Chapter 14 Devora
Devora
Ididn’t hear from Nox for two days.
I was restless. And irritated. It was beyond frustrating to be in the thick of the action, only to be shoved back in my tower without another word. What did Nox mean when he said I had to earn my answers? What was he planning?
I wanted to help. And it wasn’t only because of what he could offer me.
This entire operation, the mysterious fatesprig, this Scarven person, Nox’s safehouse for his victims…
I couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something more here.
Something important. Something Nox’s people thought was worth fighting for.
I never had that before.
Thank the Fates for Arowyn, my new (figurative) best friend. If she hadn’t vouched for me, he probably wouldn’t have given me another thought.
The two days after the midnight mission were worse than all three months combined. I felt like I was going to crawl out of my skin with impatience. I was still allowed to leave my room, but every time I ventured down to their secret meeting space, someone was guarding it.
I kept my promise to Milo, at least. Poor kid looked like he was going to piss his pants when Nox found out he’d let me leave. I couldn’t help but feel a little bad. I left him a note in the greenhouse the day after, telling him to meet Rebekah in my room that evening when she delivered my dinner.
The excitement on Rebekah’s face when I told her he was going to come see her…I couldn’t help but smile. They were so sweet. Aglow with that fresh young love that made butterflies erupt in your stomach and your cheeks hurt from grinning.
But it also pinched something inside of me. An old mark with so many scabs sewn across it that I thought nothing would ever get through.
I wasn’t used to that kind of innocent affection.
Where I came from, people were commodities to be used, not cherished.
When I was starving or needed a roof over my head, I found the nearest bar with wealthy men seeking a distraction.
For a little bit of attention, I could get a free meal or a warm bed.
It was all about what you had to offer, how you could be useful to someone else.
That was how Lady Reaux had dragged me into her schemes.
What I could do for her, and what she could do for me.
It wasn’t compassion. It wasn’t anything akin to love.
Miss Leigh from the orphanage was one of the only people to care about me simply because of who I was.
An unconditional love not born out of necessity, but choice. Not survival, but sincerity.
The empress could’ve been that person for me. Clarissa was kind and genuine, with a loyalty that reminded me of Nox. I saw the way they both loved those around them, and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t yearn for it.
But I’d ruined any chance for either of those relationships.
I shouldn't be surprised Nox wanted to use me for whatever the next mission against Scarven was. That was what I’d proven myself to be good at. A tool, a weapon. Something that was needed but not always wanted.
After two long days, there was a rap on my door before Nox abruptly entered the room.
I jumped and pulled the bedsheets up to my chest. “Most people wait to be let in, you know,” I shot at him. “I could’ve been naked.”
“As if you didn’t spend an entire evening roaming my house in your lacy nightgown,” he said without missing a beat, his eyes doing a quick scan of the room before settling on me. They flicked to the top of the sheet and back up to my face.
My cheeks heated against my will as I reached for my glasses on the nightstand. “Does the fact that you’ve deigned to come visit me mean I can finally know what you’re up to?”
He let out a sigh that filled the air. “So dramatic. Come on.”
“Come where?”
His large hand wrapped around the bedpost at my feet, dark rings glittering at me. “Are you always this obstinate?”
“More so, usually.” I gave him a sweet smile.
“Fine. If you’d rather stay up here—”
“Fates, I thought you were supposed to be charming,” I said with a disgruntled noise as I hastily threw off the covers. “I’m coming, I’m coming.”
I followed him through the hall and down several flights of stairs until we made it to the bottom floor.
“So where are we going?” I prompted, tired of the heavy silence between us.
“Patience is a virtue,” he drawled.
I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, well, so is not locking people up, but that’s none of my business.” When he glared at me, I held my hands up in innocence, then adjusted my glasses. “Is there a new mission?”
He hummed, and the sound dripped down my spine. “So eager to jump into danger?”
“I’m just as curious about what Scarven is using this fatesprig stuff for as you are.”
His eyes examined me one more time before he spun and opened a door in the hallway.
We were in the same large room as two nights ago, with dark brick walls and a wooden floor.
Right by the door was a couch. Arowyn lounged on it with her feet resting on a small coffee table.
Next to that was a whole wall of cabinets, where Silas and Milo had taken up residency.
There were pouches overflowing with dried flowers and half-filled glass vials of liquid strewn across the cabinets. Their Alchemist den, I assumed.
My eyes kept roaming, taking in the space.
To the right of Silas and Milo were a couple of bookshelves perched by the only window in the room.
Along another stretch of wall was an area for target practice.
Several circular targets were set up, with a cache of daggers, axes, bows and arrows, and little throwing stars inside a basket.
Everett and a handsome man I hadn’t met but who looked like he could kill me and bury my body without getting a drop of dirt on his impeccable suit sat at a table in the center of the room.
And finally, directly to my right, was a desk. Nox strode to it and uncorked a bottle of amber liquor, pouring a generous helping before leaning against the side of the desk.
An unexpected twinge went through me. I didn’t know these people. This wasn’t my home. This was my prison—it should feel cold. Unwelcoming. Hostile.
But it felt like someone’s home. It was full of life and personality and mixed smells of herbs and steel, sweet alcohol and sweat.
Watching these people so casual and unburdened, I could see this was a place where they let their guard down.
Even Nox’s shoulders relaxed as he swirled his glass in his hand.
Until their attention turned to me.
A combination of wary and curious eyes found mine. The outsider. The traitor. The broken Shadow Wielder. I could imagine their thoughts, and I didn’t blame them.
I just had to prove them wrong.
“Official introductions might be unnecessary at this point, but this is Devora,” Nox said, lifting his glass at me. The way he said my name, the letters drawn out in that low, smoky voice, warmed the back of my neck.
“You already know who Arowyn is,” he continued. I glanced at the couch where the woman sat. “She’s a Strider. That means she can—”
“I know what it means,” I cut in, then rolled my lips. “Sorry. Keep going.”
“Silas and Milo are in the back,” Nox said.
The two Alchemists looked up at the sound of their names, and Milo’s face immediately turned a bright pink.
“And you know Everett, our Illusionist”—Everett stared at me from the table, something strange about his eyes that I couldn’t quite place—“and Kieran, my second-in-command.” He gestured to the last man sitting at the table with Everett. “He’s also a Shifter. A stag.”
Kieran’s dark brown eyes pierced me, sizing me up as if he could see into my soul. It was unnerving having all of them focused on me. The insect under a magnifying glass.
To my surprise, something small and furry wound between my legs. I looked down with a gasp and then laughed.
“I was wondering where you’d been, Jaggy.” I knelt to rub my fingers through her soft, speckled fur. She hadn’t snuck into my room for several days now.
Nox chuckled into his glass. I looked over to see him giving me a curious look.
“What?” I stood back up with a furrowed brow.
Kieran, who had been stone-faced and quiet, put a hand over his mouth to cover a smirk.
I narrowed my eyes. “What is—” My question morphed into a strangled yelp. At my feet, Jaggy suddenly started to change.
Her fur sank into her skin as her four limbs elongated, her thin tail shrinking and vanishing before my eyes. Long, black locks grew from her head at an uncanny rate. Glowing eyes dimmed to dark brown until I was no longer staring into the face of Jaggy, but Tessa.
The Shifter stood a foot from me and wiggled her fingers, offering me a wink. She wore a sleek gray bodysuit and brown combat boots that managed to stay silent as she slunk over to the couch and sat next to a laughing Arowyn.
“It’s been you this whole time?” I asked once I caught my breath. “You were the cat sneaking into my room?”
Tessa shrugged. “Noxy boy wanted someone to check up on you.”
“Of course he did,” I grumbled, shooting him a dirty look. He was still smiling into his glass. That might have been the first time I’d ever seen him truly smile. It made something clench in my stomach.
“Now that we’re all here,” Kieran started, rising from his seat and buttoning his suit jacket. “Might we know why you called us, Nox?”
“Always straight to the point,” Tessa said with a dramatic sigh. “No time for pillow talk.”
Everett snorted. “To be a fly on that wall.”
Silas gave a loud humph. “We have children present,” he scolded from his side of the room, wiping his green-stained hands on an apron.
Next to him, Milo rolled his eyes. “I’m nineteen, Silas.”
“Exactly. A child.”
The tension in the room drained little by little at their banter, until Nox spoke again. “I called you here because I wanted everyone to meet, since Devora will be joining us from here on out.”