Caden made a noncommittal sound as he gave the prisoner his attention again.
Gawain unsheathed his knife and admired it for a second. "Quit wasting our time. You should know by now he's in charge."
The man shook his head. "That's not your leader. I want to talk to the woman."
Jane shot Caden a quick glance that he ignored.
Gawain knelt on one knee in front of Tim. He held up his knife for the other to see, rotating it to catch the light. "You have quite the taste for pain. I would have thought you had enough of Fiona by now."
Tim quivered but didn't back down. "I want the blond. The one who hears the voices of monsters. She's the one I want to talk to. No one else."
Caden's body tightened as his soul went cold.
Son of a bitch.
Van shifted closer. "What do you want with a tagalong. She's unimportant. You gain nothing asking for her."
Tim flicked a look at him. "I don't think so. She's the entire reason you're here. I speak to her and no one else."
Gawain shook his head with a sympathetic look on his face. "You dumb fuck. You have no idea what you just did."
Gawain sighed and stood, slipping his dagger back into its sheath.
"Yeah. Nice knowing you," Van said as the man looked between them in confusion.
Van and Gawain stepped back, putting distance between themselves and Caden.
Seeing the look on Caden's face, Jane released her grip on the prisoner, moving back to give the two of them room.
"What are you doing?" Tim asked, shuffling his knees.
"You never should have gone after her," Jane said with no remorse.
"Hey! He said he'd talk," the troublemaker shouted.
"Too late," Van told him. "There are some people you simply don't touch. Not even to say their name with your filthy mouth."
Throughout it all, Caden never moved. Barely blinking as he watched the man crawling in the dirt like an animal.
He felt nothing for the other. Not sympathy or regret for what was about to happen. Nothing but an endless calm, his emotions submerged under a lake of ice.
Merc landed a few feet away. "What are you doing?"
"Human business," Gawain told him. "I wouldn't get in the way if I were you."
"We didn't give them to you to kill." The Tenrin stabbed his finger at the prisoners. "Their lives belong to us."
Van shrugged. "We can't help it if they're too dumb to live."
Caden inched forward a small step, savoring the way Tim whimpered and tried to retreat. Jane sighed and shook her head before planting a boot on his backside and shoving.
Not expecting it, he sprawled on his stomach only to climb to his hands and knees in the next second.
"If you do this, the Tenrin will not forget or forgive," Merc said in an urgent voice.
"Does that even matter?" Gawain said idly.
The Tenrin’s wings flexed as he frowned at the Rain Clan leader.
