“Who?” I feigned ignorance. “A bit hard to keep up with the women in your life.”
He ground his teeth. “You know who. Pretty hair, big tits, brain the size of a?—”
“Ah, yes,” I said lightly, corking my rising irritation. “The dancer who, correct me if I’m wrong, was about to commit treasonagainst her king.Thatdancer. You know, she had the same mark that you do on your foot.”
“Had? Where is she now?”
“I dealt with her, same as I’m dealing with you,” I said, attempting a different approach. “Only she seemed to hardly know anything, so it did not end well for her. I killed her shortly after capturing her.”
“You’re lying,” he seethed.
“I would like to know how that brand on your foot works, Kole,” I said, casually pacing with my arms folded. “You see, I’ve discovered your little secret. True apostates bear its mark, and somehow it prevents you all from being able to say each other’s name, or anything relating back to your cause to another.” I cocked my head at him. “Except for Serpentine. That you can say to anyone, and I’m guessing that’s because you all need to lure others in to join your ridiculous uprising.”
Kole said nothing.
I slipped out a knife from my boot and flipped it by its hilt several times in the air. “I’m trying to give you a way out here by telling me everything I need to know before you lose an eye or your leg. Because you don’t have the same luxury as your fallen comrades did. Unlike with them, youcantell me everything you know about the apostai even though I don’t bear the brand.”
“Impossible,” Kole ground out.
“Alas, here we are.” I pointed the blade at him. “Tell me why.”
“Tell me if she’s alive,” he countered. “The Black Rose.”
“I told you. Dead, like all the other apostates I’ve caught and questioned before her.”
Kole jumped to his feet. “She can’t be dead. It’s not possible.”
“And why not?”
“She can’t,” he said to himself. “The Black Rosecan’tbe dead.” I couldn’t discern if it was Rahzlyn’s death that pained him or the symbol she represented.
“Did you love her?” I demanded. I didn’t give a fuck that the question lacked relevance.
He faced me, his features contorted into something akin to disgust. “What the fuck kind of interrogation is this? No, I didn’tloveher. She was promised to us. She was the catalyst, the answer, the beacon of our new future. The Black Rose was meant to behis.”
Everything in me darkened from the possessive way in which he spoke. He never cared for her. “You used her.”
“The Black Rose was meant to be his,” Kole repeated. “His, not yours to kill!”
“Whose?” I snarled. “Markus’s?”
Kole scoffed. “Markus is his servant. We all are. Which is why you must be lying. Because the prophecy?—”
“A truth for a truth, Kole.” Another idea popped into my mind. “Tell me about thisprophecy, and I’ll let you see your sister. Mel, right?”
Kole’s face went ghastly white. “What? She’s here?”
Stars, was he gullible. “I went back to Serpentine in search of collateral and low and behold, there she was. A spitting image of yourself. She’s unharmed.” I paused. “For now.”
A frustrated noise erupted from his mouth.
It was a gamble, testing whether his sister could be at Serpentineandif he cared enough about her to divulge information in exchange for her safety. But as my threat hung in the air, Kole heaved a sigh in defeat. It worked. I always thought such affection was a weakness, yet his love for his sister was conceivably his only redeeming quality.
“Alright,” he lamented. “I’ll tell you what you want to know, just—fuck, don’t hurt her.”
“What’s your sister’s name?” I mulled over our first encounter when he’d called Jere by the name of Jerrome. “Hertruename? And you better make sure you give the same answer she gave me.”
Kole sneered. “Melanie.”
