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She still doesn’t look at me, but I see the ghost of a smile in her profile.
‘If you or your friends rape me, it’ll be my fault for egging you on, and I can’t go to the authorities about it because you all own me and can do whatever you like with me. Noted,’ she mutters dryly and then lets out a small sigh. ‘Your words give you away.’
‘I don’t know what you mean.’
‘Dane spoke of revenge in Alcana. I assume you’re going to enjoy making my days and nights miserable and probably painful as well until I can do whatever it is you brought me along for.’
I frown a little at her. She’s more perceptive than I’d given her credit for. But I had thought she’d realize that we were in Alcana to find her and bring her back. She doesn’t seem to understand that we brought her with us to do just that.
‘We won’t be defiling you, Harbinger. Of that, you have my word,’ I vow. ‘But, yes, traveling with us won’t be comfortable for you. You have my word on that score, too.’
She doesn’t say anything, and I lean back in the bath, resting my head against the copper. But her words roll around in my head, and I open my eyes a moment later to look at her again.
She must know that Varrik wouldn’t just let her go and never come looking. Mustn’t she? My brow furrows. Unless …
‘Did you think we’d treat you like one of us? You betrayed us all, Harbinger, and you destroyed our home,’ I say, trying to see if she knows what exactly she did that night.
I’m not sure what reaction I was expecting from her, but the quick, proud grin before her expression shutters, isn’t it.
‘Yes,’ she whispers unashamedly. ‘I razed as much of it as I could before I left. I burned his fucking keep to the ground with him inside it. At first, I wasn’t sure if you knew it was me.’
I don’t let my shock and anger show. I was right. She thinks she killed him. I consider telling her the truth, that he’s very much alive, or at least he was when he sent us and many others after her seven years ago. I almost want her to know that we’re taking her back to him just to see her reaction, but I decide to keep it to myself for now. I have a feeling it’ll make her much more intractable than she is already. Let her think we’ve brought her along for some other purpose, and it’ll be all the sweeter when she realizes too late that we’ve returned her like wayward property to Varrik.
‘Why did you bring me?’ she asks. ‘Other than to make me miserable, I mean. What is it that you want me for?’
I lay my head back down on the rim of the bath with my eyes closed so she can’t see that I’m fumbling for a believable lie, and I say the first thing that comes to mind. Her purpose.
‘To kill, Harbinger, of course.’
She gasps. ‘I’m not going to do that,’ she whispers. ‘I can’t!’
She wrenches the rope around her neck loose and shoves it over her head before she turns and runs from the room. For a long moment, all I can do is gawk at the suddenness of her flight. I hear the front door bang hard into the wall as she flees into the street, and I give myself a shake.
Fuck!
I yell after her, finally jumping from the bath and wrapping a drying sheet around my waist before I leap after her.
But when I emerge into the morning sun and look around for her, I see her struggling in Dane’s grasp. He looks amused as he hauls her back to the bathhouse and holds her in front of me.
I grab her hard by the hair and wrench her head back, relishing the whimper of pain she tries to quash.
‘You shouldn’t have done that, Harbinger,’ I growl. ‘No food for you today.’ I turn to Dane. ‘You need to put a conjure on her so she can’t run again. She’s quick, and I don’t feel like having to watch her so closely all the time.’
‘With pleasure,’ he growls. ‘I’ll do it under the moon as soon as it begins to wax.’
‘Good.’
I drag her back to the bathhouse and into my room, pushing her to the ground. ‘Stay!’ I command, ignoring her angry look.
‘You can’t make me kill for you.’
I ignore her as I dry myself, sneering when I see she’s looking away from my nakedness again.
‘Stop pretending!’ I roar, suddenly angrier than before, though I’m not sure why. ‘Stop pretending to be anything other than what you are!’ I see the others watching from the door, and I press on. ‘Why Varrik gave a human such a gift is beyond me. You aren’t worthy of it. You aren’t worthy of anything!’
She flinches at my words, and I know they’ve found their mark.
‘You know it, don’t you?’ I stand over her, going for the kill. ‘Look at me!’ I order, wanting to see the pain I inflict. She raises her eyes to mine.
