Page 117 of A Shade Too Far
Zev nodded. “I was still clinging to life when I heard one of the inquisitors was boasting about how he’d finally broken the Jewess. He even had a trophy to prove it.”
The gloves. I bowed my head, overcome by the sheer horror of what had been done to Naomi.
“You killed him, right?” I white-knuckled the counter.
“I prayed for the strength to,” Zev said. “But God didn’t answer me.” He tilted his head, his expression distant, then pursed his lips. “Or perhaps he did. I’ll never know.”
“The estrie?” I guessed.
“Yes. She turned me and I gave her a feast.”
I hung rapt off his grisly tale, waiting to hear the gory details about what Zev had done and slake my own desire for vengeance on his wife’s behalf, but he sat up like he’d come back to himself. Scooping up both our cups, he set them with the carafe behind the bar.
Storytime was over.
Zev had spent more than six hundred years searching for this piece of his wife. The gloves were a desecration and yet precious because they were all he had left of her.
“Why did you tell me this?”
He rubbed a hand over his chin. “I wanted someone else to keep her alive.”
I pressed my hand to my heart. “I won’t tell anyone.”
“I would kill you if you did.” There was no heat in his words, but their matter-of-fact nature gave them weight. He grasped the door handle, then turned back. “I expect to hear from you in two weeks. Don’t bother me before then.”
I shook my head in disbelief, running my thumb over the KH tattoo. He was going to ward me up. I followed him out the door like an eager puppy. “Why? I mean, thank you. But why?”
“Because you saved the gloves. Not because you knew the story and pitied me, simply because you judged that they mattered.” With that he strode into the night, until the shadows swallowed him.
Tatiana had forgiven me, while Nav and I had restored a tentative friendship. And now Zev had agreed to redo the ward, which would go a long way to smoothing things over with Eli and Sadie.
A house divided could stand, and in fact had been doing so for time immemorial. Families had been tolerating differences while still standing strong forever. Any parent of a teenager learned this. Relationships weren’t based on total agreement. They required respect and empathy. What mattered most was not seeing eye to eye but seeing each other clearly.
These people I’d fought with had become my extended family. Okay, not Zev. But even he had stood with us, uniting at the crucial moment.
I mentally rebuilt my house of cards. No, my House of Bricks. But there was one important piece to secure before I could complete it. I smiled, hoping that surprising Laurent would go better than the last time.
