Page 89 of A Taste of Torment
“I was wrong.”
She shrugs, like it doesn’t actually matter. “Trevor says he was heartbroken.”
I freeze, all energy wiped from my body.What?I somehow manage to keep the exclaiming internal. Bea’s face lights up again, realizing she’s found that target needed to gain the upper hand once more.
“You look pale,” she says, head tilted innocently. I know better. “Something about that bothers you?”
“Nope,” I say in a near squeak. “Just surprising.” I successfully even out my tone.
“He was waiting for his lost human friend. Hoping. Imagining. Trevor’s told me Jarron has had many kinds of fantasies about reconciliations with the Montgomery sisters.” She wiggles her eyebrows.
I flinch but recover quickly. “You’re lying,” I say with full confidence. “I knew Jarron when we were kids. He wasn’t desperately in love with me. Or Liz. This isn’t some Nicholas Sparks novel.”
“Well, I hope not.” She waves the thought away. “Don’t those always end terribly?”
“He’s big on bittersweet endings.”
Bea gives me an annoyed looked. “I’m not saying he was pining for you, waiting for the day you showed back up—he never expected you to come back. But fourteen is the best time for an irrational romantic obsession, and when he found out Liz died. Well, he was pretty distraught. He doesn’t have many deep relationships, so having you here, it gives him hope. All I’m saying is, he’s clearly more into you than you are him.”
Several emotions surge through me. “He has other relationships,” I say, desperate to shift the conversation away from me.
She snorts. “No, he doesn’t. Even Trevor’s and Jarron’s relationship is strained due to power struggles. Trevor wants the throne. Did you know that?”
I frown. I did not know that. I’m not even sure that Jarron wants it.
“So, yeah, he nearly flipped when you walked through those doors that first day.”
My heart skips a beat.
“You don’t really see me as a friend,” Bea says, her tone dropping, “and I don’t blame you, but I’m really not messing with you here. I’ve never seen Jarron like this with anyone.” Curiosity flickers in her eyes.
My stomach twists.
“But the longer you keep him at arm’s length, the likelier it is you’ll lose the one chance you have to change your circumstances. You could be truly powerful if you played your cards right.”
I frown at those choice of words. “That’s not what I want.”
“Isn’t it, though?”
My brows furrow. Yes, I want to be powerful. She can see that. She’s perceptive. But I don’t want to be powerful just by being linked to someone else with magic. It’s possible she knows that too, and if so…
“I don’t want to have to rely on someone else’s power. I want my own.”
Something new shines in her eyes. Something knowing and ancient. Her demon?
“I didn’t think so,” she says. Then, she pushes from the table and walks away without another word.
33
The Fine Line Between Friend and Enemy
“What was that about?”Jarron’s baritone voice floats from a few feet behind me.
I spin to find him leaning against a bookshelf a few feet away. Did he listen to that entire conversation?
“Oh, you know, stretching my friend-making skills.”
“With Bea?” he asks dubiously.
