Ensnared (Sorcery and Science Book 5) (6 page)

Destiny stepped between them. “Now, now. We’re all friends here.”

Were they? They’d worked together just last week to expose the Selpe traitor who had plotted to kidnap the half-Elition heirs to the Selpe throne, but from the way Wrest was glaring at Jason, no one would have known it. The other Phantom was apparently under the impression that they’d yet to establish who was the dominant Phantom. That was what was causing the tension. Wrest’s tension. Jason knew who was dominant. He was the Elite Phantom after all.

“We, too, mean no harm,” Destiny told him. “Silas is just overprotective. It’s his bodyguard instincts kicking in.
One can never be too careful with the infamous Jason Chanz.” She smiled. “Ah, forgive me. It seems that even I slip at times. Magus.”

“You are Isis’s friend, so you may call me Jason.”

“And you are hers, or is it more than that?” she asked with a curious smile. “In any case, then you may call me Ariella.”

“Ariella, I would like to speak with you for a moment.” He shot Wrest a hard look. “Alone.”

“I’ll be fine, Silas,” she assured him, for he had drawn his Bloodfire knife. It was a fast draw, one worthy of a seasoned Phantom. “Let’s take a walk, Jason.”

He led her up the hill, the path spiraling ever upward until they reached the vista at the top. Jason turned his back to their companions, still visible far below. The clash of the ocean waves would block their words, even from Phantom ears.

Ariella balanced her toes over the edge of the cliff and smiled as the cold breeze whipped through her hair, swirling it all around her face.

Jason watched the silver-blonde streamers and asked, “What color was your hair before your Passing?”

All Elitions went through a Passing around the age of twelve. It was the time their unique abilities fully surfaced and their physical features changed to the telltale Elition look. Mostly, that meant their eyes and hair took on vibrant tones, like the shimmering silver of Ariella’s hair or the violet glow of her eyes. But depending on the Elition adolescent, it could also mean sudden changes in height or muscle mass. Their skin also acquired a certain glow to it.

“What an odd question, but then they all say you’re a bit mad, don’t they?” She laughed softly. “It was not nearly so silver. Just blonde.”

“And your eyes?”

“They were blue.”

“And how old are you, Ariella?”

“I should smack you for that one, Jason Chanz, but I’m starting to get the feeling that this is more than idle curiosity. You have a purpose to everything you say, don’t you? I’m seventeen,” she told him.

His thoughts were churning, bubbling. “And you are a Prophet.”

“Yes,” she said slowly.

“You weren’t born the daughter of King Fathom and Queen Crystal of Zephyr.”

“No, they adopted me as their daughter ten years ago. Where are you going with this?”

“You are close to Davin Storm.”

Ariella shot him a perplexed look.

“I saw you with him at Hayden Selpe’s coronation party,” he explained.

“Davin is a friend.” Her tone betrayed a hint of regret.

“But like a brother,” he supplied for her.

Ariella’s chest, so tight with held breath just moments before, deflated as she succumbed to laughter. It was a while before she could pull herself together enough to look him in the eye.

“Not really,” she said. “Actually, I’ve been trying to get him to think of me as more than a friend for years. But not as a brother. Most definitely not as a brother. Along less platonic lines, if you know what I mean.”

No. The statement shattered his theory into a million tiny shards. “Are you quite sure—”

“That I’m not Terra Cross? That’s where you were going with this, right? Oh, yes. Quite sure,” she told him with a chuckle.

“Perhaps you don’t remember
—
”

“Elitions have crystal clear memories going back much further than the age of seven.”

“Of course.” As the truth of her words seeped through his skin, hope drained from him. It would have been too easy. It’s
never
that easy. “
I had merely hoped that she was wandering around, out and about somewhere, not stuck in a dark room, alone and forlorn.”

“I have never met Terra,” said Ariella. “But from what I’ve heard, no one has seen her in a very long time. She’s supposed to be hidden away in some distant temple, hardly able to think straight enough to even function. A tragic fate for Elitia’s princess. I’m sorry, Jason. She’s crazy, and she is lost to us forever.”

Jason didn’t believe it.
He’d written to Terra through the sand slates just over one year ago, and she’d sounded perfectly lucid.
Terra had always struggled with her gift, but over the many years they had secretly kept in contact, she’d never seemed crazy.
He didn’t want to think those times they wrote to each other were the rare cases when she’d been sane—or that she’d stopped writing because she had completely lost her mind. He couldn’t think that.

“I think Isis knew her,” Ariella offered, pity in her eyes.

Pity. It was an expression he’d never seen directed his way. Usually, it was fear. Or panic.

“Isis?”

“Yes, they were in school together. Here at Precipice actually.”

“I thought Isis went to school with you at Rosewater.”

“She was at Precipice before being transferred to Rosewater,” Ariella told him.

And yet she’d never mentioned this to him. Isis had known he was looking for Terra, and she didn’t offer even this tiny hint. Jason voiced the thought.

Ariella sighed. “As you know, Isis is very sensitive about her gift.
She is deathly afraid of her own power. That’s why she’s taken the Inhibiting Serum for years. She doesn’t want to end up like so many Prophets who have lost their minds to the foresights. Like Terra. She doesn’t really talk about her time here, but reading between the lines, I believe Terra attacked her in a mad rage. Isis has this scar on her belly. Perhaps you’ve seen it?”

Jason tried not to read the suggestion loaded into the statement. But he had, in fact, seen the scar. It had stood out immediately to him, for Elitions rarely scarred. It took one of a few very potent and particular poisons to make that happen.

“Poison?” he asked Ariella.

“I don’t know. I only suspect that Terra attacked Isis, and shortly thereafter Isis transferred to Rosewater. You would have to ask Isis for the full story.”

“Would she share the story?”

Ariella’s eyes twinkled, and her lip twitched with amusement. “She might. With you.”

“Does she know where Terra is?”

“I don’t know.”

“Where is Isis now?”

“I don’t know.”

Jason doubted that. “She is your kindred. Your best friend.”

“I left Orion at nearly the same time you did. Great exit, by the way.”

Great would have been stealing the Book of Memory without setting off the alarms. But as life so often reminded Jason, one could not have everything.

“Anyway, King River told me I needed some time off after the ordeal with Hayden and Ian Selpe. I would be shocked if he didn’t insist that Isis do the same.” She grinned. “Actually, I really thought she’d come to visit you.”

“I haven’t seen her since that night.”

“Well, if I see her, I’ll tell her you’re looking for her.”

Jason inclined his head.

“Though you should tread carefully,” Ariella warned him. “Once you took the Book of Memory, it became obvious that you were looking for Terra Cross.”

“I only need to get to her before anyone else does. Once she’s with me, she’ll be safe.”

“I’m not sure King River would see it that way, but since he is out of contact again, we cannot ask him.”

“Where does he go off to all the time?” Jason asked.

She shook her head. “If only I knew. I haven’t heard from him in days. Not since Hayden Selpe’s coronation.”

“Then what are you doing here?”

“Sorry?”

“King River told you to take time off, and yet here you are with Silas Thorn. As Precipice hardly makes the list of top Elition getaway spots, I cannot help but wonder what you two are doing nosing around here.”

“We are looking for Hayden and Ian Selpe and our friend Marin. There was an explosion in the floating city of Oasis while they were there. The Selpes have declared them missing, presumed dead.”

Jason’s nose twitched. “I smell a Selpe plot. Could it be that this did not end with the capture of Lady Cassandra?”

“Lady Cassandra escaped. And yes, it does sound fishy. This time, however, Silas and I are just hoping to rescue Hayden and Ian Selpe and Marin. Not uncover conspiracies. That can wait for later. As Silas is so fond of reminding me, there will always be conspiracies galore.”

Jason remembered Marin. He recalled that she was a clever woman, but getting even that much out of her had proved difficult. She’d been so terrified of him that she hadn’t spoken a single word to him, making an excuse to run off whenever he entered the room.

“You think you will find them here?” he asked Ariella.

“No. We’ve come here to pick up Leonidas Chase.”

“I thought the Selpe spy betrayed you.”

“So I reminded Silas, but he seems to think that Leonidas will behave as long as Marin’s life is on the line.”

Jason could not comment on that, so he replied merely, “That is for you two to determine. I don’t know the man.” He stepped away from the edge of the cliff, turning back toward the downward trail. “I wish you luck in your mission, Ariella Steele.”

“To you as well, Jason Chanz,” she replied, biting back a smile in a manner so like Isis that Jason nearly blinked.

CHAPTER SIX

~
Familiar Footsteps ~

526AX August 19, Eclipse

POINTY PEBBLES SLIPPED and slid beneath Cameron’s feet as he ascended the hill. As soon as he reached the ridge, he would be standing at the tallest point in all of Eclipse. An exhilarating jump below lay the lake, blue and cold in the autumn air. Cameron was nearly tempted to take the plunge, but the resulting drenched clothes would necessitate a trip back to his cabin. Though it lay on the edge of town, it was unlikely he could make it there and out again unseen. The residents of Eclipse were insufferable busybodies, gossiping about all day long. News of his movements would reach Lana, and she would be waiting on his front step. Considering that Cameron had made it his goal of the day to avoid her, that just wouldn’t do.

It’s not that Cameron didn’t like Lana. In fact, she was the nicest person in all of Eclipse. And that was the problem. She had a knack for convincing people to do things they really didn’t want to do. She would guilt you until you said yes, and you wouldn’t even realize how much you hated it until it was too late. This morning, she’d cornered him on the steps of the temple terrace. He’d barely finished his breakfast when she appeared, seemingly out of nowhere. She then preceded to talk him into joining her inside the temple for the day.

It had started as a plea for help in organizing the candles, then quickly digressed into Cameron sitting in the temple’s stuffy library being lectured to by two even stuffier priests. Apparently, Lana had talked
them
into tutoring him to the end of his abandoned studies. Based on their very green faces, they weren’t too pleased with the situation either. That might have had something to do with Cameron’s not-so-secret history of escapes and accidents. Perhaps they knew of the incident in the Black Moss library. No, not perhaps. They
had
to know. Everyone knew. One of the priests kept throwing nervous looks at the stacks, while the other stroked the book he was holding as though it were a newborn baby. The silly thing was it wasn’t even Cameron’s fault that the Black Moss library had caught on fire. Not that gossips ever bothered to get their facts straight.

Cameron crested the ridge and paused to watch the wind puff the dressing off a tree. Red and orange leaves looped and coasted toward the lake, sending out rings of ripples as they touched down on the sapphire surface. A breeze at his back, Cameron sat down and swung his legs over the edge. He pressed his hands against the rocky ground, sitting in silence until the rustle of familiar footsteps came up behind him.

“I knew you would come. Somehow I knew. Come sit beside me,” he said without turning.

“Cameron.” Her voice shook and cracked.

He was up and holding Isis’s trembling hands before he could even complete the thought that something was wrong. She hadn’t been taking her Inhibiting Serum—that much was clear—but there was something more. Her eyes, her hair—they were far more intense than what was normal, even for an Elition. She’d taken something to enhance her abilities. He looked into her eyes, which were wide with fear. No, she’d been forced to take it.

“What happened?” he asked with urgency.

Isis flinched as he set a hand on her shoulder. He moved in to get a closer look, but she pulled away. Holding to her arm, he slid the jacket off her shoulder. Beneath the thick leather was a large bruise. He followed the mark down her arm, where it fanned out in all directions like a twisted sort of watercolor painting. Cameron realized her clothes were stained with traces of blood and beneath torn fabric deep cuts dripped and oozed.

“What did they do to you?
Who
did this to you?” Cameron asked, feeling his anger simmer.

Her eyes trembled. She was traumatized. “Cameron…”

“It was the Selpes, wasn’t it?” he growled.
They’d done this to her because she’d warned Jason that the Diamond Edges were coming for him. Then she’d distracted them so Cameron, Jason, and Everett could slip out of Orion unnoticed.

“It’s not important,” she replied. “Look, Cameron—”