Ensnared (Sorcery and Science Book 5) (29 page)

He should have just thrown a knife at her before she could open that duplicitous mouth of hers. Bam, straight to the heart or the head.

No, he’d already deemed such a quick death to be too good for the likes of her. A knife to the liver was the way to go. The poison would pulse painfully through her body, bringing her to the brink of death before her rapid healing saved her. And then he could do it to her all over again. And again. An Elition could linger on in painful torment for weeks—even months—this way before the body eventually gave out.

“I will not listen to your lies,” he said, feeling his eyes burn black.

“I had no choice.”

He let out a cold laugh. “You don’t know how many times I’ve heard that before. Ten years ago, King River said that to my parents. And then he killed them.”

She cringed. “Please.”

“Pleading for your life now, are you?”

“No,” she said, straightening. “If you wish to kill me… But I don’t want you to think that I betrayed you willingly.”

“I suppose they threatened your life.”

“Yes.”

“And the lives of someone you care about.”

“Yes.”

Jason raised an eyebrow. “And?”

“And you don’t believe me.” She sighed.

“As I said, I’ve heard it all before.”

She looked at him with such despair that he had to fight the impulse to embrace her, comforting her until she could smile again. No, that was wrong. He didn’t want to see her happy; he wanted to see her dead. Forget her powers as a Prophet. She was the queen of manipulation. Even now, angry as he was at her, she could get under his skin and rile up his sympathies. She had talent, that was for sure. Talent enough to make even the Elite Phantom lose his head. But it would not save her this time. This had to end. He took a step forward.

She lifted her hands into the air. “Just listen to me, Jason.”

He took a second step. “Why?”

She backed up. “I want to explain everything to you. I want you to know the truth. To understand.”

He continued forward. He was trying not to stare at her eyes. They trembled, making her appear so vulnerable, so worthy of sympathy. He could not falter.

“I care for you.”

“Lies. Manipulations. That was all nothing but an act, all part of your plan to capture me.” He paused to consider a thought. “How far back did you scheme go? The day you came back to us in Eclipse, supposedly escaping Selpe torture?”

“They
did
torture me.”

Jason pressed on. “Or earlier yet? When you were revealed to be Elition? Even before that? Perhaps, it was your mission all along, ever since before we met at Lear.”

“We’d met before then, Jason.”

Jason studied her face, her emotions. She resonated sincere. Damn. She was the best liar he’d ever met. She could control the emotional flavor of her resonance. And she was deflecting.

“Who is he?” he asked, nodding toward her wedding ring. He could deflect too.

She flushed pink, far pinker than her pink-blonde hair. “Aaron Selpe,” her voice cracked.

“The new Selpe emperor? Your manipulation has reached new levels. How did you ensnare him?” He gave her an icy smirk. “Actually, from the way he was prancing about you, clearly on a mission to lure you into his bed, I suppose netting that playboy was not particularly difficult. Funny. I didn’t take you for that sort of girl.”

She glowered at him. “I’m not. That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you. I was forced into all of this. Including my marriage to Aaron.”

“Marriage,” he spat, then collected himself. “So, that makes you the Selpe empress.” He bowed in mock fashion and extended his arm forward, as though to kiss her hand. “Your Majesty, is it true the imperial bedsheets are made of satin?”

“Stop,” she growled, batting his hand away.

But he caught her hand in his. And he began to squeeze. Hard. The cold bite of his now fully-obsidian eyes burned in his head, shifting everything into even greater focus. A rush of adrenaline hit him hard. He could hear the thump of her heart in his ears, and he longed to draw blood. He could taste the sweat of her anxiety in the air. If he didn’t start the fight soon, he would kill her too quickly. And that just wouldn’t do. She had to suffer.

“Let go.”

He squeezed down harder. “Make me.”

She moved faster than he thought possible of one who wasn’t a Phantom, and then she was all the way on the other side of the cabin. He followed, and a second later he was before her again. She deflected his hand as he moved to recapture her. Three additional attempts were neatly dodged.

“You are far too much trouble,” he growled.

He thought he caught that old twinkle in her eye, and she looked rather smug. “Thank you.”

“That wasn’t a compliment.”

Jason swung his leg behind her feet, attempting to upset her balance, but she hopped high into the air to avoid his kick. He frowned.

“Sure sounded like one,” she grinned.

Brushing off the unsettling feeling that she was enjoying this, he shook his head. Strange girl. He’d come to kill her, and she was teasing him.

“I missed you,” she said, the words unexpected.

He hated how she did that—responded to his thoughts as though she could read them. Such behavior from a Phantom Extractor was insufferable. From her, it was unnerving.

“When we’re together, it feels…normal.”

“You do realize that I’ve come to kill you?” he reminded her, but his tone was softer. Whether he liked it or not.

“I know you’ve come to try,” she challenged with an invigorated smile. “And once you’ve grown tired of that, we can sit down and discuss this like civilized people.”

Surely, she could not be serious. Jason watched as she took up a fighting stance. Yes, she really was going to do this. She actually thought she could hold out longer than he could.

“Might I remind you—”

“That you are the most skilled assassin alive.”

“And you—”

“Rarely aim to harm my opponent.”

“And I’m—”

“Fighting to kill. Yes. Can we get on with this already?”

Jason shrugged, he hoped indifferently. “Suit yourself.”

He tore down a coiled rope that hung from one of the curtains and lashed out at her with the chunky knotted end. She evaded him with the grace of a dancer, then caught the knot on the third swing. She tugged with inhuman strength, sending him a few steps forward. With a wink, she kissed him on the cheek and scampered around him to the other end of the cabin. Jason rubbed the cheek, which burned with her scent—then he turned around.

Her eyes were not so gleeful as he unsheathed his two Wing knives. Perhaps she’d never really believed it would come to this. Perhaps she’d been counting on her charm to save her. It wouldn’t. Not this time.

Jason crept forward, his knives alert. She was retreating slowly, hesitantly, looking around. There wasn’t much in the dilapidated old cottage. She took up the makeshift poker, made of twisted metal, from beside the fireplace and held it before her. As he attacked, she deflected, her arms wobbling under the force of his strike. She swiped the poker through the air a few times, shaking out the trembles.

Quickly, as she tried to steady herself, Jason struck again. She whipped the poker around with such uncanny speed that it slashed across his shoulder before he could deflect. Jason brushed a finger along his torn sleeve, and it came back trickled with blood.

She stared at him, completely dumbstruck, and he took advantage of her shock. One, two, he cut his knives forward, and each one met with one of her shoulders. She didn’t bother checking her skin for cuts. From her face, it was clear that she’d felt his blades surely enough.

She was retreating again, back into the corner by the fireplace. He had her just where he wanted her. Her eyes no longer danced. Her lips didn’t sing. She looked at him as though he’d just wounded her—not the obvious strike of the blade, but something deeper. She was sad, dejected, lost. Jason had only to lift his knives and—

“Jason, stop!” Cameron screamed, bursting through the front door. He jumped between them, shielding Isis.

“Get out of the way,” Jason snarled. He tried to maneuver his way around Cameron, but the boy held his ground.

“Put down your weapons. Let’s talk this through,” insisted Cameron, continuing to mirror Jason’s movements.

“There is nothing to talk about. She has betrayed me. Now, I will kill her.”

“She was forced,” protested Cameron.

“Not you too,” Jason growled. “She’s an exceptional manipulator. Don’t believe a word that she says. Now, move. This is not your fight. Step aside. We can talk later.”

“No.”

Jason lunged around Cameron with such speed that what happened next was totally unexpected. He froze in shock as he realized that his knife had not reached its intended target. Cameron had shifted his position to protect Isis. The knife’s hilt protruded at a crooked angle from his side. Jason looked from Cameron’s face, to his fingers clutched over the weapon jammed between his ribs, to the pink-haired dark angel he shielded with his free arm. This was getting aggravating.

“
Why
are you protecting her?!” Jason demanded.

“Because she is my sister,” Cameron stated through clenched teeth.

Shocked, frozen, Jason’s eyes widened. As they locked onto the face of Terra Cross, the second knife slipped from his fingers and fell to the floor.

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

~
Terra Cross ~

526AX December 13, Orion

IT WAS THE first time Terra had ever seen Jason drop a weapon. As soon as Cameron pulled the blade from his body and tossed it to the floor, she stepped forward to kick both knives away. She extended her fingers toward Jason’s face, then retracted them quickly, as though burnt by fire. It was the burn of guilt.

“Terra?” he asked, his voice cautious.

“Yes.”

There was no point in denying it any longer, not even to herself. Everyone knew by now anyway. A secret ten years old, and it had shattered in an instant. Not when Davin had come to her prison cell to tell her Lord Adrian and Aaron had found out who she really was; they’d kept the news a secret from the rest of the Selpes until after Aaron and Isis had wed. Not when her father King River had embraced her upon the steps of the Gateway as she cried out tears of pain at having betrayed her oldest friend. Not when Ariella had found out on the evening of her wedding. Not even when she’d confessed her true identity to her twin Cameron just hours ago. No, it only became real the moment Jason saw her for who she was. At that moment, Terra felt her mask split open and crumble to ashes all around her. Her barriers fallen, all pretense abandoned, she was exposed, unprotected, bare, raw.

As Jason’s finger brushed her cheek, he must have felt it too. His nostrils flared up, and he inhaled deeply, drinking in her resonance.

“Yes, I feel you now. Finally,” he whispered, pulling her close to him. “All this time, you were here right beside me, and I didn’t know.” He pulled back just far enough to look her in the eye. “You did an impeccable job of masking yourself, of covering up the perfume of your soul.”

It was a trick she had learned long ago when she’d abandoned her life as Terra Cross to become Isis Fontane. King River had told her it was necessary, that the Selpes and Avans were both plotting to kidnap her all for the sake of her gift. Throughout the years, this power had nudged her toward the brink of madness, lying in constant wait to give her that final big shove over the edge. It had already torn her away from everyone she’d ever loved. She’d long despaired that when that time came—the day she finally lost her mind completely—there would be no one left to catch her.

She and Jason had communicated over their linked pair of sand slates, but she’d never told him she was living a life as someone else. She had lied to him, to Ariella, to Cameron…to everyone she’d ever dared care about. The others might have forgiven her, but she hadn’t betrayed them as she had Jason. Once the shock wore off, would he resume his efforts to kill her, or would he simply turn and walk away, as though she’d never even existed?

“When you stopped writing, I thought something had happened to you,” he said.

“My sand slate shattered. I couldn’t repair it,” she replied.

By then, she’d written for nine years to Jason, and those moments at the end of the day, brief as they were, had kept her anchored to sanity. It had devastated her the moment the slate broke, but she hadn’t dared go to him. The Selpe Intelligence Network kept a close eye on all Elitions assigned to collaborate with the empire, most especially one working as their crown prince’s bodyguard. They would know if she went to visit someone as infamous as Jason Chanz. And they would wonder why.

Long ago, King River had warned her what would happen if the Selpes ever figured out who she was, and he’d been completely right. Somehow they had found out, but she couldn’t fathom how. The fallout was perfectly clear, however. Had they remained in the dark, Terra never would have been coerced into betraying Jason or ended up married to Aaron.

“But our paths crossed again,” Jason said. “We’ve been reunited for months and still you never told me. You never trusted me with your secret. Why, Terra? Didn’t you realize that I would do anything to protect you?”