Liberating Fight by Melissa McShane

Author:Melissa McShane [McShane, Melissa]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Melissa McShane

Chapter 17

In which Amaya learns a terrible truth

“Coerced?” Amaya’s mouth fell open. It was not at all what she had expected. “What lie is this?”

Don Balthasar’s hand closed over the chair back. She would have suspected him afraid if his demeanor were not so confident, as if he were not facing death. “Do not feel ashamed,” he said. “Coercion is impossible to fight.”

“I have not been Coerced.” Amaya took two steps toward Don Balthasar. “You intend to make me doubt—that is impossible. I know what you have done to the innocents of Spain.”

“This is a hard time, and we must do hard things. As I am certain you know.” Don Balthasar shrugged. “Believe me, or not. But I am a Discerner, and we are immune to Coercion. I know when a Coercer uses his talent. And I know Valencia uses his pet Extraordinary Coercer, whoever that is, to reinforce his charismatic speeches. You are not the first to fall under his sway.”

“You cannot prove that,” Amaya said in a low voice. Her instincts were screaming at her to kill this man, to end his lies. And yet, was it not peculiar that she and Edmund had changed their minds so thoroughly about helping Valencia? Had she not felt a powerful desire to fight for him, like no emotion she had felt before? She wet her lips, which were dry, and said, “No one has Coerced me to kill you. That is all my own choice.”

“I realize I cannot dissuade you,” Don Balthasar said. Now he sounded weary, as if he had ridden all day without rest, and he gestured with his free hand in a dismissive fashion. “But you are remarkable. No assassin has got this far before. I should not admire you, since you intend my death, but I find it sickeningly wrong that one such as you should be so foully influenced. Better you kill me cleanly than because you have been manipulated to it.”

Amaya’s breathing came too rapidly, and her heart pounded as if her body was preparing to flee. “Impossible,” she said. “I am not—I would have known—”

“No, you would not.” Don Balthasar sounded pitying. “No one ever does. It is why Coercers are evil, taking one’s will and one’s very heart.”

His pity enraged Amaya. Anger surged within her, and she leaped at him, claws and teeth bared. Don Balthasar made no move to step away. She shoved him against the wall, pressing her claws against his throat and punching him hard in the chest to knock the wind out of him. While he gasped, she said, “I am no man’s tool.”

“Prove it,” Don Balthasar wheezed. “Kill me in fury. It will break the Coercion.”

Amaya released him and stepped back a pace. “What?”

Don Balthasar bent double, gasping for breath. “Coercion cannot stand in the face of some other strong emotion. A different Coercion, perhaps, but also real hatred or fear or even love. The body cannot sustain both at once.”

He looked up at Amaya, and smiled, a bitter expression.

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