feel it.
“But you must understand that I was only doing what I thought was right.” Her demure smile was as sweet as candy.
I folded my arms across my chest. “You obviously need to adjust your moral compass.”
Eva chuckled, an odd response given that she was the one strapped to a Legion interrogation chair.
I moved in closer.
I hadn’t seen Eva since that day twenty years ago on the Sienna Sea when she’d tried to kill me and Damiel. She looked exactly the same now as she had then, as though her time here hadn’t changed her one bit. She was wearing a prison uniform, a bright silver bodysuit. The fabric shone in any light: reflecting the daylight, glowing in the dark. Wearing that garish suit, a prisoner could not hope to go by unnoticed.
But except for the prison uniform, she was the same Eva Doren. Her hair was groomed. Her skin was clean. Obviously, she wasn’t wearing any jewelry or makeup, but she didn’t need either to shine. The magic of the gods’ Nectar was in her. She’d made it all the way to the rank of major, just one level below angel, before a spectacular act of unapologetic treachery had put an abrupt end to her career.
And her twenty-year imprisonment had apparently had no effect on her. That was the most disturbing thing of all.
“But I take it you didn’t pull me out of my cell to reminisce about old times,” Eva said.
“We have some questions,” I told her.
“I see.” She looked past me, to Colonel Holyfire. “And you didn’t bring General Dragonsire along? A shame. I do enjoy watching that little vein between his eyes bulge when his infallible interrogation methods fail him.”
“You will find that I am considerably less amusing than Dragonsire,” Colonel Holyfire declared, pushing past me.
He was staring at her, his face mere inches from hers. A smile twisted his face; dark intentions shone in his eyes.
Eva met his steely eyes without fear. “Oh, I doubt that, Colonel…” She glanced at the name on his jacket. “…Holyfire. You give yourself far too little credit. In fact, I expect you will be considerably more amusing than General Dragonsire.”
He slapped her hard across the face, so hard that the side of her head slammed against the headrest.
“Amused yet?” he asked her.
She met his eyes. “Actually, I’m finding your performance rather underwhelming.”
He wound up to hit her again.
I grabbed his hand. “What the hell are you doing?”
“Interrogating the prisoner,” he replied coolly.
“General Dragonsire does not brutalize his prisoners.”
“General Dragonsire is not here,” Colonel Holyfire shot back. “And the First Angel instructed me to get answers out of the prisoner by any means necessary. If ‘any means necessary’ includes throwing you into a prison cell so you stay out of my way, then so be it.”
I let go of his arm.
“Good choice. They’re right about you, Lightbringer. You are smart. A perfect little soldier who knows how to follow orders.”
His face was smug, his tone condescending. It made me want to punch him.
He slapped Eva again, even harder this time. The echo of metal rang when her head hit the headrest.
She shot him a bloody smile. “Getting there, sunshine. But don’t try so hard. It feels forced. Like you’re trying to cover up the fact that you have no idea what you’re doing.”
He punched her in the nose. The back of her head slammed into the metal headrest so hard that the whole chair shook.
“I am an angel,” he said gruffly. “I always know what I’m doing.”
“Getting there.” Blood dripped from her nose. “Now, once more, with feeling.”
“I’ve had just about enough of your impertinence.”
He grabbed a hammer from the side table and pounded it down on her hand.
I’d been horrified by the way Damiel had broken minds, but his methods were downright civilized compared to Colonel Holyfire’s unchecked brutality. He performed acts of cruelty on her that should never be spoken of, let alone inflicted on another living person. Holyfire started by crushing every bone in both of Eva’s hands—and it only went downhill from there.
“Stop,” Eva finally said in a desperate whisper.
A cruel smile curled Colonel Holyfire’s lips. “What was that?”
“Stop.”
“I’ll stop when you answer my questions.”
She coughed out blood. “I will answer.”
He turned a triumphant look on me. “So, it seems Dragonsire isn’t nearly as good of an Interrogator as he thinks he is. He held her prisoner for twenty years, and he got nothing. I’ve had her for twenty minutes, and she’s spilling her soul to