Liliana jerked away like Phoenix had slapped her. It was true that she wasn’t from Lacuna, that her Aptitude wasn’t as powerful or as controlled as his was, but Phoenix as a Director? He had only been a member less than a few years and it had never been what Emi had wanted. She would have never approved him for a Director position. Never.

Unless she wasn’t around to stop him. 

The thought crawled across her skin; the words slipped from her lips before she could stop them. Horror colored her disbelief. “It was you, you did this.”

“I did what?”

His feigned ignorance infuriated her. An ache radiated from her jaw as she grit her teeth to keep from yelling. If she was going to make accusations without proof, he needed to be the only one who could hear them. 

Her words were low, clipped growls. “You had something to do with this. I know you had something to do with Emi’s death.” She recounted what she knew, “Emi was healthy, and strong. There was no sign of her being sick.” 

And now she’s dead. Eyes narrowed, she snarled. A crackle sounded off as her fist clenched tighter.

“The minute she dies, you’re in here bragging about getting appointed as a Director,” she said. “This is what you wanted. To be a Director, be in charge of a Troupe.”

“Would you kill for that?”

“No. But you? After what you did?”

Phoenix didn’t laugh, but if he was capable of human emotions, she would imagine that his shoulders would be bobbing in his oversized plaid jacket. His head swiveled side to side before he shushed her like one would an inconsolable child, which only enraged her more. 

“So small,” he said.

When he didn’t continue, she prompted, “What is?”

His body clicked back into place, towering over her by a full head, but he said nothing. He stared. She coiled, ready to snap. 

Patience wasn’t always her strong suit and Phoenix had a particular way of saying things that pissed her off. Even then, she was wildly unprepared for what came next.

“The way you think, Liliana.” She blinked at him in disbelief and he closed the space between them with a single stride. “It’s always so small.”

As far as she was concerned, he may has well have called her a fucking idiot. So, fist pulled back, she lurched forward to hit him upside the head. 

Her muscles followed through with the punch, the lights flickered. Electricity danced in the air, concentrated into her palm, and crackled like whips ready to shred anything standing in her way. 

He couldn’t fool her. Emi was dead. He didn’t deny a thing. This was his fault. 

In the abscesses of her hurt, she was incapable of connecting pieces of proof, but she knew they were there. She just had to find them. A note, a vile of poison, a treacherous allegiance with a long standing enemy. Something. 

She owed Emi too much to let this go. 

The hair on her arms rose. Her thoughts drowned out by the thrumming of her heart, she skidded across the floor. Phoenix avoided the first punch but the lightning in her palm scrambled to follow her sharp movements and left a frenzied trail of scorch marks in its wake. She swung again, blinded by anger and disappointment and…

Well, maybe now he had the right to call her stupid.

A sizzle, a pop, a crash.

Throbbing aches radiated through her tensing jaw, matched only by the pain now encompassing her hand. Blood trickled from the cuts, hissing and boiling from the heat of her dwindling powers, but that wasn’t anything compared to the embarrassment she felt. 

The lights were out and Phoenix was gone. She had missed him, or more accurately, she had passed clean through him because he was never physically there to begin with. Even his Aptitude was as slippery as he was.

But he must have been close enough to hear her, right?

“Whatever you have planned, big or small, I will stop you. I’m going to prove that you did this and stop you, you hear me?” 

The lights flickered back on. She yanked her fist from the wall and shook crumbs of drywall off it, looking around for the eyes she felt watching the back of her neck. 

“And once I do prove that you had something to do with this, I’m going to kick your scrawny ass!”