“Sure.” I swallowed a lump in my throat and went to lean back before remembering there was no back on this chair. I forced myself to sit straighter.
The orb in the corner made an audible clicking noise, and the lights dimmed slightly, enough to sharpen the shadows behind Celine.
“What was the color of the sky the day you last fed?” she asked.
It sounded like a warm-up question, but the room pulsed with additional pressure. The air tightened around my ribs.
“Light gray with clouds,” I answered. “But I was in the simulator, if it makes a difference.”
The pressure receded like a breath exhaled.
The orb in the corner pulsed blue.
Ahhh, so the orb was a lie detector.
Celine’s lips twitched into a satisfied smile before thinning again. “Would you disobey a direct order to save a civilian child?”
Before I could answer, a holographic screen turned on between us, showing a child’s face. He couldn’t have been more than five with blue eyes, a bruised cheek, and a swollen lip.
I clenched my fists beneath the desk and fixed my eyes past the holographic onto Celine’s. “I’d follow my orders.”
The orb turned red, and the image changed to the child screaming as streaks of fire came from the air behind them.
“I wouldtryto follow the orders I was given,” I admitted. “However, as long as it didn’t impact another life, I would disobey orders to save the child.”
She nodded once as the orb turned back to blue.
The projection dissipated.
“If telling the truth during a mission debrief will get you executed, but lying on it means betraying your oath and duty, which do you choose?”
I gave a small shrug. “The truth. Lying wouldn’t get me anywhere. The council keeps tight reins on its agents, so they’d know I was lying the moment it came out of my mouth.”
The orb stayed blue.
“Have you ever killed before?”
“Yes.”
The orb stayed blue.
“Will you kill again?”
“Probably,” I said.
The orb was still blue.
Her expression remained calm, but I caught the faint narrowing of her eyes. “If your mentor was compromised, and you were ordered to eliminate them, what would you do?”
“I—”
The room shifted, and I heard Jesper’s voice in my ear.
“Rune,”Jesper whispered. “Please. Don’t do this. You’re not their weapon.”
My heart stuttered. That…wasn’t real. Jesper wasn’t in here, and he wasn’t even my mentor. Though, I wanted him to be.
It felt so real that I nearly stood up, but Jesper wouldn’t say that. He knew an agentwasthe council’s weapon. He was a weapon, too.
