“You have to try better with me, Nyte,” she said, sliding one of the mineras past me in offering to him.
He eyed the swirling glittery silver drink as if it were watery ale.
“Actually, I have other plans of indulgence tonight,” he said, slipping it in front of me so I had two now.
My gaze slid up to him in warning, but he merely smiled with deceiving endearment. He was a good actor.
“I’ll leave you two to catch up and come for you later.” Before he slipped behind me, he leaned close to my ear. “Behave, Maiden. I’ll catch you if you run. I’ll find you if you hide. By all means, take that as a dare, it thrills me to think of hunting you.”
My whole body wracked with a shiver as the last lick of his shadows caressed my skin before he disappeared around the bend of the hall. I strained to go after him, scared of what terror he might wreak out of my sight, but moreso, I was eager for Laviana’s estranged company and to discover why she’d been looking for me.
“He seems… different,” Laviana said, watching after him as well.
“He’s working through some things,” I said. It wasn’t a lie really. I diverted the conversation. “Did you know about Tarran allying with Auster?” I asked, taking up one of the tall seats at the bar as she did.
Her frown deepened over the rim of her cup and she set the wine down. “Auster Nova? Why in seven hells would Tarran side with him?”
The guardians had four children between them. Laviana, who took after her shadowless mother. Tarran, who took after his soulless father. And twin nightcrawler brothers, also taking their father’s heritage. The twins I’d not seen for the longest time, even in my past life we’d become estranged.
Though they had different parents by blood, the guardians’ children regarded each other like siblings. They were nearly full-grown adults by the time I was created and given into their parents’ care, but the guardians were my parents too, for all intents and purposes, and their children were as close to siblings as I could ever hope to have. It’s what made the broken bond with Tarran cut that much deeper.
“I can only think it’s because of his hatred for me now, since he doesn’t have the king or Drystan to band with toward my demise.”
“Ahh, you and the princeling are at odds?”
“I think there’s a lot we need to catch up on.”
I took a sip of the starlight minera, which quickly turned to a few long gulps when the smooth, sweet, and tingly sensation exploded against my taste buds. Unlike other alcoholic drinks, this had no bitterness, and it was easy to get carried away with it. One would be enough to push me toward drunk, and now I had two since Nightsdeath abandoned his. I finished off mine.
“Drowning your sorrows?” Laviana commented.
“If nothing else, it might take some of the chill away. I can’t stay long.”
“Where are you heading?”
I thought for a second, scraping through my past with Laviana, but it wasn’t easy to recall so much at once. There could be pieces hidden in the corners of my mind I wouldn’t remember unless something triggered it.
“We’re looking for a way to reach the gods,” I said as a quick alternative answer. “My creators, specifically.”
Laviana looked at me with humor, but when I didn’t match it her expression fell, switching to skepticism
“You can see them in the temple of Vesitire.”
I could trust her. At least I thought I could.
“I’ve… misplaced my key. I need it to kill them.”
She spluttered into her tankard.
“Are you insane? That’s what the mad king wanted to do, and you knew how dire that would be for the world.”
“I have no choice,” I defended.
Pity filled her eyes as she looked me over. “Oh Astraea, what happened to you?”
My teeth tightened together to force away the prickling in my eyes.
“So much,” I whispered. But there was no time for self-grieving. I squared my shoulders. “The king wanted to kill them and damn the unbalance it would throw us into. There must be a way I can do it that would spare our land.”
