Chrysander wielded the pin like a dagger, pointing it at Gorzo. “I want to have the freedom to determine our own destiny, not to be servants to the Lords and their dictates. I spent over a decade of my life on Project Glory for that reason and that reason alone. I don’t care about ruling over anyone. Our science was forbidden! The study of our origins was forbidden. Research into the advanced technologies left behind by our ancestors was forbidden. The Lords had no right to take this from us!”
While it was an interesting insight into the relationship between the adurians and the Diakonos, the conversation was moving away from what he wanted to know. Dr. Chyrsander’s motives didn’t matter to him. What she could do was far more interesting. “So Duke Ranove was here. Did you tell him you could create a child for him and his mate?”
Her lip curled. “I told him what I’ll tell you. I won’t make demon abominations.”
“Even though you know we’re not demons.”
She was silent for a long moment. This time, she wasn’t even pretending to meet his eyes. Instead she took a couple of steps further away from the cell door. When she answered, her voice was hesitant, lacking the defiance she’d showed thus far. “I’m a scientist. There’s no magic in what you do. You’re like the adurians.”
Gorzo expected she’d say something like this. Her assessment didn’t bother him, but it would probably bother some other umbrose. He wondered how Ranove had taken the news. “You think we’re infected with a fungus.”
“Maybe a fungus—or maybe some other symbiont native to this world. The exact nature of the lifeform is difficult to pinpoint, even after all our study. It shares characteristics with several different organisms, while not fitting comfortably into any one category. What we do know for certain is that it aids your rapid regeneration, boosts your strength and agility, and allows you to manipulate electromagnetic fields. In the case of the umbrose, it allows you to avert light, rather than cause it to coalesce. It is also likely that it is responsible for the weakness of the adurians to your kind and vice versa.” She shrugged. “I can’t go into much more detail on that. It wasn’t my area of expertise.”
His opinion of the humans’ beliefs about the adurians and the umbrose wasn’t very high. There was so much they were unaware of, so many things they couldn’t possibly understand. There might be some truth to what she said, but it was only a partial truth. Of that, he was certain. “If you’re so sure that this is all there is to us, why weren’t you able to keep Micah alive.”
To his surprise, a sheen of tears glossed her brown irises before she turned her back on him. She made an abrupt motion that suggested she was swiping them away, but her voice was steady when she answered. “We were certain that what we were dealing with was a fungus, but it’s possible we weren’t quite accurate. Even the deadly fungus, scytha spora, doesn’t infiltrate the body as quickly as the specimen we took from Uriale.” She shrugged her narrow shoulders. When she turned back to Gorzo, her eyes were clear of any sign of tears. “It was a miscalculation. Something we missed.”
“So your science doesn’t have all the answers.” He didn’t bother making that a question. He hadn’t made a study of the humans and their technology the way Ranove had, but he knew enough to understand that they often made mistakes, which usually turned out to be critical. Micah’s death was one such mistake, and it appeared that it hadn’t left this scientist unscathed.
She shrugged. “It doesn’t matter. We would have started again. Found another surrogate—”
Gorzo growled, and she staggered back to the corner of the cell as far from him as she could get, her eyes so wide that the whites showed all around the round centers of them. “If that was your plan, then at least we have captured you soon enough to avert it.”
Though she was now visibly trembling so much that her legs couldn’t hold her, and she crouched down in the corner, she still managed a bit of defiance in her voice. “You really think it’s that simple? I’m the chief geneticist, but I wasn’t the only one working on Project Glory. I had a team.”
Realization struck Gorzo. “They abandoned you, just like they abandoned Jessa.” He’d spoken more to himself than to her, but the doctor heard him.
“They left behind an army of enforcers. I’d hardly call that abandonment.”
“Why were you still there?”
She chewed her lip, still watching him warily. “To clean up. Our operations were being relocated after Micah’s… after our setback.”
“Where is the new base?”
She collapsed back against the wall, sliding down until she was sitting on the hard stone floor. “I don’t know. If you’re hopeful of torturing the location out of me, you’ll be wasting your time. They don’t give us coordinates. They just ship us there when we’re ready to go. We live where we work. We never leave the facility until the project is finished.” She gave another bitter laugh. “You’ll never find it, and they’ll never come for me, so don’t hope I’ll be bait.”
“So they did abandon you.”
Her eyes narrowed, but she still wouldn’t meet his steady gaze. “They did what they had to.” Without what seemed to be conscious thought, she caught a braid between her fingers and toyed with it. “You see us as the monsters. That’s rich.” Another humorless chuckle followed that statement. “We’re not. I don’t agree with everything we have to do, but we do what we must for the cause. That doesn’t make us monsters.”
Gorzo shrugged. “My concern isn’t for you or your causes. I’m only marking time because my mate was also betrayed by your people.”
She remained silent, though a muscle jumped in her jaw as if she were gritting her teeth.
“Jessabelle Ellis. Do you know her? Your people injected her with a poison.”
“They said she would be extracted along with the specimen.” Her tone was soft; nearly a whisper, but Gorzo still heard it.
“They left her to die. Painfully.”
Chrysander looked up at him. “They didn’t tell me that. She was… a good person.” Her tone sounded as if she meant it.
“She still lives. The Diakonos failed.”
Chrysander nodded in an abstracted fashion, her gaze fixed on the blank rock in front of her. “Good. I wonder if they’ll try to kill me.”
“You’re a loose end.”
“I know.”
“The prince might be willing to protect you, for the right price.” Gorzo wasn’t certain of this, but he had a strong suspicion it was true. He’d seen the look on Ranove’s face at the facility. The yearning expression. The hope. Balfor was as in love with his mate as Ranove was in love with Lilith. They wanted to take that bond even further, and this woman might be the answer to that. Gorzo had his own feelings on that, but it wouldn’t matter, because he and Jessa would soon be out of time.
She’d been silent for another long moment, so Gorzo was surprised by her words when she finally spoke. “I’m not sure I’m willing to pay his price.”
“I’m not sure you have a choice.”
Chapter 27
The time had come. Jessa was not as prepared for it as she’d hoped to be, but there was no going back.
Two hulking umbrose guards flanked Lilith and her constant shadow, Sari, as they stood in the doorway of the room she’d shared with Gorzo.
“The princess didn’t come?” Jessa’s tongue felt numb, but she managed to voice the question. Her real question wouldn’t make it past the lump in her throat. Stacia’s absence wasn’t the only notable one, and certainly wasn’t the most important one.
Lilith seemed to read her real concern in her eyes though, because she answered both Jessa’s questions. “Princess Stacia waits in the arena along with Prince Balfor and General Gorzo.”
Jessa swallowed, then nodded her head, rising to her trembling legs to follow Lilith out of the room she’d been so happy in for far too brief a time.
Gorzo hadn’t returned to her, obeying her insistence that he leave her be. Though she’d been determ
ined to rebuff all his attempts to spend their last moments together, the fact that he hadn’t even tried had hurt her. She wondered if he really had forgiven her, or if he still bore a grudge, and that was why he didn’t press her on the issue.
She’d spent the last day alone, though Lilith had tried to visit, and even Stacia had popped in with her unique ability. Jessa hadn’t been much company for either of them, and it was clear they didn’t know what to say, so after too many awkward silences, they’d finally left her alone. There was nothing more they could say.
She’d been sent a last meal, none of which she’d been able to eat. The long walk to the arena would be her last, and she was to be paraded through the streets as umbrose watched from not only either side of her but also from above.
Though there were no jeers or catcalls greeting her as she proceeded on her death march through the glowing cavern city, some of the umbrose spit at her feet, others snarled and growled as she passed. Their feelings about her were clear. No one would mourn her death except for Gorzo, and Lady Lilith, and perhaps Princess Stacia.
At least I have no family to leave behind. Not even Micah. Her throat tightened more at the thought of poor Micah’s death. She hoped he hadn’t suffered, but even more, she hoped that there really was some sort of afterlife where she’d get to see him again. Where she could hold him as a mother would hold her child, finally able to openly acknowledge the love she felt for him. In her fantasies, she and Micah would be protected in Gorzo’s arms. They would all be together in a true family unit—something she’d never experienced before.
These mental images sustained her, allowing her to remain on her feet for the entire walk. Still, when they reached the door of the arena, she balked at going in. Though she wanted to see Gorzo again, she didn’t want this to be the last time. She wasn’t ready to die, and she wasn’t ready to leave him. She’d been such a fool to send him away when they could have spent their last moments making love. She should have cherished every single preceding moment instead of wasting it brooding about this moment. It should be Gorzo at her side right now, instead of Lady Lilith.
Lilith turned to her with sympathy in eyes watery and red with tears that still dripped down onto her soaked veil. It was clear that at least someone grieved for her.
The guard on her right shoved her forward into the corridor.
Lilith caught her arm as she stumbled, narrowing her eyes on the guard. “Do not touch her again!” Her words were in umbrose, but Jessa’s translator was still around her neck and still working perfectly, which meant she would hear every condemnation against her before she was killed.
“I’m so sorry, Jessa. Truly. If there was anything I could do….” This time Lilith spoke in Common. The tinny translator interpreted her words in umbrose.
Jessa wanted to tell her it was okay and that she understood, but she couldn’t get the words out. It wasn’t okay. No doubt Lilith had already tried to plead for leniency on her behalf, but she’d failed. Jessa appreciated the effort, but she couldn’t pretend that she was okay. She couldn’t manage to put a brave face on all this in an effort to make Lilith feel better.
The corridor out to the arena pit was dark, but Lilith maintained a grip on Jessa’s arm, holding firm. Jessa wondered if it was to support her, or simply to make sure she didn’t do anything pointless like attempt to run. The guards wouldn’t let her get very far.
Then they were out in the pit, and the arena opened up around them, a massive structure filled with umbrose, watching and waiting for her death.
In the center of the arena ahead of her stood the umbrose prince and veiled princess, and Gorzo—looking so dear and handsome to her that she almost collapsed from the feeling that twisted her gut at this sight of him. Why did I waste what little time we had left?
His scarred face was ravaged by lines that hadn’t been there before. His hooded eyes were even more shadowed than before as she was led to the chopping block. His hands were clenched into fists at his side as Lilith wrapped her arm around Jessa’s and supported most of her weight when her legs buckled at the last few steps to the block.
“My people….” The rich voice of the umbrose prince boomed out over the crowd, hushing those who’d started to murmur at her arrival, causing a wave of sound that susurrated up into the massive columnar ceiling.
Jessa didn’t bother to listen to the translation of the prince’s speech, more focused on the stained chopping stone in front of her. It seemed that she was to be beheaded. A horrific and barbaric death, but not as bad as some the Diakonos had dreamed up. At least she wasn’t to be forced into an incinerator to be burned alive in an attempt to purify her.
If the executioner was good at his job, her death would be fast at least.
Prince Balfor droned on, listing her charges. Jessa didn’t need to hear them, nor did she want to look at the crowd of snarling, angry umbrose. Instead, her gaze found Gorzo and settled there as if she could burn that last image of him into her soul to take with her into whatever afterlife awaited.
He watched her with just as much intensity so that when their eyes met, it was almost electric. Neither of them looked away, and without words, she could feel his suffering and grief. He had forgiven her. He did love her. She had no doubt of that now. He’d given her the space she’d demanded, and it was her fault that she’d wasted what little time they’d had left. Everything was her fault.
The umbrose fell quiet as Balfor pronounced her sentence. Death by beheading. At least the people had the decency not to cheer loudly over that.
The speech finished, an umbrose stepped forward. He was male, but he wore a covering over his head that was even more concealing than the veils the females wore. His horns were as big as the prince’s, and they stuck out of the hood. He was also huge, as burly as Gorzo and even taller, muscles bulging in his upper body as he hefted a massive axe that gleamed with a well-honed edge. Strange that Jessa hadn’t noticed him before. He must have come up behind them while Balfor was giving his speech.
For the first time in a long time, she pictured an umbrose as a true demon. She wondered what kind of person would take the job that he had. It was little wonder he covered his face.
“Kneel, treacherous female.” The voice that spoke was Balfor’s. It didn’t come from the mountain of flesh wielding the axe.
Gorzo stepped forward and grabbed Jessa’s bicep as she started to kneel. “I invoke my rights as her protector. I will take her sentence in her place.”
The sound of shocked gasping from the audience was so loud that it filled the arena and nearly deafened Jessa, but not so much that she couldn’t hear Balfor’s reaction.
“This isn’t a whipping, you fool!”
She craned her neck to try and see the prince, who stood slightly behind her and the chopping block. She wasn’t entirely sure what was happening, but she didn’t like the sound of it.
“I’m well aware of that.” Gorzo’s voice was calm in contrast to Balfor’s sharp anger. “I’m also aware that the laws of Sanctuary allow a protector to stand in for his concubine for any sentence—even a death sentence.”
The conversation finally clicked for Jessa as the last words were translated by her necklace. “No!” She tried to jerk her arm free from Gorzo’s, but his grip only tightened on her, tugging her away from the chopping block. “I won’t let you die for me! Never!”
Gorzo growled at her struggles, flashing her an angry glance before returning his attention to Balfor.
“I won’t lose my best general over a treacherous snake of a human female. She betrayed you, along with the rest of us.”
Gorzo’s snarl settled into deeper lines that made him look positively diabolic as he bared his massive canines at his own prince. “These are your laws I invoke. I have the right to take her place. I demand to exercise that right!”
“I won’t let you!” Jessa and Balfor spoke in unison. Her translator echoed their words.
Gorzo’s mutinous, feral gaze didn’t even tur
n her way. He was too focused on his argument with Balfor. The tension in his body was visible, as if he were ready to start a fight right there with the prince of the umbrose. If he did such a thing, he would surely die. Balfor was the most powerful umbrose in Sanctuary and was backed by the power of their deity. The Diakonos had their own theories about what that power really was, but that was irrelevant. The prince was still more powerful than Gorzo.
She had to do something quickly. Because his focus was on Balfor, Gorzo’s grip had loosened on her arm. With a quick jerk, she broke free of him and dropped to her knees on the ground before the chopping block, barely feeling the impact of her knees with the dirt floor. She glared up at the towering executioner standing beside the block. “Do it. For your prince and your general! Put an end to this!” She laid her head on the block, settling her chin into the small depression so that her neck was stretched out as much as it could be.
Balfor and Gorzo had stopped their argument, but there were the sounds of a scuffle as though someone was holding Gorzo back to keep him from hauling her off the block.
For once, Jessa felt completely serene and certain of her decision. As the coolness of the block chilled the skin of her face, her muscles relaxed as much as they possibly could in that position. She was resigned to her fate, but at least she knew that Gorzo would live.
A shadow fell over her, blocking out the light that came from a hole in the ceiling of the arena. The executioner stood above her. She didn’t have to look at him to know that he was raising the massive axe. Within moments, her life would be over.
The desperate howl that raged at her back wasn’t enough to shake her determination to see this through. In fact, it made her more certain that she’d made the right choice. The sooner this ended, the sooner Gorzo could begin healing. It was clear from the sounds he was making that his primal had completely taken over, and he was trying to fight every one of his own people to save her. She didn’t deserve his devotion. She’d never earned it.
Jessabelle's Beast (Shadows in Sanctuary Book 3) Page 16