Page 82 of Phoenix Falling
“I know what happened,” he insisted.
“You know what I planted in your head. I can make you believe anything you want to believe. You might not understand that now, but you’ll get it eventually.”
“No one can do that.”
“Oh really?” These silly shifters and their stupid-ass ideas. Fine.
Backing into the corner of my cell where he could no longer see me, I closed my eyes and pulled my gift around me. In my mind I reached for Cale’s head and wrapped my gift around him as well. Reached into his brain, to the part connected to his eyes, his ears, every nerve in his skin.
And then I pushed.
Slinking across the length of the cell, I let him get a good look before I opened the door and walked into the hall. Cale yelped, backpedaling until his spine slammed into the wall. Giving him a wink, I proceeded down the hall to the main door, opened it despite the lock, and strolled through.
Cale rushed for the door, calling frantically for the guard. I listened, knowing exactly what he would see when he went through the main door. Of course, he had to wait for the guard to unlock it.
I chuckled to myself when I heard Cale curse. As he charged back to my cell, I heard Baer laugh. “Wow.”
Cale banged a fist against the shifter’s door as he passed. I jumped, losing the glamour. Allowing it to melt away. Moving to the wall opposite the door, I turned, leaned back against it, and let myself slide to the floor. Cale glared at me through my window.
“Believe me now?”
When he growled, his eyes lit with a fierce silver light, his fangs descending from either side of his jaw. Red flushed his cheekbones.
“Open this fucking door,” he commanded the guard.
I heard the guard sputter, obviously not sure what to do. I had no idea where Cale rested in the hierarchy of the Archai, but I got the feeling he was higher up than that guy.
Beckan spoke up, bless him. “Leave her alone, Cale.”
“Shut the hell up before I have you executed, runt,” Cale snapped back.
“We won’t be executing anyone today.”
Grim’s voice, coming from the other end of the hall. But there was more than one set of footsteps headed this way; even my less-than-shifter hearing could detect that. I hurried toward my window, and when the main door opened, I wondered why Grim was nixing the idea of an execution: Sun came through first, and if Cale was angry, Sun was in a full-on rage.
I understood why when Nala walked through the door behind him. Guess another secret got out.
Oops.
Seeing Cale outside my cell didn’t make Sun’s mood any better. “What the fuck are you doing here?”
Grim was shaking his head behind Sun’s back, his mouth a grim—pun intended—line beneath the edge of his hood. Cale might have gotten a little big for his britches, because he ignored the warning. “I have as much right to be here as you do.”
Sun bore down on the shifter like a freight train, not stopping until he was close enough to punch Cale in the face. I heard bone crunch and winced.
Everyone else did too.
Cale fell backward, struggling to keep his feet underneath him. Blood spurted from his nose.
“Is she your fucking mate too?” Sun asked.
His words went in my ears, but the meaning didn’t hit for a few seconds. It was like white noise poured in along with it, cluttering my mind until finally, long moments later, the wordmatemade it through.Fuckingcame shortly afterward.
“Am I what?”
Sun ignored me. All his focus was on Cale, who stared up at him with wide, disbelieving eyes.
“She’s not your mate.” He was shaking his head, his words muffled by the blood pouring out of his nose, but something about the look in his eyes left me wondering.
