“Let him go?” Sasha echoed. 

So there it was. Alice had a heart for humans after all. If she truly had no compassion, she would have just run and left this poor young minimum-wage worker to his fate, whatever that might be. She had barely flinched when Sasha had threatened her family, but when he implied violence against a stranger? Suddenly she was frozen where she stood.

Interesting. Family trouble. He could relate.

Below Sasha’s crushing boot, grasped madly by the delivery man lying on his back in the wet street, a fervent nod of agreement failed to be noticed. 

“Ye-es,” he hoarsely gasped, barely able to draw in breath under the weight pressing down on his chest. “L-let him go.”

“And in return?” Sasha wasn’t talking to the man below him. He was focused entirely on Alice; his question was for her and her alone.

Here, he offered her some element of control, some moral agency. She could flee, and thus endanger every human she put in between her and Sasha, or she could comply as he took the entire world as his hostage. She’d probably be equally compelled if he were about to tear a cashmere sweater or a pashmina scarf in half before her eyes.

He made a note to acquire such an item if it helped him compel obedience out of her.

“I told you, I need you.” His thin buttoned shirt was growing wet against his body, which looked thinner than one might expect. “All I ask is a little compliance, with all due haste. You can run to the police.” Sasha looked down at the delivery man. “Or I could sew a little destruction. Starting with him.” He looked up again. “And ending at Timeless Tailors with a box of matches.”