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“Name,” I say again.
“Barbas.”
“And why did you bomb the wall, Barbas?”
No answer.
I start to bring the hammer down again.
“Wait! We wanted to go through the portal.”
I lean forward, eyes narrowing on his sweaty, dirty face. “Who is we?”
“My family and our clan. We’re sick of being prisoners. Caius got to leave. So should we.”
His voice shakes, but the entitlement remains.
I shake my head. “And you think innocents deserve to die in order for you to take what you want?”
His expression hardens. “Casualties of war.”
My patience snaps. I bring the hammer down again, and while he screams, I open my mouth and let the hellfire burning my throat drip onto his arm.
His screams heighten.
The sound of it echoes off the walls, and the monster inside me stirs. More, it whispers.
“Whose idea was this attack, Barbas?”
I don’t wait for an answer before I let more hellfire drip onto his legs. His pants melt where the molten lava scalds, leaving craters of missing flesh beneath. Through his screams, he wails, “How the hell are you doing that? You’re not even shifted.”
I smile. “It was a gift from my mother. Now, give me a name, or you’ll slow-roast right here in this chair.”
An ember slips off the armrest and onto his thigh. The hot coal burns immediately through the fabric of his pants, and he screams again as his flesh burns anew.
“My uncle, okay? It’s my uncle. Quincy. He’s our clan leader. The one who put this together.”
“Where can we find him?”
“The outlands.”
“Not good enough.”
“Ah! The Western Isles. Fuck. Please don’t hurt me anymore.”
“That was your choice, remember? Not mine. It didn’t have to go this far.”
“He’s my family. What am I supposed to do? I can’t betray family.”
“You can if that family is hurting innocent people.” I ignore the twinge in my gut as I say the words that hit way too close to home.
Through the pain, he manages to glare at me. “Don’t you have family?”
“I did. Once.”
“Wouldn’t you do anything for them?” he pleads.
“Yes.” Darkness presses in around me, old memories that weigh heavily even as I shove them back again. “That’s the problem.”
