Storm of Shadows (Lumineers 1)

CHAPTER 21: THE TRUTH

"You fucking piece of shit!" Tabby hissed, baring her teeth, pressing the dagger more firmly against Steiner's flesh, daring him to prove her right. "It's you, isn't it?! Light! How did I miss it?!"

With a single, swift movement, he grabbed her wrists and flung her around, locking her arms behind her. Pain laced through her leg. Her wounds screamed. She cried out, shuddering. The room swam in and out of focus.

Steiner's hand splayed across her stomach, drawing her against him. She realized she was shaking, from anger, from pain, from the loss of blood. He moved in a way that the Steiner she knew shouldn't be capable of. But this wasn't the Steiner she knew, was it?

"Tabby, Tabby, Tabby." His voice was a gentle caress against her ear. "So easy to manipulate. All it took was some rather good acting on my part."

It took every bit of strength, but she slammed the heel of her boot into his toes and freed herself. He didn't fight back, didn't bother coming after her as she flung herself across the room to glare at him.

"You'd better get that leg taken care of before you pass out," was all he said. Calm. Collected. The complete opposite of what she felt raging inside her.

She stood, chest heaving. Every breath was an effort. Something sailed through the air. Her reactions were slow as she watched it. A lump of white prism landed on the floor beside her, nearly as large as her fist. She blinked down at it, not quite believing. "I'd rather you not drop dead in my study," he added.

It was massive, bigger than she could have imagined any white prism might be.

Sneering, she stepped up beside it and lifted her hand, pulling light from where she stood. Warmth spread through her leg as her skin began to absorb what it needed to heal. She gasped with relief. As soon as she removed the tourniquet, bullet shards fell to the floor and her skin closed up. She fixed her other wounds next. Her breathing returned to normal.

When she finished, she picked up the prism, looked it over, and tossed it to him. Flung it at him, more like, hoping it would slam him in the face. "You lied to me."

"Lied?" He reached out and caught it, effortless, his movements quick and precise, before slipping it into his pocket. "No. I simply didn't give you everything."

"But I drove a dagger through your ribs. You—you just let me kill you."

"I don't feel very dead." He looked down at himself, making a show of it. "I don't look very dead, either."

She took deep breaths, suppressing her rage. "You know exactly what I mean."

He shrugged and strode to his desk, moving so much more like a Spect than she had ever seen him, like he'd shed all pretenses and no longer cared. There wasn't a shred of clumsiness in his actions. The Steiner she knew didn't exist—never had. She shook her head, still struggling. "You played me. Used me. Was this all a ploy to test my loyalty to the Spectrum? To corner me? Do you even know the identity of my father? Or were you lying about that, too?"

"I know exactly who your father is." He challenged her with his gaze, waited for her to contradict him. She didn't. So he continued. "What I am—who I am—changes nothing. We proceed forward as planned. Look at it this way, you've got one fewer council member to hunt down and torture."

"Fucking prick!" She hissed, resisting the urge to lunge for him. Instead, she clenched and unclenched her fists. Control. He'd controlled her. Manipulated her, just like the Spectrum. She still held a dagger in her other hand. She considered how quickly she might burry it in his neck.

"Put it away," he drawled, eying the blade, reading her intentions easily enough.

"I liked the old Steiner better," she spat. The old Steiner made her feel powerful, impressive. This one just made her feel small—because of what he was, more than anything.