Panicked grunts came from Lance’s chest when I returned to the torture chamber and closed the door behind me. Strolling over to a chair by the wall, I dropped into it and swung my feet up onto the table that the Binder was strapped to. His body jerked in his restraints as Henry held a hand over his mouth, forcing water magic down his throat.
“Told you that was a waste of time,” Henry said, casting a quick glance at me while continuing his work. Then he seemed to remember himself and added a hurried, “Boss.”
“Yeah, I know.” Leaning back in the chair, I heaved a deep sigh. “But I wanted to check how much experience she has with stuff like this so that I can estimate how much of a threat she will be in different kinds of situations.”
“It looked like she didn’t even know what half of the stuff in here is used for.”
“Yeah. Apparently, the only real danger with her is her magic.”
Henry took his hand from Lance’s mouth and pulled out the water magic. The Binder coughed and retched before sucking in strained breaths. I studied the way the tears in his eyes gleamed in the torchlight as he struggled to fill his lungs with air again. Henry allowed him two more breaths before shoving another stream of water down his throat. Chains rattled as Lance thrashed against the tabletop.
“She could be lying, though.” While keeping his hand over Lance’s mouth, Henry looked up and met my gaze before lifting one broad shoulder in a shrug. “Faking it.”
“I don’t think she was. She might be good at lying about other stuff, but I think she’s entirely incapable of pretending to be bad at something. I think it goes against everything that she is.”
“How do you know?”
The memory of our conversation back in that rented house in Eldar flashed past in my mind. Or maybe not a conversation so much as a story. The story she had told me about why she decided to become a dark mage. Someone who grew up feeling the way she had would never willingly pretend to be bad at something.
But that wasn’t my story to tell, so I just shrugged in response to Henry’s question. He seemed to take the hint because he shifted his attention back to the choking Lance Carmichael on the table instead.
My feet were still propped up on the tabletop next to Lance’s legs, and I crossed my ankles and cocked my head as I watched his body shake violently against the worn wood.
When his eyes looked to be bulging out of his head, I flicked a lazy wrist at Henry. He pulled the water out of Lance’s throat and stepped back.
More coughing and retching filled the stone room once again as Lance gulped in desperate breaths. Once he had blinked his eyes back into focus, I spoke up.
“We can stop this at any time.” I raised my eyebrows in challenge. “All you would need to do is follow my orders.”
Lance dry heaved again and drew in another strained breath before replying, “Never.”
“Really?”
“Yes.” His blond hair was dirty and plastered to his forehead, but his blue eyes shone with determination as he glared back at me. “It doesn’t matter what you do to me, because now that I know that you don’t have my friends, you will never break me.”
“Don’t I?”
“If you did, you would have brought them in and threatened their lives instead. But you haven’t, which means that you don’t have them.”
I huffed out an amused breath. “So there is a brain somewhere inside that thick head of yours.”
Lance raised his chin. Or as much as he could while being strapped to a table, that is. “So go ahead. Torture me all you like. I will still never do your bidding and use my magic against my own people.”
“We’re only on day three. I think you’ll feel a bit differently when we’re on week three. Or month three.”
“I won’t be here that long.” Smug hatred blew across his face. “Chancellor Quill and Eldar’s entire constable force will have found me by then. And when they do, you will be finished.”
I chuckled. “I would say, don’t hold your breath, but you know…” Flashing him a wolfish grin, I waved a hand at Henry.
Before Lance could answer, Henry touched his palms together and then forced water down the Binder’s throat. Panic flickered in his eyes as he yanked against his restraints again. I shifted my weight, making the wooden chair underneath me creak in alarm.
Normally, I would handle the torture myself. Or at least, I would handle the torture myself when I didn’t care about the state that it left my victim in. Force magic was good for a lot of things, but unless I was prepared to cut off someone’s limbs, it wasn’t all that suited for torture.
My mind drifted back to that perfect moment in the bedroom in Eldar when I had made Audrey beg for mercy the first time. A small smile drifted over my lips. Well, force magic was suited for other kinds of torture. But not the one I was currently engaged in, which was why I let Henry handle this part.
Lance was more stubborn than I had anticipated, though. And I hated to admit it, but Audrey’s magic would have been perfect for this situation.
Wet coughs echoed against the stone walls again. I slid my gaze back to Lance, who had once more been allowed to suck in a few breaths.
“Do you think it’s because you were born a Binder that you feel this way?” I asked with genuine curiosity.
“Feel what way?” Lance croaked out.
“Like you need to shove your own worldview down everyone else’s throats too.”
He flicked a glance at Henry. But I wanted an answer to this question, so I motioned for Henry to wait. When Lance realized that replying would allow him to breathe for a little while longer, he spoke up.
“I’m not shoving my worldview down other people’s throats.” Righteous indignation flashed in his eyes. “I help create a better world for everyone.”
“Clearly not for everyone. What you’re trying to do doesn’t create a better world for me. Or for any of the other dark mages.”
“Well, that doesn’t count.”
“Why not?”
“Because what you’re doing is wrong.”
“According to who?”
“According to everyone,” he snapped in frustration. “According to common decency. To logic.”
“The logic and decent thing to do would be to let all mages choose if they wanted to share their magic with the Great Current. Not to force them to do it regardless of what they want.”
He shook his head at me as if I was stupid. “But then almost no one would choose to share their magic, and everyone else would be left without it.”
“So your answer is to force everyone to do what you want instead? I thought you loved democracy? That doesn’t sound very democratic to me.”
Anger and frustration crackled across Lance’s face. I could tell just by watching him that no one had ever questioned his worldview like this before. It made me want to push him even farther out of his self-righteous comfort zone.
“I think you only feel this way because you’ve been raised thinking that you’re a hero,” I continued.
“I haven’t been raised into thinking it,” he growled back. “I chose this path for myself.”
“Really? You were born a Binder. The only thing you can do with your powers is to bind other people’s magic, which is something that Eldar has historically only used against dark mages. Are you telling me that people haven’t spent years telling you that you might be the solution to all their problems? That you might once and for all bring all the wicked dark mages to justice?”
“Of course they have. But I still chose this.”
“What if you’d been born a fire mage?” I raised my eyebrows expectantly. “Or something else where you could use your magic for lots of stuff. Do you really think that your worldview would have been the same then?”
“Yes! Because only selfish people hoard their magic like treasure without sharing it with those who need it.”
“There you go again, only seeing things from your narrow point of view.” I blew out an irritated breath and flicked a hand at Henry. “This is getting exhausting. Henry, I think we’ll go with lightning next.”
“Yes, boss,” he replied as he stepped back up to the table. White bolts of lightning danced between his hands after he touched them together.
Lance just glared at me, his eyes burning like blue flames. “You will never break me. And you will never win. Villains never do.”
“Wanna bet?” I answered while motioning for Henry to get started.
Lightning zapped through the air, striking Lance in the side of his ribs. His back arched and his eyes flashed with pain before his body hit the tabletop once more. Henry shot another bolt at him. It made Lance’s whole body twitch uncontrollably while his eyes rolled back and a scream ripped from his throat.
I swung my legs off the table and pushed to my feet before staring down into Lance Carmichael’s face.
“You’ve been reading too many fairytales,” I said.
He only gasped in a breath as his limbs stopped shaking. Henry hit him with lightning again. I cocked my head.
“In the real world, power beats pretty words every time.”
