me.”
“She hasn’t spilled anything yet,” I pointed out. I glanced at the new crimson stains on the floor and chair and added, “Except blood.”
“Your incessant loyalty to Dragonsire bores me, Lightbringer.” He turned his hawkish glare on Eva. “Talk.” He lifted the hammer. “Or I start breaking things again.”
She nodded vigorously.
“Are you and Idris Starfire working together?” he asked her.
“Yes.”
“For the demons?”
“Yes. But I swear I didn’t know that at first. He tricked us. He made us promises, swore we were acting in the gods’ name, until it was too late. Until we were in too deep. Until we had done so many vile, unspeakable things that there was no turning back.”
“Who tricked you? Starfire?”
“No. Someone else.” She shivered.
“Who is this deceitful, treacherous fiend?” Colonel Holyfire demanded. “Who led you astray? Who brought you down the path of evil?”
“If I tell you, he will make me suffer for my betrayal.”
Colonel Holyfire waved his hammer in front of her face. “If you don’t speak his name, I will make you suffer more,” he promised her.
Eva’s eyes trembled. Her lips quivered. “It’s Dragonsire. Damiel Dragonsire.”
8
Angel Avenger
I didn’t believe Eva for a second. Damiel was not a traitor. I knew it wasn’t true. I knew it with every fiber of my being.
“She is obviously lying,” I told Colonel Holyfire.
“My methods are infallible. They produce only the truth.” His eyes were hard, his nose turned up. “There is no room left for lies after I’ve broken someone so completely.” He gestured toward Eva’s trembling, bloody body.
“Think about it, Colonel,” I said. “It doesn’t make sense. The Interrogators didn’t get anything about a demon plot or a mysterious master out of her for twenty years. But then a few minutes after you arrived, she names General Dragonsire as the mastermind behind this all, as a demon traitor. Starfire himself said he doesn’t serve the demons. None of this adds up.”
“It adds up perfectly. Dragonsire controlled this facility. He left her alone all this time, never truly interrogating her. So of course when a real interrogator questioned her, one who wanted real answers, we got them. And as for Starfire’s declaration, he is a liar and a traitor. You cannot believe a word he says.”
I glanced at Eva, then back at him. “But you can trust what she says?”
“I trust in my interrogation techniques.”
“Don’t allow arrogance to blind you, Colonel.”
“And don’t allow your loyalty for Dragonsire to blind you.”
“None of this adds up,” I said again. “You must see that. If General Dragonsire were really the traitor and wanted to hide it, he would have killed Eva Doren long ago to keep his secret safe. It would have been easy to make her death look like an accident.”
“He wouldn’t kill his ally,” he replied, his voice dismissive.
“Traitors kill their allies all the time,” I pointed out.
“Not if he needed her for something.”
There was something more going on here. The trick was in separating the truth from all the lies.
“You are grasping for straws, Colonel. This story doesn’t add up, but still you’re trying to put all the pieces together with nothing more than bubble gum and sticky tape.”
He bristled, obviously offended by my analogy. He opened his mouth to speak against my words.
But I didn’t give him the chance. I kept talking. “General Dragonsire has had a long and decorated service history with the Legion.”
“Many Legion soldiers with long histories of service have turned out to be traitors.”
Gods, I wanted to punch the man. I’d never met anyone so completely immune to reason.
“He is not a traitor. He has always been the one hunting down the traitors.”
“Or perhaps he was learning their ways, their proximity corrupting him a little more each day,” said Colonel Holyfire. “Until he began recruiting them into his traitors’ army. Dragonsire has always been shady. All the angels think so.”
“This is madness,” I snapped at him. “You are only going after General Dragonsire because you don’t like him. And because you want his job. But if you do finally get his job, someday someone will come after you just like you’re going after him. And they will throw the same accusations at you.”
“I am a champion of light, an angel avenger who stands for all that is good and righteous. I cannot be corrupted by vile traitors.”
He didn’t get it at all.
“You don’t need to turn traitor to be accused of treachery,” I said with strained patience.
Colonel Holyfire frowned at me.
“The demons are known for their underhanded tactics,” I continued.
“Indeed they are.”
“Underhanded