Page 14 of Abducting Sarah

Someone has hit her before. I had seen it with orphans and others who had been abused. That palpable fear, the tight posture. I stood straight but hunched my shoulders to appear smaller and softer. I lowered my voice, too.

“Sarah, I’m not going to hurt you for that. I was trying to get a rise out of you. I needed to know you would defend yourself.”

Her nose crinkled and her eyes became slits. “You were testing me?”

“Yes, I can’t let this insanity continue without knowing you can handle yourself.”

“Did I pass your little test?” she spat.

“Better than expected, but not as good as I had hoped.”

“Next time you come at me, Jacaranda Cozz, you better hope Ican’thit you back, because I won’t stop.”

“See?” Deacon sounded proud. “She has strong fighting spirit in her. I almost think it would be enough to protect her without the union.”

Sarah hopefully said, “Then we don’t need to—”

“But we are,” Deacon interrupted.

She huffed and slumped against the wall.

“If she’s so strong, let her stand on her own against the ghosts, Deacon. No union, no guards. Let her prove how strong she is.”

“I will not take such a risk. I require her for my sibling.”

I closed my eyes and sighed. I didn’t want to bring his family into the mix, but I had no other cards to play. “So you want tounite with a human woman, who you don’t even know, to protect your sibling…what would your father say about this?”

“I am doing this because of my father, Jac,” he said, his jaw clenched. “He would want me to protect my sibling.”

“Fine. What would your mother say about this?”

His eyes darkened as he turned on me. “Why are you bringing her into this?”

“She has a right to know, doesn’t she?”

“My mother…” He grumbled, “She lost her right to tell me what to do the day she turned her back on my father.”

“She did not do so without cause,” I pointed out.

He gritted his teeth and admitted, “No. She did not. But all of that aside, it does not matter what she wants in this circumstance. I will do anything to protect my father’s child, as I hope any of his other children would protect me. I recognize that you don’t grasp the concept of classed family, Jac, but this is how it is for us.”

He had to bring that up?“I may not beclassed, but I understand what family is, Deacon. You can condescend like that to your crew, but don’t try that shit with me.”

He winced and explained, “I only meant to say that things are different for me than they are for you, when it comes to family. I did not mean to offend you and for that, I am sorry.” It hadn’t been the apology that pained him. It was the fact that he had crossed a line with me that had pained him.

“Forgiven. Always.”

Deacon gave half a smile. “I know this is not the best circumstance for a union, Jac. If I thought there was any other way around it, then I would have taken that path. But since Justice murdered all the other conduits on Orhon, Sarah Hollinger is the nearest one, which makes her the best candidate for the work. I do not like what I must do, but rich or poor, we must do our duty, yes?”

“Yes, but—”

“Then I will unite with this human. We will have the ceremony and all its pomp right here onAllegiant. Once the ceremony is over, we will go to Orhon, where you and your crew will rescue Silence from her prison cell. Shouldn’t be too hard, right?”

I laughed. “I have broken out how many prisoners from the royal cells now? Fifteen? Sixteen?”

Deacon chuckled. “More than enough to make you the expert in such matters. After that, we take them both to Halla, secure them, and that will be that. Nothing else to worry about.”

“Dun dun, dun!” Sarah said with a shake of her head.

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