Obsidian - Miranda Bridges Page 0,23
to pleasure you.”
My heart stops for a second. “You mean please me?”
“That too,” he says with a wink that has my insides warming. “Now tell me what dish appeals to you most, and I will impress you with my intellect as I regale you with where the ingredients originated from.”
I point to some kind of vegetable, and true to his word, Castien launches into a detailed explanation about the fare and its ingredients. The smooth quality of his voice has me momentarily transfixed, and only when he brings a piece of food to my lips do I snap out of it. Even after I protest profusely about being fed, Castien plops the morsel into my mouth, claiming that watching me eat is payment for his knowledge. A part of me is irritated with his high-handedness with me, but the other is exhausted from fighting. At the brothel, I was under the constant threat of being violated, hurt, or killed, so if the only thing Castien wants to do is feed me, then it’s something I can overlook. For now.
“How do you know our names?” I ask him once I’m no longer hungry.
His gaze flickers to the uneaten food and then back to me. “You did not eat much.” Then his forehead creases as a frown pulls at his lips. “Are you unwell?”
I shake my head, touched by the look of concern on his handsome face. “I’m fine. Honestly, I’m not used to eating so much and definitely not all at once.” His expression darkens at my confession, and I’m quick to reassure him. “I’ve always been a person who eats like a bird. You know, consuming small quantities of food.”
He visibly relaxes, all traces of displeasure disappearing. “I understand. Now to answer your question.” He pushes the hovercraft back and then taps his watch. “Hazel is mated to one of my kind. They are working together to help retrieve the females stolen from your planet by the Torags. Hazel compiled the humans’ profiles to ensure that my people and I rescue all of you successfully.”
A beam of light shoots straight up from the watch to morph into a hologram displaying my profile. I stare at the image of myself as if it’s someone I don’t recognize. The girl before me is clearly frightened and anxious, looking as if she’s on the verge of breaking down.
Is that how people see me?
“If it wasn’t obvious before, it is now. I’m an ally,” Castien says.
I nod absentmindedly, unable to look away from the image. While I know I’m not weak and incompetent, it’s difficult to see anything else. Is this why people always think they know what’s best for me? Because I give off an energy that makes them think I can’t help myself?
“What is wrong, Jade?”
I jerk in surprise and swing my gaze to Castien. “Nothing.” My reply spills from my lips, an automatic response used to hide my thoughts and feelings. There are only so many times you can voice them and get shut down before you realize no one wants to hear them. My friends from the compound are not like that, but this behavior was ingrained in me and became part of my personality long before I met them.
There has to be a way to create a new identity for myself.
“Your heartbeats accelerate when you lie,” he says. “So I’ll ask you again, and this time I expect a truthful answer.”
I sigh and mentally congratulate myself on being right about Castien’s supernatural hearing. I lift a hand and sweep it toward the hologram. “This picture of me isn’t exactly flattering.”
His dark brows snap together, and he looks at me as if I just called his mother a whore. “What do you mean? You look beautiful. Any male can see that, even a blind one.”
“You don’t think I look…weak?” The last word comes out of me as a wheeze, since my lungs practically cave in on themselves. Immediately I regret sharing this personal thought with him. If he confirms what I’m seeing, then I’ll be so disappointed, but if he doesn’t, then…well, that makes him delusional I guess. Either way, I need to change the subject to something less painful. “You know what? Forget it. So how is—”
“You’re not weak, timid, or frail,” he says. “I saw you maintain your composure while in that cage and during the auction. Instead of crying hysterically or screaming from insanity, you withdrew to a place they couldn’t touch you.” Castien trails his fingers