Page 137 of The Immortal’s Mark

The warlock disappears through the doorway, and Bella closes the metal door behind him with a clang.

The sound reverberates through the concrete room, sealing us in.

I stare at Bella like I’m seeing a ghost.

She’s changed so much in the few weeks she’s been gone.

Her youthful glow is dimmed, as if someone had snuffed it out.

The blue dress she wears hangs off her frame. Her shoulders look narrower. Her face is hollow. The joyous warmth she always radiated is absent.

A stoic, withdrawn young woman stands in front of me, looking like she’s been carved out from the inside.

And despite that, despite the wrongness of her smile and the emptiness in her eyes, I’ve never been so happy to see anyone in my entire life.

Because a part of me…a part I wouldn’t acknowledge out loud…feared the worst after Adir took her.

Seeing her standing here, alive, hits me like a welcome slap to the face.

But something is wrong.

Something stops me from rejoicing that I’ve found her.

“What’s going on, Bella?” I lick my dry lips and look around the dreary room again. “Where are we?”

“Adir’s home in the Italian countryside,” she replies with little emotion. “Henry was supposed to bring you to the main house, but I assume he changed his mind when he realized Gregory had accompanied you.”

I glance at Gregory’s unconscious form, then back up. “You know Gregory?”

“I know of him,” she says. “But we have never been introduced.”

Everything she says is so formal. So…lifeless.

Is this an act?

I search her face, desperate for the Bella I know.

“Why am I here?” My voice rises. “Why are you here?”

No one is with us. Bella is alone. If she wanted to leave, she could use her powers and⁠—

“You are here to help Adir.” Her tone stays maddeningly calm. “As am I.”

My throat tightens. “What are you talking about? You were kidnapped. Why are you helping Adir?”

“Adir didn’t kidnap me. I left Greece of my own free will.”

“That’s not true!” The shout rips out of me, raw disbelief with nowhere else to go. “That’s not—Bella, that doesn’t make any sense!”

Maybe she’s brainwashed.

My mind flashes to the waking sleep Adir put me under after he kidnapped me from the ball—how my body grew heavy and my thoughts blurred—how the world felt like it was underwater. He has the ability to manipulate the mind.

He must have done something to Bella.

That’s the only explanation for the way she’s standing there like a stranger wearing my friend’s face.

“I know this is confusing,” Bella continues calmly, “but I’m helping Adir for the good of everyone. I’m helping him to end the rebellion.”