The pain numbed just slightly. I clamped my mouth shut, watching the interrogator. She was frowning, so I guessed those two words hadn’t given her enough to draw any conclusions.
As she kept asking her questions, I kept repeating my standard line. “None of your business.” She asked about my job on Rose’s estate and how I’d known her and what my association with the other guys was, but mostly she kept coming back to the same subject: Who Rose’s consorts were. Whether I was one of them.
Apparently they couldn’t just tell. I kind of liked the idea that a bond like that was private between the ones who’d formed it, unless they chose to tell people about it. Even if I wasn’t one of the recipients of that bond. Yet. Possibly ever, if we didn’t make it out of here.
I gathered myself, trying to find more of my own inner calm to steady myself alongside what Rose was offering me. An echo of her voice, just a couple nights ago, swam up in my mind.Haven’t you always done everything you could to help me, to help everyone you care about? I want all of you, even the parts you’re scared of.
There were ways I could work this. Turn the conversation around. Find a point of entry. I knew how to talk to people. Maybe that could get me somewhere useful.
“It’s really important to you to put names on Rose’s consorts, huh?” I said. “Just for your records?”
“Something like that,” the interrogator said narrowly. Her shoulders had stiffened a little. She didn’t like me askingherquestions.
“Does that have anything to do with our arrest?” I asked. “Can a consort be charged for the same crimes as a witch because he helped kindle her magic?”
“You don’t need to worry about facing those sorts of sanctions.” Her tone was not at all reassuring. “It will simply help us get a full picture of the situation.”
There was obviously more to it than that. What had Rose told us about consorting? Having an intimate partner was necessary for witches to maintain their magic, but if that was all these people were worried about, they could have killed us right now and cut her off permanently. What would it matter who was who? I didn’t for a second believe they cared about sparing any of us who weren’t that closely tied to her. We all knew too much.
But they didn’t want to hurt Rose. The woman who’d led the charge when we’d all been taken had mentioned that. Was that it? Rose had also said the consort bonds could be broken, but not during the first few years when they were fresh—not without major consequences. She’d only taken the other guys as consorts in the last month. How much would it hurt her if those bonds were severed now?
A cold prickle ran down my back. That was it, wasn’t it? They were trying to figure out which of us they could dispose of now without doing any damage to her.
The second they figured out I wasn’t magically tied to Rose’s well-being, it’d be dead in a ditch for me, absolutely.
“I think I get it,” I said, testing out the idea. “You’re worried about Rose—worried about how she might be affected by us if you shattered those consort bonds. That’s it, isn’t it?
The interrogator’s lips pressed flat. That looked like a confirmation to me.
“I’ve told you, you don’t need to worry about anything happening to you,” she said.
My arm twitched with the urge to rub the back of my neck. The shackle around it held it to the bench. The spell she was aiming at me jabbed down my spine.
“Other than the magical brain attack you’ve got going on?” I said. Nothing would happen to me except a little tormenting.
She shrugged. “It’s important we get this information quickly. That will be over when you’re willing to talk.”
How generous of them. I managed not to grimace. “Shemust be very important to you. But not because you’re trying to make her happy, because this definitely isn’t the way you’d accomplish that. So I’m guessing there’s something you want to use her for.”
The creases at the corners of the interrogator’s lips deepened. Oh, yeah, they had a plan for Rose. Well, they could forget about getting anything from me they could put toward that.
“Miss Hallowell is guilty of several crimes,” the woman said. “That is our only concern.”
“Well, I can talk to you about that,” I said easily. “I saw some of what was going on in her home. She was trying to protect herself exactly the way you would if someone wanted to sell you into slavery, I’d guess. Maybe you can tell me a little more about witching society. Do you have a concept of self-defense?”
“I think these matters are too complicated for you to understand,” the interrogator said. “You need to start answering questions, not asking them.Are you Miss Hallowell’s consort?”
With the emphasis she put on that last question, she seemed to scrap magical claws right across my brain. A shudder of agony ran through my body. My jaw jerked against my hold and dropped open. “None— None of— I—”
The cool balm of Rose’s energy whispered over me again. I snapped my mouth shut in relief. The pain still radiated through my skull, but more like a bad headache than full-out torture.
Until the interrogator decided to up the ante even more. How long could Rose keep up this protection?
The woman inhaled as if she were about to ask another question, and the door to the room eased open. A young man poked his head around it.
“We’re leaving them for now,” he said.
The interrogator stood up. “What? I just need more time.”