In my peripheral, I saw the captain’s eyebrows jump. Heard the bubble of hysterical laughter before he was able to contain it. And felt the lightheaded rush of adrenaline as Asher prepared to die. Doomed at last, by my words.
Head snapping back, the Lieutenant General frowned and said, “Is that so?”
“He meant for me to die,” I rasped, voice a parched croak of unused tissue. “Meant for the captain to die at the demonstration, like we almost did on the field. Burned up from the inside out, until there was nothing left of either of us but a dried up husk.” I let a tiny, unhinged smirk play at the corner of my lips, and leaned in to whisper, “But he fell into his own trap. His legs… they melted.” I took a haggard breath. “Can you smell it? Taste what’s left? I can.” I swallowed again, and let my tongue peek out to wet dry lips. “There’s nothing left but the grease and you can’t scrape it off. I’ve tried.” With my free hand, I scratched at my throat. Scratched and scratched, murmuring, “Tried and tried and tried and—”
The Lieutenant General was careful to keep the bubble of disgust tucked neatly away, but I felt it all the same. “Horrible business,” he cooed, and his thumbs traced a pattern between the thumb and index finger of my captured hand. “Here. Let’s have a sip of something stronger than water, to help wash away such a traumatic memory.”
Without blinking, I let him feed me a generous gulp of amber liquid straight from his own glass.
“Swallow it down, now,” he hummed, and offered a kind smile. “Every drop. That’s it. Good girl. Now tell me about the general’s slave. Sasha, was her name? What was her part in what happened? We haven’t been able to sort that out.”
Tears flooded my lashes, unbidden. “Sheshone,” I breathed. “From the inside out.”
“Yes,” he drawled, “so I heard. But what did she say to you before—”
“I triedso hard,” I hissed, forcing the words between the points of my teeth. And my fingers—they found an anchor around the thick digits encasing them, nails biting into the flesh of the Lieutenant General’s wrist as I fed him every poisonous drop of truth in a titanic flood of information. “But I couldn’t fix it. I tried to pull her back,” I whispered. Frantic, letting him feel the instability still rocking behind my ribs. Where failure throbbed with each guilty, treacherous beat of my heart. “Blue fire in her veins. Priestess magic,” I rasped, clawing at his wrist. “She never taught me how to stop it, because I’m not a priestess. Just another play thing for an elite. A whore, trained to serve with a smile.” A hysterical sob chattered through my teeth, but I flashed him the closest thing to a smile I could muster—and it was horrible. “They’re extinct, now. The priestesses. The very last of them burned up in blue flames, and I killed her. She’s dead because of me.”
The Lieutenant General shook his head, but couldn’t tear his gaze away from mine. “Hold on a moment. Back up. How exactly did you kill them—”
“Born to be a healer,” I mumbled, face wet with tears. Prickly and hot. “But everything I touch dies. And I can still taste it. The rot.”
Pressing the fingers of his free hand between his eyes, the Lieutenant General pulled a slow breath between his lips. “Mila—”
“I’m a poison,” I snarled, and used the leverage I had on his wrist to haul myself upright. To force him to look and see what remained of the empath. Getting right in his face, unblinking, so he might feel the true depth of my guilt seeping through his ribs. “Death was her only escapefrom me.”
“Did she say anything to you before she died?” the Lieutenant General pressed, his brow glistening with a thin layer of sweat. Pupils tiny pricks of darkness, even in the half light of Asher’s bedroom. “What were her last words? Be exact, now.”
At this, a wash of wretched heartbreak flooded through my chest, and I gasped out the words that burned the deepest.“You’re not a priestess, girl. Powerless. Soiled. Nothing but dust, just another tool to be used and discarded by the Empire. And now,”I rasped in a singsong voice,“the priestesses are all gone.”
For a moment, the Lieutenant General could only blink as he tried to untangle himself from the gossamer threads of netting I’d spun around him. Pulling back, first where only I could feel it, and then with a trembling hand, he wrenched his trapped fingers from my grip. Crimson half-moons oozed around the white imprints of my fingerprints.
Nodding, as if to himself, he patted my forearm, then said, “Thank you, Mila,” in a voice that trembled beneath that cultured surface. “You’ve been a tremendous help. Why don’t you close your eyes and get some rest. This has been a trying experience for you.”
He stood.
Nodding again, he took a breath, and turned to the captain and Colonel Viridian. “Well,” he said. “That was… an… experience.”
From the captain, there was only grim silence. A clenched jaw, and white knuckles as he awaited his sentence.
“Captain Rawlings”—the Lieutenant General laughed—“to say you’ve earned a break is an understatement of criminal proportions.”
A tiny breath of air left the captain’s lips. “Thank you, sir, but I don’t need a break—”
The Lieutenant General put up his left hand. “Nonsense. Complete and utter nonsense, and after five minutes with that girl, now we both know it.” Shaking his head, he dabbed at the moisture on his brow, then reached for his overcoat. “No, you’re excused from all duties going forward. And I’ll need some time, but let me see what I can do about getting you some relief from so defective a priestess as this one.”
I went still where I’d wilted in my nest.
Tension pinched the captain’s brows, and he said, “Relief?” through tight lips.
“They’re strictly experimental for now,” the Lieutenant General replied, “but the research teams have developed a suppressor cuff that acts as a deadener for any energy wielder who wears it. There are some… unpleasant side effects,” he added with a grimace, “but given the state of her, being indefinitely comatose might just be a kindness.”
Ice washed down my nape, and I jolted in place. Eyes darting to the captain. To see what his reaction might be to the words ‘suppressor cuffs’ and ‘indefinitely comatose’.
The captain gave his head a slow shake. “I didn’t even think to ask about such a thing.” And then, after a moment’s pause, “Thank you, sir. I appreciate it.”
“Don’t mistake my sympathy for forgiveness,” the Lieutenant General retorted. “This is why new priestesses are meant to be tested vigorously before being assigned to the elite most compatible to her needs. It takes extensive training to be ready to manage a properly trained girl, let alone one of such a disastrous nature. General Tilcot’s reports were not generous to your character, captain, and if I wasn’t already impressed by your handling of the girl over the last eight days, I’d probably already have plans to have you two torn apart and damn the consequences. Just as he recommended. Punishment for binding yourself to an asset that should have been claimed in the name of the empire.” Dark brows rose almost high enough to meet his hairline. “A decision thatshouldhave been a royal one, I might add. Oh, I understand why you did it, just as easily as I understood Tilcot’s impulse to try and steal her from you. By our own folly, priestesses are a dying breed, and that girl’s all but made of raw power. Never felt anything quite like it. And if that power can be harnessed without risking some catastrophic fallout?”
That stormy gaze flicked over his shoulder, and without err, the Lieutenant General met my eyes. His stare penetrated straight through me, pinning me in place as a slow smirk tugged at the corner of his lips. “She’ll be an incredible asset. To whichever program she ends up in.”
