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“I know,” And I did. I'd put two and two together when I saw Sister Brie’s white lifeless eyes. This was not something a mere generosity caster could have accomplished.
“You do?” she winced with the effort it took to speak.
“Yes,” I answered her, my voice remaining steady. I couldn’t allow any anger to rise just yet. The last thing I needed was the girl to become a frightened rabbit. “But I need you to tell me what actually happened.”
She took in a staggered breath and held it, fighting the words that wanted to leave her lips.
“I’m here to help you. Both you and Aeryn. But I can’t do that if you don’t tell me what happened.”
Even through the pain I could see her shrewd gaze. She may have seemed like a delicate flower, but beneath the fragile veneer lay a woman with some gumption left. She didn’t answer me, pinching her swollen lips shut.
“I won’t let them take Aeryn,” I said, hoping I was reading the pitiful girl’s concerns correctly. “I won’t let them hurt her.”
“Will you punish her?” the girl whispered, the hoarseness of her voice a weight to my senses.
“No,” I answered.
“I’ve seen you watching her, when you go invisible,” she said, and I allowed a brief flash of surprise to register on my face. “You’re always watching her. Do you care about what happens to her?”
“Yes,” and more surprising than my answer was the honesty behind it. Somewhere in this whole debacle, my Thief had wormed her way under my skin, far deeper than the start of an emissary bond.
This answer seemed to appease the girl, as she sat up, her delicate bruised hand running along the column of her injured throat.
“I had been dancing with Ambassador Valerius when the Boralis Scout interrupted,” she whimpered but fought through the pain to continue. “His name was John, and he said that Ambassador Kingston wanted to interview me in their of private office.”
I was surprised any tears could still be shed from such already reddened eyes. She wiped them away with the back of her delicate hands now covered in black stains from the prison floor.
“He kept calling me his Angel. Over and over again as we talked, he kept calling me his Angel. As if he knew me. I didn’t get it, but I…I couldn’t exactly argue with a scout, you know?”
She looked at me with pleading eyes, hoping I would understand. I nodded my assent to get her to continue.
“Before we could get to an office, he grabbed me, pulling me off to another corridor. I didn’t have time to scream, he just kissed me. I tried to pull away, but he had my hair. I kept trying to pull away, but he kept saying that he wanted to repay me. I didn’t get it - what had I done?”
Her voice squeaked as new sobs wracked her battered body. “He kept talking about the forest, about how he had to repay me for the forest, how he’d make it feel good for me. I kept saying no, but he just kept pushing. He ripped my dress and tried to remove my stockings. I…I kicked him in the knees, I tried to fight him. But I’m not a fighter, I didn’t learn anything besides the basics. I couldn’t defend myself.”
Her voice quavered, but she powered through her explanation. “He kept calling me a tease. He kept asking why I would save him if I didn’t want him. Why an angel was such a cock tease. I clawed at him, and managed to squash his instep enough that I could pull away. He yanked out a chunk of my hair. I would have run, but I broke the heel of my shoe and I fell. I tried to scream, but suddenly my voice was gone. I couldn’t make any sounds. I tried; I tried so hard, but I couldn’t. Nothing came out. He stole my voice.”
She tried to steady her breathing, taking deep steady breaths to stop the rising anxiety attack. Once she was back under control she looked down at her knees to continue.
“He was going to rape me. I knew he was going to rape me. But suddenly, he was yanked off me. I thought maybe an enforcer had found us, you know? A knight in shining armor kind of thing, but…but it wasn’t.”
“It was Aeryn?”
“Yes,” she pinched the skin of her injured forehead. “She didn’t look like her. Her eyes - they were glowing.”
“Silver?”
She shook her head. “I couldn’t really tell. They were so bright, almost like the sun shone from them.”
“And what did she do?”
“She held him aloft with some kind of power. I didn’t see how, but he was lifted off me. She never touched him; she just raised her hands and he came away. Then she spoke to me. It was such a strange sound like it was her voice but…layered. Like there was more than one voice there.”
It sounded like her demon had risen to the surface, but I kept that information to myself. “What did she say?”
She ignored me, anxiety flooding her broken voice. “Gods it’s my fault. It’s my fault he’s dead.”
“Why?”
