I leaned against the wall facing Alice’s room, trying to work up the courage to go in. Thirty-six hours and Doc Merlin had finally pronounced her rested enough for visitors, and I was going to be her first. Any minute now. I took my phone out and called Flint. “How are things at the precinct?” “Weird. Most are just confused as to when they woke up in the hospital with bleeding marks. Those that have talked say they can’t remember why they have them are they lying?” “I don’t know. People within the Gray Church let themselves be marked, they’ll be lying to avoid attracting attention. As for the rest? I there is magic that can be used to make you do something against your will, but that leaves the victim disoriented once it wears off. It would explain what you’re seeing. I also can’t see a police officer just letting someone get close to them with a knife.” “Almost a thousand officers have been afflicted throughout the city. The CDC is freaking out, there’s talk of a targeted terrorist attack against us. How are you going to explain it away?” I sighed. “I’m not. We’re going to make sure they don’t stumble on the truth, but a terrorist attack works as well as any explanation we could manufacture.” “And you’re okay with just lying to everyone like that?” “No,” I said, silencing that voice at the back of my head saying this was how it should be. It might be right in this case, but I wasn’t going to let myself get comfortable listening to it. “Look, I don’t like it, but what happens if I step forward to announce the Denver police was taken over magically? If only a handful of people believe me, it’s going to start a war between those who think magic is a good thing and those who don’t.” “Okay, I get it. And to be honest, most are just confused, but a few are going to have to be told.” “No, I—” “Denton, Sherman knows something went down. He’s been in his office since being discharged and I got IT to give me a peek at his screen. He’s going over the last two years, case by case. I know there are some he isn’t going to be able to explain how he handled them, because his decisions made no sense unless you believe he was being mind-controlled. I know you’re angry at him, but you can’t just let him drive himself insane over this.” “I.” I closed my eyes. “Flint, I’m not in charge of this. I’m only one of the people. I brought you in because I can vouch for you. Sherman is another matter entirely. I can’t make that decision alone, and you can’t tell him.” “He’s a good guy, Denton.” “I know. I’ll talk to the elder who handles those affairs. Maybe with the Gray Churched dealt with once and for all we can afford to have closer contacts with law enforcement. It would certainly make my job easier.” “Alright, I’ll let you deal with Sherman. Reilly’s vanished, as has Alice.” “Alice is with me. She’s recuperating from what was done to her.” “You think Reilly is doing the same? Staying under the radar while he’s better?” “No idea, but I suspect little had to be done to him. His hatred of me and my faction ran deep way before any of this started. Did anyone else vanish?” “Not here, but I asked around fifteen officers throughout the city didn’t report in, or show up at hospitals. I recognized three of the names as Reilly’s buddies.” “Okay. Keep an ear out, but don’t do anything. Don’t question any story too deeply, remember, Reilly never confirmed we work together. Now is not the time to do that.” “Business as usual, for however long that’s feasible.” “Yeah. I need to go have a talk with Alice, see what state of mind she is.” “Good luck.” I messaged Jeroen I was going in and opened the door. “Oh, and the high and mighty Denton finally deign to visit little old me,” Alice snapped. She shook her handcuffed hand. “Really?” “Hello Alice.” “Don’t fucking hello Alice me. You have no fucking business holding me here.” “We need to talk.” “You have more lies for me?” “I never lied!” the vehemence in my voice shocked us both. I closed my eyes and gripped the rail at the end of her bed. I wasn’t doing that again, throwing anger back at her. “I know you’re angry, but now, it’s you I’m talking with, and not whoever the church turned you into.” “They didn’t turn me into anything,” she stated. “So you agreed to let them do that to you?” I indicated her bandaged arm and shoulder. “Do you even know what those are?” She glanced at it and looked away. “A mark of devotion. That’s what I was told. Suffering is the path to purity.” “Did Bret consent?” Her face fell, then turned into a mask of anger. “What have you done to him, you son of a bitch!” “I freed him, like I did you. He’s fine, his was less extensive than yours.” “If you hurt him, I’m going to kill you.” I nodded. “I’m not asking you to forgive me, all I want is that you listen. After that it’ll all up to you, but at least if you still hate me, it’s going to be you.” I saw her make the effort to calm herself. Fuck, I wanted to read her mind, listen in to figure out to fix this. To find out what other secrets she might have. How did Max resist the temptation, day in day out? “Well,” she said, “what are you waiting for?” “I never lied to you Alice.” I raised my hand to stop her protestation. “When the Rasia were being murdered, my father removed any memories of them to protect me. Then my dad adopted me and I was I Brislow. Did I know I was born a Rasia? Yes, but it’s like me knowing your maiden name is Vaughn. Not something that comes up except under unusual circumstances. You never asked my birth name, I never thought to volunteer it. Even now, it means nothing to me except for all the baggage it carries, and that’s been dumped on me by other people. Did I know about magic and the Society? Not until the Lewiston case. My father also removed whatever knowledge eight-year-old me might have had of that. Fuck, I wanted to tell you when I found out.” “Why didn’t you?” “They wouldn’t let me. I was supposed to be dead. I couldn’t even talk to my folks.” “The Denton I thought I knew wouldn’t let that stop him.” “They played the ‘keeping you safe’ card. They didn’t know you were church, if it helps.” “Right.” I chuckled. “If they even suspected, they wouldn’t have let me contact you at all. They are as distrustful of the Gray Church as you are of them.” “You hate secrets, how can you stand working with them.” “I was going to work with you, with the Gray Church, do you remember me telling you that? When you pointed that shotgun in my face and said you were going to ruin my career? I didn’t want secrets between us, Alice. I thought we could be a great team.” She looked at me, doubt there, before her face hardened. “Now you want to know why I still work with them. Why I didn’t just walk away from all this.” She nodded. “Ignoring how you and Reilly made sure I couldn’t do anything with the skills I have, we can do good. We stopped Damian’s killing spree of the Lewiston. We caught his frontman, and we the found where he was and put an end to his machination. Full disclosure, he’s back, and he’s the one who took over the Gray Church.” She burst out laughing. “Oh, you almost had me believing you, but someone taking over the church? Please.” “Believe me or not, I don’t really care. When you get back to work, don’t let any of them mark you again and do your own investigation. Do you remember the Skinner?” “The serial killer that ran around while you kept popping up where dead bodies were?” “One, Alice. The Maresh body was the only one. The killer turned out to be a follower of the Green Man.” She snorted. “The tree huggers? Come on Denton, be serious, they couldn’t step on a flower, let alone hurt someone.” “You have no idea how happy they are going to be to know that’s what you think of them, but yeah it was one of them. Me and my friend within the Society stopped her, permanently.” “Are you going to tell me that every week you’ve been saving the city from one monster or another? How invaluable you are?” “Those two are the only monsters I ran into, if you don’t count the twins, but that’s one time I’m happy you never caught onto what was happening. Those two represented the worst of us. They’re dead too. Now, I provide security to those who pay me. Most of that is utterly mundane stuff, with the occasional visiting elder.” “So that’s it? You’re just a normal guy running a normal business?” “I’m Society, Alice. I don’t even know what normal means anymore. But I’m not the bad guy.” “So you say.” “So I say.” The silence stretched. “Do you really expect that to change anything?” she asked. “I don’t know. It’s up to you. I just wanted the chance to tell you the truth.” She shook her hand. “Except I’m still a prisoner.” I turned and headed for the door. “None of it was true, was it? You’re just getting your sick—” I opened the door and let Bret in. I handed him the keys to the handcuffs. “I’ll do my best—” I cut him off. “It’s not your responsibility. Thank you for letting me talk to her.” He ran to her side. “Oh baby,” she said, I could hear her crying, “are you okay? Did they—” I closed the door. I thought I’d feel better after unloading, but I was still me. I still had work to do, she still didn’t trust me. Maybe our friendship was indeed over. There was nothing I could do about that but wait and see what happened. The noise became louder as I approached the lobby, louder than it should be. The crowd was thick, all employees as far as I could tell, all looking at their phones and talking about what they say. Jeroen waved me in his office. “What’s—” “You need to see this.” He slotted his phone in the desk and the face of a tiger appeared on it with the caption “Doctor Arthur Orr dead, shot.” Even before Jeroen started the playback, I had my phone out and was bringing up Arnold’s number. What the fuck had Damian done.