And then, simply, “I can’t.”
It was a quiet, tight-lipped admission.
I felt the Lieutenant General frown. “You… can’t?” he asked. “Or won’t?”
“Won’t,” the captain admitted, forcing the words through clenched teeth. “Mila”—the captain cleared his throat and tried again. “Her power is… unique. Impressive and incredible, yes. Absolutely. But she wasn’t trained in the temple, and as a result, this so-called empath, it’s… unstable. To the point of being all-but unusable.” He laughed, low and bitter. “It’s taken everything I have to hold her in check since Sasha died.”
The Lieutenant General turned and straightened in one fluid motion, and with him, the energy in the room shifted. “Eight days?” he said after a moment, incredulous. “You’ve held her in thrall for eight days?”
The captain lifted one shoulder. “More or less.”
Another weighted pause stained the room before the Lieutenant General said, “Why? What do you think might happen if you let her go?”
“I’m not… entirely certain,” Asher hedged, but I knew it for the lie it really was.
Because despite the heavy fog, I rememberedexactlywhat would happen if he let me go.
“Well, then. It’s long past time we find out. Release her,” the Lieutenant General said again. An order, and this time, I felt a cool touch on my forearm an instant before I felt everything else. “At the ready, Viridian.”
His hands were cold, and through them, I felt what had the captain in such a lather.
Power.
Distinct. The unmistakable signature of an elite, though he lacked the pure clarity I’d grown so familiar with. The effortless, casual power Asher wielded with such crisp efficiency was absent in Lieutenant General Hastings. Or at least, he wasn’t quite the equal of the man who held my leash, despite being his superior.
But the man reeked of power he had no right to possess.
For though it was tainted with the metallic stink of an elite, it waspriestessmagic.
The other side of the coin.
Another enigma, just the same as Asher, for it seemed those who could wield both sides of the spectrum weren’t quite as rare as I’d been led to believe.
…This is a secret the empire can never possess… that they all have the potential… each and every one who’s ever lived… so much untapped potential…
Before I could taste my next breath, I knew the sort of power I’d been born with wasnotthe only kind to fear. That Asher was leery of this man he could kill with ease, cautious to the point of self-harm in his effort to out maneuver the other elite? It gave new perspective into the man who had everything it took to climb the political ranks in the Caledonian aristocracy, but who was seemingly content to play the soldier. Disguised as just another obedient cog in the machine, taking orders from lesser men when he had more than enough pure might to see his every whim obeyed.
“Mila,” the Lieutenant General said, his voice a low, soothing hum. Demanding my attention. Drawing me toward him. And through his palm, I felt his power plod through my blood. Crude. Absent even the merest hint of elegance required to build a wall like the one Asher had build to imprison me, but it was enough that I knew the Lieutenant General could feel any attempt I might make to evade his questions.
And then I understood what the captain did not. That it was futile to resist, for the Lieutenant General would feel it, even if he hadn’t the tools to understand the exact nature of the deception. I understood, in a brief moment of burning clarity, that it would be so much easier to simply give the manexactlywhat he wanted.
The truth.
Asher was trying to hide it in clever cracks between words, in some vain attempt to conjure a rescue from beyond the veil. A rescue that simply wouldn’t come, because my one and only ally was already dead.
“Open your eyes,” the Lieutenant General murmured. Lacing his words with a compulsion to obey.
My lashes fluttered open as I allowed myself to be swept away in the lure of his unique blend of energy. Watching from my lonely island in the dark. Not permitted to do more than taste the feast laid out before me, I turned my bleary gaze toward this new threat and did not blink. Obedient, but damaged. The very picture of what Asher had painted. Exactly the perfect little slave girl the Lieutenant General wanted to see.
No more. No less.
“My name is Lieutenant General Hastings,” he said, and folded one over-large hand around my fingers. Enveloping my frigid digits in a warm pocket that was little more than a disguise for this insidious interrogation. “I need to ask you a few questions. About General Tilcot’s death, and the events that came before and after.”
I swallowed, and let the truth bleed through my cracks.
And then I told himeverything.
“It was my fault,” I said, and meant every syllable. “I killed General Tilcot.”
