Page 16 of Red Demon (Oria #1)

I told him every detail I remembered. He let me speak, eating little when Ryu laid out plates of smoked trout, interrupting to ask exactly where I’d seen her last, and picking apart every detail I knew about the Crofton mine.

Questions on the number of diggers and the trucks idling outside kept me focused on the facts, and kept me from falling apart as I relived every horrible detail.

“Someone else mentioned ghosts, ruren-sa like in the war,” I said. “You think it’s SBO instead?”

He huffed, then took an angry bite. “Most people repeating these rumors mean no harm, but it’s still ignorance.

Some Asri like to pin everything they don’t understand on the dead by default.

Not to say I haven’t fought off some ghosts through the years, but the simplest explanation is usually correct. ”

“What do you mean?”

He tilted his chin at me, assessing. “Normally I would only share this with those pledged to serve the empire and keep its secrets, so consider this a boon. Will you promise me you will keep this conversation private, just between us?”

“Yes, of course, Major.”

He picked some trout away from the bone, savoring it.

“Fact one: Our Queen and General inherited Chaeten bioweapon labs built before the war. These labs created viruses to kill crowds. Fact two: there’s recently been a leak in one of those labs which I’ve connected to Asri rebels.

Fact three: Any ghost I encountered in the war was more or less indiscriminate in its violence.

They would attack Chaeten and Asri alike when riled, and they didn’t stay in one place—nothing like the targeted attack we see in Crofton.

Fact four: No Asri dead.” He leaned across the table. “So where does that leave us, Jesse?”

My every muscle tensed. “But if that was a disease that could kill people instantly, how am I the only one in town who got away?”

“You weren’t. The Red Demon picked off all the immune survivors—except you, apparently.”

I blinked. Right. She’d stabbed some people in the square before I even got there. “What if I just never got infected?”

“This bioweapon, SBO, can survive in the air for days. You and your brother were infected the moment you got back to town. You were both immune.” I clenched my eyes tight.

“I honestly don’t know how you outmaneuvered her, mentally if not physically.

” He sighed, taking a bite. “She’d have to know you’d tell someone everything. ”

I shrunk into myself. I hadn’t outmaneuvered her.

She’d let me get away—I must not have explained that part quite right.

But I didn’t correct him, forcing my back straight.

“Why?” I said in a small voice, having lost what little appetite I came with.

“Why would she work with Asri rebels if she fought for Queen Azara?”

He took another sip of wine. “She never fought for the queen, and her mother was Asri, an Attiq-ka to be specific.” My mouth fell open.

I didn’t know the two types of immortals had any children together.

Even the queen, despite carrying the soul and memories of an Attiq-ka, was born Chaeten.

“Again, repeat none of this. Not just for the empire, but for your own safety,” he said.

“We’ve tracked and killed a good number of surviving Attiq-ka by now, save the queen’s mentor Marles, who supported her from the beginning.

The rest would hunt you for even the rumor that such a demon came from one of them. ”

“How did this even happen?” I raked my hands through my curly hair.

“And… The Red Demon looks so much like you—” I cut myself off, realizing I’d never seen an Attiq-ka.

Maybe the way she moved and that otherworldly intensity was something all the immortals had in common.

Chaeten-sa code had to come from somewhere.

He gave a sly smile at that, looking away and back. “Just because she has red hair and cat green eyes? We’re all coded for complete phenotypic dominance.” When I looked confused, he added, “All our mutts look like us.”

It took me a moment for my brain to catch up. “Mutts?”

“How old are you, friend?” He drove his hand down his face, looking around the room. I followed his gaze to one of the servers, a black-haired Asri girl a few years older than me with a brilliant smile.

“Fourteen,” I said to my lap.

“Okay, censored version, then. Stop me if you already learned this in school. Our Academy tried coding our spec line for peace first; war was the backup plan. They built us to be appealing mates to Attiq-ka, and they coded our minds to find anyone willing to touch us appealing.” He groaned, looking off toward the girl.

“Some of our brilliant leaders thought if we merged their immortal line with ours, the Attiq-ka would have to recognize us as equals. We’d just fuck like bunnies until there was peace across the Nara. ”

“Okay,” I said, wondering what the uncensored version was.

He raked his eyes up and down the girl with black hair, who rushed past our table on her way to the kitchen. Major Mahakal straightened his tunic as she passed. “None of us are fathering half-breeds these days, but things were different just before the war, and during.”

“So you don’t—” I stuttered, deciding that was none of my business.

He laughed loud and long, leaning back in his booth. “It’s just the silphium mod, friend.” He stared at me in bewilderment. “I certainly haven’t stopped living since I met Ryu’s great grandmother.”

“Oh.” I eyed the table, then looked up to find Ryu. “ Ohh .” His seastorm ringed eyes and gray-flecked auburn hair looked Asri to me, kneeling by the low table to serve his guests. But I could make out the resemblance now, if I looked for it.

“It’s for the best,” he said. “I expect they’re sparing you kids from the worst of Chaeten-sa horrors in your school books, but those were dark days.

For every one of us that survived childhood and was strong enough to meet an Attiq-ka’s magic blade to blade, I’d say five died, maybe fifteen, depending on how young you started counting.

” He sighed, looking into the distance. “So any children I brought into the world are so heavily modded, there’s little to connect us.

I refused to let any of them suffer like I did. ”

I leaned back in my chair, deciding I respected Mahakal for that. “So Ryu’s mortal?”

“Yes, coded for a happy, fruitful life. I let him keep spec lines the empire is propagating and replaced the rest. Coding for fearlessness and resilience has … fun side effects. I expect if your parents gave you so many siblings, you’re carrying that mod too.

You’ll figure it out soon enough.” If there wasn’t a mine under Nunbiren, I was about to crawl under the table and start digging one.

Mahakal laughed. “Forgive me. I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable there, friend.

The point is, the Asri can leave their future to fate if they wish, but from one Chaeten to another, I think our people place a higher value on learning from our mistakes.

” He stared until I met his eyes. “Believe me when I tell you the Red Demon is one of our worst mistakes.”