Page 89 of The Never List
Jax shakes his head. “My source could only tell that the records had been altered. He couldn’t see what exactly had been changed, only that the scroll had been replaced.”
“Fuck. Baydel?”
Jax shrugs.
Kal leans forward, elbows on his knees. “You think it’s like we suspected?” he asks. “That he made up the Never List information about Rylee’s sister to have some kind of hold on her?”
“Or,” Pierce offers before any of us can respond, “did he merely erase the specifics of her sister’s mission so none of us would find out?”
Either could be true, but the reasoning behind his actions is more disturbing. I’m leaning more toward Baydel wanting her under his thumb, either so she gets spooked and doesn’t choose us in the end, or she’sforcedto choose us in the end.
I wouldn’t put it past him, but there has never been any proof of it in the past Choosings. Those potentials were either terrified of us on their own or hated us, which had not bothered me because I never grew attached in the way I have with Rylee. Sure, most of them were nice enough, but they didn’t understand me. Not in the way she does.
If Rylee rejects us in the end… Fuck, I don’t know if I’ll survive it.
I shove the thought down, burying it beneath the ocean where it fucking belongs.
“Maybe it’s neither,” Jax says, his eyes distant as he stares at a spot on the deck as if he’s seeing something else entirely. “Our potential is a little liar. I’ve told you all that.”
Cold dread sluices through my veins. If I didn’t know Jax better, I’d say he was manipulating my emotions to fuck with me, but we have a pact to never use our powers on one another unless in a life-or-death situation.
No, the fear tumbling through me has everything to do with the instincts I haven’t been able to ignore the closer I’ve grown to Rylee. She’s definitely hiding something, but who is to say it’s anything damning?
I flash a silent glance to Kal, and he dips his head slightly. He feels it, too. He’s just as linked to Rylee as I am, and we’ve all three shared more than a few intimate experiences these past weeks. If anyone can understand the concern I have for her well-being, it’s him. But he also knows we can’t push her without running the risk of her deciding we’re too overbearing and leaving us high and dry at the end of all this.
“Have you figured out what specifically she’s lying about?” Pierce asks, his eyes sharpening on Jax. They’re as close as Kal and I are. Sure, we’re all closer than blood, but he gravitates to Jax the way I do to Kal. They even have the same silent communication we do. Not that Pierce needs it. If he wanted, he could slip into each of our minds and make our thoughts his own.
“Haveyou?” Jax fires back.
Pierce cocks an eyebrow at him. “I’ve told you before. Her mind is guarded.” The intrigued look churning in his brown eyes says that fact excites him more than it troubles him. And why wouldn’t it? With his power, he can dip into anyone’s thoughts as easily as breathing. Rylee offering him a challenge for once must be…exhilarating. “More than anyone I’ve come across before, save for the kings and you lot.” He narrows his eyes at Jax, that penetrating gaze of his falling over Jax’s features. “Have you even tried to speak more than ten words to her to sort truth from lie?”
Jax sends him a warning glare. “Stay out of my head.”
Pierce laughs. “Your head is the last place I want to be,” he says, feigning a shudder. “Cold in there.”
Jax cracks a sharp grin. “What do you think next week is all about?” he asks, waving to my ship. “Inviting the nobles to an exclusive dinner? To test Rylee again?”
The way he says her name gives me pause—there is a sense of familiarity there he can’t possibly have, since he hasn’t spent more than an hour or two with her at a time. And the sense of devastation that accompanies it makes me swallow a bit harder. I’ve never seen Jax so tangled up before, and most certainly not over a potential. We’ve practically had to carry him to all the events in the past Choosings, puppeteering him in the way only we can in the hopes of finding a match.
Weneeda mate. A partner in the plans we have for the future. A confidant who will not only love us for who we are but be capable of handling us at our most powerful.
But Rylee… It’s not just a means to an end with her, and that scares the shit out of me. Jax can say he’s staying away from her because she’s lying all he wants, but I can see it. There is something different in him. Could he be feeling what we all are? An undeniable connection none of us can explain?
“I wouldn’t put it past the kings to switch things up,” Kal says. “In the past, they’ve stuck to the rules the goddesses laid out in the beginning, but now?” He sighs. “There’s something more going on. You can sense it whenever they’re all together.”
“Plus, the mention of the threat overseas,” Pierce adds. “And the recent attacks from the Faders.”
My hackles rise at the mention. The Faders haveremained quiet over the last month and a half, but their lack of action almost makes me more nervous than when they’re outwardly trying to irk us. It’s not like we haven’t had groups challenge us before. We have, plenty of times. But we Legends always put them in their place.
Our ruthless ability to stop outright war against our people in its tracks has been the one thing keeping peace between the Lumathyst cities. But the Faders…they’re different than anything we’ve come across. Too elusive with their endgame, too familiar with the ins and outs of Lumathyst. They know exactly where to disappear, know exactly where to strike when we’re too far away to stop them. It’s fucking unnerving.
I rub my palms over my face, tipping my head back and letting the hot sun wash over me.
“The kings don’t care about the Faders,” I grumble. “They think they’re nothing more than misguided youths making a name for themselves.”
I don’t believe it for a second. They’re too organized to be young people playing at being bad, especially when we’ve been clear with anyone who threatens our innocent citizens before.
We Legends operate on a stricttwo strikebasis.
