Slayer (Slayer #1)

Sean undoes a flask, taking a drink. He holds it out to me. I recoil, and he shrugs, putting it back. “Same reason I do anything. Pretty girl. And there she is.”

The girl in the leather walks into the office. I turn around and we both freeze, stunned.

“Honora?” I ask.

“Wheezy.” She pulls out a gun and points it at my head.

25

“WHY DO YOU HAVE A gun?” I should have known Honora would be here. Of course she’s here. She’s working hand in hand with Sean. I can’t believe she’d tell someone like him about the Watchers. After everyone we’ve lost.

Honora rolls her eyes. “I have a gun, idiot, because I’m not going to carry around a miniature crossbow. We don’t all pretend like being a Watcher still means anything. This is my city. I don’t have to play by any rules at all.” She lowers the gun slightly, shaking her head meaningfully at Leo, who had started moving to get around her. “You should try it sometime, Leo.”

Sean clears his throat. “Honora, love, you realize that I’m directly behind her, so there’s a high likelihood that you’ll shoot me as well?”

“This bitch is the reason we lost Doug.”

“Don’t you dare call my sister a bitch.” Artemis appears in the doorway behind Honora, her face a mask of fury. She’s here! And she finally knows I’m right. She kicks Honora’s hand, knocking the gun free. It clatters menacingly to the floor. “You lied to me. You used me to find that demon. He didn’t really kill anyone, did he?”

“There are two of them?” Sean looks both alarmed and bemused as he stares at Artemis and then me.

“I don’t want to fight you, Artemis. I like you.” Honora holds her arms out to display her innocence. I stand, ready. Leo is perfectly still, waiting to see if he needs to pounce. Honora ignores both of us, focusing on Artemis. “Listen to what we have to say. I think you’ll understand.”

Then, to my shock, she throws a punch. Artemis ducks it. Honora laughs. They spin in a flurry of kicks and blocks, punches and dodges.

Honora is holding back, though. I can tell. She used so much more force on me this morning. If she were really fighting, Artemis wouldn’t be conscious. I think Artemis knows it too. She dodges another punch and—smiles? She’s smiling? Gods, they’re flirting. Honora was pointing a gun at me not two minutes ago! I look at Leo, aghast. He shrugs.

Catching herself smiling, Artemis scowls, kicking at Honora’s side. “How could you work for him?”

“Please.” Honora dodges the kick, then spins around behind Artemis, pinning her arm to her back. She rests her cheek against Artemis’s neck. “They don’t deserve you. They have you serving them meals, Artemis. Look at you. You’re a goddess.”

“And you’re working with a drug dealer!” Artemis spins away, chest heaving, fists up.

Leo clears his throat. He has a slender but heavy-looking metal rod in his hand. It must have been up his sleeve. I feel a surge of triumphant glee. Honora thought he was unarmed. I doubt Leo’s ever unarmed. “Let’s all calm down, or I’ll shatter this glass and release the remora demon.”

Sean stands in alarm. “Are you touched? Without water pressure, they grow to the size of their container! It’ll fill the office and kill us all!”

Leo smiles. It’s weirdly adorable, given the situation. I catch a flutter in my stomach and squash it. He gestures with the rod. “We’ve got two Watchers and a Slayer on our team. I like my odds. Do you like yours?”

“Honora!” Sean snaps. “Please!”

Honora steps back from Artemis. “Sean, remember how I told you about the woman who hated my mum, so she made sure I got sent away on assignment to the crappiest places imaginable? Meet her daughters.”

“I thought you wanted to leave,” Artemis says. “You could have come back.” She looks more upset by this than she did by the fight with Honora. But they were never really fighting. They might as well have been dancing for all either of them intended any damage.

“I did want to leave! You should too.”

Sean clears his throat. “Are you sure you wouldn’t rather work this out somewhere else?”

Honora has a knife in her hand now. She picks at her fingernails with it. “It’s okay, really. I got assigned deep cover in a demon-worshipping cult, and then acolytes of the First Evil blew up the Council. So your mum hating mine actually saved my life.”

“Honora, I—” Artemis starts, staring down at the floor.

In a flash, Honora darts to me and holds the knife under my chin, spinning so that I’m between her and my companions. “Go on,” she says to Leo. “Try to free the remora. Artemis won’t let you. She won’t let anything happen to endanger poor little Nina. Nina’s the reason Artemis stayed with the Watchers, played their servant when she deserves so much more. ‘Nina needs me,’ ” Honora says in a perfect imitation of my sister. “And now you’re a Slayer?” Her knifepoint digs into my chin. “Tell me how it makes any sense that you’re a Slayer and Artemis isn’t. What kind of fate would choose you over her?” She pauses, and her next words are so soft I wonder if she meant them to be out loud. “I wouldn’t.”

Her words cut better than her knife could. Artemis won’t meet my eyes, confirming what Honora says. I did hold her back. And it’s obvious even Artemis feels like, of the two of us, she should have been the Chosen One.

But she’s not. I am.