Page 214 of Damsel in Disguise

Then I feel her stop behind me. She doesn’t speak.

The silence itself is unusual enough that I look over my shoulder to find her staring at the back of my neck.

I know exactly what she sees.

Years ago, I convinced myself the mark was merely practical.

A discreet black insignia, almost invisible beneath the collar of my shirt, which must have shifted at some point.

The same insignia she had seen when we were taking care of Delilah’s body. I remember being affirmative when she asked me. It’s the Triarch Dominion that branded me.

The same symbol she’d just seen engraved onto every piece of equipment in the laboratory.

Slowly, I stand. Her eyes leave the mark and move to my face. Genuine fear crumples her innocent features.

“No…” the word is barely audible. “No, that’s…” she looks around the room as though seeing everything for the first time. “This is the Triarch Dominion.”

59. PRIORITY

alistair

I keep my mouth shut, even though there’s no need to delay the inevitable.

She was bound to see it coming.

“This is where you—Delilah…. And now me….” her eyes widen, frantically blinking. “You brought me here,” her voice trembles.

She trembles, stumbling back to grab a table or something to keep herself from falling on her knees.

I’ve imagined this moment more times than I care to admit. In none of those calculations did I realize this would affect me like this.

The laboratory seems impossibly quiet with only her uneven breathing and the soft beeping of machines somewhere in the background.

She takes a step backward.

Another.

Her hand finds the edge of a workbench to steady herself again.

“You said they wouldn’t find me.”

“They won’t.”

“Because you brought me to them!” raw betrayal threatens to flow from her eyes.

I’ve betrayed people before.

I’ve built entire operations upon trust only to dismantle them when necessity demanded it.

I’ve worn faces that were never truly mine and allowed other people to believe in versions of me that existed only long enough to serve a purpose.

None of that prepared me for Ariella looking at me as though she no longer knows who I am. The unfortunate truth is that I’m no longer certain either.

“I brought you somewhere I can still protect you.”

Another truth.

Another statement she no longer has any reason to believe.