Page 84 of The Never List
My eyes widen.
Jax leans his elbows on his knees, the position making his focus on me intensify. Something crackles against my skin—not like lightning but something deeper…apullon my soul I can’t explain. His indigo eyes are searing as they hold mine, and I have the oddest impulse to stand up, cross the room, and drop to my knees right there in front of everyone. Maybe talk some sense into him, make him remember why he chose me in the first place.
I don’t, and the second I blink, glancing to Axl and then Kal, Jax goes slack in his seat again.
“You believe Baydel thinks she’s theone,” Pierce says, not asks. “Intriguing.”
Jax returns to playing with his blade.
“If she’s the one, then she’s a threat,” Kal says, almostas if he’s forgotten I’m sitting right exactly here. “Despite Baydel’s insistence that he wants us to unlock our powers to keep the offerings to our mothers strong. Why does he see Rylee as a threat and not the others?”
“Indeed,” Pierce says, looking at me more closely. We’ve spent the least amount of time together, but there is something there, pulsing behind his intelligent eyes, that has my instincts reaching for him.
Maybe that’s it.
Maybe the only reason Baydel fears I’m the one is because I don’t react the way the other potentials did. I’m not coy or shy or timid. Not skittish around their powers. Not when I’ve grown up around power my entire life—Erin and Ivy and Layce—each of us carrying a heavy dose of power in our own right.
Goddess damn it. My plan to make them fall for me has made me an even bigger target for the kings.
“Maybe he buried the information,” I hurry to say before I can spiral too far. “Maybe he knew I’d ask you to look for my sister.”
“It’s possible,” Pierce says. “I wouldn’t put it past him to fuck with us on this.” The curse word sounds elegant coming from his lips, and a deep shiver tickles my insides. Pierce winks at me like he senses it.
“Why would he go out of his way to intimidate her after pushing you to make a good choice this year, Jax?” Axl asks.
Jax’s eyes follow his blade into the air and back to his hand, contemplative. “Why does he do anything he does?” he asks, snatching the blade out of the air and slamming it down into the arm of the chair.
“That’s the fourth chair you owe me,” Axl says,seemingly unsurprised by Jax’s behavior.
He jerks the knife out of the woodgrain, standing and bowing slightly to Axl. “Put it on my tab.” He sheathes the knife, striding out of the room and around the corner, the front door slamming on his way out.
Before I know what I’m doing, I’m off the couch and following him through the front door, racing after him with my bare feet hitting the stone path in front of Axl’s house.
“Jax!” His name is a plea from my lips, the unanswered questions, the avoidance all building to a crescendo inside me. “Jax, wait!”
He halts at the edge of the stone path but doesn’t turn around.
Heat—searing, raging heat—slices through my veins at his dismissal, at his complete lack of empathy with regard to the choice he made that night.
I stomp toward him, no longer caring that he’s the Nightmare and I should tread carefully. I’m already in way over my head here.
“Why didn’t you rescind your choice?” I ask, gripping his arm and forcing him to turn and face me.
His glare is harsh, his eyes narrowed as he looks down at me. The night sky stretches behind him, and his blue-black hair is slicked back and away from his face, highlighting his sharp features—the lean cut of his nose, the strong jaw, the full lips with a smirk that could surely kill.
“Rescind my choice?” he asks, his tone half mocking, half serious.
“Yeah,” I say, breathless. Adrenaline is racing through me, demanding I fight or flee or fuck. I’m not sure which. “You keep calling me a liar—”
“Youarea liar,” he cuts me off. He tilts his head back and inhales deeply, closing his eyes for a moment as he shudders. “Every time I’m around you,” he continues, eyes locking on mine. “Your lieshumagainst me. Constant. Buzzing. Butterfly.”
I swallow hard, defiant as I glare up at him. “I could be lying about my favorite color or hiding the fact that I think most royals are pompous, entitled assholes.”
His grin is lethal. “That was the truth.”
“If you regret choosing me so damn badly, why not stop it right there?Thatnight? Why not go to the kings and tell them to choose for you—”
His hand gently curls around my throat, stopping my words. The touch is soft but claiming as he holds me there, inching closer as those indigo eyes roam over every line of my face.
