Page 31 of When Roses Burn

Lifting my head, I met the gorgon’s eyes once more. If her snakes weren’t bound, she could have frozen me where I stood; instead, her eyes held mine as they pleaded with me to set her free.

“I don’t know how to get you out of here,” I whispered. “But I’ll figure it out, I promise. I’ll come back and get you out of here.”

When I turned away from her, she slammed her hands against the door. “Please take me with you!”

I scurried away from the anguish in her voice and on toward where Devnair and Seth stood waiting for me. Seth’s eyes were unreadable, but Devnair studied me with interest.

“Your mother is Marina?” the elf asked when I stopped before them.

“Yes.”

“Are you sure?”

“Of course I’m sure. Why would you ask that?”

“You do look like her, but she’s the most coldhearted bitch I’ve ever met in my life, and you’re⁠—”

Seth cut off whatever Devnair was about to say. “No, she’s not. You’re staring at the most coldhearted bitch you’ll ever meet.”

Unexpected anger rose to replace my sorrow and revulsion of this building. I was tired of feeling broken and shit on. I was the reason he was here, but I hadn’t done it on purpose.

“I didn’t put you here,” I told him.

“Yes, you did.”

When he started to turn away, I seized his forearm to stop him. It was so thick my hand couldn’t encompass it. His head swiveled back to me.

“I never meant for them to find us!” I rushed to get out. “I didn’t realize someone had followed me, and I’m sorry for that, but I’ve spent the past ten years hoping to find you here so we could get free. I wanted to run away with you forever!”

Something hot and lethal fired through his eyes as he stepped so close I had to edge back to avoid his imposing size. He towered over me as my head tipped back to take him in.

“If that’s what you intended, then why did you tell your mother all of our plans?” he growled.

When he spoke, his razor-sharp teeth flashed as whatever creature he turned into briefly emerged again. My stomach didn’t plummet at this sign of possible death, but at his words.

“I didn’t tell her!” I blurted. “I would never do that!”

“Then how did she know?”

“I… I… I…,” I stammered. “She didn’t…. She couldn’t have!”

When he crept closer like a jungle cat on the hunt, I gave way to his imposing form and backed up until my heel hit the wall. Unable to retreat any further, I fisted my hands.

I’d spent countless hours training, but I still wasn’t a full-powered sorceress, and all my exercises, kicks, punches, and self-taught training would be useless against this man, but I wouldn’t cower from him. His body vibrated with barely leashed fury as he rested his hand on the wall beside my head and lowered himself until we were eye level with each other.

“But she did know because she told me all of it. She knew our entire plan,” he said.

The blood drained from my face as he revealed this in a flat, emotionless tone far more unnerving than if he’d yelled at me.

“That can’t be possible,” I whispered. “I never told anyone about our plans. I barely spoke to anyone back then, and I certainly didn’t talk to them afterward. She couldn’t have known.”

“She knew everything, including the route we planned to take to the sea, how much money we had, and the time we planned to leave. Believe me, she told me all about it. Many times.”

Denial swelled up my throat and choked there. There was no way she could have known. It was completely impossible, but Seth was saying she had, somehow.

My eyes darted around the harem, and my mind spun with the implication of his words. How could she have known?

“I didn’t tell her,” I repeated while inwardly pleading for him to believe me. “I didn’t tell anyone.”