I’ll give him credit. His level expression gave nothing away. “Why?”
At least he hadn’t denied their existence. “I’m curious. Stefan and Dawn are all I’ve met of my kind, and they didn’t turn out so well. I just…” I sighed, laying it on thick. “I’ve never belonged. A man like you wouldn’t understand. Reared in the netherworld, I had no real identity, no self-worth. As you know, Akil saved me from that, but even with him as my… mentor, we weren’t the same. I became human under the ever-watchful eye of the Prince of Greed, a being as demon as they get. The only genuinely human contact I’ve had was with an Institute spy.” He flinched. Good. He deserved it. “And then Stefan…” I let his name hang in the air like a ghost and watched Adam swallow hard. “Well, we both know how that ended.” Unexpected moisture blurred my sight. Hey, look at me, the poor little half-blood experiment, so lost and alone. “I just need to see them. It’s not a lot to ask. And in exchange, I will tell you everything I know about the princes.” Which wasn’t a great deal, thanks to Akil’s uncanny ability to wriggle out of the truth.
“And you’ll tell me what Akil meant when he said his investment had not yet come to fruition.”
Ah, that. “I don’t know for sure, but I’ll tell you what I’ve figured out so far.”
“Tell me now, as a… precursor to our agreement.”
Damn, he could bargain hard. “He believes me to be a weapon. One he can wield.”
“How exactly?”
Always with the pertinent questions. “You saw what I did over the gardens, how I drew from the veil and boosted Akil’s power so he could drive the Larkwrari demon back?” Adam nodded. “I funneled so much power into him, I think it altered him somehow. He says he’s different now. I think, and this is just my gut feeling, but I think the two of us together would be…” Unstoppable? Terrifying? “…formidable.”
“And how does he intend to control you?”
“He’s always controlled me, one way or another.” I had no intention of telling Adam about the soul-lock. There be dragons down that path.
“To what end?”
“You’ll have to ask him that.”
“No, you will.”
I bit my tongue and smiled sweetly, gulping back my innate desire to argue with him and resist his orders. “Did you know there was a queen?”
Adam’s eyes widened. “We suspected, given their titles, but we have no confirmation. He’s spoken of her? Does she live?”
My smile turned sour. “Show me the half-bloods, Adam, and I’ll tell you everything.” Especially the part when you have the most likely candidate for the King of Hell in your cell.
He nodded. “I’ll allow you to meet them. And then we talk.”
I couldn’t help wondering as I watched him brighten with the idea of new knowledge if I was, in all likelihood, talking to a soon-to-be dead man. Stefan would kill him if he got close enough. Akil would kill him in a heartbeat. Hell, if I lost control, Adam was at the top of my demon’s to-do list, and her ideas put mine to shame. A lot of good his knowledge would do him when surrounded by demons thirsty for his blood.
“I knew you’d come good, Muse.” He straightened, squared shoulders, head up, eyes gleaming with pride. It took all my control not to snarl over my smile.
* * *
ADAM WASTED no time escorting me through the facility to an area innocuously called B Section. I’d been told the Institute’s half bloods were little more than animals in cages. To a degree, that was true. But their cages were the beds they’d been strapped to and the drugs keeping them subdued. The two half bloods, one male, one female, were naked beneath the single white sheets draped over them. Only the various monitors displaying jumping graphs and twitching numbers indicated any life. I’d get more conversation from bodies in a morgue.
A curious urge to touch proved undeniable, and standing beside the bed of a young male, I reached my fingers out, but stopped short of his bare shoulder. He appeared to be perhaps eighteen or nineteen years old. His hair, so short it was barely there at all, would probably be a honey blonde if left to grow out. Strong cheekbones, fine jaw. He’d be a heartbreaker at college. Resting my fingers on his shoulder, I expected him to flinch, but he didn’t react at