Hidden Heirs and Fallen Crowns (Complete)

Chapter 33

Chapter 33

I didn't move. My eyes just stared right through him, right through his pained eyes and wounded torso.

"What did you just say?" Jasmine hissed.

He let out a humourless laugh. "What, you think it's a coincidence that I turn up two weeks before you were poisoned?"

Suddenly I was fighting for breath. I was such a blind, naïve idiot. Could it really have been a coincidence that they turned up two weeks before I fell into a coma? Before I had my Transformation, before everything happened to me? How could I not have seen this?

"You ..."

"Are a murderer. I told you, Suz. You should have left me to die."

My fists clenched at my side.

"I was sent to kill you. The plan was for me to find you before our friend the princess guardian did, but that didn't really work out. I was meant to just discreetly finish you off. Jasmine kind of messed up the plan, so I had to improvise. Look at your wrist. The left one."

I was so frozen it was a huge effort to drag my eyes to my left wrist. At first I didn't see anything.

"Your vein," he said. There was a certain weariness in his voice as he spoke.

I peered closer at the fattest vain on my left wrist. A faint dark red line scarring right across it grabbed my attention. It couldn't have been more than five millimetres wide - so easy to miss amongst the blue. I grabbed my hand, looking closer.

"What's ...?"

"It where I put the poison," he said. "Had to put it in a big nerve for it to take effect. The red skin is permanently burnt - it's never going to heal." I didn't say anything, se he went on to say, "It goes straight to your brain and heart. Sets itself up in several areas of the brain, and worms away at it for a few minutes before it kills you. Meanwhile the flow of blood is cut from your heart, starving it ..."

I cupped my ears with my hands, shaking my head. "Stop it!" I yelled. "Shut up!"

"... It's really painful, but ..."

"I said shut up!"

"... as soon as the heart stops receiving blood it quickly..."

He was against the wall with my elbow in his throat before he knew it. "I said shut it," I hissed.

He seemed faintly amused. "Did you now?"

A freezing wind blasted me back. I skidded back, finding by balance before I could fall.

He never would have done that before.

Jasmine sped at him. She collided with an invisible wall half a meter from him. He didn't even glance in her direction.

He never would have done that, either.

Jasmine picked herself up, wiping the trickle of blood from her nose with the back of her hand. Poised to attack, she placed herself in between Zed and me. Why do I always have to be the one being protected? I asked myself, irritated.

Still wearing his cool expression, Zed said, "You think I'm going to kill Suzanne now? If I'd wanted her dead I would have done it long ago."

"Then why didn't you?" Jasmine countered.

He didn't seem quite sure how to respond. "'Cause I didn't want to." If was obvious even he didn't know why I wasn't dead.

"Why did you start working for Kryden if you're not even gonna do your missions properly?" she asked, mock in her voice. "Rephrase: if you're not going to do them at all?"