Rhyden blew out a sharp breath. Nessen—dead?
Don’t show weakness.
He lowered his hand, grip loosening around the gun. He tucked it in the back of his sweats, feeling the metal against the bare skin of his lower back.
"Fine, okay. Let’s go. But do something with that cloak of yours. All that white is hurting my goddamned eyes."
Rin’sbreath hitched as Cyrus moved aside, letting her take in the room.
Blood sprayed the walls, Nessen’s Soulless body in the center of the carnage.
Rhyden nudged the Rogue with his bare foot. Rin’s tired, shocked brain struggled to follow his words. A dark grip of a gun poked out from the waistband of Rhyden’s low-hung sweats. His white hair was disheveled.
Lucien’s hand dropped on Rin’s shoulder. "Vesperin," he said, voice thick with sleep, "you don’t need to see this. Go back upstairs with Cyrus."
Rin shook her head, swallowing down her nausea from the gore as she met his eyes. "What happened here?"
She carefully stepped over a puddle of blood, but she flinched when Rhyden barked suddenly:
"Fucking—watch out for the glass!"
Rin jerked to a stop, glancing down to see shattered pieces of glass.
Rhyden stood right before her when she looked back up. "You idiot. Why’d you go and let yourself get cut?"
"Why do you care?" she asked.
He didn’t respond, and her question was lost in the blood of the room, sinking into the grey walls.
"I didn’t get cut. See." She lifted her foot.
Rhyden grabbed her ankle and yanked her leg up higher, uncaring of the small, distressed sound she made from the strain. Cyrus steadied her as Rhyden’s thumb smoothed over the top of her foot, tracing up to her ankle, staring at her decidedly uncut skin.
"Then why do I—" Rhyden paused sharply, head tilting to the side as his red eyes scoured the room. He didn’t let her foot go. His nostrils flared. "Your blood is in this room. I smell it."
"You…smellit?" Rin grimaced, scrunching her toes. "Are you going to let me go, Rhyden?"
Rhyden jerked his head down to look at where he still held her foot, then dropped it without comment.
She’d found brief reprieve in his touch, but without it, her stomach roiled again from the thick air in the room.
Death was not the end, but Nessen had faced agony until his last moments. She mourned for what he’d been forced to endure alone.
Auren crouched, gloved fingertips drifting over the broken glass. Beneath his hood, his blonde hair curled around his temples, casting shadows on his soft cheeks. "The blood sample Nessen took from you. This is where the glass came from. He brought the vial into this room. But why?"
"Nessen knew something. I saw his eyes earlier, when he stared at my blood. It wasn’t malicious. I’d know. I’m used to doctors and scientists looking at me like—" Rin bit her lower lip. Hard. "No, this was something else. Like awe."
"Bleeding heart, wife," Rhyden grumbled. "I’ve known Nessen for almost fifty years, but anyone can betray anyone."
Her eyes found Lucien, crouched beside the Rogue, lifting its scaly eyelid to reveal bottomless black eyes. The sight made her shiver.
"Whatever Nessen assumed—it was enough to make him take a risk like this." Lucien finished his assessment of the Rogue, standing slowly. "It didn’t die by force. Nessen didn’t kill this Rogue."
"Who did, then?" Rin countered.
Lucien licked his lips. "I don’t know."
"Something is transpiring. Beyond us all. The Nova within you, the cosmic interferences"—Auren’s lips tipped into a soft, strange smile—"and your memories returning."
