Blaze of Secrets (Asylums for Magical Threats 1)

Kiarra braced herself for his reaction. “A trade—me for Millie.” She took a deep breath and looked him in the eye. “If we don’t follow his instructions, then he’ll kill her and send her body back to us in pieces.”

Gio stayed long enough for the doctor to administer a sleeping drug to Millie Ward before he left the room, and then walked as quickly as he could to his new office. After locking the door, he closed his eyes and leaned against the wall.

His father’s assignment was turning out to be a lot more challenging than he’d imagined. He’d found a way around torture this time, using a recorded scream to scare Kiarra and Jaxton, but what about the next time? He wasn’t sure that he could harm someone without a reason, simply for his own personal gain. He couldn’t even eat animals, for fuck’s sake. Killing living things wasn’t his forte.

Kiarra was a first-born, and in the best interests of everyone, should be inside an AMT compound. He had no problem with retrieving her and locking her away again, to keep her from prying human eyes. But Gio didn’t like inflicting pain on innocents, especially on those weaker than him.

But at this rate, he might have to.

He opened his eyes and went to his computer. Gio always strove to be prepared, and maybe doing some research would help calm his mind, or at least serve as a distraction.

Gio now had access to the daily logs of all the AMT compounds. Since he was fighting to keep first-borns inside the AMTs, he wanted to know more about what happened on a day-to-day basis. From what he’d seen already, things were not quite what the AMT spokespeople had said they were.

Besides, the information might give him ideas on how to help his father later on.

He scrolled through the files on the computer. Guard rosters or patient files didn’t interest him, but as he looked through the records, one file marked “important” caught his eye: Research Logs for Dr. Ty Adams.

Adams had been Kiarra’s researcher, the one previously in charge of her retrieval. Gio wanted to know more about the scientist who’d designed the nullification formula for elemental magic.

He opened the file and spotted Kiarra’s serial number of F-839 in the first paragraph. There was a lot of scientific jargon he didn’t understand, but eventually Gio came to the brief recap of Kiarra’s charge of seduction and sentence, as well as a stamp of “completed” for the meting out of her punishment. That seemed unlike the big sister he’d known, the one who’d always played by the rules and had badgered him to do the same, but he quickly dismissed that thought. Fifteen years could change a person.

Besides, more and more disgruntled Feiru were taking out their hatred of Article I on random first-borns. Some of the more disillusioned went as far as to kill any first-born they saw, no matter if they’d reached magical maturity or not.

The AMT was the only thing that could protect the first-borns, Kiarra included, from such violence.

Gio tucked the information about Kiarra’s sentence and punishment away in case he needed it, and kept reading. But the incident’s postscript caught his attention:

Tests on F-839 confirm the patient’s inability to bear children. The patient is dismissed as a breeding candidate, but due to positive interactions with the Null Formula, F-839 will continue to be protected under FB Experimentation Rights.

His brows knitted together in confusion. What the hell was a breeding candidate? Breeding inmates would only create more first-borns, which would tax AMT—and by extension all Feiru—resources further. It didn’t make any sense.

He opened a new window and searched the files for “breeding candidates.” He clicked on the most promising return and read the first paragraph:

F-284 delivered twins today. The first-born was marked with ink, but both children will be shifted to the pediatrics facility for observation. F-284 underwent five years of gene therapy and her offspring will be studied for genetic shifts or abnormalities.

Gio stopped reading and leaned back in his chair.

The AMT researchers were using inmates as experiment subjects, forcing them to have children so that the AMT could study genetic shifts in the next generation. His gut told him that the inmates were probably impregnated against their will.

Did his father know about this? The Feiru public bloody well didn’t, that was for sure.

Gio glanced at the clock and decided he had about ten minutes before he needed to check in with various contacts. He queried “pediatrics facility” and waited for the results, anxious to know how they treated the children once they arrived there.

Jaxton clenched his fists.

Fuck, a trade. Trades usually ended with at least one party dead, if not both, as well as a bloody mess of a situation that he couldn’t handle without back-up from his team. And, of course, his team just happened to be on separate assignments, scattered across the globe.

It also didn’t help that the person in charge of the trade was Kiarra’s brother, which meant that Jaxton had to plan carefully or risk upsetting Kiarra. She probably wanted to keep him alive.

Of course, if Giovanni killed his sister, then Jaxton hoped Kiarra would understand his actions when he made Giovanni pay.

Jaxton needed to find a way to keep both women out of Giovanni’s hands—but to do that, he needed to take a step back from the situation, push emotion aside, and try to figure out his options. He’d spent years sorting through intelligence, piecing together facts, and coming up with plans on how to use the information. He could do it now too, but he needed all of the pertinent information first. “What were his instructions?” he asked.

Kiarra maintained eye contact, but raised her chin. “I’m not going to tell you just yet.”

He narrowed his eyes. Bloody woman. “Don’t toy with me on this, Kiarra. Millie’s my sister and I plan to get her back before”—that bastard—“your brother decides to kill her.”

“We have two days before the deadline, and I want a chance to think of a plan.”