AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Ryshi buffed his nails on his tunic. “I’m listening.”
“I need you to enter the labyrinth.”
Well…that was a surprise. Ryshi had only revealed his ability to slip in and out of the minotaur homeland in an attempt to keep the vampires from locking him away. He’d assumed they would realize his worth as a thief and send him on a mission to pay for his sins. Instead, the idiots had tossed him in their dungeons.
Now he wondered if his boast was about to come back and bite him in the ass.
“A dangerous request,” he pointed out.
Styx narrowed his eyes. “It’s not a request.”
“That doesn’t make it any less dangerous.”
“You would rather remain locked in this cell?”
Ryshi rolled his eyes. The male was no doubt a powerful creature, but he was as subtle as a raging troll. He had no concept of all the delicious grays between white and black.
“I’m setting the baseline for our negotiations,” Ryshi informed the leech.
Styx scowled. “What negotiations?”
“You need something from me. I get something from you.” Ryshi spoke slowly. “That’s how it works.”
A layer of ice suddenly coated the cell. The Anasso wasn’t subtle, but he also wasn’t stupid. And he was clearly in no mood for Ryshi’s mockery.
“Not in my world.” With blinding speed, Styx was standing directly in front of Ryshi, the tip of his sword biting into the center of Ryshi’s chest. “I tell you to do something and you do it or I stick this big knife through your heart.”
Ryshi smiled. The sword wouldn’t kill him. Then again, it would hurt like a bitch. Something he preferred to avoid.
“Fine. But if you want someone to enter the labyrinth, you’ll be shit out of luck if I’m forced to regrow my heart. No one except a minotaur can penetrate the magic.” He deliberately paused. “And me.”
Styx appeared magnificently unimpressed with Ryshi’s logic. “So you claim.”
“Are we going to negotiate or are you going to waste both our time with meaningless threats?”
Styx lifted the sword to press it against Ryshi’s lips. “I swear I’ll cut out that tongue.”
“You wouldn’t be the first.” Ryshi shrugged. “Probably not the last.”
Styx released a low roar, ice swirling through the air as he stepped back and lowered the weapon.
“What do you want?” he demanded.
“To start with, I want my freedom.” Ryshi’s voice hardened, the scent of amber filling the cell. “I spent the past decade locked away for a petty crime.”
Styx made a sound of disbelief. “Petty crime? You broke into the lairs of vampires to steal their belongings.”
“It was a game,” Ryshi lied smoothly. If Styx discovered exactly why he’d been searching through the vampire lairs, the male might actually find a way to kill him. “I never took anything of value.”
“And even after you were warned to stay away, you continued to sneak in.”
Ryshi shrugged. He’d laughed when he’d discovered the warning scrawled outside this massive lair. It’d been like waving a red flag in front of a bull. Ryshi had been twice as determined to enter.
“I like the challenge,” he admitted. “It keeps my skills sharp.”
“And that’s why you’re locked in a dungeon.”
True enough. Ryshi’s arrogance had been his downfall. But it had been only a temporary inconvenience.
