Chapter 41
Nelle
Jett’s hand slipped from my mouth just as the adamere walls slammed together with a resounding thud.
I stared at the seamless black barrier. My chance of finding Zrenyth’s Mites, gone with it. Despair sank heavily into my soul, a gray nothingness whispering that everything was lost.
Jett lowered me to the ground. Rough stone met my toes as he stepped back, circling me in silence. The overhead lights flickered erratically.
I turned to face him.
It was quiet, so quiet, but for my heart drumming in my ears.
Menacing shadows caressed Jett’s lean physique as he stared with contempt. A few errant strands of hair, damp with perspiration, framed sharp cheekbones. His calculating gaze flicked to the sealed doors, then back to me. “What are you doing here? Trying to sneak into the barracks to find a weapon?”
“I got lost in your home,” I lied, letting my voice tremble as I stepped back, shrinking into the oversized dress. “I thought the brunnie was chasing me.” My fingers tightened nervously around the messenger bag’s strap, and I darted a frightened glance toward the empty chamber as if I might bolt.
Jett paced back and forth, a dagger in hand. There was a deadly grace to his movements, like a serpent readying to strike. His lips curled into an amused smirk as he studied my face. “You might have fooled Penn with her tales of you breaking and crying in the tower…”
A memory tugged at me of Graysen saying something similar a few nights back.
Penn?
What had she been telling the brothers? Had she tried to protect me?
“But you don’t need to pretend with me. In fact, I’d prefer it if you didn’t.” Jett carried on, flipping the dagger into the air to catch it by the tip and balance the point on a finger. “Besides, I think the brunnie’s given you away.”
I’d known it was a risk, unleashing the brunnie.
I’d hoped they’d chalk it up to reckless desperation.
But Jett had always been obvious in his loathing of me at every House Gathering.
He was irrational, a wild card, and hostile.
Especially after threatening to decapitate Sage and nail my wraith-wolf’s head to his bedroom door.
Anger trembled beneath my skin like the first warning of an earthquake.
If he touched a single wisp of Sage’s fur …
I threw off the disguise of fright like a cloak, snapped my figure straight, and matched his smirk with one of my own. “You don’t smell so good, Jett,” and I spat his name like filth. The foul stench of brunnie-claiming still dusted his armor.
“Better,” he grinned slyly. He flipped the dagger up. The dark blade sliced through shadows before he snatched it out of the air, then pointed the sharp tip at me. “What sneaky little plan are you up to now, rat?”
RAT?!
My nostrils flared. The name pissed me off, and his smile grew wider at my reaction. “Looking for a weapon? Or an escape tunnel, rat?”
A pulse of doubt jolted low in my gut.
Jett’s smile turned sinister, a perverse glee glinting in his eyes. He spoke softly, each word slow and deliberate. “Why do you think we’ve left the library abandoned?”
I startled. Dread carved a hole inside my chest.
I’d thought it had remained empty because everyone was so busy with their duty to Upper House Novak and readying our world for the Witches Ball. The Crowthers, I’d assumed, either hadn’t noticed, or didn’t care about my time spent in the library.
He cocked his head, mock sympathy tugging at his mouth. “Did you really think that part of the Keep would be left vacant so much? By everyone? Including our staff?”
I had. I loved my library back home, but it was for my family’s use only. We didn’t share the space with servants.
He took a step forward, and I retreated a step back.
“Our staff can come and go from the library as they please. It’s not set aside for only my family.
They can use it as much as they like, and they do, often.
” The amusement warming his tone chilled my blood.
“From what I hear, my brothers have enjoyed you rummaging around like a rat seeking an escape tunnel.”
An unbidden gasp escaped my throat.
Oh my gods, I had no idea they were aware of what I’d been up to.
He tapped the flat side of his dagger on my shoulder, and I flinched. “We’ve even placed bets on whether or not you’ll find it.”
Hurt burned the back of my throat, and I squeezed my eyes shut briefly.
It was a raw reminder of the time his brothers had placed a bet on whether Graysen would bed me.
A bet Graysen had been furious to learn about.
A bet, a lie, he’d then used to push me away with because he couldn’t risk getting close to me, letting me in.
If he had feelings for me, he wouldn’t be able to go through with his family’s expectations.
But he’d proven that he could.
“That’s what I’d be doing in your shoes…
” his gaze flicked to my bare feet, his nose crinkling in distaste, “or lack of them.” Dark eyes regarded me shrewdly.
“I’ll give you this, Wychthorn. Yes, there’s an escape tunnel hidden inside the library.
If you find it, it’ll take you below the Keep, right under our lands, and lead you completely off the estate.
” White teeth gleamed as his lips parted in an empty smile.
“You’ll never find it.” He tapped the sharp tip of the dagger against my collar. “You’ll never escape us.”
Rage ripped through my veins, heat surging hard beneath my skin.
I angled the edge of my hand against the flat of his dagger and shoved it aside.
I took a step forward. We were chest to chest. Toe to toe.
Jett wasn’t as tall as Graysen, yet I still craned my neck back.
“When I get this off,” I snarled, flicking the collar with a finger.
“I’ll burn you all. Right to the bone until you’re nothing but cinder.
You and your House will be nothing, forgotten in time, struck from our history. ”
Jett threw his head back and laughed, his whole body shuddering. The obnoxious sound filled the corridor, and it fired my wrath even further. He was the first Crowther I was going to reduce to ash the moment I had my wyrm back.
His laughter faded to bursts of snickers before silence finally descended.
He ran his hand over his mouth before propping it on a lean hip.
“I wouldn’t be so sure. Even if you managed to get your collar removed, your wyrm won’t be of any use to you.
” He took a leggy stride back and shoved his dagger into its sheath.
“Zrenyth’s power nullifies the wyrm, and the residual effect will have your beast incapacitated for ages.
It won’t be strong enough to puff out a single breath of wyrmfire. Not for weeks and weeks and weeks.”
The ground felt as if it had upended itself around me. I swayed, pitching slightly from side to side as if the solid stone beneath me had turned into an ocean wave. Dizziness turned the edges of my mind black.
I hadn’t known.
I hadn’t known, nor anticipated that knowledge.
I heedlessly believed that if Zrenyth’s collar came off my neck, my wyrm would come back with full force.
Jett’s hand whipped over a shoulder, and he gripped the smooth hilt of his sword. It whined a low note as he unleashed the blade.
I skittered out of its reach, chills slithering down my spine.
“How about you go look for that escape tunnel instead? That’s the only way you’ll ever find yourself free of us.
” The keen edge of the sword glittered in the corridor’s dimness.
Jett struck out fast, slashing his sword against the stone wall right beside me.
A shriek almost escaped my mouth as I scuttled sideways.
The wake of spraying sparks warmed my back.
The smell of singed material wafting through the air.
Holy shit!
“How about I give you further incentive to find the tunnel?” he asked slyly.
Tension ran rampant, making my knees lock and muscles knot. Part of me wanted to flee back to the tower. “What the hells does that mean?” I barked back, refusing to let him see me weak and fearful.
“I’ll give you five minutes before I begin my hunt for you.”
My mouth went dry. “And what will you do if you find me?”
“Payback, Wychthorn, for the godsdamned brunnie you set upon us,” he snarled.
He stared upward as if he could see through the ceiling to the upper levels of the Keep.
“It won’t be long before we trap it.” The bloodthirsty gaze leveled at me sent terror flooding through my entire body.
“If you fail to find the escape tunnel and I capture you in the library, I’ll drag you up there and toss you right in its path.
The beast’s all riled up now, and I imagine it’ll be eager to tear you in half. ”
Oh my gods…
He was deadly serious.
Perspiration flashed along my hairline as I considered what the hells to do. Jett remained quiet for a long moment before he arched a brow and spoke. “I’ve started counting, rat. Less than five minutes to go before I hunt you down.”
My skirt whirled wide as I spun around and fled.
Behind me came a heavy …clang…clang…clang… of Jett striking his blade against the adamere wall, the rhythm perfectly timed with his silent countdown.
I hurtled through the Keep, through the hallways and the gallery with all those stoic faces of the Crowthers’ ancestors staring at me through oil paint edged in gold, Tabitha with her earthy fingers and breezy smile, mocking me as I sprinted past.
There was a split decision I needed to make—should I run to the tower as Graysen had urged if ever I was in trouble?
But there would be Ferne and too many soldiers between me and it.
And besides, ultimately, I had to find that godsdamned escape passage.
I burst into the library. The brothers had certainly amused themselves, leaving me alone to rummage through here hoping to discover the escape tunnel. Fucking bastards!