“What happens if he doesn’t wake up tomorrow?”

“We’ll put him on an IV and wait some more. His respiration is normal, his heartbeat is steady, and if we really tried, we could probably wake him up for a few seconds. He just needs rest, Runa.”

She looked at her brother, reached over, and pulled a corner of the blanket up to expose his feet. “He always kicks the blanket off to stick his feet out. When he was little, it used to cause him anxiety. He wanted to sleep with his feet uncovered but he was scared that a monster from under the bed would grab his foot at night . . .” Her voice trailed off.

I wanted so much to make it better for her. “He will wake up.”

Runa looked up at me and held her hand out. “Runa Etterson, Prime Venenata.”

It was the way she had introduced herself at Nevada’s wedding. Why were we doing the introductions again? “We’ve already met.”

“No. I’ve met Catalina Baylor. She’s shy and she tries to fade into the background. She gets embarrassed if anyone glances at her a second too long. I watched her at her sister’s wedding and half of the time she looked like she was waiting for her chance to run away.”

“I was.”

“I saw you verbally eviscerate Conway a few hours ago. You had this look on your face like you were some ice princess and he’d trespassed in your kingdom. And then you cut my sister’s reanimated corpse into four pieces.”

“Conway was wrong to treat you the way he did, and reanimated bodies have to be disabled. The smaller the pieces, the lesser the threat.”

She shook her head. “That’s not my point and you know it. What the hell happened to you?”

I came over, sat on the other side of the bed, and put the small box I was carrying onto the covers.

“When we met at Nevada’s wedding, I was panicking. That was the first time I was in charge of anything important. You were born a Prime, into a House of Primes. I was born a normal person, into a normal family, except that I had this terrible magic I had to hide so I wouldn’t accidentally hurt people with it. I was only required to go to school, get good grades, and keep my magic hidden. Nobody expected me to take any responsibility for anything else. I had the luxury of covering my face and saying, ‘This is too hard. I can’t do this.’ And I did.”

“So what changed?”

I sighed. “We became a House. I was certified as a Prime. I had a nervous breakdown.”

Runa blinked. “Why?”

“Because it was all too much. I needed rules. As long as I followed the rules, nobody got hurt and everybody left me alone. Suddenly, all my rules no longer applied and hiding in the background wasn’t an option. I was freaking out. Then Rogan’s mother found me and offered to mentor me. She made me see things from a different perspective.”

“She taught you how to dismember a person with a knife?” Runa asked.

“She hired someone who did. Have you killed anyone before?”

“No.”

“I’m sorry you had to do that today.”

If I hadn’t taken her with me, she wouldn’t have killed Conway. But she would have to kill sooner or later. Maybe it was better this way. I had a feeling that whoever targeted her family wouldn’t let go, not now, after their murder was confirmed.

“Have you killed anyone?” Runa asked.

“Physically, no. But what I do is much worse. Victoria Tremaine is my grandmother. When she requires the contents of your brain, she grasps your mind, wrenches it open, and takes whatever she wants. All your secrets, all of your hopes, your fantasies, your guilt over things you did years ago and tried your best to hide and forget, she sees it and rummages through it. Nevada has the same talent. I saw her interrogate a man once. He was a hardened mercenary and after she was done, he curled into a ball and cried like a child.”

“Your magic is different.”

I shrugged. “I don’t use brute force. I entice, I seduce, but the end result is the same. I suppress your will. You’ll tell me everything, and you will be happy to do it. It’s the deepest violation of a person. I try not to do it unless I absolutely have to.”

“But you’ve had to,” Runa guessed.

“Yes. My mom is a veteran, and she once told me that nobody gets out of a war with their hands clean. We’ve been at war for the past three years.”

“You do realize how fundamentally fucked up this is.” Runa crossed her arms on her chest. “I feel like I lived my whole life with my eyes closed.”

“Your mother took very good care of all of you. Runa, it doesn’t have to be like this for you. I have no choice because of our circumstances, but there are plenty of Houses who don’t often come into conflicts with each other.”

“But why does it have to be you?”

“Because it’s my turn. Nevada is married. She has her own threats and problems to deal with and I can’t expect her to drop everything and run here to save us. My mother doesn’t have the kind of magic that can protect us. Grandma Frida is past seventy. Here I am with all this power and I let everyone take care of me for most of my life, because it was too hard and scary and because I didn’t want the guilt of hurting people. It wasn’t fair. So, when Nevada decided to take a step back, I decided it was my turn to take care of everyone and do the ugly things nobody wants to do.”

She shook her head.

“I’m the oldest ranking Prime in House Baylor,” I told her. “It’s my job to keep us fed, clothed, and safe. I still want to run away, Runa. But if someone tries to hurt my family, I’ll kill them. It will cost me a great deal, but I’ll do it.”

Runa stared at me. “This is what being the Head of the House does to you.”

It wasn’t a question, but I answered it anyway. “Yes.”

“I don’t feel bad about killing Conway,” she said. “I should. I took a life. But I don’t.”

“Guilt usually hits me late at night,” I said.

“How do you deal with it?”

I pushed the box toward her. “I keep a stash of chocolate in my room.”

“Does it help?”

“It does a little.”

She opened the box. “Neuhaus truffles?”

“Mhm. Bern found some information on your mother’s backup server. We have to go back to the conference room.”

Runa’s eyes widened. “Am I going to need these?”

“Yes.”

Chapter 5

“Most people tend to back up specific files or folders.” Bern set his laptop in front of Runa. “Your mother went a step further. She backed up the entire hard drive. For all intents and purposes, this is an exact copy of her computer. The last session happened on the day she died.”

I picked up my tablet. “We were able to view her activity log. She moved three files out of documents to the desktop. Here they are: Will, Financial Summary, and Bills and Utilities.”

Runa clicked on the financial summary and scanned the contents. Bern and I had already looked at the file. It listed House Etterson’s investments, the amounts current as of last Sunday. A short note at the bottom identified a financial adviser, Dennis Moody, with a notation, “Ask him if you have any questions.” The other file documented the monthly bills, including utilities, insurance, and Ragnar’s tuition.

Runa raised her head. “She knew she was going to die. That’s why she moved the files where I would see them right away.”

“It looks that way,” Bern said.

“I don’t understand.” Runa leaned forward, her hands rolled into fists. “Why didn’t she tell me? All she had to do was pick up the phone. Why didn’t she hire somebody? Some sort of bodyguard?”

Those were all good questions. “There is more.”

Bern reached over and tapped a couple of keys. A video filled the screen.

“Your mother recorded this on the day of her death just before midnight,” Bern said.

“We haven’t watched it,” I said. “Would you like some privacy?”

“Yes. Thank you.”

Bern and I stepped out into the hallway and I shut the door behind us.

“That financial summary bothers me,” I said quietly. “Sigourney dumped a two-million-dollar investment with Diatheke, Ltd., on the day she died.”

“I saw that,” Bern said. “That’s a large amount.”

“It was also Sunday. What sort of investment firm or bank is open on Sunday?”

“A good question.”

So far, we had this mysterious payment and Alessandro. Those were our only leads. If only I had gotten to Conway in time.

“Did you have time to look into Conway?” I asked.

Bern frowned. “I pulled his credit report. He has a line of credit from Texas State Employee Credit Union. Most likely, his accounts are there. All the first responders, cops, and firefighters bank there. They shell out the big bucks for online security. The guy who set up their system is a Significant cryptomage. It will take days to break, if I can do it at all. Not only is it illegal, but they’ll come after me. Do you still want me to do it?”

Too risky. If they caught Bern, they would make an example out of him. He would be the dirty hacker who compromised the hard-earned money of Texas heroes. Bern would serve real time and we would be done as a firm and a House.

“No,” I told him. “Conway is a dead end. It’s not worth it.”