Page 88 of The Second Death of Locke
Mare took in the group in front of her, and it was like the fight went out of her: her knees sagged, and she would’ve dropped to the ground if it wasn’t for the guards holding her arms.
“Has she been drugged?” the commander asked.
“Yes,” one of the guards replied.
“Remove her gag.”
He cut it away, and Mare drew a heaving breath, her eyes tracing back and forth over the others with growing dread. They lingered for just a second on Grey before moving on. Her top lip was swollen and split, as was her left eyebrow. Grey surmised that she’d be a patchwork of bruises under her clothes: she’d clearly been beaten.
“Is this your retinue?” the commander asked.
“Yes,” Mare said, her voice raspy. Grey remembered her eyes, wild with fear, as she’d saved her from death years before.
“They have been… uncooperative. Would you do me the honor of naming those involved, and telling me their specialties?”
Mare licked her lips. She looked up and down the line. “I don’t know—”
“Don’t toy with me, Concord.”
“I’m not. I only know Seward and Flynn’s abilities. Captain Seward is an internal affinite.”
The commander looked at Kier for a long moment, eyebrows drawing together. “Internal. The report on our company stated that it was clean work that killed our men. Some kind of effect on the hearts, forcing all to cease beating. Does that sound familiar?”
“I cannot say,” Mare lied. The commander rolled his eyes and gestured to one of the guards, who hit her so hard that her head twisted. She coughed, spitting a tooth out onto the floor. When she looked up again, blood dripped down her chin. Grey forced herself to watch despite her growing panic. It was the least she could offer her.
“Yes,” Mare said weakly. “His specialty lies with the heart.”
“And Flynn?”
“His well.”
“On the end, sir,” the man from the party said, and Grey’s blood ran cold. Eron had not betrayed her, betrayedthem, but now he would take the fall for her, and she could not stomach it. One of the soldiers grabbed Eron’s arm, following the gestures of the other, and pulled him forward.
“You’re Hand Captain Flynn?” the commander asked.
Without hesitation, Eron nodded. Grey could have killed themall. She fought against her restraints, against her gag, causing a scene. One of the soldiers moved closer, gripping her hair, pulling it back. She snarled and tried to knee him in the groin, but he punched her in the stomach. She saw a blaze of white and curled around the pain for one second, two, waiting for it to pass.
“And who areyou?”
“Officer Eron Fastria,” Kier said, the absolutebastard. “She’s a typic.”
With a raised brow, the commander nodded. Grey looked at Kier, desperate. He shook his head, just a fraction.
Don’t. She read the directive clear on his face, and more than anything she wanted to fight it, but she knew better. She knew what was at stake.
“Though this has been… enlightening, it is not what I’m here for.” The commander resumed his pacing, and Grey wanted, so badly, to kill him. “Who is the Locke?”
Kier’s chin rose further, defiant. And the others… Though Grey glanced at them, not a single one looked at her. They all stared straight ahead, unreactive.
“Who is it?”he thundered, and Grey’s heart pounded. She saw the soldiers move on Kier but he shot her such a murderous look that she only stood there in shock and horror,damnher, as one moved on him, slashing forward. The side of Kier’s face that was already bloody ran red, and something wet fell to the floor—Grey couldn’t contain her sob when she saw it was part of his ear. And he… he only made a gruff noise, the shudder traveling through his body.
“If you do not hand Locke over to me,” the commander said carefully, “I will kill all of them and toss their bodies into the sea until one of them resurrects the Isle.”
“I don’t think it works like that,” Kier said, his voice unsteady, a pain in the ass to the very end.
“I don’t care. I will do it anyway, and we will have no power at all.”
Grey tasted bile mingling with the breakbloom, and she could not breathe. And then Kier looked at her, so beautiful even with the blood, even though he was about to hurt her; and last night he’d whispered in her ear,You are going to ruin me.
