Page 66 of Ensnared

I shrug. “If some of them can, none of mine have been among them.”

“But when you’re not ordering them to do something, they just.” He gestures. “They’re normal?”

I nod.

“And they don’t try to attack you, or run around screaming?”

I tap my visor again. “I told them to always remain calm, and always be ready for my new commands. I told them not to fight. I give them rules, and they follow them.”

“That’s. . .” Gideon swallows. “Unsettling.”

“What’s more unsettling to me is how okay they are with it. Actually, quite a few of them have come and asked me to help them manage their mental health. In the same way that I order them around, I can simply eliminate their anxiety, eradicate their depression, or manage their bipolar symptoms.”

“I wonder whether the numbers we guesstimated are correct,” he says. “Maybe there are more people still alive in here than they think. It’s not like they can send drones.”

I take a few moments to set my trainees some basic tasks and general physical fitness training, and then I circle back. “What are the numbers?”

“What do you mean?”

“I was stuck in here, remember? I have no idea how many humans have died.”

“They think about three and a half million,” he says. “Houston area had close to eight million, and a lot of them evacuated. The ones who stayed were probably either killed or.” He points at my would-be-troops who are doing pushups and burpees.

“So maybe it’s less than three and a half million.”

“Is this really better than being dead?” Gideon shakes his head.

“Still,” I say. “If we can get rid of them, all these people could go back to normal.”

I hope.

“We’ve also sent a lot of troops against them.” His expression’s pretty grim.

“None of those attacks succeeded.”

“We’ve killed less than two dozen dragons, at least, as far as we know.”

Two dozen.

“I’ve killed three,” I say.

His jaw drops. “How?”

“Well, four if you give me credit for one that I got killed but that I didn’t stab myself.”

“You—really?”

“Earth dragons, mostly,” I say.

“Axel just. . .let that go?”

I shrug. “I’m not sure how he’d feel exactly if I died, but I gather pretty bad. He’s been much more tolerant than I expected him to be since I threatened to kill myself on the first day.”

“You did what?” Gideon shakes his head. “I should’ve known.”

“It worked,” I say. “And he’s not so awful.”

“I think he likes you.” Gideon’s lips are compressed into a thin line.