Serena.
Chapter 21
Iain stood there for a long time, staring, unable to believe his eyes. Serena, or someone doing a hell of an impersonation of her, was only a few feet away, on the other side of a two-way mirror.
Her long red hair had been cut at an odd angle, arrowing from her left shoulder down to her right hip. A large section of her skirt had been sheared off, revealing one long, shapely leg.
He remembered that dress. She’d been wearing it the night she’d been killed.
As the momentary shock of seeing this creature faded, rage took its place. How dare someone defile her memory by showing up here, pretending to be her? Serena deserved better.
“Who is she?” demanded Iain.
“She says she’s your betrothed.”
Jackie covered her mouth with the back of her hand and stepped away from the glass.
“It’s a lie,” said Iain. “She died. This can’t be her.”
“We had a visit while you were gone. An Athanasian woman ported here. Somehow, she sensed Serena’s presence and freed her.”
“Freed her? Where the hell did she come from?”
Joseph glanced at Jackie, then lowered his voice. “She says she’s been held in some kind of stasis bubble for two hundred years. I think you should talk to her, see whether you can verify her story.”
“Fine, but if she turns out to be trying to trick us, don’t expect me to hold back,” he warned.
“And if she’s not?” asked Jackie. “What if she is who she says she is?”
“She’s not,” said Iain. She couldn’t be. Because if she was his Serena, then he’d abandoned her, leaving her trapped and alone for two centuries. Even he wasn’t that much of a bastard.
Iain went to the door to the adjoining room and walked in to face the impostor.
The woman saw him. Her face lit up with happy surprise, and she flew into his arms. Her slender body hit his, but he refused to hug her back, no matter how much like Serena she felt. Even her smell was the same—like new grass and lavender.
He disengaged himself from her grasp and took a long step back. “Who are you?”
Her smile faltered, fading as she stared at him as if he’d hurt her feelings. “You know me, Iain. I’m Serena.”
He let his tone fill with the anger thrumming through him. “She died. Who are you?”
The woman stepped back. Her hands were shaking. “I was taken the night we were to bond. Snatched away by a bright light. It was Mother’s doing. I could feel her touch vibrating through the magic, smothering me.”
Serena’s mother had never wanted them to be together. If she’d known their intention, she would have done something to stop it. But still…“If what you say is true, then how did you survive all this time?”
She bowed her head in weariness. “I don’t know. I never grew hungry or thirsty. There was no pain, only endless boredom. I seemed to float around, tethered to the Sentinel Stone. Sometimes I could see things going on outside my cage. I saw glimpses of people. Heard voices and machines. I screamed for years for someone to find me, but no one came. You never came. I thought for sure you’d feel me and come find me.”
He refused to believe it. He’d never once felt her presence, though he had searched for it. Every time he’d tried, all that had met him was blank nothingness. He was sure it was because she’d been killed. Even now, he felt nothing—no heat or subtle tug against his skin. He didn’t know if that was because this woman wasn’t Serena, or if his union to Jackie somehow blocked it.
But now, with Serena’s double sitting there, so close, looking exactly as he remembered, he had to learn the truth. “Prove to me you are who you say.”
“Let me take your luceria and you can see inside my thoughts. I’ll be able to hide nothing.” She rose and came toward him. Her eyes fell to his bare neck and she stopped dead in her tracks. Her throat moved as she swallowed, and grief pinched her lovely features. “I see. You’ve taken another.”
“Convenient. Now you can’t offer me that proof.”
Her nostrils flared in rage and she grabbed his shirt in her fist. “Convenient? You think that being trapped for two hundred years only to be freed and find the man I love bound to another woman is convenient?”
The fire dancing in her eyes couldn’t be faked. With every passing second, he was becoming more convinced that she was who she said.
Iain grabbed her wrist and closed his eyes. Once upon a time, he would have been able to feel her presence as easily as he could his own heartbeat. The luceria hadn’t bonded them, but it drawn them together.
He felt a faint hum within his ring. It was muted—nothing like it had once been—but he didn’t know if that was because this wasn’t really Serena, or if his bond to Jackie was to blame.
“What was your favorite horse’s name?” he asked.
She lifted her chin. “I never had a favorite. Riding always terrified me after that fall I took as a girl.”
“What did your mother say to me when I first met her?”
“She said that you weren’t good enough to clean her chamber pot, and that if you tried to steal me away from her, she’d unman you.”
She’d also said she would put his head on a pike and nail his entrails onto a sign as a warning to other inadequate men.
Iain glanced at the mirrored glass, knowing Joseph was watching. So was Jackie, but he couldn’t think about that now. His focus couldn’t shift while he was dealing with a potential threat.
He gave Joseph a slight nod.
“Do I pass your tests?” she asked.
“Just one more thing. Show me your birthmark.” He didn’t elaborate. If she didn’t know what he was talking about, then her lie was over.
The woman’s mouth tightened in indignation, and a flush of color tinted her cheeks. Iain had always been amazed by how pretty her blush made her, and had worked to make it appear as often as possible. But right now, all he could think about was the sense of impending doom he felt now that she had returned.
She loosened the laces at her bodice and turned away from the glass as she leaned forward. There, on the smooth curve of her left breast, was the ring-shaped mark of a female Theronai.
He stared at it, trying to find something that reminded him of how he’d felt for her before—some hint of love he knew he should have for her. Love didn’t just go away. It lingered. It left a mark, and yet Iain could find none.
Maybe it had died with his soul.
He turned and left the room, regret heavy on his shoulders. Not only had he let Serena down by abandoning her, but he’d also betrayed her by bonding himself to another woman. He was certain that Serena would be hurt by his actions, but truth be known, he was more worried about how Jackie would feel knowing that the woman he’d once loved had come back from the grave.
He closed the door behind him, unable to look Jackie in the eye. Instead, he kept his gaze on Joseph. “All of her answers were correct.”
“Do you think it’s her?”
He wanted to say no. It was selfish of him—not something an honorable man would do. It was easier to pretend she was dead than it was to face up to his utter failure of her.
“I do. My luceria reacted, though not as strongly as it once had.”
Jackie backed into the corner, hugging herself.
Joseph nodded, staring at Serena. “We’ll keep her here for a while yet, while I make arrangements for her comfort.”
“I really need to go,” said Jackie.
She was upset. Even though he was barred from her thoughts, he could see it clearly in her face. “I’ll come with you.”
“No,” she said, a bit too forcefully, then in a calmer tone, “No. I’ll be fine. I just need some time alone.”
He started to follow her, but Joseph grabbed his arm. “Let her go. This is a lot to absorb. Give her some time.”
He didn’t have any time. Every second he spent away from her was one he’d never get back. With the clock ticking away the last of his minutes, he didn’t want to waste them standing around with Joseph.
“Serena will need to be watched,” he told Joseph. “Even if she is Serena, there’s no way to know if her story is true. If she’s been in Synestryn hands…”
“I’ll see to it,” said Joseph, his expression grim. “This changes things. With Jackie.”
“It changes nothing.”
“You’re compatible with Serena. Jackie can be with anyone. You need to let her go.”
“I know. I’ve already decided that. But please, give me the space to do this in my own way.”
“Men are suffering.”
Anger rose up, souring Iain’s stomach. “You don’t have to remind me. I’m acutely aware of what they’re all facing.”
“Then you’ll do the right thing?”
It was starting to get hard to tell just what the right thing was anymore, but the part of him that had held on to honor reminded him of his course. “I will.”
Joseph nodded. “Be quick about it. I want someone bonded to Serena as soon as possible so we’ll know if she’s planning anything.”
That Iain couldn’t help him with, but he pretended to agree and left the room.
He should have marched straight to the armory for a clean blade, and then headed out to meet his fate tonight. But he couldn’t do it. Not yet. He had to see Jackie again and reassure her that all would be well. He wasn’t going to abandon her for some other woman.
He was simply going to abandon her.
Jackie was a jumbled mess of irrational emotions. She hated Serena for showing up, even as she pitied the poor woman for her two centuries of captivity. Jealousy tore through her, but why should it when she didn’t care what Iain did? He had already made it clear that he wanted her to be with another man. And none of this should have bothered her, because all she wanted was to be left alone to live her life. She didn’t need Iain. Let him have Serena. It shouldn’t have mattered one bit.
But it did, and that pissed her off.
She paced her empty suite, feeling the crackle of magic spilling from her fingers. Her hair stood on end, and the lights over her head flickered.
She needed to calm down. Act rationally.
The door to her suite opened and Iain walked in as if he owned the place.
“How did you get in?”
He held up a key card. “I thought you might not let me in, so I took precautions.”
That made her stop in her tracks and stomp toward him. “You thought I might not let you in, so you went and got a key? Do you people not have any sense of privacy at all? Get the hell out.”
“We have to talk.”
“No. We don’t. I know the score. The woman you love is back. You should go be with her. She needs you.” Saying those words nearly choked her, but she forced them out.
“You don’t understand. It’s not that simple.”
Jackie tugged on the luceria around her throat, trying to pull the damn thing off. “Serena is alive and well. Let this fucking thing fall off already, will you?”