The muscles in his neck tightened. “The deacons don’t kill those people.”

“So you’re okay with torture?” she asked.

“She won’t need to torture anyone when…”

Oh, this should be good. “When what?”

“When she has you.”

Ah. She shouldn’t be surprised. The Water Prince wanted the same thing. And Jayden had set the Arch Deacons on her before. “And when is that going to happen?”

Jayden’s posture stiffened but he didn’t say anything. His magic flared. Shyla braced for an attack. Nothing happened. It took her a moment to realize that he was preparing to fend off her efforts to read his soul.

“Are you sure you want to do it this way?” she asked.

No answer.

She deepened her connection into his mind.

Jayden commanded, “Stop!” with a full blast of his magic.

Scorching sand rats, the man was powerful. More than she’d thought. Her body locked tight. She was unable to move. And from the unnatural stillness beside her, she guessed Mojag and Ximen had been caught as well.

But that was the thing—while she could counteract his magic with probably a great deal of energy, it was unneeded. The power of The Eyes could not be stopped by magic. And she’d already established a link to his soul. There was no need for her body to move in order for her to explore his mind with hers.

She was curious what Jayden planned to do next. His thoughts raced with possibilities as a grim satisfaction over trapping the three of them flowed through him. Perhaps he could command them to give him the key to the cuff.

Shyla sank lower into the core of his emotions. A red-hot hatred burned for the prince. Why? She sought out the source. An image of a lovely young woman with dark hair and amber eyes. A fierce love and adoration surrounded her…Jayden’s older sister. The image flipped, turned upside down and now she was naked, covered in cuts, and bleeding to death in one of the prince’s special rooms. Jayden huddled below, watching her die through the metal grate. Listening as her blood dripped into the black river next to him. Shyla felt his, horror, and fear twisting into hatred and fury as intense as the sun. All directed toward the new Water Prince. A ruthless man who attacked the vagrants soon after he’d won the throne. He claimed they soiled his city and he would exterminate them all.

His anger was certainly justified. But she couldn’t sanction what he was willing to do to reach his goal.

Jayden must have sensed her presence. “No, wait. Stop.”

Too late. She continued. His feelings toward her were more complex. Jealousy, anger, frustration, admiration, exasperation, and hatred for stealing The Eyes from him, for preventing him from assassinating the prince.