Page 22 of Born Free

Shit. Where the hell could we be? I’ve only been out for twenty minutes. Is he lying?

“How many times have you Resurrected?” he asks again, as he gets to his feet and slowly stalks toward me.

I back away, though I don’t have far to retreat in this small space. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“You’re right,” he admits. His eyes never leave mine once. They’re dark, so dark they nearly seem black. He’s tall, built. Dark hair and dark brows. He has thin lips and a strong, proud nose. He’s handsome, for a killer. “I don’t know how you do it. But I know what my own eyes witnessed. Twice. How do you do it?”

I shake my head, continuing to back away from him. “It’s nothing. I’m no one. But when Roman realizes I’m gone? He will realize you have gone missing from the party. Believe me, it won’t take him more than two minutes to put it together. He’s going to turn you inside out for this.”

Santiago chuckles. “Andres would, I don’t doubt it. But trust me, Dr. Doe, he is not going to find us any time soon.”

I could point out to him that it’s only a matter of time before I’m found, thanks to my beloved distant aunt who can track anyone with her son’s magical blood tattooed into their skin. Those flowers on my left forearm guarantee I will be found.

But I’d so much rather see the look of surprise on his face when Roman kicks in this door and pulls his heart out through his throat.

“So, tell me, Dr. Doe,” Santiago says as he looks down at me, so casual and composed. “How does it work? A fluke? A glitch in your DNA? Or is it a curse?”

I know my poker face slips, because as my heart drops into my stomach, a satisfied grin pulls on his lips.

“Our entire species came about because of a curse,” Santiago says as he stands in the middle of the room. His eyes are fixed on me, his hands in his pockets, but no part of him seems relaxed. Every bit of him is a danger. “King Cyrus played with nature, and the universe cursed him to crave the blood of his former kind because of it.”

The universe. Was it really the universe? Or an exceptionally powerful curse weaver?

“I’ve come across cursed land where nothing grows, and there is a chill in the air.” He takes another step closer to me. “And I myself have witnessed Queen Sevan die once. Cyrus forced immortality on her and cursed himself once again to lose her over and over.”

Santiago bends at the waist so we’re eye to eye. “What did you do to deserve a curse, Juliet?”

It never occurred to me that anyone who didn’t know about the gifted would have any idea about curses, outside the ones King Cyrus brought about.

This is the first time I’ve heard of others.

“Deserve?” I ask, playing it off. “Did I ask for it growing up as an orphan? Being beaten and abused by the adults who were supposed to take care of me? Was I asking for it as I starved and wondered if I was going to die from the cold? Does that sound deserving to you?”

“We all have sob stories,” he says, calmly. “But we’ve all done horrible things, despite or because of those stories. You know what you did.”

Yes, I know what I did. I was born to a mother who loved me enough to save my life by cursing me to evade death.

He stares at me for a solid thirty seconds as if he can read the truth out of my eyes.

I swear I will give him nothing.

“Is there a limit?” he finally asks. “Or can you just die death after death, endlessly?”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” I say petulantly as I look away from him.

I’m not sure how I’m finding my way out of this one. It’s one thing to talk your way out of things when people really don’t know what’s going on. But Santiago was a witness. He’s seen the truth. Twice.

“But I know one man who will be very curious to help uncover the truth of what you’re dealing with,” he says, his words going quiet and low.

I don’t know what that means. I don’t get two seconds to think about it.

Because there’s a flash of steel, and it rips through my heart.

Death comes seconds later.

CHAPTERSIX

When I wake next,I’m somewhere different. From the rocking motion and the noise, I think it’s a train.

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