She pressed her lips together in a tight smile. “Thank you.”
She braced herself on the bed and climbed out slowly. Josephine was a person, just like anyone else. Nora could persuade her, right? As much as she tried, she couldn’t bring herself to believe this would go well. She plodded to the door, forcing her heart back into her chest.
Chapter 32
Tobin shivered and rolled onto his side. The ground beneath him was cold and hard. He blinked, trying to focus, but the dim light offered little information about his surroundings. His head throbbed. Hangover? No. The pain radiated from his cheek and just above his ear like only blows to the head could.
A fight.
He rolled onto his back again, thinking over the last day. Nora’s sweet smile as she’d told him she wanted to make new memories with him. The love in her eyes had returned. He wouldn’t have thought it was possible, but it had filled parts of him that had been empty for years. And the way she had cuddled beside him in the hospital bed. Even though they had both been exhausted and uncertain about their future, there had been hope there—a promise for the future that no matter what the day brought, he could rest, holding her at night.
The rock beneath him chilled him to his core—as if he needed further evidence that things had changed.
He sighed, shutting his eyes. He should have seen the attack coming. He had spent enough nights in the hospital as Head of the Guard to know it was never dark and quiet. He should have found a way to call for back up before he’d investigated.
He opened his eyes again but didn’t need visual confirmation to know where he was—he was back in the Tavian dungeon where he had found Nora.
Only this time, there would be no rescue.
He shivered from the dankness, but he made no effort to move. What was the point? The sedative they’d injected, the way the attackers had fought: aiming for his arms and legs rather than kill strikes—they’d meant to apprehend him. There was only one reason why the Tavians would have gone through so much trouble to bring him in alive: to kill him here in a very public and painful way.
He balled his hands into fists. They might kill him, but his death wouldn’t be a spectacle. He wasn’t leaving this cell without a fight.
A foot scraping across the stone floor echoed through the cavern.
“Nora?” He sprang into the air and ran to the rusty iron bars that lined the opening of his cell.
The drugs had worked too quickly. He hadn’t seen what had happened to her. He waited for a response, silently hoping and pleading she was far away from here and safe from any Tavians. He pressed his head along the bars, wishing he could see into the other cells.
“Calm down, Kalos. Leonora isn’t here.”
Tobin froze. The deep voice was familiar. Jasper Bishop.
“Is she safe?”
Another long pause followed. “For now,” Jasper replied. “If she had been taken, they would have brought her here.”
Tobin didn’t like the anticipation in Jasper’s voice. He squinted as he searched the cavern, his hands aching to close around Jasper’s neck. “It was you. You brought me here. You’ll stop at nothing until you have a Seer.”
Jasper chuckled. “You don’t know your enemy. Leonora isn’t the goal right now. This is about you, and how you publicly embarrassed Cyrus Renaud, leader of the ruling family.”
Tobin knew who Cyrus was—and he didn’t care about his embarrassment.
“If it were me, I wouldn’t have brought you here,” Jasper added in a vitriolic tone. “I would have killed you immediately. Unfortunately for you, Cyrus likes to play with his prey before he kills it.”
Tobin searched the cavern in the flickering torchlight. Nothing. “Where are you?”
There was a long pause. “In the cell next to you. Cyrus wants the same fate for me as he plans for you.”
Jasper was a tenant of his own dungeon? What happened?
A set of pock marks from their last brawl caught Tobin’s eye, and he smirked. The ruling family must have held Jasper accountable for Nora’s rescue. Good. None of this would have happened if he hadn’t pursued Nora in the first place.
Tobin backed away from the bars and lowered himself to the ground. His desire for vengeance on Jasper waned in the silence, surprising him. The only thing that remained was relief. Tobin had been able to protect Nora before Jasper got involved; maybe with him behind bars, Nora stood a chance at a free life, safe from the Tavians.
Free. Safe. Happy.
His heart ached. He wanted so badly to be part of her new life, but this was the best he could hope for—she could live. She could grow old. She deserved happiness. And as long as Nora was safe, he could die happy.
A sound echoed from the corridor. Then another. His spine went rigid.
The rhythmic pad of hurried footsteps became clear. In a way it was a relief—a quick death.
He watched the opening to the cavern, concentrating on the approaching steps. Light. Quiet. Not what he expected in an opponent, but it didn’t matter. He was ready for anything.
The footsteps neared.
Any moment now.
The pale, petite figure of a woman in a black dress crept into the cavern. Her white hair was drawn up on both sides and hung down her back in silky curls. The younger sibling of the ruling family. Annabel, maybe? Intelligence reports on her said she was largely silent and powerless in her brother’s shadow. He had seen her only once before, and that had been in the dungeon with Nora.
He eyed the dark hall, listening for anyone else. Silence.
She inched along the wall. Her steps were skittish, but her eyes were like ice—like blue ice. His jaw dropped. She was a Variant.
“Annabel!” Jasper whispered. “What are you doing here?”
Annabel broke eye contact with Tobin and rushed to the cell next to his own.
The frown remained fixed on Tobin’s face as he watched her, but Jasper’s voice echoed in his mind: rushed, quiet tone.
Concern. Fear.
Love.
Tobin’s head fell back as his lungs deflated. She wasn’t here for him. She was here for Jasper.
Every muscle in Jasper’s body tensed as Annabel approached him. The pain from his stomach weakened his legs, but it would have to wait. It was far too dangerous for her to be here.
Her hands rested on the bars. “I had to see you.”
He shut his eyes. Remy Sacarro could make his move at any moment. Jasper should be telling her to leave Octavius, but even now he couldn’t resist her. He slipped his hands between the bars and allowed his fingertips to settle along the curve of her waist.
She cradled his face in her hands until he opened his eyes. “Are you okay?”
“Don’t worry about me,” he replied. “Do you remember that box in my room? Go get it, and use the coordinates to teleport out—”
“My plan will work,” she said, pulling away.
“Things have changed. The Sacarros are ready to overthrow your family. I can’t protect you—”
Her eyes hardened. “You were right about my anger. I see that now, but I’m a Seer, remember? This can work!”
Jasper took a deep breath. If he wanted any chance of her heeding his warning, he had to stay calm. “No one can know that about you, and I can see a million different ways it goes wrong. Promise me you’ll go.”
She folded her arms. “I’m seeing this through.”
“If they get to you…” He couldn’t finish. He reached for her and she slowly returned to his arms. “Just promise me.”
“I’ll get the box, but if I have to use it I’m coming to get you first. We can leave together.”
Leave together? The thought alone nearly pulled his body through the bars, but it was too risky. She might not know there was a problem until it was too late. Her best chance was to sneak away when no one was watching and disappear. “I need you to be safe.”
She placed a warm hand on his face. “I told you I’d never break another promise.�
�� She paused, shaking her head. “But I can’t promise that. I won’t leave you here.”
The words fed a part of him that desperately needed her. He ran a hand through her hair, smiling bitterly. “This is bigger than your brother now. I couldn’t handle it if Remy hurt you. You have to get out before it’s too late.”
She sprang to her toes, planting a deep and passionate kiss on his lips through the bars. All logical thought crumbled. He pulled her close, resenting the bars between them.
“I’ll come back as soon as everything is ready. If the plan fails, I’ll break you out, and you can take me wherever you want.” She strode for the corridor.
He grasped at the air in her wake. “Annabel, no! We talked about this. You can’t act alone.”
His hands clamped around the bars as her footsteps moved farther and farther down the corridor. She’d left him in the darkness with no means of keeping her safe. He wouldn’t even know if something had happened. Brock was busy with Cyrus’s crazy errands. He might not be able to stop something, either.
Jasper bowed his head, taking deep, slow breaths. He’d have to just ride this out, trust Brock, play the long game…
Nope. This was a disaster. The pressure built until he unleashed a loud thundering roar that echoed through the cavern. Searing pain ripped across his stomach, but he didn’t regret it.
Tobin chuckled darkly.
Jasper reached for the pulse gun in his thigh holster before he remembered it had been confiscated. “One word out of you, Kalos…”
Tobin laughed louder.
He wouldn’t be laughing like that if Jasper shot him in the stomach.
“Truth be told, I’d be doing the same thing,” Tobin said.
They’d never do the same thing. They might both be acting out of love, but Tobin was still brash, impatient, and heavy-handed in his techniques. Jasper was calculating, intelligent; they were not the same. Jasper began to pace through his pain.
“A member of the ruling family, huh? Is that what landed you here?”
“Don’t say another word about her! In fact, I don’t want you even thinking about her. Understand?”
Tobin scoffed. “Calm down. I’m not a threat to her in here. Although, I am curious. Did I hear that right? She’s a Seer?”
Jasper stopped and shut his eyes. Heavy silence hung over the cavern.
“She is a Seer!” Tobin said with a laugh. “How have the Tavians hidden a Seer for so long? Especially one that’s a member of the ruling family? I watched Nora’s transformation firsthand. Seers start to manifest their talents very young.”
Each step was agonizing for Jasper, but he needed to move. He wouldn’t confirm or deny anything. Tobin could try to use the information to buy his freedom. Maybe if he got some of the facts wrong, Cyrus wouldn’t believe him.
Tobin gasped. “Doctor Fry! He specialized in genetic therapies. That’s why you kidnapped him. You were trying to make a Seer.”
How had he put all of that together? He was smarter than Jasper had thought. “It wasn’t my plan.”
“That’s what happened though, right?” Tobin snickered. “You Tavians never cease to amaze me. That had to have been a risky procedure. Why would you do it? Because someone else had a fancier toy than you?”
“Again, it wasn’t my idea,” Jasper said through a clenched jaw. Maybe he could ask Brock to shoot Tobin; that would silence him.
“Why Nora, then?” Tobin asked. His voice was twisted with pain. “Why spend all the time and effort trying to get her, too?”
Jasper sighed. “Leonora was a loose end at first, but when Cyrus got impatient with Annabel, Leonora became a contingency. He’s never accepted the truce. He intended to use her to renegotiate the terms of the treaty.”
“You need to get over the war. The Tavians lost.”
“The Niotians would never have been able to argue for half of the points in the treaty if it weren’t for your panel of Seers.”
“Maybe not, but the Tavians were facing annihilation. You should be grateful we didn’t use the Seers to mount attacks to kill every last one of you. That would have been my plan.”
Jasper should have been angry—he wanted to be angry. He wasn’t. “If you care so much, why did you leave?”
Tobin didn’t respond, but Jasper didn’t really care. What was the point of arguing about the war from a dungeon cell? It didn’t matter to him anymore. All that mattered now was keeping Annabel safe. He’d do anything to make that happen.
Just like Tobin.
That was it.
“You left Nios because they exiled Leonora.”
Tobin sighed. “I couldn’t fight for a society that would do something like that.”
Jasper would have done the same—maybe even worse; he would do worse if he ever got close to Cyrus or Remy again. For a while, the only sounds were Jasper’s footsteps.
“So this is how it ends,” Tobin said with a distant tone. “Two Heads of the Guard fallen from grace and condemned to die because we dared to love someone.”
Jasper snickered. “You don’t understand Cyrus. This isn’t about love—he doesn’t understand that. He doesn’t like consequences, and he doesn’t tolerate rivals—not me, not his sister, and especially not the Niotians.”
“Cyrus doesn’t tolerate rivals,” Tobin mocked. “What a Tavian concept.”
Just when Jasper was developing some amount of respect for him. “I gave you more credit. Don’t confuse Cyrus with other Tavians.”
“You expect me to believe you’re all upstanding individuals? You forget I fought against you for years.”
“I will do what I have to when the situation calls for it, and I’ve never felt bad about that,” Jasper said coldly. “Cyrus is different. He enjoys killing.”
“Seems to me like you’re trying to draw distinctions where there are none. I’m supposed to think better of you because you would have killed me in Nios rather than bringing me here?”
Jasper sneered despite the pain. “Trust me when I say he makes me look like a great humanitarian. And you think you’re in a position to judge? I watched you drive a car into a group of my guards without the slightest hesitation. You want to demonize me? That’s fine, but you and I are the same.”
He froze at his own words. Had he really just said that? They were the same? He rubbed his jaw, unable to avoid the truth.
They were more alike than different.
Tobin’s sure footsteps thudded across the floor. “We are not the same. You use people like they’re tools to get what you want. You kill them when they’re no longer of use to you, and the only thing you answer to is your desires. I have a sense of justice. I only fight to protect the people I love, and I don’t kill unless I absolutely have to.”
Jasper smirked. Tobin’s voice had been harsh, overemotional. Belligerence might have demanded he stick to his beliefs about Tavians, but Jasper heard the slight emotional rasp. Doubt.
“I overestimated you. You only see what you want to see, which is a fatal flaw when studying your rivals. You’re not the only one with a cause. Let’s hope you do a better job of judging Cyrus when the time comes.”
Beyond his pacing, Tobin offered no response.
Jasper grinned—he was right, and Tobin knew it. Jasper leaned against the wall and slid to the floor. Their similarities had shocked him, but if someone had to discover Annabel’s secret, Tobin was better than most.
Chapter 33
Nora flopped one foot in front of the other, the hallway blurring around her. She braced herself on the wall. How long would it be before the drugs were out of her system?
Her eyes fell shut. A few more steps, and she’d be in Josephine’s room, pitching an outrageous plan and asking for what was sure to be highly classified material. She couldn’t look like a drunken mess.
“You’re not supposed to be out here. Do you need something?”
Nora’s eyes flew open and settled on a nurse with her hands on her hips. Her brown hair was pulled u
p into a high bun, accentuating her round face. Judging from her scowl, the question hadn’t come from concern.
Nora smiled weakly, her mind numb. “Um, no. I just need some fresh air.”
“It’s important patients stay in their assigned quarters in case we need to find them later.”
Nora frowned. It made sense; they needed to dole out medication, and the surgical procedures continued. The nurse might have been overworked, frazzled, and grieving. But there was more behind her words—something darker.
“I’ll head back to my room in a minute, I promise,” Nora murmured.
The woman narrowed her eyes but finally nodded and stalked away to the busy nurses’ station down the hall. She peered over her shoulder at Nora. Her gray eyes were cold, but alert, confirming Nora’s suspicions. She was being watched.
She rolled off the wall and stumbled her way to Josephine’s room. In a drugged stupor or not, she’d have to make her case before she ran out of time. The door was closed. Nora swallowed hard and knocked.
Nothing.
This was her chance. She might not be able to come back. She fumbled for the door knob and peeked inside.
Josephine lay propped up on pillows in the room’s only bed. Highlights of red shimmered in her long, brown ponytail. Every feature from her deep brown eyes and straight nose to her long, toned but slender arms was flawless. No one would think Josephine came by her looks naturally in the real world.
Josephine glared at her, rarely blinking. “And I thought my day couldn’t get any worse.”
Nora’s gaze fell to her own hands.
What had she wanted to say?
More importantly, how had Tobin neglected to mention that Josephine was a Greek goddess? He had married Nora to avoid being paired with her?
“Yes?” Josephine asked sharply, breaking through Nora’s spinning thoughts.
Nora shut the door behind her. This was for Tobin. He was in trouble, and she’d do anything to save him—including talking to the icy model of human perfection.
“I know you and I have had our differences.” The words tripped from her mouth as she begged herself to get it together. “But I need to speak with you.”
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