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knew exactly where he was going. At one point, he stopped and huddled against
the wall.
Connor frowned, trying to see through the smoke until he realized what
Jackson was doing talking on his cell phone.
Stranger and stranger.
Jackson flipped the phone shut and continued on his way, sticking dose to the
wall. His steps grew lighter, slower, and Connor figured he'd just about
reached his goal.
It wasn't hard to figure out where he was going. This hallway only led one
place: Teryn's quarters.
Jackson lifted his foot and kicked in the door.
Chapter Twenty
Mara watched Thaddeus the way a mouse withouta bolt hole might watch a cat on
the prowl. He worked at his desk, ignoring her, but she didn't fool herself
that he wasn't aware of her. He hadn't let her out of his sight since dawn.
She wondered where Connor was, and if the raid had begun. What would he do?
She couldn't imagine the untenable position he was in, knowing that his
friends, his family, were going to be attacked. Killed.
Surely he would find a way to stop it. Surely he wouldn't let them die to
save her. She hoped he wouldn't.
Thaddeus stood from his desk outside the Wizenot's office, stretched, and
sauntered toward her.
She resisted the urge to run away from him. There was no escape, nowhere to
run to.
The two guards he'd posted outside the door in the hall would make sure of
that.
"So," he said, looking down on her, "it will have begun by now. What do you
think he'll do?"
Surely he would warn them. She hoped he would. Then he and his congregation
could come back here and free the women and children. End this diabolical
scheme of kidnap and slavery.
Even if she didn't live to see it.
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She lifted her chin. "He will do exactly what you asked of him. Your
suspicion of him is unfounded."
"Is it?" He brushed her cheek with the back of his hand, and she flinched.
"You defend the man who is your captor? Who raped you, impregnated you, and
admits he intends to take your child and leave you. Or worse."
Why did he keep insisting she was pregnant? He couldn't possibly know. It was
too soon for anyone to know. Even her.
"I am a survivor," she said. "Resisting him would only have gotten me killed,
or locked in a cage. As long as I carry his child, he will protect me."
"And afterward?"
Her stomach churned. "Afterward is nine months away. I can't know what will
happen then."
He squatted before her, resting his fingers on her thigh. "What if I said I
would protect you? For nine months and beyond."
"I'd say you wanted something."
He laughed. "Indeed. Tell me about Rihyad. Is he really as loyal to me as he
claims?"
Mara dug her fingers into her palms to keep herself from jumping up from the
chair and running. He wanted her to rat out Connor. To sell her soul.
"For as long as it serves him," she said. She wouldn't sell herself. But she
didn't want to oversell Connor, either. Painting too noble of a picture would
give him away as surely as the truth.
He smiled. "You are a prize, Mara Kincaide. I can see why he chose you." His
fingers crept up her thigh toward the juncture of her hip. His thumb rubbed
little circles on her flesh. "I'm just not sure why you would choose him, when
I can give you so much more. Is he that good?"
His eyelids lowered seductively.
Mara had trouble swallowing. Every muscle in her body tensed, protesting his
touch. "No," she gritted out. "You're that bad."
His hand went still on her leg. His eyes snapped wide open to reveal gray
irises as cold as snow clouds.
He stood and moved to the other side of the room. "That's too bad, then,
because I'm going to kill him when he returns, whether he's betrayed me or
not. I don't trust him, and I won't have anyone in my congregation that I
don't trust."
"Yourcongregation?"
His nostrils flared a moment. Then his expression went passive. He inclined
his head toward the door to the Wizenot's office. The door behind which
Thaddeus's boss was supposedly hard at work.
"The Great One's congregation, of course. I am but his humble servant."
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Something bothered Mara about his sudden change from Master-of-the-Universe
mode to complete subservience. She decided to pull the tiger's tail a little
more, see if she could figure out what he might be hiding.
"Must be a pain being at someone else's beck and call night and day," she
said. "Are you really just his office drone, or do you render your services in
his bedroom as well?"
He crossed the room to her chair in two strides, his fist raised.
Mara ducked under his arm, turned so that she could see him and backed away.
She flicked a glance toward the door to the hall, but knew she'd never get
past the guards. That left only one alternative.
The door to the Wizenot's office.
Hell, at least she'd get to see the elusive leader of the creeps before she
died.
Taking a deep breath, she darted toward the door, yanked it open, and stepped
inside the revered Wizenot's domain.
The empty Wizenot's domain. Empty except for a large, scraggly dog sitting on
the side of a raised platform dominated by the gaudiest throne-chair Mara had
ever seen. The dog thumped its tail once, stood, and walked to Thaddeus, where
it nosed at his hand to be petted.
Realization struck Mara like a thunderbolt. "You're not a servant at all, are
you? You're him. You're the so-called great Wizenot."
Jackson crashed through the door to Teryn's office. Connor charged in on his
heels. Behind his desk, Teryn jumped to his feet. Rachel, who stood in front
of the bookcase, leaped back.
At the window, Nathan turned calmly toward the commotion. "Good morning.
We've been waiting for you."
Connor charged in on Jackson's heels and nearly ran the man down when he
skidded to stop, staring at Nathan.
"You," Jackson said, looking Nathan up and down as if to be sure he wasn't an
apparition. "You're not dead."
His gaze whipped around to Connor. "You betrayed us."
"No," Connor said. "You betrayed all of our people. Everything we stand for."
Jackson stared at the face of a grandfather clock on the wall, his gaze going
hazy. Time and space wavered.
Sensing the tunnel of Second Sight beginning to form, Connor lunged toward
the wall, grabbed an antique broadsword from its display brackets, and ran it
through Jackson's midsection.
Clutching his middle, Jackson sank to his knees, still looking up at Connor.
Blood seeped between his fingers.
"I'll see you in the next life," he said, then fell to the floor. His eyes
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stared up at the ceiling, unblinking, unseeing.
Connor dropped the sword from his shaking hands. God, he'd never killed one
of his own kind before. Not for real.
"He was going to use the Second Sight," Connor explained to no one in
particular. "He was going to contact his leader."
Teryn stepped around the desk, stood over the body. "You had no choice. They
came here to kill us."
Connor blinked to clear his mind. "The children. They're safe? They're not
here?"
Nathan reassured him. "They're safe. We moved them."
"How did you know?" Understanding dawned slowly. The truth left his mouth
bitter. "You moved them right after I left, didn't you? You didn't trust me."
"We had no way to know what they might do to get information out of you if
your cover was blown."
Connor's fists clenched at his sides. "I did not lead them here."
"We know," Teryn said.
"Then how ?"
"I did it." Rachel spoke up for the first time. "Accidentally."
Nathan moved to his wife's side, wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled
her close. "We think someone was watching her somehow. She didn't realize it
until recently. When she did, and told me and Teryn, we knew they'd be
coming."
"And you set this trap." Connor frowned. "But if someone was watching Rachel
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