The assassin lifted his lip in disgust. He strained against the spider silk that still held him. When it held strong, he gave Oz a defiant look instead. “Talk to you? Never! The Black Blades—”

“You aren’t confident in that, though, are you? The idea of torture terrifies you,” Oz said, looking him in the eye. He arched his hands and smiled.

“I’m a proud assassin. I’ll die before I—”

“Oh, you’ll die, yes. Because death is less frightening than what I could do to you. And you know that.” Oz nodded at him. “Come on, it’s alright. We can be friends.”

“You don’t understand anything!”

“I don’t?” Oz grinned.

“I—”

“You swallowed poison. Commendable for an assassin, but cowardly. Incredibly, incredibly cowardly. Let me lay it out for you.”

Oz pressed his fingertips together and leaned forward, sitting on the edge of his chair. “When we found you, you were sawing through your bonds. Trying to escape. Even in a desperate situation, you still held on to the dim hope of survival. If you really wanted to die, you would have swallowed the poison the second I captured you.”

The boy gulped. His eyes evaded Oz’s.

“If you really had such a strong will to live, why swallow poison? The answer’s obvious. Because you’re afraid. You’re terrified of living through torture. Between torture and death, you chose death.

“Reasonable, but unfortunately, it means that you’ve played your hand. No amount of defiance or brave words can hide the truth of your deeds. You will absolutely shatter to torture.”

The boy shifted, shivering a little, then forcibly repressing it.

Despite everything, Oz’s stomach sunk, and a disgusting feeling ran down his spine. I feel really bad doing this to a kid, but… it’s better than physically torturing a kid. I need the information he has. If I can get it with a few harsh words, I’ll take it.

Besides, he tried to kill me, or at least permanently injure me with poison. This is fair play.

Oz sat back, spreading his hands. “All that said, it’s your call. Keep up the pointless defiance and suffer before you confess, or give in right now, and save yourself the pain. What do you say?”

The assassin bit his lip. He shook his head. “I—I’ll never give in! I…”

Oz sighed. “You know, I don’t like inflicting pain. Especially not to children. But if you insist…” He gestured over his shoulder at Linnea, tossing her a wink at the same time. You know what to do, right?

Linnea frowned, then paused. Her eyes lit up. She walked over, transforming as she came. Her form loomed high over the assassin.

He scurried back with a yelp, his breath coming short, heart pounding in his chest.

“You revealed my true form to everyone. I’ve been waiting for my chance at revenge…” she murmured, running one chain blade down the other. Sparks shot up from the metal. She licked her lips in anticipation, looking down at the boy.

“It—it—it was Professor Keane!” the boy cried, his back against the wall, eyes wide, whole body rigid with fear. “Professor Keane!”

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Oz shook his head. “We already knew that. The one who sent the powder. The other one who hired you.”

The boy’s brows furrowed. A second later, his eyes widened with realization. He glanced at Linnea, then swallowed.

Still doesn’t want to tell? Well, then. Oz waved. “Linnea, go ahead and take a nibble. I know you’re hungry.”

Taken aback, Linnea gave Oz a look.

Oz rolled his eyes. Just play along, okay? You’re the thing that goes thump in the night. He’s probably heard that demons are coming to eat him his whole life. Let’s lean into his fears.

The boy threw his arms over his head, completely curling into a ball. “The, the powder, the powder, the one who sent it was, Ce, Cecil Daggarty! Please don’t hurt me!”

“Cecil Daggarty?” Oz frowned. That douchebag? The one who yelled at me on the first day? Who mocked me at the party? Roan’s Master? He didn’t really strike me as the mastermind sort, but maybe that’s his game. Or maybe he’s working for someone else. We’ll see. For now, let’s keep an eye on Roan and his Master, and see what they concoct.

“Yes, I swear! I don’t know why he wanted me to use the powder, but he paid extra for it. The contract wasn’t very expensive, because I’m just an apprentice. He cornered me and paid me my contract price all over again to use that powder on Ossian,” the assassin blabbed.

Oz nodded at Linnea. She nodded back and transformed into her human form.

Turning back to the assassin, he cocked his head. “You don’t know anything else?”

The assassin shook his head. He sniffed, fighting back tears. “No. I don’t know anything else. I’m the lowest disciple in the Black Blades. I’m the cheapest contract on the docket. I couldn’t ask him any questions. All I could do was agree and do my best. And then, and then, since I’m a failure of an assassin, I figured all I could do was do this right, and die after I failed, but I couldn’t even die right…”

Oz rubbed his face. Right. He’s a kid. And I just deliberately put him through some shit. I should’ve expected this. He put a hand on the kid’s back, showing him the wound on his other hand. “Hey, it’s okay. You did a good job. You even stabbed me pretty good, right?”

No, wait. Hold up. What the fuck am I doing? This kid poisoned the hell out of me, and I’m trying to make him feel better about himself?

Okay, so the poisoning wasn’t really the kid’s fault. He was the agent of larger political forces here. But even so, I think it’s fair to hold a little grudge. Right…?

The assassin stared at him, confused, angry, scared, a thousand different emotions flashing over his face.

Smiling, Oz patted him on the back again and stood. Maybe I should let someone else be the good cop. Leaving the kid behind, he walked over to Aisling and leaned in. “Can you go comfort him for a minute?”

Aisling’s brow furrowed. “Why?”

Oz took a deep breath. Can I say this without sounding like a manipulative douchebag? “We basically have two choices, right? Lock him in the library, or send him back out to the assassins. I don’t want to lock him up in here. Don’t really need to explain that one. No, I think we should send him back to the assassins.”

She frowned at him.

Before she could speak, Oz waved his hands. Still speaking quietly, he continued, “He succeeded, right? He did what everyone wanted. I don’t want them to know that I’m on top of things. That I can handle the poison Professor Keane inflicted on me without his help. That I know Cecil sent the dust. Better if everyone thinks I’m a useless idiot.

“But you know what’s even better? If we can get him on our side, so that the next time, when they send a more capable assassin, we get a heads-up from our friend in the assassin sect.”

Aisling squinted at him. After a moment, her furrowed brows un-creased. “So you want me to befriend him, because he’s scared of you.”

Oz nodded. “That’s… basically, yeah.”

She nodded. “I’ll do my best.”

Looking up, Oz met Linnea’s eyes and tipped his head backward. He exited the room, and she followed, closing the door behind her. “You wanted me?”

“Well, wanted you out of the room, yeah. Let’s give Aisling a minute to get on his good side,” Oz said, shrugging.

Linnea raised her brows. She nodded. “How very human of you.”

Oz gave her a look. “So much for not holding a grudge.”

Linnea snorted. “I learned how to lie from you humans.”

“Damn, next thing, you’re gonna be blaming the weather on humans, too.”

“There are mages who can control the weather,” Linnea commented thoughtfully.

Oz rolled his eyes.

She snorted. “I’m just giving you a hard time.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Oz glanced into the window, at the pill room beyond. Backed into the corner, the assassin gave Aisling an uncertain look. He grimaced. I’m not sure this is going to work. It’s worth the effort, though. Can’t hurt to try!