Page 117 of Echoes of War

I’d left to check on Amaia only once. I didn’t want to come back to her empty-handed, but it was killing me to know she was suffering alone. She’d barely glanced up from the bistro set near the window when I entered her room. One look in her eyes and I could tell she was planning, plotting, envisioning. She wasn’t tumbling into the depths of her emotions, heading to another depressive spiral, at least not yet. I’d left her with a kiss to the forehead, promising the next time she saw me, I’d have what she needed.

Riley had a few more minutes of trying things his way, then I fully intended on keeping that promise.

Five minutes passed, and I pushed to my feet. The earth stopped spinning as Riley studied me curiously. I offered him a hand up, waiting as he put his food tray down, and took it, waiting for what I had to say.

“Times up,” I said.

He sighed, eyes boring into the poor soul now hunched over peering at us, hoping for mercy. “Your way it is then,” he agreed.

I smirked, cracking my knuckles. Walking to the metal tray on the opposite wall, I unraveled my toolkit. To some extent, it was exciting being able to use my new toys. I’d left my old kit behind in St. Cloud, but Amaia had given me permission to grab whatever I needed from the armory room. Of course, I’d had to borrow a few items from Reina’s medical supplies too. She said she didn’t want them back from whatever I was about to do, but they were really nice. I didn’t understand why she wouldn’t miss them. Oh well, her loss was my gain.

“Take a seat in the doctor’s chair,” I said, patting the metal chair that remained knocked over on the ground. The soldier glared at me, fear overtaking him as his body trembled. He made no movement toward me. “You can walk here on your own volition, or I can drag you here. Regardless, your ass better be sat in the next few seconds, or I’m going to be irrationally upset.”

He wobbled over, pulling the chair upright while keeping his eyes on me. It wasn’t as if he had a choice. I didn’t ever see myself playing along in my own death, but I guess some of us had a stronger will than others.

“You made my lady sad, you know,” I said, pulling two pliers in front of my face, gauging if I wanted to use the tooth puller or nail gripper first.

“Ididn’t do anything,” the soldier tried to reason, sweat pouring down his face. “I’m not responsible for what that monster does.”

“That’s where you’re wrong my friend. A soldier is nothing more than a pawn to the king, whether the soldier knows it or not, is up for debate. Nevertheless, a pawn is a pawn. Disposable.” Dropping the pliers, my finger pressed to the tip of a seven-inch blade, blood pooling out. I licked it, then squeezed out some more,smearing it across his face. He grimaced under my touch. “The thing about pawns is that they do all the dirty work for the benefit of the king. Now, that may be bad news to the pawn, because I agree, they don’t knoweverything, they just do as they’re told. Keeping that in mind, there’s so many pawns that play so many roles that it’s impossible for them to not be aware of each other’s actions. The moves they are making. You don’t have the full picture but you have pieces of it. Pieces that I need to know to keep the Mrs. happy.”

He opened his mouth to speak, but I cut him off with the blade pressed to his throat. “I know you’re going to claim you know nothing again, but do know this: I used to be a pawn on two very different ends of the spectrum of evil. That’s why I don’t accept your non-answer answers.”

“Whatever you do to me here is nothing compared to what Moore will do if he finds out I talked,” he gulped out.

I laughed like a maniac in his face. “No fucking way you still think you’ll ever see sunlight again, let alone outside these walls. You can’t be serious.” Riley joined me in my laughter and I turned to face him, thumb jabbing out as to saycan you believe this guy?

The soldier’s eyes widened, scanning the room for fucking help, finding none. “It doesn’t matter. Whatever he can’t do to me, he’ll do it to my family instead. They’ll be tortured, or killed, or worse … sent to the Outskirts. Go ahead and kill me. I’m not telling you people shit.”

I didn’t know what any of that meant, and I wasn’t in the business of caring. “Everybody talks in the end. Guess I’ll have to do my worst and see if you still feel that way.”

Grabbing hold of his hair, I snapped his head back. The moment he yelped, my pliers latched onto his tooth. Yanking back, his tooth fell to the floor, the sound of it muted by his screams. By the time his bottom row was cleared out, I was growing tired of any noise other than the words I wanted to hear.

“Keep screaming and I’ll give you something to scream about,” I ground out.

He went silent after that, his face turning red as he fought off even a whimper.Strong little asshole.Lucky for him, I’d had a lot of practice over the years. Everyone had a breaking point.

I dropped the smaller pliers to the ground, fingers skimming over my next item of joy. “Change your mind? I can give you something to chew over if you need a moment?”

The soldier spat out at me, slimy blood splattered across my face. Which pissed me the fuck off. I didn’t mind the blood, but I did mind the disrespect. I was doing my job, something a fellow soldier should understand, given the bullshit he was spouting.

“Ahh,” I sighed, “guess not. I figured. You look famished. Let me help you out with that.”

Riley tossed me the pouch from where I was sitting earlier, the contents inside jiggling. I searched his face for fear only to find encouragement in its place. Relief poured over me. I was in my element right now, but a small, hidden part of me cared about the only possible friend I had, being scared of what he saw. The monster that made the people of The Expanse lock their doors at night.

I pried the man’s jaw open, dumping the glass shards inside into his mouth then shutting it closed. “Open up for the choo-choo train,” I cackled, catching the bottle of water Riley threw my way next. “Thirsty? Here, something to help it go down.”

His screams were harder to contain as I poured salted lemon water down his cut up throat. It burned going down, I knew first hand. Finley had done it to me the first and last time I’d been sloppy in one of the assignments. For months, the Bloodhound was a myth. Then, with a singular fuckup, came proof and a finger able to be pointed directly at St. Cloud.

Blood poured from his mouth now. He whimpered, and I pressed my ear near his face to hear what he had to say. Honestly,it was my mistake for naively trusting. With the few teeth he had left, he clamped down on my ear, tearing some of the flesh from the bottom and spitting it toward me with a cackle.

Riley lunged at him. I grabbed onto his collar holding him off. Pain didn’t bother me. Not anymore. At least not the physical kind. This was nothing compared to what I could do to him. Besides, an eye for an eye and all that. Or an ear.

When both of his ears had been sliced from his face, I wiped my knife off. Sitting down next to him as I sewed them back on upside down. “Sorry about that,” I whispered to him. “I go a touch too far when I’m having fun.”

He was heaving now, nearing the end of the amount of pain he could take. Which was perfect considering we were now twenty-four hours in and at the end of the time we had too.

“I’m going to give you three options before I get violent, soldier.” I grinned at him knowing he was about to become my prey. “We can start with your fingernails. I know, I know, that doesn’t sound too bad, but I assure you, it’s pretty painful. There’s also my favorite pastime, a little flaying here and there, some salt in the wound. You know, old-fashioned. I’m pretty talented with a knife, tell him, Riley.” I said, waving my knife in his face.

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