It’s one of the first things I learned after my Skyhunter transformation: My bond to the Premier’s mind draws much of its strength from my emotions and his. It is why Red and I had always sensed each other’s feelings so acutely, why our emotions seemed almost to feed each other. Why Red was the most powerful on the battlefield when consumed by his rage. I’ve found the colder I can make myself, the harder Constantine has to work to sense anything through our link. The more I hold back my emotions, the less Constantine can sense of my mind.

And Red …

The less I allow myself to feel, the more distant I grow from Red.

Though I can still sense the steady, faint beating of his heart from some great distance, that is all. I haven’t felt a ripple of emotion from him since my transformation. Since I started to pull myself back like this. It’s almost a relief. The less I feel, the less Red can feel of me. And the safer he and any surviving Strikers will be from the monster I’ve become.

It seems to amuse Constantine, the way I struggle to keep him at bay. But if he’s aiming to get a reaction out of me, he’ll have to dig harder than this.

Half of these prisoners mean nothing to you, Constantine goes on. They are from countries you’ve never visited. The others are those who never treated you right. Maran nobles. Strikers who resented you for being on their patrols. Are they so sacred to you?

My lips twist. You’re one to talk about what’s sacred.

Why? Because I’m going to make Mara a better place?

He knows what he’s doing. I grit my teeth and fight to hold back my anger. It doesn’t belong to you.

He folds his arms across his chest and nods down at the turned earth. The ornate headpiece he wears today over his shaved head sways, strings of jewels clicking and tinkling. The energy source from the Early Ones is rumored to be so powerful that it can bring warmth and light into every house across the land, he tells me. Worth digging up a jail, wouldn’t you say? And the people we’ll execute today are war criminals, scoundrels who hoarded wealth, and zealots who pledge themselves to a nation that is no more. Worth executing, wouldn’t you say? He casts me a knowing look. Tell me I’m wrong, Talin.

You’re wrong.

Tell me Mara would do anything differently in my position.

Wouldn’t change anything if I did, would it? I bite back. I can hear the snarl of my answer echo in his mind. You only do what you want. You ask me only to taunt me.

He runs his fingers along the hem of his sleeve. Truth sounds like a taunt when you don’t want to hear it.

I rest my hands against the ledge before me, waiting for my emotions to still.

Let me tell you a truth, then, I tell him in the most serene voice I can muster through our link. You are afraid to be seen as a weak ruler.