The Pawn and The Puppet (The Pawn and The Puppet series Book 1)

Before I sneak over to Meridei’s dining party, I have one more person to visit.

I open the big wooden doors into the main council meeting room. This spacious area has always reminded me of a church, with rib vault archways, paintings of angelic children, hardwood floors, windows made of stained glass, and gas lamps keeping the room lit in every corner. And one man that waits for me to enter upon an individual request.

“Ms. Ambrose, please have a seat.” Judas is the only one here today, elegantly eating his steak with broccoli at a long rectangular dark cherry teakwood dining table. I sit down and take a sip of a glass of water in front of me.

“How was your visit with the retired conformist I sent you to?” he asks.

I fidget in my seat. Until this moment, I forgot about Lynn.

“It was fine, thank you.”

Judas sets his fork down, dabbing at his mouth and chin with a napkin. He exhales through his nose, releasing the air from deep in his chest.

“I knew of Dessin before he admitted himself into the asylum.” Judas shocks me with a new fact, like a surprise storm of hail, and I brace myself. “I had heard of tales of the man that could walk through fire, execute an entire army with his bare hands, and who exists without a weakness.”

I open my mouth to speak, but Judas holds his hand up.

“Much of that had to be theatrical folklore, but as you can imagine, there are many waiting to obtain him. To use him. And after reading through your session notes, I’ve calculated that the two of you understand one another on a different level. Perhaps that changes the course of events that will happen for him. My question to you is… Are you prepared to stay with him—through the journey he will endure?”

He sets his very expensive pen down by his notepad and steeples his fingers together.

Deep down, in the center of my fascination for Dessin, I’ve known that meeting him and knowing him and understanding him is only the beginning. I’ve opened up a locked door to the world, revealing only a corner of the universe he has had to live in. But I can’t imagine that after ninety days, I could ever leave him. My story is now entwined with his, fused together with every fiber.

“I won’t leave him.”

Judas smiles and squints his eyes at me with concern. The small wrinkles around the corners of his lashes form closer. “Ms. Ambrose,” he leans forward and speaks in hushed tones. “You are a noble young woman.”

I release a long breath. “Why are you so different from the others on the council?”

He readjusts his notepad and folders, tapping them gently on the table.

“Let’s just say I am looking at a bigger picture.”