Adam cut in, muttering.“Not worth it.”
Borthwick’s gaze shifted to the flaming sword in Neil’s hand.“I’m a little more surprised to find you still standing.Perhaps that trinket you’re carrying has something to do with how you managed to survive.I look forward to examining it more closely, once I’ve relieved you of it.”
Neil’s mouth firmed at the implied threat, his hand tightening on the sword’s hilt.
“I assume they’ve been in league with you all this time,” Borthwick remarked casually to Adam.“It’s an insult, really—that your father would send you out here to cross me with nothing more than a scholar and a pair of women.”
Hot, swirling wind gusted through the sinkhole, rippling the wild herbs at Adam’s feet.He looked as queasy as he might on a hundred-foot precipice.“You think myfathersent me here?”
Borthwick’s eyes blazed with hot violence.“Don’t treat me like a fool, Mr.Bates.I don’t take well to it.”He moderated his tone as he paced through the grass.“I do give you credit for the sheer audacity of the show you put on in order to insert yourself into my party.I assumed, of course, that you had most likely been sent to spy on us.Even that would have been a violation of the gentleman’s agreement that governs this delicate work.But to learn that your actual mission was to try to steal the arcanum out from under my nose—well, that’s something else entirely.The relative civility of this little arms race depends upon the understanding that you Yanks have your territory, and we have ours.”
Ellie’s mind whirled to keep up with Borthwick’s words.
You Yanks have your territory…
“What the hell are you talking about?”Adam demanded.
But Ellie already knew.
George Bates’s name was recognized across continents.He was as much a lord in his realm as Aldbury, one who ruled both his financial empire and his family with a merciless will and iron-hard expectations.
One who had tried to force Adam into a brutal mold that he had never been meant to fit.
This little arms race…
The high red walls around Ellie seemed to spin.Borthwick wasn’t engaging in a leap of groundless paranoia.He was accusing George Bates of trying to steal arcana… because that must be something Adam’s father had already done.
“You think I don’t know what he’s up to in Seoul?”Borthwick drawled.“He’s welcome to whatever the Joseon are hiding—but India’s treasures belong to the crown.”
Seoul, Ellie thought, feeling sick.George Bates was in Seoul.
He’s welcome to whatever the Joseon are hiding…
Borthwick’s fingers casually tapped against the butt of his whip.The gesture was deliberate—a reminder of how willing he was to resort to violence.“Clearly, repercussions are required.Boundaries must be maintained—but there’s no need to make it unnecessarily unpleasant.We are all still gentlemen, after all.Your wife can carry word to your father in Korea while you remain here as my guest until he has provided a guarantee of his future good behavior.”
Adam’s hands clenched desperately at his sides.“You can’t do that.Ellie has nothing to do with this!”
Borthwick’s brow rose.“Your wife isn’t the one I was threatening to hold on to.”
But Adam wasn’t a fool.He would have understood that.
He was afraid because Borthwick planned to send Ellie to his father.
An itching, uncomfortable tension crept up her spine.
Adam struggled to rein himself in.“My father won’t care what you do with me.”
“Nonsense,” Borthwick retorted.“George Bates is a man who values his legacy.A son isn’t something he’ll let go of lightly.”
The words echoed hollowly through Ellie’s mind.
A son isn’t something he’ll let go of lightly.
The air around her grew colder.
“Now, if whichever of you is hiding my astra would be so kind as to hand it over?”Borthwick lightly ordered.
The murderer who lurked at Ellie’s back stepped into the light, holding the power of the gods in his hands.
