AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I turn my gaze back to Nyx and see him trying to grind his teeth down to nothing.
“Listen, Hiram and Marcus will be with us the whole time. If anything goes awry, I’ll summon Asher. Then any plan of Theo’s would be foiled.” I lean forward, folding my arms on my desk. “But I don’t think you have anything to worry about.”
He stares at me for a long moment before his head falls back to the chair in defeat.
“We’ll leave in a few days, then. Hiram, will you let Marcus know for me?” Hiram nods and leaves the room.
“You’re going to have to trust him eventually, you know?” I say with a smirk.
Nyx cracks one eye open to peer at me.
“Unlikely,” he snorts, closing his eye again. I stand from my desk and walk over to Nyx, wrapping my arms around his shoulders.
“Can you at least try? Just a little bit? For me?” I ask sweetly, causing him to groan in irritation.
“Do I have to?” He leans his head into me.
“You kind of do. He is my Amari, after all,” I answer.
“Don’t remind me,” he says with a huff. “I’ll try. That’s the best I can do.”
“That’s all I ask. Now go manage our spies so we can find that amulet and humiliate King Leopold.”
We’ve been slowly gathering information leaking out of Lux for the past few weeks. We’re getting closer. I can feel it in my soul. We’re close to figuring this out and what the lightning king has up his sleeve. The intel is out there, and it’s going to get to us.
I grip the book tight as I stride through the hall of The Keep toward Theo’s cell. I stopped by the library to retrieve the book about the Umbra creatures. Someone had suspiciously placed a ladder nearby, and I wonder who could have moved it.
I’m hoping I can use the book as a sort of truce between us. When he left the library, things were tense, and they haven’t improved with Nyx’s constant presence. I need to pull him back to where we were if I hope to break through to him.
Rubbing a thumb over the purple etching of the book’s binding, I take a deep breath as faint wisps of cedar fill the air. Hiram and Marcus stand ready at the back door. They both bow as I approach, and I wave them off. We’re done with the formalities. I’ll be just another viator when we go to the village, so the bows need to stop before we leave.
Theo lies outstretched in his bed, leaning on one elbow, flipping through the old pages of the end bringer story. I watch him for a moment, enjoying the look of him so relaxed in my kingdom, as if this is truly his home.
Sorrow claws at my heart because he may never accept this as his home. Even after everything he has seen so far, he’s still loyal to Lux and their dreadful king. Nyx’s words echo in my mind that he’ll always choose them over us.Over me.
“You must be enjoying that if it has you so distracted,” I joke, leaning against the bars.
His head snaps up, and he pushes off the bed, startled by the sound of my voice. His eyebrows rise and his mouth parts as he realizes it’s me without my brooding shadow.
“Or maybe I wasn’t expecting someone to rudely interrupt my reading,” he responds with a raised eyebrow.
I look over at Marcus and Hiram, who feign innocence. They never told him we were leaving. I shake my head, knowing they did it on purpose to see how he would react.
I turn back to Theo, and he’s nearly to me at the doorway, moving silently through the cell.Quick learner. I give him a smirk as he stops a few feet from me. Those pools of honey lock on me, devoid of emotion. His mask is firmly in place to protect himself from me.
“Here’s the book you asked for,” I say, handing over the lore book.
Our fingers graze as he takes it, sending small sparks along my skin. He pulls it to him, running a hand over the black leather.
Theo studies it for a moment before looking at me without lifting his head. A small grin curls the corner of his lips.
“Please tell me you did nothing reckless to retrieve this book,” he says as his eyes fully come to mine.
Interlacing my fingers in front of me, I lean forward on my toes, closing the gap between us.
“When am I not doing something reckless?”
His smile unravels, and I smirk as I settle back on my feet.
