Page 59 of The Iron Flower

I take a deep, steadying breath and turn around to face Lukas dead-on. “What do you think of Vogel?”

There. I said it. And we can’t lie to each other, so answer me this time.

Lukas’s eyes take on the look of a storm gathering, his voice dagger sharp. “Vogel’s unhinged.”

We’re both quiet for a long moment as we try to read each other. The unconcealed, almost violent antagonism toward Vogel in Lukas’s gaze emboldens me.

“Our people are forming mobs, and they’ve started attacking non-Gardnerians in Verpax City,” I tell him.

Lukas throws me a deeply cynical look. “That’s unfortunate, Elloren,” he says, his tone barbed, “but not at all unexpected. Do you happen to recall what the Kelts and the Urisk did when they were in power?”

Anger fills me in response to his usual, infuriating and unfeeling logic. An image of Olilly’s multilated ears and shorn hair fills my mind. Bleddyn’s beaten face.

“The Kelts and the Urisk formed mobs,” Lukas answers for me with a potent glare. “And tormented Gardnerians. They quickly progressed to killing them. First individually, then rounding them up in barns and setting the buildings on fire.”

I glare back at him, tension igniting on the air between us.

“And just prior to that,” he continues acidly, “the Fae formed mobs and tormented the Kelts. And beforethat, the Urisk formed mobs and tormented the Fae.”

“I know all this, Lukas,” I counter, growing impassioned. “That wasthemspinning out of control, and this isusspinning out of control. Someone needs to stop it.”

His smirk is coldly contemptuous. “You mean stop the normal course of history?”

“Yes.”

His face hardens. “It doesn’t work that way, Elloren. You can choose to be on the powerful side or not. That’s youronlychoice in this world.”

“No,” I lash back. “That isnotthe only choice. I’ve read a fair bit of history this year, Lukas. The balance of power could be realigned to includeeveryone.Not just one group tormenting all the others.”

“Then tell me,” he throws back, a sarcastic curl to his lip, “in your erudite studies of the history of the Realms, when exactly was power realigned to include everyone, Elloren?”

I move toward him, ire building. I don’t care that he’s a Level Five Mage. I don’t care that he commands this entire base. I can’t fight the compulsion to be blisteringly honest with him. “I don’t care if it’s never been achieved, Lukas. None of us should be aligning ourselves with this nightmare, including you. Vogel needs to bestopped.”

Lukas’s face grows savage. He abruptly rises, stalks toward me and grabs hold of my arm. “Come with me,” he says, a demand.

I glance down at his hand, incredulous, doggedly holding my ground. “Where?”

“Just come.”

I let him guide me toward the bedroom’s balcony. He throws open the glass door and leads me outside, his hand like a vise, pulling me right up to the edge. There are torches set on metal poles along the balcony’s entire periphery, sending up crimson Mage-flame, heating the entire terrace. Mage-crafted, black tree limbs twist inside the bloodred flame.

“Look carefully, Elloren,” Lukas seethes, tilting his head toward the sprawling base before us. “What do you see?”

I shrug him off and glare daggers at him. “Power.”

“Yes, that’s right. So be careful.” He sends me a piercing, significant look. “I knowexactlywhat you’re involved in. You’re treading on very dangerous ground.”

I can read it in his eyes. A warning. And I realize, with terrifying certainty, that he knows. He knows I’m wrapped up in the Resistance. The weak Resistance. The easily crushed Resistance.

And he likely knows about Naga.

“What do you know?” I rasp out, barely able to form the words.

Lukas’s expression fills with a disbelief edging toward mockery. “What do you take me for? I knoweverything.”

My heart pounds against my chest, my breath becoming uneven, but I force myself to meet his savage glare. “Should I be afraid, Lukas?”

“Yes, Elloren,” he shoots back. “Veryafraid.” His look of fury collapses, becoming conflicted. “But not of me.”

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