Flashback ( PDFDrive )

“What do you think he’ll want?”
“No idea. He’s a prisoner, so the obvious ask would be for freedom
—but he has to know we’re not powerful enough to make that
happen.”
“So maybe he’s after information,” Fitz suggested.
“Then why ask for us? Why not demand to meet with the Council?
Or someone in the Black Swan? Especially since he’s made such a
point to keep Telepaths away—why demand to meet with two
Cognates?”
“Yeah, that doesn’t make sense. Unless . . .”
He sat up straighter, setting his own empty tray aside. “Do you
think it’s because we’re the ones who healed him? He interrupted you
last time so he could escape—what if that left a little bit of damage?
Or maybe all the creepy stuff he’s done has gotten to him and he
wants us to seal some cracks.”
“If it is,” Sophie whispered, closing her eyes and trying to smother
any bad memories before they could wake the monster, “then going to
meet with him would be pointless. I’m never healing him again. Not
after what he did to Kenric.”
“You don’t think it’d be worth it for the chance to poke around his
head? We’re stronger now—”
“Not strong enough, Fitz. Look at how badly we lost to Gethen—
and that was before we had echoes to deal with.”
“We’d have a few weeks to train,” Fitz countered. “And I know we
can’t do full-on trust exercises. But . . . that doesn’t mean we can’t
work on our connection. There are shades of trust, you know? Maybe
we can’t get into any bigger secrets right now, but . . . we could dig
into some of the small stuff we hold back.”