Page 130 of The Immortal's One
DARCIE
Bang!
Adir throws open the heavy wooden door in front of us with a slam. I jolt back and wince when I roll my ankle.
“Welcome to your new home.” He strides inside and glances back to me in the dimly lit hallway adorned with stone walls and ornate tapestries that remind me of a medieval castle. “Come on, Darcie. Don’t be shy.”
The cold fear that’s been gnawing at me since I woke up in a dark dungeon flares, sharp and clear. I stay put, my feet glued to the floor.
“What are we doing here?” My pulse thrums in my neck as I take in the massive bed situated in the room in front of me.
Adir’s smile is all teeth. “My staff filled the closet with clothes for you.” He gestures to the door off to the left. “I thought you’d want to change.”
I look down at the wreckage of my gown. Eshe’s stunning creation is torn and smeared with dirt. My hands and arms are a mess, too. I’m far from the picture-perfect image Eshe andBella created for the ball… before I ended up in Adir’s clutches.
He’s right. I want to change. But I want answers more.
I lift my chin and meet Adir’s gaze. “I don’t understand what you want from me. How am I supposed to help you take down Des and his brothers?”
Back in the dungeon, when Adir lifted the veil of secrets dangling in front of me for weeks, he told me Des, Lome, and Thane siphon power from human suffering and death. It made them the strongest Immortals to exist.
Adir explained that the inequity of their power made other Immortals uneasy.
More like jealous.
I’d be lying if I said I didn’t understand their perspective. But what sucks is that Des, Lome, and Thane never told me the truth.
Thane offered me protection from the rebellion. Lome cured my dad’s cancer. And Des helped come up with a plan for me to return to Maine.
I’d trusted them all—stupidly, it turns out.
Now, I’m Adir’s prisoner, and he claims I can help the rebellion overthrow the brothers’ rule.
But I have no idea how.
“Come now, Darcie,” Adir tsks. His voice is too smooth, too calculated. “Surely you must know what the rebellion has planned for you?”
“I thought you believed me when I said I’m not Des’sOne.”
“I do,” he says. “But that doesn’t mean you don’t have a role in all this.”
That’s what I’m afraid of.
“What role?”
He waves a hand towards the bedroom. “Clean up. Change. Rest. When I return, we’ll discuss the details.”
“But I?—”
A flash of blinding light flares through the room. I raise an arm to shield my eyes, and when I lower it, Adir’s gone.
A scowl twists my lips. “Damnit.”
I realized Adir was unhinged the moment he revealed himself to be Kaine, my supposed co-prisoner back in his dungeon. The fact that the Original Immortal evenhasa dungeon is enough to sound all my internal alarms.
But the fact he so easily tricked Des into trusting him makes Adir that much more formidable. I don’t know what the Immortal with power fueled by human war and conflict is capable of, but common sense says nothing good.
With a shaky breath, I step into the bedroom and shut the door behind me. I search for a lock, but there’s none.
