She struggles to adjust her position but just ends up slouched against the wall in the exact same way. She takes a deep breath and continues.
“I went rogue after they tried to reform me. Solis and the SC-4 couldn’t find me. Not a trace even when I was in plain sight—I learned from the best and I used every skill that I was taught to evade them.” She lowers her eyes. “But I couldn’t stay away from Claire. I wanted to protect her, because I knew the Sect would eventually go after her if they couldn’t find me. Claire knew I was her sister, but I never told her what else I was, or who was after her, so it was hard in the beginning to make her believe me when I told her she was in danger and I convinced her to move. But she did and I made sure she was safe while I let her live her life. Claire fell in love—with Niklas—and I was intrigued by it so I never tried to put a stop to it and I never had any suspicions. I was free, experiencing a strange new life—from the shadows, of course; I couldn’t involve myself any more than I had—feeling a plethora of emotions that I’d never felt before. And it made me weak, my intrigue made me blind. Eventually they found her and came for her.”
“Those men in the house,” I say, “were they part of the SC-4?”
“Yes,” she says, and then she eyes Victor again, “but they weren’t the only ones sent to kill Claire.”
I want to look back at Victor, too, but I can’t will myself to do it. I have so many questions for him, and I know that he holds all of the answers that will put everything else to rest, but like he said, this isn’t the time or place.
I stand from the chair and pace the tile in my boots, my arms crossed over my chest.
Then I stop and look down at Nora again.
“Why didn’t you just kill me, or Niklas?” I ask. “If vengeance is what you wanted, why this elaborate game?”—I gesture a hand in front of me—“Why spend six years of your life plotting and spying not only on Victor and Niklas, but on the rest of us? Why not just take one of us out?” I manage to look at Victor this time, wondering if he might be thinking the same thing. His eyes pass over mine slowly, as if he wants to keep them there but doesn’t feel right about it, and then he looks back down at Nora with all the hatred he can muster in a seemingly emotionless face.
Nora forces herself from the wall, a grimace twisting her features as she sits upright. She never tries to cover her naked breasts, but I guess I wouldn’t care much about shame either if I had just been tortured.
“I didn’t just come here for vengeance,” she says and looks right at Victor. “I came here because I want to join your Order.”
I feel my eyes widen in my face.
I look over at Victor, wordless.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Victor says.
“No,” Nora says, shaking her head slowly, “actually I’m very serious. Why do you think I did all this?” She tries to gesture a hand, but pain shoots through her when she lifts her arm. She drops it back down. “This was my way of proving my abilities. And what better way to show you all what I’m capable of than to give you the grand tour?”
Victor shakes his head with disbelief.
“You are insane,” he says.
I’m not so sure…
“You could use someone like me in your organization, Faust,” she goes on. “I am everything you’ve ever wanted in an operative, Victor”—her words burn me even if it wasn’t her intention—“and you can’t deny it as much as you despise me right now. I have proven myself in more ways than one and even willingly allowed myself to be tortured by the man whose very name spreads fear and paranoia through anyone who hears it in our underground world—I cannot be broken.” She narrows her gaze on him and adds, “And I can no longer be compromised,” and for a moment she is the same cunning, wicked woman she had been before she was tortured.
I look at Victor. He looks only at her. And while it’s probably just to maintain his unwavering hatred for her, it still makes me uncomfortable. But I brush it off because I want to be strong. I want Victor to know that I trust him and that I’m not threatened by her. Even though I am.
“Why in the hell would you want to work for the same man who killed your sister?” I ask.
“Because it is in the past,” she says as her eyes fall on me, though her head remains facing Victor. Then she looks at him again. “And because, like I said, we’re now even.”
Victor’s gaze breaks and he steps up to me and takes me gently by the arm.
“Let’s go,” he says, and walks with me toward the wide open door.
I follow alongside him, looking back at Nora as she tries to get to her feet.
“You need me!” she shouts. “You know I’m a rare and valuable weapon, Faust!”
With any other person I might think her delusional and conceited hearing a claim like that, but with Nora, it’s absolutely true—she is a rare and valuable weapon.
But that doesn’t mean shit to me.
Hopefully it doesn’t to Victor.