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“Wait.” An edge of desperation had entered the Dexion’s voice. “Flavian has nothing to gain from this.”
Inwardly, Lio laughed. The Dexion was catching on, but they would not make it easy for him.
The mage’s face froze. “You aren’t helping Flavian.”
“It took you remarkably long to realize that,” Cassia said.
“Who are you working for?” the Dexion demanded.
“You should know better than to ask blunt questions,” she returned.
“What happened to Hesperine compassion for children?” the Dexion spat. “I’ll offer you the same bargain I offered Flavian—or a better one. Name your terms. As long as you will send me home to my nephew.”
Cassia smiled. “Is he begging?”
“It sounds like begging to me,” Mak agreed.
“Try not to enjoy it too much,” Lyros advised.
Lio did not enjoy the thought of the boy missing his uncle. “You will survive your stay with our friends, and you can continue writing to your nephew.”
“You have more to gain by letting me go,” Chrysanthos said.
Cassia laughed.
“Listen to me.” Raw emotion tore through the man’s aura, unlike anything Lio had sensed in him before, except in that moment when he and Cassia had broken the Dexion in interrogation.
Lio shared a glance with Cassia. She touched her medallion, signaling that they should press their advantage.
“We’re listening,” Lio said.
“I’ve lost my taste for persecuting heretics,” the Dexion burst out. “There. Now you know the last secret you failed to pry out of me at the Summit. It was always my father and brother who thirsted for a glorious war with the Hesperines. I was never loyal to their cause…only to them.”
Lio studied the pain in the man’s aura.
Chrysanthos’s lip curled. “Don’t imagine for a moment that I have compassion for any of you. But provoking conflict with you has cost my family enough. Send me back to Cordium. Let me mitigate my father in his old age. Let me take over the Aithourian Circle when he dies and steer it in a different direction.”
Mak raised his brows, and Lyros shot Lio and Cassia a questioning glance.
“I have nothing else to offer you but the truth,” Chrysanthos said. “Take my bargain or leave it.”
“If he tries to cast, stop him.” Lio pulled Cassia aside and wrapped them in a veil spell.
“Do you believe him?” she asked.
Lio rubbed his chin. “I am wary, but his emotions ring true. This reminds me of when he confessed who his brother was.”
Cassia nodded. “I’m thinking the same.”
“He doesn’t know our motivations, so he can’t offer us anything we want. He’s out of bargaining power. For him to drop his mask like this shows how desperate he is, don’t you think?”
“Or it could be a political masquerade. He may want us to believe he’s at our mercy so we’ll let our guard down enough for him to escape.”
“Yes, that could be true. But do you believe it is?”
She hesitated, her gaze thoughtful. “No. I believe he doesn’t share his brother’s religious zealotry against Hesperines. For why would Chrysanthos make an appeal to our hearts if he believed we had none?”
Lio looked at the Dexion. The man hung his head, awaiting his fate.
