Page 95 of You Only Love Twice
"You know who the Chameleon is."
He turned away, unable to look her in the face, and a horrible suspicion filled her. "Leave it alone, Gemma."
"Is it you?" she whispered.
He stared at the floor, his head bent. "Not this time."
Not this time?"What the hell does that mean?"
"Haven't you figured it out yet?" His head turned, his gaze tracking hers.
Gemma took a rushed step toward him, and then paused. "Today, your friend was the Chameleon," she whispered. "But you have played this part in the past."
Of course. That was why the Chameleon had always been so bloody difficult to capture; it had never been one person. All those misleading witness statements—young, old, bearded, gray-haired....
She'd never truly been hunting for one assassin.
And Jonathan Carlyle paid the price for all the others.
"Oh, my goodness," she whispered. "Who's the current Chameleon? Who's going after the queen?"
Obsidian shook his head. "I can't tell you that."
* * *
He'd said too much.
"You mean you won't. You could stop this," she whispered. "There would be no more deaths, no more chaos in the city. There could be peace—"
"This doesn't stop until the Duke of Malloryn is dead," he growled out, clenching his fist. "It ends when everything he's ever loved is ash, his entire life's work smashed into rubble around him."
The expression on her face—
"Iampart of his work," she said, taking a step back from him. "I have been there every step of the way as Malloryn fought to build something I believe in. I love him, Obsidian. He's my family. Would you seemesmashed aside, beneath this... this cursed vendetta?"
She didn't understand.
"I was trying to remove you from the equation."
Gemma started shaking her head, her fingers curled into helpless fists. "No. No, no, no. This isn't happening. Don't you dare say you kidnapped me so I would be safe when everyone I loved was slaughtered. Don't you dare say you tried to protectmeat the expense of everyone else."
His heart was an empty, gaping hole in his chest.
"I couldn't let you die. But I can't stop the others from being caught in the crossfire."
"You son of a bitch." She shoved him, pushed again when he staggered back a step.
"My hands are tied."
"Bullshit," she shot back. "You don't have to work for Ghost. Every time you take his orders, you make a choice."
"This is bigger than Ghost. Bigger than me. The second I make a countermove, I'm dead, Gemma. Or worse, you are. Do you haveanyidea what you’re facing?"
"No, I damned well don't know what we're facing. Why don't you tell me?"
The second he did, she was dead.
Ghost would never let him go, and Gemma would never forfeit her ideals. Especially not with her hatred for Balfour driving her to take him down. Obsidian couldn’t stop the cataclysmic clash they were headed toward.
