I ignore his question, instead focusing on staying as distraught as I can.
“I tried to come back,” I cry. “I tried, Dane.”
“Shh,” he coos. “You made it. You’re safe.”
He leans forward and plants a firm kiss on my lips. I feel nothing.
Not a spark, not a flutter.
Nothing.
This was not the kiss I wanted tonight, but it’s the one I have to endure. Weston’s denial mere hours ago made me feel infinitely more than the press of Dane’s lips, and the only way I can stomach it is by pretending they are Weston’s.
He can’t know that anything has changed.
He pulls back, and movement catches the corner of my eye. I look past Dane’s shoulder and see someone barreling toward us.
“You!”
Mara charges at us and I stagger to my feet, trying to stay out of her reach. I can’t see if she’s armed, but I don’t have time to look before Dane is stepping in front of me, holding his arms out toward her.
“Mara, stop!”
She slams into him, trying to push past him and get to me. Taking a few quick steps back, I watch as he wrangles her into a hold, fighting against her lashes and wrenching of limbs.
“She’s a fucking traitor, Dane! I saw it with my own eyes!” Mara screams. Her face exudes hatred, and something in my chest cracks. This isn’t the Mara I knew, and I don’t know if I’ll ever know her again.
“I’m not!” I cry, shaking my head, trying to fill my eyes with fear, which isn’t difficult after seeing how aggressively she’s trying to attack me.
“How can you let her back here? She needs to be thrown into the cage and questioned! She has information!”
“Mara!” Dane yells, and her attention snaps to him. The last time I heard his voice that authoritative and angry was when they locked me in the cage on my first day here. It’s clear his influence over the Voyagers hasn’t changed since I’ve been gone.
“She’s not a traitor! She came back. Look what they did to her!” He throws his arm out toward me and her gaze follows, eyes trailing over my ripped and soiled clothes, blood soaked and scraped skin, and ending on my bruised face.
Mara says nothing; she only glares at me, her jaw clenching tightly.
She promised me long ago that if I ever turned on them, she would end me, and now, after seeing how easily her feelingstoward me can change and remembering the knives she threw at my back, I know she was being honest.
“I had to, Mara. That was the only way they would let me out. I had to pretend I was one of them,” I say, pleading with her.
“Liar!” she spits at me. I feel everyone around us watching the even bigger spectacle Mara has made my return into, and realize that everyone is awake now, watching everything unfold.
A small cry breaks out across the clearing, and I look past Dane and Mara to find Roley running straight toward me.
“Lennox!”
My knees barely hit the ground before he’s crashing into me, wrapping his arms around my neck.
“You’re okay!” he squeaks, and I hold him tight.
“So are you!” I cry. “I was so worried.”
I truly was worried. Taril told me Roley survived the incident, and had been quiet since then, but I needed to see for myself.
He pushes off me, his eyes snagging on my injured cheek before meeting mine. “You saved me.”
“Of course I did, Roley. I wasn’t going to let anything hurt you.” I hug him again tightly, then get back to my feet.
