She remembered her own fears and doubts just before the goddess had spoken to her. How she’d wished her Ability was something more impressive, like Shim’s super strength. And yet hers was perfect for her present situation, was it not?

Before she lost her nerve, she strode forward and fell to the floor. “Oh, Commander, you must believe me!” she wailed. “I merely arose early this morning to go for a stroll, but I swear on the Five that I didn’t leave until after dawn.”

“Liar!” Loris said, spit bubbling from his lips. “The nightdemon destroyed your room while you were gallivanting around town! That monster almost killed me!”

Everyone has secrets. They were words that Cintra had once said to her when Soraya was trying to understand what value her Ability could provide. She’d said it with a devious smile, which had made Soraya smile in turn. Now, she put that theory to the test, reaching up and grabbing the commander’s hand before he could pull away.

Everything went black before returning in flickering candlelight. She sat at a desk, writing names on a scroll. Except she wasn’t a she anymore but a he, Commander Kahn Destin, the pride of the small town he grew up in, Port Guard, because of his rapid ascent through the ranks of the Knightguard. The names he scrawled were those accused of sorcery in the last week alone. His informants had been busy, apparently. He wasn’t surprised, given how handsomely he paid them. And as for the names on his list, he planned to cross them out one at a time.

In fact, it would give him great pleasure to do so, for magic was an abomination to the world, an unnatural phenomenon that offended the gods Themselves.

A knock at his door drew his attention away from the list and a wicked smile to his face. He moved quickly, efficiently, sliding the chair beneath the table and striding to the door. He thrust it open, snaking a hand out and grabbing the figure on the other side around the waist, pulling her inside. Against him. Close enough to feel her through the fabric of her slinky dress.

Her skin was a rich brown, and just the sight of it was intoxicating to him, a more powerful drug than any strong drink he’d ever imbibed. It was wrong, he knew, to be with her this way. He was a married man, for one, though his wife and children were hundreds of miles away, so what was the harm? Secondly, she was a Wastelander, which made her half-feral, fully uneducated, and more than a little unclean. And yet that was everything that made her so alluring, so exciting, something different and other, everything that his stable, civilized life back home was not.

He kissed her deeply, forgetting all about the names on the list. Her name slipped from his tongue. Zaranaya...