Such a strange word. It denoted a lack of ability, but that didn’t make sense. Jelisette apparently had no problem lying to Brynleigh, hiding a Binding, and abandoning her in prison, so why was it so hard for Ryker to do the same?
Confusion roiled through her as she tried to parse what he was saying. “Why not?”
He inhaled sharply.
“I just… couldn’t.” There was that word again. “In order to get you out of the… interrogation?—”
“Torture,” she quietly interrupted, rubbing her wrists. The sweater hid the ruby marks, but they were still there. Even now, she felt the ghosts of those manacles on her wrists.
“What?”
Her voice was soft as she canted her head. “They weretorturingme, Ryker.”
Memories of her time in the prison flashed through her mind. Screams and pain and agony, all intermingled with grief because she thought Zanri had killed her husband. She’d been so lost in the hurt, and she thought it was her penance because she’d gotten him killed.
Except…
He was still alive. He’d been alive the whole time.
“They were inflicting never-ending pain on me. The least you can do is have the decency to call it what it fuckingwas.” Shepaused as a tear ran down her cheek, and then she whispered, “Torture.”
Brynleigh wasn’t ready to dive into the specifics of what had been done to her—what he hadallowedto happen—but she could do this. That simple word acknowledged her pain and suffering, and she needed him to say it.
Storms passed through his gaze again before he briskly nodded. “Understood.”
So formal. So detached. Her heart ached once more. Maybe that would be her constant state of being now.
Ryker continued, his voice monotone and his eyes hard, “In order to get you out of thetorture, I had to make a deal with Myrrah Challard.”
A deal.
Her shadows twinged, and a pit formed in her stomach. Whatever was coming would be bad.
A large part of her wanted to shut this conversation down, but she wasn’t sure where that would leave her with Ryker. Instead, she twisted her fingers together.
Brynleigh supposed she had Victor and his merry band of torturers to thank forthatnew development. She never used to get nervous, but then again, being used as a living pincushion for several weeks changed a woman.
She chewed on her lip. “What kind of deal?”
Ryker’s eyes darkened, and the tang of his magic filled the air. Had he always had this much power so close at hand? She hadn’t noticed it as much before.
“Ever since our… wedding,”—he seemed to choke on the word, and his nostrils flared—“the military has been conducting an in-depth investigation into Jelisette de la Point.”
She swallowed. “An investigation?”
That didn’t sound good. But then again, nothing these days sounded good.
Ryker stared directly at her, his eyes drilling into hers. “Yourfeline… friend was very talkative after a few days of encouragement.”
“My friend… Zanri?” All the blood drained from her face, and she gripped the armrests. “He’s alive?”
She thought that Ryker had killed him.
The captain’s jaw clenched, and he gritted out, “Barely.”
That one word spoke fucking volumes.
Brynleigh’s heart pounded as she processed this latest development. On the one hand, fuck Zanri. He’d betrayed her and came to kill Ryker. He was the reason she was in this mess. On the other hand, she’d been through hell, and to think that Zanri had probably suffered worse…