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“What in the name of the Goddess did you give me?” I snarled, my frozen muscles sinking lower as if I was melting into the concrete floor below.
“Sedative-soaked lime.” His smile was the most disgusting combination of pride and cruelty, my stomach lurching at the sight. “One of my simpler ideas, but effective at getting the job done.”
“Why?”
“I kept trying to send you messages,” he tsked, a fresh wave of nausea rolling through me at his apathetic reference to the murders. “But I suppose my methods were just a bit too subtle for you to draw a quick conclusion. So, I figured it was easier to finally show you exactly who I am.”
My insides quivered. “So, you were calling me out?”
“I suppose that’s one way of putting it.” He shrugged. “I considered it more of an invitation.”
“I thought you were smarter than this,” I spat. “Was I truly such a weakness for you that you had to reveal your identity to a guard?”
“You have no idea how special you are.” He dropped onto his knees, leaning forward. “You and I…we are destined.”
I wanted to vomit at his words, my skin crawling. “You are delusional.”
He laughed again, eyes dancing with unbridled passion. “I know it seems that way now, without the proper knowledge of what you were born to do. But don’t worry, when the time is right, I will teach you everything. About your strength, your calling from Lunestia, and how we are the chosen children of the Gods.”
My head spun from the combination of the sedative and his trickster words that didn’t make sense. “Why now? After hiding for so many years, why reveal who you are?”
“Because you are ready, along with the rest of Kazola.” He leaned forward, hands skinning across my cheek, my body recoiling from the touch. “To learn the truth.”
“About who you are?”
“And what we are meant to do for Kazola.” He smiled. “And we can’t do that if you have no idea who I am.”
“But you’re letting me go?”
“You must stay out in the world to truly understand. You need to experience firsthand the beginning of my plans to get a full idea of why you’re needed to save this country.”
“You’re a lunatic!”
“You may think that now,” he tilted his head, “but you won’t forever. As you watch the truth unfold in the streets, as you see Kazola’s secrets come out of the shadows the High Faction is desperate to keep them in, then you will be ready to take your place next to me.”
“And what place is that?”
“As the savior you are meant to be.”
My sluggish mind couldn’t keep up with his delusional ramblings. I couldn’t make any sense of them, no matter how hard I tried. The first time I had seen Benji—no, Elliot—was in the bar. I tried my best to focus on the past year and a half he was here, to think of anything I could have done to garner this kind of taunting, fanatical attention. My head pounded, my chest heaving, breath becoming increasingly difficult to pull in. “Nothing you’re saying makes any sense.”
He just shrugged. “For now.”
Luckily, we were interrupted by a man emerging from the same direction Elliot had come, his hulking figure dwarfing both of us. The hood of a dark cloak covered his face, but that was all it hid of his monstrous, boulder-like build.
“Sir?” The ogrish man cleared his throat.
“What?” Elliot barked, darkness twisting his features.
“Guards have been spotted about a mile away.” The man’s voice tensed, like a soldier reporting to their commander. “They will be upon us in a matter of minutes.”
Elliot sighed, turning back to me. “It looks like our time is up.”
I growled, trying to lunge forward and punch him; but it was all in vain, my body crumbling like a flailing fish. “You will not get away with this.”
“There is nothing to get away with. My plan has already been signaled to begin, and nothing can stop the true heart of Kazola from taking back what is rightfully ours.” His corrupted smile shook me to my core. “Just as the Gods blessed it to be, centuries ago.”
I snarled, swiping my clawless hand at him, but he just leaned back, dodging it effortlessly. The man beside us stiffened—not at my weak attack, but something else.
