Ensnared (Sorcery and Science Book 5) (30 page)

“Had I told you, you would have taken me away to Eclipse.”

“That very instant,” he affirmed.

“You’d have abandoned the quest to save Hayden and Ian. The Avans would have gotten them.”

“You are more important to me than two Selpe boys.”

“Half-Elition boys. It’s bigger than the two of us, Jason. It was about the good of Elitia.”

“That sounds like a line from one of your father’s tired speeches.”

Terra scowled at him. “Leave my father out of this. You and he may not see eye-to-eye, but he’s always done what he thought best for Elitia.”

“Like murdering my parents.”

“That wasn’t my father. It was a group of Selpe soldiers under Lord Adrian’s thumb!”

“So he says, but I don’t buy it. My parents’ refusal to add their signatures to King River’s precious treaty with the Selpes was a thorn in his grand plans for Elitia. Funny how it all so neatly wrapped up for him.”

“Please, Jason. This is old business.” Terra sighed. “Let’s not dwell on it.”

“Would you rather talk about how you lied to me?” he demanded, his voice trembling with barely contained rage.

Terra withdrew from his arms. She’d never actually seen Jason lose his composure, but she knew he had. And she’d heard stories of the acts of enraged Phantoms. Such endings were never happy—and more often than not, a complete bloodbath.

“I’m sorry,” she peeped out.

“You betrayed me. You know that I eliminate any threat to me.”

“I know.”

“I swore to myself that I would kill you tonight, before you could manipulate me further.”

She nodded mutely.

“At the same time, I swore to my father that I would protect you.” Unblinking, unmoving, Jason’s eyes remained fixed on Terra. He tapped her left arm. “She I have promised to protect.” He tapped the other arm. “She I have sworn to kill. Protect, kill. Protect, kill.”

As he spoke, he repeated the motions, over and over again. Like fluttering wings in the wind, the contradictory words flipped back and forth in dizzying loops between their bodies.

Terra looked at Cameron and said glumly,
“He hates me.”

This night, a thunderstorm was raging outside, throwing frozen hail pellets down upon the roof, but silence reigned inside the house. The percussion of a thousand drums hammered on beside the gentle crackling of the fireplace flames.

“You don’t know that,” Cameron replied, tracing a finger over the pink line of his newly sealed wound.

In a few more minutes, even the pink would fade into his skin, and it would be as though Jason had never stabbed him. Most people considered fast healing one of the best perks of being Elition. The truth of it was that as soon as raging Phantom tempers entered into the equation, it was simply a necessity of survival.

Terra helped Cameron tie a knot in his shirt to cover the noticeable slash in the fabric. “
Jason is unparalleled in many things, not the least of which is to hold a grudge.”

“Perhaps only surpassed by my aggravation at being talked about as though I’m not standing right here,” Jason said.

Cameron shifted his weight to put himself once again between them. Jason snorted at the gesture.

“Cameron, go home. I will not kill your sister.”

“Or harm her in any way,” Cameron insisted.

“Of course not. The moment I even tried, my father would rise from his grave to give me a stern telling-off.” The obsidian in Jason’s eyes softened to a deep brown, and he extended his arm toward the door. “Now, go. Before the storm gets worse. I need to talk to Terra. Alone. I promise you she is safe with me.”

Cameron’s shoulders relaxed, but it was not until Terra nodded that he pulled on a cap and opened the door. A burst of lightning lit up his form as he sprinted home. Darkness and the steady tapping of hail against the ground reigned for a few seconds, then Jason shut the door.

“Explain,” he said.

As it was, Jason’s cold monotone was hard enough to decipher. With his back to her, Terra couldn’t read him at all. But if he really were on the edge of reason, she thought she’d have felt that. Or so she was telling herself.

“Six months ago, King River sent me out
to the edge of the Wilderness, where I was to pose as a human guide to Everett Black. Everett had been hired by one of King River’s agents to find Hayden and Ian Selpe, for he saw the Selpes were doing little to reclaim the kidnapped boys. My first surprise came in finding Cameron with Everett, but that was nothing to the shock I experienced when you found us outside of Lear. After a decade apart, you did not recognize me.”

When Jason said nothing, Terra continued.

“
We’d written, but it was not the same as seeing you in the flesh.” A tear slid down her cheek. “I’d missed you so much.
I wanted to throw myself against you, to embrace my best friend
as we hadn’t in ten years. But it wasn’t about what I wanted. There were two innocent boys to save and besides, my father had taken great risk in hiding me away from his Selpe allies. I would not sully his sacrifice. You yourself had often told me never to come to you, for your enemies would use me against you,” she reminded him.

“That is so,” he said, still not turning to face her.

“I wouldn’t allow anyone to use me to hurt you. I could tell you nothing. And I couldn’t go around hugging you at first sight either. It just might tip everyone off. So I bottled up my joy and put up my barriers so securely that even the Elite Phantom couldn’t break through. Later, when the boys were safely back in Orion, I thought of telling you that night on the balcony. But the Selpes had plans to capture you, Cameron, and Everett, so again I had to worry about other things. I planned to take some time off, to come to you in Eclipse once things had settled down and confess it all then—but obviously, that never happened. Aaron figured out I had warned you, and in his outrage, he had his Diamond Edges throw me into that prison cell. Before Davin could get me out of there, Aaron and Lord Adrian had discovered the truth of who I am.”

“How?” asked Jason.

“I have no idea.”

“Davin is friends with Aaron Selpe.”

Terra shook her head. “Davin didn’t know until Aaron told him. All those years, only my father and I knew the truth, and we never spoke of it, not even to each other.”

“I do not trust Davin Storm.”

“You two never did get along,” Terra recalled. “But in this, he is innocent. Trust me. Had he known I was his sister, he wouldn’t have made so many passes at me. If you’re going to blame him for something, make sure he actually deserves it. It is partially because of him that I was forced to betray you to the Selpes.”

At that, Jason turned around. His eyes were still definitely dark brown, but they were teetering on the edge of going black. “How?”

“Please, Jason, don’t judge him harshly. I myself am trying hard not to.”

“There is little chance of that. Davin has long since sat on my black list, and yet another example of his depravity will certainly not help matters. Now, explain his part in this.”

Terra sighed. She didn’t like speaking ill of her brother, but she couldn’t deny the role he’d played.

“As soon as Lord Adrian discovered who I was, he wanted to ship me off to one of his facilities. He was practically foaming at the mouth at the prospect of throwing me into some Selpe version of Vib’s Menagerie. He said to me often that my hair resembled rose petals. The thought of it just makes me shiver.”

Jason drew a knife and before Terra could blink, he’d thrown it at the far wall. The blade sank into the wood panel. “I knew I should have disposed of Lord Adrian long ago.”

Terra took a moment to allow him a few deep breaths. The past few weeks had clearly been hard on him, so much so that his self-control had cracked. And her story wasn’t helping matters. Perhaps, they should pick up tomorrow…

As though he’d read the thought, Jason turned his black eyes on her and ground out, “Continue.” His tone, saturated in frost-tipped fury, told her he would allow no room for discussion.

“Aaron had other plans. As you know, he’s a bit infatuated with me.”

“Infatuated means sending a woman flowers, not stalking her every step, tearing down everything that stands between him and his ultimate goal of possessing her. Aaron Selpe is a narcissistic sociopath, and he is utterly obsessed with you,” Jason declared. The wooden support beam he was leaning against groaned and trembled as his hold on it tightened.

“You’re jealous,” she said.

As Terra set a hand on his back, Jason lifted his shoulder, shrugging it off. For several minutes, he glared at the front door so intently that she feared it would explode from the fury of his stare. Finally, he spoke, so softly it was but a muted whisper in her ear.

“Yes.”

“Oh, no,” she said, setting her hands down on her hips. “You came here to kill me. You have no right to be jealous.”

“I fail to see how those two matters are related,” he replied levelly.

Well now, my assassin, it looks like our places are finally reversed. Maybe that will make you think twice next time about going along with Queen Gale’s obscene flirtations
, she thought to herself.

Most of his mouth was turned away, but she did catch the hint of a twitch at the corner she could see. He’d heard her thoughts. Somehow. And he was amused. Terra cleared her throat and pushed on with her story.

“So, Aaron met with Davin to tell him who I was. Then, he promised that if I helped him to ensnare you, ensuring his rise to emperor, he would have the power to protect me from the other Selpes. But only if I married him. Apparently, the Selpes aren’t supposed to harm their own imperial family.”

“It seems Lady Cassandra didn’t get that message before she decided to have Ambrose Selpe killed.”

“Certainly not,” agreed Terra. “But with my secret exposed, Davin thought it was the best bet for ensuring my safety. So he agreed to Aaron’s proposal.”

“Without asking you first?”

“Yes.”

“Definitely on my black list,” muttered Jason.

“When Davin told me of his deal with Aaron, I refused to play any part in it. I didn’t want to be a pawn in their games. I would have run away rather than be their pet, and I would have risked death rather than betray you, Jason. But Davin didn’t give me the choice. He’d already agreed to Aaron’s terms. And Aaron’s terms had stipulated a little insurance to make sure I paid up.”

“What kind of insurance?”

“In order to save mine, Davin had to pledge his life and King River’s. From the time that Davin agreed to Aaron’s terms, they were confined to their apartment in the Orion imperial palace, under constant guard. I had one week to deliver you and myself into Aaron’s hands—or the Selpes would execute them both.”

Wood crunched beneath Jason’s hand. “That’s why you were so unhappy when you came to us at Eclipse.”

“I didn’t want to come to you, at least not on their terms,” she replied. “But I couldn’t allow the Selpes to kill my father and brother.”

“Davin is a fool.”

“He thought he was protecting me.” Terra looked down as she brushed her socked toes across the floor. “I’m sorry, Jason. I should have thought of something else. I wanted to tell you, but…I knew how you feel about both Davin and King River. You would have trapped me here for ‘my own protection’ and let them die.”

Jason didn’t say anything. He didn’t need to. Terra could read it in his eyes. She was right.

“I’m sorry I deceived you, Jason. Every step of the way. When you chased after Everett and Nemesis at the Temple of Aurelia, I went to the burning Book of Prophecy. I took a Phantom-accentuating serum, using the borrowed power to create a false message. That Terra Cross was at the Shroud. That was where the Selpes told me to lead you.”

“You drugged me,” he said, his voice harsh. “I trusted you.”

She looked down, guilt crushing her heart. “I knew the Selpes wouldn’t kill you.
You’re too valuable to them. I was sure I could find some way to get you out before they gave up on trying to bend you to their will. Lord Adrian is an arrogant man, and he loves a challenge. He said… No, he
promised
he’d break your mind with serums, and once you were broken, he’d—” She swallowed hard. “—make you his hand of death, unstoppable and his alone. His assassin. Lord Adrian desires Elitions, just as he hates us. He wants to submit us all to his authority. To dominate us in body, mind, and soul. To make us serve them.”

“I will never be a slave to the Selpes,” he declared, his eyes oozing black ice.

“I knew he wouldn’t break you so easily. But Lord Adrian was so sure. So boastful.
I tried to feed his sick desire for domination. I told him you would never submit, and that only made him want to break you all the more. I knew that would keep him from killing you, at least until I could free you. But I needed time. I spent weeks tracking down every Elition who owed me a favor. I couldn’t help you directly, you see. That would be a breach of the agreement and put my family at risk. At last, I had everything in place. And then Lord Adrian nearly recked it all with his ridiculous scheme to have me kill Veronica Frostwater.”

Jason submerged from his seething rage long enough to ask, “Why did you kill her? You do remember that for most Prophets it’s mental suicide to kill someone?”

“I’m certainly no exception,” she agreed glumly. “Aaron and Lord Adrian got it into their heads that Veronica was gathering support for a rebellion and decided it would be best if she were to meet her end sooner rather than later. Since she’d employed the Crescent Order as her bodyguard detail, they furthermore concluded that only a specially-trained Elition would be successful in such an assassination attempt. As it seemed unlikely you would agree to take the job, Lord Adrian volunteered me to do it, and then he found some obscure clause in the Selpe marriage contract that would mean the deaths of me, Davin, and King River should I refuse.