Her eyes narrowed. “At least you’d be dead.” She slid the blade down his throat until she reached one of the scars. “Or maybe I’ll add to this collection here.” There. A flicker in his gaze. “You’ve got a lot of scars for a pretty boy, pilot.”

His jaw tightened. “So do a lot of people.”

<Keep digging,> Eris said through the Pathos.

Nyx almost smiled. “Rhea, you’ve seen him without a shirt. He just bragged about it. How far down do these scars go?”

Rhea ignored Cato’s glare. “They cover almost his entire torso. Front and back.”

“Front and back,” Nyx repeated. “Wow. Now, that had to hurt.” At his silence, Nyx almost smiled. “Come on, tell me about these scars, pilot. Couldn’t have got them flying. You’re from a military cohort. You get them on the field?”

His breathing grew ragged, and Nyx bet that if she put a finger on his pulse, it’d be quickening. “Fuck. You.”

“And you were being so pleasant before,” Nyx said. “I’ll bet you got these scars in a battle. Some of the easiest soldiers to torture are pilots. My commander always said they were too damn soft. Caved easily. Screamed like children.”

Cato shook his head, his chest heaving with his breaths. “Shut up.”

<His pupils are contracting,> Eris said. <His programming is starting to kick in, Nyx. The blocker Rhea injected him with is wearing off.>

<There’s still time.>

“You want me to stop,” Nyx said, drawing closer, “then give me the cypher. Otherwise, maybe I’ll add to these scars. They don’t look like they’re from Mors.”

<Nyx—>

“I said shut the fuck up.” Cato’s head snapped back and his pupils contracted. The Oracle’s coding was flooding his system with stress hormones. With a rough yell, he tore at the restraints and rocked his chair until he was on the floor. He slammed his head against the wall. “The God of Death, I kill for Thee. In Thy name I give my body.” Slam. His forehead was bleeding. “In Thy name.” Slam.

“Shit.” Nyx tackled him, but he bucked against her. She held him fast, shoving him to the floor. She had her knee in the middle of his back. “Some help would be nice! Rhea, get another blocker from the med center!”

Rhea nodded. “On it.”

“Ariadne.” Eris’s voice was calm behind Nyx. “Turn up the cooling system in here as high as it can go.”

“But that’s—” The girl bit her lip. “It’ll kill you.”

Eris didn’t look concerned. “Just do it.” Ariadne and Rhea left to do as she asked. It wasn’t long before there was a noticeable dip in the temperature. “Keep holding him, Nyx.”

The pilot thrashed against her, murmuring a litany of Tholosian phrases. If he weren’t still weak from his injuries and restrained, Nyx would be a whole lot worse off.