GIDEON
Finally, what I’ve been waiting for.
A visit with my top worst favorite enemy, Samrael.
He takes his time coming down the stairs and checks Riot’s cell first.
Riot’s still weak, but standing. He snorts when he sees Samrael, and the two of them have a nice little stare-down.
“Hello, Gideon,” Samrael says, coming over to me. “How’s your leg?”
Better. Seventy percent, I think. But like I’m telling him that.
“I’m supposed to be planning a search for you right now,” he says. His eyebrows rise. “Found you.”
“Where’s Daryn?”
“Upstairs. She’s convinced you’re out there,” he says, waving a hand toward the network of tunnels. “And she’s worried about you, naturally. But she’s fine. Unharmed.” He pauses. “Is that what you want to hear?”
Of course it is. Even more, I want to believe it.
“We’re off to a good start,” he continues. “I think I’ll have her full trust soon.”
“If you hurt her—”
“I won’t. I promise you. I like her, Gideon. She’s a mystery to me, you know. Unlike you.”
I feel myself brace. Waiting for him to get into my head.
“Besides,” he continues. “Harming her would be foolish. It wouldn’t get me out of here.”
“You’re never leaving.”
“I will, Gideon. I’m ready. I’ve been ready. I’ve spent long months waiting for her to show up. The gatekeeper. My ticket out of here, as they say. I’ve been trapped without her—that wasn’t supposed to happen. Ra’om had planned to bring her in here, knowing we needed her to come and go. But Bas’s heroic actions were unexpected. Quite a few unfortunate surprises that day, don’t you think? Neither one of us ended up with things the way we wanted them.”
Thinking about Daryn in here for the past eight months almost makes me shudder. “Is that why you kept Bas alive? To use him as a lure? He was bait, wasn’t he?”
“Yes. But I genuinely grew to like Sebastian. We became good friends.”
“You think so?” I laugh. “Bas has no idea what you really are. Did he know the Harrows are yours?”
“No, and neither will Daryn. Only you know.”
“Lucky me. Do you control them like Ra’om controlled you? Through torture? You were nothing but Ra’om’s—”
“Careful.” He finally does what I’ve been dreading and moves into my mind. It’s a familiar feeling. Painful. Like fingers walking around my eyes, then slipping inside and prodding at my brain. He put me through this repeatedly in the fall.
“Those were good times we had, weren’t they? In Rome? In California?” he asks, lining up with my thoughts. Then he withdraws from my head. Fast, like a hook releasing.
I need a few seconds to shake the edge of darkness he left behind and get full control of my own head again. “How did you keep all of this from Bas?”
“He was very ill for the first six weeks. Unconscious. Then delirious with fever. It gave me time to understand my power here. By the time he was healthy, I had arranged things the way I wanted. I had a plan. I knew having him on my side would be imperative to gaining Daryn’s trust.”
“You lied to him for eight months.”
“I didn’t enjoy it, but I had to. For a time, I thought about turning him. Bringing him to heel, so to speak. But it would’ve killed Sebastian. Not everyone is strong enough to hold darkness inside them.” He pauses. “You could do it.”
“Is this your sales pitch again? I love this.”
“Think of it, Gideon. All the guilt and remorse you struggle with, going away. Violence, even if it’s for good, is still violence. How do you reconcile that? How do you live with guilt? If you joined me, that would end. You’d never need to ask those questions again. We could be brothers. Can you imagine it?”
“Sure can. It looks like hell.”
“Your insolence is another thing I like about you.”
“You think fighting feeds me? That violence is something I enjoy?” I shake my head. “You’re evil.”
“Is that what you think evil is? The desire to do harm to another? If so, then I imagine you’re feeling evil right now.”
I can’t argue with that.
“That reminds me … I’ve wanted to talk to you about your hand. I owe you a debt for what I’ve done. Someday I’ll repay it.”
“Your death would settle it.”
“That’s not an option.”
“Then I don’t want anything from you.”
“I can’t say the same.”
The pressure around my eyes starts again. I feel him enter my head and plunge deep this time. Deep enough to sift through my memories.
Images blur before me—not under my power.
Samrael takes me to when I first saw Daryn in Wyoming at the Smith Cabin, after all those months away from her. I’m transported back to how I felt. Standing on the porch during that rainstorm. Watching her walk up. Telling myself not to fall for her again. I was so sure I could keep my distance.
How wrong you were.
Samrael’s voice echoes in my thoughts.
My memory lurches forward, blurring again, and then crystallizing. I’m in Nevada now. Seeing the moment in the trailer when Daryn and I were all over each other. Feeling that moment.
I can see how she changed your mind.
That’s not—it’s not—
Ah, there it is. A reaction. She is such a weakness in your armor. Too easy, Gideon. Between her and your horse, much too easy. First lesson I’d teach you if I were your mentor: Never care more than you can withstand to suffer.
We blur forward again to the time Daryn and I talked about her parents after the haunting where she saw her mother on the roof of the bungalow.
I relive it fully, my surroundings dropping away. I hear myself telling Daryn that her parents abandoned her. That she was a kid who needed them. I see how it affects her all over again. Then I’m back in my skin and the pressure goes away.
“Interesting,” Samrael says. “She fears abandonment. Perhaps it’s why she shows such extraordinary determination not to give up on you. Thank you, Gideon. It’ll be helpful.”
He turns and walks away.
“Wait.”
He stops.
“You’re mining me for information on her.” I don’t even ask; I know it’s what he’s doing. Because she’s a Seeker, he can’t see into her mind, so he’s going through me. “You’re going to use what you stole out of my head to get close to her. To win her trust, so she’ll let you out of here.”
“To be honest with you, I don’t think I need your help. I feel a connection with her. A kinship.” He smiles at his own words; then he reaches into his pocket and removes the orb. He holds it up like he’s examining it. “But I’m not going to take any chances.”