Twice Born

Chapter 21

They place me inside a locked room. Four concrete walls, a metal door, and a candle perched on a sconce on a wall. It illuminates parts of the room in a faint flickering glow. There is no bed or a chair, not even a blanket to warm me in this chilly chamber.

They didn’t blindfold me when they brought me here, but they might as well have. The carriage ride to the towering manor passed me in a blur. The walk through the long corridors was also a blur. Fear for my life and Daniel’s numbed me to the world.

I should have been vigilant, studied the route through the manor and estate so I’d have a chance beyond this metal door. It’s not the only thing I regret not doing. I should’ve shifted both of Ashin’s hands into glass. Begged Daniel not to fight him. Tried to come up with a plan that wouldn’t end up with me captured and Daniel. . . .

I shrink into a corner of the room and draw my legs up, pressing my forehead on my knee. Don’t think about it. Daniel is alive. He has to be. I’ll never forgive myself if he isn’t. Not that I’ll live for long either. How long do I have? Days? Weeks? Hours?

My chest, already tight, feels like it’s shriveling to half its size. The sensation reaches me through my hazy mind.

Eve. I completely forgot about her.

Inhaling a long breath, I curl my arms over my knees and draw into myself tighter, riding out the feeling. I make sure to raise my mental partition. I don’t want Eve in my mind. I shouldn’t care—not with everything else I have to worry about—but I must not forget she’s not my friend, not even my ally. Definitely not someone I can trust with my deepest thoughts.

“What’s going on?”

Her voice echoes through the empty room. Her tone is dark, but it will get a lot darker once she finds out what happened. Might as well get it over with quickly. “We’ve been captured.”

What? By whom?

“Trackers,” I say.

 Silence stretches out, suspended in the frigid cold numbing my face. The jar of blood Tristan mentioned flashes through my mind. That’ll be our fate soon.

How did it happen?

Eve is calm, but it feels too superficial. A pretense. It terrifies me. I know there’s fury lurking behind it, just out of reach. I open my mouth and pause. The thought of explaining myself drains me of what little strength I have. What difference does it make if Eve can read my mind? If she knows what I’m capable of and what I’ve done since she last spoke to me?

Not like she can hurt me at this point. I drop the mental block.

It takes a long, tense moment for Eve to search my memories and thoughts. It takes another for her to absorb everything.

And then the anger comes, so thick and potent it robs me of breath. She lets me feel the heat of her fury, sending it in waves down my limbs until I’m shaking all over, my face on fire. If she were in control, I have no doubt she’d scream it all out.

I don’t fight her when she shoves me aside and takes over. Her mental block is up, but I don’t need to see into her mind. She lets me know exactly what she’s thinking.

“You don’t deserve this body,” Eve says, pacing the length of the room. “You don’t even deserve to be alive. How could you be so stupid as to offer yourself to Trackers—to save some woman who doesn’t care about you? She ran off as soon as they handed her the dagger!”

I don’t respond.

She growls and slams the side of her fist into a wall. “In one day, you’ve undone everything we’ve worked hard for. You’ve killed us both.”