Blood Will Tell

XIII

They met in the basement. Arden was sitting in her usual armchair, already dressed in a satin nightgown. Stacked next to her was a tower of tomes. The stack was tall enough that the cover of the topmost book was not visible to Edin when he was sitting down. Most of the spines faced away from him, but a few were angled so that he could glimpse their titles. The first title he read: "Advanced Curses – Breaking the Unbreakable."

"Take a seat," she ordered him.

He obeyed. He noticed that she was sitting further from him than usual, but did not bother to bring it up. She was already brave—any other person would have locked him up in a cage.

She raised one hand and made a slight swaying motion with it. A vial of clear liquid floated to him, and he received it with both hands. From the label on its lid, he knew it was truth serum.

"Drink."

Edin unscrewed the lid. He placed the vial's mouth on his lips, tilted it, and gulped. He shuddered from the serum's overwhelming bitterness. Though it flowed into him like water, he could feel part of it coating his tongue and the walls of his throat like a stubborn layer of syrup. Not even his saliva could wash it away.

"The serum is supposed to stick to your tongue and throat. Don't worry, it will fade after an hour."

It did not stop his tongue from trying to rinse off the substance.

Arden sighed. "I think it's obvious what we're going to discuss."

He remained silent.

"I've heard from some of my fellow guardians that you have a tendency to be... violent," she began, careful to not pull a potential trigger. "When the two majors guarding Irien told me about your violent tendencies, I didn't want to believe it, but now I've realized that they were speaking the truth. The way you fought, earlier this afternoon, did you fight like that when you faced the glæsseling outside of Irien?"

"I—sort of."

"Sort of?"

"I was more in control during my first battle," he elaborated. "I noticed that with every battle, it seemed to be growing stronger."

"What do you mean by 'it'? Your urges?"

"I—yes."

"Did you know about this before that first incident?"

He shook his head. "Never."

"What about during the test, when they got you to fight an ætterhund?"

"I did not feel those urges."

"You didn't?"

He shook his head. "I fought normally."

"What about the other times you fought?"

"I did. I mean, I felt those urges."

She tilted her head. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"I didn't know that those urges would return. Uh, remember when you asked me why I wasn't fighting that much, but Rowan was? Our answers were true, but there was another reason I was avoiding work." He fidgeted. "When I saw him fighting the first time, the creature bled, and... those urges returned."

He could feel Arden's stare hardening. "And when was this?"

"Three months ago, during our first day."

"And you didn't tell me?"

Edin bit his lip. "I was scared."

"Of?"

"Of... I... I didn't want to be kicked out. I thought I could learn to handle it on my own, or... maybe it would go away, eventually."

"Seems to me that that's not the case." She swiped a book from the top of the stack and opened it. "From what I've seen this afternoon, your urges appear to be involuntary. Is that true?"