“Mila,” he said, dipping closer to my face. Pressing his forehead to mine, he took a deep breath and exhaled gleeful victory. “Such a beautifulTritanname.”
“Just let me go,” I whispered, tears making my voice nearly unrecognizable.
He hummed, kissed the corner of my lips, and pulled me to the edge of the pool. “No. I think not.” And then, heedless of his crisp uniform, the captain hauled my limp body from the water, sloshing murky liquid all over the floor.
Holding me tight against his chest.
“Alicia,” he drawled, squeezing the remaining water from my hair.
She stepped forward, eyes downcast. Her face etched with a heavy sadness. “Sir?”
When the captain turned to face her, a truly depraved smile spread across his lips. “Well done.”
I jerked in his arms, my every limb flinching at those two measly syllables.
Turning, my chest tight and hot with the first flickering flames of hatred bursting to life in my chest, I met Alicia’s glimmering green eyes.
And saw the truth.
“Traitor,” I breathed, the word slipping through clenched teeth with a venomous hiss. “You’ve killed me. I trusted you,” I said, voice rising on a tide of pure, unfiltered loathing.
Alicia’s face twisted. Brow pinched, she looked as if she’d swallowed something sour. “Mila—”
Scowling, tears drying up, an animal snarl rattled between my modified canines. “Itrustedyou,” I spat. “And you delivered me into the hands of anelite.”
At this, the captain began to laugh. Low and deep. Extinguishing my rage, he flooded my veins with elation. His hands grew tight and possessive in a way that sent my pulse hammering behind my eyes. Confused when his energy licked out, igniting in my very blood. Simmering at first before it became a triumphant, rolling boil. An all-consuming surge of victory that rendered me silent.
Struck dumb by his might.
“Oh,Mila,” he whispered, then turned. Carried me to a couch piled high with pillows. A dirty thing where I’d seen men expose themselves to pleasure slaves who knelt between their spread thighs. Choking and slurping in an obscene show.
Unconcerned with the sticky mess or that I was soaking wet and shivering in his arms, he sat, arranging me across his lap. My back pressed to the arm of the couch, legs draped over his thighs.
“I should have known,” he murmured, unable to peel his eyes from my face. Not bothering to hide the ravenous edge of his mirth. “I mean, how else could you have evaded the empire for so long? Freeing slaves… attacking trained soldiers,survivingthrough the winter. It’s absurd,” he said, and his low chuckle rumbled straight through my ribs and into my lungs. “Unless, of course, there was somethingotherabout you. Something… special.” He grinned, gathered my sopping wet hair in careful fingers, then tugged it to the side. Exposing my neck. The collar he’d shackled me with just that morning.
“I’m not special,” I whispered, but couldn’t look away. “Just lucky.”
“Then how,” he drawled, and worked the latch on the iron collar, “did you know I’m an elite?” The collar fell with a clink.
Ears ringing, I could only shake my head, staring into the seething void behind his pupils.
My doom.
“Say it, Mila. Tell them what a prize you really are.”
“I’m Tritan—”
He cupped my face with a large, calloused hand. Thumb moving to peel back my bottom lip, exposing my modified canines. “These are a rather obvious tell. Only a priestess could do such a thing—and a powerful one at that.”
My eyes widened—I had no training in my craft and only a basic understanding of how it all worked. But if I were wrong…
I could turn the tide of the war.
In favor of the Caledonian Empire.
“There’s a simple test,” the captain said, and flung his outstretched hand in the traitor’s direction. Snapping long, almost elegant fingers. “Alicia.”
Without a word, she dropped a simple box into his palm and stepped back. Her face wiped clear of any theatrical emotion. Wooden, like the empire puppet she was.
