We filed in and took up positions about the sitting room while Jayden turned to face us, crossing his arms and waiting for someone to say something. Noah and Cabe were both sitting on the couch, but I could tell that Noah wanted to be standing and brooding over everyone, because his eyes had darkened with a looming storm and his arms were crossed tightly over his chest. I supposed that he was seated so as to make himself appear less intimidating. I wasn’t sure if it was working for Jayden, but it wasn’t working for me. Quillan stood not far behind me as I shifted from one foot to another, wringing my hands nervously.
“Here’s the thing,” Quillan started, sounding so casual that even I was tempted to lower my guard. “You know everything now, so there’s no point in dancing around the fact. You can’t harm any one of us because if even one of us dies here today, you’ll be directly responsible for the culling of Weston’s precious line of succession. He will never forgive you for that, and the Klovoda will never forgive you for killing me, specifically, since they’re counting on me being the next Voda.”
“How will they ever know?” Jayden replied, his grin stretching in a humourless curve that lacked any real menace. He was goading Quillan without any apparent motive—it was more a technique to keep the conversation going, I assumed. Jayden was curious.
“I called them and told them we were all headed here.”
“I could manipulate their minds.”
“I don’t think you could. If you had that much power, you wouldn’t be so scared of Danny. I think even the great hypnotist has his limits.”
Jayden became very still, his eyes snapping straight to mine at the mention of Danny’s name. I couldn’t see anything at all in his expression, so I quickly blurted, “Silas knows about Danny too. We need to find both of them before Silas does something stupid, because he can’t win. Not this time.”
Jayden wasn’t even blinking.
“Please don’t make us regret trusting you,” I groaned, forcing my hands into my pockets so that I didn’t start pulling at my hair. “Even if you won’t help for our sakes, Silas needs you right now.”
“I was waiting for this to happen.” He was as toneless as he was expressionless, and I feared that I had made a terrible mistake. He seemed to shake off the unnatural stillness and he refocused, looking us over again. “So we’re all out in the open now? The fake Voda Heir, the real Voda Heir, and three out of four of the Voda harem?”
“Please don’t call it that.” I cringed.
“You can’t rule the world without a fan club.” Jayden was almost openly laughing at me now. “Just ask Hitler.”
“Did you seriously just compare me to Hitler?” I asked, almost at the same time as Noah stepped up to my side.
“Did you seriously just call us a fan club?” he spat out brusquely.
“Would you prefer a less violent dictator?” Jayden asked me. “And what would you prefer?” He turned on Noah.
“We’re her pairs, Jayden. We don’t follow her around with flags and prep her up when she’s down. We aren’t even a team, or a family—that doesn’t come close, anymore. We’re all borrowing the same damn life.”
I laid a hand against Noah’s arm, watching Jayden carefully. I didn’t expect to see a reaction on his face, but I felt that I understood him, even a little bit. Even if I only understood him through the filter of my own fear. I feared life without my pairs more than I feared anything, and not for the fact that it would kill me. I feared the empty existence that I saw in Jayden’s eyes. It was the first time I really acknowledged the very inhuman nature of my existence. I wasn’t human in my connection to Quillan, Silas, Noah and Cabe. It wasn’t simple friendship, love, lust or any kind of relatable human emotion. To part from them would hollow out my person: I would warp into another human being entirely, and not a human being that I would be proud of, because the power inside me would take over, just as Danny’s power had taken over him.
“It’s okay,” I eventually whispered. Noah shot me a look. “He didn’t mean it,” I insisted quietly.
“What makes you so sure?” Jayden flashed his mismatched eyes to me, his jaw slightly clenched.
“You have a family too,” I told Jayden, walking over to him and placing a hand on his arm just as I had with Noah. He glanced down at the touch, and I thought he seemed confused by it, but I pressed on. “Me and Eva. We’re your family. Weren’t we your sisters once?”
His eyes flickered back to my face and for a moment we only stared at each other. If I hadn’t been watching him so closely, I would have missed the way his shoulders gradually drooped, the tension slowly ebbing out of his body.
“You really do remember everything,” he said. I heard movement behind me and he flicked his eyes over my shoulder, his mouth pulling into a frown. “They don’t like you touching me.”