Page 160 of Mercy Written in Blood

It had been standing beside them all along.

Chapter Fourteen

Kael Knows

Kael let himself into Renji's apartment without knocking. The lock turned. The door opened. Renji did not need to look up to know who it was — no one else treated entry as a formality rather than a request.

Renji remained seated beside the window, a closed book resting across one knee. He had been watching the second hand move across the clock for longer than he cared to admit, pretending not to wait for Haruki to send a message.

Kael stepped inside, closed the door behind him and removed his shoes with the confidence of someone entering a property he had partially financed, legally seized or threatened often enough to consider familiar.

"You have a key."

"Yes."

"Why?"

"You gave it to me."

"I did not."

"You were unconscious."

"That is not consent."

"You had been impaled."

"That is also not consent."

Kael placed a folded umbrella beside the door.

"Your gratitude remains overwhelming."

"You should return it."

"I may need it again."

"You will not."

Kael looked towards him. Renji sat in the armchair with a closed book resting across one knee. The same page had been facing him for twenty-three minutes. Kael's gaze moved from the book to the untouched cup on the table, then to the second cup drying beside the kitchen sink. His expression changed. Only slightly. That was sufficient to make Renji dislike him more than usual.

"You've got that look," Kael said.

"I have no idea what you mean."

"That one."

"You have not identified anything."

"The expression you wear when you've made a choice and are now searching for a way to classify it as an accident."

Renji looked down at the book.

"I was reading."

"No, you were holding a book."

"There is a difference only if you are illiterate."