“Oh, so I should thank you for not ratting us out?” Ximen demanded.
No response.
“The exchange with the Heliacal Priestess,” Shyla said. “You for The Eyes. Your idea?”
“Yes. I knew the prince had the fake Eyes so the Invisible Swords would have to give the priestess the real ones. I’d no idea you had woken them.” He glared at her. “They told me you died.”
She glared right on back. “Not sorry to disappoint you.”
“But we rescued you, Jay. Why keep working for the priestess?” Ximen asked.
“We have no chance against the Water Prince. You’re all fooling yourselves. I want him dead! And I don’t care if I have to work with the priestess to do it.”
“What did you tell her?” Ximen asked.
A hushed silence. Would he reveal the depth of his betrayal or would Shyla have to force it from him?
“Not much. I didn’t want you or Gurice or Mojag hurt. She doesn’t know the location of your headquarters or about Tamburah’s second vault. In fact, she stopped assigning deacons to watch our old headquarters. Actually, the priestess doesn’t care if you’re hiding out in the desert playing at a rebellion. We both figured the new organization would eventually stall and break up.” He growled in frustration. “How in the seven hells did you get twenty more people?”
“We’re asking the questions,” Shyla said coldly. “What did you tell her?”
“I recognized the significance of the torque around her neck. She’d no idea. It’s an heirloom handed down—or taken—from one priestess or priest to the next. Must have been a gift from the Invisible Sword founders. Despite the rumors, the torques weren’t lost. They were entrusted to and passed down to the leaders of the Invisible Sword. I found them in my father’s things after he died. I hid them, but told the priestess where to find them to protect her pet Arch Deacons.” His shoulders drooped. “I wouldn’t have told her, except she needed a show of good faith from me before we did the exchange.”
“And you were going to let her own The Eyes?” Ximen asked in shock. “So the prince is dead. So what? We’d still have to deal with the Heliacal Priestess who’d have the power of The Eyes at her disposal.”
“She never would have woken them,” Jayden said. He scowled at Shyla. “Nor would I have told her how.”
“Why tell her about the deacons having magical potential? How did she open them up?” Shyla asked.
“Again, so she can defeat the prince. And she didn’t open them…I did.”
Jayden must have been spying on her and Gurice when she’d worked with Mojag. That meant— “I thought it was from the power of The Eyes.”
“Despite what you think, you’re not that special. All you need is just regular old magic and someone to teach them.”
Ximen shook his head. “So the priestess kills the prince and takes over control of the city. How does that help you?”
Jayden looked at Mojag, and the emotion associated with that gaze touched Shyla’s heart. For the first time since all this started, she didn’t hate Jayden.
“He did it for the vagrants,” she said. “The priestess must have promised him that she would leave the communes alone.” He was the Vagrant Prince after all.
“Is she right?” Mojag asked. He’d been quiet up to this point.
“Yes. The priestess will also release our people from the black cells. And no more deaths in the prince’s special rooms.”
“But you forgot about the deacons torturing people to confess their sins,” Shyla said. “Or did you negotiate with her to stop that as well?”
The muscles in his neck tightened. “The deacons don’t kill those people.”
“So you’re okay with torture?” she asked.
“She won’t need to torture anyone when…”
Oh, this should be good. “When what?”
“When she has you.”
Ah. She shouldn’t be surprised. The Water Prince wanted the same thing. And Jayden had set the Arch Deacons on her before. “And when is that going to happen?”
Jayden’s posture stiffened but he didn’t say anything. His magic flared. Shyla braced for an attack. Nothing happened. It took her a moment to realize that he was preparing to fend off her efforts to read his soul.
“Are you sure you want to do it this way?” she asked.
No answer.
She deepened her connection into his mind.
Jayden commanded, “Stop!” with a full blast of his magic.
Scorching sand rats, the man was powerful. More than she’d thought. Her body locked tight. She was unable to move. And from the unnatural stillness beside her, she guessed Mojag and Ximen had been caught as well.
But that was the thing—while she could counteract his magic with probably a great deal of energy, it was unneeded. The power of The Eyes could not be stopped by magic. And she’d already established a link to his soul. There was no need for her body to move in order for her to explore his mind with hers.
She was curious what Jayden planned to do next. His thoughts raced with possibilities as a grim satisfaction over trapping the three of them flowed through him. Perhaps he could command them to give him the key to the cuff.
Shyla sank lower into the core of his emotions. A red-hot hatred burned for the prince. Why? She sought out the source. An image of a lovely young woman with dark hair and amber eyes. A fierce love and adoration surrounded her…Jayden’s older sister. The image flipped, turned upside down and now she was naked, covered in cuts, and bleeding to death in one of the prince’s special rooms. Jayden huddled below, watching her die through the metal grate. Listening as her blood dripped into the black river next to him. Shyla felt his, horror, and fear twisting into hatred and fury as intense as the sun. All directed toward the new Water Prince. A ruthless man who attacked the vagrants soon after he’d won the throne. He claimed they soiled his city and he would exterminate them all.
His anger was certainly justified. But she couldn’t sanction what he was willing to do to reach his goal.
Jayden must have sensed her presence. “No, wait. Stop.”
Too late. She continued. His feelings toward her were more complex. Jealousy, anger, frustration, admiration, exasperation, and hatred for stealing The Eyes from him, for preventing him from assassinating the prince.
Then she sank to the darkest levels of his mind. There lurked his guilt for not being fast enough to save his sister, for being away from the commune when the guards attacked, for not protecting his people, the self-loathing of working with the priestess. In his mind, he was not a traitor. He did not betray his friends, he was saving them all. He was a hero. There was nothing he wouldn’t do to keep them safe and alive. Even tell the priestess when and where to capture the sun-kissed.
Shyla sifted through his memories of the conversations he’d had with the priestess, the exchanges of information, and the plans they made. It was an ugly, unpleasant task. One she didn’t relish. One that would take her a long time to recover from. But before leaving his soul, Shyla found a place where Jayden was at peace, where love and not hate resided. His emotions toward Mojag were pure. The fierce protection and brotherly love clear. Shyla paused and absorbed the goodness. This was what she wanted to remember when she thought of Jayden. Not the hate and pain of betrayal.