Claimed by Shadow (Cassandra Palmer 2)

“You didn’t know that?” Pritkin demanded.

“No.” And I wasn’t sure I believed it. I really wanted to, because it meant that offing me might not be on Myra’s agenda after all. But I was having a hard time with the idea that she intended to let bygones be bygones. It didn’t seem like her style, especially not with two knife wounds from my weapon in her torso. Not to mention that, even if she did decide to take the high road, I couldn’t see Rasputin letting her concede defeat. He needed her to be Pythia if he had any chance of winning, or even surviving, the war. Something was wrong here.

“Didn’t Agnes die of old age?” I asked Mac, since he seemed the more forthcoming of the two.

“That’s what we believed, at first. But strange sores were noticed on the body when it was being readied for burial. A doctor was called in to look at them, and became suspicious, so an autopsy was ordered. She didn’t die because of her age, Cassie. She was poisoned. And considering the amount of precautions taken to safeguard the Pythia, it couldn’t have been easy.”

“They used arsenic, rather than a potion or curse that would have been detected by the wards,” Pritkin added, apparently appalled that Agnes had been killed by something so mundane. “Here. What do you sense from this?”

I backed away fast, even before I got a good look at what he was holding out.

“I promised to talk, nothing else,” I reminded him.

“With no witnesses, this is our best chance to find the killer!”

I stared at the small amulet in his hand. It looked pretty innocent, just a round silver disk with a worn figure embossed on it, swinging from a tarnished chain. I wasn’t getting any warning signals from it the way I did from objects likely to trigger a vision, but I didn’t intend to take chances.

“Well?” Pritkin thrust it at me, but I backed away rapidly.

“Your chance,” I corrected, making sure the little bauble didn’t brush against me. “This isn’t my problem.”

“Don’t be too sure of that,” he said cryptically.

I dodged behind Ma

c for cover and refused to take the bait. I glanced at my nonexistent watch. “Oops, look at the time. Guess I have to be going now. Let’s not do this again sometime, okay?”

Before I could move, Pritkin was there, jamming the medallion into the skin of my upper arm. “Ow!” He looked at me expectantly. I glared at him. “That hurt!”

“What do you see?”

“A big red mark,” I said irritably, rubbing at what would probably be a bruise. “And stop poking me with that thing!”

“If you are lying to me—”

“If I had a vision, you’d know it!” I told him furiously. “I don’t just see the bad stuff anymore—I get a front-row seat. And lately, I take whoever’s closest along for the ride! Or have you forgotten already?”

Pritkin didn’t answer; he just continued to hold out the amulet, although he was no longer attempting to brand me with it. I sighed and took the damn thing. “How does it work, exactly?”

“That’s just it,” Mac said, sounding as if he was enjoying the mental puzzle. “We don’t know. It contained arsenic— we opened it last night. But it was enclosed by the metal, with no way to touch the skin.”

“The answer has to be there!” Pritkin insisted. “She was holding it when she died, and it contained the same poison that killed her. And where else could the poison have come from? No one would have been able to get to her to administer it, especially not repeatedly!”

I gingerly examined the tiny thing. It had been cut open along the side, like a locket. Whatever it might once have contained, it was empty now. Which probably explained why I was getting nothing from it. The tampering had ruined its physical integrity, and in the process had ruptured any psychic skin that might have imprinted itself. But with Pritkin already looking as if his blood pressure was going through the roof, I decided not to mention that. “Repeatedly? ”

“No one was suspicious, because the poison wasn’t administered all at one time,” Mac explained. “It was spread out over six months or more, administered in small doses that built up in her system until it finally overwhelmed her. Her worsening condition was put down to her age and to the strain of losing the heir.”

“Six months?” The same time the Senate sent Tomas to babysit me. I didn’t like the coincidence, but didn’t say anything. Unfortunately, either my face gave me away or Pritkin had already made the leap himself.

“Myra couldn’t have administered the poison,” he said flatly. “She went missing months ago, long before Agnes took ill, and she has no motive. The Council wants her out of the way, so they are using the story of her involvement for their own purposes. Others had far better cause, but the Council can’t afford to challenge them.”

No, I didn’t suppose so. The Circle was allied with the Senate in the war; they couldn’t risk accusing their buddies of murder. I didn’t like to think about it, but it really wouldn’t surprise me if the Senate was guilty as hell. It fit the usual vampire modus operandi to remove obstacles in the most final manner possible. And it would have been worth it even if they’d only thought there was a chance that the power would come to me. They’d believed I was going to be their tame Pythia, the first in centuries under their control rather than the Circle’s. For that kind of power, they’d have done far worse than kill one old woman. Of course, there was another strong contender.

“What about the Circle?”

Pritkin’s eyes narrowed. “What about it?”

I shrugged. “You’ve implied that the Senate is guilty, but they’re not the ones hunting down the only two candidates who stand in the way of the Circle’s chosen heir.”