Page 151 of Sands of Atonement

“Norrah, Norrah.”

She lifted her body from the chair, and I wrapped her in my arms. She was so cold.

I rubbed my hands on her arms to regain their normal temperature. “How are you?”

“Don’t worry about me, Eshe. I’m okay, really,” she whispered to me.

I turned my head to study the room. There were a few guards posted, and Targon was just walking in.

In a low voice, I said, “I’ll get you out, I promise. I’ll get to the bottom of this.” I held her ice-cold hands in mine, hoping the warmth of mine was comforting to her. “We’ll be in Urnaz in no time.”

Norrah’s eyes flickered around me. The look in them was not the Norrah I’d come to know. “I have a bad feeling about this.”

Targon trudged to the front of the table, sliding the chair and sitting as if he were the Qahl of this place. I stifled the instant protectiveness I felt for Ezra down into the very core of my body. That type of energy would be useful later, but not now.

I began to sit down next to Norrah’s place at the table, just as Targon announced, “Eshe. Come sit here, next to me.”

He was to our left, and he wanted me to be on his left, Norrah on his right. I wanted to roll my eyes. He was acting as if we were some big, happy family. No one even knew I was his daughter except for Kavid, himself, and me.

Mustering my most annoying glare, I shot it toward him as I lifted myself from the chair and shuffled over to his other side.

“Why are you keeping her here?” I demanded in between gritted teeth. God, I wanted her away, away from this mess. Away from my mess.

Norrah shot her eyes at me, seemingly nervous that I was even bringing her up. She hadn’t touched a single piece of food.

“I couldn’t leave her with Ezra, now could I?” Targon said. Why did I not notice how he always answered a question with another question? It made me want to throw food in his face. Suddenly, everything he was doing was annoying.

Everything he did now was so different from the man I used to know, the man I used to look up to and love. How did I not see this before? How could I have been so blind?

“And why not?” I felt my hands tighten into a fist.

Targon started to scoop up rice and beans onto his plate, but Norrah and I hadn’t so much as moved a finger toward our plates.

He took a bite before saying, “Because that’s not where she belongs.”

My heart thudded. Norrah met my eyes. I could feel her breath faltering from where I sat across.

“And where does she belong?” I breathed.

Targon swallowed a bite. “With her husband, of course.”

“She has no husband,” I enunciated each word.

“Not yet,” Targon sang, pointing a fork in my face. My fingers edged to grab that fork and shove it into his eyeball.

Just then, the large door to the chamber opened, and my heart froze. It froze, and then it shattered into a million pieces from the coldness of the man who had just entered the room.

“Good evening.” Gabriel tilted his chin to us. He was dressed in a black tunic and trousers to match his dark, lifeless soul.

My body was so tense, I couldn’t move a muscle even if I wanted to. Norrah’s face turned a ghostly pale, as if her life had just flashed before her eyes and she was gone.

Something snapped inside me, and I whirled toward Targon. “Why are you doing this? What benefit does this give you to bring her to Gabriel?”

“Eshe, calm down, or I’ll take you elsewhere.” I inhaled sharply but bit my cheek. “His protection while traveling through his lands is invaluable. It was a pleasant surprise when I found direction from Gabriel when he came to me and told me he saw a young woman twice with eyes like the Silver Snake. I knew it was you. He told me she was with an Atrovian.” He stood by, smoking something that smelled like dried grass. “I told him to show me the way and promised I would help find his woman, Norrah, in exchange. You know how it is in the desert—we trade. Though I didn’t know both of you would be together. It was fate by God. He showed me the way to you and to her.”

Oh, no.

My nerves shook like they had never shaken before. A flooding sensation of defensiveness rolled through my blood.