Asylum(87)

Three sets of brilliant irises bored into me, Sofie’s minty green ones wide with genuine surprise.

I swallowed, mustering as much courage as possible. “Here,” I answered in a quavering voice, holding up my arm. I let the pendant drop so it dangled from its chain in front of me. Sofie’s eyes almost bugged out of her head. “I don’t want it. You can—” I didn’t even finish offering it before a gust touched my cheek and the pendant disappeared from my grasp. Just like that.

“I don’t believe it!” Viggo exclaimed, staring down at the pendant now in his clutches. So quickly, so smoothly, I couldn’t even tell he had moved. That was that. They had what they needed from me. Was it enough to let me be?

It didn’t matter because now Rachel had me, and it wasn’t the pendant she cared about.

“Let her go, Rachel,” Sofie warned, her surprise quickly buried, her tone cutting.

“I don’t think so . . . Come near me and I’ll snap her neck, you puke-eyed witch!” Rachel shrieked, grabbing a fistful of my hair, so violently that she ripped several strands out at the root. “Tell him to come out. Only him,” she hissed at Sofie.

Him? Could it be . . . My pounding heart stopped altogether.

The crowd parted. A tall, lone figure stepped from the dark jungle, moving past the ring of tigers and tribesmen to glide toward me like a dream. Firelight caught the jade in his eyes.

Caden.

Suddenly it didn’t matter that Rachel’s claws dug into my flesh, ready to tear me to pieces. What mattered was what was going on in Caden’s mind. The fears and doubts that I had buried deep to survive in my exile exploded to the surface. Had he changed his mind about me? Had time and distance dulled his feelings? Did he ever truly care? For these few seconds as he approached, my hope hung from the edge of a cliff, seconds from either falling or being pulled to safety. I held my breath.

Our eyes locked. I saw Caden’s eyes. The stunning green eyes I remembered, the eyes I thought I had lost forever. In that one look, every ounce of doubt, every moment of fear, every horrific memory washed away. As if pulled by a magnet, my body yearned toward him, desperate to feel him close again.

Rachel yanked me back. “No, no, little girl. That’s far enough.” Her grip around my neck tightened. “Is there anything you want to say to your dear human?” she called out to Caden. “Last chance.” She said it so airily, as if she were offering the last bite of a cookie before she took it for herself. But she wasn’t offering a cookie. She was promising death. After all this, after all we had been through, after lifting the curse, Rachel would end me.

“We have bigger issues than petty revenge, Rachel,” Sofie called out softly. “We’re on the brink of a war.”

War? What did Sofie mean?

Rachel’s fingers dug into my neck like tiny daggers. “There’s always time for revenge.”

“She’s suffered enough.” Sofie’s tone was pleading, and her eyes brimmed with distress.

A vicious cackle in my ear tensed my shoulders. “She hasn’t even begun to suffer.”

From the corner of my eye, I noticed Caden shift his weight and flex his hands by his sides, as if ready to make a move. Unfortunately, so did Rachel. She pulled me even closer, until her body pressed up against my back, until we were like one. “Any sudden moves and I’ll snap her neck like a twig. You’ll never make it here fast enough to stop me,” she warned. Her arm loosened its grip and her hand slid to my chin to pull my head back until my neck was exposed. With her mouth grazing my ear, she whispered, “You thought you could outsmart me? Lie to me and get away with it? Say good-bye, little human.”

I swallowed, tears now streaming down my cheeks.

“You’ll never get out of here alive if you kill her,” Caden warned. “You might have a chance if you don’t—”

Rachel giggled softly. “Who said I was going to kill her? But make one move toward us and I certainly will.”

“Rachel, you won’t—” Caden began.

She cut him off. “Come on! You’ve got front row seats to watch!”

Oh God. Watch what? Rachel ripping my teeth out, one by one? I felt faint, my legs weakening, but Rachel gave my body a swift jerk up as she continued talking.

“Then you’ll see me leave with her. If you don’t follow, you might see her again. Follow, and I’ll hand you her heart. Simple.”

She had it all planned out. She would do whatever she wanted to me—it no doubt involved torture in front of an audience—and then she’d escape. At that moment I dearly wished I would lose consciousness. But of course, it was one of those few times that I wouldn’t.