Shadowburn (2)

Chapter 12

Sin watched with a bored expression as the girl followed Andreas--who was carrying the platters, she noticed wryly--into the dining room. She loaded her plate absently with the food Kalen had brought, in her usual seat to the right of Andreas' chair. So she's a magic user, then. Sin wasn't sure how to feel about that--it was unexpected, certainly.

And she had half a thought that it probably meant Andreas would take issue with her torturing the chit. Which was ever so slightly depressing.

But she hadn't really expected that they would need to torture the girl, anyway--not if it was an arranged marriage. Not if John was truly as bad as Andreas believed--and she didn't doubt that he was.

Lana would probably be glad to help them--well, maybe not that far. Although... Sin studied the girl as she sat down at the table--as far from all of them as she could get, which made a smirk twist at Sin's lips.

She started to eat--the food was even better today, which was fantastic--thinking about the look in Lana's eyes when she'd approached her. There had been fear, but beneath it... defiance. Sin liked that. Liked that bravery, even if it was foolish on Lana's part.

"Either of you going to fill me in on your plan?" Kalen's voice drew Sin's attention, and she moved her unrelenting stare from Lana to him.

He was holding his knife and fork as if he meant to start eating, but had paused in the endeavor to ask a question he considered important. Sin arched a brow and pointed her fork at him. "What do you think the plan is, Violet?"

"How am I supposed to know why you've decided to kidnap an innocent girl?" His voice and expression both screamed exasperation, and Sin smirked at him.

"It's simple really," Andreas broke in before she could respond to Kalen. "We're going to use her to get John."

Sin's eyes shot to Lana as the girl choked, then began coughing. Her eyebrows arched upward, and she leaned back in her chair to study the chit again. "And also, it's fun," she said, eyes narrowed on Lana.

"This is all because of him?" She demanded, her voice raspy from coughing. Her words held disdain, and Sin's eyes narrowed further--apparently, her assessment had been correct. No torturing, then. Too bad.

"You thought there would be another reason?" She arched a brow lazily, leaning forward again to work on her plate of food.

"You think that he cares for anyone but himself?" The words were a counter, rising in pitch with a faint bitter edge.

Sin had food in her mouth, so she glanced at Andreas, noting that he too was studying Lana with narrowed eyes--though whereas Sin's expression was bored, his was devoid of any emotion at all.

"Your marriage to him is quite important to both your families, I would imagine. It's sure to draw him out." Sin took another few bites as Andreas spoke, her full plate quickly dwindling. Andreas resumed eating as well once he was done speaking, and she felt Lana's eyes on them.

"Obviously you overestimate my worth. The marriage is only important to my family," she said, and her words were truly bitter, even sharp. "My mother worked for it for years. The Argenos would be all too happy to replace me."

The life of a noble girl is the same here as back home, it seems, Sin thought, as she finished her plate and began loading it a second time. "So what, then?" She arched a brow at Lana as she picked up her fork to begin work on her newly filled plate. "You expect us to... take you home again? Pretend this never happened? And you'll what, then? Pretend you don't have magic? Pretend you aren't being forced into a marriage you don't want? Sounds pretty boring to me."