Maya would be able to hear me. My heart sank as I registered the anger in her voice and the wildfire burning in her eyes.
I could understand her concern when she hadn’t been in the room to hear our conclusions, but it pained me to hear the accusation in her voice, like she suddenly didn’t trust me at all.
When had she started thinking I had anything but good intentions where Dylan was concerned? This should have been a moment of celebration—Dylan was finally free from whatever shackles he had been put in—but it had turned into something else entirely.
“I don’t know what you’re trying to do here,” she said. “But someone better start explaining things.”
8
Maya
I was more than ready to get Dylan out of here and leave this damned hospital behind, but I needed answers.
“Please, Maya,” Soren said, his gaze pleading, and I tensed as I felt his hand on my shoulder. “Just calm down and we’ll be more than happy to explain. We might have solved this. And we didn’t peel any of Dylan’s skin off. Come, let me show you.”
My fingers tightened into fists, so much that I could almost hear my bones cracking and popping. Even though part of me wanted nothing more than to get the hell out, something inside me kept my feet rooted to the floor.
It looked bad, and June’s words echoed in my mind. No matter what, never trust an alien.
But this was Soren, who’d done nothing but help so far. I wanted to trust him, despite my instincts.
Needing to know exactly what was going on here, I shoved down my fear and turned and followed Soren to the table where he had placed the container with one of Dylan’s silver streaks, my nerves on edge.
“Why did you remove that piece of skin?” I asked Soren, but the answer didn’t come from him.
“That’s not skin,” the Hollander on the screen said. He shared a lot of Soren’s physical features, so it wasn’t hard to peg him as Aiken, the youngest of the Hollander brothers. He had the same royal demeanor, but his face was that of someone still making the cross between his early years and adulthood. “See, we’ve been doing some research on the Tracorians’ sorcery methods, since that’s what they’re known for. We figured Dylan had to be under a sorcerer’s influence.”
“And what does his skin have to do with it?” I demanded, feeling sick. I couldn’t get the image of Soren pulling back that silver strip of his skin from Dylan’s arm.
“Again, that's not skin,” Aiken insisted. “In order for this sorcerer to inflict damage from another planet, there had to be an inanimate object on Dylan, something that would maintain a connection.”
“That’s what that thing is,” Soren added, his tone even and patient. “It’s a metal called Soldering. Granted, it’s just a flimsy layer of it, and it was clearly made to resemble skin... but it’s not skin.”
“Sorcery,” I muttered, that word leaving a bad taste in my mouth. Granted, the Tracorians were known for their hideous sorcery, or so the rumors went, but what about the Hollanders? Hadn’t I been under Soren’s spell ever since I first laid eyes on him?
“That’s right,” Soren said, his voice urgent. “Dylan was under a sorcerer’s influence, Maya. Someone out of Tracorox was behind this.”
“You didn’t consult me first. How can I trust what you’re saying?” I demanded, unable to restrain my simmering anger. “How am I supposed to know you’re not lying or making things up to support whatever you want that test to show?”
Soren’s eyebrows shot up. He opened his mouth to protest but in the end, he just closed his eyes and let out a sigh. Had my words struck a chord or had I just hurt him?
“Maya, I’d never do such a thing,” he finally said, looking at me once more. He sounded weary, and I thought that was hurt shining in his eyes. “I don’t know why you would even think that.”
I hesitated. He sounded genuine, and it was clear he hadn’t been expecting my accusations. Still, could I actually trust him? I wanted to believe him, but after what happened to June, fully trusting an alien might have been beyond me. Even if that alien was a prince who played doctor during the day and made my heart throb at night when I dreamed of him.
This inexplicable attraction I felt for him wasn’t normal, though I couldn’t deny it existed.
“I can assure you, dear, you’ve got