The healer looked at him, a pitying expression in her dark eyes. “I’ll try some potions. The symptoms are difficult to diagnose on a human. It is probably a poison that affects them more than us. Whatever I use will be trial and error.”
Ranove came up to Gorzo, and Gorzo nearly swung on the duke, his primal still focusing on Ranove’s accusation.
Ranove held up his hands. “Control yourself, General. I haven’t come to harm her. I may be able to help. Lilith has imported a large variety of antidotes to common human poisons as well as those that are found in the jungle. She also has a database we can use to isolate her symptoms and potentially determine what poison was used.”
Gorzo focused all his attention on Ranove, although he didn’t release Jessa’s hand. “Do whatever it takes to save her!”
“I’ll summon Sari and have her direct Lilith.”
Stacia interrupted her heated conversation with her mate over the body of their enemy to address Ranove. “Don’t bother. I’ll go to Lilith and get her started on searching the database. We’ll get her fixed up, Gorzo. Don’t despair.” She flung one last glare at Balfor and then disappeared into the shadows.
Balfor turned back to the elder healer. “Continue on. Uriale still must be revived. I will have answers from both of them.”
Ranove turned back to Gorzo, lowering his voice. “Even if she makes it, you must understand what this means. There’s too much of a coincidence here.”
Gorzo clenched his free hand to keep from scratching Ranove with the venom now dripping from his claws. His primal was eager for a fight—any action seemed better than waiting here helplessly for someone else to save his mate. Ranove seemed determined to make himself a target. “She’s not responsible for this!”
“And if she is?”
They both glanced at Balfor, who was watching them with a knowing look that suggested he heard their conversation perfectly even though he was halfway across the room.
“Then I deal with that if it comes to that.” Gorzo didn’t care if Jessa was responsible for the death of Uriale, though he understood the gravity of the situation. Uriale’s death would clear the way for another adurian prince to gain the Father’s power, and the war between umbrose and adurians could begin all over again. He should care, but he didn’t. All he cared about was not losing the other half of his soul for the second time in his life.
“If she betrayed us, it means her dea—”
This time Gorzo did grab Ranove, digging the claws of both of his hands into Ranove’s meaty shoulders. “I know what it means! I said I would deal with it, but I will not condemn someone who cannot even respond to such accusations!”
The duke winced at the sting of venom as his black blood dripped down his arms.
“General!” Balfor’s reprimand was sharp, but Gorzo didn’t immediately release Ranove.
Ranove sighed. “I am deeply sorry, my friend.”
Gorzo dropped his hands and turned back to Jessa’s prone form on the bed. “We don’t know anything yet.”
Chapter 21
The pain was what woke Jessa up. It felt like her body was aflame, a conflagration consuming muscle and sinew, scorching heart and lungs. She screamed, the agony of her mouth moving adding to the power of her cries.
“Please, Schodecora, be calm.” The voice was a familiar one, a beloved one. Gorzo was there. Though the pain didn’t subside, she felt a sense of serenity flow through her. He was still by her side. Her memory felt hazy, but he stood out in sharp contrast. He always would.
“Do not give her any more pain medication. We need her clearheaded to answer the charges.” That voice was one she didn’t recognize. Dark, hard, and cold. It was a voice of anger. A voice that would have stricken fear into her if she hadn’t known that Gorzo was with her. He would protect her from the owner of that voice.
“You will not make her suffer!” Gorzo’s voice was also hard with anger, directed at the stranger.
“Recall who you’re speaking to, General.”
“I would not care if you were using the Mother’s own voice. You will not make my Schodecora suffer. Give her the pain medication.”
Growling and the sound of scuffling made Jessa determined to open her eyes, even if the pain inspired her to keep them closed. She struggled to squint through the haze, but only shadows greeted her.
Stacia’s voice was sharp with reprimand. “That’s enough from both of you! Gorzo, I’m no more willing to make her suffer than you are, but she must answer at least one question. We have to know if the danger is still here in Sanctuary.”
“The danger is long gone.” The whispered voice was so weak and pained that Jessa wondered if it had come from her own lips, and she just hadn’t been aware of speaking, but upon turning her head—with a hiss for the sharp rush of agony through her body—she saw the speaker.
He was nearly unrecognizable. If she hadn’t grown up on images of him, she wouldn’t have been able to place a name to the barely-alive mess that sat shackled to the floor of the sterile room they were in. Yet, despite the wounds and crooked bones and molted feathers, she knew who she was looking at. The prince of the Lords. The ruler of all. Prince Uriale.
The Lord of Lords was diminished not only by his condition, but also by the towering umbrose who stood over him, glaring down at him with pure hatred on his impossibly handsome face. “I want the girl’s answer, not yours.”
Despite his obvious weakness, the adurian still managed to sneer at the umbrose, revealing sharp teeth that had been stripped of all their gold adornment. “The Diakonos believed their loose end tied. They did not remain. They will be long gone.” Though she’d heard audio recordings of Prince Uriale speaking, the meek whisper was unrecognizable. His voice no longer boomed. It no longer shook the ground. He was a shadow of his former self, trapped in a city of shadows bent on seeing him suffer. Three years ago, she’d stopped feeling awe for the Lord of Lords, but she never imagined she would feel pity for him until now.
“Jessa.” Stacia’s veiled face came into view as her body blocked Jessa’s sight of the Lord she’d once placed above all. “You must answer this question before we can give you any relief. Is the poisoner still here?”
“Gone….” It was a struggle to get the word out. Not just because of the fiery pain that crisped her tongue, but also because it was an admission of guilt. That she knew—that she understood what had happened—would tell them all what they obviously already suspected. She didn’t care about the opinion of the others, but Gorzo was there, watching her with a devastated expression. The realization had already dawned for him, but she saw how her one word hammered it home in a way that even love could not deny. She’d betrayed him.
“Give her the pain meds.” Gorzo’s tone was flat, emotionless. The darkness of his eyes seemed to grow even darker, until they were voids reflecting nothing but emptiness.
Uriale looked up from his contemplation of the floor, where he squatted like an animal. Ragged tatters of his once lustrous platinum hair framed a face ravaged by fists and starvation. “I want to know why they took my glow.” There was some strength in his tone, some last remainder of the determination that was so obviously the only thing keeping him breathing.
The umbrose prince looked disgusted as he turned to Jessa. “I hate to agree with my enemy, but I also have the same question. They didn’t come here to kill Uriale and free the Father’s power. Otherwise, they would have simply killed him, not left him half-dead.” He approached her bed, turning his back on his enemy in a way that wouldn’t have been smart if Uriale had not been so completely destroyed. “You will answer my question, girl, or you will continue to suffer.”
Stacia was the one to step in front of Prince Balfor, blocking his path to Jessa. Gorzo watched her with an unreadable expression, motionless in the face of Balfor’s aggression towards her. As she’d feared—as she deserved—he’d abandoned her to the fate she’d brought upon herself.
There was no point in avoiding question
s. She owed no more loyalty to the Diakonos, and she couldn’t do anything more to help Micah. Letting the umbrose know the truth at this point wouldn’t change anything. “Micah….” The word came out on a sigh of released breath. It was more difficult than she thought to articulate. It simply hurt too much to talk, even to think.
Stacia blew out a breath in frustration, causing her veil to quiver. “I’m giving her an injection. It will help her feel comfortable enough to speak.” She didn’t wait for Balfor to object as she disappeared out of Jessa’s immediate view.
Jessa didn’t feel the prick of the needle, so assumed there was an IV hooked to her somewhere. She had no intention of turning her head to look for it. It wasn’t long before she felt the flow of the painkiller. The intensity of the fire in her body decreased, allowing the capacity of her breaths to increase. The better to answer her accusers. The better to tell the truth that had haunted her for nearly five years. “Micah is a hybrid… human and adurian. Created…to be the next god…and replace the adurians…as our lord.”
The curse was loud and furious. So much so, that it was shocking that it had come from the broken adurian on the floor who’d only been able to whisper up until this point. “The Diakonos will pay for this abomination!”
Balfor glanced back at Uriale, before turning his attention to Jessa again. “I’m almost pleased that your people have so thoroughly betrayed the adurians. Unfortunately, I have no intention of allowing this abomination either.”
“Micah… you can’t hurt him!” She struggled to sit up, hissing at the pain. Gorzo jerked forward, then stopped, quickly turning his head away from her. She blinked tears out of her eyes. “He’s just a little boy! Not responsible for….” The painkillers were kicking in strong now as she slumped back onto the bed. “He’s… innocent.”
Stacia appeared back in front of Jessa again. “They took Uriale’s glow to put in the child?”
“Fools!” Uriale’s voice was back to a muttered whisper. “It will kill the boy.”
Jessa tried to shake her head and then froze when the movement proved that the painkiller had only dulled the pain, not made it go away. Still, now that she could draw breath, she was better able to speak, though the drug would soon dull her mental faculties. “It’s only a fungus. That’s what the scientists say. It infects the nervous system, augmenting natural abilities and adding new ones to help its host protect it and spread it—but humans can’t handle it and always die from the fungal infection. Adurian physiology allows them to live with it inside them as a symbiont. Micah has that physiology.”
Stacia glanced at Balfor with wide eyes, before turning to look over her shoulder at the broken Uriale. “Your power comes from a fungus?”
“My power comes from the Father! It will kill the abomination! The creature will not be able to contain it.”
Anxiety like acid burned Jessa’s heart. She feared that Uriale was correct. The scientists had done many studies on the rare fungus that gave the adurians their glow. She’d not been privy to all of them, but she did know that the fungus attacked and painfully destroyed the human nervous system in every case. If they’d made even the slightest miscalculation, Micah would die a horrible death when the fungus was introduced into his little body. Yet, the sentinel had said that he was dying without it, because adurian physiology had adapted to require the symbiont.
The scientists who ran Project Glory theorized that Uriale’s infection was rarer than the other adurians due to a genetic anomaly that worked even better with the fungus, giving him special abilities that maximized his natural prowess. They’d created Micah specifically to harness those abilities. He’d been created from genetic material stolen from Uriale himself, brought to them by females who’d been sent to the prince as gifts. Micah was Uriale’s son.
She knew that telling him that wouldn’t change anyone’s minds. Even if the prince of the Lords was suddenly struck by some paternal instinctual love for a hybrid he’d never seen, Uriale was a dead Lord. Even she could see that. If he lived out the day, it would surprise her. Although, odds were good that she herself would not get to see another sunrise.
Gorzo wouldn’t look at her. He stood with his arms crossed over his massive chest, staring at the far wall that was out of her view. What he saw there, she couldn’t say. Perhaps it wasn’t anything she could’ve seen even if she could turn her head. She’d lost him. No, I never had him. This was always going to be the end result.
They would execute her. That much she knew from the many forms she’d filled out before coming to Sanctuary. The Common Counsel couldn’t save her even if they were so inclined, which they wouldn’t be. Death was the punishment for conspiring with the enemies of the umbrose.
This moment of suffering was only the precursor to what she’d soon feel. She had no doubt of that.
Chapter 22
Jessa had finally passed out from the drugs that Princess Stacia had given her. Gorzo couldn’t resist looking at her sleeping form again, though it pained him to see her, lying there so beautiful and fragile—his to protect—and yet feel the incredible betrayal from her treachery.
Learning the truth of what she’d done hadn’t changed the truth of who she was. She was still the other half of his soul. Yet he wasn’t sure he could ever forgive her. The pain was almost as bad as it had been when he’d lost Kasara. The only difference being that Jessa still lived. For the moment.
That moment wouldn’t be a long one. Balfor was already determined to execute Jessa once she was in a condition to face her charges and march to her own execution. Of course, there were other questions that needed to be asked.
Jessa had tried to tell them the location of the secret facility where the hybrid was being kept, but her information was sketchy at best. She’d been escorted in and out through tunnels to the underground facility, so what she knew might not be enough to lead them directly to the place.
Still, with Balfor’s shadows searching the general area Jessa was able to direct them to, they could probably find the facility within a day or two. The prince had already sent many of his shadows off to search it. Everyone who now knew of the child all recognized that he was a threat. If the creature managed to survive the introduction of Uriale’s glow to his body, he would be even more of a threat, but even his very existence created issues. If the Diakonos had made one, they could make others.
Hybrids between humans and adurians had no more been considered than hybrids between humans and umbrose. In fact, humans and adurians had been inter-mating for much longer than humans and umbrose had, though the way the adurians viewed humans, it hadn’t been out of any love for the wingless beings. The adurians had used them as toys, but there had never been any rumor, or even hint, that a hybrid could exist. It seemed too impossible, though Gorzo suspected that both Lady Lilith and Princess Stacia might have hoped otherwise. The umbrose and the adurians did not give live birth as the humans did, but rather laid eggs. Humans had a completely different biology. What their scientists had accomplished was a feat that shouldn’t have happened.
Yet when Gorzo thought about the future he might have had with Jessa, he wished that he could figure out a way to combine their essences into a child of their own. As angry and betrayed as he felt at Jessa, he understood the urge that she’d felt to have children and nurture them. He understood the pain that she’d undergone at losing the one child she’d borne. He’d lost his younglings, spawn born to him from Kasara. Though he hadn’t been deeply involved in their upbringing—as it wasn’t the way of the umbrose to have the males raise their young—he’d watched with pride as they grew under the careful tutelage of the brood mothers. His oldest had already gotten his first markings by the time the raiders came and killed them all.
A gentle hand settled on his shoulder. “Don’t torture yourself, Gorzo. You can’t do anything more for her.”
Gorzo didn’t shift away from Princess Stacia’s sympathetic gesture, but he also didn’t look at her. “This may be all the time I ha
ve left.”
Stacia sighed heavily. “She betrayed you. Everything she did was a lie to introduce that damned robotic cat into Sanctuary.”
This time Gorzo did shift his shoulder away, glancing at Stacia. “Not everything. I still believe she meant it when she said she loved me.”
He could see the pity in her alien eyes above her veil, and it made him angry, but he held his tongue. Though he’d defied Balfor and had actually fought him—which should have landed him in the arena to be punished—he would not disrespect Stacia. She was acting out of compassion. That she was wrong didn’t change her motives.
“Perhaps she did, Gorzo.” Stacia glanced down at the sleeping woman. “I don’t doubt that you could win her over in such a short amount of time, but even so….” Her eyes met his and they were glassy with unshed tears. “She’s doomed. You can’t do anything to save her.”
Stacia was assuming that Gorzo wanted to save her. He realized in that moment that her assumption was correct. He was furious at Jessa’s betrayal. He wanted to hate her, but he never could. Even if she wasn’t his true-mate, he’d learned too much about her to hate her. She’d been alone in the world, abandoned by everyone. The Diakonos had played on her need to belong. They’d given her a purpose and a reason for living. Then they’d taken it away from her and given her a mission to earn it back.
Gorzo didn’t think there was any actress talented enough to pretend at the guilt Jessa suffered over her actions. Now he also understood why she couldn’t let go of her guilt over Micah’s creation.
“There’s still time for Prince Balfor to change his mind. We have to find the kid before Jessa is… before the sentence is carried out.”
“Oh, Gorzo.” Stacia shook her head. “Balfor is never going to change his mind on this. I know his thoughts. His anger is too great. She will die. You must accept that.”
Jessabelle's Beast (Shadows in Sanctuary Book 3) Page 13