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Cordelia was still struggling to get her breathing under control as the transport raced them away from the capitol, leaving her heart behind the further she traveled from Ezul.
He’s a warrior,she chided to herself when she felt a sting of tears threaten to slide down her face.He’ll be alright, and he’ll come home in no time, probably with Jakkar.
The thin barrier of Ezul’s mist fluttered against her body, the soft move reassuring and saddening her at the same time. He was with her even when he wasn’t.
“Vermile, I assume you are bringing the human back to her home so she may reunite with her mate?” Arombk asked, his voice trembling with barely contained rage.
Flinching from his tone, Cordelia looked at the transport’s screen as they cruised from the city. Multiple buildings flashed past on the monitor, more than she remembered from their journey in, and then they pulled off course, heading toward the vast forest.
“Where are we going?” she asked, glancing at Vermile as uneasiness settled in her gut. This wasn’t the way back to her home.
Maybe they were taking an alternate route to stay off the main roads? Her brow furrowed when he ignored her again, his focus solely on the other senator.
“I will get her back where she belongs, Arombk.”
Arombk cast Vermile a venomous look, tension within the transport skyrocketing, thick enough to cut with a knife.
“That was not the question I asked you, Vermile,” Arombk snarled. “Where are you taking the human?”
Vermile stared at Arombk a moment longer before a sneer split his face. He laughed, the sound chilling Cordelia to the bone.
What the hell is going on?
“How did you discover it was me?” Vermile asked finally, hands sliding over his robes nonchalantly, his posture relaxing as he spread his legs into a wide, confident stance.
Cordelia glanced between Vermile and Arombk, her mouth drying in fear. Surely he couldn’t mean that he was involved in this attack?
Arombk narrowed his eyes. “I’ve suspected your involvement with the dissenters for a while now. You’re young and outspoken, and there’s always been something that did not sit right with me. How easily you managed to claim a spot on the senate despite your lack of political power, for instance. That was the first sign that something was not quite right.”
Vermile laughed again, shaking his head. “That is hardly a satisfactory reason, though you are right.”
What?Cordelia tensed in terror, shifting in her seat until she was practically pressed against the wall, wishing she could become one with Ezul’s mist and disappear. Seep through the cracks. Something!
Instead, she was trapped in here, forced to sit and listen as Arombk threw these accusations at the other man.
She’d been so worried about Arombk because of his blatant disrespect toward humans that she’d never even considered Vermile capable of something so heinous. But he hadn’t even denied it, eyeing Arombk cockily.
As if he’d already won a game she hadn’t realized she’d been playing.
“The fact that you so easily dismissed all of our findings regarding the dissenters and an uprising, allowing the other senators to agree with your foolish commentary until it was too late to do anything but brace for a civil war, was yet another mark against you.”
“Your observations are a stretch at best, Arombk, though between the three of us? You are definitely correct.”
Oh God, she’d actually followed this asshole, thinking he would protect her! Ezul, Jakkar… They’d all trusted him, and he was the enemy.
Arombk hissed at Vermile before continuing. “The dissenters acquiring the blueprints to the capitol in order to infiltrate our government was the final tally. I’d only just come from the library after our meeting today. It seems you were the last one to check the archives for the layout of the capitol building in the last six months.”
Vermile sat back in his seat, eyeing Arombk thoughtfully. “I’m impressed.”
Cordelia couldn’t say the same. Fear had gripped her in its embrace during the little speech between the two men. Now she was absolutely terrified. She’d gotten into a car with a complete psycho and another Aragnokan who hated her kind.
How had she gotten into this mess? But even more importantly, how could she get out of it?
Cordelia looked back toward the transport screen. Emotion clogged her throat. The scenery all around them was so unfamiliar. She had no idea where they were, and it wasn’t like she could throw herself from a moving vehicle and escape unscathed.
She didn’t even know if the doors could open while the transport was moving. Would the mist break her fall if she figured out a way to escape? She clutched her stomach tighter, an instinctive move as though she could somehow protect her child with just her touch alone.
“It is a shame you had to out me in this way, Arombk. If you’d only waited until I finished my work with the human women then you could have been on the receiving end of so much praise when you turned me in.”
