“I killed your father,” I said carefully.
“He deserved it.”
Nyte exchanged a suspicious look with me, but as the wind eased and guards started to scramble into the room, our time of distraction was up.
I took Nyte’s hand. “We don’t have time to debate.”
He was very reluctant, but I tugged him toward Kairos, having nothing but the intuitive sense that he wouldn’t lead us into a trap. Despite his sour mood all day, he’d called out to me, trying to warn me against hitting that veil with my magick.
Vermont’s son handed us two white robes, and we slung them on, drawing our hoods. With the palace in chaos, no one paid us any attention as we ran past many guards scrambling in clear violation of protocol, or perhaps they didn’t have one for the death of their overlord.
“We can’t use the void,” I said to Nyte.
“That would be my fault,” Kairos answered.
“You’re the mage who placed a protection on this place,” Nyte realized.
“Yes. You could say veils are a particular specialty of mine.”
I was quite taken aback to discover he had magick.
“Then can’t you release it, and we could get out of here a lot faster?” I asked.
“It’s not as simple as that, I’m afraid. The veil I created around this place is quite advanced and has various talismans. You’d have to find and destroy them all. The opposite of a faster escape, I assure you.” We were heading up stairs and I started to grow hesitant. Until he added, “The grounds will be crawling with guards, and there’s a strong force of them around the palace outside. I’m counting on you being able to call your dragon.”
I slipped a glance at Nyte, who gave me a nod. He could call to Eltanin through their bond, and the dragon was near.
Before we got the to the top of the next staircase, Kairos stopped abruptly, spinning around to us.
“I only have one condition for my help,” he said.
Nyte groaned and his hand flexed in mine. “I’m not in a merciful mood for bargaining.”
“Take me with you,” he blurted anyway.
That hadn’t been what either of us expected.
“Not happening,” Nyte said, deadly serious.
I tried to consider. “You’re the new overlord now. You can make this place better.”
“That’s never what I’ve wanted. My mother will take over; she’s kind and gentle and nothing like my father, I assure you.”
Nyte said, “We’re to believe you’d give up ruling this entire empire for what? Becoming a fugitive? If you run with us they’ll believe you had something to do with your father’s death. So the deal is this: stay out of our way or I’ll kill you where you stand.”
Nyte stepped past him, ascending the rest of the stairs, and I followed with our hands joined.
“What if no one ever gave you a chance because they assumed you were nothing more than your father’s legacy?” Kairos called at our backs.
Nyte stiffened; I did too with how Kairos dug his claws into Nyte’s wound.
“No one ever did give me a chance beyond that,” he answered coldly.
Until now,I thought. Things were changing; people were starting to see under the many layers that made up Nyte.
“We can’t expect that cycle to break until we do it ourselves for others,” I said quietly to him.
Nyte’s jaw worked; he knew I was right.
