“I did,” I say.
“Why?” he asks.
“Because when I was tested for them, they were. I learned how to control them from farther distances as I got older… if I admit that, they will retest me.”
“Why would the King of Rules not want to be retested?”
My mind flashes back to my father. “Family reasons.”
“Like?”
“Just… I don’t want attention on myself, alright? So let’s not share it, got it?”
“Sure, sure,” he says. “I’m fully against the testing. Would you like me to dispose of the test altogether?”
“What? No… just…” I sigh.
“Why did you wander away from the group?” he asks.
“I heard something.”
“Nope. If I heard something strange, I would definitely wander away from the group, but everyone else in the group would have alerted the rest of us,includingyou. Hmm. Fishy. Joker Ellison, you’re being a bit sketch.”
I gape at him in disbelief. “I really didn’t think I wandered that far away from the rest of you, did I? Didn’t you all wander off to look at some deer? I’m not saying we need to pretend none of this ever happened. I’m saying that it would be best if you weren’t out there alone.”
“Well, now I’m not. You’re out here with me.”
“That’s not what I meant and you know it.”
“If you’re bored, see if Landon will depants you. He depantsed me quite well.”
“I’m already not wearing pants.”
Asmodeus stills for a moment before looking at me. “How interesting.”
“What the fuck is interesting about that? You think they redress people in the OR? There’s like a fashionista in there to finish us up once the doctor is done?”
“I had begun to assume the suit was like a life force. That without it… you would wither away and die a horrible death, and that the person who sliced into you was really trying to see you without a suit on.”
I stare at the man who obviously knows nothing and is trying to get me riled up for absolutely no reason at all. “You…” I grit my teeth, unsure of how to even convey the words I want to say without simply snapping at him.
“Me?”
“Yes…you.”
“Me…”
“Are…”
“Ooh, this is going to be good. Anyone who uses this many pregnant pauses sure knows exactly what they want to say and how to make it hit hard,” he says with a whistle. “What about the person who attacked you?”
“I… I turned around and they were just… there. I jerked back but the pain was immediate. I threw my illusions out almost instantly and then they were gone.”
“How tall were they?”
I try to think back on the person in black. “I guess… nothing out of the ordinary, you know? Not extremely tall or very short or I think I’d have noticed. It happened so damn fast.”
“Hmm…”
