Lyn Benedict - Sins & Shadows

“I know,” Alex said. There was sufficient weight to her words that Sylvie looked up from their linked hands. Alex’s eyes were tired, burdened. “The cop—that was your Justice, right?—he talked in my head while he brought the orchids. Told me what you’ve done. What you’ve kept from me. Told me about Lilith. About Demalion.”

“And you still think I can help people? That Shadows Inquiries should stay open? I’ve killed people , Alex.”

“It’s another reason you can’t close the shop.”

“It’s the best reason to close it,” Sylvie countered.

Alex shifted in the narrow bed, pushing herself upward, trying to sit upright again. “And do what, instead?” Alex said. “You help people, Sylvie. That darkness in you gets focused on achieving results on the good side of the ledger. Without the job, how long do you think it would last before you snapped? Before you got into something else. Something blacker.”

Sylvie shuddered, put her face down in her hands. “God, Alex. Don’t let me fall.”

“I won’t,” Alex said. She petted Sylvie’s tangled hair. “You might be good at taking on the world. But I am good at taking care of you. If you let me. No more shutting me out.”

“I’ll try,” Sylvie said.

“Good girl,” Alex said.

Sylvie snapped, “I’m still the boss. And you’re still the employee. Don’t get cocky.”

Alex bit her lip and laughed at her before her eyes grew thoughtful again. She touched the orchids nearby. “What are you going to do with them now?”

Kill them. Grind them to pulp. Why should they have any kind of life when they’d killed her friend?

New leaf, she argued with herself. They were no longer dangerous. They’d paid. They were plants, for God’s sake. It wasn’t like they could come back.

Best to be sure. They killed your friend. Tried to kill Alex.

I killed my lover, she countered, and silenced the growl in the back of her mind.

“I—”

“At a loss for words, Syl? That’s not like you.”

“Too many words,” Sylvie said. “You decide.” Her heart thumped. “You tell me what to do with those killers.”

Alex dabbled her fingers into the soil a little, touched the pale petals again, traced the slender stem; fragile, it shivered beneath her touch. She let her hand drop, reached it out to Sylvie.

“We’ll keep them alive. They’re beautiful, Syl. Whatever they were before, whatever sins they committed—they’re beautiful now.”