Chapter 31

31

They had done it. Or , rather, Arya had succeeded. Jai marveled at how she easily adapted to situations. Dain might take credit for her training, but Jai suspected a lot of that came naturally to her.

Neither spoke as darkness enveloped them. Jai had an arm around Arya . It was difficult not to touch her. It was even more arduous not to give in to the desire raging within him that only she could cool. The length of her lithe body was pressed against him from chest to thigh.

He hated that he was hindered from aiding her as he should. His fingers tightened on her so he wouldn’t yank on the gold around his neck. Who was he as an elf without his magic? No one. The shadows didn’t answer him. He couldn’t feel the surge of magic, the sweet intensity that slid beneath the skin.

How many times had captured elves looked at him pleadingly while tugging on the necklaces? How often had he turned his back on them? How many times had he ignored their frantic looks, their unrelenting apprehension, the same terror threatening to choke him? Now , he truly understood their fear. His magic was blocked, jammed. Obstructed . And he’d better come to terms with that quickly.

He didn’t expect to walk away from this operation, even though he wished that wasn’t the case. He craved it with every fiber of his being. But he was a pragmatist. Besides , those he had ferried along the Lotus River to their nightmares deserved retribution. His death would give them that.

Suddenly , the shadows pulsed strangely. If Arya noticed, she didn’t alert him. Her involvement with the CCD likely meant that she could do things he had never considered. Perhaps that was what the odd quivers were.

The shadows parted and shrank away, leaving only the two of them. Jai didn’t release her, and she didn’t step out of his hold. Deep gray eyes stared up at him with longing. He tenderly touched her face, his desire stirring. Demanding and insistent. Hungry . To have her against him, to feel her softness, her curves. To know her warmth, hear her sighs, see her climax.

“ What is it?” she asked.

He shook his head. “ I’m simply marveling at you.”

Her lips curved into a grin as she set her hands on his waist. “ Oh ?”

“ Aye .” Jai looked around. She hadn’t returned them to the others. Instead , they were alone. “ The others will be waiting for us. I know we should head back, but I’m glad we have a few moments to ourselves.”

“ We can have as much time as we want.”

“ Don’t tempt me,” he murmured and cupped her face. “ The things I want to do to you would take hours. I’m afraid if I start, I won’t be able to stop.”

She rose to press her lips against his and whispered, “ Then don’t stop.”

It was all the encouragement he needed. He kissed her deeply, ravenously. Impatient and greedy. He waited for the passion banked from their earlier kiss to soar.

But it didn’t.

Arya’s kiss was different. Her lips, her touch—everything. Jai ended the kiss and lifted his head, searching her face.

“ What is it? What’s wrong?” she asked, blinking up at him innocently.

“ Nothing .” But it was a lie. Something was wrong.

She lifted her face to his. “ Kiss me again. No one will disturb us.”

Jai released her and took a step back. His gut churned with unease. Something was very, very wrong. He looked around the room, but they were still alone, as he had first thought. “ We should return to the others.”

“ That’s not what you really want to do,” she stated with a knowing smile and reached for him.

Jai sidestepped her hands, his apprehension growing. He desired Arya above all others. Why then was that gone? “ Something’s wrong.”

Her smile vanished. “ With me, you mean?”

Anger shot through her eyes, and for just a moment, he could have sworn he saw yellow. “ It’s this place.” It had to be. There was no other explanation. “ Let’s complete our task, and then we can be together.”

“ I’ve waited too long. I’m not going to wait anymore.”

The cadence of the words, the way she held her head, and the rage that simmered around her made his blood turn to ice. “ You aren’t Arya .”

The face that had haunted his dreams, first with lust and then with hatred, only to turn back to desire, vanished. He found himself staring into Priya’s face. If she was here, then where was Arya ? Every time he thought he had discovered all there was to know about Priya , she showed him he was wrong.

“ Where is Arya ?”

“ Is that really your first question?”

“ Where . Is . She ?” he said through clenched teeth.

Priya walked around him, trailing her fingers leisurely behind her. “ I was pleasantly surprised to discover you had survived. I always knew you wouldn’t die easily. You’re a fighter, Jai .” She stopped before him, the look in her eyes going hard. “ Then I saw her . How is it you both escaped death? I plunged the blade between her ribs. I saw her hit the water.”

“ Apparently , you were wrong.” Being near Priya made his skin crawl. He scanned the room slowly, hoping he might find Arya .

“ Don’t bother searching for her. Your precious Arya is somewhere you’ll never be able to get to her.” Priya’s lips peeled back in a condescending smirk. “ It takes magic. Something you no longer have.”

Jai wanted to wrap his fingers around her neck and squeeze the life from her. He could practically feel his hands around her throat. But if he killed her, he wouldn’t find Arya . The more he asked about Arya , the more Priya would refuse to give him any information. The only way to get the truth was to play her game. “ What do you want?”

“ You .”

He should’ve seen that one coming. “ I made myself clear before. I loved you. As a sister. But I was never in love with you.”

She quirked a brow. “ Loved ? Past tense.”

“ You had me beaten and put in a cage for the Black Terror . How would you feel?”

“ That’s irrelevant. We’re talking about you. Or rather, us.”

Jai searched for patience, but it was withering rapidly. He wasn’t sure how much more he could take. But for Arya , he would endure it all. “ There is no us. There never was.”

“ Actually , there was.”

“ I would remember if that were the case.”

Priya cocked her head to the side. “ Is that so? We had a memorable night a year after you began captaining The Viper . You might recall the expensive bottle of wine I procured for us.”

“ I remember the alcohol.” And nothing else about that night. A sickening feeling spread outward from his gut. She had to be lying.

“ You were particularly drunk. But not so inebriated that you couldn’t perform. Repeatedly .”

Jai shook his head, hoping to erase her words. But they hung between them. “ You’re lying.”

“ I’m not. And you know it.”

“ I remember nothing of that night.”

Her smile was slow, as if she savored his apprehension. “ But I do. So does the crew. You and I were very…loud,” she finished in a husky voice. “ By the gods, you were magnificent.”

He was going to be sick. It couldn’t be real. None of it. He would have known. “ You never said anything. You never approached me again.” If she had, he would’ve shut her down quickly.

“ What do you expect? You acted as if nothing happened, so I followed your lead as I always have. But I knew how you felt.”

“ I didn’t feel anything!” He spun around and raked a hand through his hair before whirling back to face her. Any pretext he had of playing her game vanished with his seething rage. “ You had to get me drunk, Pri . So drunk I can’t even remember that night. And if anything happened—which I’m not sure it did— I can guarantee you weren’t the one I thought about.”

He knew the last bit would hit her hard. Jai took tremendous satisfaction in that as Priya’s haughty expression melted to righteous indignation.

“ Why does it always have to come back to her ?” Priya demanded, spittle flying from her lips.

“ Because I love her. I’ve always loved her.” He stared hard at his former friend and said, “ And I always will.”

“ We were supposed to be together,” she wailed, moving her hand back and forth between them. “ Us ! I had everything planned.”

Jai inhaled deeply and slowly released the breath. “ Those were your plans. Never mine. You would have known that had you talked to me. Instead , you thought you had the right to decide my future. You’re the reason I wasted years of my life, forced into transporting elves to their doom.”

“ Don’t be so dramatic,” she snapped with an eye roll.

“ Dramatic ? I was ready to die, Pri ! Die ! Can you comprehend that? I would’ve rather my life be taken than be forced into servitude and put others in the same mess.” He snorted, shaking his head. “ But I was thinking of you. I didn’t want you to get hurt.”

“ Because you love me.”

“ As a sister! Why the fuck can’t you accept that? I was saving my friend, my only family. And you betrayed me. You lied. You … Gods ! I can’t even.” He shook his head again, sighing. “ I don’t know who you are. I don’t think I ever did.”

Priya moved toward him, but Jai took a step back. She flattened her lips and remained where she was. “ You’re the love of my life. I’ve known that since we were children. I did what was necessary to ensure we had a life together.”

He stiffened, his heart clutching tightly. “ What do you mean?”

“ Exactly what I said,” she replied with a shrug.

“ Priya ,” he growled angrily. “ Explain .”

She stalked toward him, closing the distance between them. “ I did what anyone who loves another would.”

“ Priya !” he barked.

“ Your parents wanted too much of you. The future they saw for you was much different than what I had planned.”

Jai shook his head incredulously. He didn’t want to hear this, but he had to. No matter how horrid the story was, he had to hear all of it.

“ I tried to tell them,” Priya continued. “ I explained everything, believing they would agree with me. But your father laughed. Your mother…well, she wasn’t nice to me after that. You didn’t need people like that in your life.”

Jai’s throat closed as pain bloomed in his chest. He remembered how his parents’ house had gone up in flames, how they had been trapped inside and burned to death. He had snuck out that night with Priya . For years, he blamed himself, thinking that if he had been there as he was supposed to be, he could’ve saved them. “ They were my parents.”

“ They stood in our way.”

He’d thought he knew what hatred was, but he’d only had a brush with it before. Now , it thundered through him, reverberating in a deep rumble that demanded reprisal. The loathing merged with a disgust so thick it suffocated him. He could barely get the words out when he said, “ Your definition of love and mine are very different.”

“ I gave you time to see my ways. You were resistant,” she said with a shrug. “ Then Arya came into the picture.”

“ And you thought making me a slave to the Masters was the right move?” Her audacity was staggering.

She shoved him, adding magic so he flew backward and slammed into the wall. “ The world was ours for the taking!”

“ You want someone I’m not,” Jai said as he climbed to his feet. His anger was so great he didn’t feel any pain. “ You want someone obedient to you. That’s not me. It has never been me. And it will never be me. I can’t return your feelings.”

“ You will.”

“ I won’t.”

“ Then you’ll die.”