He fixed his eyes on her but she looked straight ahead.
He saw her frown. “What?”
She inhaled sharply, still with a look of puzzlement on her face. “Sunhild made it for her?”
“Yes. Why?”
“She was Lora's and Fraya's friend...”
Nik regarded her silently for a moment before encouraging, “And?”
“I remember reading things in Lora's diary that gave me this weird feeling... I didn't know what. But now it's... I can almost...”
“What do you mean?”
“When she was talking about being pregnant, she said that Fraya somehow found out and used that moment to break the unpleasant news that she had-uh- that you and she had...”
“Had sex one time?”
Jaz gaped at him, embarrassed by his response. She squeezed her lips together, cocked her head towards the window, steering clear of his intrusive scrutiny.
“It meant nothing. I told her.”
Rather than say all the things she was itching to say she moved on. “If Lora was best friends with Sunhild, then I'm betting she would have told her she was pregnant. No one else knew. So it seems pretty suspicious that after telling Sunhild, Fraya then found out. Sunhild must have told Fraya. But then, why do that when you know they're at each other's throats?”
“Unless she was playing them off against each other,” Nik obliged.
“Right, but why? What would she get out of it?” After a moment she thought, “Why did Fraya put the hemlock in the chocolate if she knew it would put Sunhild at risk? She discovered afterwards it was hemlock but even so, you wouldn't just dump your friend in it. Why has Fraya said Sunhild's name now? It isn't necessary. ”
“She told me she walked into the kitchen and put a teaspoonful of what she thought was wolfsbane into the chocolate liquid when Sunhild was distracted. She then left and a few hours later found out Lora was dead.”
“That amount of hemlock wouldn't have killed her, would it?” Jaz asked.
“If she was human, probably yes. But she wasn't. She was a Were, despite not being a fully-fledged one. And regardless of what she was, she was a child of pureblood parents; that must count for something in terms of her immune system. I'm more than sure she would have been able to handle such a small amount.”
Jaz bobbed her head and stopped short. “Then... Fraya couldn't have killed her...?” Her understanding of what that meant made her words float like ghosts in the air. Dread squeezed its clutch around her ribcage.
Nik's jaw tightened. His hands gripped the wheel as he avoided her gaze.
“That amount of wolfsbane would have brought on a Change very quickly. We don't need much,” he replied stiffly.
“And a teaspoon of hemlock?” she pushed.
He exhaled, “A little stomach irritation or pain, nothing more. Even during pregnancy.”
Jaz's eyes widened when she saw it clearly in front of her. “Sunhild increased the dose... Oh my God...”
Nik gnawed on the inside of his cheek. “Fraya was an easy target. She was bitter and jealous and emotional. She was used like a puppet for the killer's gain.”
The way he said it made Jaz realize he'd thought of this more than once before. She gaped at him, dumbstruck. “You knew?”
He anchored his sight on the road, his face an impenetrable mask. “Sunhild knew Fraya had poisoned the chocolate. She also knew it wouldn't have been enough.”
“How?” she could only whisper, as the realization sunk in that she was unable to fathom the complex mind of the man sitting next to her.
“Isn't it obvious?” he asked, turning to her. “They were consorting with the same person. He used them both to get what he wanted. The Black Cloak.”
She thought back to Fraya in her cell. When Fraya had spoken of the Black Cloak, the terror in her eyes was so immense it had sent a chill through Jaz. She felt it now; amplified by her own personal fear.
“You just sent an innocent woman to her death,” she said in horror, her voice distant and hollow. “And you knew it...”
She could feel the heat coming off his body as his anger was set ablaze. By her. She didn't look his way but even his words singed her skin.
“You don't know what you're talking about. I'm not a murderer. When the time comes you'll see that. I just thought that maybe you wouldn't need proof to believe it!”
She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to force out the overwhelming emotional pain.
She heard him exhale as if he'd calmed down. She opened her eyes just as they were passing under a bridge.
“She saw the bigger picture,” he grunted.
“And I don't?” she retorted. “What I see is a possible living, breathing, killing machine called the Cur Hunters with Black Cloak psycho as their leader, driving them all on a halfbreed killing crusade that has already taken Lora's and Fraya's lives and has caused Carr to be banished from his home.