AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Regardless of how much or how little he had overheard from our conversation, my captain knew that mayhem would soon abound.
“Be ready,” I silently mouthed to him.
He replied with a vicious grin.
Chapter 24
Dawn
For the millionth time, I glanced at my clock. Jaek was never late. Although it had only been eight minutes, each additional second fueled my growing paranoia. My second breakfast with him yesterday morning had yielded no new information that I could have used to help free myself and the others. He had also not given me the opportunity to send him out again so that I could tamper with our drinks.
That, and the fact that Deimos had not even bothered to come compel us to get back to work crushed any lingering hopes I might have had that Jaek wasn’t in fact under the Sarenian’s thrall. But our ship would land any minute now. This was likely Keran’s last chance to make it out of here alive. I could no longer play it safe. As soon as Jaek arrived, I would confront him about all that had been happening and pray that he could be reasoned with despite the compulsion.
But why is he late?
Of course, my mind went straight to dreading Deimos had found out that Jaek had indeed broken free of the compulsion and implanted him with hundreds of eggs as punishment. Obviously, that didn’t make sense. Even if Deimos had caught him, he wouldn’t sacrifice such a brilliant mind. He would merely imprison Jaek and slowly break his will, like he’d been trying to do with me.
A yelp escaped me when my chime finally went off. Unlike the two previous days, the lock hadn’t turned blue, indicating I could unlock it from inside. A sense of dread crashed over me when the door opened right away. Only Deimos barged in without waiting to be invited.
“Jaek!” I breathed out, shock and confusion swelling within me when I saw him standing in the doorframe.
He entered my room, his face tense, and a single covered meal sitting on the hover tray following him. When he didn’t greet me or otherwise respond, my anxiety cranked up another notch. The door finished closing at the same time he was placing the tray on my table.
As soon as it did, Jaek turned to look at me with an intensity that had me taking an involuntary step back.
“I know you’re immune to Etil juice. So am I. Sit down and eat. We have little time,” Jaek said in a tone that brooked no argument.
I froze for a second. Shock, fear, disbelief, and hope rushed through me in quick succession. Silencing the tsunami of questions burning my tongue, I snapped out of my daze and obeyed without a fuss. After sitting in my chair, I forced myself to uncover my plate, any hunger I might have felt having made an exit the minute Jaek dropped that little bomb.
To my surprise, Jaek didn’t sit, taking instead the napkin from my tray as well as my Etil juice.
“In less than twenty minutes, Keran will escape from the lab where he is held with one of his men,” Jaek said while methodically ripping the napkin in long narrow strips.
“WHAT?!” I exclaimed. “Is he—?”
“LISTEN!” Jaek interrupted sternly. “There is no time for questions. We only have one shot at this.”
Heart pounding, I gave him a stiff nod and forced myself to focus on his words.
“As you likely guessed, Deimos had me working on the drug to make us vulnerable to his compulsion. I only startedafterthat meeting we both attended,” he said forcefully.
Jaek lifted his gaze from the napkin he was shredding to lock eyes with me as he spoke those words. In that instant, I realized he needed me to believe him. As I perceived no deception from him, I replied with a stiff nod. Some tension immediately loosened from his shoulders.
“I have tampered with the drug that they have served Keran’s crew this morning, and the one that will be served to our fellow hybrids once they show up at the meeting,” he continued while finishing to tear the last bits of the napkin.
What the fuck is he doing with that?
He pulled a pouch from his pocket and poured the grayish powder it contained into the glass of juice.
“The effects will only last for a couple of minutes on them,” Jaek explained while shaking the glass to help the powder dissolve faster. “We must delay as long as possible to give the Prince and his men a chance to reach us in that room. But the minute the Sarenians get on stage to start their speech, we must act and raise the alarm.”
“How?” I asked.
While Jaek quickly ran me through his plan, I watched in fascination as he put the glass down, retrieved a pair of surgical gloves from his pocket, and donned them. Working quickly, he dipped a few strips of the napkin in the juice, then laid them flat on the table, one next to the other. It took me a few seconds to realize he was forming a blade with them, even shaping one end to be pointy. In seconds, the napkins hardened.
“Eat up!” Jaek said sternly, interrupting his description of the plan. “It may be a while before our next meal, and you’ll need the energy.”
My cheeks heated, and I shoved another spoonful of scrambled eggs into my mouth. I seriously didn’t feel like eating at the moment, but his comment made sense. If we had to run, the last thing I needed was for my blood sugar levels to drop so low I became dizzy or weak.
