51. Chapter 51
Chapter 51
Cain
M y eyes narrowing, I watch the members of the Resistance file into the room one by one, everyone except for the little shifter girl and the witch herself. They all throw either reluctant or disgusted glances at me sitting in the cage before taking their seats around the table they seem to be using for meetings.
And as soon as he walked in, the fae male did use his magic to temporarily sound-proof the cage, but he doesn’t seem to realize not all of my powers are being blocked.
I can still hear them.
Observing them carefully, I listen in on their conversation, noting their roles within their little organization. The older of the shifter women seems to be the leader, the fae male a capable Divine Magic user, the fae female … She’s a little harder to decipher.
And there’s this tension in the air, but they’re all being so… familiar with each other. So much so, I’m finding it strangely mesmerizing.
It blows my focus, when the scent drifts over to me again and I watch her enter with the little shifter girl in tow.
As she walks, her eyes dart to me, but I’m much more prepared for her now than I was the first two times we came into close contact. Remaining calm, I just throw daggers at her, trying to scare her into looking away.
She does, but it doesn’t seem to be out of fear.
She just takes her seat at the table and glances around it.
“We’ve given you your minute, Anna,” the leader says in a firm voice, “but we’d like a report now.”
The witch seems to hesitate. “There’s nothing to report,” she finally replies. Her eyes dart to me again, and it makes me pleased, when she refers to me without using my name. “Right now, he seems to be refusing to even talk to me, let alone tell me about his father’s ancestors.”
Interesting.
I register the people shift in their seats, and it seems to be enough to make the witch rush to say, her tone all apologetic, “But I understand how important this is, so here’s what I propose. While I keep trying to make Cain see whose side he should really be on…”
I have to fight not to let out a scoff.
“Alaric will try to get the info from the inside. In the meantime, I’ll form a team to find a third source of info as well.”
Barely a second goes by before the leader shakes her head. “Absolutely not.”
My eyes dart back to the witch. She seems to be collecting herself. “Why, if I may ask?” she asks in a calm voice.
“For two very good reasons,” the leader readily replies. “Number one, the shadowcurse.” She signals to the little shifter girl to start talking.
Let’s see what they know.
“Lately,” the girl starts timidly, “the number of reported incidents is growing at a rate that is normally associated with pandemics. There doesn’t seem to be much time before it turns irreversible.”
“Time we could’ve used working on getting the bones,” the leader cuts in, “forging the sword and killing the bastard before he gets the chance to put us all under his complete control.”
A sword? I almost let out a scoff.
“I’m sorry that this is happening,” the witch counters, “but it’s not a valid argument against my proposal. Killing Baldur won’t result in the shadowcurse no longer being a threat.”
“ Number two ,” the leader keeps going, “you’re biased in all of this.”
I frown.
“Am I?” the witch drawls.
It’s the vampire woman that answers, barely concealed anger in her voice. “You are. Right now, all you care about is your little mate.”
The very mention of the mate ruse makes me grit my teeth, but the witch seems equally indignant. “Does that make me more or less biased than some other people in this room?” she demands.
“What did you just say to me?” the vampire woman asks through gritted teeth.
To my surprise, the witch shakes her head and says, “Sorry.”
“Anna,” the leader cuts in, “we’ve talked about this and we have the majority. No matter how distasteful this is to all of us present here, desperate times call for desperate measures. Since you can’t make Cain talk, we will . And there’s no point in you resisting this.”
Ah, torture. I guess it was only a matter of time.
When I don’t hear her respond, I look at the witch again, only to watch her slowly stand up, this indecipherable expression on her face.
Everyone around her squirms. I don’t know why, but she makes me frown as well, holding my breath in anticipation.
“Let me address my being biased first,” she starts, surprising me with the combination of calm, serious voice and the slight smile. “Yes, I am biased…”
I see the vampire woman’s eyebrows shoot up. The witch takes a moment to look at them all individually, before the expression on her face turns so unforgiving and authoritative all of a sudden, it makes a shiver run down my spine. “But if for even a single second you think I wouldn’t resist this for any one of you here,” she says, the voice still calm, but only on surface level, “or anyone for that matter, that can only mean one thing.” She pauses for a second. “You’ve forgotten who I am.”
No one protests. As she speaks, my eyes, like everyone else’s, get drawn to this soft glow around her wrists and her neck. The Aurora tattoos.
“There’s another huge part of who I am,” she continues in that same mesmerizing voice, clearly aware of the fact that she’s captured everyone’s full attention. “It’s the fact that I’ve heard these arguments you’re presenting to me many, many times before this moment right now. The memories, as always, are vague, but… the sad truth is that I’ve also witnessed what that kind of thinking inevitably leads to.”
The witch stands straighter and stares at them all intently. I no longer see either annoyance or anger on any of their faces. They’re just listening. “If there’s any other option available to you,” she tells them, “there are no times desperate enough to excuse abandoning your very humanity. It’s by far the worst thing that can happen to us all, both individually and collectively, and you are dead wrong if you think I’m going to sit back and watch you make this mistake.”
To my surprise, this makes the people exchange looks filled with… shame?
It surprises me even more, when the witch seems to register this and reacts by keeping her voice firm but softening it significantly. “So no,” she tells them, “we won’t be using force to get the info out of Cain.”
This time, I actually do scoff at the show of virtuousness. Her eyes dart to me, she frowns, but she almost immediately shifts her focus away from me.
“I know it’s only because you’re scared that you’re even considering this,” she continues firmly but softly, “and it’s for all the right reasons that you are scared in the first place, it’s why I love you all as people, but you will do as I say, and everything will be alright. Understood?”
There’s a moment of silence before, one by one, I see people nod, contently . “Understood,” the leader says.
I fix my eyes on the witch again. “Alright then, I guess it’s meeting adjourned,” she says with this warm smile.
Everyone gets up and starts chatting while leaving the room, but I keep my eyes on the witch. She gets approached by the fae male, with some question I don’t hear, but before she turns to answer, she throws me a look seemingly filled with hesitation and relief.
I narrow my eyes at her, but I can’t help but be impressed. I mean, I don’t believe it for a second — that it’s principle, let alone concern for me that made her fight them on the issue of torture. But she hasn’t just managed to convince them to drop it. She seems to have managed to fully reassure them, breaking any and all tension that had been filling the room before her arrival.
Whatever I do, I can’t let her succeed in fooling me like that. I don’t believe it will take me more than a couple of days to escape, but it seems no one will be coming to look for me in the meantime — I heard them say they left a note telling my men I’ll be gone for a while, which was pretty clever, since it wouldn’t be the first time I’d done it.
Still, even if she comes to see me before I manage to execute my plan, I just need to remember…
One, she won’t be catching me off guard anymore.
Two, I’m a sword.
And a sword can’t be fooled because a sword doesn’t care either way.