Page 13 of Dark Heart (Elven Kingdoms #2)

13

Arya hid her wince as Jai’s face flooded with rage, his eyes turning icy. Shadows gathered around him.

“ I warned you,” she said again, but the shadows kept coming. “ I’m not lying. I broke every rule so you wouldn’t get caught up with the raid.”

“ Enough !”

She turned her head to the side when he was suddenly looming over her again. He crowded her once more, backing her into the wall. His fury was palpable, a living, breathing thing that wanted to rip her apart. Her heart hammered loud enough that she knew he’d heard it. “ I left the note in our secret place.”

“ You disappeared. That’s what I remember,” he bit out.

Arya swallowed and looked at him. “ It was my first assignment with CCD . I was told not to get too close to anyone. My job was to discover who had been robbing the vaults. We suspected it was the Milni gang, but we had to know for certain. They recruited young elves, which made it easy for me to get inside. I … I never counted on you.”

He snorted and turned away, but he didn’t leave.

Arya relaxed a fraction but didn’t move from the wall. Jai was a caged animal, ready and waiting to pounce. And she had no doubt he would. His wildness made her heart beat faster. But it had nothing to do with fear. “ You got caught up in something that could have dictated the rest of your life. I had to warn you to steer clear.”

“ Just stop with that,” he ordered, his back to her.

“ I asked you to meet me at The Crossing the day of the raid. You never showed. But you weren’t jailed with the others, either. I assumed you’d moved on.”

There was a long stretch of silence. “ None of that matters.”

Arya took a step toward him, an urgency she didn’t understand pushing her to continue. “ I put the note in the book, our book. Like all the other letters we passed between each other. I know you know which one I’m talking about. It was in the front parlor no one used. The middle bookcase, third shelf from the bottom. The blue book. It was the first place I saw you.” She tentatively walked closer. “ It was our secret place. How we could communicate without anyone else knowing.”

“ Nothing was there,” Jai stated, his voice flat. He turned to look at her. “ I know because I looked numerous times after you disappeared. I thought you would at least tell me goodbye.”

“ It was never meant to be goodbye. It was meant t?—”

He cut her off with a wave of his hand. “ Nice try. You almost had me believing you, but facts are facts. There was no note.”

“ Somebody must have taken it.”

“ You said yourself that it was our secret place. No one knew.”

Arya briefly closed her eyes. “ I placed it there. I wanted to tell you everything, but you weren’t at the house. So , I did the only thing I could to get word to you. I left the note. I need you to believe that.”

“ Why ?”

“ Because it’s the truth.” She swallowed, wanting to say more.

Jai studied her for a moment and then shrugged. “ Like I said, none of that matters anymore.”

“ It does if you blame me for whatever happened to you.”

There was a brief flash of fury across his face, but he carefully hid it. “ I’m not the only one who lays the blame at your feet. It doesn’t matter who you worked for. What you did is unforgivable.”

“ I stopped a gang from stealing. They spent some time in jail. How is that unforgivable?”

A vein in his temple stood out. “ Jail ? Is that where you think we went?”

“ It’s where I know they went.”

“ You’re either blind or stupid.”

She bristled. “ I’m neither.”

“ Still trying to play innocent. While it worked on me before, I’ve seen through your mask.”

“ Then tell me my supposed crimes against you.”

He snorted scornfully. “ Supposed ? You have some nerve.”

That she did, but she had to know what he had endured to turn him so cruel and cold. Arya crossed her arms over her chest. “ I’m waiting.”

The impassive mask he wore slipped again. A vein bulged, and his eyes narrowed. “ Fine . You want to know, I’ll tell you.”

But he didn’t. Instead , Jai stood there, scowling. Arya wanted to wrap her arms around him and hold him close. Needed to wipe away the horror she saw behind his eyes. She had wanted to know what’d happened, but now that she had pushed him to tell her, she wasn’t sure she did anymore.

When he spoke, his voice was soft. And empty. “ You had them waiting by the side entrance. They rounded us up as we rushed out of the house. A few of us managed to escape. Priya was one of those, but they caught me. She came back, though, only to be captured herself.”

Arya wanted to ask who had been waiting, but she didn’t dare interrupt him.

“ We were separated. They took us to a cold, dark place. Isolated us. I heard crying and others’ wails. There were screams, but the worst was the silence. I have no idea how long we were in that place before someone came for me. They brought me to a circular room. A raised, crescent-shaped table sat before me. I couldn’t tell how many were seated as they were drenched in shadows. That was when they told me I belonged to them now. The Masters .”

She dropped her arms to her sides in disbelief.

“ They own me. They own Priya and every member of my crew. They own this ship. I do what they tell me. And before you ask why I didn’t fight, I did. I was ready to die rather than submit. Then they threatened to kill Priya .”

Arya nodded in understanding. “ And you think I’m part of these Masters ?”

“ You’re the reason I’m here. Whether by chance or plan.”

“ If I was part of this group, they wouldn’t have reason to hunt me down.”

Jai twisted his lips. “ I don’t care. I’ve dreamed about getting revenge, and I’ve been granted that opportunity.”

“ To enslave me as you are.”

“ Your capture means my freedom. Did I forget to mention that?” he asked with a contemptuous smirk.

Arya’s heart dropped to her feet. There was nothing she could say that would stop him from handing her over to the Masters . And she couldn’t blame him. “ I’m sorry for all you’ve had to endure.”

“ I don’t need your pity.”

He vanished with the shadows then, leaving Arya to think over all she had learned.

“ Is he gone?” Reva asked through the wall.

Arya went to the corner. “ Aye .”

“ Didn’t mean to eavesdrop, but the walls are thin. That was brutal.”

“ Aye , it was.”

Reva cleared her throat and asked, “ Did you betray him?”

“ Never .” When Reva didn’t reply, Arya said, “ I would never enslave anyone. And I didn’t lie. I put the note there for him.”

“ Then someone took it.”

“ I know.”

Reva cursed beneath her breath. “ My head is pounding from the attack. I bet it was Priya .”

“ I know it was. I saw her.”

“ Nay . I mean, I bet it was Priya who took the note.”

Arya thought about it. “ I don’t think so. Jai and I kept things secret.”

“ Why ?”

“ Well ,” Arya said, stretching her neck, “for one, I didn’t know if other undercover operatives were in the gang. Second , I wanted to make sure nothing could get back to my superiors. It was my first mission, and I was closely watched. Third , we didn’t want anyone in our business.”

Reva made an indistinct sound. “ As close as he and Priya are, I have a hard time believing she didn’t know.”

“ I asked him if he told her, and he swore he hadn’t.”

“ Why would he keep it from her?”

“ He said she could be overprotective at times.”

“ You don’t say.”

Arya grinned at the sarcastic comment. “ We had two months of getting to know each other through the letters. We rarely got any time alone, but we did manage it. It wasn’t this great love affair. It was the start of one that could’ve been wonderful.”

“ You should’ve asked him if he would’ve met you had he gotten the note.”

“ I don’t think he would give me a straight answer now. He’s carried too much hate all these years.”

“ Fair point.” Reva cursed again. “ What did she hit me with? I’ve got a huge bump on the back of my head.”

Arya wrinkled her nose. “ She sucker punched me again.”

“ And now we’re headed to the people who enslaved the crew. Our one chance of escaping that fate is gone.”

“ It seems that way.”