Page 67 of The Jester

“Not to me,” he says. “To everything.”

“You are speaking in riddles. Either tell me what you want from me or let me go.”

Eldrion’s lips curl into a vicious smile. “Let you go?” he laughs, tipping back his head. “You think I would let you go now?”

I stare at him defiantly, struck by the sudden knowledge that I no longer have anything to lose. Except my life. And if Kayan lost his, why should mine be any more precious? “Tell me what you want from me,” I spit.

“I will not tell you that.” Eldrion steeples his fingers. “But I will tell you that you were right. I found you long before I paid for you.”

My eyes flash and I swallow forcefully. “Why?”

“I heard rumours of an empath living amongst the Leafborne. I wanted to find out if it was true.”

“You came to my village?” I take in his vast wings and shake my head. “I think we would have noticed you.”

“Not me.” Eldrion meets my eyes. Something flickers in his icy gaze. “Finn.”

A laugh stutters on my lips. I shake my head.

“Finn tracked you down for me. He was supposed to capture you on the night of the centennial, but the Gloomweavers put pay to our plan.”

My legs feel as if they have turned to liquid. I grip onto the mantlepiece to steady myself, and memories of all the ways I have given myself to the jester swim behind my eyes.

My back burns.

I trusted him. I let him . . .

Shaking my head, I screw my eyes closed and try to make sense of what Eldrion is saying to me. “Finn?” I mutter.

When I look at Eldrion again, he is smirking. A vicious smirk that tells me he knows what Finn means to me and he waited until this very second to reveal the truth about him.

“Search my emotions,” he says, leaning back, pushing back his shoulders, opening his chest as though he expects me to slam my hands onto him and scour his body for traces of a lie.

“I do not want to be anywhere near your emotions.” I flex my fingers, put down the whisky, pick it back up again and drink it in one.

“Then ask him yourself.” Eldrion leans back and gestures to the door. “I’m sure you won’t mind getting close to his emotions.”

Chapter Thirty

ALANA

“It was you...” I throw open Finn’s door and stride into the room.

He sits up and scrambles out of bed.

“Eldrion sent you to watch me.” My chest tightens, and I have no idea if it is because I am feeling Finn’s panic or my own. “He sent you to take me.”

I start to pace up and down, shaking my head.

I wait for Finn to object. To tell me I’m wrong. But he doesn’t, and when I look at him again I know that everything Eldrion told me was the truth.

Anger dissolves into my muscles and turns them weak. I sit down hard in the chair by the fire. “You lied to me.”

Finn holds up his hands, palms out, like I’m a frightened animal about to flee. “Alana, please. Let me explain.”

“I trusted you.” Tears escape and roll down my cheeks.

“You can still trust me. Please, let me –”

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