Page 97 of Son of a Witch

Crinkles creased her eyes at her smile. “I’ll be fine. Go.”

At that, she let me go, and I hurried out to the booth, getting Johnstone’s attention. “Call Tor down here.”

This time I wouldn’t fail. I would get answers for my team.

Johnstone gave me a lazy eyebrow of boredom. Asshole was lucky the other sentries were killed otherwise he’d be out of a job. “Where is he?”

“Watch Tower.” I tapped waiting for the guard to patch through the call and hang up the phone. “Thanks.”

I didn’t want to stick around longer than necessary and moved away from the booth. Tension in my shoulders hiked as I paced the corridor until Tor arrived.

“What’s up, boss man?” Tor swaggered up to me, swaying a little, taking longer than we predicted to adjust to his device. Or maybe this was the best he’d ever get.

“Where’s Astra?” I growled.

“Relax.” Tor threw an arm over me. “She’s with P-Man and Loco.”

“Good.” I patted him on the chest. “Come on, I need your help.” I jerked my head, gesturing for him to come with me.

“Prisoner won’t talk?” He grinned, catching onto my line of thinking, which we used multiple times before on difficult gantii.

“Yep.” I looped my arm around his waist to hold him steady on his feet.

Tor clapped his hands and rubbed his palms. “Fucking A!” He thumped me on the shoulders. “Bring it on, bitches!”

Metal groaned as the door swung open and we entered the cell block.

Tor leaned on the section of bars not electrified with enough current to stop a human’s heart. “James, buddy. What’d you do to land in here?”

“Tor, that you?” James covered his eyes. “Turn the lights off, would you. My eyes are burning from the fucking electrocution your buddy treated me to.”

“Fucking Knoxe.” Tor thumped me on the arm. “He’s heavy-handed. You should try getting fucked by him. B.R.U.T.A.L.”

“Fuck, Tor!” James groaned and covered both his eyes. “I don’t wanna know.”

Selena’s gaze flew to the ceiling as if praying to get her out of there. That was Tor for you. He liked to fuck with people just like his powers did.

Magick crackled on the bars in response to him applying his powers of influence to make James think he switched the light off. “There you go, bud. That better?”

Tor had a friendly, amicable way about him lurking over his dark lust for revenge for James turning on him.

The prisoner groaned his appreciation and removed his palms from his face, blinking. “Thanks, man. That’s better.”

“Now listen, bud.” Tor braced his elbow on the cell bar in a casual stance that screamed anything but vengeful. “I need to ask you something.”

“Yeah, Tor, anything.” Fucking brilliant. Tor’s magick inspired a one-eighty in James’ compliance.

Some gantii were easy to trick like dumb trolls and squid. Vampires and Lycans were more cunning and resisted initially, sirens tough bastards to crack. Fae damn near impossible to slide into their mind unless they were weaker. Humans not as much. Depended on their conviction and frame of mind.

In James’ case, he knew he was fucked. I read it in the despair in his eyes. Still, he wouldn’t rat on his allies. That was where Tor came in to make his mind pliable and obedient to extract what we wanted.

“Remember that time you stole Astra’s gift? The Assassin’s Creed statue?” Tor held out his palms. “Don’t worry, bud, all’s forgiven. I just wanna know who you sold it to.”

Fuck me. I pinched the bridge of my nose. Off track first thing. I glared at Tor. Couldn’t he wait until after we were done?

Selena watched him with drawn brows, probably wondering where he was going with this. This was my one chance to impress and use my team’s skills for success.

James let out a relieved breath. “Thanks for being so forgiving, Tor. I don’t deserve it. That was low of me.”

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