Praetorian Rising, стр. 66

"She was with me afterwards, Theo," Vesyon replied, causing Theo's eyes to widen in confusion.

"But I took her to her room after dinner, we...we said goodnight," he said, his voice becoming slightly sheepish in tone. They hadn't quite said goodnight, Camille thought, remembering the way they'd parted.

"What does it matter where I was and who I saw when? The point I am trying to get at is that you lied to me! Again!"

"You're damn right I did!" Vesyon shouted throwing his hands up in the air in obvious frustration. His cheeks blazed red as his eyes spit black Praetorian anger. Camille's body surged forward, hands balling into fists as she barreled into his personal space, readying herself for a fight. She felt the heat radiating off him, the black flushing through his stare in a stark show of warning. "I know what the High King sent his men here for because I fed the lies to his spies myself." His fingers clenched tightly at his sides as he glared at her. "He doesn't know you're here, and we'll be long gone before Metus has the chance to tell him otherwise. There is noway I am going to risk you getting swept up in a battle we've been planning the past seven years. The rebellion will happen, but you won't be a part of it. You weren't even supposed to be here!"

"Well, I sure as shiat didn't ask to come here! You made me, damn you!" They were inches apart from each other. Their collective anger almost burned her skin, but Camille held her stance. "Why?" she croaked, her voice low and breaking with frustration. "Why did you abandon me in the first place?"

His brows furrowed over slivered grey orbs in slight confusion. "I didn't abandon you in Sierra Village, I—"

"No," Camille snapped, cutting him off. "In Charlie Town."

He grunted tersely, a strange noise emitting from his throat conveying massive frustration. "I told you," he began again, but Camille wasn't willing to listen.

"Don't," she said, her voice curt and direct, raising her hand in command of silence. "I don't need to hear your lies. Tell me why you left me to rot in the hands of the High King and the King Regent for seven years. You knew I was there. You said yourself you were there when the King Regent took me after Charlie Town fell. You were the only one who knew where to find me. Yet you waited to rescue me—why?"

Theo shifted toward her, his hand outstretched as though to offer a comforting embrace. "No," she snapped at him, her tone locking his feet to the ground.

"Cam, he isn't trying to be an ass. The situation is—" Theo said, his eyes wide and pleading for her to listen to him.

She shook her head, vehemently cutting him off as she'd done to Vesyon. "No, this doesn't concern you, though I'm certain you've played your part," she said, a frowning line creasing heavily between her brow.

Theo's shoulders slumped in partial defeat as well as possible embarrassment. Vesyon wasn't alone in the game of secrets, it was more than evident by Theo's shifting stance and avoiding stare that he felt some of her words slung at Vesyon hit him square in the chest.

Her glance shifted from Vesyon to Theo and back again, the clarity of their difference so blatantly obvious she almost couldn't believe she'd never seen it before. Theo looked at her with empathy and understanding, while Vesyon stared her down with frustration and inner panic.

"Obviously, I had no choice in coming here, but I have a right to know what happened in my past. I am asking you to tell me the truth." The depth of her pleading spilled from her eyes in hopes he'd see reason, understanding her desperation to know what was happening and why. It went beyond his deceitful actions. She needed to know the truth of her surroundings and her history to keep from going insane. Every minute Praecollection controlled her, it was like an ax to the skull. It split her sanity in half, chopping her identity into pieces. "Please, Vesyon."

"I'm sorry," he said automatically with a shake of his head before putting several feet of distance between them. "I'm trying to keep you safe, and I know you won't understand, but I can't tell you all of the truth Camille. Not now."

He'd kept her in the dark purposefully, regardless of what she wanted or needed. Amazingly, she didn't hate Vesyon for his selfish, controlling actions but she did feel a rolling surge of anger building inside her chest. Despite a sliver of understanding for what he was doing, Camille didn't agree with his tactics.

Phillip's head popped through the doorway, his attention gliding over the occupants in the room to direct his message at Vesyon. "We just received word that the High King's Royal Air Fleet is descending. We have little time on our side. We have to move now with our plan, Captain."

Vesyon nodded once, pulling away from Camille and focusing his attention on Phillip.

"There's no possibility of waiting," Phillip continued, his eyes sliding over to Camille for the barest of seconds. "I'm going to sound the alarm to evacuate the villagers to White Wall. That should give us enough time to gather our troops for the invasion."

Vesyon grunted in acknowledgment before turning his attention back to Camille as Phillip exited the small quarters. "You're right; you didn't ask to be pulled into this."

"And these villagers? You're now demanding they leave their homes? What about them?"

"They may not have been prepped for a last-minute evacuation, but they knew what they signed up for remaining here after the rebellion began," he snapped back at her. "You're right; you don't have all the answers, Camille, and there's a reason for it."

"Not everything is up to you and what you think people should and shouldn't know! They have a right