Shadowstorm (Sorcery and Science Book 6) (34 page)

“I don’t know,” Lana said. “But I’ll ask around to see if anyone saw anything last night.”

“Thanks.” Terra stared out across Eclipse, her eyes unfocused, probably taking in nothing of what she saw.

“You didn’t say if you’re going,” Everett said.

Her head snapped around, and as her eyes refocused, a smile spread across her lips. “Of course I’m going. I wouldn’t miss my best friend and my brother getting married, not for all the chocolate in the world.”

“And what does Jason have to say about your little field trip to Laelia?” he asked.

“I’m sure he’d glower and brood and make his eyes phase obsidian. At some point, what’s left of his furniture would explode.” She braided her fingers together, then rested her chin upon them. “Which is why I’m not going to tell him.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

~
Eye of the Storm ~

527AX February 14, Laelia

PINK-WHITE BLOSSOMS fluttered down on Terra, settling on her shoulders, arms, and head. They were too beautiful to displace, so she left them there, allowing their special blend of magic to melt into her skin. She felt warm—and happy. Beyond Laelia, winter was brewing up one hell of a storm, but here it felt like summer. She had every intention of enjoying the respite, short as it was.

Ariella stood beside Davin, her arm linked gracefully in his. They were a beautiful couple: Davin in a custom-fitted suit so sleek, so smooth, it would have made any Selpe lord weep with envy; Ariella in a one-strap wedding gown that hugged her torso all the way down to her waist, where it flowed out in full, delicate layers, like the silken petals of a peony. Davin’s cocoa-bronze locks were, as always, meticulously tousled. Ariella’s silver-blonde hair was drawn up into a tight bun that accentuated her long, slender neck. Gemstones—blue and purple and pink—dangled from her necklace and twin bracelets, sparkling against the unearthly shimmer of her pale skin.

Terra lifted her hand to the silver chain around her neck. Boasting a dozen strands of tiny blue diamonds, it was as magnificent as Ariella’s wedding jewelry.

“It looks good on you.”

She kept her gaze forward. There was no need to look. She would have known that voice anywhere—and that scent of aftershave entwined with self-confidence. Aaron Selpe.

“You look good,” he added. “I have to admit it’s positively thrilling to see you in my jewels.”

“It has nothing to do with you and everything to do with them. They’re pretty. And they are
my
jewels now.”

“Indeed. I heard of your heist at Sundrop Loop. The soldiers you outmaneuvered inside the Treasury were…hesitant to report what had transpired there.”

Dread compelled her to turn and look at him. He was dressed as nicely as Davin—his dark suit the perfect compromise between formal and relaxed—but he’d left his attention-stealing aura at home, along with the imperial paraphernalia.

“Please tell me you didn’t do anything horrible to those soldiers,” she said.

“No.” A smile slid over his lips. “I laughed. Adrian, on the other hand, looked like he’d swallowed a lemon.”

“He always looks like that.”

“Not quite always.” Aaron’s smile grew wider. “I’ll make sure to relay to those men how concerned you were for their well-being.”

“I really wish you wouldn’t. Your soldiers think I’m enough of a pushover already.”

“Not the ones you shot full of blow darts at Hope.” The smile finally faded, and his face went cautiously neutral. “What were you doing there anyway?”

“Apparently blowing darts at Selpe soldiers.” She planted her hands on her hips and glared at him. “You know, for nearly two months I couldn’t go anywhere without a bounty hunter trying to collect on that ridiculous bounty you put out on me.”

He watched her curiously. “But no longer. In the past week, I’ve tried to hire no fewer than five distinguished bounty hunters to go out after you, but every single one of them refused to go anywhere near you, no matter what I offered them. What did you do?”

“I implanted a terrifying fake memory of me into the heads of a band of bounty hunters. The magic is contagious, which means the memory—and the fear of me—will spread to any other bounty hunters they meet. And there’s nothing you can do about it,” she finished with a victorious smile.

Aaron stared at her for a few seconds, then his shoulders relaxed and he burst into laughter. “My love, you are as clever as you are beautiful.”

Terra took a step away from him.

“Wait.” Catching her arm, he leaned in and dropped his voice to a whisper. “I’ve missed you.”

She peeled his hand off of her arm with a sigh. “Why are you here, Aaron?”

“To see my best friend get married, of course.”

“And you’re the only Selpe here?” She didn’t sense any others nearby, but she wasn’t a true Phantom. Her range didn’t extend far beyond the enchanted cherry tree grove.

“King River closed off Laelia to outsiders for the duration of the wedding,” he told her. “Entry by invitation only.”

“And who invited you?” she demanded.

“Davin did.”

“Davin invited you? After all that you did?”

He folded his hands before him. “If you’re referring to our marriage—”

“I’m not,” she cut him off. “You know exactly what I mean.”

“Lord Adrian’s project.” He gritted his teeth behind sealed lips. “You know.”

“Yes,” she hissed. “I know.”

“I never wanted—”

“Wanted what, Aaron? To chase down Elitions, imprison them against their will, pump them full of drugs, then try to break their minds, warping them into weapons?” As the words gushed out of her, her pulse quickened, her blood burned, her skin grew hot, and she had a sudden and immediate urge to punch him in the face. “And don’t even try to make this all Lord Adrian’s project. You’re the emperor. You’re in charge. You could have put an end to all this, but you didn’t.”

His face was cool, his eyes hard. “It isn’t that simple.”

“Isn’t it?” she spat back. “This goes back years. You’ve been helping Lord Adrian torture my people
for years
.”

“Terra,” he said, reaching for her.

She slapped his hand away. “No. Don’t touch me. Don’t ever touch me. I saw it—us on the battlefield, dead Elitions all around us. We killed them. I…helped you do it.”

“That hasn’t happened.”

“Not yet. Not
ever
.” As cold and cruel as death itself, the memory of the foresight slithered across her skin, freezing her to her core. “Project Bellflower… That girl is just a child, Aaron. A child.”

“I know,” he said quietly.

“She was kidnapped by the Diamond Edges. Lord Adrian’s Elition prisoners were all kidnapped by the Diamond Edges. They’ve been a part of this since day one, so don’t pretend you weren’t involved.”

“Fine,” said Aaron. “I was. Lord Adrian was my boss, but more than that, he’s the man who made me. He believed the project was essential to the future of the empire, and I believed him. So I did what he said.”

Terra’s hands shook, even as they clenched into fists. She forced them to release. She would not be the one to ruin Ariella’s wedding. Aaron’s next words tested that resolve.

“They were only rogues.”

“That’s irrelevant, and you know it. The terms of the alliance dictate that all offending Elitions are to be turned over to Elitia, rogue or otherwise.”

“Just as the terms of the alliance dictate the number of Elitions to be sent to work for us,” countered Aaron. “King River failed to deliver. He’s been fighting us for years. He has been reducing the quota for years.”

“I’m talking about people being brainwashed, and you respond with quotas?”

“As you know, we have enemies,” he said.

“Enemies you made.”

He ignored the comment. “The biggest of which are the Avans, who have every single Siennan at their beck and call. As opposed to the occasional Elition King River can be bothered to send us to counter them. The Selpe Empire and Elitia entered into this alliance because we needed each other. The truth—this reality that you refuse to see—is that we still do. King River’s stubbornness puts not only us in danger, but Elitia as well.”

“So you take matters into your own hands? You decide to enslave us, starting with those you’ve labeled rogue? Well, in case you’ve forgotten, I’m a rogue now too.”

“You know I don’t think of you like that,” he said.

“Maybe you don’t, but Lord Adrian does. The Elitions he’s imprisoned…” Her voice caught in her throat. She cleared it. “They aren’t even criminals. They are victims. Lord Adrian is completely devoid of all morality. His actions do not surprise me. You, though… Well, I thought you had a conscience. I guess I was wrong.”

“A conscience is inconvenient in my line of work. Just ask your assassin friend. It’s inconvenient in his as well. Or hasn’t he told you of the children he’s killed?”

“This isn’t about Jason,” she said. “It’s about you.”

“We’re not so different, though I have the friendlier smile.” He flashed that same smile she’d seen a thousand times before. It was the smile that made women kick, push, and yank out one another’s hair for a chance to throw their panties at him. “His smile is so feral, so deranged.” He leaned in close, a hint of mint fresh on his breath as he spoke. “And I’ll bet he doesn’t know how to treat a lady. I do.” His fingers glided out, catching a falling cherry blossom between two of them. His hand slid across her cheek, stroking her hair back to tuck the blossom into place behind her ear. “I love you, Terra. Let’s drop all pretenses. There’s something between us. Stop.” He pressed his finger to her mouth. “Don’t insult both of us by trying to deny it. You can feel it, in that deep ache that permeates every fiber of your body whenever I’m around.” His hand traced down her arm. “In the way it responds to my touch.”

“You’re depraved.”

“And you’re drawn to depraved men.”

“No.”

“We’re being honest, remember? And the honest truth is that for some inconceivable reason, the assassin has rebuffed the strongest, sweetest, most beautiful woman I have ever had the pleasure of knowing.”

Terra shifted her weight.

“Oh, yes. I can see it in your eyes when you speak of him. I can see how he’s hurt you. He’s a fool. But I’m not. Come back with me, Terra. You might not love me now, but give me a chance to win you over.” His lips brushed against her ear. “You will enjoy every moment of it.”

He was right…about everything. For reasons she couldn’t understand, she was drawn to him. It had been that way since the first time they’d met, and the compulsion had only grown stronger since. If she gave in to that feeling—if she went with him—she would enjoy herself.

But she wouldn’t be happy. Aaron had been a part of Lord Adrian’s project from the beginning. He’d helped the lord of Greenwood imprison dozens of Elitions who went on to be drugged, tortured, and broken. If circumstances were different—if Aaron didn’t have feelings for her—she could have been one of them. She could have been his prisoner.

“Eleven years ago, a band of men tried to capture me,” she told him, her voice hardly above a whisper. “They chased me across the grounds of Rosewater. They didn’t wear Diamond Edge uniforms, but Jason and I were certain they were Diamond Edges. That wasn’t even the first time they’d tried either.”

Aaron didn’t say anything.

“Lord Adrian’s project goes back over a decade,” she said.

“I wasn’t with the Diamond Edges back then,” he told her, as though that excused his involvement now.

“The Diamond Edges were wearing disguises,” she continued. “Since their actions were in violation of the alliance, they couldn’t just parade out in the open. They had to dress like bandits or assassins instead.”

And they still did. Her breath caught in her throat as she realized that.

“That’s what the maze was. The one Ariella and I were trapped inside,” she said.

Aaron’s face was carefully neutral. “What do you mean?”

“About a year and a half ago, right after graduation, Ariella and I took a trip to Wellspring.”

He snorted. “The cross-cultural one-night stand capital of the empire? I didn’t think it was your style. Not after you refused to come with me to Catacomb.”

“We didn’t know about that when we went there. We found out the hard way,” she replied. “We nearly had to break some Diamond Edges’ arms.”

“I see.”

“That was just the first few hours, and it only went downhill from there. Later that day, we saw some hooded men chasing a blue-haired Elition woman. We intervened. The woman got away, but the men shot us. The bullets were laced with poison. We ended up inside a building, and there we had to fight our way through a maze of mechanical menaces. When we got out, Lord Adrian was waiting there. He said the building was a Diamond Edge training facility.” She looked at Aaron.

“Yes, we have a facility there.”

“No.” She frowned. “You don’t.”

“Terra—”

“It was a test,” she said. “You tested us. Our agility, intelligence, endurance, strength, how we handled machines. That’s the incident that made Ariella fear machines. You traumatized her.”

Again, Aaron said nothing.

“The maze was incomplete when we went through it,” she told him. “The building was huge, but there were just two tests. Well, unless you count the masked Diamond Edges who chased us… Come to think of it, those poison bullets were probably a test of our resistance—or at the very least, our willpower. But the point is there was space in that building for a whole lot of other tests. So it must not have been fully ready.”

She wondered what the building looked like now—then shuddered. On second thought, no, she really didn’t want to know.

“Terra, listen to yourself,” he said, setting his hand on her arm. “You’re paranoid.”

“Am I?” she demanded, shrugging his arm off of her. “Am I really? A lot of Elitions visit Wellspring. Lord Adrian knew that when he put a testing area there. He’s using this Wellspring facility to select which Elitions he wants for his project. I’d bet a box of chocolates that Ariella and I were led into that maze for a reason, even though it wasn’t yet ready. He wanted me for his program.”