Page 54 of Siege of Shadows

I would rather have been anywhere but here. The sight of Vasily turned my stomach. Between the blood and torn flesh, it was all I could do to keep from throwing up. But Vasily would only talk to me. I didn’t know why, but I intended to find out.

The moment I moved, Rhys grabbed my wrist and pulled me around. I was looking up at him, the hard lines on his strong face melted by a sudden rush of something delicate. The worry was clear in his eyes even as he held me resolutely in place.

“Maia, this is ridiculous. You shouldn’t have to see this. You shouldn’t have to be here.”

The way he reeled me nearer to him made my heart contract for a painful second. He was scared for me. He wanted to protect me.Me.

“Please,” he continued. “I don’t want you to get hurt by this.”

He loosened his grip, and his hand slid down my wrist until I could feel his fingers grazing my palm. “Come on. You don’t have to do this. Let me take you out of here.” His hand closed around mine as he silently pleaded with me.

This was the Rhys I’d come to know. Even with all the questions and mysteries, even with the ever-present fear of what he could be,thiswas the Rhys that made my pulse quicken. And I—the girl who barely had friends or family, the girl who’d never known how it felt to have someone like him, beautiful and strong, look at her with his deep gaze—had no idea how to resolve the warring impulses in me. Should I fear him or not? Should I believe Natalya or not?

“He’s tied up,” I told him quietly in lieu of an answer. “I’ll be fine.”

“It’s Vasily,” Rhys whispered. “That won’t matter.”

That was when I realized that I was close enough to hear his whisper. Willing myself calm, I pulled out of his grip.

“It’s okay,” I assured him.

Vasily seemed to stir as I approached. When I called his name, and only when I called his name, he pried open his bloodied eyes and grinned wide as if nothing had changed—as if he weren’t strapped to an operating table with blood oozing out of his shallow wounds.

“You came.” Vasily’s light chuckles were overtaken by a coughing fit. “Let me have a look at you.”

“Excuse me?” I scowled, my skin crawling as he lifted his head as much as pain would allow, his eyes sliding down my face before settling on my neck. “What are you doing?”

My neck. Something came alive in his eyes as he hungrily devoured the sight of it. In the next moment, he laid his head back down and closed his eyes, satisfied.

“Don’t tell me you’re into me,” I said, disgusted at the thought. “I mean, you’re not a bad-looking guy, but the sociopath thing is kind of a turnoff.”

Vasily smirked. “Don’t worry. I would never take what Aidan clearly wanted. We used to be such close friends, after all. I wonder if it’s your innocence that intrigues him.”

Both Rhys and I stiffened, but I didn’t check to see if his face was flushing like mine. My skin was too hot. Otherwise I would have asked how he’d even surmised something so—

Ridiculous. Was it ridiculous? Or obvious?

I swallowed the lump in my throat and focused. This was supposed to be an interrogation.

“I brought her.” Brendan folded his arms over his chest. “Now talk.”

“No offense, but I was never that interested in her, to be honest.” Vasily shrugged. “I just wanted to confirm... herbeauty... with my own eyes.” Opening one eye, he added, “Youarebeautiful, Maia. I understand now why Rhys almost murdered me to protect you.”

I hadn’t realized my shoulders were raised up so high. Without looking back at Rhys, I relaxed them. “You just wanted toseeme? Why don’t I believe you?”

Blood spurted out of his mouth with a cough. “I just like to confirm things myself is all.”

“So do I.” Brendan positioned himself on Vasily’s right side, bearing down on him as if the blood didn’t bother him at all. I stayed at the foot of the table. “Now tell me—or if you’d like to think of it this way, tellher—who ordered you to free Saul last April?”

A light, speckled mustache, darker than the strands on his head, lined the top of Vasily’s thin upper lip. Both lips were pale and cracked, aching for water. Maybe they’d been starving him. “Saul did. Or haven’t you figured that out?”

“But it’s not just Saul, is it?” Rhys stalked up to us. “You take orders from Blackwell. Always have.”

“Not always.” Vasily let his head fall to the side, but his catlike eyes stayed on Rhys. “Once upon a time, I took orders from you, friend. Though I wasn’t the only one.”

I could feel Rhys go rigid behind me.

I had to fight the urge to react. Vasily was trying to take control of the interrogation, flip it to his favor. I wasn’t about to let him win. “Did you know? We’ve been seeing your old friends around lately. From Fisk-Hoffman in Greenland. Some of them can do some pretty interesting things now.”

---