by River Starr
I shook my head and lowered my voice as well. “We’ve already covered this on our ride into the prison. Assuming we could even remove the magic-muting tattoo on my neck—which would need to happen if you want that kind of power from me—my magic isn’t strong enough to keep all four of us from being crushed by the ocean. I’m not even sure it’s strong enough to keep me safe.”
“There’s also the little problem of them being able to follow us.” Frost leaned in over the table. “If we’re not quick enough, they’ll hop into transports and catch up right away.”
“Not to mention the Deep One,” I said.
Frost shot me a curious look. “I think it’s just a story they’re telling us.”
“That other unit from the first trial, they’re not around anymore,” Dax said. “The guards fed them to the Deep One.”
“It’s real,” I said.
Frost’s eyes narrowed. “Isn’t it some bedtime story you’re all told in the sea court? If no one’s ever seen it, then how can it be real?”
I gulped and laid my cards on the table. “Right before that eel creature bit me, when I was searching for a fragment of the artifact, something like… I don’t know, called me from the dark ocean depths below. And I’ve been seeing things.” They all stared back at me unconvinced. “I know it sounds crazy.”
“Good,” Titus said. “It does.”
“Maybe it was your heritage calling to you,” Frost said. “The rest of Atlantis is down there.”
“I know it was the Deep One.” I wasn’t sure how I knew, but my gut told me I was right. All the stories, the fact that even the guards seemed to treat it with respect. Only something ancient and powerful could hold that much power. “We can’t swim out of here. It’s not safe, no matter how you toss it.”
“Then we steal a transport,” Titus said. “That’s easy enough, and we can get to the surface quickly.”
Frost turned on him. “And how do you plan to do that?”
Titus shrugged. “I don’t know, but I’m not staying here forever, either. I will kill whoever framed me.”
“Okay,” Frost said as she raised her hands in front of her and leaned back. “You want revenge. Dax wants his empire. I just want to live. I get it. We all want something.” Then her gaze found mine. “What is it that you want, Nyx?”
As if I’d tell her or any of them the truth. They might be in my inmate unit, but I wouldn’t open up my sister’s condition to strangers. “To clear my name.” Not a lie.
Frost lifted an eyebrow. “Clear your name?”
“It’s complicated.”
Dax’s lips formed a thin line. Frost narrowed her eyes at him.
“Point is,” I said before Frost continued, “we need another way out of this prison. If we can’t swim and we can’t steal a transport—”
“What about the teleportation runes?” Dax asked. “Those circles on each floor. If I ran a prison that was so far from Alexandria, I wouldn’t want the only way to get home be in the form of a coral transport that takes hours. There’s got to be a combination that goes to Alexandria.”
“I don’t want to go to Alexandria,” Frost said. “That’s the point of escaping.”
Dax held up a finger. “No, but if we can figure out how the runes work, maybe we can teleport elsewhere.”
I sighed. “There are two problems with that plan. Firstly, it’s safe to assume that since those teleportation runes are fae magic, only Frost and I can activate them.”
Frost clapped her hands together softly. “That’s not a problem. If anything, it increases our chances of using them.”
“That’s why I said there are two problems with this plan,” I said. “We don’t know how to use them, or how to create a combination for a random place.”
“That’s where I come in,” Dax said as he too leaned in over the table. “I’ve come into… contact, shall we say, with several fae over the centuries.”
I shuddered. Why did I think that by ‘contact,’ he meant that he’d fed on them? A flash of our conversation about Eos filled my mind. Or slept with them. “And?”
“I think I can figure out how the circle works,” Dax continued as his gaze lingered on me, and that was when I realized that maybe it was Eos he was referring to.
Maybe Eos knew how to use these rune circles. I shook my head. Every time she took over, I was afraid I’d never come back.
“But?” I asked when he didn’t continue.
“I need to see it for a long time,” Dax answered. “To study it.”
Frost leaned back, exasperation twisting her expression. “Well, that’s not going to happen. There’s no way the guards are going to let you stand there for minutes, let alone hours. Unless…” Her gaze swung to me, her eyes narrowing with suspicious mischief. “That one guard seems pretty into you. Zavian, is it?”
Dax’s body stiffened. “Frost—”
She held a hand up to him. “No, hear me out. What if you like, you know, worked your magic on him.” She winked and I got the impression she didn’t mean my fae magic.
“No. He hates me.” Except, I was starting to think he really didn’t. That by no means indicated he’d help us escape prison, though. Nor did it ensure I could seduce him.
“Doesn’t mean it wouldn’t work,” she said, as if it were the most obvious course of action in the world.
“Yes, it does.”
“I don’t know, then. Start a fight with him or something instead.” Frost sighed heavily. “There’s got to be something we can do.”
“I’ll need longer than a few minutes.” Dax’s sharp, whispered words were spoken through gritted teeth. “I don’t think opening Nyx up to that sort of potential violence is also a good idea.”
Frost raised an eyebrow at him. “Oh, really? Why is that?”
Shit. Had she heard us the other night, or the following morning? Or even worse: had she heard Dax and Eos?
“Because of her magic,” Dax answered deftly. “Nyx’s control over water is vital to our escape no matter how we plan it.”
“Not if we’re escaping by teleportation circle.”
Titus smiled, a pensive look on his brow.
Dax’s eyes grew dark. “They say that there are some sea fae who can control the water in others’ bodies. The water in their blood. Nyx can do that.”
“Whoa.” I wanted to get up from the table and walk away. The type of power needed to do what Dax implied was not something I could do, nor was willing to even if I could. “That’s forbidden magic, Dax. Magic I don’t know how to do.”
“Even if it means escaping prison?” Dax asked, a knowing glint in his eyes. Almost as if he’d seen me—or rather, Eos—use blood magic before.
Not this prison. The prison Eos had created for me, maybe. Not that controlling blood would get her out of my head anyway. “No.”
“I have a photographic memory,” Titus said out of nowhere. We all glanced to him. “Give me five minutes with any of the rune circles, and I can recreate it if we can get some paper and something to draw with.”
“And why didn’t you share this earlier?” Frost asked.
Titus smiled faintly for the first time since I’d ever known him. “Maybe I kind of like watching chaos unfold too. Especially inside this unit. It’s my only sense of entertainment down here.”
Footsteps echoed behind us. I felt Zavian’s presence—warm like a sunny Cornish day—before he made his presence known. We all hushed and pretended the food before us was even the slightest bit enticing.
“Can we help you?” Dax asked.
The tip of one of those lightning tasers hit the small of my back. When he spoke, Zavian’s voice sent a pleasurable shudder through me. “You need to come with me.” His magic slid across the space between us and warmed my skin, having the same kind of healing effect his touch had had before. The gods knew my body needed it. I was still recovering from the eel bite.
When I didn’t respond right away, Zavian pressed the lightning taser har
der against my side. “Now, murderer.”
“All right, all right.” I moved to get up from the table but Frost grabbed my arm. Instead of saying anything, she winked at me. I rolled my eyes. Nothing like that was going to happen.
At least, I assumed so. If we ended up in a room together like last time, though…
17
Nyx
“Out the door,” Zavian commanded.
I moved slowly so that I wouldn’t get too far ahead of him or make him want to use that lightning stick. If he hit me with that now, I’d drop. I was sure of it.
Zavian led me to this floor’s teleportation circle. He moved in behind me again, closer than was necessary, and sheathed the lightning stick before activating the runes. As we disappeared to another level of the prison, I swore I felt his fingers reaching for mine.
The moment passed but my heartbeat raced.
“Where are we going?” I asked, then spun and held up a hand. “And before you say, ‘don’t say anything,’ again, too bad. I am. You can’t just drag me away from my unit whenever you want.”
His hand reached for his sheathed lightning taser. “Can’t I?” I leveled him with a look, but before I could say anything, he issued more commands. “Through that door. Now.” He pointed to the door that led to his office. The same room where we’d made out a day or so ago, maybe longer. I wasn’t exactly sure how long I’d been out of it for.
I followed the command without another word, although my breaths became shallow with anticipation. We had kissed the last time we were here. Was that what he wanted to do now? My palms tingled and my cheeks flushed. This was crazy.
As soon as I was inside the room, Zavian followed and shut the door behind us—and locked it this time. I inclined my head, watching him stalk toward me. He undid the belt holding his lightning taser and threw it to the side.
I gulped and took a step back. “Listen—”
“No, you’re going to listen.” Zavian crossed the distance between us in three long strides. He grabbed my hands and walked me backward until the backs of my legs hit the top of his desk. “You’re going to answer my questions. Truthfully, this time. As if your life depends on it.”
I tried to wriggle my hands free. “Are you even allowed to interrogate me in private?”
His grip on my hands tightened and he held them between us. “I can do whatever I want when it was my brothers you killed.”
Fair enough. Still, this seemed highly inappropriate. Except that we were mates. “And what exactly is it you want to do?”
Zavian’s jaw locked. “I want you to be served the punishment you deserve. Not sit through all this song and dance.”
“I thought you wanted me to suffer. Wasn’t that the point in placing me in Atlantis Prison instead of just killing me on the spot in your brothers’ home?”
He growled and pulled me up against him, but the effect was not as intimidating as I thought he wanted it to be. I wasn’t scared of Zavian. Not really. But being this close to him, my body came alive. His magic, his presence, his voice—everything about Zavian drove me wild with a need I hadn’t experienced in well over a year. Maybe never. I’d slept with other guys before, but none had had the effect on me that Zavian did.
Zavian’s expression hardened. “You make me want to kill you for what you did.”
My heart dropped. I mean, I had assumed that was what he felt. But hearing it was something else entirely. “So do it.”
“You also make me want to fuck you.” Zavian’s grip on my hands loosened, but only so that he could pry them apart and place them to either side of me. He pressed my palms against the top of the stone desk.
I licked my lips as I met his needy gaze. Being alone with Zavian lit a fire inside my belly, one that burned wildly out of control with him standing over me. It would consume me, I was sure of it. Especially if Zavian didn’t do anything about it.
“So do it,” I repeated. “Fuck me if that’s what you want. Then kill me so you can live with yourself. We’re fated, Zavian. There’s nothing we can do about this.”
He leaned down and pressed his knee against one of mine, making me sit on the desk again. Once I had, Zavian loomed over me with darkened, hooded eyes. “It is what I want. I hate you, but I want you.” Then his voice quieted. “Why did you kill my brothers?”
“I told you that it wasn’t me. I told every sea fae I met that night.”
“Why?” he repeated, louder this time. “Tell me!”
Eos was as much as mystery to me as she was to Zavian. Why would Eos choose to kill two sea fae nobles? For fun, maybe. Or for riches. At least the latter I could understand. I had to tell Zavian something, or I might never get out of here—or get him into me.
My cheeks flushed under his scrutinizing gaze. My core clenched at the thought of him taking me right here, right now on this desk. His kiss had been rough. What would sex with Zavian be like?
“Riches,” I answered finally. It was why I went about thieving, after all. At least I could put that much truth behind the words. And I had been there to steal from his brothers before Eos had taken over. “I steal from the rich and give to the poor, the supernaturals at the bottom of the chain who don’t have such an easy life.”
His brow furrowed. His hands left mine and rested on the tops of my thighs. “My brothers’ lives were lost so you could play a hero?” His hold firmed, and I tried very hard not to think about the fact his fingers weren’t that far from where I wanted them most.
“It was an accident,” I said, my mouth dry. My arousal had ramped up the longer we stayed this close together, regardless of the topic of conversation. Our magic intertwined and looped together, drawing us even closer.
“An accident,” he repeated.
“Do I look like the kind of person who could kill people without remorse?”
He frowned. “No.” He growled again. “Gods.”
“They can’t save us when they created mates in the first place.”
Zavian’s hands slid up along my legs and up to my hips. “I’m going to make you pay for this.” He roughly pulled me toward him and nearly off the edge of the desk. I yelped before he swallowed the sound with a kiss that stole my breath away.
His tongue explored my mouth as his fingers gripped my hips as though they were a lifeboat through whatever was going through his mind. I kissed him back with as much fervor as he gave, even reaching up to wrap my arms around his neck.
He tore away from me as I did so and growled, slamming my palms back on to the desk. “No. Keep your hands there. You do not get to touch, you do not get to come, unless I tell you to. That is your punishment.”
Excitement fluttered through me. I liked when he commanded me this way. When Zavian took charge. But I wanted to touch his face and tangle my fingers in his hair. I wanted to rake my fingernails down his back as he had his way with me here on this desk.
“Will you follow my orders?” Zavian asked.
I nodded. “Yes.” Gods, yes. Anything that had him touching me, kissing me, being simply with me, I would agree to in this very moment.
Zavian kissed me again with wild abandon. It was impossible to keep from touching him, but I did as he asked. His tongue explored my mouth, sliding against my tongue, and he leaned in to grind against me just as before. The feel of his hard length against me sent my mind on a dizzying whirl and lit my core on fire. Our magic danced together, his caressing my body like extensions of his physical touch. Everything spiraled in that moment. I needed Zavian, all of him. Otherwise I would come undone entirely, never to be put back together again.
I moaned, which sent him grinding against me even harder. A gasp escaped my lips as I rolled my head back, exposing it for him. He pressed rough kisses to one side my neck and then the other.
Suddenly, Zavian growled and pulled up, looking at me with fiery eyes lit with anger. “What is that?”
I gulped, my stomach sinking as I realized what he meant. Dax’s bite mark. He hadn’t seen it befor
e now. “I—”
“Nyx,” he said as he ground into me again.
My eyes closed as a moan escaped my lips. “He was dying. You said we had to keep each other alive… There wasn’t another option.” My words became pleading explanations. I wanted him to kiss me again, to forgive what I’d done to keep my unit alive at his own word.
Zavian pressed his lips together into a thin line. “I could have saved you from that.”
I held his cheek. “It’s okay, Zavian.”
“That monster marked you.”
“It’s going to heal.”
“That’s not what I meant.”
I leveled him with a look, a smirk building on my lips. “Then mark me too. I am your mate.”
Zavian froze for a moment, then smiled devilishly as if this were the first moment he’d realized exactly what being mates entailed. That he could absolutely mark me. That no matter what I’d had to do to survive or how much Zavian distrusted and hated me, that we could go forward from here together. Whatever that might look like.
With another hungry growl, Zavian tore my hand from his cheek and put it back on the desk. “You do not move these again, or I will leave you here, wet and needy. Is that understood?”
I swallowed hard. “Yes.”
His hands left mine, traveling to the zipper on the front of my uniform. With a quick tug, he had the zipper undone and the top portion slipped down over my shoulders. He’d already seen me naked, but his hungry eyes devoured my breasts as one of his hands found one to hold and the other continued unzipping. I moaned at his touch and lifted my hips long enough to let him pull down the bottoms of my uniform along with my underwear.
“Gorgeous,” he whispered and fell to his knees before me. He pulled open my knees and smirked devilishly. “And ready.”
My breath came in shallow, needy gasps. Anticipation made my hands twitch. I wanted to reach down and press his mouth against me, or at least be able to touch him. But I also did not want to be left here hot and ready, either. Instead, I fisted my palms against the table and pretended I was holding on to Zavian’s shoulders instead.