Alex quaked at his words, but he continued before she could say anything.
“Even without Claiming her, it wasn’t difficult to convince her to assist us, but she was a painfully slow student. We had to meet with her a number of times so she could learn her script, so to speak. Such a foolish child. But we managed to make her believe she was important enough for your Stealth and Subterfuge teacher to consider taking her on as an apprentice next year. She was under the impression that today’s events were a test to see how well she could remain in character as both Jordan and Zain.”
“Why are you telling me all this?” Alex asked, her heart racing at the rapidly darkening tone of Aven’s words.
“I thought you might appreciate the truth before you could no longer hear it from the source,” he said offhandedly. “The girl performed admirably, but she wasted too much of my time learning her role. And I… Well, my patience with her has reached its limit. Calista?”
It happened in a split second. Alex didn’t notice the command in Aven’s words. All she heard was a whimper and a crack, followed by the sound of Skyla’s lifeless body dropping to the ground.
“No!” Alex gasped, seeing Skyla’s face pressed into the snow, her neck bent at an unnatural angle and her empty eyes staring out into nothing.
All it had taken was one word from Aven and Calista had broken Skyla’s neck without lifting so much as a finger.
Alex glanced fearfully up at D.C. and Bear who were still trapped by Calista’s power. Tears were streaming down D.C.’s face as she stared at the girl on the icy ground, and Bear looked more haggard than Alex had ever seen him.
“Don’t you want to know how I managed to pull all this off?” Aven asked. “Even I, as brilliant as I am, couldn’t have fooled you without help. Aren’t you curious about Jordan’s role in all this?”
No, Alex begged him in her mind, already knowing that whatever he was going to say would bring him great joy and her great pain.
Please.
Don’t.
But Aven couldn’t hear her thoughts, and he continued, almost gleefully, “Aren’t you curious about how long your friend has been in my service?”
Alex felt her entire body stiffen with dread.
No.
“I don’t believe you,” she said. But she couldn’t help dragging her eyes back to Jordan’s scarily blank face.
“Dear, sweet child,” Aven purred. “Didn’t we already decide that denial is unhealthy?”
“You’re a liar, Aven,” she returned heatedly. “I know you. All you do is lie.”
His golden eyes flashed. “Watch your tone, Alexandra.”
She stared at him defiantly. “Make me.”
Alex watched Aven bury his rage beneath a relaxed smirk. “Jordan, tell Alexandra to be quiet.”
Jordan’s empty eyes stared straight through her as he opened his mouth and said, “Alexandra, be quiet.”
Alex felt her breath stutter at the sound of her friend’s dismissive monotone. “Jordan?” she whispered.
Jordan lowered his gaze again, his expression showing no emotion. Alex watched him for a moment before she turned her face up to capture Aven’s triumphant look.
“What have you done to him?” she demanded.
Please, please, let him only be drugged.
Aven tilted his head to the side as he stared at her, and then a smile broke out on his face. It quickly turned into a laugh. It took a full minute for him to calm down enough to gasp out, “Do you truly not know? How can you be so blind?”
She didn’t respond. She didn’t want confirmation of what she feared was true.
“Jordan, show Alexandra your hand so she can see my mark for herself.”
At his words, Alex had the answer to what she’d refused to believe. When Jordan raised his hand, the glowing scar across his palm was all the evidence she needed.
No.
“Release him, Aven.” Alex’s voice was unrecognisable to her own ears. It was as cold and hard as steel. “Let him go and I’ll allow you to leave this place. You can do whatever you want in Meya and I won’t stop you. I won’t tell anyone you’re here. Just let Jordan go.”
Aven laughed again. “What makes you think I’m keeping him here?”
That made Alex pause. “What are you talking about?”
“Jordan,” Aven said, his voice authoritative, “tell Alexandra how you came to be in my service. Give her every detail, using your own words and emotions.”
Jordan blinked and his blank face cleared of its empty expression. “Alex,” he whispered brokenly, stepping forward to reach out to her.
“Stop,” Aven commanded. “You’ll only speak to her. Nothing more.”
At his order, Jordan froze to the spot, and his anguished face begged her to understand. It was the most expressive he’d been since his return from Chateau Shondelle three weeks earlier.
Wait a second.
Chateau Shondelle.
Jordan’s unusual behaviour.
No.
“Jordan?” Alex breathed, hoping desperately that she was connecting the dots incorrectly.
“I couldn’t say anything,” he told her, his voice pleading with her to understand. “I was ordered to act like normal. There was nothing I could do.”
“Tell her everything, Jordan,” Aven said, his voice firm. “From the beginning.”
Jordan swallowed thickly and whispered, “I had to, Alex.”
No.
“Aven says my brother is alive. He’s going to help me find Luka.”
No. Wrong. All wrong.
“Alex, you have to believe me,” Jordan begged. “It was the only way.”
“Tell her the complete truth,” Aven commanded again. “Tell her how you came to be in my service.”
With emotion-filled eyes, Jordan said, “I went back to the chateau for the weekend because my parents asked me to. I didn’t want to go, especially since I knew you, Dix and Bear were so worried. But they said they had something important to tell me.”
He hesitated for a second before he continued. “When I arrived at the chateau, Aven was there. He and my father are… close. I swear, I had no idea. I tried to escape, but Lena was there too, neutralising my gift so Calista could hold me captive. It was horrible. I was trapped.”
His eyes shadowed at the memory until they brightened again. “But then my father promised me that everything would be okay as long as I listened to Aven. Then they’d let me go. So, I listened. And what I heard—Alex, I don’t know what to say.”
Alex didn’t know what to say either. All she knew was that with every word of his, she felt as if her heart was being ripped out of her chest. Judging by D.C.’s muffled sobs and Bear’s choked expletives, she wasn’t the only one falling apart.
“Aven told me that Luka faked his own death,” Jordan continued. “I didn’t believe him at first. But then he showed me some surveillance footage dated a month ago—a month ago!— where Luka broke into a Techno lab in Mardenia. He’s alive, Alex. Can you believe it?”