Page 70 of Demon’s Snack

“He wants a crowd.”

“Yes.”

“And he wants me there.”

Isolde takes the paper back before I burn it by accident. “Almost certainly.”

The hunger lifts at the thought of Vaerith arranging people like kindling. I pace away from her, because movement helps, because the chamber is suddenly too small for the heat trying to rise again.

“He’s going to use a contract subject,” I say. “Someone desperate. Someone already damaged.”

“That would be consistent.”

“He’ll make a show of it, trigger backlash, and put civilians close enough that if anything goes wrong, everyone panics.”

“Likely.”

“And if I appear, he provokes me. If I don’t appear, he hurts someone publicly and calls it necessary enforcement.”

Isolde folds the notice with precise hands, but her voice is quieter when she answers. “There is another layer.”

“Of course there is. Hells forbid the spider stop at one web.”

“The notice requires attendance from estate contract personnel.”

I stop pacing.

Her face tells me before her mouth does.

“No,” I say.

“I must attend.”

“No.”

“Corin.”

“No, absolutely not. That is not happening.”

Her expression cools in the way I am learning means she is preparing to be very reasonable and extremely impossible. “I am Vaerith’s analyst. My absence from a public contract demonstration would be conspicuous.”

“Good. Be conspicuous somewhere else.”

“That would invite confinement.”

“Then I’ll get you out before sunset.”

“And prove Vaerith’s claim that you are an unstable threat capable of abducting estate personnel?”

I point at her. “Do not use logic at me right now.”

“I generally use logic when someone is proposing a terrible idea.”

“My idea involves you not walking into a trap.”

“My role in the trap exists whether I attend willingly or not.”

The bond pulls tight between us, the warmth sharpened by my rising fear. I want to argue. I want to throw every shelf in this room against the wall. I want to find Vaerith’s mirror gallery and turn it into sand. The hunger listens to those wants with interest, and that terrifies me enough to make me breathe through my nose until the first rush of heat eases.