Page 49 of Mindeater

Squatting down, he uses his rifle to lift the necklace around Saren’s neck. I watch him read the text. “Saren Ashford, huh? The…Maven? Boss, you can’t be serious.”

“Do I look like I’m joking?”

“How do you know he can’t fuck you up?”

I hesitate. Kane notices. “I just do.”

“Mavens are supposed to be the top of the food chain. The ultimate mindeater.”

“I know that.”

“Well? You can’t bring that into the camp. There are kids!”

Snapping my eyes to him, I growl, “I’m well aware. I can handle him. No one touches him. No one goes near him.”

“Even with the elixir…I don’t know it’ll work on him.”

“Guess we’ll find out.”

“You’ll have to touch him.”

My jaw flexes. “I’m aware.”

“Without gloves.”

“Get it all out; why don’t you?” I toss my gun over my shoulder and fold my arms.

He blows out a rough breath and stands. “We can’t lose you, Aryx.” His brown eyes plead with me. End it now. Stop all risk to our people.

And any other time I would agree. Any other time, with a Telex like this, I’d have already killed it. But…this isn’t someone else. It’s Saren Ashford. Maven of New Grove. The one place I need to find and can’t get to. I wish I could fucking remember. Wish I wasn’t…this.

The gaps in time are just too wide to bridge. Bits and pieces of a puzzle that’ll never be made whole again. And worse of all, I know that somewhere along the way, this man got me to trust him. I still don’t understand how he did it. Maybe I’m not immune to Telex mastery after all. Maybe he’s the one who can finally eat my mind. But if there’s even a chance he’ll tell me what I need to know, I have to try.

For my people.

For the oppressed.

For Salem.

“Tell the others to get to work on flipping that truck. No one goes near him.” I bend and pick Saren up, tossing his limp body over my shoulder. “Do it, Kane.”

“Yes, boss,” he grumbles.

***

There’s a sick satisfaction swirling in my gut as I push the plunger down, watching the glistening blue liquid leave the syringe and enter Saren’s bloodstream. He’s going to feel like shit when he wakes up. We have never tested our secret weapon on someone this powerful before. It’ll be a good experiment no matter what. It could kill him, but I doubt it.

Evil is hard to kill—I should know.

Once it’s all injected, I open his cage and toss him inside. We had to scramble to get something set up for his confinement, but it’ll do. It’s far enough away from everyone that I’m confident as long as they follow the rules, they’ll be safe from his influence. Taking one last look, I turn and leave the tent.

Almost as if she heard my fucking thoughts, I run into a tiny body holding a canteen. “Kaya,” I sigh, palming her thin shoulders and turning her right around.

“He’s going to need water,” she whines, digging her booted heels into the snow.

“And you need to stay far, far away from this tent.”

“Buttface.”