Page 156 of Bound By Darkness

“Sure,” he muttered.

The woman walked to the tent flaps, raising them slightly as she glanced back.

“Oh, and dispose of these two before leaving,” she said as she gestured between Fin and Moria. “I think our newest member will appreciate that,” she hummed before leaving me alone with the traitor, the rebel spy.

All of the things I’d trusted him with—“Why did you let her do that?” I shouted at him, my hands bound together. “Release them!”

This had to be a joke, a ploy to kill time before he acted. He wasn’t a rebel. He wouldn’t kill them. Hecouldn’t.

“I can’t,” he said, his eyes avoiding mine.

“Release. Them.” I took a step forward, Fin’s eyes wide as he looked at me.

His head jerked toward Kaydn, his words muffled as he desperately tried to speak around the gag.

Sleep, a voice whispered in my mind sweeter than a lullaby. The pungent smell of ash wafted to my nose. My eyes grew heavy, my steps lulling to a stop as my eyes swiveled back to Fin’s. He’d remembered… and I’d forgotten about the Armas ability of psychic casting.

Sleep, the voice purred in my head.

I fought desperately against the clawing in my head as it shut down every process, every thought. It was uncontrollable as I dropped to my knees, my muscles refusing to listen as his command took over my body.

A sickening feeling eased into my bones as a familiar calming effect took place. It was the same feeling in the carriage the first time I met him. Even the same pungent smell—the smell of casting.

My eyes flashed to Moria’s before everything dimmed, that psychic casting overflowing my senses as I crashed to the floor, sleep weaving into every bone.

The dark vanished, my eyes swallowing in bits of light as I sat up, an unfamiliar numbness coating my arms.

A groan left my lips as a deep ache burrowed into my back. Where was I?

As my vision focused, trees came into view, one after another. I wasn’t in the tent anymore.

I wasn’t?—

My head swiveled around, my eyes meeting silver. “Where are they?”

There was no answer.

“Where are they?” I shouted, my voice hoarse from casting.

“Carnage doesn’t suit you,” he said, his eyes glued to the tree in front.

Tents lined the trees behind him, a fire cracking in the distance. They’d set up camp and I was their prisoner. I tried to move, but nothing budged as I looked down, thick rope tied around my stomach and arms. It was the cause of the numbness, and the bane of my boiling blood as I stared at Kaydn.

“Where are Fin and Moria?”

Kaydn tossed a dagger into a tree. “At the Hideaway.”

A memory resurfaced, of that woman telling him to kill them.

“You didn’t?—”

He stayed quiet.

The chirping, the crackling of the fire, and the quiet murmurings around the tents vanished as he stayed silent.

“Tell me, Kaydn.” My eyes stared at him. “Damn it, tell me if you ever even cared about me!”

He reached into his pocket, taking out something silver as he tossed it. It landed on the ground, catching the glow from the fire behind him.

---