Nine
When Alex finally hobbled her way out of the Library, it was well past dinnertime and fast approaching curfew. This, however, was not a result of her nearly eleven-hour trek across the lake, since time had indeed paused while she’d laboured through her tasks. Instead it was because, after returning to the foyer of the Library with the intention of heading straight to Fletcher, hunting down some food and sleeping for the next twelve hours, Alex’s plans were derailed—all thanks to the prickly librarian.
The moment his owlish eyes had spotted her through his comically thick glasses, he’d wagged a finger until she’d limped her weary, injured body to his desk.
Barely peering up from the mess of papers in front of him, the librarian had made the obnoxious assumption that she’d had nothing better to do, and he’d insisted she help him clean the frames of the paintings that hung on the walls.
Glancing apprehensively around the sizable foyer, Alex had known the task would be much more involved than it seemed, since the entire history of Medora was revealed through the paintings. As such, they were constantly self-updating, appearing and disappearing through the walls as they were swapped out and shuffled around by some invisible Library power. It could take years for them all to be cleaned—if not longer.
Stammering out an excuse hadn’t helped Alex, not even when she’d pointed to her blood-soaked jeans and said she needed to visit the Medical Ward. The librarian had simply flicked his goggling eyes to her bandaged leg for the briefest of seconds before turning back to his papers and saying, “It’s still attached. I’ll consider allowing you to leave if that changes.”
Gaping at him, Alex had squeaked out, “Are you… Is that a joke?”
His only response had been to sniff and turn his nose up while answering, “Dismemberment is no laughing matter. Really, Alexandra. Your sense of humour is sickening.”
Alex hadn’t had any spare energy left to argue with him. She’d been cognisant enough to recognise he was lashing out irrationally, pinning his frustrations about the Meyarin situation and all it might lead to on her. So instead of fighting back, she’d taken the cleaning supplies he’d shoved towards her and dragged her failing body to the nearest wall.
Her only break had come when the librarian had left his desk to assist a younger student who couldn’t remember the name of the book she was after. In the scant minutes he was gone, Alex had remembered to pull out her ComTCD—belatedly grateful that it was waterproof—and called Jordan. All she’d been able to offer was a quick assurance that she was back safe but stuck in the clutches of the unrelenting librarian—to which he’d been sympathetic but also amused—and promised she’d catch up with him and the others later.
Later ended up being much, much later than anticipated. But finally the librarian was now satisfied with her cleaning enough to release her, saying that if she was ever bored again, there was always plenty of work he could find for her.
Dead on her feet, Alex had neither the mental nor physical strength to respond. Instead, she stumbled out into the night, gritting her teeth through the pain she’d endured for the last seemingly endless hours.
Just when she thought her unnaturally lengthened day couldn’t get any worse, she finally staggered into the Med Ward—only to find it empty.
“Seriously?” Alex groaned as she looked around.
Having no idea where Fletcher was or when he would return, Alex decided that if she wasn’t going to receive pain relief anytime soon, then she needed to at least be in the comfort of her own bed. So she called upon the last reserves of her Meyarin blood—since she was way past the limits of her mortal body—and hobbled back out of the Gen-Sec building, painstakingly making her way to her dorm.
By the time she arrived in her darkened room, D.C. was already fast asleep. Not wanting to wake her, Alex didn’t turn the light on, she just blindly stumbled her way forward.
With her eyes still adjusting to the darkness, Alex let out a startled yelp when she collapsed onto her bed only to discover it wasn’t cushiony like it should have been.
… Because someone else was lying on it.
Scrambling off the unknown figure, Alex was ready to scream bloody murder until a familiar voice broke through the haze of her alarm.
“You’re not my favourite person right now, kitten.”
Heart pounding, Alex gasped out, “Niyx?”
Half a second later, the room flooded with light as Niyx turned on the power and returned to Alex’s side in record time. If she hadn’t tracked the movement, she would have wondered if he’d activated the Valispath for the quick manoeuvre.
Taking stock of yet another surprise for the day, Alex’s concerned eyes swung over to where D.C. lay, but she was shocked to find her still fast asleep.
“Don’t worry about her,” Niyx said, following Alex’s gaze. “She’ll be out of it until morning. You could set her hair on fire and she’d never know.”
Alex turned back to him with a glare of suspicion. “What did you do to her?”
Niyx grinned unrepentantly and flicked Alex’s nose with a playful finger. “Nothing you need to worry about. Plausible deniability, and all that.”
Sighing loudly as she rubbed a weary hand across her eyes, Alex closed the distance between her and Niyx, collapsing forward and planting her face in his chest.
He hesitated only a fraction of a second before wrapping his arms around her, supporting most of her weight as she leaned into him.
“Today has been awful,” she mumbled into the material of his wintery cloak—something he hardly needed considering he barely felt the cold. “But I’m so happy to see you’re okay. You have no idea how worried I’ve been.”
“‘Okay’ is a relative term,” Niyx said, pushing her from his body and gently onto the bed. “I meant what I said about you not being my favourite person at the moment.”
Alex furrowed her brow. “What’d I do?”
“That.” He pointed a finger towards her blood-soaked jeans.
“And therefore, this.” His finger turned to his own leg, where silver blood stained his dark pants.
“I’m so sorry,” Alex said, wincing. “I didn’t think—”
“For light’s sake, eat this before you waste time apologising,” he interrupted, reaching into his cloak and shoving a handful of laendra into her open palm.
Alex smiled tiredly at him. “My hero.”
Scarcely chewing before she swallowed, Alex closed her eyes as she practically inhaled the glowing flower and felt the effect of its healing. Her relief was so acute that she could have wept.
“Truly, Niyx,” she whispered as the pain disappeared entirely, along with her hunger and bone-weary exhaustion. “Thank you.”
“Now that we’re not both bleeding to death, let me set the scene for you,” he said, standing in front of her with his arms crossed. “There I was in the middle of the throne room with not only Aven and his closest Garseth, but also his strongest mind reader, Signa Zu, the telekinetic Calista Maine, and half a dozen Claimed Zeltora, when suddenly I felt a stabbing pain and found my leg covered in blood.” His voice was pleasant, as if he was reciting events that happened to someone else. “Naturally, all eyes swung my way as I clutched at my wound. So, to cover, do you know what I did?”
Alex bit her lip and shook her head.
“I am Niyx Raedon, firstborn son to Cykor and Kosett, and heir to House Raedon of the Meyarin High Court,” Niyx said, most of which Alex already knew. “I’m also a Zeltora-ranked warrior, and the only reason I wasn’t actively serving in the elite guard before my imprisonment was due to the obligations required of me as heir to my House.”
That Alex hadn’t known, but she didn’t attempt to say as much since his blazing amethyst eyes warned her to keep silent.
“Given all that, I’m sure you can appreciate that I wasn’t pleased when, in order to come up with an excuse for your unexpected wound, I knew I had only one choice.”
Hesitant, Alex asked, “What did you do?”
Niyx speared her with a look. “I told them all that I’d accidentally stabbed myself in the leg.”
Alex bit her lip again—but this time to keep from bursting into laughter. “You did what?”
“By the stars!” Niyx ran agitated fingers through his hair. “I’ve never felt more humiliated in my life!” He slumped onto the bed beside her with a belligerent scowl. “I don’t know what’s worse—having to admit to doing something so foolish, or the fact that they believed me.”
Alex didn’t say anything. She couldn’t, in fact, because she was shaking with laughter and wasn’t willing to risk opening her mouth and inciting his wrath.
“Ergo,” he finished, his narrowed eyes showing he hadn’t failed to notice her humour, “you are not my favourite person today.”
Alex hoped he couldn’t see the amused tears welling in her eyes. When she finally had a handle on herself again, she said, “I can see how that might have been unpleasant.”
Niyx made a growling sound from the back of his throat. But then he sighed and peered at her with concern. “Not unpleasant enough that I didn’t spend all day worrying about you, kitten.”
His words filled Alex with warmth. “I’m okay, Niyx.” At his disbelieving look, she amended, “Or, I am now, thanks to you and your laendra.”
“What happened, Aeylia?” he asked, using the name he was most familiar with. “And why didn’t you seek medical attention sooner?”
Shuffling into a more comfortable position, Alex told him of her day, from her time in Tryllin to Gaiel’s attack in Draekora, including the settlement’s depleted laendra supplies. She then shared her entire Mr. Mystery Man lake experience, before finishing with her grumpy-librarian encounter and her absentee doctor.
“And I thought my day was rough,” Niyx said.
“Told you it was awful,” Alex said around a yawn. The laendra had taken the edge off her exhaustion, but she’d essentially lived almost half a day more than everyone else.
“It’s interesting—I’m curious what would have happened if you’d been injured while inside the Library,” Niyx mused. “I’m not sure I would have known, not until you’d left the time-space vacuum and stepped out into the real world again.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Because if that lake was as icy as you say, then I should have at least felt the phantom cold of your physical distress. Plus, time had paused for me, remember? The world didn’t start again until you stepped back into it.”
Alex realised he was right. “Note to self: injuries in the Library, okay. Injuries outside the Library, not good for Niyx’s street cred.”
Rolling his eyes at her, Niyx said, “There’s at least one good thing we’ve learned today.”
“What’s that?”
“You know how I wasn’t sure if my link to you would protect me from mental gifts in Aven’s army?”
“Uh-huh,” Alex said.
“Well, like I mentioned before, Signa was in the room when Gaiel daggered you,” Niyx said. “Knowing you must have been hurt, my thoughts naturally jumped to you before I could get a lock on them.”
Alex turned rigid.
“Do they know?” she gasped out. “Are you in danger?”
“That’s the thing,” Niyx said. “Signa didn’t blink. Not even when I risked double checking by mentally yelling creative instructions for where Aven should shove his new throne.”
A startled giggle left Alex’s lips. “Signa couldn’t read you?”
“He couldn’t read me,” Niyx confirmed. “And since he’s the strongest mind reader in Aven’s arsenal, the others won’t be able to, either. That means the next time you get in a fight, you can give me the mental heads up before you lose so I can excuse myself from becoming the continued laughing-stock of Meya.”
“Technically, I won the fight,” Alex felt the need to point out.
“Which makes your injury almost as embarrassing as what I had to do to cover for us.”
“He was on his knees in front of me!” She threw her hands in the air, exasperated. “How was I supposed to know he had a hidden dagger?”
Niyx shook his head in consternation. “One week without training and you’ve already forgotten everything I taught you.”
Alex’s only response was to purse her lips and refrain from arguing.
“Now that we know the mind readers can’t get into my head, I won’t have to be so cautious about sneaking out of the city,” Niyx said. “Aven still thinks I’m Claimed despite having no mental connection to me, so while I have to stay close and keep being careful around him, at least we don’t have to worry about the gifted humans discovering I’m not loyal. I’ve carried out enough of Aven’s orders that he has no reason to doubt me, either.”
Niyx grimaced slightly, the flash of emotion travelling across his face so swiftly that Alex barely caught it. But it was enough for her to realise he was trying to shield her from whatever he’d witnessed—or been forced to do.
“Niyx,” she whispered, not knowing what else to say.
He mustered up a half grin. “It’s not that bad, kitten. I know what I’m doing and I know why I’m doing it, so don’t feel sorry for me. And besides,”—his grin shifted into a smirk—“from tomorrow, you’ll be too busy feeling sorry for yourself to worry about anyone else.”
She looked at him in confusion.
“Your training hiatus is officially over,” he said, his smirk deepening. “I’m hauling your ass out of bed first thing in the morning to see what else you’ve forgotten in the past week. Knowing you, we’ll have to start right from the beginning all over again.”
Alex scrunched up her nose. “Tomorrow? Since today was so traumatic, can’t we wait until—” She broke off upon seeing his unyielding features, knowing she had no chance of changing his mind.
“I’ll be here at dawn,” he said, and the look he levelled her offered a silent threat that he would drag her away in her pyjamas if she wasn’t up in time. “Just like when we trained in the past, I’ll have you back before anyone notices either of us missing. Better safe than sorry—for us both.”
Alex sighed but nodded her agreement. She knew training with Niyx was important—if she couldn’t fight her way through whatever skirmishes she was yet to encounter, then there was no point in her learning how to strengthen her gift or anything else, since she wouldn’t survive to see that day.
“I’ll bring as much laendra as I can carry—some for you to give to Kyia, but also some for you to keep for yourself.”
Alex sighed again, fully aware that she would likely need copious quantities just to survive her session with Niyx. Their bond might make him feel every injury she sustained, but his pain tolerance was much, much higher than hers. He was truly merciless when it came to pushing her to her limits.
“Dawn. Laendra. Inevitable ass kicking,” Alex said, trying to inject some enthusiasm into her voice. “Can’t wait.”
Chuckling lightly, Niyx stood. “You need to rest. When we’re finished tomorrow, we’ll consider how you’ll keep Kyia and Zain oblivious to my involvement in your training—and everything else.”
Alex picked at the fraying edge where her bloodied jeans were sliced open. “It’d be easier if I just told them the truth about you.”
“Maybe one day,” Niyx said, “but it’s too much of a risk right now.”
Alex knew he was right, even if she wished he wasn’t.
“Try not to get stabbed by anyone else between now and dawn,” Niyx told her, his eyes sparkling.
“Try not to fall off the Valispath on your way back to Meya,” came her immediate retort. “You wouldn’t want to ruin that pretty face.”
“Stars above, that would be a tragedy,” Niyx agreed, and with a grin and a wink, he disappeared from her room.
See you in a few hours, kitten, his mental voice called out to her.
You’re making it very hard for me to remember why I’ve missed you this past week, Alex responded.
If it’s any consolation, you’re making it just as hard for me to wonder why I’ve missed you for the last few millennia.
A pause, and then she said, You win this round.
Niyx’s deep laughter rumbled across Alex’s mind as she stood up and turned off the light. Stumbling fully clothed back into bed, she fell asleep with a smile still on her face.