“I’ve heard Mountebank Iams is having some problems matching up your account of your magic with the readings of the machine.”

“I’ve been hearing the same thing,” I replied.

“Her connections are all correct, and when we—”

“It’s okay, Mountebank Iams, I’ll take it from here.” Rob glanced around the room, choosing the chair in front of the yellow wall. Once seated, he leaned back and crossed an ankle over a knee before entwining his fingers, getting comfortable. “I’ll call you when I’m ready.”

The mountebank stiffened and his jaw clenched. He’d just been chucked out of his own assessment room, and it galled. Despite the situation, it tickled me.

“Now,” Rob said when he were alone. “Let’s start from the beginning.”

I started with my impression of the bland waiting room, the spirit I’d seen in the office, and why and how I’d chosen my seat in this very room. Throughout our preliminary chat, I peppered in some white lies about arbitrary things, like the number I’d added onto eeny, meeny and how much I liked the nurse’s attitude. Talking about my magic came next, and there I didn’t lie at all. My mother always said that choosing to keep information to myself was okay, but outright lying would just land me in the stink.

By then, his smile had vanished and his body had tensed somewhat. He looked over at the machine in confusion. “Did they try another machine besides this one?”

“They tried all three.”

“Of course,” he said, blinking slowly. “Do you want to know my assessment?”

“No.”

He shook his head, looking confused. I’d been confusing a lot of people lately.

“Which means,” he said, as if the words had been drawn from him with a string, “you know vaguely what it is.”

It wasn’t a question, so I didn’t give him an answer.

“You think that machine works just fine, don’t you, Miss Price?”

“Yes. I love your tone when you call me Miss Price, by the way. It’s soothing.”

The silence between us lingered. I could really get used to having a guy like him around. I sounded as sweet as can be, but we both knew I was being sarcastic.

Because I did not like his tone at all. It made me want to throttle him.

“Why can’t the machines get accurate readings, Alexis?” he asked.

“Why, indeed? Tell me, what’s the status with shock treatment? Or torture?”

His crossed ankle swung to the ground. I was getting under his skin.

“That’s the thing about your magic,” I said, fighting for the upper hand. “It’s only useful when you have information to pore over.”

I would not let them get control over me. The power to choose my own fate was the only power I had. The one thing I couldn’t bear to give up. The day I let someone else rule me was the day I lost my will to keep fighting. It was the day my mother would not know the daughter she had raised.

“I don’t frighten you, do I?” he asked.

“Why would you frighten me?” It dawned on me. “Ah. Because liars are frightened of people discovering the truth. And those are the type of people you usually deal with.”

“You’re a clever girl.”

“I have my moments.”

“Though I knew that earlier, from the way you inserted silly lies to point at the utter truth of everything you said regarding your magic.” He stood. “You are not what you seem, Miss—Alexis. You think you know what you are. I believe that. But in this situation, it’s not just your power level that isn’t adding up. You are as ignorant as the mountebanks at this office have been.”

“Oh…kay…”

He paused with his hand on the door. “I’ve done all I can here, since no, I am not permitted, nor do I care to, torture you. Someone else can handle that.”

“Oh, goodie. You know, I’ve really enjoyed our time together. This place is great.”

“You’re laying it on a little thick, Miss Price,” he said, before shutting the door between us.

I sighed. Two down, how many more to go?

Later I would learn that it was only one. One more. The worst one of all.

29

Kieran

“The Encourager is up next, sir,” Zorn said, standing by Kieran’s side in the large medical monitoring room.

The staff in this room sat at their computer terminals in their white coats and analyzed stats on various subjects from a multitude of departments. Only two staffers were working on Kieran’s case, in addition to the personnel who actually went into the assessment room, but it still felt like too many. He wanted the least amount of people to know his business as possible. But he also needed to be thorough. He wanted this done properly. There was no more hiding for Alexis Price, not from him.

“He’s a class five, like you requested,” Zorn went on.

An Encourager could influence another person’s thoughts and actions. A class five was on par with mind control.

Without warning, rage flared up from deep inside of Kieran, hot and possessive. His body tightened up of its own accord, ready to fight. Something about the idea of another man entering Alexis’s mind, able to access her most intimate information, turned his stomach. The thought of that man being able to control her fanned his rage higher until red tinted his vision. If she would give control up to anyone, it would be Kieran, and it would be done willingly.

“No,” he said, leaning over the desk, watching the monitors. Four in all, capturing every angle of the room. Alexis sat with a loose posture in her chair, her fingers entwined in her lap and her confidence supreme. She thought she’d come out on top of this situation, hiding her magic like a thief, just as she had in the past.

One thing was certain: Alexis Price would not go down without a fight, no matter what he threw at her.

“I doubt an Enforcer could crack her,” he said quietly, not wanting anyone else in the large medical monitoring room to hear. It wasn’t just a good excuse not to use the Enforcer; it was the truth. A truth that would raise eyebrows—even more so than she already had. “Turn off the recording. I’ll handle it.”

The door at the far end of the room swung open and Rob entered, his brow furrowed and his expression contemplative. He made a beeline for Kieran.

“She’s unique,” he said without preamble, clearly forgetting his position. “She’s hiding something. She knows I know it—she knows you know it—but she isn’t anxious about it. She’s downright confident. And she should be. She handled me more than I handled her. Only the best-trained industry professionals sit through an interrogation with that much detachment. No…” He put a finger to his lips and looked down. “Detachment isn’t the right word. With that amount of…insouciance. She artfully tucked lies within the truth like it was a game, and she was assured of winning.” His look held suspicion, but he wasn’t acting disrespectful, which was the only reason Kieran didn’t call him down. “Are you testing me, sir? Have there been any complaints regarding my abilities?”

Kieran barely checked his surprise. He’d expected something unusual—Alexis always kept him guessing—but he hadn’t thought she’d be able to twist the Authenticator into so many knots that he was doubting his own ability. Rob thought she’d been highly trained. That she was assessing him, and not the other way around.

“We’ll be in touch,” Kieran said, forcing a flat expression. It was not the right time to smile at the absurdity of the situation. “Zorn…”

Zorn stepped forward, his arms out to herd the suddenly imbalanced Authenticator. A half-hour ago, Rob had thought he was at the top of his trade. Now he wondered if he’d be sacked. What a strange twist of events.

Jack drifted to his side from behind one of the staff monitoring Alexis’s vitals. “If you hope to keep her under wraps, you should probably cut this short. Get the assessment and get out, know what I’m saying?”

Kieran barely nodded, already stepping forward. Scientist types spent their life explaining the unknown—they’d want to dig into the weird that was Alexis and her undocumented talents. Unless Kieran ushered her out of here as quickly as possible.

He let himself out of the monitoring room and walked down the hall, briefly thinking about how he wanted to approach this situation. She already mistrusted him, and for good reason. He’d been shadowing her for days. Even the completely untrained would have a problem with that, and the trained would be thinking of ways to kill him, Demigod or no. Forcing her to cooperate with the testing would only make matters worse. He needed to drive her to the brink…and then pull back and let her make her own decision.

If that decision was to continue messing with his testers and their machines, he wasn’t sure what he’d do.

He stopped at the assessment room door with his hand on the handle and took a deep breath. He had no idea why he still wanted to smile, and even less of an idea why he felt nervous. Kieran never felt nervous.

“Hello, Alexis,” he said as he opened the door.

A look of blind fear washed over her face and she licked her lips before glancing at the green wall, then the machine.