“Oh?” Jelisette raised a manicured brow.
Brynleigh’s heart twisted, and she nodded. “Yes, and he believes in love, so he bargained to get me out of prison.”
After your actions landed me there in the first place.
Brynleigh didn’t say those words, but she wished she could.
Jelisette propped her chin on her hand and studied her progeny. Shedidn’t look a day over thirty, except for her eyes. Her dark gaze was like looking at death itself. Brynleigh had seen killers with warmer expressions than the one currently surveying her.
Her Maker asked, “He loves you?”
He used to. Brynleigh wasn’t sure if Ryker felt that way now, but she wouldn’t say that, either.
“Yes.”
“And how do you feel about him?”
This would be the hard part. Brynleigh wanted to shout her love for the captain from the rooftops, but she was under no false pretenses about where she stood with Jelisette. Doing that would get her killed.
“I have no feelings for Ryker Waterborn.” The words burned like acid at the back of Brynleigh’s throat. “He was, and still is, my mark.”
Lies, lies, lies.
Her heart raced in her chest. She eyed her Maker, watching for any reaction at all.
“I see,” was Jelisette’s monotone response.
Did she? Brynleigh was walking a dangerous path, spinning a web of deceit. She couldn’t find it in herself to feel bad about it, though. After all, Jelisette had lied to her for years. It was her turn to be on the other end of things.
Since Brynleigh’s throat was still intact, she continued with the next step of her plan.
“I’m playing him.” She approached the desk and placed her palms flat on the wooden surface. “I know I was supposed to kill him, but it turns out that one Representative isn’t enough.”
The smallest semblance of a smile crept onto Jelisette’s face, and she made a noncommittal sound.
Brynleigh had to be careful. She had to leave enough breadcrumbs so that Jelisette would trust her but not enough so that her Maker would be suspicious that this change of heart came too fast.
“I want to hurt them all. Do something that would forever alter the Republic of Balance.”
More lies.
She didn’t like the way the Representatives ran the Republic, but it was apparent the rebels were no better than them.
Drawing in a deep breath, Brynleigh spoke the one sentence that would either be the cause of her death or the gateway to her freedom.
“I want to find the rebels and join their cause. They want to hurt the Representatives, and I want the same thing.” Again, with the lies. If Brynleigh had a penny for every falsehood she uttered in Jelisette’s presence tonight, she’d be rich. “I still want revenge for my family.”
Her shadows throbbed in her veins, desiring to come out and protect her, but she held them in. She’d placed all her cards on the table, and now, she would wait.
This wasn’t a moment for a show of force but of submission.
Eyes made of pure onyx ice drilled into Brynleigh’s. Jelisette tapped her index finger on her chin. The movement caused her sleeve to inch down, revealing a sliver of the black band wrapped around her wrist.
The Binding Mark.
It took everything in Brynleigh’s power not to react.
“And how does your fae captain feel about all this?” Jelisette eventually asked.