“My son went on and on for months about how useful you’d be,” Tess said now, peering closely at me. I could see with total clarity the prisms in her eyes. “I told him it wasn’t worth the risk.”
Despite her shorter stature, her slightness, I felt smaller in her presence. I shrunk in my place. “Yet,” I rasped. “Here I am.”
“There you are,” Tess agreed. “Do you understand the gravity of your position here, miss?”
I nodded, though I feared I only knew the half of it.
“Good,” she said. “We’ve got an entire town to protect, to provide for. We do what must be done, however unseemly it is. If we must rid the world of one prissy Artisan to remain hidden, then I myself will pull the trigger.”
I blanched. My chest rose and fell seismically. “I don’t mean any harm to your people,” I said unevenly
