The Lost Voice

by V. St. Clair

  “Ha, I’m not stupid enough to waste my time trying. You’d let me do anything to you before you gave up information on her.”

  Damn. He’d been hoping Kristoff was foolish enough to approach him, because his only chance of winning was in close combat.

  “If it were up to me, I’d have cut your throat by now, but others want you kept alive.” Kristoff looked like he regretted Topher’s continued existence deeply. “For now.”

  “How many others are working with you?” Topher pressed.

  “Wouldn’t you like to know?” Kristoff grinned.

  If only he was a little bit dumber…

  “Do you already have her in captivity?” Topher asked, almost against his will. He couldn’t bear to ask if they had already killed her, since he had no illusions about them keeping Jessamine alive once they isolated her.

  “Not yet. But soon,” Kristoff admitted. “We had to get you out of the way first, since you never leave her alone. I hear she doesn’t even sleep alone, these days.” He looked inquisitive, but Topher wasn’t going to rise to his bait.

  “I have no idea who she spends her nights with,” Topher insisted in his most neutral voice.

  For a moment Kristoff looked disappointed, but then he brightened.

  “Oh right, that reminds me.” A truly evil smile lit Kristoff’s face now. “I met your mother recently.”

  Topher blinked. Of all the things he had expected Kristoff to say, this was completely from left field. A knot of fear tightened in his chest.

  “Oh?” he asked in a voice completely void of expression, falling back on the lessons his mother taught him. Contain your feelings or others will use them against you. Let them mistake your coolness for power.

  “Yes, what was her name again? Lisa?” He paused to savor the moment. “You actually look a lot like her,” Kristoff continued airily. “Here we’ve been kicking ourselves trying to find Hera for the better part of a decade, and all I had to do was take a trip to your old childhood home.”

  A spike of fear pulsed through Topher.

  He knows.

  “I must say, it was well worth the trip. Stabbing her was almost as pleasant as stabbing you will surely be. I’ve been vying for the pleasure of killing you when we finally are allowed to, though it’s a popular request so it might end up being a group effort.”

  Topher was silent.

  She’s dead. My mother is dead.

  He didn’t even care about the threat to himself, though Kristoff plainly wanted him to be terrified of being murdered. Topher had always known there were people eager to end him, so Kristoff admitting it aloud wasn’t particularly new or frightening.

  My mother…

  There was a chance Kristoff was lying. He could just be messing with Topher to torment him, knowing he couldn’t check on his mother. But how would he know his mother was Hera?

  Her entire network is at risk if they got any information out of her house. That’s probably what Ana was calling to tell me…

  If only he had answered her before opening that stupid door.

  “And to think—we only knew where to find her after tracing all of your call histories and seeing a call for an ambulance from Reya to her house.” He spared Topher a winning smile as horror blanketed the latter’s face.

  Reya only called the ambulance to her house because she thought I was ill. My mother is dead because of me…

  “Well, I’m off. Things to do, empires to overthrow. You wait here.” He gave Topher a winning smile that made Topher want to rip his eyes out. Just before Kristoff reached the door Topher said, “Where are we? How did you find an old-fashioned dungeon in Silveria? Or have we left the city?”

  Kristoff looked truly wicked when he said, “We’re in the basement.”

  “The basement?” Topher asked, confused. “The basement of what?”

  “Of the Augenspire.”

  Topher shook his head.

  “The Augenspire has never had a basement. We put that out there to convince people we keep our secret prisons underground so no one thinks to target two-eighty-one. Everyone in the building knows it’s all smoke and mirrors.”

  Kristoff raised his eyebrows and said, “Surprise,” laughing as he walked out and shut the door behind him.

  Topher slumped back against the wall, completely at a loss. His mother was dead, her entire network may be compromised, Jessamine’s enemies were circling all around her and Topher was helpless to stop it because he was locked in a basement that was never supposed to exist. He was beginning to wish the ethryn they gave him was lethal.

  I will stay with you until the end.

  At this point, even the voice in his head was of some comfort to him. Topher blinked and said, “Until the end of what?”

  The voice seemed to consider something for a moment before finally answering.

  Of everything. It is over. You failed.