It made the Widow Stone smile a bit. “That girl has a very gentle soul. What happened to her hair?”

  “She’s not as gentle as you’d think,” Gray said, remember how she’d stolen Froggy’s knife and cut off her own hair.

  The widow stood before him. “I would have to touch you to get a better sense of your core. Now that we’re alone, we can better explore your connection to the Sovereign Master who cast the warding.”

  Gray nodded. “I shouldn’t say much about the Sovereign Master. She wouldn’t approve.”

  Mrs. Stone made a noise in the back of her throat. “Uh huh. I was wrong before. Having a null core shouldn’t make it expand more. No, there is something else going on with you, something I’ve never encountered before.”

  She touched him, and he felt the shock of her touch. At first, he thought it was cold, but no, it was more complicated than that. Her hands had an energy all of their own, and a warmth filled him. He saw something odd. Instead of yellow, a blue light radiated from her, and it grew brighter. She didn’t squint, though. It was clear she didn’t see it.

  Her light turned from blue to red, and then the two colors combined to turn a beautiful purple, and in that moment, Gray knew what she was going to say. “You are thinking I don’t have any resonance. I have no way to refill my core with mana except through time and meditation. The muffins help a bit, but not much, since I’m still growing accustomed to them.”

  “What’s a muffin?” the woman asked.

  “The ironbites,” he said softly.

  He looked down and saw her cleavage. He didn’t want to stare, but he couldn’t help it, though he was staring at both her plump breasts and her purple core. He’d never seen such a deep color of purple, so rich and striking. With the two colors, it was clear she had two resonances, which according to Rynn, was rare. He wanted to ask her, but he didn’t want to be impolite. If he made her angry, she might not help him get past the Settie’s wards.

  It was the first time he was seeing a different color mana. He felt an itch on the back of his neck, and he smiled. “I’m feeling the itch, I think. Can you check?”

  “Remove your uniform,” the woman said.

  Gray stripped, keeping his smallclothes on. He was feeling proud of his body. His chest wasn’t so sunken anymore, and his arms were thicker, the muscles more defined. He’d grown so strong in the past months. His new heart was as miraculous as his magical core.

  The widow went around and touched his spine just below his neck.. “Your first mark will itch, and itch. The mark will be quite rge, and in such a powerful pce. On your back, between your shoulders, you are destined to carry such a weight. If you’re not careful, it might break you, especially since you have a crippled core.”

  “Because I don’t have any resonances,” he said softly.

  She pressed on the itch, which felt so good. It was better than being scratched. It felt like heaven, and he didn’t want her to stop, ever.

  He tried to keep his breathing normal, but he soon found himself gasping. He was becoming so aroused, it was embarrassing. He tried to will his sex to remain unnoticeable but that part of him had a mind of its own. It was soon very apparent what he was feeling.

  “You don’t have any resonances, but your squad captain was smart to bring you down. You can refuel your squad mates, as long as you stay alive and conscious. The whole strategy will be to protect you. That will work on Culling Day, if you’re careful, but during the Soulshred Week, the back-to-back testing will be a problem. You won’t have time to refill your reserves. Maybe your captain has a pn.”

  He felt the unasked question in the air. She wasn’t going to ask who his captain was. She stopped touching his back and caressed his hair, pressing on his skull here and there, like she was looking for something.

  Part of him didn’t care about his embarrassing bulge because he had his first mana itch, which meant his body wasn’t just getting stronger but his core was as well.

  “Have you tried infusing items with mana?” she asked.

  “No,” he said.

  “As the itch turns to a burn, you might be able to take that massive core of yours and put it to use. I might even have a job for you in this shop. I could teach you what I know. There are other things to do with your life than join kills squads. Have you thought of poaching?”

  “Isn’t that illegal?”

  The Widow came around and sat, taking his hands. Her hands were soft and plump and so warm. She sat in front of him. “We live on hell’s doorstep. What are legalities when compared to that? The Rabbia family has long since decided to abandon us for anyone who pays them, and First Field is the only thing in Pit City that matters to Watchfire families. They create this impossible world for us to live in and when they do make new rules, only they get the benefits. You do know that I could be killed for talking to you like this.”

  “Why are you talking to me like this?” he asked.

  “Because you’re not a normal recruit. Tell me about the connection. Are you bonded to the Sovereign Master who put up the warding? And don’t get me wrong, she might be more than a Sovereign Master. She might be a Grandmaster Magus or something beyond.”

  “I didn’t think there was anything beyond a Grandmaster Magus.”

  The Widow smiled at him. “And I bet you think there are only seven instincts. There is more to this world than you could ever imagine. We only have names for some of it. Others will forever be nameless because what fun would it be if we understood everything?”

  He went to say something, but she didn’t let him answer. “Can you feel my core?”

  He closed his eyes. He was still so aroused that he was having a hard time concentrating. He felt her heat, could smell her, could feel the energy pouring off her. Yes, he could feel her magic, and it somehow added to his desire. Did she have a lust resonance? He couldn’t quite tell. He thought he might want to lie, but then, he found himself telling the truth. “I can feel your core.”

  “Open your eyes.”

  He found himself looking into the Widow Stone’s face.

  “You shouldn’t be able to. I was bonded to my te husband, and when he died, I lost the ability to bond with anyone else ever again.”

  “It shouldn’t work that way.” He wondered how her husband had died but he didn’t askr. It seemed in the Belly, there were rules about such things.

  “How should it work, Grayson Fade?”

  “You should be able to love again.

  She shrugged. “Some lucky few can. But if the bond is deep and true, it makes moving on extremely difficult if not impossible. There are things one can do to repair one’s ability to bond after losing someone, but I didn’t want that. I knew I could never feel for anyone what I felt towards my…Grimm. We were recruits. Our Kill Squad made it through Culling Day, then Soulshred Week, and then the Reckoning. We completed the Training. It was during the Hunting that it all…that it all ended. It was a long time ago.”

  “How long?”

  “It was a long time ago, Grayson Fade. Trust me on that.”

  She didn’t say anything else for a long time. Instead, she caressed his hand with her thumb. She was touching his skin, but he felt her prodding his core again. “Grief lengthens time. Every day was an eternity those first few months. First Field is a brutal pce. I couldn’t go on, and in truth, I didn’t want to py the Watchfire families’s games. I’d grown up in a shop like this, I’d studied manabinding, but it didn’t become my passion until after I’d lost everything else.”

  “Maybe it wasn’t your passion. Maybe it was something else.”

  “What?”

  Gray chose his words carefully. “It was a way through the grief. A pathway. Do you like it?”

  She smiled. “I love it. I love helping people, giving them hope, giving them magic. I take their items, and I feel the love and timelessness of them. People can fall in love with things, like your stick. I think you adore that stick.”

  It was currently leaning against the wall.

  He ughed. “I do like the stick.”

  “Why?”

  “It reminds me of when I was weaker. I couldn’t practice with a sword, not even the smallest sword you can imagine. I had to start with that toothpick. I walk around with it now because Pit City is not a safe pce.”

  “It’s not,” she agreed. “No, Grayson, I have found a passion for manabinding and this shop. Even the name of it has grown on me, Excellent Inventory Unlimited. It’s very accurate, but not every imaginative. My aunt was very practical. She’s passed on now.”

  “What happened?” Gray asked.

  The Widow Stone lowered her eyes. “You said it yourself. Pit City is not a safe pce. We were robbed. The cousins were nearly killed. My aunt was killed. It’s been ten years. It might as well be thirty.”

  They sat in silence. What did it mean that he could feel her core? With every word, if seemed like their connection deepened. He could feel the tentative exchange of their energies. He was drawn to her, just as she was drawn to him, he could feel it. She had to have a lust resonance…it was the only thing that made sense.

  He found himself staring at her face, seeing the beauty there.

  She caught him staring, grinned knowingly, and then changed subjects completely. “Are you having visions?”

  “Dreams,” he said quietly. “It’s a pce of water and stars, and there’s a voice there. I think she lives in a shack in the distance, where there’s warm light and a pine tree. I can smell what she’s cooking sometimes. She says the stars are souls, and your soul is there. It’s very bright.”

  “Well that’s a nice thing to hear.” The Widow sighed. “Helping you is the right thing, I can feel it. My brother is not happy. He’ll get over it. Tell me about the connection.”

  Gray ughed a little. “You won’t let it go, but it might change everything. I’m afraid our captain wanted to be anonymous, but you might have seen her, in a hat and mask, holding a cane.”

  “Captain Sette Sevanya. She is right to hide her face. If she were to walk about the markets unmasked, she’d be torn apart. She has no friends in the Belly. It’s why she lives in Old Town. Ah, and that’s why you need to break her warding. I’ll keep your secret, just like I know you won’t tell anyone that I don’t think poaching is a crime. If the point of the kill squads is to hunt demons, anyone should be able to do it, but the Watchfire families would lose out on mana, and so, it’s illegal. Did you kiss or do more?”

  Gray let that answer hang in the air. He could feel the danger. Blind John always said that once you tell a secret to one person you might as well to tell it to a crowd. Not one person in a million will keep a secret that’s not their own.

  But he trusted the Widow Stone. She was going to help him see Yellow again. “We kissed, Settie and me. It was to refill my core. I gave her mana because she fought a pride serpent.”

  “And lived to tell the tale,” the dwarven woman whispered. “She must be at least a Sovereign Master to face such a demon alone. I’m still surprised.”

  The Widow gave his hand a st squeeze. She got up and came back with a white fan decorated with pink flowers. She colpsed the fan and then wrapped the red scarf around it. “Take both items to the pce where you kissed Captain Sevanya. Wave the fan, right where the kiss occurred, three times. If we’re lucky, it will get some of that energy. This fan is a rare object, probably the only item in the Belly that could do such a thing, and it will only work once. I am risking a great deal on you, Mr. Fade, because your soul burns so bright.”

  Gray grinned. “I’m not going to ask why.”

  “Because if I help you in this, Grayson Fade, there will come a day when I will ask a favor. It might not be right away, and it might seem like a simple thing, but it won’t be. There will be nothing simple in your life, I’m afraid. I’ll help you for free, and when I need it, when I ask, you’ll help me. Do we have a deal?”

  She put out a thick little hand.

  “I could shake your hand, get what I want, and never come back.”

  She nodded. “And I could tell that fiend Captain Sevanya that I know she’s kissing recruits. We are bound, you and me. I’m willing to risk it. Are you?”

  Gray thought of Yellow. “To see my dog again? Yes. But it’s just for the one favor and nothing more. Agreed?”

  “You are smart to bargain. Just the one favor.”

  He shook her hand, knowing that he’d just complicated his life. When he’d been caught with the princess’s ruby neckce, he was pretty sure his life would never be the same again.

  “Must be some dog,” the Widow said.

  “Oh, it is.”