Page 48 of The Deathless One
“Benji?” she whispered, her heart squeezing in fear.
Then she kicked something thick and… wet.
Wincing, she stared up at the sky while trying to steel herself for what she was about to find. Casting her eyes downward, she breathed out a sigh of relief at the sight of what might have once been a boar. Even if it made her stomach roll to see it, at least it wasn’t human. The rib bones stuck out from where someone had been cleaning pieces of it off. Whoever was carving this shouldn’t be eating it any longer. The meat was long past spoiled.
Still holding her nose, she moved deeper into the room, where the light from the moon didn’t quite reach. Her sight was different now, though. She felt power flowing through her body, burning behind her eyes so she could see through the darkness like a cat.
And that was when she found him.
Benji lay on top of a pile of silks and velvets, colors she recognized. A deep blue, a vivid azure, the signature colors of her court, and he lay on top of them like they were rags.
Then a twinkle of moonlight hit more of the items surrounding him. Jewels and gemstone-crusted necklaces. Goblets made of pure gold that glimmered and winked in the pale light. He snorted and rolled, a ring falling out of his hand and thudding onto the floor. A familiar one, with a face carved into a sapphire and surrounded by priceless diamonds.
Bending down, she quietly scooped up her mother’s signet ring and put it into her pocket.
Tears burned in her eyes. Benji was lying here, completely unaffected, surrounded by her things. Herstolenthings. The precious items that had been passed down through her family for generations, and he lay on top of them like they were trash.
She sank a vicious kick into his side. He rolled off the pile of silks and velvets, flailing as he struck the floor with a startled shout before sitting up and glaring at the person who had dared to wake him.
It shouldn’t have been so satisfying to see the blood drain out of his features. Pale lips, tired eyes, and shaking hands that clutched something beside him as he stared up at her.
“Are you a ghost?” he asked, his voice wavering.
“Worse,” she replied. “I died and came back, Benji.”
He lashed out at her with the thing in his hand. She didn’t have time to gasp as he stabbed a knife into her shoulder, but strangely, she couldn’t feel the pain. And when he ripped it out of her skin, there was no blood. Only a smooth black shadow that wrapped around the wound and then warped into a smooth silver line.
Paper white and trembling, he scrambled away and bolted for the window. Jessamine wasn’t sure what he planned to do, perhaps throw himself out of it and hope the ground was less hard than his own guilt. But instead of open air, he struck the barrier that Sybil must have built. Invisible but hard as stone, it threw him back into the room. He landed on his behind, skidding to a halt against the opposite wall.
Dust plumed down on him, mold spores and mildew flakes frosting his hair like snow.
He coughed a few times, trying hard to hack up a lung and gainsympathy from her before he sighed and stopped acting. “So you somehow survived all that?”
Oh, how quickly the pretenses dropped.
She clutched her mother’s ring in her pocket so hard it bit through the skin of her palm. “Who paid you?”
“For what?”
“Don’t be cute, Benji. I know you wouldn’t have betrayed us like that unless a significant amount of money was involved. What I don’t understand is why, and who.”
“I didn’t do nothing, Miss Jessamine.” She could see him piecing his mask back together bit by bit. He gathered up the person she recognized and laid those pieces over his own face.
It was disturbing to watch, and even more heart-wrenching than she could have guessed.
“Don’t do this to me,” she whispered. “We gave you a home, a safe place to rest your head. We fed you, gave you new clothing. You said you thought of me like a sister. Now youhaveto tell me who wanted me dead.”
“Your husband. He was the one who threw you off the cliff. We all thought you were dead.” He got onto his knees, looking up at her with big eyes just the same as he had the first time she’d met him. “Please, Miss Jessamine, you have to understand. I would never do nothing to harm you or your mother.”
A dark shadow descended around her. She could feel his cold arms wrapping around her shoulders, drawing her into a deep, inky mire. “You don’t believe him, do you?” the Deathless One asked. “Surely you don’t believe these lies.”
“Are you lying to me?” she asked. Even Jessamine could hear the sorrow in her words.
Another puzzle piece clicked back into place over his features, and she could see he planned to use her own emotions against her. “Why would I want to hurt you? You said it yourself. You gave me everything.”
“He’s still lying.” Again the Deathless One whispered. “He knows what happened. You saw him open the gate.”
Dark fingers closed around her arms, which should have been intimidating. But she could feel him vibrating with anger, not at her, but at the man in front of her. When was the last time someone had been angry on her behalf? She couldn’t remember the last time someone had been protective of her and not the kingdom or the princess who would rule them. Just her.
