Rand rolled his shoulders. “There are two more tied up on one of the upper decks. Who’s going to do the questioning?”
Sebastian paused and looked up. There are none left alive for questioning besides the one in front of you.
“You killed them? Why? They were subdued.” Rand sounded more surprised than angry.
I did not kill them. I believe the pixies just dragged the last one over the side of the ship.
“Wait, what?” Now it was my turn to sound surprised. “They agreed not to kill anyone. What about the one I stopped? The one with the magickal gun?”
The pixies did not kill them. The men were alive when they went over. I don’t believe the water fae were so forgiving, though. He didn’t answer my question about the last guy.
Semantics. I sighed again and looked at the man in zip ties. “What do you know about the Paragons?”
The man looked bewildered. “I don’t know who you’re talkin’ about, lady.” That last word was said with derision as he took in my appearance.
I was too tired to be offended. Plus, I knew what I looked—and smelled—like. “Fine. Who hired you?”
His jaw jutted out. He wasn’t going to answer me. Sebastian stood and stretched, his claws extending as he pulled them slowly across the floor, the sound like nails on a chalkboard. Times ten. Then he yawned, displaying teeth as long as my fingers. The man watched in horror. The sound that escaped him was strangled.
Rand looked down and stepped away quickly, dragging the man with him. There was a puddle where they’d stood before and a stain spreading across the front of the man’s pants.
I tried to keep the disgust off my face as I said, “Last chance before I hand you over to him.” I jerked my thumb at Sebastian. “Who hired you?”
The man swallowed audibly, his face paling. “I-I don’t know. Everythin’ was handled electronically, you know? No names, and we kept our mouths shut. And we had to work with the scary woman. Those was the only rules.” He was shaking so hard, Rand almost had to support him. “We was told we had to help catch them, and then help keep the kids alive. That’s it. Then we found out they wasn’t really kids—that they was fish-people or somethin’ weird.”
“They are children and you had no right to do what you did.” He pushed himself back at the snarl in my voice, only to be shoved forward again by Rand.
“We didn’t do nothin’ to them! I swear. The scary woman, she kept takin’ their blood.”
I felt the anger rising up in me again, chasing away the fatigue. “Who beat up the little boy? The one who was separated from the other two?”
The man paled even further, if that was possible. “The boy kept tryin’ to get out. One of my guys just taught him a little lesson, that’s all. The kid did more damage to my guy than my guy did to him.” The man started to look desperate. “Look, those kids ain’t even human. I heard that snooty guy, Harris, and the scary woman talkin’ about selling them for research. They saw me listenin’ and quit talkin.’ That’s all I know.” He cast a terrified look at Sebastian.
“Does the woman have a name?”
“She never talked to us, except to tell us what to do, and even then it was mostly just that Harris guy who gave us instructions. I think he called her Jada or somethin’ like that once.”
My gaze fell to Sebastian. He tells the truth. He knows little, as I told you before.
Now I had a dilemma. I had no idea what to do with the man. I thought back to my promise to Kylen. Could I really kill an unarmed man in cold blood? I looked over at the gun in the corner. It didn’t have any shimmer of magick like the other gun had, nor did I see a pendant on this man’s neck. I walked over and picked up the gun. I didn’t look at either the man or Rand as I walked back. I did meet Sebastian’s eyes for a brief second.
“Release him.”
Rand stared at me in stunned silence. “What are you doing, Roxie?”
“We’re going to let him go. I don’t have any place to keep him and I don’t want the responsibility.” I gave the man a flat, appraising look, but I didn’t meet Rand’s eyes. “Can you keep your mouth shut? About all of this?” I motioned around us.
“Y-yeah. I won’t say a word. I promise. Boy Scout’s honor an’ all that.” I seriously doubted the man had ever been a Boy Scout, but I didn’t call him out on it.
Rand pulled a knife from somewhere on his person and cut the ties. The man rubbed his wrists and stepped away. I saw it in his eyes the moment he made his decision. He lunged for the gun in my hands. I tossed up a shield just as Sebastian’s dark form knocked the man to the ground. His neck broke on impact with a sickening crunch.
I turned and walked from the room.
Chapter 17
A new magickal alliance formed
I had to admit, waking up in Rand’s arms just felt . . . right. He’d said nothing about the stunt I’d pulled with the man on the pirate ship, and I wasn’t going to bring it up, either. As soon as we’d returned home early this morning, we’d taken a long, hot shower together—even though I’d taken one on the Sea Witch on the way back—and fell into bed, too exhausted to do anything more than shut our eyes. By the time we made it down to what was either a very late lunch or very early dinner, I found
