Page 131 of A Drop of Anguish
“Because we have to get out of here.”
I shake my head. “Why? I mean, yes, we need to get out of here, but why away from Liz? Doesn’t this change things?”
He grabs my chin and forces me to look up into his void-like eyes. They’re full of pain and fear and determination. “It changes nothing.”
“I thought it changed everything.”
He clenches his jaw tightly. “It doesn’t change how I feel about you. I swear it.”
I release a sharp breath. Could that possibly be true? “Okay,” I say.
“She—she tried to do something to me.” He twists his neck and rolls his shoulders.
Tried to or did?
“Your eyes are red,” I whisper.
He straightens and runs his hands through his hair. “I can’t believe it. I cannot believe they’d target my chosen.”
My stomach sinks again.
“It’s—it’s inconceivable. Disgusting. Vile. Unheard of. I never even thought—” He shakes his head. His chest continues rising and falling. “I’m sorry. I know this doesn’t make much sense to you. But right now, I need you out of here. They went after Liz because of me. If I’d know that was true, I would have—” He shakes his head.
I hate the new reality we’re facing, but I hate his reaction more. His stress carves its way through my heart. Everything is wrong.
“Liz is alive. She is on our side.”
“No,” he whispers. “So long as she’s bound to the games, she’s not. And she wants you in them. I don’t trust anything here.”
Jarron’s back arches, and he winces as if he’s in pain. His breaths come quicker.
Jarron is freaking out from learning that Liz was harmed because of him, and probably equally freaked out because I’m in danger now too. Was Liz telling the truth? That I’m being targeted now because she wants me to have power like her? Or is there another reason?
“Those fools believe they know what’s in my soul.” His voice is gravelly. “They’ve bet on it. How they don’t see—”
He groans suddenly, holding his head between two palms. He curses under his breath.
“Laithe isn’t coming. And I—Candice, I need you to get out of here. I need you to go.”
“What’s happening? What’s wrong with you?”
I couldn’t get out of here on my own even if I wanted to. Jarron’s next sound is so inhuman it sends a shiver down my spine. I stumble away from him, tripping on the uneven stone and slamming into the rock wall.
Jarron’s shift is so sudden I barely see it happen, but suddenly he’s that inhuman monster I remember from my nightmares. And this time, he does not look at me like I matter. There is no recognition at all.
“There you two are,” a sweet voice calls. “Better back away, Candice. He doesn’t have any idea who you are anymore.”
The monster’s back is hunched like he’s in pain; each breath comes with an audible wheeze.
I back away slowly from the beast, unsure what’s happening and terrified I’ll relive those moments from my past. The beastly Jarron that stalked Liz all those years ago… he didn’t seem to notice or care who either of us were.
He didn’t listen to my pleas. He didn’t care that I was crying for him to stop.
I hated him for that moment of helplessness, and I can feel it welling in me now. That terror. The knowledge that I am nothing, and there is nothing I can do to stop him from whatever it is he intends to do.
The beast growls low in his chest. A warning.
A glowing being appears beside me, so bright I can no longer see Liz’s face or features. This is the powerful jinn.
