The Master and The Marionette (The Pawn and The Puppet series Book 2)

We travel halfway to Demechnef headquarters, a.k.a. one of the two Emerald Lake mountains behind the asylum. Dessin stops us. He’s having a heavy argument within his own head. He closes his eyes and turns his neck, like he’s enduring a high-pitched sound that’s painful to his ears.

“What’s the holdup?” Niles sets his pack down to sit on.

Dessin snaps his fingers at Niles like a parent would to scold a child without causing a scene. “Another word out of the contentious little prince and I’ll sew his mouth shut.”

Niles raises his eyebrows. I mouth the words, he’s done it before!

I wait patiently at his side, sensing the retaliatory anger coming off in clouds of steam from his skin. I can only imagine the amounts of pressure he’s under. Pressure to appease Kane, protect Kane, make sure nothing bad ever happens to Kane, protect me, protect my friends, save DaiSzek, follow his carefully curated plan he’s constructed for years. I can see it swelling inside of him like a cancerous tumor, eating away at the good cells he needs to remain healthy.

I let my hand follow its desires and reach out to him. I move slowly, like the first time I touched DaiSzek, careful not to scare him away. My index fingertip touches his palm, a knock on the door of his humanity. He doesn’t move, doesn’t make an effort to meet me halfway. So, I slide my hand within the strong, larger-than-average hand attached to Dessin. My fingers interlace with his fingers, clutching him with any comfort I can send his way.

He looks down at our hands, takes deep and controlled breaths. His close-set, dark-mahogany eyes flicker up to mine with a disarming sigh.

“I had every intention of dropping you all off at a safe location,” he says to Ruth, Chekiss, and Niles. “But Kane is insisting on bringing you lot along for the ride.”

Ruth tightens her lips together in an excited smile.

“But I have a few rules that need to be followed. What I say is the law. No questioning my judgment, making your own decisions on how situations need to be handled, and no trying to be the hero. Skylenna does that enough for everyone.”

He’s still bitter. Good to know.

“I’m going to make a deal with Demechnef’s leader that will keep all of us safe and exempt you all from their cruel methods. With that being said, if you all insist on standing at Skylenna’s side… I want you three to train for war. Demechnef wants me for a reason. Everything in Kane’s life they put him through is to create a human nuclear bomb. They want me to end the war they have with Vexamen. And now that the Vexamen Breed has discovered and captured one of my weaknesses, I have no choice but to help Demechnef put them down.”

A pit of silence hangs between the five of us. No one knows how to respond to him. Niles normally would, but he fears Dessin will make good on his word and sew his mouth shut.

“I’m going to give you three one last chance to walk away. If you decide to stay, above all else, I need your loyalty.”

My three friends exchange glances, coming to a wordless agreement.

“You wouldn’t last a day without me.” Warrose grins, walking past Dessin.

“I’m in,” Chekiss says, then nods to me. “We’re family.”

Niles smiles. “I’m clearly a tumor you can’t get rid of. Count me in.”

Ruth glances between Dessin and me, swallowing down her fear. “Family.”