Magnus
How?
I watched the scene that had just unfolded before me.
The lieutenant was still sitting in his chair with his face buried in his hands as his shoulders shook with silent sobs.
The guard had gagged him as Aysel ordered, but it hardly seemed necessary anymore.
The man was utterly broken.
I had brought in the best interrogators and none of them had gotten even a fraction of what Aysel had just extracted in fifteen minutes.
Fifteen minutes.
She had walked in there with nothing but her voice and her mind, and she had dismantled him piece by piece.
Not with threats.
Not with promises of mercy or pain.
She had simply…
understood him.
Understood what drove him, what broke him, what small truth would finally shatter the walls he had built around himself.
I watched her step through the door of the interrogation room, with a calm expression.
The door clicked shut behind her, and I found myself holding my breath.
Aysel’s gaze swept across the observation room, finding my men stationed at their posts.
She walked toward the closest one, a young man named Tomas who had been with me for three years and spoke in a voice that carried easily through the small space.
“The evidence is somewhere near Kael’s grave,” she said.
“Find an opportunity to search there.
The lieutenant confirmed it without saying the words directly.
It’s the only one place that makes sense.”
Tomas glanced at me uncertainly.
I gave him a short nod, my eyes still fixed on Aysel.
He hurried out of the room to relay the orders to the others.
She was still talking, giving instructions to another of my men, efficiently as if she had been commanding soldiers her entire life.
I stood up from my chair, ignoring the searing pull of my wound.
The bandages were soaked through again, I could feel the damp warmth spreading beneath my shirt, but I didn’t care.
“Aysel.”
She turned at the sound of my voice, and for a moment, her expression softened with concern.
“Magnus, what are you doing?
You’re not supposed to be moving around so quickly.
You’ll tear your stitches.”
“To hell with my stitches.” I crossed the room toward her, “How did you do that?”
She raised an eyebrow.
“Do what?”
“That.” I gestured toward the interrogation room.
“That man has been a fortress since the moment we captured him.
I’ve thrown everything I had at him…pain, threats, promises, bargaining, reason.
Nothing worked.
Nothing.
And you just…
you walked in there and stripped him bare in minutes.
It was incredible.”
Aysel’s expression shifted uncomfortably, as if she was embarrassed at my compliment.
“It wasn’t that impressive.
I just asked the right questions.”
“You just asked the right questions.” I raised a brow.
“You asked questions that my interrogators couldn’t deduce, and you got answers I’ve been fighting to drag out of him.
How?”
She reached out and took my arm, guiding me toward a chair.
“Sit down before you fall down.
I can see you’re about to collapse.”
I let her push me into the seat.
“I’m fine,” I said, and truly I was.
I had unnatural healing abilities.
“Just tell me.
How did you know?”
Aysel pulled a chair close and sat down across from me.
For a moment, she seemed to be gathering her thoughts.
“I didn’t know,” she said finally.
“Not really.
I made an educated guess.”
“Based on what?”
She met my gaze, and there was something almost sad in her eyes.
“Based on who Kael was.
Or rather, based on who I think he might have been even though I don’t really know him.”
I shook my head.
“And how did you know to think that.”
“While I didn’t know Kael,” she continued.
“I know Damon.”
Damon.
Of course it came back to him.
“Damon and Kael were brothers,” Aysel continued, seemingly oblivious to the effect her words were having on me.
“They were raised together since childhood.
So the deepest layers of their personalities couldn’t be all that different.”
I clenched my fists so hard I felt my nails bite into my palms.
I couldn’t stop the jealousy sparking the rage inside me.
“So I asked myself,” Aysel went on, “what would Damon do in this situation?
If he had done something terrible, something unforgivable, if he had been responsible for the death of someone he was supposed to protect, how would he try to make it right?”
I couldn’t speak.
“And the answer was obvious,” she said.
“Damon would do every foolish thing imaginable to protect someone he loved.
He would sacrifice himself over and over again, even if it meant destroying himself in the process.
He would never stop trying to atone for his mistakes.”
“But Kael had something Damon didn’t,” Aysel continued analytically.
“Kael was raised from childhood to be an Alpha.
He had a sense of duty etched into his very core.
Even if he was willing to die for a cause, he would never let that cause harm the pack he was sworn to protect.”
She paused, studying my face.
I must have looked terrible, because she reached out and patted my shoulder gently.
“So I suspected that’s exactly how he used the lieutenant.
He gave him a mission, protect Celestine, yes, but also make sure she never crossed the line.
Make sure she never actually hurt anyone in the pack.
The evidence was insurance.
A way to stop her if she went too far.”
I stared at her, my mind reeling.
“As for the evidence itself,” she said, “it made perfect sense.
It couldn’t be carried around from place to place, not if he wanted to keep it hidden from Celestine.
And it certainly couldn’t be somewhere near the lieutenant’s own daughter, that would have put her in danger if anyone ever found it.”
Her eyes lit up with something like satisfaction.
“The safest place was Kael’s own grave.
No one would ever think to look there.
The lieutenant could visit whenever he needed to check on it, and he’d never be suspected.
It was brilliant, really.”
She smiled at me, her hand still resting on my shoulder.
“I have to give you some of the credit, Magnus.
You mentioned the instruction in passing, and that’s what set me thinking.
If Kael had given the lieutenant a final instruction, it had to be something that would keep him alive and in place.
Something that would make him stay close even when it was dangerous.
Protecting someone he loved just like Damon would.”
I managed something between a smile and a grimace.
It was the best I could do.
My face felt like it was made of stone.
Does this woman really think now is the time to launch into a lecture about how well she understands her ex?
She knows Damon.
She understands Damon.She knows what he would do.
She knows what he would sacrifice.
She knows who he would protect, and how, and why.
She knows him.
I looked up and caught the eye of one of my subordinates across the room.
He was staring at me with wide eyes, worry written all over his face.
I saw several others doing the same, they seemed to know that Aysel talking about her ex was driving me crazy.
I shot Aysel a glare so fierce that she stopped talking immediately.
Good.
Because I was one step away from shutting that mouth with mine.