Aysel
Magnus stared at me like I had just suggested we set the building on fire.
“No,” he said flatly.
I didn’t blink.
“You didn’t even let me finish.”
“I don’t need to hear the rest.” He shifted in his chair, wincing as the movement pulled at his wound.
“You’re not going in there.
Absolutely not.”
“Why not?”
“Because he’s dangerous.” Magnus’s voice was sharp, the tone of an Alpha used to being obeyed.
“Bound or not, that man is a soldier.
He was trained to kill.
I won’t have you…”
“Have me what?” I cut him off.
“Walk into a room and talk to him?
That’s all I’m asking to do.”
Magnus’s jaw tightened.
“You don’t understand what he’s capable of.
Even restrained, he could…”
“He could what?
Bite me from across the room?” I couldn’t help the sarcasm that crept into my voice.
“I’m not going to stand next to him.
I’ll sit on the other side of the table.
There will be guards watching through the glass.
What’s the worst that can happen?”
Magnus opened his mouth, closed it, then opened it again.
“The worst is that he gets inside your head.
That’s what trained interrogators do, Aysel.
They manipulate.
They find your weaknesses and exploit them.
You have no experience with this.”
“I know that,” I said, keeping my voice calm.
“But I also know something none of your interrogators know.”
“And what’s that?”
I looked through the window at the lieutenant.
He sat motionless, head still hanging low.
Even from here, I could see the tension in his shoulders.
He was waiting, but he wasn’t afraid.
That was the thing about loyal soldiers.
They knew exactly what they were willing to die for.
“I know what it’s like to have someone you trusted leave you with nothing but questions,” I said quietly.
“I know what it’s like to be so loyal to someone that you’d do anything they asked.
Even if it meant destroying yourself.”
Magnus was silent for a long moment.
When he spoke again, his voice had lost some of its sharp edge.
“That’s not the same thing.”
“Isn’t it?” I turned to face him fully.
“You’ve been trying to break him with threats and promises.
That won’t work.
He’s not afraid of pain.
He’s not afraid of death.
But he is afraid of one thing.”
“Which is?”
“Failure.” I held Magnus’s gaze.
“He’s still here because Kael gave him something to do.
Something he hasn’t finished yet.
That’s why he’s still alive.
That’s why he stayed close even though it was dangerous.
He’s carrying out a mission.
And the only way to break him is to make him understand that he’s already failed.”
Magnus studied me with an expression I couldn’t quite read.
His eyes moved across my face like he was seeing something new.
“You sound very certain of that.”
“I am.” I didn’t hesitate.
“I’m eighty percent confident I can get something out of him.”
“Eighty percent?” Magnus raised an eyebrow.
“That’s not exactly reassuring.”
“It’s better than the zero percent your people have gotten so far.”
He let out a breath that was almost a laugh.
“You’re impossible.”
“Magnus.” I leaned forward, lowering my voice.
“Let me try.
Please.
If it doesn’t work, you can pull me out.
You’ll be watching the whole time.
What do you have to lose?”
He looked at me for a long moment.
His hand moved to his chest, touching the bandages beneath his shirt, and I could see the war playing out behind his eyes.
Every instinct told him to protect me.
But he was also practical enough to see the logic in what I was saying.
Finally, he nodded, though it looked like it pained him to do so.
“Fine.
But I’m going to be right here the entire time.
If I see even a hint that something is wrong, I’m sending someone in.”
I nodded, standing up from my chair.
“Thank you.”
I walked to the door of the observation room, pausing with my hand on the handle.
Through the window, I could see the lieutenant still sitting in his chair, still waiting, still locked inside himself.
I took a breath and pushed the door open.
The lieutenant looked up as I entered.
His eyes swept over me once, taking in my small frame and my lack of any official bearing.
Then he looked away, dismissing me entirely.
“They sent a woman,” he said.
His voice was flat, almost bored.
“Have they run out of men willing to threaten me?”
I didn’t answer.
I pulled out the chair across from him and sat down, taking my time to get comfortable.
The lieutenant watched me with mild curiosity.
“You’re not here to negotiate, are you?”
“No,” I said.
“Then why are you here?”
I didn’t answer right away.
Instead, I studied his face.
He was older than I’d expected, maybe in his late forties.
His hair was streaked with grey, and there were deep lines around his eyes that spoke of years of stress and sleepless nights.
But there was still strength in his frame, a coiled readiness that even chains couldn’t erase.
“You knew Kael well,” I said finally.
“Better than almost anyone.”
The lieutenant’s expression didn’t change.
“I came to mourn him.
That is all.”
“Did you?” I tilted my head.
“Or did you come here because that was the last thing he told you to do?”
Something flickered in his eyes.
It was there and gone in an instant, so brief that I might have missed it if I hadn’t been watching so closely.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“I think you do.” I leaned back in my chair, crossing my arms.
“What was the last thing Kael said to you?
Before he died?”
The lieutenant’s jaw tightened slightly.
“I don’t owe you any answers.”
“No,” I agreed.
“You don’t.
But here’s the thing.
I already know what he told you.
I’m not asking because I need you to tell me.
I’m asking because I want to see if you’ll lie.”
The lieutenant went very still.
“Kael gave you a final instruction,” I continued, keeping my voice calm and unhurried.
“Something that kept you alive all these years.
Something important enough that you stayed close even though it was dangerous.
Even though you knew you’d probably be caught eventually.”
“Protecting the truth,” the lieutenant said automatically.
“That was my duty.
To make sure no one ever knew what really happened to him.”
“Ah.” I nodded slowly.
“But that’s not quite right, is it?”
His eyes narrowed.
“What do you mean?”
“If your only duty was to protect the truth, you would have done what most loyal soldiers do.
You would have taken that truth to your grave.” I let the words hang in the air for a moment.
“You would have killed yourself.
Or you would have run so far that no one could ever find you.
But you did neither.
You stayed.
Why?”
A muscle twitched in the lieutenant’s jaw.
“You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Don’t I?” I smiled slightly.
“Then why aren’t you dead, Lieutenant?
If you were truly loyal to Kael, truly devoted, then why are you still breathing?
The only way to keep a secret forever is to take it to the grave.
You know that.
So why are you still here?”
He didn’t answer.
But I saw it.
For just a moment, I saw the doubt flash across his face.
“Unless,” I said softly, leaning forward, “it wasn’t the truth you were supposed to protect.
It was someone.”
His breath caught.
Just slightly and I knew I had him.
“The instruction Kael gave you wasn’t simple,” I continued, my voice dropping to barely a whisper.
“He didn’t just tell you to hide the truth.
He told you to protect someone.”
The lieutenant’s eyes had gone wide, but he still didn’t speak.
“Celestine,” I said.
“His wife.
You were supposed to protect Celestine.”
Silence.
“I’m right, aren’t I?”
The lieutenant’s face had gone pale, but his jaw remained clenched.
He wasn’t going to confirm it.
He was too well-trained for that.
But he didn’t need to.
I could see the truth written in every line of his body.
“Kael told you to protect his wife,” I continued, “but that wasn’t all, was it?
He also told you to do something else.”
The lieutenant’s Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed hard.
“I don’t know what you’re…”
“He told you to protect her,” I said, cutting him off.
“But he also told you to kill her.”
The lieutenant’s head snapped up.
For a moment, all pretense of calm abandoned him.
His eyes blazed with shock, with fury, with something that might have been recognition.
“How do you…”
He stopped himself.
But it was too late.
The words had already slipped out, and we both knew it.
I leaned forward, my voice hardening.
“Did Kael give you evidence?
Evidence of what Celestine had done?
Evidence that would have destroyed her if it ever came to light?”
The lieutenant said nothing.
But his silence spoke volumes.
“He told you to protect her,” I said slowly, “and to help cover for her lies.
But only on one condition.
That she never hurt anyone.
That she never used the secrets he kept to harm the pack.”
The lieutenant’s hands were trembling now.
His face had gone from pale to grey.
“Celestine can play pretend, live in her own delusional world, convinced she’s pursuing some so-called ‘revenge.’ But Kael was a dutiful Alpha.
He was willing to die for a cause this foolish, but he would never have let her harm anyone within the pack.
Am I right?”
He was trembling now, trying to hold back his tears.
“Tell me, do you think she wants Damon, my fiance?” I paused at that.
“no, my ex fiance?
Do you think she wants him?
No, she doesn’t.” I said.
“She doesn’t even care about him.
I’ll tell you exactly what she wants, she wants every single one of us to die for that hatred of hers.
Including you…
and your five-year-old daughter.”
The mention of the child broke him completely.
He gasped, his face crumbling as he opened his mouth, a ragged, broken sound escaping his throat.
I didn’t need to hear it.
The confession was already written in his eyes.
I turned to the guard at the door and gestured for him to come in.
“Gag him,” I said, my voice eerily calm.
“I have everything I need.”
I walked out of the room, leaving the lieutenant behind to choke on the truth of what he had been protecting all these years.