Kait laughed meanly. “Oh, he wasn’t living in comfort. It was a maximum-security facility, and the doctors were Shadoewynne and doing illegal experiments on the inmates. He was just a shell of the person he had been, and the accident essentially fried his brain.” David was turning green. I looked between Kait and David.
“Who caused the accident?” David bolted out of the room. After a moment, I could hear him throwing up in the bathroom. I glared at Kait. “You know what he is feeling right now. Why are you making it worse for him?”
Kait crossed his arms over his chest. “This was a very graphic lesson to him of what unchecked mental powers can do to someone. He’s lucky it was a criminal that no one will miss. He needed to learn what his anger can do.”
“What the fuck, Kait?” I shook my head and went to find David. He was sitting on the floor in front of the toilet. Tears were streaming down his face. I gingerly moved past him to sit on the edge of the tub. I reached forward to rub his back, but he knocked my hand away.
“Don’t touch me. I’m a killer.”
Chapter 9
I reached for him again, and this time he let me with a sigh. “You are not a killer, David. He may have died, but a killer does it for fun, and I don’t think you enjoyed it.”
“Oh, but I did, Evalia. I thought about what he had done to you, and I enjoyed the pain I gave him. I would have kept going if he hadn’t died.”
“That is a natural reaction, David. He badly hurt someone you love, and you wanted to hurt him back. I wasn’t angry that he died. I was angry that my father lied to me, and it was a shock that he was still alive.” I sighed, kneeling next to him so I could pull him into my arms. “David, I love you and this isn’t going to change that.”
He snorted into my shoulder. “Can you read minds now, too?”
“No, I just know what I would be thinking if the situation was reversed.”
He looked at me then, finally meeting my eyes. The grey in his was especially dark and was slowly swirling as he searched my thoughts and feelings. Finally, he let out the breath he had been holding and hugged me back. I let him cry on my shoulder for a minute, then I said, “Come on. We need to go back out to everyone, and we need to have dinner. I’m starving.”
“Alright.” David wiped his eyes and nose with some toilet paper, then washed his face and hands. He grabbed my hand on the way out. We joined the others in the living room.
“We are not going to speak of this again. Back to the original discussion. The castle has been attacked, and the source says the meeting with the Svikari King is an ambush. What are we going to do?” I made sure my voice was firm.
Kait glared at me for a second. “You and I are going to talk after dinner, Evalia.”
“Fine.” I crossed my arms over my chest. “What are we going to do about the other two issues?”
“We can’t help the castle. They have plenty of defenses and is built to withstand a long siege if necessary. As for the ambush, the way I see it, we have two options. One - since we know about the ambush, we can plan for it. They lose much of the advantage if it’s not a surprise. The second option is to not go to the meeting. I advise we plan for the ambush and still attend the meeting.” I started to reply, but Kait held up a hand. “Let me finish. As I said, knowing about the ambush takes away most of their advantage, and most of the danger. We have almost a week to plan. I do think that Evalia should stay home, though.”
“No. If you all are risking your lives, then I am too. Non-negotiable, Kait.” I added the last sentence when he looked like he was going to protest. After a brief pause, he nodded.
“Okay. We just need to make sure everyone is covered with knife proof clothes and bounce spells. We will need to train extra this week, and we will discuss the security set up closer to Friday. I don’t think we have to do anything extra for our meeting tomorrow with Alarr.”
A thought occurred to me. “What if the ambush isn’t set up for Friday but for our meeting with Alarr tomorrow?”
Kait rubbed his chin. “That’s possible. I will call him tomorrow right before the scheduled time and change the restaurant. There’s another one that will work just as well.”
I jumped a little as Sarah poked her head through the door to say, “Dinner is done. Come and eat!” I didn’t even know she was back.
I followed everyone into the dining room, before taking my seat quietly. Their conversations and laughter flowed over and around me as I ate. We finished dinner and cleaned up the dishes. I was still lost in
