When Kane speaks, even the dead listen.
“Someone has betrayed us.” Another slice as his black gaze sweeps them. “Someone is lying.” He bends the silence around those words. “We will find out who,” he vows.
If I was ever to believe a vow, it would be Kane’s. And it seems the Commanders feel the same. They cast quick glances at one another. Too wary to speak. Terrified to face Kane’s wrath.
“Sir, with theutmostrespect...” The youngest Lead begins, his words trailing off when Kane’s stare pins him in place.
A tall, lithe, earth elemental with long, mousy curls and, from his notes, extremely skilled in poison. He raced through his training in three years, Lead Commander for seven.
“You’ve been with us on most patrols. You know—”
“You dare to presume things you have no concept of?” The shadows explode, but Kane’s voice remains level.
There’s no anger. No emotion. Just that quiet, creeping dread he builds so well, every slow sweep of his gaze, every precise flicker of shadows. He appears unaffected. Cold.
The only sound is the rustle of fabric as someone shifts in their chair.
But then I catch it, just a flicker, a brief spike of panic from one of them. Like something slipping through a crack in a mask.
“I’m going to amplify their emotions,”I say. They all remain perfectly focused. Even Sai. As though nothing has passed between us.
Damn, they are good at this. And why doesthatmake my pulse skip?
“My Lord, sirs, you know it cannot be me,” the mage beseeches. I’d missed the metallic sheen of her skin before, the tell-tale sign of a mage, cloaked in a magical essence. “I have served you all for many decades. We have all fought together, you trained me. This organisation is everything to me—”
“Lie.” Julien doesn’t raise his voice, but the word cracks like thunder.
She blanches, her silver skin dimming under the immense expanse of shadow.
When Julien moves closer, half a step, her shoulders snap rigid. He curls his fingers over the back of her chair, a small, calculated movement, a quiet deadly warning.
“I—I just… I have bonds,” she blurts. Her gaze flicks between Ezekial and Kane, then up at the vampire looming over her. “They’re my first priority. But after that, it’s this organisation. It always has been. You know I am loyal.”
“Sounds like the pleas of a desperate woman,” murmurs the fourth Commander. Even with the cloth over his eyes, he turns to face her.
His file was… interesting. In and out of enforcer training, multiple complaints from seniors of defiance, assaults on other enforcers, struggles with control. Was placed into a specialised unit with other troubled trainees.
Lost his eyes after being held captive and tortured in the necromancer district. I remember pausing at that line when I first read it, shocked at the brutality, but also wondering how someone without vision could ever lead. Watching him now, I see how wrong I was.
“You would say that, you piece of shit,” she seethes behind gritted teeth. “Do you care about anyone except yourself? If anyone’s a traitor, it’s you. You’d sell your soul for a leg up.”
“I owe these four men my life,” he says, covered eyes seeking out Ezekial. Kane. Then he turns behind to Julien, and finally Sai. “Especially that one.” He points directly at him, like he can see him, and to Sai’s credit, his only reaction is the slow flare of his markings.
“Without the benefits, without the title, I’d still serve them. Could the three of you say the same?” His question falls into awkward silence because they know they cannot lie.
Satisfied, the fourth Commander leans back in his chair, facing Ezekial.
“My Lord, whatever your decision, I’ve lived longer than I should. My life is in your hands. End us all, if that is your choice.”
“End us all?!” the mage screeches.
Emotions splinter the room, fear and dread piercing everything. I amplify it.
“But I haven’t done anything wrong!” the elemental pleads.
I push them more, again and again.
“My Lords, you cannot believe this!” the bearded man cries out.
