He’d been trapped.
And I watched as his chin dipped in a single, terse nod.
“Given that we cannot interrogate what’s left of Sasha’s corpse,” the Lieutenant General said, and did not blink, “I presume you don’t need to imagine how important those words may be to the empire’s interests?”
I heard theclickof the captain’s throat working around a dry swallow. Felt it stick. “No, sir. I understand.”
“Good.Good.” The Lieutenant General clapped his hands, then stood. Turning his stormy gaze toward me at last. “Now wake her up.”
8
Clearing his throat, the captain rushed to step between the Lieutenant General and where I lay ensconced in his bed. “Sir, with all due respect—”
“Denied.”
The captain blinked, his lips gaping around a mouthful of shocked nothing. “Sir,” he said after a moment, “she isn’t ready for an interrogation.”
Raising one dark brow, the Lieutenant General hummed, and said merely, “Oh?”
Fists clenched at his sides, cheeks sallow with a sheen of sickly green, Asher swallowed and tried again. “She was—Mila was…damagedduring the riot. Her mind—”
“Shall be all the easier to pry open if it’s already cracked,” the Lieutenant General said. Flippant. Unbuttoning his cufflinks as he stood, rolling his sleeves back, one careful fold at a time.
Pale, sweating, the captain tried again. “Sir, please, you don’t understand. Mila is—she’s—”
“That’s quite enough, Captain Rawlings,” the Lieutenant General snapped. “Simply put, I do not care if this girl is depressed.” He laughed. “I don’t care if she’s been shitting uncontrollably or if her mind is a bowl of fetid, curdled stew. I’ve got a national security crisis, a rancid puddle that used to be one of our most decorated generals, and the remains of his slave who was, until last week, the absolute picture of obedience and a trophy of Caledonian triumph—until this one irrelevant slip of a girl appeared as if conjured from the ether. I’m getting answers directly from the mouth of the last one to speak to said invaluable slave,” he said, and lifted his forefinger to point directly at me, “and you will not interfere another second longer. Understood?”
This time, the captain didn’t hesitate. “Yes, sir. Understood.”
Without a word, Colonel Viridian pulled out a seat, his face set in a grim, tight mask as the captain sat with a heavy thump. Shoulders slumped in defeat.
I didn’t watch Asher’s long fingers slide through his hair. Didn’t watch them clench in dark, unruly tresses as his jaw worked and his head dipped to hang between his fists and his attention driftedin.
Didn’t need to see the terror etched deep into the lines on his face to know that he was expecting doom.
And I didn’t need the captain to seize my every muscle in a burning, golden fist to know the exact flavor of mortal terror my personal leviathan was trying to choke down.
That despite all his workings to unmake me in his image—as a mockery of the ideal, Caledonian slave—it was all for naught.
Instead, I was made to feel it. His every flicking emotion a drug I couldn’t resist. Beseeching, he fed me a desperate tendril and tugged on the cocoon he’d spun around me. A single thread of fire, it was a reminder that he alone sustained me, even if it was poisoned with every breath.
And through the wall, he let a single, desperate sentiment echo down into the depths.
A plea.
Desperate, vulnerable. On the edge of shameless, wordless begging.
Pass this test.
I shuddered.
Buried beneath a heap of blankets, frozen by pulsing bands of molten gold, I let my eyes drift closed as the Lieutenant General approached. Measuring each breath by the soft falls of his feet, I worked to affect the air of someone in a deep, dreamless sleep.
Becoming the lie.
Pulling back the blankets, the Lieutenant General was gentle when he might have been cruel. Exposing me to the chill outside of my nest, he peeled the sheet away from where I’d buried my face, and said, “Release her, captain,” in a low, commanding murmur when he saw the gold lacing every inch of my skin.
For a moment, I thought Asher might outright disobey him and damn the consequences. He let the silence drag on long enough that the tension in the room grew brittle.
