot of necromancers in the world, just as there aren’t a lot of bloodhunters. We’re special, you and I.”

I swallowed. “What’d they do to you, Miriam?”

She squeezed the water bottle, making it crackle, then studied the floor. “They locked me in a cage and sold tickets to curious humans. Sometimes the humans wanted to borrow me, and they paid my minders extra for that.”

I closed my eyes. The pain in my head was easing already, but Miriam’s words made my stomach tighten into angry, horrified knots. “What of your birth parents?”

Miriam shrugged, her face carefully blank. “I came from the ground, I was told. I had no parents. My beloved father saved me from the cages. From the humans who took a damaged, wretched child and turned her inside out. He bought me from them, and gave me the only love I ever knew.”

She turned her head slowly to look at Clayton.

He stared at the floor.

Chills raced through my body and I began to shiver. I touched her cheek to bring her attention back to me, and for an instant, her eyes shone with a feral madness.

I cleared my throat. “Let’s not talk about it. It’s too upsetting for you. Why did you want to see me?”

I would like to have heard her story. I would like to have known how and when Clayton had entered her world—but I’d seen her face. The deeper she got into her past, the more dangerous she became.

Someday I’d hear it, but not while Clayton was within touching distance.

“Miriam,” I urged, and finally she focused on me. “I have to go to the island tonight. I have to bring Angus home.”

She downed the rest of the water, then crushed the plastic bottle. “Yes. And that is not going to be an easy task. I will go with you.”

I got to my feet. “You can’t go. You’re a supernatural. The only way they’ll let you inside the Byrdcage is if they plan on keeping you there.”

She shuddered, then stood as well. “Perhaps. But I’m not letting anything happen to you.” Despite the calm surety in her voice, her face went a little pale and remembered terror peeked from her eyes.

I grasped her shoulders, leaned down, and kissed her forehead. “Thank you. But I don’t want you risking your life. I’ll have Shane and Alejandro with me.”

“It would be risky,” she murmured. “Very risky.”

I sighed, realizing that one minute I was wishing her dead and the next I was trying to keep her safe.

She put her fingers to her forehead and her glassy blue gaze softened. “Clayton will go with you. They won’t let him enter the prison, but if he knows something is happening to you, he won’t ask them for permission. Leave Silverlight with him.”

We both turned to look at the golem. He lifted his gaze to look first at Miriam, then me. Finally, he nodded. “You’ll need all the backup you can get.”

“Absolutely not. It’s too dangerous for you, just as it’s too dangerous for Miriam. I don’t want to have to worry about you while I’m inside trying to break Angus out.” I smiled, but neither of them returned my smile. They didn’t respond at all—just continued to watch me.

“Breaking him out is an impossible task,” I admitted, finally. “Isn’t it?”

Miriam nodded. “Even if you somehow managed to free him from his restraints and sneak him out of the prison, how would you get him off the island? And how would you keep either of you free with law enforcement on your heels?”

I put my fist to my mouth, my heart sinking as I accepted the futility of my plans. The only way I could get Angus out was if they gave him to me. “Then why am I even trying?”

Miriam took my hand. “Because Himself told you to try. And that means you have a chance, even if you can’t see it at the moment. There will be a way. You just have to find it. You can’t break him out, but you can get him out.”

I straightened my shoulders. “Yes. There will be a way.” The ancient, mystical man would not have set me an impossible task. That would have been a waste of his time.

And once again brimming with hope and belief and determination, I strode from the necromancer’s office and went out to face the coming night.