nodded, getting off my hands and knees, trying to ignore the contents of my stomach that were now on the ground. A handkerchief appeared in front of me, and I snatched it from Piper as I passed her, wiping off my mouth. Raphael was quiet and pale as we were led to Monica’s office.
She locked us in and glared.
“Kaliya, this may not surprise you, but I cut the line because you were beginning to drag us into your memories. And Raphael, you had to break off pretty early. Are you okay?” Monica didn’t sound caring or motherly as she spoke. It felt like a perfunctory question before she chastised us like a headmistress.
“This isn’t your business. You have your money.”
“I do,” she said, looking away. “You can talk in private here. I’ll be outside.” She stomped out, her heels making that obnoxious click on the marble floors.
“The doctor?” I looked at Raph, not liking how washed out he was.
“He worked in the lab I was in. He was one of them. He might not officially work for Mygi, but he works with them,” Raphael explained, his voice rough.
“I figured by your reaction. That’s…good. We have a lead from this, and now we know it’s definitely about you and me and that whole mess. They went through a lot of trouble to make sure this didn’t come back on them, but now we have it.” I wanted to scream. Those fucking idiots really thought all of this would work?
“What was the rest?” he asked, rubbing his scarred wrist, the wonderful place where they had cut off his hand, then let his healing ability reattach it. It was by far one of the worst physical marks they had left on him. After months of seeing him, I had grown used to the damage his body had, but now that I saw him rubbing it, I thought about how many gunshot wounds and scars he had—five years of being a lab rat and another five on the run.
“Eliphas was doing therapy with Nakul and one day, brought in that guy, Doctor Bauer. The last memory was the good doctor blackmailing Eliphas, and he used a compulsion spell on Nakul. It was not pleasant. A compulsion spell is easiest to do when the person wants to do it and won’t because they’re too afraid. If someone wants to bungee jump but can’t get over their fear, a compulsion spell makes it easier. It gets harder by degrees, depending on how mentally stable someone is and how much they don’t want to do it.” I took a slow breath. “Using a compulsion on Nakul to kill another naga—me—went against everything. It was the strongest violation of magic they could have done on him. That’s why he was able to fight it off for so long.”
“The strongest violation of magic?” Raphael frowned. “Compared to what?”
“Doing that to someone is tantamount to raping their mind,” I answered, using the r-word I disliked so much. Raphael’s already pale skin lost more of its color, looking ashen grey at this point. “Before you ask, that’s why I threw up. The feeling of that level of violation struck a chord with me. I’m not talking about it further, but that’s what we’re dealing with here. Nakul will be lucky if he comes out of that sleep in the right mind because the spell finally won and forced him to try to kill me. It won’t be pretty for him.” I knew from experience how hard it was to overcome that level of pain and shame. After a hundred years, I could admit I never really did.
“Then, that fucking doctor went in and blocked the memory of Eliphas casting the compulsion spell to let Nakul believe he turned down the offer to kill me. Then Nakul had to live with the feeling of violation, knowing something was very wrong in his own mind but not what. The compulsion spell would have drawn him to find me over and over until he finally broke and completed his task.”
“Like Wesley hunted you down twice,” Raphael said, nodding slowly.
“Wesley must have been easy to spell. He’s not mentally sound. He would have taken the compulsion spell, it would have agitated him because he doesn’t like killing, and it would have continued to drive him into a frenzy.” I sighed. “Which was why he was too agitated to see when we were there and Tarak was walking us through. He said Wesley wasn’t fit for