Night Study (Soulfinders, #2)(109)

“I don’t have one,” Leif said.

“I do!” Janco jumped to his feet.

The poor man hadn’t said a word or moved since they had dragged Dax in.

Janco’s hands almost blurred as he motioned. Wouldn’t Brother Horror’s power not work on you because of that blocking thing?

That’s just speculation. I can’t risk the baby.

You might not have a choice if we’re here for a few days.

True.

“Can someone tell us what’s going on?” Dax asked.

“It’s better if you don’t know,” Ari said. He sank onto the pallet of straw in his cell. “Did you know about...that before you rushed off to rescue Leif?” he asked me.

“Yes, and don’t yell at me. Leif and Janco already have.”

Ari grunted, but kept quiet. I sipped the cooling tea. It tasted divine, warming me. However, I planned to wait another day before I ate the food. At this point, I didn’t have any other options.

*

The following day passed in a slow trickle of nothing. Without a window, we marked time by the guards’ entrance. Trays of hot food arrived, cooled, congealed and were replaced—three per day. I started eating after the fourth delivery. By that time, dizziness made it difficult for me to stand.

Leif made a few obvious gestures to explain to Dax and Hale why I risked being turned into Bruns’s minion.

After two days, the others started drinking the Theobroma-laced water. They didn’t wish to die. No one voiced what we all thought: Where’s Valek? Will he be here soon? Or has he been captured?

Four days into our incarceration, Loris and Bruns accompanied the food. They stood in front of my cell.

“You’re the only one who seems to have an appetite.” Bruns peered at me in suspicion. “Why is that?”

I shrugged. “I don’t have as much willpower as the others.”

“Uh-huh. Loris?”

Instinctively I glanced at Loris, but wished I hadn’t when he captured my gaze. Unable to look away, I fought against a heaviness pressing into my thoughts. I tried to jumble them, keep the answers from his reach like a mental game of keep-away. It worked until he increased his efforts. Then I counted numbers backward as Valek had taught me and recited lists of poisons. It only delayed the inevitable. Eventually, Loris’s magic shone on all the corners of my mind, exposing everything. The blocking thing failed to work. Instead, a powerless humiliation spread throughout my body.

“And?” Bruns asked.

“She’s pregnant.”

While Loris held me, I was unable to see Bruns’s reaction. However, through Loris, I sensed Bruns’s surprise turn into cold calculation.

“Is Valek the father?”

“Yes, and he knows all about the baby. In fact, the two of them have exchanged marriage vows.”

That statement triggered a wave of astonishment throughout the prison.

“Let me be the first to congratulate you, Yelena,” Bruns said. “I’m looking forward to learning more about what you’ve been up to this last year. Is she ready?” he asked Loris.

“Yes. She’s mine.”

“Good.” Bruns gestured to one of the guards. “Unlock her door. We’ll take her to my office, milk all the information from her, then scrub her mind clean.”

Right now I’d like to scrub the floor with Bruns’s face. Loris laughed. “You won’t feel that way for long. In a couple days, you’ll be his new best friend.”

“Gentlemen, say goodbye to Yelena,” Bruns said. “The next time you see her, she won’t remember you.”

The door to my cell swung open.

Loris said, “Come.”

The compulsion to obey pushed on my muscles, and I moved to his side. He broke eye contact and I almost swayed with relief. However, my body now followed his commands. Odd.

As we walked by Leif’s cell, my brother said, “Remember Mogkan.”

A strange way to say goodbye.

“Who’s Mogkan?” Bruns asked, stopping.

“Tell him,” Loris ordered me.

The strong impulse to divulge the information pressed on me. “Mogkan was a magician who wiped the minds of other magicians in order to steal their magic to increase his own power. He’d attempted to add me to his ring of power, but he failed.”

“Ah, a little pep talk from your big brother,” Bruns said. “Sweet, but this is very different. I’m sure Mogkan didn’t use Theobroma on her, and she had magic then.”

We continued to the exit, but Leif’s gaze never wavered from mine. I hadn’t told them everything about Mogkan, and with good reason. When Mogkan had attempted to turn me into a mindless slave, he could only control one part of me. Either my mind or my body. Never both. And I’d been eating Theobroma, except we called it criollo at that time. As for my magic, it had been a survival instinct that kicked in when I was trapped without options. Mogkan hadn’t ever triggered that when we were together.

Could that natural resistance to Mogkan’s magic apply to Loris’s magic, as well? Leif’s pep talk might just save my life.

*

The questioning spanned hours. It’d been late morning when we started, but now most of the afternoon was gone. I huddled in the leather armchair in Bruns’s office as he grilled me on Valek, the Sitian Council, the Master Magicians and the Commander.