Page 140 of The Secrets of Jane: Reborn
He nods, like he’s happy to hear that about himself. “Still have all that… they’re all just patiently waiting on my return. Except the harem. Recently retired that.”
I don’t honestly want to know why.
“So then what is sending you onthisjourney? I know it’ssomething.I can feel it,” I say as if it’s obvious, almost calling him Rasmus, but reframing.
He bites his lower lip, running a hand over his stubble that sounds like sandpaper. “It’s over someone I haven’t been able to forget about for, I don’t know, ten years.”
“Ah,” I say. “You conveniently left that out.”
He’s silent for a while, and I can feel memories and emotions stirring inside of him. “A woman, of course,” he finally says through a sigh. “She’s the leader of an all female assassin group. Found that pretty fucking interesting. We had our time together. Then she left me, with her damn cat. Telling me if our time was worth anything to me, to take care of Jasmine.”
I furrow my brows. “It’s been ten years… you’re still taking care of it?”
“Obviously.” So many things flood his body, which are muted with precision. He has incredible control over his powers.
“So you’re here because ofher?”
He glares at me. “Does it matter?” He clears his throat. “I came over here to talk to you because you and me need to be careful getting too close to Misery. He can have a lot of sway over us, like we saw. I think we can plan as much as we want, but it’s going to be a damn mess. We have no idea how many fire mages there are, either. If we can provide an escape for Jane, sounds like she can take care of that herself. That’s probably the most we can do.”
I think on that, agreeing with most of it. “Everything in me tells me not to worry. That the answer will come to me. My brain says fuck that, there’s no guarantee. But it’s like the concern melts away as soon as it enters, like I can’t make itcount.”
”I don’t think you ever get used to that,” he replies, closing his eyes to lean his head back once more. “But if it feels like you can’t even question it, then it’s probably your powers telling you something.”
Out of everything, it’s the sensation of speaking to another Sensor that brings a calm to me I didn’t know I was missing. He thinks like I do, observes his surroundings in the same manner.
“It’s been all over the place for me,” I retort, my voice so swift to move to the edge. “I got injured in the streets before we went to the Undercroft. Everythingscreamedin me to take the hit.”
“I heard about it,” he replies. “From the pieces I’ve gathered, I think it was worth it. I think it was your own magic tapping into survival, or the fates. Because that man named Shade acted like an idiot, and admitted he wasn’t supposed to act when he did. If he hadn’t, you may have walked right into an ambush instead of the Undercroft.”
“So then I trust it?”
I know the answer. I need to hear someone confirm it; a person thatknowswhat I go through. The stakes are too high, and Jane means too much. I need to know I cantrustwhat my intuition demands of me.
“I feel it too. It’s worth letting it go. Everything tells me we need to arrive, then we’ll know what to do.”
Basilisk looks over at a group of laughing men, who silence when they see golden eyes have spotted them. It’s been rather hilarious to see the effect he has, as if getting too close is a curse. To touch Basilisk or even just brush against him is said to be akin to touching frostbite, biting cold and painful, because one knows death is coming—Tempest’s crew was different, as it was clear they fearednothingbut their own captain.
The pirates here still have a healthy dose of appreciation for who the rest of us are.
Closing my eyes, I try to find Jane’s energy once again. It’s still there, as if I have my fingers on her pulse. Her mood hasn’t changed drastically, just ebbed and flowed in its sorrow.
It’s okay, love. I’ll be there, soon. You’re so resilient.
Going to aid her feels like recalling something stolen from home. “Have you ever felt—experienced—being near a person, and their presence is almost like it’s been there the entire time? Atourlevel, anyway? With our magic…”
“Why do you think I’m taking care of someone else’s cat, making deals with witches, and trying to kill Misery for?”
So, he feels that connection, then; it solidifies what embeds in my heart for Jane. “Except you and her have space between you… so why would that happen?”
“It was necessary. I was not right for her. Not then. I’ve fought that current for years, convinced it wasn’t true. But now that it’s so much later… I knew when we first met I couldn’t have her. Not yet.” He stretches his legs out and crosses them. “If you feel it with the Scorpion’s daughter, it’s because sheishome for you. You’re just lucky enough she wants to give it back. Some of us Sensors have to waityearsonce we have found that person.”
That truth settles on me like I’ve been trying to hold my breath and finallybreathe.Maybe if I was a romantic man, I’d have more delicacy in handling this.
How in the hells does someone likemehandle that truth?
The two of us sit in silence, the undercarriage starting to fill with sleeping men, while I sit there awake. Perhaps I’ll doze off for an hour soon, but I don’t need more than that. No with what that witch did to me all those years ago; a sacrifice to reduce sleep so I could spend more time researching, traveling, and training.
I let Cypress read my entire soul so she’d grant me the ability to exist like I do, and that’s how I learned she was poison.
