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“But that isn’t what’s important now,” he said, his eyes fixed on me and his silky voice promising pain and suffering. “It seems someone has learned how to deceive me.”
“Grey.” Costas stepped forward, as if to confront Grey, but I pulled him back. He had no idea what he was dealing with and no experience with combat.
“Where did you leave Nik?” I hissed at him.
“Nik?” Costas glanced back at me, clearly confused and speaking far too loudly.
I winced at the flash of recognition and fury on Grey’s face when he caught Nik’s name.
“Didn’t he find you and send you to me?” I whispered urgently to Costas.
Costas started to shake his head, and I quickly hurried on.
“In that case he must still be out there looking for you. Go quickly and find him!”
Costas hesitated, and I shoved him away, angling him as far from Grey’s reach as possible. Finally picking up on my urgency, he sprinted away, plunging back into the party. The bright lights and chattering voices were only feet away but seemed like a separate world.
“Our rogue prince is here, is he?” Grey asked in the same dangerously smooth voice. “I suppose he was a stowaway.”
I tried not to show my fear. I hadn’t been sure Grey realized Nik’s identity after the battle in Caltor. But clearly he had.
“Nicely played, young spy,” Grey said. “But you do know the fate of spies, don’t you?”
Moving lightning fast, he lunged forward and dug his fingers into my braids. I screamed as he dragged me along, but the sound was covered by the sound of merriment inside.
I tried to dig my feet in and shake him off, but his grip was iron firm, and the pain propelled me forward.
Dragging me into the garden, he flung me onto the ground on a stretch of lawn some distance from the lights of the party. I tumbled down, only just catching my fall. As I rolled onto my back, I sent my power racing to soothe the pain in my scalp.
Grey stepped toward me, his green eyes flashing. Bending over, he grabbed me around the neck and pulled me upward.
“This time you’re not going to have a thought left in your mind that’s still your own,” he growled.
Forgetting about subterfuge or my own power to mesmerize, I reacted on instinct, throwing up my wall. Grey’s power tried to snake into me, but it got nowhere. He tried again, grunting in effort as he struggled to break past my wall.
But just like in our experiments on the ship, he got nowhere.
“That wall!” he spat out, his tone turning the word into a curse.
I glared back at him, putting all my defiance into my expression.
“Don’t look at me like that,” he snapped. “You’ve misplayed this time. If I can’t control you, then you’re no use to me.”
His fingers around my throat tightened, cutting off my air supply.
My hands reacted on instinct, flying up to try to prize his fingers loose. But my physical efforts weren’t the focus of my attention. Wielding my power like a battering ram, I shoved it into him through the connection of his hands.
He felt it coming, though, and jumped back at the first whisper of my touch, shoving me away with such force that I fell again.
“You dare…!” he sputtered, but I could see he was shaken.
For the first time he was realizing that when it came to our power, I outmatched him. He had taught me his trick, but he hadn’t been able to learn mine.
The knowledge only made him more dangerous, however. He pulled his sword from its scabbard with a ringing noise that echoed in my head. I drew my own knife in response, but its length was tiny compared to the reach of his blade. I would have no way to stop his sword reaching me.
Once again he moved too quickly for me to flee, leaping toward me and slashing his blade across my throat. My hand jumped up to the warm liquid already spilling out of me, but my ability was even faster, closing the veins and sealing the skin before too much blood could be lost.
Grey growled in frustration, preparing to attack again, but a new voice made him freeze.
