Sara Larson - Defy

Eljin was behind us somewhere, making sure we didn’t attempt to escape, I supposed.

Finally, the general stopped before another door. He said something in his language, and Damian was pushed forward with a sharp shove to his back. I watched helplessly as he crossed the hallway to stand next to General Tinso. Everything in me screamed to do something, anything, but we were trapped. I could do nothing but watch.

With Damian beside him, the general said something else, and the guards stepped back, bowed, and walked away. Next, he gestured at Rylan and me, and we were brought forward the same way. Our guards were also dismissed. Eljin moved to stand on his father’s other side. Up close I could see the resemblance, the slant of their eyes, the color of their skin and hair, but the general didn’t wear a mask.

General Tinso said something else, and all the remaining guards bowed and turned to go. Before I knew it, we were alone with the general and his son. My heart picked up speed when he opened the door and entered the room.

“Follow him,” Eljin said, gesturing for us to precede him.

Damian went first, with Rylan and me right on his heels. The room was large and rectangular, with all sorts of weapons hanging on the walls. A huge torture chamber of some sort?

My stomach coiled in dread when Eljin came in after us and shut the door with a resounding thud and then slammed the bolt in place, locking us in.

“I assume that you brought them for a reason?” General Tinso nodded at Rylan and me. But instead of Eljin answering, Damian nodded.

“Yes, it would have been a risk to leave them at the mercy of my father, and they are loyal to me.”

“Then we may speak freely in front of them?”

“Yes.”

General Tinso nodded at Eljin. “What are you waiting for? Cut those ropes off already.”

I stared at them in utter shock as Eljin stepped forward and sliced the ropes off Damian’s wrists. And then my jaw literally fell open when General Tinso walked up to Damian and embraced him.

“Welcome at last to my home, Prince Damian.”

DAMIAN EMBRACED HIM back as Rylan and I watched in total bewilderment. While we stood there, gaping like fish, Eljin came over and cut the ropes off our hands as well. I rubbed my wrists as the blood rushed back into my hands.

“I’m sorry for all of this,” General Tinso said when he released Damian and stepped back.

“It was necessary,” Damian said. “I knew what I was agreeing to.”

“Did you run into any problems? Besides deciding to bring two extras along with you?” General Tinso’s dark eyes lingered on me for some reason.

“Alex and Rylan were in the room when Eljin came. He and his men had to fight to make it look real, and if I had left them there, King Hector would have had them killed for failing to protect me. I didn’t want to lose two loyal guards to such a fate.” His eyes met mine across the short distance.

“ You saved me?” Rylan asked in shock.

Damian didn’t respond; he was looking at me.

“You planned this,” I said quietly. His betrayal cut deeper than I could have imagined. He’d said he needed me. He had asked me to trust him, to open up to him and bare my secrets, and all along he’d been keeping this enormous secret from me. He’d let me think for weeks that we’d been abducted, that our lives were in danger. We’d been tied up, manhandled, forced into this very room at spear point.

“Why?” I asked, my voice low with barely suppressed fury.

“Alex, just let me —”

“ Why ?” I screamed. I’d let myself fall for him. I’d let myself believe that he cared about me, that there might be hope for us somehow. He was a prince — he could choose to be with me if he wanted.

But he had lied to me. Manipulated me. I’d thought he was opening up to me, revealing who he really was bit by bit. But I didn’t know him at all.

He looked momentarily stunned by my outburst, but then his expression closed and his eyes grew glitteringly cold. “I did what I had to do. I’ve told you that before.” Then he turned to General Tinso. “There wasn’t time to send a message to you, since the plan was already in action, but there was more to my decision than just saving their lives.”

I clenched my jaw shut, desperately trying to regain my composure, to pull on the mask that I’d worn for years as General Tinso looked at Damian questioningly.

Calm, cool, collected, no matter what — that’s what I needed to be. I drew on that mask when my parents died; I did it when Marcel died. I could do it now. I didn’t dare glance at Rylan. He’d been right. He’d warned me and I hadn’t listened and now I’d let the prince hurt me. I was afraid that looking at him would be my undoing.

“Rylan, the taller one, is an excellent fighter and may benefit from your specialized training. But Eljin and I believe that Alexa, who just regaled us with an unusual show of temper, might be gifted.”

“Alex a ?” General Tinso repeated, stroking his chin. “I did think she was a bit too pretty to be a boy. But you never know.” He paused, looking me over. “Her parents?”

“Dead, unfortunately.” Damian also looked at me, and I suddenly felt as though I were a specimen that they were studying. I hated the way he talked about me as if I weren’t standing ten feet from him. As if he’d never held me in his arms and told me that he’d broken his promise to himself to never care about someone again. “But her coloring and her skill might suggest that our suspicions are correct.”

“She is quite good, I take it?”

“The best fighter I have. If she weren’t so young, she would have been captain of my guard, because she bested everyone else. And that was a year ago.”

“Excuse me, I’m standing right here.” I clenched my hands into fists at my side. “What does my coloring have to do with my ability to fight?”

“You look as though one of your parents was from Blevon, am I right?” General Tinso asked as he walked over to the wall and picked up two swords. He tossed one to me, which I automatically reached for and snatched from the air. I instantly felt calmer with a blade in my hand again.

“My father’s parents were from Blevon. What does that have to do with anything?”

He circled me, and I turned in place, warily watching him. “Eljin, you agree with Damian?” he asked his son, rather than responding to me. “You believe she might be gifted?”

“It seems very likely. She’s had no training defending herself against sorcerers, and yet she held me off for nearly six minutes when I challenged her in the ring at the palace.”

“You fought in a ring? You revealed yourself?” General Tinso paused and gave his son a sharp look.

“No one realized I was a sorcerer, Father. Damian asked me to do it, to see if anyone showed potential to be trained.”

“No one realized it except for me,” I said through clenched teeth. Was he going to attack or not?

Eljin looked at me in surprise. “You knew?”

“You blocked me with magic — of course I knew.” I didn’t dare look away from his father again to try to read the expression on his masked face.

“You realized he used magic?” General Tinso began to circle closer to me and I tightened my grip on my sword. “Interesting.”

And then he lunged at me. I parried quickly, and spinning, swung my sword back around at him, which he blocked deftly. It felt so good to fight again. All the anger, the hurt and pain and confusion inside of me flowed through my arms and hands into my sword as I attacked as fast as I could. I was a dervish of movement, of speed and agility and fury. The sounds of our swords rang through the room, while Damian, Rylan, and Eljin watched in silence. Finally, General Tinso lifted his sword to his face as he bowed and stepped back, a signal that he was conceding defeat.