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My apprehension spiked to pure anxiety, and I whirled back around to confront the stranger, sensing that I was in true danger now.
“Ah, your security is having a nap,” he chuckled lightly, but he didn’t move nearer.
Blood drained out of my face, and I parted my lips to scream, but before I could, he pounced, dropping a hand on my mouth. I hadn’t expected his sudden movement.
“That would be most unwise, Mousie,” he hissed.
And suddenly, I remembered.
His voice. He had been at the attack on Zen, the only male, telling the others to leave me alone and focus on the king.
Prickles of fear erupted all over my body as I struggled against his hold, but he laughed.
“Imagine my surprise to hear that you were marrying the king,” he clucked, keeping his hand in place, my arm seized tightly around his hand. “I mean, I always knew you were good, but this… this is remarkable, Mousie. You really are talented, aren’t you?”
Raising my foot, I tried to stomp down on him, but he anticipated my movement and pulled me abruptly off balance, his tone still even as he rambled on. “Then I realized, you really don’t remember a damn thing, do you?”
I froze, understanding that he knew so much more about me than I knew about myself.
He began to laugh. “If you did know, you never would have allowed them to send your blood to the Registry. That’s how I figured out where you were and what you were up to. Of course, once you married the king, I would have found you, anyway, but you just rushed things along with that little stunt. Luckily, I got here when I did, or else you’d be married to your mortal enemy.”
Every vertebrae in my spine locked at his words, the sincerity in his tone conflicting me.
My mortal enemy? What the hell was he saying?
He shrugged. “I’m going to lower my hand now.” He snorted with contempt. “Don’t scream, or I’ll be forced to do something rather unpleasant. Do you understand?”
Paralyzed, I could only stare at him, wide-eyed and horrified, my mind racing, reeling as I tried to make sense of his perplexing statements.
“Nod if you understand!” His tone grew hard and angry, his face no longer pleasant in the least.
I nodded quickly, and he released me, tossing me aside like I was a ragdoll.
Gasping, I straightened and gaped at him. “Who are you?”
He rolled his dark eyes skyward as a dark cloud crossed over the sun.
“This is the gratitude I get,” he muttered, but there was a smirk to his words.
The cloud overhead sank lower over the horizon, falling onto the rose garden. Wisps of gray encircled me, choking me.
“Stop!” I wheezed, the fluff filling my nose.
“Do you want to remember, or don’t you?” he taunted me. “I thought you wanted to know who you are.”
“No… yes… I….” Suddenly, I didn’t know if I wanted that anymore. I didn’t want to hear it from his mouth, but I desperately did need to know what he was saying, to understand his words.
Tears of frustration flooded my eyes, and my vision blurred, the darkness enveloping me as my head began to spin.
“Think, Mousie, think. Who are you? Where did you come from? How did you come to be here?”
Agnan!
The name slapped me in the face first, the realization that I was standing in the garden with the leader of the Order of Souls not scaring me as much as it should have. Why wasn’t I recoiling in terror, running for cover? Why was he looking at me like I was a pet of his?
“How are you here?” I mumbled, my mind floating away to stare down at us.
Flashes of images popped through my hole-filled memory now, one by one.
