I had just missed her. The room still held her scent—one I’d memorized so many years before. I picked up her watch, turning it over in my hand and feeling the remnants of warmth it still held.
She wasn’t the only one whose emotional footprint I could sense, but hers was the only one that lingered even long after she was gone. I felt every emotion that had flowed through her as she stood in this one-room housing. I understood some of them. Fear. Anger. Betrayal. But there was one that made no sense at all. Love—romantic love. How could she have felt that on Earth when there was no one there for her? Had she been thinking of me? That was the only possibility, and it gave me hope that she might one day forgive me.
I examined the watch closer. Why had she taken it off in that place? I’d have understood if she’d left it behind on Andrelexa, but why keep it for so long just to toss it aside on Earth? There was only one possibility. Someone told her to. It couldn’t have been an Earthling. That made no sense. Why would they want her to take the watch off? And why would she listen? She hadn’t found her brother, otherwise she’d have been with him. So who else would motivate her decisions? It was someone from Andrelexa. Someone like Kelby.
I should have known. I should have figured out he was interested long before now. Just as I should have figured out she was being modified all along. I’d been so blinded by my love for her I’d ignored everything else, but I couldn’t regret that. I owed everything to our connection. I wouldn’t have survived without her.
There had to be evidence of Kelby’s presence. Something beyond the glass shards on the floor. Anyone could have created those. He must have left some clue, some hint to his presence and where he’d gone with her.
I searched the floors and the walls but found nothing Lexa at all.
I was close to giving up and returning to the remains of the Fleshard I’d found when I heard the sound of boots on the stairs. I have never understood why the people of Earth didn’t soundproof their floors, but it was very useful in times like this.
I spun toward the door just in time to watch Kelby stroll through. He grinned and stopped a few feet from me. “I thought I’d find you here.”
I readied myself for a fight. “Where is she?”
“Shouldn’t you know? You are the one who knocked me out and stole my capsule.” He rolled his shoulders back in a far too relaxed way considering the situation. “What’s the problem? You couldn’t do it any better than me after all?”
“Where is she?” I had only one thing on my mind. Once I was reunited with Rachel I could worry about everything else.
“You have my watch. How much more do you think I know?”
“You know more. You took her. Take me to her now.” Rage bubbled up inside me.
“You are angry and delusional right now. Eventually you’ll understand who the real enemy is.”
“Anyone who keeps me from Rachel is the real enemy.” I tried to bide my time. If I attacked him I might not be able to get the information I needed. For all I knew she was in significant danger. I had to tread carefully.
“And have I kept you from her?” He took a single step back.
“Where is she? Why was her watch left here unattended?” I held up her watch as evidence.
“I stand right here with you, and you think I have her hidden?” He spread his arms out wide. “Is that right? I left her out of sight? Do you think I’d be so reckless?”
“You know where she is. Whether you were the one to take her or not, you were involved. I know it.”
“Oh?” He opened and closed his fist. “Wasn’t I sent by your father? Shouldn’t that put you at ease?”
“Where is she?” I was running out of patience.
“She is safe.” He put his hands out in front of him. “I believe.”
“You believe? You think that is enough?” Anger made way for worry. Panic.
He remained calm. “She is safer here than she was on Andrelexa.”
“How could you believe that?” I watched the doorway, waiting for someone else to appear. There was no way Kelby was working alone, but something was wrong. Horribly wrong.
“Could you stop being blind for one moment?”
“You think I’m the one who’s blind? Whose orders are you following?” Had he truly gone rogue? He knew the punishment for that was death.
“The important thing is whose orders I am no longer following.”
“What my father did was wrong.” There was no denying it. She wouldn’t have run if he hadn’t spent years feeding her modifiers. She would have loved me anyway. I kept trying to convince myself of that.
“Wrong? You think that word can describe what he’s been doing?”
“We don’t have time for this. Where is Rachel?”
“Calm down, Caspian.”
“Don’t tell me to calm down.” I felt the rage grow and spread throughout my body.
“You’ll never see her again if you don’t.” His expression hadn’t changed. He was still so unconcerned and emotionless.
I was tired of being surrounded by those who didn’t care. “She’s mine. You can’t keep her from me.” Maybe being forced to make her my life mate quickly was a good thing. It gave me protection—it gave me control.
“She’s yours on Andrelexa. She’s not yours here.”
“Who else is to tell me who is mine or not?” Kelby was sworn to listen to me. I had to remember that. He could claim what he wanted, but he wasn’t ready to die.
“Are you listening to yourself at all?” He stared at me as if eyeing a stranger.
“She’s in danger. We need to find her. Now.”
“I agree with that statement, but I can’t let you see her unless I know you can be trusted.”
“You are the one who can’t be trusted. You have strayed from your oath to the Emperor.”
“And if you don’t stray from your own oath, I will make sure you never lay eyes on her again.”
“Take me to her now.” I was on the verge of losing control. I needed to see her.
“Not until you hear me out.” A small flicker of anger twitched inside his eyes. “Rachel made her own decision to leave. Did I push her toward that decision? Yes. But only because I gave her accurate information.”
“Accurate information?” Seeing Kelby feel something relaxed me some. Maybe I could use it to my advantage. “What did you tell her?”
“Only what I knew your father would do if she didn’t play into his plans.”
“What are you talking about?” I tensed.
“That he’d kill her.”
I didn’t think. Anger surged through me, and I lunged at him, shoving him across the room. He crashed into the wall but quickly righted himself.
“Stop it! I am not the enemy. Your father is. The sooner you accept that, the sooner you have a chance of seeing her again.”
I crossed the room. “You will take me to her now.”
“Or what?” He shrugged. “You’ll kill me? How will you find her then? You know I am trained to handle any amount of pain. I won’t give up anything that way.”
“I need to see her.” I was sure my desperation was clear in my voice, and I didn’t care.
“If you want to see her, step back and calm down.”
“You speak as though you have the right to decide who she sees.”
“Rachel deserves more than a life as a prisoner.”
“And being with me would be that sort of life? She’d be life mate to the Emperor. She is life mate to the heir.” She ran because she was confused and afraid. She didn’t need to be. I’d take care of everything.
Kelby shook his head. “As if your father will ever hand over the reins to a son who doesn’t follow his every wish.”
“He will because he has to.”
“When has your father ever done something he doesn’t want to do?”
“I’m angrier at him than I’ve ever been in my life. What he did to her with the modifiers…” I still couldn’t believe he’d done that behind my back for so long.
“The modifiers? Do you think that’s the worst of it?”
“What are you suggesting?”
“He brought her there to control you. Don’t you get it?” Kelby wrung his hands. “I am so sick of your inability to look beyond. One would think with all your emotional capacity you would seek answers. Instead, you accept the status quo.”
“I am done with these games, Kelby.” I could feel the bitter taste of my anger again. “Where is she? I demand to know now.”
“And I can’t tell you unless you calm down.”
“Why will my calming down help?”
“Because I need to make sure we’re on the same side here.”
“Any side that involves what’s best for Rachel is the side I’m on.”
“And who decides what’s best for her?”
I almost said I did, but I stopped myself. That wasn’t the truth whether I wanted it to be or not. “She does.”
Kelby smiled. “That’s more like it.”
“Where is she?”
“I need you to hand over all three watches before I say anything.”
“You must be kidding.”
“Not at all. You want to see Rachel, you hand them over. And we don’t have time to waste. She may be long gone if we don’t act now.”
I knew this could be a trap. “Handing over my watch means I’m stuck. You know I can’t do that.”
“You have to decide if Rachel is worth that risk.”
“That’s not fair.” Rachel was worth anything, but I couldn’t be stupid.
“Is anything fair?”
“You will be caught if this is a trap.” I had no doubt my father was already aware of where we were.
“It’s not a trap.”
Despite my misgivings, I handed over his watch as well as Rachel’s.
“And yours too.”
I hesitated for just a few moments. But then I thought of her. Rachel. What if she was truly in danger? I’d find another way home. I removed my watch. “You will take me to her.”
“I will do my best.” He accepted the watch. “But remember you are not in charge here.”
“You act as though I’ve ever been in charge.”
“Maybe you are starting to see things clearly.”