Michination by Ella Summers

Author:Ella Summers [Summers, Ella]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Fantasy
Published: 2015-09-10T23:00:00+00:00

12. Extraction

526AX July 28, Orion

SILAS WAS NOT in the habit of hanging people by their ankles out of third floor windows—not unless they really needed it. But lisping Larix most definitely needed it. He had been a stuttering ball of nervousness as Ambrose’s personal assistant, but he sure was singing freely now. He shrieked and screamed and flailed his arms uselessly about as Silas waited for the dam of memories to break loose. He wanted to know what had happened that night. Short one Prior, the next best thing was to scare Larix witless and then scrape the raw thoughts from his head. That’s basically how extraction worked.

Silas loosened his grip, allowing Larix’s leg to slide through his fingers, then quickly clamped back down on the ankle before he could fall. Larix yelped, then began to sob.

“Sorry about that. Hand cramp.”

Three paces behind Silas, Leonidas shifted his weight uncomfortably. He knew it was Leonidas by the distinctive creak of the unbroken leather loafers he was wearing. And Silas knew he was uncomfortable because he had twice hung the spy out of a window in just the same way.

Beside Leonidas, Marin’s fingers tapped and skated across her computer tablet. She had met their return to the ‘civilized’ realm of Orion with the enthusiasm of a starving man welcomed into a buffet. She had not put that device down since their brief stop at her apartment eight hours ago.

No sound betrayed Ariella besides the light purr of her breathing. It had taken them a lot longer to get back to Orion than Silas had hoped, but those weeks fleeing Avans and finding their way toward a portal had done her a lot of good. The time out of the city had grounded her, calming the nerves that had been building up since they’d set foot on the airship. She had remained calm even as the White Ravens attempted—unsuccessfully—to snare them at the city’s edge.

A jolt shot through Silas’s arm, rippling goosebumps across his skin. It was followed by a second. And a third. Larix’s mind was about to crack, and Silas had to be ready. He hooked his free hand around one of the metal bars that made up the balcony railing, bracing himself for the impact. And not a moment too soon. A fourth jolt hit him with the force of a falling tree, nearly bringing him to his knees. He blinked, and when his eyelids lifted again, he was no longer in Larix’s apartment.

Ambrose Selpe, his clothes smeared like smudges across a watercolor canvas, stood still at the opposite end of an equally blurry room. Silas looked him over. The man before him was a mere shadow of the emperor he had served, an imperfect recollection from Larix’s turbulent mind. Looming in the shadows with arms crossed was the emperor’s bodyguard. Except that Silas’s features had been exaggerated. He was so tall that his head of orange hair—made of actual flames—licked the ceiling with sizzling cracks. His face and body were hidden in shadow, but his white eyes shone out of the darkness like a demonic cat.

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