Page 121 of The Song Rising

“About what?”

“Me.”

“Jax, I don’t have long left on this earth. I really don’t want to spend my last days hearing about you.”

“Would you rather lie about in a cell, lamenting your doomed love for Arcturus Mesarthim?”

“Don’t be ridiculous.”

“Paige, Paige. Iknowyou. Nashira told me all about yourembrace,” he said. Heat crept up my nape. “You may not care to admit it, but your heart is as soft as your façade is ruthless.”

“Let’s not make rash judgments, Jaxon. You of all people know how hard my heart is.”

“True. I imagine he’s been useful to you. I would probably choose a cold-blooded Rephaite myself, had I the time or inclination to pursue a star-crossed love affair.” He added coffee to the cream. “Now, let us begin. The tale of a humble young man, stolen from the streets, who you no doubt heard many whispers of when you were in the colony.”

I didn’t argue anymore.

“When I was not much younger than you, I began writing the pamphlet that would one day change my life.On the Merits of Unnaturalness, the first document to carefully divide the orders of clairvoyance and rank their superiority. I hope you haven’t been insulting me by thinking that the Rephaim dictated it,” he added. “The work, the research, the hours of pondering and agonizing, thegenius, are mine. It was how they discovered me.”

The record player switched to a soprano rendition of “Drink to Me Only with Thine Eyes.”

“It soon attracted the attention of the Rephaim, most likely because so much of it was correct. I was arrested for the creation and distribution of seditious literature. After a brief detainment in the Tower, I was transported to Sheol I, where I became a pink-jacket almost immediately. My number was 7. I suppose the Ranthen still call me by it.”

“No,” I said. “They call you the arch-traitor.”

He clicked his tongue. “I never thought Rephaim were capable of such histrionics.”

I thought of the scars I had felt on Warden, the ones that still burned him, and I loathed the man before me all the more.

“Show me,” I said. “Show me your brand.”

His eyebrows lifted. “Why?”

“So I know this whole sorry affair isn’t just another one of Hildred Vance’s mind games.”

“Oh, even Vance couldn’t concoct something so wonderful and coincidental. Still, you’re right to demand proof.”

Jaxon Hall never passed up a chance to grandstand. With a slight smile, he sat forward, removed his waistcoat, and opened his shirt, giving me a glimpse of a pallid chest. He rolled his shoulders free of it and turned his back toward me.

And there it was. The rawness had long since disappeared, but the numbers on the back of his shoulder were all too legible. XVIII-39-7.

“Are you satisfied?”

I forced myself to nod. I had never really doubted it, but the brand was the final, irrefutable evidence.

“The discomforts of the colony were tolerable, in exchange for the fruits of knowledge.” He set about buttoning his shirt. “Nashira, who took me under her wing, confirmed many of my observations about the Seven Orders. She taught me more. About Rephaite gifts. Aboutmygift. My twenty-eight-year-old self fell wildly in love with this creature’s mind; her deep understanding of the æther, and her hunger to understand it entirely. I confess to being easily seduced by knowledge.”

“You make a lovely couple.”

He smirked. “In mind only. I was promoted to red-jacket without ever having to lift a finger against the Emim,” he said, sipping his coffee. “A week later, I became the colony’s internal Overseer. Life was altogether rather pleasant.”

“So you betrayed the Ranthen to make sure it stayed that way.”

“I betrayed the Ranthen in order to survive,” he said, with the slightest sneer. “I soon heard whispers of revolt in the colony. I had two options: help Arcturus Mesarthim or betray his plans to the blood-sovereign. The only one of those two that guaranteed my survival was the latter.” He returned his cup to its saucer. “Naïveté is a deficiency in immortals, and Arcturus was abysmally naïve about human nature.”

“He wasn’t by the time I got there.”

“Yet you charmed him into trusting you. I repeat: naïve. He must have been terribly disappointed when he discovered who you were. The heir,” he said, “of his nemesis.”

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