Defy (27 page)

guards bowed and turned to go. Before I knew it, we were alone

with the general and his son. My heart picked up speed when he

opened the door and entered the room.

“Follow him,” Eljin said, gesturing for us to precede him.

Damian went first, with Rylan and me right on his heels. The

room was large and rectangular, with all sorts of weapons hanging

on the walls. A huge torture chamber of some sort?

My stomach coiled in dread when Eljin came in after us and

shut the door with a resounding thud and then slammed the bolt

in place, locking us in.

“I assume that you brought them for a reason?” General

Tinso nodded at Rylan and me. But instead of Eljin answering,

Damian nodded.

“Yes, it would have been a risk to leave them at the mercy of

my father, and they are loyal to me.”

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“Then we may speak freely in front of them?”

“Yes.”

General Tinso nodded at Eljin. “What are you waiting for?

Cut those ropes off already.”

I stared at them in utter shock as Eljin stepped forward and

sliced the ropes off Damian’s wrists. And then my jaw literally fell

open when General Tinso walked up to Damian and embraced him.

“Welcome at last to my home, Prince Damian.”

215

 thirty 

D
amian embraced him back as Rylan and I watched in

total bewilderment. While we stood there, gaping like fish,

Eljin came over and cut the ropes off our hands as well. I rubbed

my wrists as the blood rushed back into my arms.

“I’m sorry for all of this,” General Tinso said when he released

Damian and stepped back.

“It was necessary,” Damian said. “I knew what I was agree-

ing to.”

“Did you run into any problems? Besides deciding to bring

two extras along with you?” General Tinso’s dark eyes lingered on

me for some reason.

“Alex and Rylan were in the room when Eljin came. He and

his men had to fight to make it look real, and if I had left them

there, King Hector would have had them killed for failing to pro-

tect me. I didn’t want to lose two loyal guards to such a fate.” His

eyes met mine across the short distance.

“
You
saved me?” Rylan asked in shock.

Damian didn’t respond; he was looking at me.

“You planned this,” I said quietly. His betrayal cut deeper than

I could have imagined. He’d said he needed me. He had asked me to

trust
him, to open up to him and bare my secrets, and all along he’d 216

been keeping this enormous secret from me. He’d let me think for

weeks
that we’d been abducted, that our lives were in danger. We’d been tied up, manhandled, forced into this very room at spear point.

“Why?” I asked, my voice low with barely suppressed fury.

“Alex, just let me —”

“Why?”
I screamed. I’d let myself fall for him. I’d let myself believe that he cared about me, that there might be hope for us

somehow. He was a
prince
— he could choose to be with me if he wanted.

But he had lied to me. Manipulated me. I’d thought he was

opening up to me, revealing who he really was bit by bit. But I

didn’t know him at all.

He looked momentarily stunned by my outburst, but then his

expression closed and his eyes grew glitteringly cold. “I did what I

had to do. I’ve told you that before.” Then he turned to General

Tinso. “There wasn’t time to send a message to you, since the plan

was already in action, but there was more to my decision than just

saving their lives.”

I clenched my jaw shut, desperately trying to regain my com-

posure, to pull on the mask that I’d worn for years as General

Tinso looked at Damian questioningly.

Calm, cool, collected, no matter what — that’s what I needed

to be. I drew on that mask when my parents died; I did it when

Marcel died. I could do it now. I didn’t dare glance at Rylan. He’d

been right. He’d warned me and I hadn’t listened and now I’d let

the prince hurt me. I was afraid that looking at him would be my

undoing.

“Rylan, the taller one, is an excellent fighter and may benefit

from your specialized training. But Eljin and I believe that Alexa,

217

who just regaled us with an unusual show of temper, might be

gifted.”

“Alex
a
?” General Tinso repeated, stroking his chin. “I did

think she was a bit too pretty to be a boy. But you never know.” He

paused, looking me over. “Her parents?”

“Dead, unfortunately.” Damian also looked at me, and I sud-

denly felt as though I were a specimen that they were studying. I

hated the way he talked about me as if I weren’t standing ten feet

from him. As if he’d never held me in his arms and told me that

he’d broken his promise to himself to never care about someone

again. “But her coloring and her skill might suggest that our sus-

picions are correct.”

“She is quite good, I take it?”

“The best fighter I have. If she weren’t so young, she would

have been captain of my guard, because she bested everyone else.

And that was a year ago.”

“Excuse me, I’m standing right here.” I clenched my hands

into fists at my side. “What does my coloring have to do with my

ability to fight?”

“You look as though one of your parents was from Blevon, am

I right?” General Tinso asked as he walked over to the wall and

picked up two swords. He tossed one to me, which I automatically

reached for and snatched from the air. I instantly felt calmer with

a blade in my hand again.

“My father’s parents were from Blevon. What does that have to

do with anything?”

He circled me, and I turned in place, warily watching him.

“Eljin, you agree with Damian?” he asked his son, rather than

responding to me. “You believe she might be gifted?”

218

“It seems very likely. She’s had no training defending herself

against sorcerers, and yet she held me off for nearly six minutes

when I challenged her in the ring at the palace.”

“You fought in a ring? You revealed yourself?” General Tinso

paused and gave his son a sharp look.

“No one realized I was a sorcerer, Father. Damian asked me to

do it, to see if anyone showed potential to be trained.”

“No one realized it except for me,” I said through clenched

teeth. Was he going to attack or not?

Eljin looked at me in surprise. “You knew?”

“You blocked me with magic — of course I knew.” I didn’t

dare look away from his father again to try to read the expression

on his masked face.

“You realized he used magic?” General Tinso began to circle

closer to me and I tightened my grip on my sword. “Interesting.”

And then he lunged at me. I parried quickly, and spinning,

swung my sword back around at him, which he blocked deftly.

It felt so good to fight again. All the anger, the hurt and pain

and confusion inside of me f lowed through my arms and hands

into my sword as I attacked as fast as I could. I was a dervish of

movement, of speed and agility and fury. The sounds of our

swords rang through the room, while Damian, Rylan, and Eljin

watched in silence. Finally, General Tinso lifted his sword to his

face as he bowed and stepped back, a signal that he was ceding

defeat.

“Excellent, indeed,” he mused out loud, his dark eyes alight

with what looked like excitement.

I held my sword loosely at my side, my chest heaving as I tried

to catch my breath.

219

“Alexa, how would you like to train with my son and learn

how to defeat a sorcerer? I presume that’s why you wanted her to

come?” General Tinso looked to Damian, who nodded.

“Is it really possible?” I asked, my anger at the prince warring

with my curiosity.

“It’s very difficult, but, yes, it’s possible. However, from what

they say and what I’ve seen here today, I believe you have the abil-

ity necessary to be successful.”

So this was why Damian had me “brought along.” He wanted

a guard who could defeat a sorcerer. But why? How did he know

General Tinso — and why were we here? Especially under the

guise of having been abducted? These people were responsible for

his mother’s death — how could he trust them?

“I’ll do it, but only if you start answering my questions. All of

them.
Honestly.
” I stared at Damian as I said this.

His jaw tightened. “I’ll answer as many as I can,” he said.

“That’s not good enough.”

“It has to be. It’s all I can offer. Don’t make me regret saving

you, Alexa.”

I blinked, feeling like he’d struck me. Was I no more than a

tool to do his bidding? I finally looked to Rylan for the first time

since we’d entered this room. He met my questioning gaze gravely,

but then he nodded once.

Damian watched me, his expression inscrutable, waiting.

“Alexa?” General Tinso prompted me. “I’m a very busy man.

I have a very bloody, vicious war I’m trying to manage and even

end, if possible. But my son and I will dedicate ourselves to your

training if you agree to it, because your ability could play an inte-

gral role in overthrowing King Hector.”

220

“Is that what you’re hoping to do?” I forced myself to turn to

Damian again, even though it hurt just to look at him. “Overthrow

your father?”

He nodded curtly.

I glanced around at the four men watching me, waiting for

me. How could Damian trust the Blevonese? One of their own

had murdered our queen, driving King Hector to start this infer-

nal war.

But what else did I have to lose? My family was all dead, gone

forever. Antion was shriveling and dying under King Hector’s rule

and the price his war was exacting on us. The only person who

truly cared about
me
— not just my ability — was Rylan, and his nod said to go ahead. And if I was honest with myself, part of me

was curious. About this side to my heritage that I knew so little of, and about what I needed to learn to be able to defeat a sorcerer.

Once before I’d asked myself, if there was any way to stop this war,

would I have the courage to try?

“All right,” I finally said. “I’ll do it.”

221

 thirty-one 

E
xcellent.” General Tinso smiled. “I assume you are

exhausted from your journey here, so we will start tomorrow.

But there is no time to waste, so rest well tonight.”

He turned to Rylan and Damian. “Because we have to main-

tain the guise that you’re our prisoners, we’ll be keeping you in the back of the castle where there are many empty rooms and Eljin will

be your personal ‘guard.’ My men won’t question you not being

tied up if Eljin is nearby.”

“Why did you pretend to abduct the prince?” I asked. “Why

do we have to continue to pretend? And would someone tell me

why you believe I’m ‘gifted’? What does that even mean?”

General Tinso and Damian shared a meaningful look. “I’ll let

you answer her questions,” the general said. “Eljin, show them to

their rooms and I’ll have a servant bring you some food. I apologize

if it isn’t food fit for royalty, but again, we have to keep up the guise.”

“After what we’ve been eating for the last few weeks, anything

fresh will taste like a delicacy,” Damian said.

“I apologize again, but I must go. I have some top advisors

from King Osgand waiting for me.” He paused, though, gazing at

Damian for a long moment. “You look so much like your mother.

She would be proud of you, Prince Damian. I hope you know that.”

222

A muscle in Damian’s jaw tightened, and he nodded once,

tersely, almost as if he couldn’t speak. I stared at the general in

what was probably ill-concealed shock. I couldn’t believe he dared

speak of Damian’s mother — and that Damian hadn’t lashed out

at him for it.

General Tinso reached out and squeezed his shoulder once,

then with a nod at us, turned and walked out of the room.

We followed Eljin to a dark, dusty stairwell at the back of the cas-

tle, and then down a f light of stairs to another hallway that was

equally dark and dusty. He passed a few doors, and stopped.

“You’ll be kept here, except when you’re training. The less

anyone sees you, the better.” He took a key out of his pocket and

opened the door with it.

Inside was a medium-sized room. A dresser with a wash basin

rested in one corner next to a fireplace, a chamber pot sat in

another, and three cots lined the wall.

“We’re
all
staying here? Together?” I asked, my voice embar-

rassingly high-pitched.

“It’ll be much more spacious than the tent, at least.” It was

hard to tell with the mask on, but I was pretty sure Eljin was mock-

ing me. “You’re meant to appear to be prisoners. So this is it, I’m

afraid.”

He was definitely smiling beneath that infernal scrap of fabric.

“I’m glad you find it so funny,” I said crossly as I pushed him

out of the way to enter my new quarters.

This time, I refused to sleep between Damian and Rylan. I

took one cot and dragged it as far away from the other two as pos-

sible, then sat on it, and watched them both walk in. Eljin gave us