COBALT: The Red Phantom (Book One)

Chapter 23: The Storm (Part 1/3)

          But that was hardly a problem for her.

          Dropping the bloodied rag she gripped a handful of Truvius' uniform, ripping him off his feet and into one of the smaller corridors branching from the hall. Truvius was scrawny enough for her to throw him up with one arm, the element of surprise working to her advantage as he didn't even struggle against the treatment, his widened eyes skimming her expression with more fear than confusion.

          "Confusion is innocence," Vera hissed, her fist twisting into Truvius' collar to keep him still. "Fear is guilt."

          "Then I'm very confused," Truvius whimpered, shrinking into his clothes as Vera muttered a spell under her breath, a sound blocking shield surrounding them in a bubble of silence.

          Vera swallowed back the blood pooling in her mouth, fueled by the growing pain in her mouth as a soft and trilling whistle escaping her lips to call Cinder to her shoulder. "I'm not sure if you're aware, but Latos is one of the best places to send people who won't talk." She whispered, sharpening her voice into a blade that she could press against Truvius' throat. "I've picked up more than enough tips from their very best interrogators."

          Truvius didn't waste a second under the pressure of her gaze. "There's actually something following Káel, Ray caught him-" 

          "I don't want to hear it, Káel does," Vera snapped, a crackle of fire sparking off Cinder as she pressed Truvius into the wall. "I know you went to Ray to get him to help you spy on Káel, so you're going to tell Káel everything and make sure Ray's plan is completely unsalvageable."

          "There could be a Novan following him around!" Truvius retorted, trying to loosen her fist as her knuckles dug into his neck. But the more he squirmed the harder she pressed, feeling her fist dig into his windpipe and choke out his words. "He could be in danger!"

          "He has a wild Sandregian ice drake for a guardian, I didn't see you investigating if Puff would devour him for breakfast," Vera spat, dropping Truvius' collar to shoot her other hand out and grip him by the hair, dragging him close to whisper in his ear. "I've seen children in dungeons paired as cellmates to proven murderers and violent street filfth for being Novans and Garaean, crying for their parents that hit the chopping block weeks ago." She dug her nails into Truvius' scalp until he yelped, his shaking breaths quickening with the jolt of pain. "I didn't have a great first impression with Novans, the first one I met even tried to gut me in the woods. That doesn't mean I'm going to go hysteric if someone sneezes and it sounds like they whispered Novan."

          Truvius couldn't work up any words, his face hidden from the shame of making any sort of eye contact as Vera kept a firm grip of his hair. In the silence she could feel his body shaking. Another sign that the interrogation was going perfectly.

          "Shame on you, he's going home in four days anyways," Vera seethed, slowly untangling her fingers from his hair and wiping a spot of blood that had escaped her split lip.

          Truvius didn't lift his head, pulling his hands up to rub something from his face as he gave out a withered reply. "He's not."

          "Pardon?"

          Truvius tried to swallow his quivering voice, his distress was even clearer with the struggle as Vera noticed the dabs of wetness on his cuffs. "Ray can't take him back."

          She sank in the weight of his words, the secret Truvius had been lugging around now tossed to weigh on her shoulders. But what burned at her mind the most was one simple question.