He Who Fights with Monsters 11 (He Who Fights with Monsters, #11)

by Shirtaloon

“I’ve got you intrigued about the chance to ask me a lot more questions, haven’t I?” Boris asked. “Yeah,” Jason admitted. “Well, there’s a price. I have an astral king’s brand in my soul. I needed it to fool Vesta Carmis Zell, and while the astral king is a friendly, I still want it gone.” “I get that. You know what that means in terms of trusting one another.” “I have to trust you because I’m giving you access to the most vulnerable parts of myself. What do you need to trust?” “That you aren’t some kind of living, soul-engineered trap.” Boris turned to stare at Jason. “Wow,” he said. “That’s actually a kind of brilliant idea. I wish I’d thought of it. I mean, setting the whole thing up would be a massively elaborate pain in the ass, but yeah, that would be a great way to deal with you. I’m kind of disappointed that I’m not trying to kill you now. That would have totally worked.” “Except that I was the one suspicious of that being what you’re doing,” Jason pointed out. “I’m also suspicious of your reaction being a disarming way to convince me that you’re not some kind of living trap.” “You’re a suspicious guy. You know that messenger plans usually come down to deciding they’re the best and throwing power at things until they break, right?” “I met an outworlder who turned out to be a naga genesis egg that was transformed through soul engineering and sent to Pallimustus twenty years before the messenger invasion began.” “Really?” “Yeah.” “I may have been on Earth too long. T...