Page 125 of Red Demon

I stared in mute horror at Mahakal, my breath catching in my throat. “Have you touched her?”

I could have drowned in despair at Mahakal’s smile. “Would you want to touch that, Kane?”

Kane huffed.

Turning back to me, arms crossed, Mahakal said, “I give my squad first choice of the spoils: traitors whose code is more virtuous than their deeds. No takers on your friend, I’m afraid, although I don’t mind offering my feral dog the scraps.”

I felt the weight of his gaze as I watched the screen. The guard kicked Ruan again and again. Her snarls grew guttural, a wounded animal cornered. I clenched my fist, and forced myself to watch, to not leave her alone by closing my eyes.

“I’ll give you a chance to save her and her line,” Mahakal said, his voice dropping to a low murmur. “If you’d like, we’ll move your chains to her cell. Breed the bitch, or if you prefer, we’ll kill her.”

I dry heaved, tears stinging my eyes. “No.” My world narrowed to the screen, Ruan’s snarls and screams distorted through the speakers.

“As you wish,” Mahakal said, a laugh in his voice. Mahakal picked up the tablet, typing, taking a moment to give me a broad grin before turning it around.

Another video feed; another cell. I recognized the vivid red hair, golden skin; the maze of intricate scars etching a map across her sleeping face.

No.

There was no hiding my reaction. Kane and Mahakal loomed, savoring my pain. From the looks of it, they’d already beaten her to the brink of death. All the air in my injured lungs left in a strangled gasp as I looked at the woman I loved, broken.

“How—”

Plan B failed too. Faruhar would track me to Mahakal’s lair, and the Underground would attack. There was no Plan C.

“See, friend,” Mahakal’s voice was soft, taunting in its tenderness. “As smart as you thought you were trying to sow division in my battalion, I am smarter.” He gestured toward the screen. “My ravens saw her coming. Their cortex is synched to command. I told you I wanted her too. I always take what I want.”

On the screen, Faruhar lay crumpled and vulnerable on the stone floor, her lip split with crusted blood.

“What did you do to her?” I demanded.

“Oh, look at that fire.” Mahakal’s voice was honeyed poison. “The mutt is not worth breeding. But she’ll be helpful to train you.”

This was it. I’d failed her. Faruhar’s breathing, shallow and uneven, was the only evidence of life. Shame burned in the depths of me, a black hole encroaching on my last vestiges of hope.

“Tell me,” Mahakal said with an intake of breath. “Do you believe she lives up to her name? Is she a demon to you?”

“No.” The truth slipped out, emptying me further.

“I worried as much. The things she’s done, the good lives she’s taken: I could multiply the crimes you’ve witnessed a hundredfold, show you all the evidence, and I doubt you’d believe a word.” Mahakal flicked his eyes to Kane. “But I think we know how to make you understand.”

I closed my eyes as Kane hummed his agreement, leaning on the wall.

Mahakal twitched his mouth into a sneer. “I didn’t know before you told me that there was a paper leash on her demon, just a journal she used to contain her worst impulses. Time to slip that leash off.”

I held my breath, biting down.

“You see.” Mahakal leaned closer. “We’ve made sure she slept well. Sedated and woke her again and again. The last round should wear off shortly, and you get to meet who remains. It will be a hard lesson for you, but you will learn.” He studied me, swallowing.

I looked between Mahakal and the video feed with frantic eyes.

Shaking his head, he touched the comm in his ear. “Open the door.”

A metallic clang echoed through the tablet speakers. Mahakal tapped the display to split the view: one camera on Ruan, another on the sleeping Faruhar, a door opening between cells.

The weight of my helplessness pressed down on me, and I pulled at my manacles in impotent fury just as Ruan did, both of us unable to reach the sleeping Faruhar with her bruised face and split lip. Ruan cursed and railed.

Faruhar stirred, eyes still closed. Her lips moved, forming a sound I couldn’t make out over Ruan’s angry screams. Every shallow breath she took in the video was a shard of glass in my lungs.