Free Poison Tree by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes Page B

hadn’t been to any of the guild halls where he might have picked up a message; she was sure of that.
    “There’s an app for that,” Ben answered, once again completely straight-faced. “The question is, when will Christian hear about it, and do you think he’ll call?”
    She couldn’t tell if he was being honest or just screwing with her. It didn’t really matter, as long as he wasn’t trying to kill or kidnap her. “Fine. Thanks for the heads-up, but I want you gone. Now, or I’m going to have to try to make you gone.”
    He grinned. “You’d lose.”
    Alysia shrugged. “It’s the principle of the thing.”
    She jumped when he leaned in to her, just long enough to kiss her cheek. “That’s what I love about you, babe,” he said as he pushed to his feet, all evidence of a limp gone. “You have the wackiest principles I know. And yeah, I’m out of here.” He quickly packed the laptop back into its case. “I suggest you get out, too.”
    He had closed the door behind him before Alysia was able to push herself to her feet. Her heart was pounding in her throat, and insanely, it felt
good
. She was unarmed, SingleEarth still had some kind of Onyx stalker on the loose, and now someone was offering a very large amount of money to anyone willing to try to abduct her.
    She hadn’t felt so alive in two years.

C HAPTER 10
    I T WAS HER fifth birthday, and her father had brought her out to a fancy party. She wore a pretty dress and a shiny necklace, and her hair had been put up special with a glittering gold clip shaped like a butterfly
.
    There were metal detectors and guards at the door. Her father’s cuff links set off the detectors, and the guards made him remove his tuxedo jacket so they could search him thoroughly. Her butterfly made the machines beep, too, but they let her pass
.
    The party was beautiful, full of dancing people who oohed and aahed over her
. Isn’t she lovely? So poised. So sweet.
None of them knew there was a dagger hidden in her hair, under the pretty butterfly her father had known would set off the metal detectors
.
    Her father asked for the knife about half an hour after they arrived. They left shortly after, amid the screaming. He bought her a cupcake at a restaurant on the way home, wished her happy birthday, and thanked her for being a good girl and making him proud
.
    There was blood on her fancy big-girl shoes. She kicked them off under the table and walked barefoot back to the car. Her father didn’t notice. He never noticed things like that
.
    Sarik woke with a start, disoriented and sore. The move sent a long-cold coffee sloshing over its rim onto the desk.
    She had intended to close her eyes for just a moment. Just a second. She had been on edge for days, her sleep mocked by memories surfacing as nightmares.
    It wasn’t even eleven in the morning, and Jason was still sleeping in the next room. The worst part was, she had been
happy
that day, deliriously pleased, because her father had made time to celebrate her birthday and because she had made him proud. She hadn’t understood that she had been there only because she was useful.
    As she grew up, it all became harder. Every moment became a power struggle, an impossible balance, as her father groomed her to be his heir, always demanding perfect obedience. Warning her that she needed to be strong and then beating her so badly she couldn’t walk if she dared try to turn that strength against him.
    She jumped when hands descended on her shoulders.
    “Sorry,” Jason said. “I said your name, but you were a million miles away.”
    “Sorry,” she echoed, pulling away as she stood up.
    I can’t do this anymore
. If she had to keep running, hiding, doing anything in her power to try to stifle the fear, it was going to destroy her.
    “Sarik,” Jason said softly, “I know we’ve had this conversation before, so I won’t push it, but … well, one of the counselors came to me after the attack, to see if I wanted to