Page 115 of Red Demon

Asher focused his attention on Telesilla and Soren.

“Do you have any part in distributing SBO, to anyone? At any time?” Mira demanded.

Telesilla leaned forward, her gaze sharp. “Of course not.”

“No, friend,” Soren said, furrowing his eyebrows. “No.”

Mira drew a long breath. “If I could give you the code for an anti-SBO mod, could you help me broadcast it to other rebel networks in the nine islands, using Oria?”

“I might be able to help get you into an empire field station too,” Faruhar added. She turned to Telesilla. “If I get you an ID tag to get you in the door, do you have anyone who could boost Mira’s message to a higher security level?”

Telesilla blinked. Soren shifted back in his seat, staring at her as if she’d dropped from the sky.

“Possibly. We have a few people with the right combination of Chout and technological experience,” Telesilla said.

“Good,” Mira said. “Because if I give you that code, you would have the information to make SBO instead if you chose; to hurt people instead of helping them.”

“Niire Mai,” Soren said, touching mind and heart. “I have only killed demons.”

“Demons like her?” I nodded my head to Faruhar.

Soren swallowed. He moved closer, then reached out a glowing hand to her.

Faruhar stared at it, her body trembling beside mine.

“What’s this?” I asked.

“I won’t harm you.” he offered his hand again.

Faruhar sat rigid, her hands shoved under her legs. “He wants to see inside my mind.” Her gaze darted to me, fear in her eyes. I remembered Bria’s frantic warnings, the fear that choked her voice when she spoke of Reic finding out about her. No one with a sword would scare Faruhar. Soren’s glowing hand did, so much that she wouldn’t tell him to fuck off herself.

“Why do you need to see inside her mind?” I said, my voice low and dangerous.

Soren flinched, his glowing hand retracting. “Just to understand. I want to trust her too.”

Faruhar’s lips tightened into a thin line. Then, with a start, she reached out and grasped Soren’s glowing hand in hers. He jolted as if shocked, his brow furrowing. Faruhar’s hand pulsed with a faint blue light. The glow from Soren’s hand sputtered and died, leaving his eyes wide with disbelief.

“You can block me out,” he said, his voice barely above a whisper. “Who taught you that discipline?”

Faruhar shuddered. “An Attiq-ka tried to train me once. Didn’t work out.”

Telesilla sat forward, whipping her braid over her shoulder. “Who trained you? To my knowledge, no one but the queen’s mentor Marles has ever made progress with a Chaeten-sa.”

Faruhar stared back, her jaw clenched. “Isn’t Marles on the list of people the Underground wants to kill? Why give you another name?” Her gaze flickered to me again, a silent plea for help.

“None of this is your voided business,” I snapped. “We’re here to take Mahakal down. Can you trust her to help with that, or not?” When they delayed, I eyed the gate, the sunset road. I grabbed Faruhar’s hand and stood.

“All or none,” Asher said, with a nod to Faruhar and me. “You can keep the magic blocker when I’m done modifying it. We’ll also make you as many anti-SBO mods as Mira’s machine can produce. Or, with respect, we leave now.”

Mira smiled, her eyes glowing at Asher as she took a sip of wine.

Telesilla’s jaw clenched. Soren, however, continued to stare at Faruhar, his brow wrinkled in thought.

Faruhar squeezed my hand. I squeezed back.

“We will trust you all,” Telesilla said, with a curt nod to Soren.

We let out a collective sigh. Telesilla ordered us dinner as we hashed out ideas.