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29Garret
"You work for Healynas?"I snarled, jumping to face him.
He had always been so secretive about his past, but now everything was coming out. All of it… it was all lies.
Parris had been right. He had been right from that first moment he had found out about Elliot. I didn’t need the choked laugh from my brother to see his expression. I could already see it in my mind. That smug grin, the fury, the told you so bastard grin that always got worse in times like this.
“Garr-” Jaide’s half a word sounded a world away as I took another step toward my lover… the liar.
He didn’t even flinch.
"You work for Healynas?" I wasn’t even trying to control my rage now. My voice roared to life as my head spun. I was sure my eyes had already dipped to black, the deep power in my blood trying to reach out to him, to force him to respond to me.
Force me to give him the truth.
It’s what I should have done all along.
"When you showed up here, saying you were a refugee, that you had nowhere to go, was it all a lie?” I snarled, stepping even closer to him, still he didn’t move. He just stood there, taking it as though it was a slap. “Did you lie so that you could watch us, so that you could report back to your master. Your creator."
I spat the word, I spayed out all of the hate and betrayal that were burning in my throat. He was lucky I didn’t breathe fire.
"Calm down, Garret,” he pleaded, like that would somehow make it all better. “I said that I was raised to be his guard, not that I still was. I told you the truth." Elliot spoke evenly, like he didn’t just reveal he had betrayed lied to me from the very beginning.
What did he think this was? What game was he playing?
"You omitted the truth! You never once told me you worked with Healynas. You lied! When you knew what that Fae monster was to us." The windows rattled as I screamed, and for half a second Elliot looked nervous.
After what he had done he should have looked terrified.
"I didn't lie,” Elliot spoke with that same even tone that was grinding down my spine like a dull axe. “You just didn't ask the right questions."
A sound like a cough hissed from Parris and Jaide on the bed behind me. The sound muffled as fabric rustled. I forced myself not to turn, not to look at Parris and his smug ass, and Jaide who was likely terrified at what she was witnessing.
Seeing the look on their faces would just push all that furious anger to a head, and I was already struggling.
"Fine. Then I’ll ask the right questions,” I snapped, folding my arms. “Who are you? Who do you work for? What are you? Why are you here? Where did you come from?"
I rattled off the questions, the fury slowly defaulting into pain as the questions I thought I had the answers to lingered between us. Answers that he had lied about.
I knew what Parris would do. I knew what Theon and Aldric would do. I knew what I should do: remove his head and walk away. I couldn’t bring myself to do it. He didn’t deserve any second chances, but here I was, giving him one anyway.
"I have one," Jaide perked up from behind me, rustling fabric and hushed noises buzzing through the stale air as Elliot and I stared at each other. "Are you Christian?"
“Chris… what?” I finally turned to look at the two, Parris holding Jaide back as he stared at her with his inky black warning stare.
"I told you, my name is Elliot,” Elliot said, pulling my focus back to him. “I didn’t lie about that.”
"And not Christian," Jaide continued, followed by more hissed warnings from Parris. I didn’t turn that time.
"No, although I did pretend to be him. I had been pretending to be the Synian Christian for years, moving amongst the blood slaves in the halls as I gathered information. It's why Dawn knew me as Christian, but when I saw Jett," Elliot sighed, and I was back to growling.
Lies! By the moon, he had been feeding me lies!
"Information for who?" I snapped, a crack pulling through the air with a loud bang as a wave of ice went around the room.
"For my people." Elliot stepped closer, his green eyes bright as he lifted his hands, as though I would take them.
His hands were so warm. So soft. I had spent so many times as he slept beside me holding them. Comforting him as he had nightmares. Gripping them as I… as he…
