Perhaps playing dumb would be her best bet: letting some of that real nervousness come out, some of her real curiosity.
‘A pretty little baby Empyreal. Welcome!’
‘Who are you?’ Nicole asked, allowing a tremor into her words.
‘I’m one of the Wake’s many handlers.’
Lie.
The words put a bad taste in Nicole’s mouth.
‘Do tell me how Kyan came to find you, I’m so curious.’
‘That’s what I’d like to know,’ Nicole said. ‘He explained what I am and what he is, but I’ve hadtheworst time of my life recently. First, someone tried to kidnap me.’Kyan. ‘And then Kyan tells me he’s here to protect me, and suddenly a load of other “Empyreals” are after me too? All because of something my mother did? I didn’t even know her.’
The woman’s unnerving gaze speared Nicole to the core: violent and cold.
‘Your mother never told you what you are?’
A test.
So, she frowned, blinked. ‘My mother died when I was young. She never – she never got to tell me any of this.’
The words were a dare, to admit what they’d done.
She was so damn grateful she hadn’t been kept in the dark. That her mother had ensured she knew as much as possible about their world without being a part of it.
‘And your father?’
This was the risky part.
If the Wake knew about her, how long had they been watching? Had they seen her with her family? They looked different enough that maybe she could get away with lying.
‘Dead as well.’
‘How tragic.’
‘What if I don’t want to join this organisation?’ Nicole asked. ‘Can I leave?’
‘I’m afraid not, my dear.’ She pointed with her thin knife to the wall behind her. ‘See this? I don’t know how much you know about our kind and the supernatural world, but what you are is necessaryto keep the peace. You’re doing the world a great service. Think of it as a new job, hm? We even pay you. Send you all around the world.’
Rip me from my family.
Kill my mother.
Kill me when you’re done with me.
Mutate creatures.
Try to tear open the Wild Hunt and summon a Dark Age.
Nicole’s eyes skimmed the carvings behind the dais: the same ones they’d used to indoctrinate others. Wild-Hunt-style images of Empyreals driving out dangerous supernaturals.
A long and noble history.
It would have been convincing, too, if she hadn’t been told the dark truth.
‘What if I want to bargain for my freedom?’
