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Grey’s eyes swept past us to fasten on our companion, his expression growing stern. “I’m surprised to see you here, Captain. You should have put an end to this nonsense by now.”
The captain met his gaze calmly, but I could feel the rage simmering underneath. “I’m in the process of putting an end to the nonsense going on in this hall. And it’s to my shame I let it go on so long.”
Grey’s eyes widened, his heartbeat quickening. He was facing two healers, so no amount of acting could hide his underlying fear.
When his calculating gaze shifted to me, his eyes narrowed. I looked back, calm and sure, and he looked again at the captain.
Grey still didn’t know about my new skill, so how did he account for the change in the captain? Did he think I had put my own mesmerizations over the top of his?
When he looked at me again, I was sure of it. And I saw something else in his face too. Grey had always surrounded himself with others, finding and exploiting their weaknesses while charming them in the process.
But now his followers had all been stripped away. He was facing us alone, and he no longer loomed larger than life. He looked small and pathetic, an empty shell of a man—all charm and no substance. Even with physical touch, I was now beyond his reach. Grey was weaponless, and he now seemed nothing but weak. Was he the villain we had feared for so long?
The fear I had felt of him drained away, replaced with nothing but contempt and beneath it a swelling sadness. Grey once had a mother who loved him, but he had rejected that love in favor of position and wealth, and now he was left alone with no one who knew his true self, let alone cared about him. It wasn’t a life I would live for all the luxury in the world.
My emotions must have shown on my face because Grey’s features twisted as he watched me, fury overcoming his polished mask.
In two long strides, he reached me, seizing me around the waist and pulling me tight against him. His other hand cupped one side of my neck, and I pulled up my wall. But he made no attempt to push his power into me, instead leaning over to whisper in my ear.
“You think you’ve won,” he hissed, “but you haven’t. You’ll see. I’ve given you a gift you can’t give back. You think you have the world right now, but you’re the final successor in an illustrious line, and you should ask yourself what’s happened to everyone else before you.”
“Don’t touch her!” Strong hands ripped Grey off me.
“No!” I cried, leaping after him, my hands reaching unthinkingly to pull Grey back. It was one thing for him to threaten me, but he couldn’t be allowed to touch Nik.
Grey snarled, twisting nimbly out of the hold Nik had on the back of his jacket. I threw myself forward, convinced he was going for Nik’s skin. Latching onto his closest wrist, I took a second to check my wall was in place before pushing my power into Grey. I should have put him to sleep while we had contact earlier, but I’d been distracted and thrown off balance by his words. I would rectify my mistake now.
But Grey pulled back so violently that he ripped his arm from my determined grip. His face had twisted into an expression I had never seen on him before—pure, unalleviated terror. He thought I was going to kill him, and he was ready to fight like a cornered rat.
I leaped after him, expecting him to retreat again, but instead he remained frozen in place. As my fingers circled his wrist again, I looked up at his face in confusion.
He was staring straight ahead, his expression frozen and eyes wide as if taken completely by surprise. I wanted to ask what had happened, but it wasn’t a time for calm conversations. It was time to stop the fighting.
I pushed my power into him, but it smashed immediately into an immovable wall. I gasped, trying again and finding the same thing. Now I knew the reason for Grey’s shock.
He had finally managed to make a wall of his own. All this time he had tried without success, and it had finally happened now, in the worst possible moment. I growled in frustration, and he grinned. The light that had been missing from his eyes earlier returned. He had thought himself cornered—even his backup plan in ashes around his feet—but now he had fresh motivation and hope.
I let go of his wrist and fell back a step, thrown off by the change. His unexpected discovery had galvanized him, whereas I felt paralyzed and confused at finding us back on equal footing.
As he looked at me, his eyes narrowed, and then he stooped. It took me too long to realize he was reaching for the knife in his boot. By the time I understood what he was doing, he was already lunging at me, his teeth bared and face locked into a grimace.
The blade flashed in my eyes, the steel sharp and the edge jagged.I’ve been here before, I thought numbly, bracing for the ripping pain.
But a body collided with me, pushing me onto the floor. Nik grunted as I heard the sickening sound of a blade plunging into a body.
I screamed, scrambling up. Running to his side, I grabbed one of his hands.
“What were you thinking?” I cried, tears running down my face as I saw his features twisted with pain.
“Had to…be…me,” he panted. “You can’t…have…more healings.”
“And what about you?” I demanded as I sent my power into him. “How many have you had?”
He didn’t answer, turning his face away. I tried to twist to see his expression, but my attention was caught by the flash of light on metal. Distracted by his wound, I’d forgotten all about our attacker.
Once again a blade was plunging through the air in my direction, but this time Grey’s eyes were on Nik, his target the man next to me.
I lunged forward, my range limited since I was on my knees. I made it just far enough to grip his arm. Straining, I held it in place, hovering above Nik’s torso.
