“Very well.” He glances sidelong at me. “Do you know where my brother is right now?”

Is that where Caitoman is? Is that why he’s not here with us? That’s all it takes for me to conjure a mental image of the General standing beside my mother, the way these soldiers are now with this prisoner. Everything in me trembles.

No, Premier. I look at him, letting him see the rare sight of begging on my face. Please.

Constantine looks at his soldiers and nods again. “I asked my brother to give this soldier one of his rings.” Sure enough, a gold band gleams on the soldier’s hand. “To remind you that when he puts his hands on this woman, my brother is doing the same with your mother.”

My eyes widen slightly. Caitoman is doing this.

Next to Constantine, the mayor meets my gaze briefly. In that second, I see a dawning realization on her face. She knows where Caitoman went. That means that she knows where my mother is being kept.

But I have no time to dwell on this.

The soldier twists the woman’s elbow firmly behind her back.

Then he shoves it up hard. I hear bone snap. The woman screams. The ring flashes.

Somewhere, General Caitoman just shattered my mother’s arm.

I fall to my knees at the blow, as if it had struck me instead. The pain roaring through me might as well be my own.

Stop, I tell Constantine. My eyes glow, the blue reflected against the ground. I’m begging you.

“Then tell me who did it, Talin.”

I don’t know!

The soldier goes up to the sobbing woman and kicks her again. My head swims at the sight.

“Tell me who did it, Talin,” Constantine says again.

I press my palms against the ground. I can feel the Premier’s determination through our bond, his will pressing against the secrets I keep guarded close to my chest. My anger fills every crevice in me, burning through my muscle and steel and skin until I think I’m going to turn into flames. Could it be, I hiss through our link, my jaw clenched tight as I glare up at the Premier, that the Strikers simply freed themselves? That you underestimated their abilities, as you do us, as you do to anyone you think you’ve conquered? Could it be that they are simply better than what you can throw at them?

Constantine’s his eyes are hard as stone. “I think you need a reminder of why you are my Skyhunter,” he replies. “I think you’ve gotten too bold, your answers those of someone who isn’t under my control. I think I’ve been too lenient with you, Talin. So let this be that reminder.”

He looks at his prisoner. One soldiers takes out a knife.

No. I suddenly startle up from the ground as the soldier grabs one of the woman’s hands. General Caitoman is grabbing my mother’s hand. Stop. Please, don’t.

But Constantine doesn’t issue an order to stop.