Twice Born

Chapter 10

I leap away from him. The sudden movement, coupled with the fright streaking through me, makes me sway dizzily. But I keep my eyes trained on Daniel.

Daniel, the Tracker.

He watches me, too. “What is it?” he says evenly. Too evenly.

“N-nothing.” I try to lose the fear in my voice. My mind is a jumbled mess of thoughts, and it will take years, lifetimes, to sort through them. “I just remembered I have to—I have to be somewhere.”

“It’s barely midday. Don’t you normally disappear closer to the evening?”

He says this like a joke, but his words are strained. He knows something is wrong. But does he know exactly what is wrong? Is he giving me so much attention lately because he suspects—maybe already knows—that I’m a Twice Born?

I can’t process this here. Not without losing my mind. “I have to go.”

I barely make it to the door when he catches up with me. He slams a hand on the door, shutting it when I yank it open. I whirl around and shove him. He doesn’t budge. He’s as strong as any Tracker. “Get away from me!”

“Bree!” He grabs my wrists and ends my efforts to escape. “Stop it—I’m not going to hurt you! What’s happening?”

“Let me go,” I say through clenched teeth.

Daniel releases me and steps back, his hands lifted in surrender. “I’m not going to hurt you,” he repeats, gently this time. “I didn’t mean to scare you. But you’re scaring me, too.”

My heart is still racing. He must be tricking me into relaxing my guard. The thought of Daniel being capable of such deceit spears me right in the chest. I believed him, believed in what we could have been, and it was all a lie. An impossible dream. The tattoo on his wrist might be recent, judging by the rawness, but it marks him as a stranger to me. And an enemy.

What would Eve do? Panic? Of course not. She’d probably go on the offense, but if she couldn’t do so, what would be her alternative?

Play dumb. Retreat. Regroup.

Daniel takes a step forward. I find myself taking one back, pressing up against the door. He sees that and frowns. “Bree, I need to understand what’s going on in your head. You seemed to want this as much as I do. Why the sudden change of heart?”

He looks so sincere. I wish he’d be hateful so that I can stop thinking this is all a misunderstanding. “The mark on your wrist. I saw the same one on the man who accused your brother of theft on the docks. Why do you also have it?”

I sound confused and ignorant. Daniel looks down at his tattoo. “It’s nothing you should be worried about. It doesn’t mean anything.”

“Daniel, you have the same marking as that horrible man. Of course I’m worried. Have you become involved with dangerous people? Is that why you left your job as a fisherman and suddenly have so much money?”

“They’re not dangerous people.”

“Well, obviously they must be if you can’t discuss this with me. And that’s what scares me.” I don’t have to feign my fear. “I feel like I don’t know you anymore.”

His gaze slides away from mine. “I wasn’t completely honest about my uncle and what I’ll be doing for him. He belongs to a group who call themselves the Sunblade Trackers. This”—he bares his wrist to me—“marks me as a member. The man on the docks is one of us.”

One of us. I fight to stay composed. “Who are the Sunblade Trackers?”

“Protectors of Carnolay. Mightier and more authoritative than even King Daemus’s Elite Guard. They safeguard us from people who aren’t normal—who are more powerful than any average man or woman. People like the Twice Born.”