I SAT TREMBLING ON the branch for a long time after watching Felton destroy his own hand, my body thrumming with shock. That had to be the answer — the reason why she’d wanted to see him alone, so there were no witnesses when she commanded him to kiss her. Was it possible to command someone to fall in love with you? To forget your feelings for someone else?

My stomach burned from the bitterness churning in it. I had to get back to Damian. I had to warn him — to stop Vera. But how? How did I break her control over him? I didn’t know if it was even possible. And that would also mean leaving Jax here, completely alone with a madman.

Everything inside of me felt clenched, seeking rebellion against my helplessness. Suddenly, I remembered the soldiers who had shown up at the palace and attacked Damian. The strange emptiness in their eyes and how confused the man had been just before he died.

It was beginning to make sense now — though I still didn’t understand what they were hoping to accomplish. That had to have been Rafe’s work — he’d sent them and forced them to attack us, and they hadn’t been able to stop, or even realize what they were doing, until they were dying. He was definitely framing Blevon. But the biggest question was why.

If I left Jax to try and save Damian, would they keep him safe? Or would Rafe turn his malice on the boy?

Damian still had until sunrise a day from now to turn me in and get Jax back. They couldn’t kill him before then, I reasoned. But with a sickening twist in my gut, I realized that alive didn’t necessarily mean unharmed. Rafe had laughed at Felton’s agony. He’d found amusement — even satisfaction — in making his own man suffer. What if he turned that malevolence on Jax?

Impossible choices. Rush through the jungle in the dead of night and try to save my king — the man I loved — or stay here to watch over and protect his brother?

Below me, the camp slowly fell into silence. A while later, Felton reemerged from the tent with his hand bandaged, his face pale and a sheen of perspiration on his skin. Rafe walked up to him and said something too quiet for me to hear. Felton nodded and bowed, keeping his eyes lowered. And then he turned and walked away from the camp, into the darkness, back toward the palace.

My heart thudded in my chest, pushing my blood in galloping leaps through my body. Feeling as though I were being torn apart inside, I finally made my choice and sat up tall on the branch. When Felton had passed my hiding spot and disappeared into the dark depths of the jungle, I silently swung down from my perch, descending as quickly as possible.

I’d almost made it to the ground when I miscalculated where the last branch was and slipped. I tried to grab something — anything — to stop my fall, but my hands scraped along the bark without gaining purchase, and I hit the ground with a thud.

I sat there frozen for a split second, hoping no one had heard the noise of my fall.

Someone shouted in Dansiian from behind me, and I leaped to my feet, ignoring the pain in my body to rush away from the camp into the darkness without looking back. My monkey friend chattered loudly from the tree at my pursuers, and I silently said good-bye to the creature as I plunged into the inky depths of the jungle.

Just then the clouds that had been converging above me decided to unleash a deluge of water. Rain pounded down on the thick foliage, drenching me in a matter of seconds as I stumbled over roots and rocks in my desperation to catch Felton — and to escape Rafe’s men. I could hear Felton ahead of me, but I could also hear men from behind, coming for me.

Shouts reverberated through the torrent of water, the sound muted by the noise of the driving rain. Lightning lanced above the canopy, illuminating the jungle in a blinding burst of light, and then thunder tore apart the earth, so close it trembled through my body, filling my ears and head so that in the seconds following the boom, I couldn’t hear a thing except deafened silence.

My hearing returned seconds before I realized someone was directly behind me. I yanked out my sword and spun around just in time to parry a blow aimed at my shoulder. My sword collided with another in a resounding crash. I caught a small glimpse of my attacker before I twisted away and swung my sword in an arc, so fast he couldn’t block me in time, and I sliced it cleanly through his side, sending him toppling to the wet ground.

I gripped the hilt tightly, my hands made slick by the rain, and squinted into the darkness to see another man headed right for me, with three more on his tail. Lightning flashed again, not as close this time, as I charged forward, my sword an extension of my fury and desperation. I was outnumbered, but I didn’t care. I wouldn’t let them stop me. I had too many people counting on me — too many I had to save — to let these nameless soldiers strike me down and leave me for dead in the middle of the jungle.

As I moved and moved again, turning and spinning, my blade colliding and striking, a surge of something filled my body. Strength — awareness — power. I spun and twisted, lunged and blocked and parried in a blur of motion. Over and over, the sound of sword hitting sword echoed through the jungle, and then sword on flesh. Again. And again. My blood surged through my body, hot with fear, with anger. I wouldn’t let them stop me — I couldn’t. I needed to get to Damian. I had to save him, before it was too late.

When the next bolt of lightning struck, it illuminated five bodies on the ground and no one else coming for me. I stood there, my sword lifted, my chest heaving, the rain pouring down my hair and face, waiting. Waiting. There were more men than this in that camp. Had Rafe remained behind with them? Was anyone else coming?

And then I heard slow clapping coming from the depths of the jungle, over the dull roar of the rain.

“I have to admit, that was even more impressive than expected, Alexa,” a voice sounded from nearby, concealed in the darkness. “I know it is you.”

“And I’ve seen what you can do,” I shouted back.

Rafe’s laughter turned my blood cold. “Then you will make the right decision, I hope, and turn yourself in to me before anyone else gets hurt.”

My sword shook in my trembling hands as I spun to face the direction of his voice, but he remained hidden. The rain continued to fall, rushing over my eyes and obscuring my vision, but I didn’t dare lift a hand to wipe my face.

“I will do it — I will turn myself in to you. But not yet.”

“Would you have me kill the boy now, then? I can make it very … interesting.”

His threat hit home — I knew he meant it. But somehow I had to figure out a way to get back to Damian first and then save Jax. If I went with Rafe now, there would be no hope for any of us. I remembered Damian asking me if it was better for one man to die than to let an entire kingdom perish. He’d been thinking of me then — I wondered what his answer would be if he knew the life in the balance was his brother’s.

“You gave Damian until dawn, a day from now, to give me up in exchange for Jax’s life.”

“I see no need to wait when you so obligingly came to me early.” His voice was closer now, and I gripped my sword more tightly, lifting it up higher in preparation for another attack.

“I didn’t come here alone,” I replied, thinking quickly. “I sent the other guard back to the palace to report on you. He’ll return here with a battalion of the army to annihilate you and bring Jax back alive to Damian.”

“How kind of you to warn me. I’ll be sure to vacate the area immediately.”

“There is nowhere you can hide that’s close enough to make the exchange where they won’t be able to find you. And then your plan will fail. You don’t know the jungle like we do,” I continued, squinting through the darkness and rain. “You will never capture me right now, and you can’t get close enough to play your mind games on me. You’d be dead before you tried.”

“I have eight more men waiting for my signal to attack,” Rafe said, amused.

“And I will kill them all. You saw what I did to the five who were unwise enough to challenge me.” I gestured to the bodies littering the ground. “I may not understand the power you wield entirely, but I can guarantee that you can’t comprehend the power I wield. Do not underestimate me. You will never succeed in taking me by force.”

There was silence for a long moment as he considered my words. My bluff. I prayed he wouldn’t hear the lie in my voice.

“What is it that you propose, then, my dear? You seem to care for this boy; as I said, I could just kill him if you don’t turn yourself in to me right now.”

“Let me go — for now. Save your men’s lives, rather than wasting them on an ill-fated attempt to bring me in by force, and I promise to turn myself in to you by dawn a day from now in exchange for Jax’s life.”

His laughter sounded again, making me shiver. “Do you think me stupid? Let you go, so that you can be at the head of the battalion you’ve already admitted is coming for me and my men? I think not.”

My mind churned, seeking a solution — an escape. Then an idea — a horrible, desperate idea — occurred to me. “Your ability, the way you can command others and tell them what to do … can anyone resist it?”

“No.” His answer was quick and firm.

“But if your demands are met, is the person free from your command?”

A pause, then musingly, “Yes. Depending on how I phrase the command.”

I stared into the jungle, where he stood somewhere, watching me. I was bargaining with a demon, and my entire body shook with fear from the offer I was about to make. But it was my only hope to save both Jax and Damian. “Use your power, then, and command Jax to die if I haven’t turned myself in by dawn a day from now — command his heart to stop if I break my oath. I love him as if he were my own brother. I won’t let him die. You’ll have your guarantee that I’ll return. And then he will be free to go — and free of your control.”

Silence again and then: “I like the way your mind works, but that’s unfortunately the one command no one can follow. I can’t command someone’s heart to just stop. I could kill him myself, but that’s so boring. Plus I already threatened that.” He paused. “I’ll tell you what. You want me to let you walk away right now? Here’s my offer.”

The rain poured over me, rushing down my face like tears as I held my breath.

“In exchange for letting you walk away, I’m going to go back to camp right now and command Jax to kill himself if you don’t give yourself up to us.”

I gasped, horror coursing through me, but he wasn’t done.

“And, I’m going to make it even more interesting. I will also tell him to kill himself if I’m captured or harmed in any way when you return. And the same goes for if you harm or kill my sister, Vera. So you might want to rethink your little plan of rushing back there to stop her and bringing an entire battalion back with you. There’s nothing you can do to protect your king now, but by all means, if you agree to my offer, you’re welcome to try.” His voice was mocking, hinging on laughter as he finished. “My guess is that he’ll be the one to bring you to me, with Vera at his side.”

My blood ran cold, pulsing through my limbs, my torso, my heart, turning me to ice. It was one thing to let him take Jax’s life — but to force the boy to do it to himself? What had I done?

“Answer me or my offer is rescinded. Do we have a deal?”

I stared blindly into the night. Terror, as sharp and hopeless as my future, stabbed through me. But I’d left myself no choice.

“Deal,” I said, so softly my voice was barely above a whisper.

“Then you are free to go, but you’d better hurry back or else Jax will only be the first to die.”

The rain blinded me as I turned and fled, diving into the protection of the jungle. Desperation burned in my chest as I pushed bushes and trees and vines out of my way, cutting my face, my arms, and my hands. It didn’t matter. None of it mattered. My life was forfeit — I was now Rafe’s.

My only hope was that I could save Damian first, before I had to turn myself in to save his brother.