“What?” Ardyn couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He’d been tiptoeing around the secret, trying not to spill the beans and here it was, Sarah had been dishing it out freely.
“Yeah. Cast was making his move, and she somehow knew that I cared about Nitara. So she came to me with the information knowing that I would do whatever it took to stop Cast in order to save Nitara. She couldn’t make the move on her own. It would raise too much suspicion.”
“Well, isn’t she the resourceful one.”
“Now that the cat is out of the bag, and she’s worried about her position.”
“Understandably.” Ardyn thought about the information received. “Fuck, you and Nitara have been seen out together, haven’t you? At that bar?”
“Yeah, so what?”
“Well, now that you know their dirty little secret, she may take that as a threat. What if she tells Tyrellis?”
“She wouldn’t tell him that she betrayed him. The man is a nut.” Considering the idea, Graham wondered if Sarah might find a way around telling Tyrellis what she did. It wouldn’t be unlike her. “You think we need to do something about her?”
“No, I think it is a problem that will work itself out. I doubt that you were her last stop on the ‘holy fuck, save me’ train ride.” Ardyn pulled out a small screen from a compartment on his station. “Right now, our focus needs to be Nitara.”
“What are you doing?” Graham peered over his shoulder.
“This little baby allows me to see inside places deemed unfit for my kind. It keeps a few days of history on file. It’s like a surveillance system without having to get inside to wire up a bunch of cameras. The bugs travel inside on visitors and just hang out. Right now I’m searching for the last sighting of Nitara.”
“Wait there, go back.” Graham tapped the screen. Ardyn rewound the image. “She went into his room? Can we see inside?”
“Yep, just switch views, and there.” The two looked at Nitara and Tyrellis inside his room. Even on screen the tension between the two was palpable.
“He doesn’t look pleased, does he?”
“No, he doesn’t.”
“Is there sound?” Graham frowned. “We need to be able to hear what’s going on.”
“Only on the live feed. I haven’t been able to work out the playback issue.”
They watched as the two spoke, the tension increased, and then Tyrellis pulled out the photograph. Their fears about Sarah came true; why else would he have that image? Why else would he be upset about it suddenly after years of the two speaking with each other? Moments later, a worked up Tyrellis forced Nitara to return to the space inside of him and walked out of the room.
“That can't be good.” Graham stepped away. “How long ago was that?”
“Looks like a few days.” Ardyn frowned. “You know, she told me about how it works, how he pulls her into him, but I would have never imagined that. It’s so messed up!”
“She hasn’t been seen since?” Graham wanted to think of anything but the disturbing scene they’d just witnessed.
“Not that I’m picking up. This is really going to make things more difficult for us.” Ardyn put the screen down.
“We have to figure out a way to work around this.”
“Should be simple enough, getting a djinn out of a vampire. Yeah, no problem.” Ardyn hadn’t planned on needing to extract Nitara from Tyrellis. He had no idea how they were going to make that happen.
Nitara could fashion her unwanted vessel to resemble something other than the hollow chest cavity of a walking dead man. Despite her efforts to disguise things, she couldn’t get past the stale scent of decay or the echoes of his lunacy that played like eerie background noise to every moment of her time spent trapped inside of him. She had to get out. By her calculations it had already been a few days, longer than she’d been inside in quite a while. The only time he’d kept her tucked away that long was when Daegal first created their bond. He didn’t trust that she couldn’t break it and refused to let her out.
She’d started her normal routine of bugging the master to irritate him into releasing her, but it wasn’t working out in her favor. The first couple of days went as planned. Tyrellis begged and pleaded for her to stop, but she was relentless. She tortured him with rock music that induced headaches and sounds of whale calls. That was one that she lucked out on after overhearing him talk about how much the sound annoyed him. She did a lot more than just irritate him with noise. She made him recall horrible things that he’d done to people, and the things that he’d made her do. It was an ever-running list that played on a loop. Usually after the first few hours of mental recaps, Tyrellis gave up and sent her on her way. This wasn’t the usual occasion.
It wasn’t long until her efforts to drive him mad began to backfire. His increasing insanity seemed to cross over to her. Though she eased back, the damage had already been done. The ramblings of his mind bled through the wall of her false surroundings and flooded her own nerve endings. Soon her head was filled with thoughts of death and regrets that were not her own. Each time she thought it was over, that he had found some semblance of peace, Nitara would double over. Her hands clutched the side of her head, as the wailing began once again.
“Why are you here?” Cast looked over his glass at the vampire he’d only seen up close one time before as he was being kicked out of her home. It was right after her husband had taken over. When Cast made it clear that he wouldn’t be one of the ones to kiss up to the new ruler, he was given the boot from the chosen land.
“I come to you with an offer.” Sarah frowned at the surroundings. This wasn’t Cast’s usual spot, but he’d been laying low since his run-in with Nitara. “Why else would I come to this dump?”
“An offer? What could you possibly have to offer me?” Sarah wasn’t a fan of Cast and that was no secret. She made sure that he and his followers suffered for their refusal to fall in line. Tyrellis wasn’t the monster he was painted to be. Everyone knew it was Sarah whispering her seeds of evil into his ear.
“Reverie, of course.” She remained standing in front of him as the smile spread across her face. “That is what you want, isn’t it? I’m here to offer it to you, should you agree to my terms.”
Cast sat up in his seat. “Excuse me?” There had to be a catch. Why would she be there to give him anything? He scouted the bar, checking for her minions, but it appeared that she had come without her usual entourage. In fact, they were completely alone. Even the bartender had disappeared.
“Yes, Cast. You want it, and I’m offering it to you.” She looked to the empty seat at his table, requesting permission she didn’t need to join him. He slid it out with his foot, and with a frown, she sat on the chair that looked as if it hadn’t been cleaned in a decade.
“Why would you want to offer Reverie to me? Why would you turn your back on Tyrellis now?” Sarah made a good show of being the loyal wife. Yes, she was conniving, evil to her core, no one doubted that, but she was loyal to Tyrellis. Or at least she was good at making everyone believe she was.
“All things must come to an end. Even the immortals have an expiration date. I fear there is an end in sight for my husband.” She waved to the bartender who had been peeking through a side door. He quickly brought her a drink. Her favorite was known by all and kept on tap. Once the drink was in her hand, he hustled out of the front door.
“Are you telling me that you’ve decided to jump ship before it happens?” He laughed. It was classic yet unexpected. The king was going down and those closest to him were holding knives behind their backs. Who would have thought the queen would be the first to draw her blade to stab him?
“I’m being proactive.” She sipped from her drink, unfazed by the man’s obvious judgements. “Look, either you accept my offer of help, or you don’t. It is no secret that you will be making a move for the throne as soon as it is open. Right now, you have a choice; decide if you want to succeed, because I can promise you that without my help, you wil
l fail.”
“If Tyrellis is going down, why shouldn’t I just wait to make my move? When the little genie bitch isn’t a problem, I’ll have no issue with taking what’s mine.” Cast had already started to spin a web in his mind that ended with him in the very place he wanted to be. He would rule Reverie and his people would no longer suffer under the hands of the prick whose wife didn’t even believe in his ability to rule.
“That just shows how simple minded you really are.” She leaned across the table. “Waiting won’t work for you because Graham is the one that’s going to take him down. Do you think you can stand against him and win?” She knew that he couldn’t, the two had already faced each other and it didn’t end well for the younger contender.
“How do you know that?” His jaw squared as he pushed the glass around on the table.
“Don’t worry about how I know what I know.” Polishing off her drink, Sarah stood from her seat. She circled the table with slow, deliberate steps that pushed her hips out and gave her body a curvy appearance that wasn’t entirely natural to her form. As she reached his side of the table, she dragged a well-manicured nail up his arm and rested her hands on his shoulder. Confident hands began to massage his shoulders. “What I suggest is that we strike before Graham does. Claim your right before Graham can make his move and he will have no choice but to secede.”
“What is it that you have planned?” Cast rolled his neck, enjoying her touch. “You wouldn’t be here if you didn’t have a solid plan in mind. What is it?”
“Not here.” She leaned in close to his ear, and as she slipped a piece of paper into his pocket, she whispered, “Meet me in two hours.”
“Inda, come out! I know you’re in there!” Jax realized where Inda was when it became clear that Briar and all of the key members of her guard had left Vilar. The dragon was quick to take flight despite the fairies who tried to keep him at bay. He landed on Jinn’s lawn and called for the woman until she was forced by the others to face him.
“What the hell do you want?” Inda, the woman who still owned his heart, finally came out after Jinn threatened to put both her and her hot-headed ex into a bottle together if they didn't work out their differences. If anyone could do it, it was him.
“What do I want?” He paced the ground. “You come back here now … no wait, you’ve been here for years, but you chose not to tell me. How can you stand there and ask me what I want? I want an explanation, Inda.”
“Too bad, I don’t owe you one.” She turned, ready to storm back into the house, but the door she’d left open slammed in her face. “Fuck,” she cursed at the djinn under her breath. Of course Jinn would force her to deal with her ex, hell, it was what she was doing to him.
“You don’t? You left me high and dry, and then you return without a word. The entire damn world knows you’re here, except me! I’m supposed to be the love of your life.”
“Love of my life?” Inda laughed. “You think a lot of yourself!”
“I’m sorry, are you telling me that those weren’t your exact words?” Jax kept his distance and stood on the curb. He knew the woman—if he came an inch closer before she was ready, she’d explode. She stood on the porch staring down at him with hands on her hips and an expression on her face that warned him to stay away.
“Yeah, I did say that, but that was before you kicked me to the curb for being loyal to my people.” She paced the small area on the porch. “You were my everything until you demanded that I give up everything for you!”
“I made no such demands.”
“Liar!” her scream echoed in the empty streets and scared a family of birds from their home in a nearby tree. “You wanted everything from me, even when it meant that you would have to give up nothing! I couldn’t believe you could be so damn selfish.”
“I wanted you here with me.” He stared at her. “I didn't think that was such a bad thing.”
“I told you I would be back!” Her hands flailed, punctuating her frustration with the conversation and the man in front of her.
“Yes, you did, but when? For all we knew, you would have to be gone for centuries. You were so willing to give up all that time together.”
“If you loved me as much as you claimed to, the time wouldn’t have mattered!”
“Really? You expected me to wait centuries when it would only seem like a few years to you at best? And you call me the selfish one?” Finally, he chose to approach her. He was fed up over being treated like the villain in their relationship.
“Yes, Jax, you are selfish because you think the world revolves around you. Well it doesn’t!”
“Give me a break, Indy!” He stepped closer again, but she stepped back, retaining the distance between them.
“Don’t call me that.” She shook her head. “You don’t have the right to call me that!”
“Now I can’t call you by your name? Do you hate me that much?” His hands fell to his side. “Why do I deserve this from you?”
“That’s not my name. And no, I don’t hate you. To hate you would mean I’d have to give a damn about you.”
“If you care so little, why have you been hiding from me?” He challenged her, and she flinched. He saw it then in her eyes, she cared even if she wanted him and the rest of the world to believe that she didn’t.
“Hiding? I haven’t been hiding from you.” Inda stomped away from the house and the prying eyes and ears of those inside. “If your ego was any bigger there wouldn’t be room for the rest of us on this planet!”
“Ego? Right, so it’s because of my ego that you swore Briar to secrecy?” He followed her on her path down the abandoned suburban street.
“I don’t have to explain anything to you.” She stopped walking. “Stop following me, Jax!” Unleashing her wings, she took to the sky. He, of course, followed her path. Until they landed in the middle of what was once a thriving cattle farm, but now was the home to overgrown fields of sunburnt grass.
“Inda, I’m not here to fight you.” Jax’s feet planted on the ground as his dragon retreated.
“Well, you’re doing a hell of a good job with that.” She groaned. “Why can’t you just leave me alone?”
“I came to talk to you,” Jax huffed. “Why is that so hard for you to do? Why do you have such a problem with talking to me?”
“So talk. What do you want?”
“I want you back. I miss you. Even after all of these years, it’s you that I want. Ever since I heard you were back; my mind is consumed with thoughts of you. And here you are, just as hotheaded and annoying as ever, yet I still want nothing more than to pull you into my arms.” He was the one pacing now as Inda watched. “I was so angry at you, for years after you left. I thought about what I would do or say if I ever saw you again. This is not it. This is not the fight I thought we would have. Instead of burning the sky with my rage, I just wish that you were mine again, that I could take it all back and do it right. Knowing that you have been back here all this time and avoiding me, I know that I fucked up.”
“Jax,” Inda wasn’t expecting his confession. She expected hours of fighting followed by the two of them going their separate ways, but that wasn’t the case. She was caught completely off guard. “I can’t deal with this. Not right now, not with everything going on.”
“Fine, I understand that. Handle your business, but I’m not going anywhere.”
“You’re just going to hang around?”
“What else does the prince of dragons have to do?”
“This won’t end the way you want it to.”
“I’m almost positive of that.”
When they returned to the home turned HQ, the door was standing open, no longer locking her outside with her estranged ex. The crew on the inside felt that she’d successfully faced her issues. Jax had followed her back to the house; apparently, he meant that he literally wasn’t going to go anywhere until they’d handle their issues. She wanted nothing to do with it. Already she was trying to calculate a way to escape
him, but she would have to wait.
“What are you doing?” Inda looked over her shoulder to her unwanted follower.
“I’m coming inside,” he responded as if it should have been obvious.
“Why?”
“I was asked to help.” Jax smiled.
“Excuse me?” She rolled her eyes. “Who the hell asked you for help?”
“Jinn and I are friends. He called me to ask for my assistance with your problem with Reverie.”
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.” She scoffed as she stomped forward. Why the hell did they need help from the dragon? Jinn was trying to mess with her head, she was sure of it.
“He’s not. And if you don’t mind coming inside, we can get this show on the road.” Jinn stood in the now open door with a look of exasperation. “I think we’ve wasted enough time as it is.”
Inda stomped into the house with Jax on her tail. She muttered about betrayal and bullshit, but neither Jinn or Jax attempted to decipher the flurry of curses.
“Are you two done?” Mike couldn’t help the question that fell from his mouth.
“Fuck off.” Inda flipped him the bird as she stomped past him and to the kitchen. “I need a drink!”
“We need to get in there. Nitara is missing and now Tyrellis is in hiding. What the fuck is going on in there?” Graham barked at Ardyn—who worked to repair the lost connection—while he paced the floor.
“I’m working on it. I don’t know what happened, none of my surveillance bugs are functioning.” He tapped on the console furiously.
“Which means someone found us out!” Graham couldn’t contain his anger no matter how much he tried. “If someone figured out they were being watched, how long do you think it would be until they trace it back to us?”
“That’s impossible.” Ardyn lifted his eyes to the vampire. “How would they have known? They are literally bugs.”
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