Siren's Song by Mary Weber

answer.
    They don’t have to.
    They are the Inters.
    And now they’re finished.

CHAPTER 7
    A CREAKING SOUND ERUPTS BEHIND ME through the red-illuminated dark and someone’s poking my shoulder. “This way.”
    A door opens, sending in a candlelit glow over my shoulder to light up the heavily curtained room and the three elderly Luminescents all seated in a row. They’re so old it appears as if their skin is decaying. I cough, and it’s as if I’m inhaling that scent of dead bodies on ice again. I gag and shove off from the freezing chair I’ve been sitting on. I am done with this place.
    Out of the dim, the dancing Cashlin guard’s hand reaches for me. I shift away before he can prick me again, but he just says, “If you behave, I won’t use it now that they’re finished.”
    Is he jesting? I look from him to my interrogators. “You invaded my mind without my permission. You invaded my memories!”
    â€œMemories you could not have given us if we’d simply asked,” they say in unison.
    â€œYou had no right.” I’m shaking now. And my hand is flexing. A lightning bolt streaks down and I barely stop it from slamming into the ceiling. I reach my hand out where I feel it itching beneath the skin—and sense the Inter’s Luminescent strength beating through their blood. For the slightest moment it calls to me. Take it.
    â€œAnd you had no right to crash into our home,” their three voices ring. “We simply wanted to ensure you were who we thought and had no ulterior motives.”
    I shove the subtle dark thirst aside and squeeze my fist until the sky rumbles and crashes, then breaks open into rain. Real rain. “You had no right.”
    â€œWe needed more about you. Specifically, what Draewulf’s designs are upon you.”
    â€œAnd?”
    â€œIt is as you believe. Just as the Creator gave power to the five original bloodlines, the beast will take those powers to rule all. Including you, who are Elisedd’s hope.” The three women look behind me as if one entity and tip their heads. “He will take you last as the final piece to secure his immortality.”
    â€œHe will take me?”
    â€œYou are now dismissed.”
    The Cashlin male guard slips beside me and holds out a hand.
    I glare at the Luminescents, then turn and stride for the door. To hulls with all of them.
    As I step out and the door swings shut, I call down one more lightning strike. Its aim is slick and true, and the crashing of glass rocks the ceiling of the room we just came from. Not enough to kill them by my estimation. But enough to interrupt their abilities for a time.
    The male guard looks at me but says nothing. Just keeps leading us away with what I’d say is a hint of respect in the firm set of his jaw.
    â€œI didn’t harm them detrimentally.”
    â€œAnd you didn’t hear a complaint from me.”
    I frown.
    He shrugs and continues his stride. “The Inters would’ve seen you intended to cause such damage and could’ve stopped you. They saw fit not to. Which means it is not my responsibility.”
    Interesting. “In that case, I need to reach Eogan. I need to get our people out of here.”
    He blinks again but doesn’t reply as we walk down one, two, three opaque glass hallways through this palace that I swear is like a womb. Warm and pulsing with rhythms and heartbeats of life through the walls and floors and atmosphere, even though it’s completely void of voices or other patrons. It’s creepy. It takes a moment to realize I keep looking for more glass-encased dead people as if it’s their rhythms and heartbeats I’m sensing.
    â€œWhere are all the people?”
    He glances over. “Only a few live here, mainly the Luminescents. Having too many people around sets off their abilities constantly and tires them.” He leads me through an archway and into a clear sort