Free Havoc by Ann Aguirre Page A

She said nothing. Instead, she counted in her head until the skin sealed, then she wiped away the red with her fingertips and offered him the blade. “Your turn.”
    â€œNo offense, queenie, but this isn’t my sort of thing. If this is what you want, you’d be better off with Tam.”
    â€œDid you want me to do it?” she asked softly.
    His blue gaze burned into hers. “Be gentle with me.”
    â€œI’ll do my best.” She sliced with the same delicacy she’d employed before, then she counted off, watching his forearm the whole time. It was slow enough that she couldn’t see the incremental improvements. When the wound closed, she shut her eyes.
    â€œWhat’s wrong?”
    â€œNot sure what it means,” she said, meeting his gaze, “but our healing rates are the same. I compared the seconds.”
    He actually took a step back. “I thought the side effects would fade.”
    â€œThey don’t seem to be,” she said.
    â€œYou think by . . . saving you, I also gave away half of my ability?”
    â€œPossibly. And I don’t think I can give it back.”
    â€œI wouldn’t let you bleed out for me anyway, love. You probably wouldn’t fall into a coma. You’d just die.”
    â€œThat’s one exit strategy.” Her voice was low.
    â€œI didn’t fight so hard for you to give up now. It’s better there are two of us anyway. We can do impossible things together.”
    â€œIs that how you see this playing out?”
    â€œI write my own ticket, always have. People don’t tell me how things end. I prefer to determine it for myself.” He shrugged back into his shirt. “And if it takes a day or two instead of hours to wipe this burn away, I can live with it.”
    â€œI wish you didn’t have to.” She wanted to wrap her arms around him and dig her hands into his pale hair.
    But she squelched those instincts even as his emotions seeped into her consciousness. Before her arrest, she’d only picked up darker impulses, nothing clean or bright, but incarceration had given her time to perfect and expand on what genetics had bestowed. Dred wasn’t trying to read him, but he was feeling something so strong, some memory, that it filled her head like a tsunami of blue. So much regret and sorrow, so much pain. It wasn’t like guilt, but lonelier. If she let herself, she could drown in it. Jael was like the dark water at the bottom of the deepest cave, where light had never shone. The other prisoners didn’t know she was Psi, and that was just as well. They’d riot in a heartbeat if they thought she was messing with their minds.
    He said somberly, “Ah, but wishing’s for innocents, love. People like us, we don’t get the shiny.”
    A thump on the door interrupted whatever she might’ve said. “The Speaker is here. He’s demanding an audience.”
    â€œWhat the hell does Silence want?” Dred snapped.
    But she strode out the door and stormed to the common room, where the revels had fallen silent. Damned Death’s Handmaiden, always thinking she could have whatever she demanded. After her failed power play, Dred hadn’t expected to hear anything from her for a while, but the Speaker stood waiting for his meeting with perfect composure. She wanted to stab him, but their problems were already big enough without going to open war with Silence.
    Now’s not the time.
    â€œWhat is it?” she demanded, omitting all courtesies.
    â€œYou’ve fortified Queensland. The Handmaiden will be reassured to hear that you fare well.”
    â€œI’m not in the mood for games. Say what you came to say or I kill you, shove your body down the chute, and tell the next messenger you must’ve died on the way back.”
    â€œShe would never believe you.”
    Dred smiled and took a step forward. “But you’ll still be dead.