31. Kane
Chapter 31
Kane
I slammed the door behind me, shutting out her addictive vanilla scent and very unladylike words. She lied to me. I didn’t have to touch her to know she lied. Her big blue eyes dilated ever so slightly, and her perfect mouth twitched in the corner—subtle changes that I had been trained to note. Maybe changes that no one else would see, but I knew every curve and minor feature of her face. The scar that was still on her forehead. I had stared too long at it last night after putting her in her bed. Who was she with last night at the Pit? If she was so hell-bent on running away, then why had she suddenly stopped and let Jerek catch her? How’d she take down the soldiers? She had to have some kind of ability that she hid from me, and I needed to know what it was as soon as possible. The wolf—that dumbfounded me. Peters reported a wolf following them from near the Aspen River all the way here, but why? I had seen predators obsessively stalk people before, but they quit as soon as the person reached civilization. They never followed them in. Something was very strange about this wolf.
Why was she in so much pain? —my biggest question. Something hurt her deeply, and I didn’t know what. I felt the undercurrent of it when I touched her, but I could see it in every movement she made. Her eyes ached with sadness, and her shoulders slouched in defeat.
I stood outside her door with clenched fists, waiting for Jerek to return, since Sam would be out for the day. They were the only ones I trusted to guard her door, and I had made damn sure no one else would be her guard. Half of these bastards would shoot her in the head, or worse, at the first opportunity, if last night was any indication. The hate for blondes ran deep, and I hated her being here. She was never supposed to be here.
Last night after the fight, I entered the King’s watching room, only to find Jerek and Ash missing. I rushed out the door, and discovered chaos outside the building. A fight had broken out between the soldiers and rioters who wanted to kill the blondes inside, while the soldiers held them at bay. I made quick work of threatening all the rioters and getting the soldiers in line, while still searching for Ash. Jerek found me later with a wound in his leg and said he’d found her.
She would be the death of me. I hadn’t expected this—to be so completely overwhelmed by her. Her mouth and brain bewitched me as much as her body did. She was clever…avoiding every one of my questions with ease. Finding out my ability when no one else ever had. Of course, it didn’t help that I couldn’t keep my damn hands off her .
I blew out a frustrated breath and ran my hands through my cropped black hair. I despised her for what she did to me, and I hated myself more for who I was when she was near. I wanted to demand the truth out of her without giving her any back, and I knew that wasn’t right. She didn’t trust me, and I didn’t blame her—I wouldn’t trust myself either.
I wanted to touch her, not only to appease my own sick desires, but also to dig through her brain until I found out the truth. I would never do that…not to her. It’s not like I could really read minds, anyway. It was more like I could feel desires, honesty, deceit, and people’s presence in the world as a whole. I could see glimpses of what a person thought, if it was on their mind when I touched them. I couldn’t rifle through a person’s brain on demand and see every secret. It didn’t work like that, but asking the right questions could always bring memories to the forefront of someone’s mind. Like the memory Ash recalled of her and Etan together. I wanted to pour chemicals into my head to erase the memory of what I had seen. Then, I wanted to string Etan up by the balls. I don’t think Ash realized that I could not only see a glimpse of her memory but feel what she felt in that moment. Lust, but also an overwhelming amount of hurt. My teeth ground together so hard my jaw ticked. I’d kill him—slowly and painfully—but not yet. Ash hated the King and hated me; that was no surprise. Would she convince Etan to help her change things? If she did, he was as good as dead.
Just seeing glimpses of thoughts had taken me years to master and lots of practice with my brother’s help. His face flashed across my mind, and I had a pang of longing for home. This would be over soon, I hoped. But it would never really be over for me. The things I had done and seen were enough to make me hate myself. I did it for them . It’s what kept me going. Even when I saw all the faces of the people I killed race through my mind every damn day. I shook my head to get the ghosts out and turned my mind back to Ash.
It was like everyone had a different essence when I felt them, and Ash’s was addictively unique. Her fire and drive for life had dimmed since coming here, and I hated it. I wanted to tell her the truth about everything. Hell, I wanted to tell her the truth the first day I saw her in Cedar Hill. I almost did. I almost let it slip. We had searched the town all day for her, and when she finally walked into the Market that night, I was addicted immediately. She was beautiful, angry, and strong. Her eyes had glared at the man on the far side of the room, and I wanted them on me. She strode over to him without a care in the world while I watched from my table. They exchanged angry words. And then, her eyes finally landed on me. I wondered if maybe she had remembered.
I touched her that night, and she let me. I touched her only to feel her essence. The pangs of longing and familiarity were there in her mind, but she couldn’t remember. I found her. After all these years, I finally found her, and it was too late. All I could feel was her yearning for the man inside the Market. He hurt her, and she still loved him. I hadn’t cared that she’d seen my blonde hair that night; I didn’t think that it would ever matter. Just a one chance encounter that would slip from her mind soon enough but would haunt me forever. Now, her knowing that information made me grind my teeth together in frustration. What would she do with it?
Then there was Etan. Diesel. The stupidest middle name I had ever heard. If I had known he was Gabriel Etan that night, I would have dragged her off with me, whether she liked it or not. But I made a promise, a promise that I intended to keep until it all went to hell. Unfortunately, the King keeps his secrets guarded just as well as his granddaughter—something they have in common after all. He had information that I was not privy to, even as one of his closest men. He trusted me with brute force, but not with personal matters of the country. Only Peters was aware of that information, the sniveling weasel.
I had been quietly trying to root Etan out of the woodwork since I heard the whisperings of his ascension to the throne months ago. All I had ever learned was that he was on a special mission in the North, nothing more. The King would never share such valuable information with just anyone. I assumed Etan was way up North somewhere, working against the rebellion, but not right under my nose. I had never seen him. There was no way I could have known his true identity, but I blamed myself every day for my mistake. He visited last year with Miles, but I was off hunting blondes, or I would have known.
Jerek turned the corner, polishing off a sandwich as he walked with a slight limp. “Did you talk to the King yet about the catastrophe of last night?” he asked quietly as he got closer.
“This morning,” I murmured. “He knows about the wolf attacks, but he doesn’t know Davis’s part in it. I went and spoke to Davis this morning to see if I could get anything out of him, but his soldiers all said he was in his room last night. Without evidence, I’m not taking it to the King. He and Davis are close, and it would take a lot for him to believe me.”
“What about Sam?”
“I’m not asking Sam to turn in his own father; we’ll just keep a very close eye on him. The King also knows about the fights. He’s the one that encouraged me to take her there. Thought it might rile her up enough to show an ability. Did you see anything peculiar last night? ”
Jerek pursed his lips. “No. I mean she was quick, but nothing supernatural. It was mostly my inattention that screwed me over. I didn’t see the skewer, and she was turned away from me.”
I nodded. Where was she running to when she left Jerek, and why did she stop? “How’s the leg?” I asked, my voice a little louder.
“More annoying than anything. Who knew our Princess was so wicked with a wooden skewer?” He laughed.
“Do you call her that just to piss her off?”
He grinned. “Pretty much.”
I rolled my eyes. Jerek’s humor was oftentimes refreshing in a world like ours. “Leave her alone,” I chided.
His smile grew wider. “Seems she’s getting under someone else’s skin.” He waggled his eyebrows at me.
“She’s a giant pain in the ass,” I said, hoping maybe she was listening through the door.
Jerek’s face suddenly fell and turned angry. “And far too good for Etan.” His history with Etan was shining through, and I didn’t blame him for it.
I couldn’t agree more. “She’s going to have to figure that out for herself,” I said, patting him on the back before I left. As long as Ash still loved Etan, nothing would ever change.