Someone or something literally ripped this woman in half.
“I don’t want to see a recreation of this,” I tell Hekima before he can do his thing. “It’s self-explanatory. Someone very strong pulled her in two different directions.”
“Indeed,” Kain says. “Gemma’s kind are fragile, so unfortunately, we have many Cognizant on the Council with enough strength to do that.”
Well, this is going to be fun. “Do you have any idea how any of this ties together?” I ask. Maybe if they—
Kain slams the folder shut. “That’s what you’re here to find out.”
Right, okay. Lucky me. “Did the bird guy—”
“Leal,” Kain corrects.
“Right. Did Leal have a grievance with the last lady—”
“Gemma,” Kain provides.
“Yes, Gemma. Did Leal—”
“Leal only had one friend—Ryan, the elf,” Hekima says, his grandfatherly features wreathed in pity. “Nobody on the Council liked him much, except maybe Kain and the other vampires.”
“Oh?”
“I’d go as far as to say I considered Leal a friend,” Kain says. “Or at least an ally.”
“But why does everyone else not like the guy?” I resist the temptation to open the folder and look at the man in question.
“His powers,” Kain says. With a sharp-edged smile, he adds, “He was a dreamwalker.”
Another dreamwalker? I glare at Kain. “Why are you only telling me about that now?”
The vampire shrugs. “When was I supposed to tell you? Rumor has it, he had blackmail material on all the other members of the Council. They thought he’d gathered it in their dreams.”
The ache in my temples intensifies. “So you’re telling me he might’ve been killed for snooping around people’s dreams?”
“It’s feasible,” Hekima says gently.
I take a deep breath and try not to look at Pom, who’s rapidly turning black on my wrist. “But that’s exactly what you’re asking me to do. What’s to stop them from wanting to kill me?”
Kain waves dismissively. “You should worry about the murderer. That’s who’ll really want to kill you—if you’re any good.”
“Thanks. That makes me feel so much better.”
Kain smirks. “If I were you, I’d do my best not to find any compromising information inside the Councilors’ heads.”
I cup my hands over my eyes, the enormity of the task hitting me like a punch to the face.
“Why don’t you do your thing with those Council members who have more reason to be under suspicion?” Hekima suggests. “Anyone strong.”
I lower my hands. “Sure, I’ll start with the ones who can rip me in half. I feel safer already.”
“It’s not a bad idea,” Kain says. “Still, I want you to set up a dream link to everyone on the Council. Even me.”
I take another breath, trying to think like the detective I’m not. “This Leal, did he leave any notes? As you said, he knew secrets about the Council. Maybe he wrote them down somewhere.”
And maybe, just maybe, he also wrote something about the art of dreamwalking itself. I’ve never met any dreamwalkers besides Mom—we’re pretty scarce on Gomorrah—and between her diligently avoiding the topic of our abilities and the fact that I never received any formal training in how to use my powers, there’s a lot I don’t know about my own kind.
“I’ll take you to his lab,” Kain says, his expression unreadable.
Hekima withdraws his illusion, and the dreary cell room comes back—as does the stench.
“Let me know if I can help any further,” Hekima tells Kain. “And Bailey, if you need to know anything about the history of the Council or anything else, I’m here for you.”
Felix chuckles. “Good old Hekima. He’ll look for any excuse to run an Orientation.”
I smile at the elderly illusionist. “Thank you. I’ll find you if I need that.”
Hekima’s dark eyes twinkle. “I guess I’ll see you tonight in my dreams.”
“Not if I’m just setting up a connection,” I say.
Hekima leaves, and Kain picks up the folder and strides out.
I sprint to keep up with him.
A few winding corridors later, we arrive at the lab I saw in Hekima’s recreation of the grisly bird attack. Though someone has cleaned up, I can picture the bloody corpse all too easily. What’s worse is that the doves are here now, roosting in the same cages they broke out of to murder their caretaker. And the smell emanating from those cages…
“Creepy,” Felix remarks just as Kain says, “I’m going to leave you to it. Be back in an hour.”
Hundreds of saffron-colored eyes stare at me hungrily from the cages. Before I can beg Kain not to leave me alone with the stinky killer birds, he disappears, closing the door behind him.
As if that’s what they had been waiting for all along, the dule of murderous feathered beasts begins to coo menacingly.
Chapter Fourteen
The cooing swells to fill the room, mimicking the growing knot in my throat. But the birds don’t attack me. They don’t even try to escape from their cages. They just coo and eat grain from their feeders, and on occasion, I hear a wet splatter as one of them poops.