Chapter 11
DAVEN
“You look familiar. Have we met before?” Ryneth asked when Kylix walked into Milanov’s office.
Daven caught him staring at Kylix’s black-and-gold Luminary uniform and immediately hated it. “I have one of those too,” he muttered. He wanted Ryneth’s eyes on him, not on Kylix. The man had been tense as a leaf ever since they’d left the Academy.
Kylix smirked at him before giving Ryneth his full attention. “We have. I led the Luminary operation that found you and the other prisoners.”
“I—” Ryneth licked his lips. “Does that mean you got the others out too? We were over thirty. There was Lysa, and Karo…” He clamped his lips shut, looking awfully lost for a brief second.
“They are,” Milanov’s voice cut in. “And you’ll see them as soon as they’re fit enough. But first, we focus on your recollections. Kylix needs answers.”
He crossed the room as Zimeon stepped inside, one hand already lifting in a silent signal for Vandor to close the door and take position against the wall. “And when he is done, there are things you need to hear from us as well.”
“Yesterday you were still half-drugged and barely coherent,” Milanov added, glancing back at Ryneth. “Today you’re stable enough to answer, which means we no longer have the luxury of waiting.”
Daven caught Ryneth’s cool hand and pulled him back onto the couch, pressing their thighs together until there was no space left between them. His thumb brushed once across Ryneth’s knuckles before he tightened his hold. The heat of Ryneth’s skin was his territory. So was his distress.
“While the others are recovering, you are our only witness.” Kylix dragged a chair back with his boot and straddled it, long legs planted wide. “And we are running out of time. So I need you to explain in your own words what happened when the spacecraft took off from Düren.”
“Stop looking at him like that,” Daven snapped.
Kylix turned his gaze to him, his smile turning sinister. “Or what? If you can’t take it, perhaps I need to remove you from this interrogation, Daven.”
“Fuck you. You’re scaring him. He—”
“It’s okay.” Ryneth squeezed his hand, and Daven ground his jaw, nostrils flaring.
Kylix cocked his head, interest piqued as he stared back at him. But the moment Ryneth started talking, whatever he’d been thinking vanished and he shifted his focus back to Ryneth.
“We’d just left when a black spacecraft appeared out of nowhere,” Ryneth began.
“At first, we thought there was an error, but then it just came straight for us, clamping onto us. The alarms…they shrieked so loudly. It was awful.” Ryneth’s voice hitched and he had a faraway look in his eyes.
“There was so much… panic. Then suddenly, they were just there. On board. With us.”
“What did they look like?” Kylix asked. He was typing on his multi-slate.
“I don’t know. They wore black masks. Their faces were hidden behind those flat, dead visors. And their voices…they were distorted. Good Light, they sounded like machines screaming through a filter.”
Daven shifted, his own pulse ticking in his jaw. He saw Ryneth’s pupils swallow the silver of his eyes, fixed on a horror he hadn’t seen.
“What happened once they entered the ship?” Kylix pressed.
“They lined us all up,” Ryneth whispered, his fingers crushing Daven’s. “They tied us up. Some of us were beaten.”
“Did they mention they were Concordant?”
“I saw the mark,” Ryneth rasped. “The white spiral. I’ve seen it before, painted near the Ward.
Scratched into the stone where the guards tried to scrub it off.
People said it meant someone had crossed through.
Or been taken.” His jaw clenched. “I should have listened to my gut. Every time I tried to check the Kassa run, the listing vanished. The recruiter never showed. But the Helion contract… it kept reappearing. Blinking like it was written just for me. I thought it was luck. Better pay. I needed the credits for Tavi and Mara, so I took the risk.”
Daven felt a sharp arc of static leap from Ryneth’s skin. It bit into his wrist, but he didn’t pull away. Instead, he moved closer, pressing his shoulder against Ryneth’s to anchor him. Ryneth just stared at the floor.
“What happened next?” Kylix asked.
Ryneth’s breath hitched. He didn’t look up. “After they shackled us like cattle, they brought us to the cages. My friends... Lysa... they put her next to mine. I don’t remember parts of the trip, because they drugged us.”
“Yes, we found drugs in your system. Drugs made by a crime organization named Attica. Did you hear anyone mention that name?”
Ryneth shook his head. “I d-don’t think so. It was hard to keep my mind clear. The drugs… they fucked with my head.”
“Yeah, I know all about that. It’s Attica’s homemade brew.” Kylix’s mouth twisted. “Attica has its hands in the drugs, but Concordant is the one moving people across systems, and lately they’ve been crossing into each other’s business more often than I like. What do you know about Concordant?”
Ryneth visibly flinched at the name. “Back on Düren, they represent everything the people fear. We don’t speak their name out loud. They break through the Ward.”
The Ward. Daven felt his stomach tighten.
“What do they do? Drugs? Violence?”
Ryneth’s head snapped up. His mouth opened, and Daven found himself leaning in, wanting to understand what could scare him like that.
“People,” Ryneth finally breathed. “They take our people.”
Kylix’s expression hardened. “Tell me exactly what you saw.”
“We don’t know. People disappear. And when we were in that building, before you came, in our cages, they—they…” Ryneth dropped his head. His shoulders shook, and for a moment Daven thought he was crying. The thought made his chest tighten, made the humming beneath his skin vibrate nearly painfully.
“They set up screens,” Ryneth whispered. “Dozens of them. There were painted eyes behind masks, watching us.”
Kylix shared a knowing look with Milanov. “What happened then, Ryneth?”
“They dragged a man out.” Ryneth’s fingers crushed Daven’s hand. “They beat him until he could barely stand. And those people… placed bids. They s-sold him.”
Kylix leaned forward, his shadow stretching over them. “Why did they leave you behind when we came in?”
Ryneth went rigid. The shaking stopped, replaced by a frozen stillness. For a second he only stared at the floor, pupils blown wide.
“I… don’t know.” The answer came too fast, and the tight movement of his throat made Daven’s gut twist. “There was a man. One of them. He was arguing with the others. He didn’t want to leave me behind.”
Kylix’s posture changed at once. “What man?”
Ryneth shook his head. “I don’t know. He was blond. I barely saw his face. He was arguing with the others.” His fingers crushed Daven’s. “They said I was too dangerous. That I was already causing problems.”
Daven felt the answer land before the words did. Not forgotten. Not abandoned by accident. Something about Ryneth had made them keep him in place.
“Too dangerous because of what?” Kylix pressed.
Ryneth flinched. “I don’t know. I think… because of the static. Maybe.” He shrugged, too hard, too forced. “Or maybe they were just fucking with me. I don’t know.”
Static snapped across Ryneth’s fingertips, but he didn’t seem to notice.
“He’s hit his limit,” Daven snapped, pushing to his feet. “Look at him, Kylix. Enough.”
“It’s enough when I say it is.” Kylix rose, kicking the chair aside as he let out a frustrated growl.
“No, it isn’t.” Daven stepped between them, squaring his shoulders as he glared at his cousin. Air ripped from his palms, spiraling into a compact storm that drove toward Kylix, ready to strike if his cousin wouldn’t back the fuck off.
“Daven.” Kylix’s nostrils flared. “We’re running out of time.”
“So is he. He’s had enough. He’s traumatized.”
“That’s not good enough.” Kylix’s eyes changed, the brown irises dissolving into molten gold.
“W-what—” Ryneth recoiled, scrambling away from Kylix until his back hit the corner of the couch. “What are you? Good Light, he… he was right.”
Daven turned back to Ryneth. “Who?”
“The blond man,” Ryneth whispered. “He said the Imperial family on Helion was as cruel as it was just. He said that Helion breeds monsters and teaches them how to look harmless.”
Ryneth shuddered, unraveling in front of them.
“Keep talking,” Kylix barked.
“Leave him the fuck alone.” Daven reached for Ryneth, but the other man flinched, silver eyes glimmering with unshed tears.
“I saw him today,” Ryneth said, voice breaking. “At the Academy. I think it was him. The same blond man with the curls. The one who didn’t want to leave me behind.”
Kylix went still. “You’re sure?”
Ryneth swallowed hard. “No. I—I don’t know.
I only saw him for a second. But I think so.
” His gaze dropped to his own hands. “But I’m not…
from Helion,” he mumbled, more to himself than to any of them.
“Why would he think I was? I don’t understand.
And what is this thing inside of me? Why does it keep coming when I don’t want it? ”
His whole body was shaking now, teeth chattering hard enough that Daven could feel it when he caught him. Ryneth’s hands fisted in Daven’s jacket, and it was the first time the other man reached for him, wanting his protection.
It made Daven’s heart nearly burst out of his chest as he hauled Ryneth’s sagging weight against his chest.
“Which blond man did he see today?” Kylix asked, eyes narrowed, molten gold filling his irises.
Ryneth made a weak sound against Daven’s chest. “Blond curls,” he whispered. “In the courtyard…”
Daven looked up. Kylix had gone still.
“Theo,” they said at the same time.
Kylix blew out a breath. “That confirms it.” His multi-slate dinged, but he ignored it.
He looked at Ryneth. “The man you saw today was Theo. He’s Bekn’s younger brother, but he’s not the one who hurt you.
Bekn Zaid is the one who runs Attica.” Then he turned to Milanov.
Milanov went still. “Now that Concordant is on Helion, they’ll be hunting our people. ”
Ryneth froze in Daven’s arms. “Hunted,” he choked out. “No. No. No.”
He locked up in Daven’s arms, every muscle going tight. Then he tore free and surged up from the couch, furious and out of reach. “You’re wrong. No one hunts me.”
The silver in his eyes burned white.
“Ryneth, get down,” Daven snapped, reaching for him, but a spark bit into his palm and forced his hand back.
Ryneth was already gone. He looked at Milanov. Then Kylix. “What do you want from me? Why me? I’m nothing. I need to go.”
“Ryneth,” Daven started, but Ryneth bolted for the exit.
“Door,” Milanov ordered.
Vandor stepped in front of him, immovable.
“Let me out!” Ryneth screamed.
Static exploded from him. A blue-white bolt slammed into the obsidian desk, cracking the stone like a gunshot. Another shot tore toward Kylix.
Daven’s air snapped forward and swallowed it before it could hit. The impact rattled the glass walls. “Ryneth, stop!”
“No!”
Another strike caught Daven across the chest, burning through his jacket and biting deep enough to make him grit his teeth.
“Why me?” Ryneth choked as more light burst from his hands, shattering the holo-display on the wall. “What am I to you? A weapon?”
He turned toward Milanov, shaking, light gathering in his palms.
Daven moved. He threw himself straight into the storm, took the hit, and slammed Ryneth back against the desk with the full weight of his body.
“Look at me!” he roared, face inches from Ryneth’s. “Look at me, aethera!”
Ryneth went rigid, his head striking the desk’s surface. Static hissed between them. His eyes locked on Daven’s, wide and wet, his breath breaking apart.
His hand twitched toward Kylix again—
“Enough.”
Milanov stepped forward, his eyes turning a deep amethyst as he stopped every movement. The effect was instant, cutting the static out mid-strike. One moment the air was alive with it. The next, everything went dead.
Daven froze with his air still coiled around his hands. Milanov almost never used that power, and every time he did, it was impossible not to stare.
Ryneth hung where Daven had pinned him, hands still outstretched, fingers curled like he was still trying to strike.
The white blaze in his eyes was gone, leaving only his wide silver stare. He looked down at his hands. Tried to summon a spark. Daven saw the muscles in his forearms tense, but nothing came.
“Did you think it was a work contract that brought you to Helion?” Milanov said. “You were summoned. And before you accuse us of keeping you blind, we were going to tell you once you were stable enough to hear it. Guessing wrong could have broken you faster than waiting.”
Ryneth stared at him, chest heaving. “Summoned?” he said, like the word meant nothing. “What the fuck are you talking about? Why would I be summoned? Why didn’t anyone tell me?”
“Ryneth, I have no need to lie to you.” Milanov’s gaze didn’t waver. “I am the Imperial of Helion, and I have you exactly where I want you.”
Daven watched as Ryneth swallowed. The muscles in his throat jumped. “And… where’s that?”
“Home.”
Ryneth opened his mouth again, but Milanov raised a hand. “This is Zimeon. You met him in the medical wing. He is our family doctor and head of our lab.”
“Yeah, I know him. He was there when they brought me in.” Ryneth swiped sweat from his forehead and tucked a strand of hair behind his ear.
Zimeon smiled. “Oh no, youngling. We’ve known each other for twenty-one years.”