Page 53 of High Stakes

I glanced up at the castle, sensing something... sensing him. Peering upward, I noticed Enoch standing at a third-story window, watching us.

Titus looked from me to the window and saw Enoch there. He cursed under his breath. “We’re in way over our heads here. Maybe we should’ve just found them, staked them, and made a run for it.”

“If Kael had done as he promised, we would have, and I wouldn’t have felt bad about doing it, either. But now...”

“Now, it’s different,” he finished. He picked a brittle, pale brown flower from the drying vine beside him, twisting it in his fingertips.

I struggled to articulate the thought that kept pounding through my head. “The people within these walls are innocent, too. How can we say their lives aren’t as important as the ones back home? If we kill Enoch...”

“Who keeps them alive?” Titus finished for me, tossing the flower onto the ground and stomping it with the heel of his boot.

“We have to be careful, Titus. If we change history, it has to be for the better. If we kill Enoch, and these people were supposed to survive the plague and don’t because of us, who knows what sort of effect it could have?”

The sounds from the castle and the lives within these walls were all I could hear and see. People chatting. Women washing clothes and hanging them on the lines outside to dry, singing songs as they pinned the garments to the wires. The hammering of the blacksmith and the scents emanating from the kitchens: fresh bread, herbs, braised meat. Scrubbing. The bleating of sheep and pecking of chickens at their feed. Someone brushing the manes of the horses in the stables and the sounds from the horses themselves, chomping contentedly on oats.

There was life here.

Two young children toddled through the hedge maze, giggling as they tried to stay upright and squealing when their mother got close to catching them. “If Enoch dies, they might leave the safety of this castle,” I mused. “They might try to go back home, and you know as well as I do that all that exists outside these walls, with very few exceptions, is death.”

The mother scooped one of the little girls up and turned around in a circle, making the child whoop with glee. Her chubby hands gripped her mother’s cheeks. The woman sat the child on her feet, but she promptly fell onto her backside. Her pale dress was visible through the hedge’s roots as she crawled on the ground, squealing with delight as her mother pretended to chase her.

“I have a sinking feeling we’re about to die for something I’m not sure I believe in anymore, Eve. We’ve given everything we have to the Asset program. To Victor. I don’t know about you, but I’m sick of being told how to live my life by people who don’t care whether I live or die. We only get one life. We should get to choose how to live it.”

“I agree.” I just didn’t know what to do about it. I didn’t want to stay in the fourteenth century, but I didn’t fit in my own time, either. I didn’t want to live the rest of my life in the compound. Outside the compound, I might be able to eke out a meager existence, but it would come at a cost. I’d always be looking over my shoulder, always preparing and waiting for the vampires to attack. Trying to keep them from killing my neighbors and friends, but at the same time, at least I’d have the chance to live and not simply exist.

Titus rubbed the bridge of his nose. “This is a test, isn’t it? Victor wants to know how loyal we are to his cause.”

“He’s not testing us, he’s testing them. He’s learning the weakness of his enemies.”

“Like Maru always told you...”

“The weakness of the enemy is our strength,” I finished. “If Victor truly wanted to fight the vampires, he could have sent the Assets out to help the army. He doesn’t care about the people or protecting them; he only cares about planting his flag in such a way that no one could stand against him. Who would try to defeat someone who could send an entire army to change the course of history whenever he decided it was beneficial for him?”

“You think he wants the Nephilim to know?”

“I do. I think he wants them looking over their shoulders, knowing he will strike, but not knowing when. And I think he’ll strike when they least expect it, in the most dramatic way possible. He wants his name recorded in the annals of history.”

Titus’s lip curled in disgust. “He wants to be stronger than them in the end.”

I agreed. “He wants to be the only power left. If we kill the Triad, who knows what type of monster Victor will become?”

Chapter Twenty-One

Titus and I sat in the sunshine, enjoying the crisp air and cool breeze and watching the clouds block and release the sun until late afternoon. Assets weren’t allowed to sit around and enjoy the weather, and a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach left me feeling it might be the last time Titus and I got the chance.

It was then that Mrs. Kerry came out of the castle, frantic to find us. “It’s time to ready yourselves for supper. Hurry along,” she prompted, waving to me. I told Titus I’d see him at dinner and hoped for the millionth time I hadn’t made a mistake in choosing to place my trust with Enoch.

Mrs. Kerry already had a steaming tub of water waiting in my room. “I’ll be back with another gown, as well. This one’s soiled at the hem.”

Glancing down, I held out the bottom of the red dress. Sure enough, spatters of now-dried mud and dust were caked along the edges. My mind floated to my tech suit hidden beneath the mattress. It would keep me warm, and if we had to make a last-minute decision to jump, I’d have to be wearing it.

“Could you find something with a high neckline?” I requested nicely.

“Enoch had something made for you, dear. I’ll be right back with it,” she promised, closing and locking the door behind her.

He had something made for me?

I washed my hair and body quickly and toweled off, tugging on the tech suit before she returned. I knew I needed to wear it from now on, just in case we had to put option two of our plan into place and jump.

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