Chapter 19 Adaela
It had been two days since we found out the truth about the culprits in the alleyway.
Two days since I realized that my powers had, in fact, changed again.
I wasn’t going crazy when I thought that I was going through another power surge.
I’d never heard of a Fae who had gained power like I had several hundred years into living.
I’d killed a god, for fuck’s sake. I was distracted, constantly thinking about the repercussions of this. I wasn’t sure how no one had called me out on this yet.
His name was Deimos. He was the god of fear in the Greek pantheon.
He’d been missing for centuries, according to Athena.
They figured he’d gone back to Mount Olympus after Zeus had given him the power of lightning to fight an old God that Zeus couldn’t handle on his own.
Zeus had decided that he wanted nothing to do with the Pax, considering it to be another one of Athena’s little pet projects.
The other being I murdered was a Human man named John Greeley.
He was originally from St. Louis, but he and his family had moved to the Shifter realm years ago, where it sounded like John had gotten into trouble by getting in the middle of some Shifter disputes, leading to his attachment to a pack that had a bad reputation for blackmail and other schemes to survive.
The trio were waiting down at the guard’s post when I finally made my way down to the often-neglected dungeons in the caves underneath the Pax’s headquarters.
It was during the beginning of the Pax’s inception when for-profit prisons started showing up all over the United States.
We all agreed early on that, while there would be cause for imprisonment on occasion, we’d do our best to deal with crime as a community issue rather than a sentence to put someone behind bars unless there was no other choice.
I nodded at them as I walked toward the prisoners, and they followed.
I filled Loki in on the way to the interrogation room on the whole fiasco and asked his thoughts.
“Well, it does seem odd that your powers are still growing. Who have you spoken with about this?” he asked, running his hand across the wall as he walked.
“I haven’t spoken with anyone yet. It was a theory until just a couple of days ago.
I’m at a loss on who to speak with,” I replied.
I kept running the scenarios through my head, but I couldn’t figure out why they’d attacked me.
I’d never heard of John Greely until a couple days ago, and I also couldn’t remember a time when Deimos and I would have ever crossed paths.
I mean, there was a real possibility that we fought one another during the Great War, but I wouldn’t bet my life on it.
“I think you should speak with Baba Yaga,” Vada said.
I was sure my face projected the confusion in my head. Baba Yaga was a fun person to party with, but she hadn’t left the Dark Wood in centuries. “Why Baba Yaga?” I asked.
“In addition to her being a hermit in the woods, she also sees prophecies from time to time. She may have some insight that the Moirai do not,” she replied.
“I wonder if she’d see me, since she’s still in Underhill,” I pondered aloud. The last time we’d spoken, she was yelling at me for something or other.
“She seems to be on your side,” Vada said, seemingly picking up on my own thoughts.
“We’d be remiss not to invite oracles from every faction we can. Maybe if we get all of them together, we can determine what Fate has in store,” Medb stated, slowing her stride.
We all grew quiet then, silently acknowledging that we had something to handle after we left the dungeons. As we neared the cells, one of the guards Loki assigned stood at attention next to the interrogation room doors.
“Sir, we have Borom in this room, and Daji in the other. Daji is pissed. Borom is pretending like this whole thing is a big joke. Between the two of them, it might be best if you decide now who will interrogate whom,” the guard suggested.
“Thank you. Medb and Adaela, I think it would be best if the two of you took Borom. Plan to use force if necessary, but let’s try to keep them both alive if we can.
Vada, you’re with me,” Loki said, taking the lead.
Loki was here because he had taken the responsibility for the dungeons. I’d trust his judgment.
A little pang went through my chest that I wouldn’t be teaming up with Vada. Loki knew what he was doing. If he believed that Vada’s succubus powers could help with another trickster goddess, I’d believe him. I’d dealt with my fair share of Shifters, as had Medb. We could handle this.
Medb nodded as I hesitated, waiting for her signal.
I kicked in the door to the interrogation room, startling the Shifter who had his head down in the seat he was chained to with silver.
I wrinkled my nose at the scent of burnt skin from his arms where they laid bare against the table, chained down with silver attached to a hook in the top of the bolted-down table.
He looked up at me, his eyes changing color, and he snarled.
I sneered.
“Oh, Borom. What mess have you gotten yourself into now?” I asked, turning the chair around backwards to sit down.
“I ain’t telling you shit, bitch,” Borom said, pulling at the chains.
“Original,” I deadpanned. “Just know that you’re going to tell us something before we finish tonight.” I slowly pulled my sleeves up and put my arms on the table.
“See, the thing is, Borom, you can talk to us willingly, or I have many, many ways of extracting that information from you,” Medb said, sitting down next to me.
Borom stared straight ahead, jaw clenched.
He didn’t reply to Medb, nor did he turn his attention on either of us.
He was wearing a cutoff button-down shirt and ripped jeans.
His work boots had a few holes in them. His hair, light brown, was a bit outgrown, and it smelled like he hadn’t showered in a few days.
Medb stood up abruptly, addressing me as she sneered at Borom. “You ready to knock some heads?”
I smiled menacingly, my shadows pulling from my core to play. “Let’s do this.”
“I’m going to start off easy,” Medb told Borom. “How do you know John Greeley?”
No response.
“We’re willing to let you walk, Borom. We try to be a pacifist nation.
Don’t mistake that to mean that we’re unwilling or unable to cause harm if it means protecting our people.
You can talk, or we can torture the information out of you.
Either way, you’re going to talk to us today,” I said as I wrapped my shadows around him, constricting his ability to move at all.
Borom remained silent. We gave him several minutes of quiet before Medb shifted in her seat, taking his hand in one of hers.
She stared him directly in the eye, a challenge most Shifters would react to.
Borom snarled in her face, but her expression never changed.
Medb casually broke one of Borom’s fingers.
He stiffened, but didn’t make a sound, so she broke another, then another until he grunted in pain.
It seemed brutal on the surface, and especially because we preached pacifism here.
The thing about conditional pacifism, though, was that it didn’t mean that violence was never the answer.
It meant that violence was the third option.
The third option only came into play when all other options were exhausted.
He wasn’t going to speak, and no compromise could be met.
The only way we were getting answers was through violence, and my death magic was awakening in my head. I wouldn’t use it—not yet.
“I can play this game all day, Borom. See, one of my strengths is in chaos, but my Goddess powers allow me to heal you, and my powers also let me know when you’re on the brink of death.
Adaela over here holds death magic, can create horrors right in front of your face, and her shadows can do some wild shit,” Medb said as she crouched down to the side of his chair.
I let my shadows whisper in Borom’s ear, making him jump. It never failed how much that amused me. “John Greeley, Borom. Who is he?”
Borom refused to speak, but his eyes were now the yellowish-green of his wolf, and his wolf was pissed. He couldn’t shift with the silver on, though, and I could see some of his panic bleeding into his eyes.
Medb broke his wrists, and he yelped in pain. She hushed him. “Tell us, and the torture stops.”
Borom remained quiet, gritting his teeth in pain. “You can break every bone in my body, but I will not talk. I know my rights. I want my lawyer.”
I laughed. “The last time you or your parents were on Earth, this was part of the US. It no longer is. The laws here are different. We play by our own set of rules,” I said, leaning back in my chair as if I didn’t have a care in the world.
It was time to take my glamour for a ride.
It had been a while since I used it so intricately.
I created a world inside of the interrogation room, one with his two small children and his mate.
“See, I know why you chose the life you did. You grew up an orphan, right? I can only surmise that your goal was to give your kids the life that you never had growing up. So, here’s my deal to you.
If you tell me what you know about John and the movements surrounding the Pax, then I will let you go to be with your family.
Shit, if you and your mate sign an oath in blood with the Pax, I’ll even offer to protect you from retaliation.
However, if you decide not to cooperate, Shoshana—that’s your wife, right?
She will be brought in to tell us what she knows.
I guarantee, because of your clan’s backward-ass thinking, that she doesn’t even know you’re still involved, does she? ”
“Leave my family out of this,” Borom snarled. He was beginning to struggle against the silver and my shadows that were preventing him from shifting or healing.