Page 86 of The Secrets of Jane: Reborn

I’m about to bolt for the door, the trust issues returning as all I know is I’m beingused.

Moving my knees to lift my feet—they’re stuck.

What the?—

Shit.

Rubies climb up my legs through the floor, stopping at my calves, bolting me to the shanty.

My racing heart mixes with my panting breath, glancing between her and the door. “You’re offering me to him, aren’t you?” I ask with more panic than I’d like in my voice, nearly falling over when my balance is off, but I can’t move my feet to counter.

“Jane, if you're in an alley that only has two exits with no other way to escape... and at one end lies your freedom, while the other containsyour mother's killer before he reaches your home all those years ago, which would you choose?”

All movements cease and my breathing becomes shallow as I glare at her. “Don’t use my family like this.”

She nods. “I’ll answer for you. You’d choose the killer, to stop him from getting to your mother.” She holds up a hand when she senses my protest. “I truly do admit that these circumstancesaredifferent. They are much more akin to you seeing your mother’s killer and having no idea what he is about to do. You’d choose freedom without question, as any sane person would.”

Out of everything she’s said so far, this holds my attention the most.

Cypress rises to her feet, mine still stuck in gemstones. “I am going to go ahead and perform this act, seeing as how I do not believe you will trust me to be honest—and no need for guilt for not sharing this, as I asked. You know why you didn’t, and it’s not because you’re being a hero.” She walks to my backside, my jaw trembling from how anxious I am. “Your father made the exact same deal to save your life. If it makes you feel any better, if you had told any of them the truth, I would have removed you from them immediately.”

She pushes my head down, my body shaking when that barrier between us is broken. Her power behind me, even if it’s unseen, is almost as palpable as being drowned in mist.

“I’m aware Soren didn’t press you further, either. Do you think that wasn’t for a reason?”

“He said he didn’t feel like he should, and… I dropped it after that. He left it up to me.” I’m about to become incensed if this turns out to have been a poor decision.

“Because the fates told him not to, through his powers. His moment of action is not yet to come, and to know would have ruined what hewilldo. The actions he will take that will benefit us all the most.”

Soren… she’s using him, too.

She prods at my hairline at the nape of my neck, and holy shit do I just want this over with. “I will numb what I can, but I am putting a ruby directly underneath your skin. You will then reach back and heal it. It will block the ability for anyone to sense you, and will kill you if removed—” she places a hand on my head to keep me from rising, the back of my thighs straining with how I’m holding myself up at this slight lean “—which has a purpose of preventing Morvock from doing so himself.”

“Did—did you just say it would kill me? Why couldn’t you share those detailsbefore hand!”

Ignoring me, she places something cold on my skin. I feel the slicing of flesh, my shoulders tensing as my mouth opens in a silent scream; I’m more terrified of the unknown than the pain. The slight numbness has the unsettling feeling of frostbitten metal in winter. It’s when she shoves something under my skin that the pain is so unnerving I want to vomit, the sensation beyond violating as the foreign object presses on nerves that radiate all through my shoulders. I can’t help it when I jerk away, to which she doesn’t stop me, because, well, I don’t have anywhere to go.

“You can heal it now.”

Well… do I feel anything? Any sense of mind control from Cypress? A warm wetness at the back of my neck tells me I need to heal my wound.

Cypress grins with utter triumph. “I can’t feel you at all.”

The rubies rescind down into the floor like spores withering away, and I stumble over until I catch myself on the table, my palm slamming into the edge. Reaching back, my fingertips graze against a lump under my skin, to which I swiftly pull my hand away, disturbed by the sensation. “What do you meanyoucan’t feel it? It’syourmagic! Did something go wrong?”

“I have been working on that stone in particular for over five years now. I wanted it so strong that evenIcouldn’t sense it.”

My stomach drops, not ready to heal the skin and sew it in. “You can get it out, right?”

“Yes, of course. I would guard that spot with your life, though. There’s no question that if another tries to do so, you will instantly die, like taking your heart from your ribs. The process to harvest your skin will require your heart still beating, right up until you drink a potion that keeps your skin fresh for an entire cycling of the sun and moon… but he can’t use that until you are in his lands, and they’re currently unreachable until the next solar eclipse, which happens to be three weeks from now.”

I hold my hands out, my left one bloodied. “That isincrediblyrelevant information. You seriously didn’t fucking tell us that beforenow?”

Her words of warning lodge into my brain, and even then, I can’t quitecomprehendthem. That if I were to give myself to Misery and donothing, that he’d actually use me and my body to create a really fucked up re-birth. It’s almost like being afraid of sharks but still on land—the threat is so far away that it’s negligible. Hearing it from Shade was unnerving, but havingherconfirm it brings a new reality to it.

I really do have to fight agod.

“Heal your neck, Jane.”