“Who is he?”
She flips her hair over one shoulder. “Do you think I’m going to spout answers without something in return?”
“What do you want?”
“Freedom, obviously.”
“Not a chance,” Eli says. “You either answer her willingly before I kill you, or I force the answers from you and make it a slow and painful death.”
I wait for my conscience to kick in, to tell me I should be upset by that. The fact that I’m not is more disturbing than my urge to help him take her life.Stop, brain, stop. Please.The floor rumbles beneath me, building in strength until the walls and windows vibrate. I put my hands out to steady myself. Eli remains firmly planted, his only movement a flick of his eyes in my direction. Am Ifeelingnonexistent things now too?
“Interesting,” the Centress says, unperturbed by Eli’s threat.
He takes a swift step forward and stomps on her hair, wrenching her head back with the drag of his boot. “You don’t get to beinterestedin her. Ever. Again.”
She screams, and despite the beauty in the piercing sound, I shove him.
He hisses and hops backward at my touch, stumbling.
What? I can’t deal with his weirdness right now. “I’m trying to have a damn conversation,” I yell over her shriek, which transforms into a slow cackle.
“Did you think that would hurt? I know pain like no other.” She’s now composed, eerily calm as she smooths her tangled hair and looks at me. “I felt it every time I used my gift. I got to the point of being able to withstand any amount.”
I step closer, and her pale hand jumps forward in an attempt to grab my leg. A flash of silver dives between us and impales the side of her wrist, missing major arteries. Eli twists his knife, bloody flesh squelching against metal. I scurry backward beyond her reach.
My mother only huffs a high-pitched sigh, her nose twitching as she stares down at her blood soaking into the carpet. She tucks her hair behind her ear and glares at Eli, so he pulls his knife from her wrist and stabs it through her calf muscle. She merely grunts, her face expressionless.
“Stop,” I gasp out. “I still need answers.”
He comes to stand at my side and points his knife at the Centress. “If you so much as breathe on her, I will peel your skin and fuck your daughter on a rug made out of you.”
Gross.“Plan your home decor later,” I quip, turning and stepping in front of him. “And you don’t get to plan my abduction, then fuck me.”
That lone eyebrow of his rises in defiance. “I already did.”
True.“Again. You don’t get to do it again.”No matter what my body thinks it wants.
“That’s the part that concerns you?” my mother grits out.
I turn around and fix my gaze on her blood, its calming color, the smooth surface. “Why did you want my essence? And how do I have it?”
“Your father.” She wraps a fold of her dress around her wrist, attempting to stop the flow of blood. “He didn’t come home one day. I found his favorite stone set out on his pillow and put it on a chain to wear around my neck, close to my heart.”
I clutch her half of the stone tighter then drop it into my pocket before she sees it.
“That night, the moment you were born, it split down the middle and bruised my chest. You didn’t cry. I thought you were dead until I saw your eyes. They were everything.Youwere everything. Until I realized your father wasn’t going to return. I couldn’t stand to look at you.”
Then I was nothing.
She pushes the hair from her face with a bloody hand. “I could only think of him. And how you ruined us. I wanted you gone. So I gave you half the stone on another chain, tucked it into your basket and sent you to Caldera. I’ve been alone since then, fighting foryourfuture. We had a chance to start fresh when you returned, and you ruined that too.”
That only spurs more questions. And fury. “You didn’t answer me. What does that have to do with my essence?”
“Release me.”
Eli takes a menacing step toward her with his blood-streaked knife. She doesn’t even flinch. My hand goes to my own necklace without thought. I carried a piece of this wretched woman around with me my whole life? Letting her jostle over my heart with every miserable step?
Fuck that.
