“I’m not going to tell you anything,” Ian said. “I want to talk to your boss. I don’t know exactly what he wants with me or you want me or whatever. I’m sick of everyone and their second cousin chasing after me like I’m a golden fucking snitch.”
This made her laugh. “Always so brash when confronted. I supposed you could try and lunge over here. Suck me dry with that power of yours. You are the leech after all. But you will not. Do you understand?”
Ian nodded. He couldn’t stop himself. Something was very wrong here.
“Now you are going to answer all my questions, aren’t you?”
He nodded.
“Speak every response. I want to hear your words.”
“Yes.”
“Now you know better than that, Ian. I suspect somewhere in that addled little mind of yours, you remember what to call me.”
His head ached, but something about her words—something about the power they carried—made him remember. “Yes, mistress.”
“That’s better.”
She smiled and he could only focus on her face. Her words compelled him somehow. No matter how much he didn’t want to do anything she said, as soon as she spoke, her command was everything.
“I see your resistance,” she said. “You know this will only cause you pain. You will suffer needlessly. You understand you cannot resist me, Ian.”
“Yes, mistress.”
“Better. Much better. Now tell me what you remember.”
Ian told her of his awakening in the hands of Doppelganger and his men, his escape and his subsequent meetings with Stomp, Cyrus and the rest. His limited description of Doppelganger seemed to intrigue her, but not nearly as much as his description of Peach and her abilities. As he started to explain his transfer to the alien world, she cut him off.
“Tell me more about this Peach. What is her full name? Where does she come from?”
“She’s beautiful,” Ian said. “She looks young, but she’s far older than she looks. I didn’t ask where she came from, but she hinted more than once that she was older than she appeared. She was the first person I didn’t feel like a pariah around. She made me feel like a person, while it still felt like the others treated me as a complication in their life.”
“Did she tell you where she came from? Did she ever mention other witches? Or the whereabouts of the coven?”
“I don’t know anything about other witches,” Ian said. “Nothing I can remember.”
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