Eliuteria

Chapter 26

I looked up at the angry eyes glaring down at me. The Morri were physical fighters, not verbal and I knew what I had to say had the potential to set him off.

"Ro didn't trust any of his contacts in the city, that's why they found me."

Ahren's jaw tightened for a moment and then, when he laughed it was filled with cruelty. "Did Eliro tell you what his gifts are?"

Caught off guard, I replayed every conversation but came up short. I knew what he could to that everyone could do, but Ahren was right, he'd never told me what unique gift he had.

"I'm so glad that I get to be the one to share this with you," he said in a voice so quiet I knew I was the only one who heard. "The Morri you love?" His voice was filled with such condescension that I felt nauseated. "He's gifted with pain. He can make you feel it and he can take it away. Did he ever take your pain away? When Juleen stabbed you and you were bleeding out, dying in front of his eyes did he take the pain away?"

"Ahren," another deep voice shouted, but I couldn't even place whose it was. My fingernails dug so deeply into my palms that they became wet with blood. I remembered the way Ro's fists clenched at his sides as Juleen stabbed me. But he hadn't taken away my pain. It had been shock that prevented me from feeling it at first, not Ro. But he had done something, something Ahren himself told me.

"Do you even love him?" Ahren continued. "Or did he just trick you into believing that you do so you would sacrifice yourself for him, do anything they asked of you?"

Every part of me was shaking, a mix of betrayal and disbelief and more anger than I'd ever felt. Everything I knew, or that I thought I knew anyway, I suddenly questioned. Had I truly allowed myself to be manipulated? I tried to think about everything that proved otherwise, but I couldn't help but to question it all then. It felt so real, so honest, but he was implying it was all fake. And I had seen how skilled not only Ro, but Tau as well, was at portraying whatever he wanted someone to believe. It would have been so easy for them.

"You're lying," I gritted out between clenched teeth.

"No," he roared. Someone called his name again, louder and more insistently. "How quickly did you come to trust a stranger and enemy? How quickly did you agree to risk everything for him? Everything you're feeling is false, everything you think he feels is a lie."

"You're wrong," I said, but my voice had lost some its conviction.

"Am I?" He let out a bitter laugh. "Why do you think they chose you?" He waited. I kept my jaw clenched tightly. "They needed someone with nothing to lose, who was desperate for affection."

"Shut your mouth."

"You were just naive enough to buy it all."

I did not think. I just reacted. In one smooth motion, I stepped back to put space between us and when I moved again, my right fist landed soundly against his cheek. Something in my hand made a loud pop and pain shot all the way up my arm. Ahren stumbled back, not having been prepared for the hit, but remained on his feet.

Hands closed around each of my upper arms either to keep me standing or to keep me from attacking Ahren again, but I shrugged them off, shoving away from whoever had grabbed me.

"Don't. Touch. Me."

I stepped back, my body trembling with anger and hurt.

"Lena, I just want to look at your hand."

Behind where Mekhai stood in front of me keeping a careful distance like I was some kind of cornered animal, Xander had a tight grip on Ahren's arm, probably keeping him from retaliating.