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dived into
fibbing, “Sir, don’t think nothing. We found the tool the kid used.
For the tat. We took it away. It’s all under control.”
    Rig gave a look of scorching hatred to Fox.
“No, it ain’t. And we didn’t find what he used for the tat, not
really. We just had our guesses. And besides, that brat can turn
air into a weapon. He’s a sneaky one. We should waste ’im, we
should.”
    Before such stupidity, Bones turned the color
of raw egg white and crumpled the paper bag with our food for the
day. Pop went something in there, and brown liquid—soup to
all appearances—leaked out of every seam. Bones squatted to set the
bag on the floor and didn’t get up again, probably fearing his legs
would fold if he tried to.
    This small scene between Rig and Bones must
have reminded Horgreth to keep his outward cool because he was all
breeziness again. “My worst investment. Four kids who cost me a
fortune, and not one of them come into their gift yet. What a
waste!”
    The butterfly woman made a move to speak, but
he gestured for her to stay silent.
    “Show me your wrists,” he rasped in our
direction.
    Since I’d promised to behave, I truly meant
to do what Horgreth had ordered, just not right away. Maybe I’d be
the second to do it, or the third, and yet, one by one, Fox, Sin,
and Demi turned their hands palms up and stretched them out and
waited—and I still dawdled. Fox’s jaws clenched. His face started
to look like a hilly landscape, and I gave up: I flipped my hands
over.
    Fifteen years ago, right after we’d been
brought into this mall, the traffickers had labeled us: name
tattooed on one thigh, gift on the other. Later, for ease, they had
done the same with our wrists, and now Horgreth was gliding along
our line, reading our gifts out loud: “Nightmare, death, time.”
    He halted in front of me and read my wrist in
a hoarse whisper, “Heart.” He squinted at me. “The deadliest talent
of all. Being able to channel any feeling into any person anywhere
in the world. Some say it’s not an absolute power. They say hearts
can’t create worlds or raise the dead. Bullshit. It doesn’t matter
what you can do as long as everyone believes you can
do anything, my all-powerful one.” The man’s expression didn’t
change, but his voice couldn’t hide his furious hunger, and I knew
he really wanted to be here. But why? It wasn’t like I’d come into
my gift. I couldn’t even sense other people’s feelings, much less
channel anything.
    Horgreth leaned closer to me. “Or rather an almost absolute power. Do you know what can stop you, little
heart?”
    “Yeah, sure. A taker,” I said. “But only for
a few seconds.”
    “Which is indefinitely if that taker stays
with you,” Horgreth corrected me, then asked casually, “What would
you channel, little thing, if you knew how?”
    The question caught me off guard. Of course,
for years I’d fantasized about what I would do to the gods and
above all to Horgreth if I actually could impart feelings to
people, but I’d never thought I would be asked that by Horgreth
himself. And since I didn’t want to tell him the truth, I had to
come up with a plausible lie right under his nose. I took a breath
of our stale air and said what I thought he’d expected me to, “I
would flood you with pain and keep you under till you went mad, and
then I’d slit your throat with a knife I would take from one of
your bodyguards, and then I’d leave this place.”
    Horgreth gave me a taut smile, but I couldn’t
tell if he believed me. Well, if he was smart, he would know I’d
lied. Because why would I need pain? It was useless. If I made
everyone writhe in torment, there’d be no one to open the steel
door for me, or to find me a car, or to drive that car where I
needed to go. No, if I really could do any heart-bending, I would
make those gods adore me—then they would do everything I
wanted.
    By now, all of the guards were pointing their
weapons at my head. One had