I sprang to my feet. She stopped, hands up, as though she’d scared some poor little bird under a bush. “Come with me.”
I spat at the stone floor then flicked my eyes up to meet hers. They filled with surprise.
“Back for another game?” I asked. My hands flexed, itching for the knife strapped to her leg. Two more steps and I’d be close enough to take him. But Selena didn’t move. Thaan stared at me through Selena’s eyes, confusion in the blue depths. As if he didn’t understand my words. Thaan was always playing games. That’s all he ever did.
“I’m Selena,” he said. “Ask me something only Selena would know.”
Two more steps.
Take just two more.
“No.” I fought to keep my gaze off the shadow of the hidden knife. “We’ve played this game. You always know things you shouldn’t.”
His heart rate increased. Whatever his plan had been, it wasn’t working. “Ask me what we searched for last spring. Ask me what happens whenever we’re together. Ask me what you call me.”
I clenched my jaw, unwilling to give him anything. He could have easily called to Cebrinne’s blood and peeled that information from her.
“The stone,” she said, taking another step. “We searched for the stone last summer. It rains when we’re together. It’s raining outside now. And you call me heiress because you know I hate it.”
“I called her heiress to remind myself I couldn’t have her.” I almost laughed. Almost. Disgust flamed through my chest instead, even as her throat tightened. “Come out, Thaan. Put down your magic and fight me with bare hands.”
One step closer, and I’d break his neck.
But something in his eyes changed. He glanced at the door over his shoulder then back to me. His smooth, feminine posture evaporated. Thaan straightened, drawing his fingertips together. “Very well,” he said, abandoning his act. “I’ve come to collect you. I’m in need of a drone with your capabilities. Follow me. And grab that torch.”
Without a further word, he turned and left me, passing through the open door.
My fingers flexed again. I’d been so close. So close to killing him. A silent heat raked over my skin, a voice in my head filling me with reproach. If he let me get that close again, I wouldn’t hesitate.
Selena waited at the top of the stone steps, boredom in her eyes. “You first,” Thaan ordered. My mouth flattened as he waited for me to take the lead, following behind me. “Hurry up. We don’t have all day.”
I led us out in silence, wondering how to place him where I could see him. He’d come to the mountains at least every few weeks to interrogate me. To ask where we’d gone in the weeks we’d spent away from Calder. What type of plan we’d concocted with Aegir. What the Venusian had promised us. But he’d always brought the line of questions to Selena. It was there I drew the line, unwilling to answer. His attempts only grew more contrived.
One minute she’d be kind. Then vicious the next.
Once, he made her cry on the other side of the bars. Made her describe what it was like to watch me die. He watched my reactions, recording everyflinch, every glare. I knew enough about Thaan to understand how he worked, using his Naiads against each other. I’d been waiting for the day he’d threaten to hurt her just to see if I’d do whatever it was he wanted.
I’d expected if he ever let me out, he’d send one of the drones or even Deimos to open my cell. Not him. Not alone. My gaze slid to the side, tracking the sound of Thaan’s steps behind me, wondering what he was planning now.
The base of the mines grew near. Thaan stopped me before I stepped out, pushing me into the wall to study the night beyond.
I should have killed him then. But he stepped out of reach, calling to the guard outside. “Has anyone come or gone?”
“Just the one who was with you,” the human answered.
Thaan glanced back at me. “Come on.”
I didn’t move. Thaan always made us wear cloaks outside the mines. It was dangerous for us not to. Too many Naiads would target us for what we’d done to them. “You don’t want me wearing a cloak?”
Thaan frowned. “Of course I do. Are there any here?”
Yes. In the second cart, the one with the broken wheel. The one he stood directly in front of. He knew where they were. He’d been the one to put them there. Haughty eyes gleamed back at me. Did he think I’d gone mad in the year I’d spent in that room?
Probably. At least, he hoped I had.
I took a step toward the cart, my tolerance for his game thinning by the minute. But instead of moving out of my way, he retreated a step. As though he hadn’t expected me to move in his direction. I pushed forward, and he fell back. All the way to the cart edge.
He was goading me. Hewantedme to get close enough to attack.
