I cleared my throat. “You were born in this Louisiana?”
“I... I think so.”
I narrowed my eyes. “What do you mean? Who are your parents?”
“Don’t know.” Tears streamed down her face. “I don’t remember them.”
“So you’re an orphan?”
She panted hard. “I don’t know for sure.” Her lower lip trembled. “Please. Stop. It... it hurts.”
“First—do you work for the queen?”
“No. I haven’t even met the queen.” Her voice broke. “Please. Stop.”
Her body had gone rigid, her face pale and slick with sweat.
She wasn’t lying. The hat would have told me by now.
I should stop. I knew I should stop.
But I’d been fooled before. Betrayed by people I trusted. I couldn’t afford to be wrong.
Her eyes were fixed straight ahead, glassy. Sweat trickled down her temples, and her breath came in shallow gasps.
My stomach twisted.
An hour ago, I’d kissed her. Felt her melt into my arms. Tasted the sweetness of her lips.
Now I was tearing through her mind like she was the enemy.
What kind of monster had I become?
I yanked the hat off her head.
She slumped forward, pressing her fingertips to her temples. “What did you do to me?” Her voice was ragged. “I feel like someone scrambled my thoughts with a fork.”
“The hat pulls out memories and the truth.” The words came out flat. Clinical. Like I hadn’t torn through the mind of a woman I’d kissed an hour ago.
She lowered her hands. “Don’t ever do that again.” She stared at my hat warily. “If you have questions, just ask.”
I thought of all the people who betrayed me in this land; my men were the only ones I trusted. “My experience is that people lie. Especially those who work for the queen.” But she didn’t. Not about this. I’d seen the truth for myself. She had no idea what she’d stumbled into.
“So you torture people?”
Something cold twisted in my gut. “What I do is nothing compared to her. Alanna thrives on pain and suffering.”
“And you don’t think what you just did was torture?”
I winced. “Trust doesn’t come easy here. So?—”
“So you’re like the queen now?”
Her words rattled me more than I wanted to admit.
“I’m not like her. I’ve helped prisoners escape from her clutches.” All except for one. A promise I made that I couldn’t keep. That promise haunted me every day. “But for everyone I save, others lose their head—literally.”
She opened her mouth, but a knock on the door cut her off. In a blink my hand was on my sword, my body already moving between her and whatever waited on the other side.
