She shrugs. I’ve come to realize Briar doesn’t think much of herself at all, let alone that anything about her is special. That will change.
“I have a confession,” he mock-whispers as if to keep his words private, when I know it’s just to gain her confidence. “The headmistress wants me to tell her if you’re telling the truth, but I doubt very much my talent for seeing a lie will work on you.”
“I’m sure she would have known that,” Briar retorts, letting him know she’s not stupid, nor is she falling for his false ally bullshit.
“I don’t really think she had any other option.” He lowers himself into the chair that seems far too close to my mate now. I curl my fingers around the arm of the chair I’m seated in to keep myself in place. “How are you liking the institute?”
“I like the food,” Briar responds seamlessly.
“Is that all?”
“I like having a bed too.”
Brone’s face shifts to some semblance of a wry grin. “Just the comforts then. Did you not have those things at home?”
“What is this? A fucking therapy session?” I grit out.
“He’s establishing her baselines,” Syrinx murmurs softly, as if they can hear us in the other room.
“Not as many as there are here,” Briar answers vaguely. “I didn’t kill anyone.”
“Would you if you needed to?”
“That depends.”
“On what?” He leans forward a little, either to feign interest or because he really wants to know the answer.
“On the consequences.”
“You mean if you got caught?” Brone narrows his eyes.
“No. When you’re fighting for your life, you don’t think about being caught and held accountable. You think about surviving. I’ve fought hard to exist. It’s not even intentional at this point. It just is.”
“So you’re saying you would defend yourself.”
“It depends on the consequences. There are things worse than death.”
Brone drops back into his chair, clearly surprised by her answer. It pisses me off that she gave him such a telling response. He doesn’t deserve to have this insight into her. “Get to the fucking point, or this ends now.” I look over at Syrinx so she can see how serious I am.
Brone looks directly into the glass, then back at Briar. “Where were you last night?”
“I slept in my cell.”
“Your cell. That’s interesting. Your answer is also evasive.”
“It’s not meant to be. You asked me where I was last night. I slept in my room. If you want a recount of the full day, I can giveyou that. I woke up, bathed, and went back to my room. I stayed there until early evening, when I went down to the mess to eat. I got turned around when I left, ran into an instructor who told me I was in an area I shouldn’t be?—”
“Who was that? Where were you?”
“I don’t know, but Kage does. He seemed to know her.”
“You didn’t mention Kage.”
“I didn’t get a chance. He happened by, and the instructor told him to take me back to my room.”
“You called it a cell earlier,” Brone points out.
“Yes, I did, but she didn’t. She told him to take me back to myroom, which he did. That’s where I spent the rest of the night. I didn’t kill anyone.”
