“Which is why we made you queen,” Riedel said. He seemed cheerful for once. I thought he had a soft spot for me and was glad to see me doing the right thing, the truly righteous thing.
“Do you suspect the cure is already made?” Hanchell asked.
“Yes.” I nodded. “I’m sure Emell is waiting until the very last second to send it out. She probably had it made at the same time she engineered the virus. She must have it stored in a secret location. As a Min, I’ll be able to read her thoughts and discover the location, thereby preventing millions of innocent deaths.”
I thought Hanchell’s electric light was smiling. “You are smart for a human,” she said. “Now let me give you some prep before we do this. You will wake up to a horrible death. There is no way around it. Next, you will be a formless Min. You will experience an intense desire to occupy a human body, but be careful. There are two options for occupying bodies. You may either occupy the body for its entire life span, or just long enough to complete a task given to you by us. Upon completion of the task, you will exit the body, and they will have no idea you were ever there. The human thinks they are in control, but really, they’re just on a very intense roller coaster. In the case of a long-term body possession, the human will take a kind of back seat in their own mind. It’s like your friend Roki. His body’s owner is dormant while Roki works missions for us and does whatever fun things Min do in Geniverd.”
“You think you can handle that?” Riedel asked.
“Got it,” I said. “What happens if I break the rules, like if I disobey a direct order or give away the Great Secret?”
“Death,” Riedel said. “The Seeing Water will see to it personally.”
“Who’s the Seeing Wa—?”
“The universe does not deserve the mercy shown by the Seeing Water. We’ll tell you more later,” Hanchell said. “Time is of the essence. Go back to your bed. A Min will take possession of an undercover Gurnot working alongside you in the council. They will assassinate you upon waking.”
“It’s going to be brutal,” Riedel said. “Prepare yourself. Pain is temporary. The sacrifice you’re making is eternal.”
It happened fast. I dissolved out of Shiol and opened my eyes to pitch-blackness. It must have been two in the morning. I figured I had twenty-six hours left to save the species. Realistically though, I only had another two hours before the death toll began to peak and spiral out of control. I briefly thought, Wait, aren’t I supposed to be murdered?
I tried to get out of bed, and that was when I noticed Torio standing above me with a snarl. He wore all black and looked terrifyingly evil.
“Tori—oh!”
He had a rope around my neck and was strangling me. Torio had one foot on the edge of the bed for leverage, tugging the rope so its rough fibers chafed my skin. He was strangling me to death!
My instincts took over. I tried to pry the rope from around my throat, coughing and gagging as Torio shook me out of bed and threw me onto the floor. Then he stood over me as he screamed, “I’ve waited my whole life for this!” Torio was insane, bloodthirsty, and violent. “I want to look in your eyes as you die, Kaelyn!” He cackled, tightened the rope, and watched me squirm.
In that moment, I wished I could take it all back. I had never known such agony or fear. My eyes felt like balloons ready to pop, my teeth sank into my bloody tongue. And Torio, so crazed. His saliva dribbled onto my face as he strangled me.
“Not yet,” he said. He got up, seemingly lost or confused. “No, not here. Not like this.”
I managed to say, “Gur … not.”
“Yes,” he said as he snatched me by the hair and dragged me toward the kitchen. I kicked and groaned but couldn’t scream. My throat had been crushed, and I could hardly take a breath. How could someone hurt a person so brutishly?
“I have been a Gurnot my whole life,” Torio said, dumping me on the floor by the stove. “I’ve been feeding my associates information ever since I became Head of Courtiers. I hate the establishment. And I hate you!”
There was a frying pan on the cooker. It was red hot. He picked it up, grabbed a hunk of my hair, and pressed the hot pan against the side of my face.
“Yeo-o-o-ow!”
It was like ice and fire all at once. It burned like nothing I had ever felt before, and I had to remember what the Crown of Crowns had said: Pain is temporary.
But it freaking hurt! Tears pooled in my eyes, the smell of singed flesh, burnt hair, and Torio’s maniacal laughter. He tossed aside the pan and let me drop to the floor, where I writhed in agony, my throat muscles crushed, half my face melted off. “E—” I tried. “End it.”
Torio laughed. “Gladly.”
He pulled a pistol from his waistband and shot me in the head.
Chapter 15
I didn’t want to hate Torio for what he had done, but it was hard not to hate someone who had just murdered me. I floated out of my body and lingered, ghostly, below the kitchen ceiling. There I lay, the back of my head busted open, with fragments of hair and brain splattered over the kitchen floor like broken eggs. And there was Torio, seething above my bloodied corpse.
Had he really wanted to kill me the whole time we had known each other? All the smiles, the good advice, the late-night talks of politics, and all the while, he had fantasized
