"Then you'll know he disappeared long before you got there. And he didn't tell me squat."
"You lie," the presence said. "That is unwise."
"That is the truth," I bit back. "You bastards turned up before he could tell me anything useful."
"Another lie," he said. "It would appear you prefer not to cooperate. We shall try other means."
"Wait!" I said, almost frantically.
But he didn't.
This time the pain came as a sledgehammer rather than a knife, and it knocked me not only sideways but damn near senseless. I lay on the concrete and battled to breathe as my body quivered under the assault and my brain felt like it was on fire.
But this wasn't just a psychic attack. It went far deeper than that. It felt like they were pulling me apart, atom by atom. It felt like every part of me was screaming—every part except my mouth, because the sound seemed to be stuck somewhere inside my throat.
I have no idea how long I lay there, writhing and twisting and silently—endlessly—screaming, but it seemed like hours. Days even.
Eventually, it stopped, leaving me tenuously holding on to consciousness as my whole body ached with a ferocity I couldn't even begin to describe.
"She is very resistant," a distant voice said.
Or maybe it wasn't distant. Maybe it just seemed that way.
"Unusually so," the original voice said. "But she has been in contact with Hieu. There is a text we must seek—it may aid our search."
Oh God, some distant, still-functioning part of my brain thought. I had to warn Ilianna. I had to warn her mom. They might only have a copy of the text, but I'd put both of them in danger by asking them to translate it.
Yet I couldn't move. I could barely even manage to breathe.