My Darkest Shadow

Chapter 39

"I know - I know what we agreed." I backed as far away from him as possible, landing hard against a marble wall. Swallowing, I held up a hand in defence. My injured one stayed tucked in my shirt.

Kael loomed over me, every muscle in his face tense. The vein in his temple pulsed. Fury loomed in the depths of his hazel eyes.

My tongue ran over my dry lips. I'd never seen him so angry, at least not with me. Against the cool hard surface, I straightened and rallied my waning strength.

"You wouldn't have agreed to let me come. All these secrets - we're past that, aren't we? I can help you finish whatever this is. What's going on here, Kael?"

Kael made a thick growling sound in his throat and hit the wall by my head. The thud made me jump. Vibration from the impact spread through the wall and my back.

"I'm twenty four hours from Arias," he said, seething. "You are unbelievable!"

"You need me-"

"To make the mission a circus? Despite what you or Garrison may think, the situation is under control."

Remembering how adamant Garrison had been about Arias wanting me, I looked away from his lethal stare to shake my head. Arias would kill Kael if he failed to meet the demands, namely to bring me.

Two fingers pinched my chin and turned my head back to face him. "I know them. They raised me. What makes either of you more qualified to understand these people?"

Valid point. Still, he had to understand my position. I eyed him pitifully. "You don't tell me anything. How is anyone supposed to know what's going on?"

Kael's hands ran roughly up his face and dishevelled his hair. Planting his palm on the wall by my head again he leaned toward me. Despite the rhythmic rush of water around us, we had to keep our voices down.

His head dipped closer to mine, and he emphasized every word of the plan I already knew. "Here's the plan. Twenty four hours. I'm Arias."

"To what end?"

"To the end!" Even whispering, Kael sounded incredulous. "I'll have the entire network at my fingertips. The whole system crumbles that day."

"And you?"

"What about me?"

My fingers found the thin spaces between the squares of marble and traced them. It was pathetic how much his safety weighed on me, how much I wanted him to get through this alive. With the direction my thoughts had travelled, I found it hard to look at him. I studied the rivers of water instead, moving in a stream from beneath the shower head to the drain two feet from where we stood.

"I don't know you anymore. What happened to your - your," he swatted at the air, his temper stunting his train of thought. Finally, he blurted, "survival instinct?"

"Maybe I wasn't thinking about my survival. Maybe I was worried about yours!"

Looking at me sideways, Kael narrowed his eyes. "Don't. You've kept yourself from forming attachments, Harper. Don't start now."

Humidity in the room suddenly became unbearable. My face burned with moist heat and indignation. The implications of his statement made me seem weak and vulnerable as if I'd given up my convictions and at the worst possible time.

"Don't you dare judge me." It took all my self-control to keep my voice quiet. "You've managed to remain detached from everyone in your life no matter the cost. Look at your relationship with Agatha."

"I do what I have to." Kael's eyes shifted briefly to the sprays of water to his right before locking onto mine. 

Kael continued in his low tone, still not touching me but moving impossibly closer. "Let Interpol have their power play, their win over the criminal underworld. My objective is to get them away from you." Hazel orbs pierced through my skull and into my soul. "And going forward, if you don't follow my lead, you'll get us both killed. The last person who tried to cross Arias was shipped in pieces in a box express post back to Interpol. Do you understand? We're in too far now. I can control the damage, but the window for error is closed. You won't play games anymore."