Ensnared (Sorcery and Science Book 5) (25 page)

“I’m fine.”

“And so brave!” Veronica exclaimed, spreading her arms to embrace Isis. “You poor, sweet girl. I know he forced you into this,” she whispered into her ear. “But let me help you. I can free you from him, once and for all. You can go back to your true love.” She stepped back and brushed a tear from Isis’s cheek. “That’s what you want, isn’t it?”

“I…”

Veronica nodded. “I understand, dear. You’re a victim in all of this. Selpe politics are of no interest to you. You want to return home. To Elitia. You want to break Jason Chanz out of that prison and get the hell out of here. I would do the same. For love.”

Isis drank in her words, and they tasted as though they’d come from her own soul.

“My chance for love is gone, long since lost. But I can still help you find your happy—”

Aaron jumped between Isis and Veronica, displacing his cousin’s hand from Isis’s shoulder.

“Ah, Aaron. How lovely to see you again,” Veronica said in coarse monotone.

The smoothness she’d smothered Isis in evaporated from her voice like a popped bubble, and Veronica’s words shattered, her spell broken. Isis shivered, shaking off the enchantment. At least it had felt like enchantment. But Veronica was human. She didn’t wield any magic. Somehow, the knowledge didn’t lessen Isis’s feeling of being violated.

“Lady Veronica,” Lord Adrian said, rushing over to her with a practiced smile.

She inclined her head. “Lord Adrian.”

“I’ve been looking for you all over. Lexi, Keagan, and I are having quite the spirited debate, and we were hoping you could settle it.” He set his arm on her back, nudging her toward the other side of the ballroom. “You see, Keagan says that the East Sea is actually quite warm during the winter months, which he claims is due to the ocean current, but Lexi…”

“Are you all right?” Aaron asked Isis.

“Fine,” she said.

Aaron gave her a hard look.

“She’s just one woman, Aaron.”

“No,” he contested. “Veronica Frostwater is a demon.”

“I would hardly go that far. She’s harmless.”

“If she’s so harmless, then why do you need that?” he asked, pointing at the glass of wine Isis had swiped from a passing waiter.

Isis stared the wine down, but it refused to spill any useful answers.

“She got to you, didn’t she?” Aaron sighed.

“She is adept at picking out just what you want to hear,” admitted Isis. “As though she can read your thoughts. If I didn’t know better, I’d label her a Phantom Enchanter, a double classification nearly unheard of amongst Elitions and outright impossible amongst humans.”

“It’s nothing supernatural. Veronica’s gift comes from a lifetime of practiced manipulation,” he said, turning up his nose after a single sniff of her wine.

He set the glass down beside the cracker stand, then waved down a passing waiter. The waiter paused before him. The two of them engaged in an incomprehensible debate apparently over berries and spices. After what seemed like an eternity, the waiter scurried off. When he returned, Isis expected some sort of strange dessert, not another bottle of red wine. Especially not one that looked hardly different than the one that had previously sat on his tray. Even the label looked basically the same—not that she was in the habit of scrutinizing wine labels. Aaron, on the other hand, obviously was. His smile at seeing the new wine widened as he hovered his nose over his glass, inhaling deeply. And by the time he’d taken the first sip, he was practically beaming.

“So, now that I’ve spoken to our host Lord Vencent, we must exchange niceties with Lord Ansel, Lady Nerissa, and Lord Ilex,” Aaron said, handing her the second glass of wine.

Isis loathed ‘exchanging niceties’ with Selpe nobles who believed she belonged in a zoo. And Lord Adrian was staring at her from across the room, offering her the occasional subtle wink, as though the two of them had shared in some sort of great conspiracy.

“Do you have a list of names?” she asked Aaron, turning her back to Lord Adrian.

“Yes, Lord Adrian makes me a list for each event,” he confirmed. “He’s constantly visiting with the other territory leaders—with several each day, in fact. Once he has a few he thinks are amenable, he makes a list of people to visit at the next party. I’m supposed to charm them firmly onto our side.”

“It certainly does sound like you don’t want to be here any more than I do,” she said, remembering his earlier comment.

“These political games are a necessary nuisance.” He sighed and lifted his arm to her. “Let’s start with Lord Ilex. I see him over by the grill.”

Isis took a quick sip of wine, then set her glass down on the table. One sip was about all that she could handle before the alcohol catapulted her into a storm of foresights. She laid her gloved arm in Aaron’s, and he led her to the sizzling barbecue grill on the balcony.

* * *

526AX November 5, Orion

It was past midnight before Isis finally escaped the torment of Lord Vencent’s party. But she hadn’t truly escaped. Some other Selpe aristocrat with too much money and not enough time to spend it all was sure to host another garish event within the next few days. She found herself wishing that they would just pick Aaron already, if only so she could be spared any more of this.

Aaron brought her to her apartment door, where he lingered, staring at her with eager eyes. He leaned in so close that Isis could almost taste the strawberries and cream he’d eaten for dessert on his breath. Of course, he knew strawberries were her favorite. Aaron never did anything by accident. Isis closed her eyes, anticipating the kiss. But it never came.

“Come on,” Aaron said, grinning as he took a step back. “Let’s go inside.”

“
I
am going inside,” she replied, catching her breath. “It’s late, and you’re going home now.”

He took off his coat and folded it over his arm. She made a conscious effort to look away from his exposed arms.

“I ordered us a late night snack,” he said.

Isis had not drunk enough wine to fall for that. “Aaron, I’m tired, and it’s too late for these games.”

“You ate two crackers at the party. You’ve hardly eaten in weeks.” He held up her wrist. “And it’s showing.”

“I’m surprised you’ve noticed.”

“Of course, I’ve noticed,” he said. “And even more importantly, your seamstress has noticed. She told me today that she’s had to take in your wedding dress three times already. The woman was absolutely incensed. She’s under the misguided conception that I am starving you so that I can stand next to a frail waif on our wedding day. If she has to take in your dress one more time, I really think she’s going to jam those frightening scissors of hers through my thigh. So, please, have something to eat with me now.”

“I don’t think this is a good idea.”

“The basket’s already been delivered to your room. It’s waiting just inside.”

“Aaron—”

“There’s chocolate cake.” He grinned. “With strawberries on top.”

That
did
sound good. Isis’s stomach growled in anticipation. Aaron must have heard it because his grin widened.

“So, it’s settled then,” he said, leaning against the doorframe.

He had to know that stance accentuated the muscles in his sculpted, sun-bronzed arms—but hopefully not that she appreciated the view… No, she wouldn’t go down that path. Half the time, she couldn’t even stand the man. The other half, she couldn’t help herself around him. Aaron smirked as he noticed the admiration in her eyes, and Isis cursed her own absurdity. How was he ever going to leave her alone, infatuated as she inevitably behaved around him?

And she was infatuated. That much she could admit to herself. Aaron was a gorgeous, charming man who was actually a lot of fun—but she did not love him. It was just a crush. A crush that if given in to would lead to a bloody future.

But what did it matter how she’d get rid of him anymore, anyway, now that she was to be forever stuck with him in marriage? Perhaps, it was already too late for her.

Isis unlocked her door and went inside. She kept her back to Aaron, but she heard him shut the door after him and walk up behind her.

“Thank you,” he said. “For letting me in.”

“I didn’t have much choice now, did I?” she replied, putting ice into her words.

Her eyes found the basket, a dark woven piece with a blue bow on the handle. The alluring scents of chocolate and strawberries wafted up. Well, at least he hadn’t been lying about that.

“You’re angry with me,” he said, his fingertips pressing lightly down on her arms.

Isis kept her eyes forward—off of him.

“Say something.”

She said nothing and walked over to the basket to put some distance between them. She pulled out a container and opened it to reveal a gigantic slice of cake inside. She set it on the coffee table, then took up a fork. Maybe if she didn’t look at Aaron or speak to him, he would just disappear, leaving her alone to chomp down on the cake bite by bite.

If only she really believed that.

“You’ll feel better if you let it go.”

Isis looked at the fork in her hand. If she ‘let it go’, she just might end up stabbing him. Ha! That would certainly help matters. Like it or not, Aaron was the least of many Selpe evils. Isis saw the way Lord Adrian looked at her. And at the moment, Aaron was all that was standing between the lord of Greenwood and her ending back up in another dark prison, somewhere so hidden and guarded that no one would ever find her.

“Planning on stabbing me?” Aaron guessed.

Isis turned around—and found him far too close for comfort. “The thought had crossed my mind,” she admitted.

“The fact that I’m still standing here, not bleeding out all over your floor, seems to indicate that you’ve decided against that course of action.”

“For now,” she agreed, setting the fork down on the table.

“Then I’d better make the best of the moments I have left in this life.”

As he closed in on her, she countered every forward step he took with a backward one of her own. But the room was far too small.

“Stop,” she said as her back brushed to a halt against the silken-smooth wall.

“Why?” he asked, caressing her face with featherlight fingers.

She batted the offending hand away. “Just stop.”

Aaron was not deterred. With inflamed eyes, he pushed her hard against the wall, and his hands locked around her wrists, holding her securely in place. Isis could have broken free. That wasn’t even a question; she was stronger and faster than Aaron by far. But she found herself struggling against a total lack of willpower to do anything of the sort. She was reminded of their journey to Ribbon Falls over a year ago—and of his talent for making her feel as though she were someone else entirely.

“Wait,” she said, breaking her hands free. Her palms pressed against his chest, blocking him.

“No.” He leaned forward to whisper into her ear. “I have waited far too long for you.”

“But I hate you, Aaron.”

“You also want me.”

To deny that would have been an outright lie, so she repeated her previous statement. “But I hate you, Aaron.”

“Does it matter?” he posed, breathing hotly down her neck.

“It should.”

“I’ll take that as an invitation to kiss you then.”

Aaron’s kiss was wild and impatient, without any of the self-assurance that usually characterized him. And before Isis knew it, her lips had synched to his, and her hands were immersed in his hair, plowing through his soft pale locks. She couldn’t lie to herself. Kissing Aaron felt good—toe-curling, light-headed good.

But she couldn’t forgive him for what he’d done simply because he was a good kisser. Nor could she forget for a moment the warning message of her foresights.

Isis intercepted his mouth with her hand and said, “You need to go now.”

Aaron looked at her, his eyes twinkling with confidence. “You don’t want me to go.”

No, I don’t.
“You need to go now,” she repeated, more forcefully this time.

He responded with a polished bow, then gathered up the coat he’d thrown over the back of the sofa. “Until tomorrow, my love,” he said as he left the room.

Isis plopped down onto the sofa. Her eyes fixed on the piece of cake, she tried to work out how she would avoid Aaron for the rest of her life.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

~
Crowned ~

526AX November 20, Orion

TWO-AND-A-half months after Ariella arrived bloodstained and battle-worn in Orion, the Selpe Empire’s territory rulers selected Aaron Pall as their next emperor. During that time, she’d seen nothing of Isis and little of Davin and King River. So she just had to wait in Orion, idly passing time she could have spent better elsewhere, like relaxing on a beach with Isis—sans Selpes and sans drama.

But Isis was trapped in Orion, and Ariella still didn’t know the full story. Even after all those weeks, no one was feeling any chattier about the events that had led to Jason’s incarceration, nor Isis’s part in it. So Ariella was more than a little shocked when her friend sent her a note the morning of the coronation, asking her to come visit her in her apartment.