Page 4 of Midnight Star

“I do care,” I tell him, determination rushing through me as I focus on the dark angel’s throat, constricting the air around it just enough to make it difficult—but not impossible—for her to breathe.

Ghost prowls closer to me as I do, pressing against my leg in an offer of support.

Riven might hate me, but at least Ghost still cares.

“We’re not here for games,” Riven says as the dark angel gasps for air. “We’re here for answers. And if you don’t start giving them, I’ll make you wish you had.”

I increase the pressure, and she gasps again, sharper this time.

I hate this. I hatemyselffor being capable of doing it.

But it’s what I have to do. For Zoey.

“Release your hold,” Riven commands me. “Let her speak.”

I do, and the dark angel narrows her eyes at me, as if she’s challenging me.

“Your friend could be anywhere,” she says, and I tighten my grip around the hilt of my dagger at her obvious non-answer.

Riven responds by sending ice crystals crawling up her neck, stopping just short of breaking skin. “Answer the question,” he demands.

“You’re weak,” she says instead. “Both of you.Especially you, little hybrid. Too scared to embrace what you truly are.”

Her words hit that feeling I’ve been trying to push down since drinking from the first dark angel I encountered at the ravine.

The feeling I think might befear.Of myself.

“I don’t know what I am,” I say, and this time when I gather water and send it toward her face, I don’t just splash her. I hold it in a globe around her head, drowning her in it, watching as her chest stops moving as she tries to not breathe in.

According to Riven, breathing underwater is a tough skill for even the strongest water wielders to master. I imagine it’s close to impossible for one who’s already weakened.

She flails her head around, but it’s no use. The sphere is so large that she can’t escape.

“Enough,” Riven says, and I release my hold on my magic, letting the water splash to the floor.

The dark angel opens and closes her mouth like a dying fish.

“Where’s Zoey?” Riven demands again.

“Even if I told you,” she says through gritted teeth, “you’d never make it there alive.”

Riven doesn’t flinch. “We’ll take that chance,” he says simply, and the ice shards along her arms press deeper,as if they’re trying to squeeze the answers out of her until she pops.

She doesn’t give in. Even after continuing like this for hours, she remains as evasive as she was from the start. And, to make it worse for her, she eventually heals from every injury we inflict, which allows us to keep starting the torture from the beginning.

“Wait,” she finally says, her eyes glazed with exhaustion. “Perhaps we can negotiate.”

I release my hold on my magic, relief flooding my bones. Because as much as I’ve been trying to hide it, hurting this woman is causing me another type of pain. The pain of knowing I’ll never be able to wipe what we’re doing to her from my mind, for as long as I live.

Sure, she’s a monster, but her cries have been disturbinglyhuman.

Riven’s startlingly unaffected, but I don’t know how much longer it’ll be until I break from the brutality of it all.

“We’re listening,” he says coolly, not sparing a glance back at me.

The dark angel’s chest heaves as she catches her breath. “I’ll answer your questions,” she says. “But I want assurances.”

“You’re not exactly in a position to make demands,” I point out.

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