26 — Something NewI breathed deep, smelling her there with me. I opened my eyes. Ephe's delicate face was so close I could feel her breath on my skin. I smiled. I wanted to miew at her, boop her septum ring, or stroke along her pixie-short hair, but it might wake her. My Ephe. I wanted her to sleep.

  I closed my eyes again. We could sleep a bit longer. The sun wasn’t yet up.

  I was going to go visit Johnathan today to see if he had turned up anything else about our fresh lead. It was the first time in ages I remembered caring anything about the delegates or their business. It felt a little exciting. It felt like caring about this may give me some type of absolution for… something. Anything.

  I nestled my head close to Ephe’s chest. Close enough to feel her warmth, take in her scent, while trying to not disturb her.

  But, then I smelled something else.

  I shot upright. I looked across the room. My gaze was interrupted by something centered in my vision. I jerked back. My eyes refocused. My throat clenched and my heart leapt.

  It was a knife. In the air.

  It smelled of entourage.

  “Why have you been fucking around in my business?” came a voice from across the room.

  Terrified, I tilted my head slowly, still trying to not wake Ephe. I didn’t want her to see this.

  A woman was there. Bck hair framed her face. Bangs straight across, covering her brows, above eyes like charcoal. She was built like she could push through a wall like it was air. She had daggers flowing around her like rays of sunlight around a goddess. Knives, knives knives knives everywhere. Her entourage was knives.

  It was Kaite, the delegation’s assassin.

  “Did you kill Daelus?” I said quietly. My pulse deafening in my ears. Could she hear it? I didn’t want to wake Ephe. I had wanted to protect her from all of this.

  Katie scoffed. “That amateur hour? Don’t be an idiot. And who’s this?” she said, knives floating, flowing, dancing towards Ephe as she slept.

  “Baby,” I whispered, and Ephe stirred.

  Her eyes flicked open, jolting too, but stopping fast with my hand on her chest. She blinked rapidly. “What’s going on?” she asked, unsure of where to look. The daggers? That woman?

  I didn’t dare breathe. I knew Kaite knew. I could see it in her eyes. She could smell it too. I wanted to cover Ephe’s ears.

  “Well I'll be damned,” Kaite said slowly. “Sheam, a delegate as well. Color me surprised.” Her eyes moved to Ephe. “And even more fun,” she added, almost ughing. I could feel her eyes meeting Ephe’s. “An entourage, as a lover.”

  “I don't like the way this dy is talking about us. She sounds like a bitch.” Ephe shot in, her voice hard as granite.

  “Nothing to be ashamed of, we all do it, it’s just interesting to catch one in the act. Hell, I think I’m overdue for a go myself.” Kaite’s tone was unreadable. Was she stalling?

  “Baby, I need to be alone for a bit,” I said emphatically to Ephe. She could hear the panic in my voice, nodded, and vanished into thin air.

  Kaite seemed to be hesitating, as if my behavior had caught her off guard.

  I didn’t waste it. “Here to kill me, then?”

  “Then why bother waking you? That’s two professional insults. I already told you why I’m here. You’ve been snooping into my shit. I know you put Johathan up to it, or was it vice versa? That only makes sense now that I know you’re a delegate. Your curiosity is making my job harder. I figured we’d get it out of the way here and now. But I suppose I have my answer. No, I didn’t kill Daelus. Happy now? Ready to leave me the fuck alone?”

  That didn’t exactly help things, and now I had a new problem. Before this moment, Jonathan was the only other soul who knew I was a delegate. She’d tell the delegation. The Benefactors would know. They’d come after me. They’d come after Johnathan for keeping my secret. His one job was sharing information with the delegation and the Benefactors. This would be seen as a serious betrayal.

  My face was too readable. She could see the gears turning. “Oh,” she said slowly. “Oh, shit. So it’s not just me who didn’t know. No-one does. You’re not actually a delegate, are you? You just have the ability. Wait—”

  I willed hands around her throat — my hands — entourage hands. They pushed her back against the wall and halfway up it. I would have to make this fas—.

  I was too slow. The daggers were on me. In me. Half a dozen, buried to the hilt. I was vomiting up blood. My projected hands vanished and she dropped to the floor.

  I remembered the report. The body, covered with puncture wounds. That was me now.

  I knew I was dying. I knew it was over, just like that. For all I knew I was already dead and my brain was still just futility firing. It was going dark.

  And yet.

  I imagined a point on the other side of the room, and—

  SHEAM part 2so much can change in a single day

  by Dana Nightingale

  — I was.

  Reality popped around me as I re-manifested next to Kaite. The shockwave of the universe contorting itself pushed her across the room. Her knives went flying. I saw my old body, still in the bed, gushing with blood, quickly dying. In an instant it melted into an ochre–colored residue. The knives fell free.

  “The fuck?” I heard her shout. I rushed her, pinned her to the wall, forearm across her throat, projected hands around her head, squeezing. She was bigger than me. This wasn’t going to work.

  I knew the daggers were coming, but I had already learned from her. Hand after hand appeared, catching the knives, sometimes by the hilt, sometimes the bde, sometimes impaled. I felt every single cut. I was losing fingers. My vision was going dark. The pain was agonizing, and I was still dizzy from re-manifesting. I could feel the knives pushing, but I also sensed that no more were appearing. Had she met her limit?

  “Okay,” she choked against the arm pushing against her throat. “Yielding!” I could feel the daggers easing off and then popping out of existence. Exhausted, my cloud of bleeding hands faded as well. Severed fingers littered the floor, and vanished one by one, as did the blood. The goo that used to be me stayed behind.

  I eased off of her. Maybe she couldn’t tell I was about to faint from over-exertion. Maybe this was a trick. Either way, one more second of that and she would have overpowered me.

  “I saw what you did,” she coughed. “So, you’re like Jaegré.”

  “I don’t know anything about Jaegré,” I insisted, the dark haze surrounding my vision thankfully backing off. It wasn’t fully true, but her statement still confused me.

  “I do,” she said. “I helped him escape.”