Page 83 of A City of Smoke and Demons
‘I’m not sure,’ Analise said, only half-listening as Charles explained to Morgan what they wanted to attempt with Ezra.
‘You need a heart,’ Morgan said. ‘The young man I delivered has his—not a demon victim, just an unlucky soul.’ Morgan gestured to the body wrapped in white cloth on the floor. ‘No family that anyone could find.’
Analise nodded. ‘Alright.’ She helped herself to a pair of heavy leather gloves and an apron lying on the nearest bench.
‘Now?’ Charles asked, sounding surprised.
‘Why not? Like you said, we’re all here, and I could use your help—both of you.’ At that moment, a bleary-eyed Ezra, shirt half-unbuttoned and hair ruffled, stumbled into the room. He stopped when he saw them standing there—Charles, in his nightclothes, Analise in gloves and an apron, and Morgan, whom he’d never seen before.
‘There's a party I didn’t get invited to?’
Charles chuckled. ‘I don’t know what you want, but you’ll have to wait. Actually, you should probably see this, considering it’s your heart Analise is going to—sorry, maybe going to—stop and restart.’
‘Oh,’ Morgan said cheerfully. ‘This is the test subject?’
Charles introduced Morgan to Ezra, who was giving Analise a curious look.
‘I haven’t decided,’ she said softly. ‘What are you doing here?’
‘Looking for you.’
She didn’t ask why.
Ezra helped Charles and Morgan lift the dead man onto one of the benches. Analise gently peeled back the sheet. The man was young, probably around the same age as Ezra, which was good, their hearts would be similar.
‘Analise, would you like to do the honours?’ Morgan asked.
She nodded, holding out her hand. Charles placed a scalpel in her palm. With a silent apology and a thanks to the dead man, Analise lay her hand on his forehead. The moment she touched him, even through the glove, his memories assaulted her. A carriage, the rolling eyes of a horse, the sickening crunch of bone, then nothing. She pushed it aside and concentrated, making an incision in his chest, running the scalpel from his clavicular notch to below the apex of the ribs. She set the scalpel aside, aware Ezra was watching her.
‘The heart is behind the lungs, protected by the ribcage,’ she explained, as Morgan stepped up to open the ribs. Ezra’s face screwed up at the sound of cracking bone, then Analise removed the lungs, before closing her hand around the heart.
‘Come and see,’ she told Ezra, who drifted to her side. She could feel the heat from his body against her back as he peered over her shoulder. ‘The heart is a big muscle really.’ Analisepicked up the scalpel again and cut the organ free of the body, placing it in the metal bowl Charles held.
‘Shouldn’t you have left it there?’ Ezra asked.
‘I don’t want to reanimate it—I want to study it. I want to know this organ inside and out.’ While Charles and Morgan dealt with the body, doing their own inspection of different organs and tissues, Ezra followed Analise to a smaller bench. She set the heart down, raising her eyebrows as he pulled up a stool.
‘I’m going to watch,’ he announced. ‘It’s quite fascinating, really.’
‘You’re interested in the body?’ Analise asked, surprised.
He winked. ‘Parts of it.’
She rolled her eyes.
‘I’m educated, remember?’ Ezra said. They shared a look. ‘Alright, show me how this thing works.’
For the next hour, they sat side-by-side as Analise carefully cut the heart into its separate pieces: the atrium and the ventricles, the valves, pulmonary trunk, and the aorta. The coronary vessels and arteries wove through the tissue. Analise showed Ezra the upper and lower chambers. ‘These two, the atrium, receive blood and these two, the ventricles, discharge it. This wall in the middle is called the septum.’ She paused. ‘Maybe that’s where I went wrong with the Familiars. Perhaps I should have been concentrating on the blood.’
‘How?’
She shrugged. ‘Maybe I should have cleaned it.’ When he frowned, she went on. ‘Pulled death from the blood that entered the atrium and while it was in the heart itself, filled it with life so the blood that left the heart was fresh and alive. But, I’m not even sure I can do that.’
Ezra was looking at her in wonder. ‘How do you know all of this?’
Analise felt her cheeks heat. ‘I read all of Charles’ books while I was avoiding you.’
He was sitting close to her, their shoulders touching, and there was something about the moment that was companionable, and nothing more. ‘What are we looking for?’
