by Lynette Noni
The look of triumph in Aven’s golden eyes was almost too much for Alex to bear, but it was the look of triumph on Kaiden’s face that kept her from collapsing into a heap where she stood.
“Too late, Aven,” Kaiden said, a taunting grin stretching across his lips even as Aven visibly increased the pressure of his hand, their silver and red blood dripping onto the marbled floor.
The Rebel Prince’s face was hard with concentration as he sought to create the blood bond between them, but his expression morphed into something Alex would never forget when understanding finally dawned, when he realised the truth.
He couldn’t Claim Kaiden.
Because she already had.
‘There’s something I need you to do.’
Alex heard an echo of the words Kaiden had uttered on her Vardaesian balcony—words that had preceded his quiet but firm request for her to Claim him.
‘You know it makes sense,’ he’d told her. ‘You know, Alex.’
And she had known, having realised that if Aven learned who Kaiden was to her, he would stop at nothing to Claim him. Then he’d have access to Kaiden’s gift—and therefore, any gift, without even needing to consume another’s heart. It was a risk neither of them could take. So, against her better judgement, she’d done as requested, her only stipulations being that he would accept her Release as soon as it was safe, and that they would keep their mental communication to a minimum, since the last thing she needed was for him to accidentally pick up on any of her errant thoughts—especially ones that involved him.
‘That stunt you pulled with him last night? Ballsy, Aeylia. I don’t know whether to rail at you both or offer a standing ovation.’
Niyx’s words from within the Gate of Lost Souls came back to Alex, words that she had inwardly agreed with at the time. But as she watched the fury play out across Aven’s face, she was knee-weakeningly grateful that Kaiden—and Xira—had convinced her to Claim him, keeping the Rebel Prince from being able to do so himself.
“It seems I underestimated Alexandra, yet again,” Aven hissed through his teeth.
“She certainly is full of surprises,” Kaiden returned, pride clear in his voice as his taunting smile remained in place.
“She’s not the only one,” Aven said, and a moment later, Kaiden was screaming.
Writhing against the hand at his cheek, Kaiden’s agony tore through Alex, shredding her heart, ripping through her soul. She couldn’t see what was being done to him—Aven hadn’t pulled a weapon, he hadn’t even moved. The only point of contact he had was where his hand still rested against the deep nail scratches Niida had given Alex—scratches Kaiden shared because of their connection, just as he had shared her earlier injury at the academy.
“I see your bond with her doesn’t extend to the protection Alexandra has from physical gifts,” Aven said conversationally as Kaiden thrashed against him, books falling from the shelves with his violent movements. “You can thank your friend Blink for this one. He might have had an absurd name, but I do believe this is my new favourite ability. It’ll be a shame when it wears off.”
Ice flooded Alex’s veins as she realised that Aven had stolen Blink’s blood-boiling gift. That he’d—That he’d—
She made a gagging noise, covering her mouth quickly to block the sound of vomit rising in her throat as she struggled to swallow it back down. Hunter’s grip on her arm had moved from bruising and was now just short of snapping bone. And Niida—Niida was looking at her son like she’d never seen him before, her eyes tormented beyond description.
“I wonder how long it will take,” Aven mused as Kaiden’s screams continued, as his body buckled and his arms strained against the Moxyreel. “How long until your organs start melting inside of you.”
Alex’s parents watched on with horror-struck features, but despite their lack of bindings, Marcus remained directly in front of them, keeping them from intervening.
“I wonder how long it will take,” Aven went on, “before Alexandra can handle no more.”
He didn’t have to wonder for long. Because she was already past her limit.
Prying Hunter’s fingers from their pincer grip, she pointed at one of the weapons he’d withdrawn earlier. She ignored the shake of his head and pointed again, firmly enough that, while hesitant, he responded with a terse nod of agreement. And then, with one quick, meaningful look at Niida, Alex was gone, using the Valispath so as to not give away their hiding position and the fact that she wasn’t alone.
“Enough, Aven,” Alex said in the strongest voice she could manage as she came to a stop behind him in the centre of the library. “I’m here now. Let him go.”
Alex’s parents looked at her with unconcealed shock— perhaps due to her physical appearance, dressed as she was in her Tia Auran armour with Niida’s bloodied claw marks on her face, or perhaps because, to their human eyes, she had just materialised out of thin air. Either way, Jack and Rachel both lurched forward as if to rush to her side. But Marcus remained blocking their path, holding up a hand in warning to them as he watched her carefully, a strangely calculating light in his eyes.
All of that Alex took in within the space of a microsecond, her focus then following Aven as he pulled his hand from Kaiden’s cheek and turned to face her, anticipation clear in his burning golden gaze.
For a split moment, Alex’s attention darted to Kaiden as he slumped against his bonds with a groan. His face was so white and his lips nearly blue as his eyes came to a half-close. He was barely hanging on to consciousness… He was barely hanging on to life. But Alex wouldn’t think about that—she couldn’t think about that.
“Aeylia,” Aven said, his voice as smooth as syrup as he drew the word out, moving towards her with lethal grace. “We meet again.”
Alex didn’t respond—not to the name he’d called her, not to his statement, not to the murder in his eyes.
“I’ve thought long and hard about this moment,” he went on, coming to a stop barely a foot from where she stood. “These last weeks since I learned the truth about you, my mind has been consumed with longing, consumed with desire to see the look on your face as I take the lives of everyone you love. As I draw out their suffering, just as you have drawn out mine for thousands of years.”
It took everything within her not to move; not to retreat from him or summon A’enara, but instead remain still, her hands fisted by her sides. This wasn’t the moment. There was too much at stake—too many people she cared about who could get caught in the crossfire. Too many Claimed Zeltora and gifted humans ready to jump in and cause irreversible damage at a single command.
“It’s almost too perfect that you’re here,” Aven continued. “Almost too perfect that you’re right where I want you. The question is, who shall be first?”
His eyes flicked towards the bookshelf wall of her friends and family lined up, execution style.
“Will it be your parents, who you’ve been so careful to keep hidden from my notice?” Aven said. “Or perhaps Jordan, who you thought you could steal from me?”
Marcus flinched at the mention of his son, the motion so swift in the corner of Alex’s eye that she wondered if she’d imagined it.
“Or maybe Kaiden should be first,” Aven mused, “since Signa learned earlier from your friends how much your beloved boyfriend means to you. My bond with Delucia has only confirmed as much.”
Of all the inappropriate reactions, Alex could have sworn she saw brief smiles flit across her parents’ faces before their features turned grave again. While this wasn’t how she would have preferred them to hear about her new relationship status, she put aside the thought and focused on how grateful she was that Signa hadn’t returned to the library with Aven and Skraegon and all the extra Zeltora. Having one mind reader in the room was bad enough, let alone two. As it was, she had no idea why Marcus hadn’t given away that Niida was hiding in the corner—and why. The queen’s mind wasn’t protected, something Alex had forgotten to factor into her plan. And yet,
Marcus remained silent.
“And then there’s the princess who you so willingly chose to risk your life to protect when all this began,” Aven continued, interrupting her thoughts. “Perhaps there’s poetic beauty in starting with her, just as it should have happened all those months ago.”
Answering a mental summons, D.C. shook off the stupor she’d been in ever since Aven had last left the library and walked stiffly to his side.
Alex watched, her blood pumping wildly, as he handed the dagger over and D.C. once again gripped it tightly between her fingers.
Fearing who Aven might command D.C. to target next, Alex said, “You don’t need to do this, Aven. It’s me you want, no one else.”
“You’re right about that,” Aven said. “But before I kill you, I will see you destroyed, and this is the surest way to make that happen.” With a dark smile on his lips, he turned to D.C. and said, “You were once willing to sacrifice yourself for your worthless race, Delucia. The time has come for you to follow through on that.”
And without blinking, D.C. raised the dagger to her neck, pressing the blade against her vulnerable flesh.
In an instant, the vision Alex had seen flashed across her mind, where Aven ordered the Claimed D.C. to kill herself. The circumstances might now be different, but the facts remained the same. And as Alex watched in slow motion as a small bead of blood grew into a deeper cut, a scream arose from deep within her.
“STOP!” she shrieked at Aven. “Stop her, or your mother will share her fate!”
D.C.’s hand stilled, the dagger pressed deep into her neck but not deep enough—not yet.
“What reason can you possibly have for such an absurd declaration?” Aven asked, clearly amused. It was obvious that he was just humouring her, but Alex didn’t care as long as the blade didn’t continue deeper into D.C.’s skin.
In answer, Alex held up one of her fisted hands and slowly opened it, revealing her Claiming scars—of which there were now a few—along with the mixed red and silver blood that had dried on her skin. And, as Aven’s nostrils flared, like clockwork, Niida arrived on the Valispath beside Alex.
“Show him,” Alex ordered the queen, and the vacant-eyed Niida opened her own bloodied palm as evidence of Alex’s Claim on her.
Aven hissed out a sound of disbelief. “No.”
“If you can Claim the people I love,” Alex said, gesturing to D.C., “I can Claim the people you love. Only a fool would play fair against an enemy who doesn’t.”
With a surge of black flames, Vae’varka appeared in Aven’s hands, and Alex summoned A’enara in response, raising the Blade of Glory in front of her. But Aven didn’t strike. Instead, he was wavering, his indecisiveness concerning Alex more than if he’d chosen to attack. At least then she would have known what he was thinking.
“Careful, Aven,” Alex said when his eyes flickered to D.C. and the dagger in her hand wobbled, deepening the wound. “You kill my friends, my family, and I kill your mother.”
In response, Niida raised a dagger to her own neck—a dainty weapon with intricate swirls along the glistening Myrox, obviously the queen’s personal blade.
Without delay, D.C.’s hand steadied and then slowly lowered until it was resting by her side, dripping red onto the floor, while Aven’s focus narrowed onto Alex as he brought Vae’varka up between them. He said nothing though, just looked at her with unmasked rage. It was enough that Alex felt the need to offer him a new warning.
“I’m sure I don’t need to point this out, but if you kill me, then you’re the one who will be killing your own mother,” she said, reminding him of the repercussions of the bond between them—something that would mean Kaiden would die, too. And Xira. But she was gambling on Aven’s love for Niida outweighing his desire for bloodshed.
It was a gamble that fell in her favour when, through tight lips, Aven replied, “It would seem we’re at a stalemate.”
That was exactly where Alex wanted them to be.
“Here’s what’s going to happen,” she said, infusing as much confidence into her tone as she could manage, despite the sickening fear roiling through her body. “You’re going to let us go—all of us.” She waved her hand towards her parents and her friends. “Once we’re safely away from Meya, you have my word that I’ll Release Niida and she’ll be free to return to you.”
Alex, of course, knew that Niida would do no such thing. Just as she knew there was no need to Release the queen… since she had never actually completed the blood-bonding ritual on Niida.
It was a dangerous bluff, but while Astophe had urged Alex to Claim his wife—something she still struggled to believe—she simply hadn’t been able to bring herself to do it. Instead, Niida had agreed to go along with her plan, even so far as to scratch the side of her own face so that the silver-bloodied wound showed further sign of her connection to Alex, healing swiftly as it was.
“You give your word?” Aven all but spat. “What worth is that to me, when all you’ve ever offered me are lies?”
Alex pressed her lips together, not wasting her breath trying to tell him that the incorrect assumptions he’d made in the past didn’t equate to her lying to him.
“Do we have a deal or not?” she asked, tightening her grip on A’enara when Calista and Gerald began to move closer, along with Skraegon and the Zeltora warriors. Everyone was on alert, waiting for Aven’s orders, whatever they might be.
And yet, he said nothing and just watched Alex. The gold in his eyes held enough calculation that she raised A’enara higher and widened her stance, balancing her weight between the balls of her feet.
“Agree to let us leave here safely, Aven,” she told him, her voice echoing around the otherwise silent library, “or by your hand or mine, your mother will die today.”
A flare of emotion was the only response Alex received, along with three quietly spoken words.
“So be it.”
And then D.C.’s hand thrust the dagger back towards her own neck just as Aven lunged at Alex.
Thirty-Three
In the split second of shock when Alex realised that Aven was willing to sacrifice his own mother, she had to make a decision— raise A’enara to block Aven’s incoming blade, or use her immortal speed to try and save D.C., but in doing so, become vulnerable to Aven’s attack.
There really was no question, and she didn’t hesitate to push off in a leap towards D.C., prepared to risk whatever strike Aven might land. Zaylin’s armour would keep Vae’varka from poisoning her, so she just had to pray the blade wouldn’t offer a lethal blow before she could wrestle D.C.’s dagger away.
But nothing happened as she presumed it would, because before Alex could reach D.C., and before Aven could reach Alex, Marcus Sparker tackled Aven from the side, sending him into D.C. and causing her dagger to fly from her hand as she, Aven and Marcus all crashed to the ground.
At once, all hell broke loose.
… And that was because Hunter used Aven’s stunned moment of distraction to leap out from behind the bookcase and throw the Hyroa spray-weapon into the centre of the room, just as Alex had silently instructed before she’d left his side.
It activated without delay, a burst of mist splattering over everyone, particularly Skraegon and the Zeltora, who had rushed forward upon Hunter’s arrival, with them receiving the thickest concentration. Its effects were immediate, with the Meyarin warriors dropping their weapons and holding their heads and stomachs as they stumbled on their feet, some even falling to their knees.
Alex knew how they felt, because while she wasn’t a pure-blooded Meyarin and hadn’t been blasted with a full dose, she’d still been hit by the blowback of the spray, and the moment it made contact with her exposed skin, she was hit by a wave of dizziness, nausea and weakness so overwhelming that she struggled to keep A’enara in her hands.
Niida, too, was moaning beside her, the dainty Myrox dagger lowering from her throat as she pressed her hands to her stomach. But neither of them had the luxury of giv
ing in to their debilitating symptoms, because they needed to act fast while they still could.
Marcus had offered them a miracle, since he was now actively wrestling with Aven on the ground—something that wouldn’t last much longer, Alex knew, because as soon as Aven overcame his shock, his Meyarin nature would allow him to effortlessly subdue his mortal opponent. The Hyroa blood was slowing him down significantly, but Alex wasn’t naïve enough to think Aven getting splattered would ultimately give Marcus the upper hand. If she could push through the weakness, so could he, as miserable as the feeling was. But they didn’t need hours to get away, only a brief window of time—time that Marcus had given them.
With a wheezing breath as she battled her illness, Alex directed Niida to use her Myrox blade to cut through the bindings holding Jordan, Bear and Kaiden, while Alex herself rushed over and hauled D.C. away from the struggling limbs of Aven and Marcus. Hunter, meanwhile, was dragging Grimm’s unconscious form out from behind the bookshelf, and throwing Hyroa blood-coated daggers into any Zeltora who were managing to fight off the effects of the spray.
While the Meyarins might have been caught up in their agony, Calista and Gerald were human—and unlike Alex, they didn’t have a strong enough concentration of Aven’s blood in their veins to feel the effects of the toxic blast—so they were free to run forward unhindered, with Gerald ready to use his tattoo whips and Calista commanded to hold everyone with her telekinetic ability. And yet, neither of them were using their gifts. Because they weren’t able to.
As Aven had said—Kaiden had allowed himself to be captured, but Alex now knew he’d only surrendered in order to orchestrate that moment with Lena, when she’d given in to his flirting and run her finger down his cheek. All it had taken was a single touch for him to steal her nullifying gift—something that now, even barely conscious, he was using to keep Gerald and Calista—and likely Aven, too—from using their own abilities.
However, Alex was aware that he would soon be fully unconscious if he didn’t stop, the drain of using his gift too much for him to maintain without time to recover from Aven’s blood-boiling torture.