It wasn’t common to me. But instead of saying that, the word ‘Cool’ spilled out of my mouth.
The chancellor narrowed her eyes. “Who are you, and where did you come from?”
I flinched back.
“Your eyes are from BT,” she continued. “I was the one who stripped you after you were healed. Your bottom layer was a skintight, white synthetic suit. And you were mid-cycle, no cup, no magic, nothing to catch the blood.”
I gritted my teeth. “If I had something, I would have put it in.”
The chancellor put her hand on my cheek, and her fingers grew. Joints popped against my skin. The new gnarly knots pressed into my flesh. My skin crawled while my pulse raced. Suddenly, her spell keeping our conversation quiet didn’t seem so ‘cool.’ No one would hear me scream.
She pulled her monstrous hand from my cheek, her claws scraping across my bruise. “Answer my question, or you’ll disappear for good.”
I swallowed hard, and what was left of my hangover vanished into my racing heart. Would dying lead to a new scenario? Or would dying be my end? I crossed my arms over my chest. Did I want to find out? Or stay here was the real question. “Can’t you just read my mind or something? Magic being unlimited and all?”
I swear she beamed, which only made me curl further into myself. “Actually, no.” Her claw-tipped pointer finger tapped the top of my head. “Magic of the mind is only held by mentalists. A handful of them still exist. Our Architect is one.”
“Valentino said that, too.” I tried to look tough while also frozen with fear. “So, how do you know what I’m telling you is true?”
“I don’t.” She smiled. “The significance of the Architect being a mentalist seems lost on you.”
I bit my lips shut and controlled my fear. Technically, I’d made all this up. I didn’t need to compile a list of mind-reading clichés from my past. I released my lips from between my teeth before I could bite them off.
She grinned and leaned forward. “You’re a lost dove, aren’t you? There’s no reason to fear.”
Was she telling me I didn’t need to fear, or reassuring herself?
She tapped her knotted finger against her desk.
I flinched, and she cackled in response.
“You’re out of touch with this world.” She grinned. “Are you a monster, like me, hiding amongst the sheep you feed off? Or maybe a link to our past?” Her pink eyes glowed. “I was never able to have children like so many others of us.”
Her gaze bore into me. I didn’t know I could get smaller, but I tried to become one with the chair as if the hardwood would hide me.
“Um. I’m not a monster, nor have I birthed any.” I searched her face, trying to piece together her topics into one response. “I’m probably crazy, or at least I was.”
Chancellor Morgen cocked her head to the side. “Crazy?”
So far, the people in my delusions hadn’t responded well when I told them they didn’t exist. But what did I have to lose here? It was either get this woman to trust me or see what came next.
“Crazy like.” I pointed at my head and made little circles. “You may or may not be real.” I waited for her to respond, but she only leaned further against her desk, watching me. “My mind makes stuff up. I never put on a white synthetic suit. That sounds like something out of a science fiction movie. I wasn’t cycling when I started my surgery.” Sudden confidence made me uncurl, and I pointed at the chancellor. “Ha! I caught you.” I punched the air. “I didn’t have any bleeding or a damp spot.”
Chancellor Morgen leaned back. “That’s because I took care of it.”
The blood drained out of my face. “Took care of it?” My voice shook with panic. “Like, took out my uterus?”
She laughed. “Oh, no. That would be a waste. After everything the Architect did to save you, I’m sure he has great plans for the baby maker in your abdomen.”
My blood chilled. “The Architect saved me? You said my healer…” I trailed off. That’s all she’d said, and I hadn’t asked, because none of this was real.
Chancellor Morgen’s gaze sparkled. “The Architect, our leader, saved your life and now lies unconscious for his trouble. You don’t think he did that out of the kindness of his heart, do you?”
My pulse thumped in the unnaturally silent space. Valentino’s warnings ran through my head. The Architect controlled everything. It was suddenly hard to breathe.
Chancellor Morgen shrugged. “I can’t know the mind of a mentalist, but why else risk his life?”
Breathe.Ezra’s rough voice in my memory demanded. My chest rose and fell.
