Page 210 of Golden Eagle

Trina slid forward in her chair, drawing the mage’s attention – he’d been staring at Sasha with rapt amazement, eyes glimmering as he sought to understand. She put on her bestwork with me, heredetective voice, low and earnest. “Severin, I understand that you grew up there, and you’ve got no reason to believe me over any of the staff there, but the doctors at the Institute are just that:staff. They’re in the business of experimenting on immortals. They kidnap people: trick them, drug them, chain them, and keep them locked in cells so they can draw blood samples. They did that to Sasha. And Dante, and our friend, Val.

“You read the letter that Will gave you,” she said, nodding toward the coat pocket where she’d seen him tuck it carefully away earlier. He reached up to touch the pocket, reflexive, and the paper inside crinkled. “You and your siblings were bred and raised as weapons.” She hoped that there had been moments of kindness, too, but she had strong doubts. “If you didn’t already know that, you wouldn’t be sitting here.”

He swallowed, throat moving. Very still, his eyes very wide, and clear, the color of old glass bottles.

“The Institute has the potential to be a good and useful place,” she continued. “But so far, they’ve failed. Pretty spectacularly. We can’t let that continue.”

“Severin, do you understand what we’re saying?” Sasha asked, tone gentle.

“We’re shutting it down,” Lanny said, before the boy could answer. “The local branch here is toast.” A beat. “I mean – not actual toast. You don’t gotta roast it.”

Nikita muttered under his breath.

But Trina watched Severin. Watched his gaze flick toward Lanny, and then come back: to Sasha, to her. Watched the way his lashes lowered, and knew he was considering.

He wasn’t normal. How could he be, after he’d been raised anythingbutnormally? No sleepovers, or s’mores, or Saturday morning cartoons, or dodge ball. No bustling school full of squeaking sneaker soles, and slamming locker doors; no chance to make honest friendships, to laugh, and experiment with romance, and justbe.

He wasn’t a regular kid, no…but that didn’t mean he wasn’t intelligent; wasn’t observant and quick to adapt. The tiniest muscle twitched in his cheek, and he sucked his lower lip between his teeth, briefly, and Trina knew his brain was spinning; that he was mulling over everything they’d said.

And what a risk it was to have spoken to him so openly. Whether or not he’d thrown flames at one of his teachers and escaped, he was still someone raised wholly by the Institute. Someone obviously holding a grudge against Nikita, and maybe unable to show forgiveness, depending on the lessons he’d learned in his short life.

She didn’t realize she was holding her breath until he finally looked up, shoulders pushing back with the air of someone who’d made a decision, and nodded. “You’re right. What they’re doing is unethical.” Then she let out a deep, trembling exhale, and felt some of the tension in her gut melt away.

She heard several relieved sighs behind her.

“We certainly think so.” Her breath might have hitched, but her voice remained steady. “We don’t want anyone to get hurt – human or immortal. That’s why the Institute can’t keep functioning the way they have been.”

“So,” Lanny said, tactless as always, “you in?”

Alexei’s turn to mutter.

Nik sighed out an “oh, Christ.”

But Severin didn’t seem bothered. He said, “I want to get my siblings out. My – mybrothers.”

How heartbreaking, she thought. It didn’t sound like he’d said the wordbrothermuch before, the way he tripped on it.

But busting out more mages was a tall,tallorder.

“Well,” she said. “I don’t guess we can argue with that.”

And no one did.

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