“Eve?” Titus said.
I could feel my lips move, hear myself tell him that I was okay, but I wasn’t. I was definitely not okay.
For a moment, a swarm of black dots filled my vision. Muffled chatter came from all around. I blinked and my vision cleared. The roaring in my ears subsided and the world stopped spinning. Titus was worried, crouching next to me. “I’m good. Sorry, I just felt dizzy for a second.”
“That was more than dizziness,” he said, helping me to my feet.
“No it wasn’t. I’m good now. You know how fun landing is for me. I’m still shaking it off, that’s all.”
I gave him a smile and took a step up the staircase. The woman seeing us there looked me over and then, seemingly appeased that I wasn’t going to tumble back down the steps, waved us up them. “This way,” she instructed.
Later that day, Mary once again came to my rescue, helping me dress after the water in the tub Asa ordered for me had gone cold. My tech suit warmed the bottom half of my body beneath the fine gown he lent me. Dark red. The same color his brother loved to see me wear.
I gritted my teeth as my fingers ran down the smooth fabric of the embarrassingly voluminous skirt. The shoes he’d sent fit perfectly. So did the gown, so I knew where they’d come from. I wondered if my clone noticed they were missing from her room yet.
The fabric of this gown was ridiculously loud and swishy. Every step screamed down the empty hallway. I had planned to try to find my stakes, but every bedroom was occupied by one of Asa’s soldiers, and I didn’t think any of them had what I was looking for.
Titus’s room was located on the third floor. He snored loudly inside his room. I wondered if Asa would see fit to wake him, or if the smells of the food being prepared would rouse him instead. When he woke up he would be starving, and as far as I knew, he landed in the chicken coop and hadn’t eaten since we left Enoch’s ship in seventeen-seventeen.
Mary waited at the bottom of the steps with a strange look on her face. She hooked her thumb over her shoulder. “I thought I just saw you in the kitchens…”
“I had to run back up here for something,” I lied, walking down to meet her.
She gave me a look that said she didn’t believe me and then waved me forward. “Captain Asa would like a word with you before dinner. He’s in his study.”
She led me down the hall and pushed open a heavy wooden door. Inside, Asa sat behind a large desk. He laid down his quill and stood, watching me enter. Mary snickered from behind as she shut the door and me in the room with him.
“You wanted to talk?”
“I tire of hearing the patter of your footsteps as you poke your nose where it doesn’t belong. It’s a wonder you didn’t see more than you should have while doing so,” he hinted with a snide smile, plucking something from his desk drawer.
I walked toward him, but my eyes caught on my holster and stakes that he held up like he would freely give them to me. I wasn’t sure he would, so I didn’t reach for them.
“This is what you’ve been looking for, is it not?” he asked.
His study was dark, as there was no window in the room and the only light came from three candles placed on his desk. Their flames flickered, casting shadows over the walls and his face. “Why did you take them from me if you were just going to give them back?”
“Would you have attempted to use one on me?”
“It would’ve been tempting,” I answered truthfully. After all, he had ordered guards to surround me and aim their weapons at my head.
Asa smiled. “Then you have your answer as to why I took them.”
“Giving them back won’t make the temptation go away, Asa. If you give me any reason to use them, I won’t hesitate if I have my stakes.”
Asa’s features grew serious. He stepped out from behind his desk and closed the distance between us. “My brother tells me I can trust you. I’m not convinced that’s the case.”
“I don’t trust you either,” I volleyed.
“Then we have that one thing in common.”
I huffed, “Why did you bring me here? Why not let me find Enoch on my own?”
“You never would have found him, unaided. Enoch is currently delivering intelligence to the most important man in the Continental Army. He travels fast, and he travels alone. The only thing you would have found in the country, if I’d left you there, was Redcoats and death. My brother would never forgive me if I left you behind when I could have taken you to safety.”
I narrowed my eyes at him, distrustful of his motives. “When did you start seeking Enoch’s approval?”
“Perhaps you’re right. Perhaps I have more selfish reasons for saving your skin.”
“Such as?”
As his eyes raked down my gown, I snatched my holster from his hand. “Don’t look at me like that,” I snapped.
His irises darkened, as if they rejected the flickering light and swallowed it up instead. “I can’t help it. I know what lurks beneath the layers of that fine garment.”
I swallowed my anger. “You might be marrying my clone and she may resemble me, but she isn’t and never will be me. There are obvious differences between the two of us.”
“Such as?” he led.
“I assume that if she’s willing to bind herself to you for the rest of her life, she probably worships the ground you walk on. Me? I’d be just as happy to bury a stake in your black heart.”
Asa took a quick step toward me. I pulled a stake out and clutched it in my fist, thrusting it forward and slicing toward his chest as promised.
He stopped just shy of my strike so that the sharp point of the stake skimmed his breast bone. His breath rushed out of his lungs. “At least you aren’t a liar,” he announced in a strange voice before baring his fangs. “Strike out at me again, and I’ll sire you. You will be bound to me, destined to do my bidding, and I will forever keep you from my brother.”
“I’d rather die.”
Asa stepped around me, pausing at my side. “A wish I would be most happy to deny you for an eternity.”
“What is it you need from me, Asa? I assume you didn’t call me in here just to give back my stakes.”
“Indeed, I haven’t. I need your help.”
“With?”
“Your double.”
“Let me guess… People are noticing.”
“Mary won’t voice what she’s seen to anyone but me or you. She trusts me implicitly, and though I’m not sure why, she trusts you, too.” His eyes met mine. “Maybe my brother is right about you. Mary is a great discerner of character. In the meantime, I’ll see to your double.”
I felt queasy with the prospect of what ‘seeing to my double’ would entail. Would he kill her? Lock her away? Send her somewhere?
Chapter Four
Titus
I woke up hungry, rolling from my back to my side, promptly falling off the child-sized mattress in the room Asa had assigned me in what amounted to a reclaimed attic. The ceiling was sloped so steeply, I hit my head each time I forgot to stoop. I rubbed my forehead. The tiny window showed a darkening sky.