I had to think hard on it. I had to be sure so my husband could tell the Church of Imam, and the guard. They needed to find the smuggler’s ship and burn it, arrest the smuggler and hang him. I had to search for every hint of her I could find in Jona’s memory. When the candle burned low, and her hand pressed into his bare chest, and the sun lingered on the western horizon and Rachel was about to get up, get dressed and slip into the night and Jona was about to get up, get dressed and slip into the night, just before then, they talked. What is your face before you are born? she had asked Jona. He could ask the same of her. Rachel had never had anyone but her brother to talk to about her life. The demon’s mark couldn’t be cut away from her skin. Her hands were human enough, with most of her arms. Her face and neck appeared human if no one noticed her tongue. Everything else was twisted from the stain. Her father was a doppelganger demon that had burrowed into the skin of Djoss’ human father.
