Page 26 of The Edge of Dawn

“I found one.”

“Found what?”

“A human with the Talent.”

“You what?” Ashrael rocked back on his haunches, allowing Dragek to sit up. Then, to his surprise, Ashrael gracefully rose to his feet and extended his hand. “Get up, bastard. I did not give you permission to leave this place. Don’t tell me you found a sarien already.”

“Sarien?” Dragek took his hand, wincing as he stood with Ashrael’s assistance. His opponent’s grip was firm and unyielding and without even a hint of malice. It was unthinkable that he’d changed from a deadly enemy to this—almost like a comrade—so quickly. “Nothing like that. She is simply a human. Utterly clueless and out of control. She doesn’t even know what she possesses. But she has the ability to draw me to her whenever my mortal bonds are loosened. She’s done so twice now. Not my choice.” He shrugged.

“You’ve been covertly observing her?”

“Not covertly. We have communicated.”

“She knows you?” Ashrael seemed both genuinely surprised and faintly amused. “That was quick.”

“She does not know me. And yet, I had no choice but to momentarily assume control of her mortal body. A pair of humans were coming to detain her, and she doesn’t possess even the slightest capability for violence. It was obvious I had to do something. She let me in. I took control—for a short time only, long enough to incapacitate her attackers.”

“You didn’t kill them, then?”

The wry twist of Dragek’s lips mirrored Ashrael’s sardonic tone. “The human seems to have a way of convincing me to do things against my better instincts.”

“Hm.” A ghost of a knowing smile flitted across Ashrael’s lips. He radiated a sense of inevitability, of acceptance, almost as if he preferred to indulge in this way of doing things. “You are not as unreasonable as I thought you were going to be. Perhaps there’s hope for you yet. Did you have some time to think while you were silently locked in your own head?”

It suddenly occurred to Dragek that the notorious assassin of legend was so very different from what he’d imagined him to be.

Not just a brutal killer.

Not an unthinking slave.

Not simply a callous Kordolian.

“I may not be as enlightened as you,” he said quietly, “but I’m not an idiot. At least I can understand that the Universe that was sold to us was a lie.”

A sense of urgency stirred within him. For although he’d left the human—at her stubborn request, no less—he was well aware of how vulnerable she was, and there was no telling who might come after her next, especially when her would-be captors failed to report.

“Not unreasonable,” Ashrael repeated. “There’s a name for what you can do, you know?”

“A name?”

“You’re a thought-walker. I’ve never heard of any of our kind being able to do it, but it’s been documented. A genetic anomaly… grants the ability to separate the consciousness from one’s body. In the old language, it’s called Sairul. I don’t yet know enough about it, but what you did was quite possibly dangerous.”

“Dangerous?” His voice came out sharper than he intended.

“You entered her mind, did you not? Not just through mindspeech, but you took control of her body. You assumed her consciousness. For a moment, you were her. There’s a risk you could have… imprinted some of yourself upon her. Unlike you and I, she’s completely untrained. She hasn’t built the barriers that are necessary to control the flow of ka’qui. If she’s received even just a fraction of your thoughts or memories, there’s a very real possibility she could go mad.”

“I’m not that mad.”

“You’ve seen her—what she’s like. Do you think any human would be capable of swallowing the darkness that exists within you and I?”

With his Second Sight, Dragek stared at Ashrael, trying to decipher him. But as always, his minder was as cryptic as ever.

“I see.” He didn’t have to sift through his own thoughts to know that some of the memories buried deep within him were truly horrifying.

There were horrors done unto himself.

But far more done unto others.

What would she do if she truly knew what he was?

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