Page 82 of Adam, Mine

Elias took a few deep breaths to calm himself.

“Okay,” he conceded. “Then, afterward, he took me to his house. He carved all parts of me until I was in tatters and sewed them back up. I do not know why he did this. The cuts were not deep but they were disfiguring. Then I awoke surrounded by other students of science. He performed some dark magic on me and left me to burn to death in his home.”

Brogan looked curious but didn’t interrupt him again.

“I managed to escape, badly burned and yet again disfigured, and walked miles through the woods in the cold to my village. When I arrived, I looked . . . so . . . inhuman that no one would help me. They drove me to hiding in the woods, and I stayed there, bleeding and burning the whole night. In the morning, I left the town and returned to where Victor had taken me. I . . . killed the men who watched my torture, save one who helped me find more information on Victor’s whereabouts.

“I met with a grand alchemist called Jaan who gave me the gold and coin for travel and a list of places where Victor may go. I intended to give chase and meet him, but I keep finding myself ahead of him. I have been to Italy, France, and Scotland.”

“You saw Ayan?” Brogan asked.

“He cut me that pine,” Elias said, gesturing at the bottle.

“Hmm. When did you kill the child?”

Elias wrung his hands. “In . . . In my village a loss must be replaced with a loss of equal value. The child was Victor’s brother and with him his mother, father, and a sister, I think, though she did not look like most of the family. . . .”

“But you are not in your village,” Brogan pointed out.

Elias met her hard gaze. “I know. And I will never be again.”

Brogan lay the pistol on her lap, no longer ready but still pointing to his gut.

“A family lost for a family lost,” she murmured, rubbing her chin. “It can be understood but perhaps not forgiven.”

“Forgiveness is immaterial. There is only penance and that is an act that must be fulfilled until the end of one’s own life,” Elias recited.

“And how do you expect to pay for these lives lost?” Brogan asked.

Elias shook his head. “I do not yet know. I hope when I meet Victor, I can ask.”

“Before you kill him, that is,” Brogan said wisely.

Elias stayed quiet.

Brogan put the safety on her gun and laid it at her feet.

Brogan

She brewed him water for his pine tea.

“Don’t stop drinking it just because you’re hale enough now. It is a part of you, and not enough is known about your enchantment to tell what will happen after Victor’s passing. If indeed you intend to carry out such things when you meet.”

Elias scowled. “Why would I not? Less responsible men have died for his actions. Why would I put their lives to waste and spare his?”

Brogan handed him a steaming mug. Her eyes crinkled with amusement.

“You are so terribly young still,” she said. “Victor is a gentleman, an educated gentleman, with money, power, and status. He is a brilliant scientist if he managed to keep you through the night in the state you claim. What say you to the impact your revenge could already have had on him? If he changed for the better. Would the illiterate son of a tavern owner have more impact on the good of man? A child killer with sharp knives and a book of spells?”

“No, but . . .”

“But what?”

“But it’s not fair,” Elias said in a rush, and he hated how childish it sounded.

“Many things in life are not fair,” Brogan said archly. “How have you used what Alain has given you?”

Elias looked down at his clothed chest and then back up.