Free Of the Knowledge of Good and Evil by Micah Persell

Knowledge told me you were … good .”
    Dahlia stopped chewing. Her brows crashed down over her incredible eyes, and she tilted her head.
    Jericho waited several seconds, hoping for … God, he didn’t know whether he wanted her to confirm that she was evil or just the opposite. His brain was so muddled from her presence in the room.
    When she just continued to stare at him, Jericho grew frustrated. “Well, which are you, Dahlia,” he snapped. “Good or evil? The fruit’s told me both, and it’s confusing the hell out of me.”
    She rolled her eyes. “Sorry to be such an inconvenience.” She went back to her breakfast.
    Jericho made a noise of distress once he figured out she wasn’t going to answer his question.
    She sighed. “It’s my opinion that evil is what you do, not who you are,” she said slowly, as though talking to an idiot.
    Jericho frowned. That made … sense. Testing on the fruit so far was inconclusive. They knew that each time a test subject had skin contact with someone, something whispered good or evil . But they hadn’t run enough tests to know if the Knowledge was telling them if the person was good or evil or their intentions. Dahlia’s hypothesis fit the findings.
    He felt like growling. Why the hell did he have to make this discovery outside of a lab and in a pressing situation? If he didn’t know if she was good or evil, how did he know he was doing the right thing by taking her back? He didn’t know enough of her history to know if she was really a murderer or not.
    Her jaw had started moving again as she continued to chew her food, and before he knew it, his eyes were riveted to her moist lips. Her tongue darted out to lick her bottom lip, and then she lifted another fork full of food to her mouth. Her eyes closed in bliss as she slid the fork between her lips.
    Jericho bit back a groan at the same time he came up with a brilliant idea. He could touch her again. He could touch her thousands of times. And then he could average the good and evil reads until he had an idea of where she stood. His palms were sliding across the table to her side before he realized he was a freaking idiot.
    “I have to take you back,” he blurted. The sensual haze clouding his mind evaporated instantly.
    Dahlia didn’t argue. She just got a look of steel in her eyes. “That wasn’t the deal. I won’t leave him without a fight.”
    Jericho floundered. Something inside of him refused to drag this woman away from her child. What made it worse was Jericho desperately wanted to be in her situation: with a living son to fight for.
    He straightened as he remembered her earliest attempt to persuade him against his mission. “Is he your life-or-death situation?” Maybe she hadn’t been shoveling him a steaming pile of bull in that train closet.
    Dahlia averted her eyes and shifted in her seat, but she didn’t answer him. Which, in a way, was its own answer. An answer that might change things.
    Help her , the Voice whispered to him.
    Jericho did his best not to react, but the unexpected intercession of the Voice jolted him. The Voice had never led him wrong before, not for over eight years. He looked at Dahlia again. She hadn’t moved in her silent challenge of him, and he had to admire her for it. She just sat there resolute. He wouldn’t move her without hurting her, and even the passing thought of putting his hands on her in violence made him sick.
    But in the end, he couldn’t forget his orders. His job. And her nature. He was sliding down a slippery slope with this woman.
    He shook his head at her. Fine. He would find out this other information, and then he would be taking her back immediately, promise or not — it was the only decision he could make and still know who he was. He watched as her eyes got even more flinty. Jericho swallowed past the sick feeling in his throat. Why didn’t he feel like he was making the right decision?
    Dahlia nodded at him once and then got up from the table to