Chapter 12
“Do you not realize the situation you are in?” Jyuri hissed through clenched teeth the moment the door clicked shut. “Are you oblivious to the number of people who are sacrificing themselves for you? Those who have done so from the beginning!”
I stared at him wide eyed.
“I wouldn’t care if not for Zorinna, so I am offering this warning for her sake alone.
Do not ever disappear from here again, flimsy little Human.
There are far worse things beyond these walls.
And if you die and hurt Zorinna in the process, I will make you wish you never lived.
” He dragged a long nail across the bedsheets.
“It will be fun for me. I’m not fond of any creature who steals my darling’s attention. ”
I swallowed the lump in my throat, hoping the mixture of anger and hurt would go down with it.
“I actually don’t realize the sort of situation I’m in!
No one will tell me anything, except that my magic is a danger, and now, apparently, the outside world is a danger, too.
Do you expect me to be your willing prisoner?
To sit around twiddling my thumbs, waiting for an answer? I want to live my life!”
Jyuri’s yellow-gold eyes grew darker. “As expected of a Human. Ignorant, selfish, and unwilling or unable to imagine anything beyond their own two feet.”
A scoff left my lips before I could help it. “I’m ignorant—selfish—for my lack of excitement over my situation?”
“Yes, quite.”
Groaning in frustration, I balled my hands into fists at my side. “I don’t know why I expected anything more than riddles from a Fae. Look, I don’t care about your precious Zorinna—”
Hands were at my throat before I could finish the words.
Sharp, black claws dug into my flesh until blood spilled around the points.
An immediate pain bloomed in the back of my skull as the lack of air left spots in my vision.
I had moments left before he crushed my windpipe, but I wasn’t capable of fighting him off.
He was faster, smarter, stronger than I was on my best day.
My mouth had gotten me killed, as my crew always said it would one day.
We can’t die yet, little monster.
A surge of magical energy coursed through my body like a breath of life.
My vision cleared, sharper than before. Newfound vigor pumped through my aching muscles.
My head was no longer foggy, and with the ability to think clearly, the only thing on my mind was to kill.
With my second wind, I brought my hands to my neck, prying Jyuri’s off of me in one quick motion. Easy. So easy.
The unbridled rage that had clouded Jyuri’s eyes had melted into shock. “Child, cease this. Do not listen to him.”
He deserves it. He tried to kill us. He’s a liar. They’re all liars.
The garbled sound that ripped from my throat as I leaped for him was more akin to animal than Human.
I was on him in an instant, tackling him to the ground, straddling his waist, and curling my hands around his throat the same way he had done mine.
My hands stained solid black, and the moment they’d made contact with Jyuri’s skin, that darkness crept up his throat, his jaw, his cheeks.
That’s it. Isn’t that nice, letting go of all of that hatred within you?
Jyuri made no indication that he was in pain, though his voice was strained as he spoke, “you can’t control it. You need to stop listening to him. He will kill you.”
“Like you tried to kill me?” My voice came out layered with the one I’d heard in my head.
He sneered. “It was a game, you sensitive thing.”
I smiled. Too wide. Too hungry to be my own. “Is this a game?”
My fingers squeezed tighter, and I let my magic flow through them.
Tighter. Tighter, until the door burst open, and I twisted my head to find Alandris and Zorinna standing in the doorway, their faces pale with horror.
And when I looked into their eyes, there was something else there, something more, and I hesitated.
That brief lapse of my focus was enough of an opening for Jyuri. He threw me off of him, sent a blast of ice cold blue flame in my direction, and everything went dark.
Arguing filled the room as I roused, slowly taking in my surroundings through half-open eyes.
“What were you thinking?” Alandris yelled at Jyuri, running his fingers through his hair in repetition.
“She irritated me,” Jyuri answered plainly.
“She irritated you, and your response was to strangle her?” Alandris let out a bitter laugh. “No, you know—that does sound like you. I’m the idiot for thinking you’d grown a conscious after all your time spent here in the mortal realm.”
Zorinna’s voice cut off the two males. “Jyuri! Jyuri, this is… too far.”
He froze and took a shuddering breath. “You are… upset with me?”
“We can talk outside.” Her eyes drifted over to me. “Nairu is awake. Let’s allow Alandris some time to speak with her. I doubt she wants to see you.”
Jyuri stopped in the doorway, his head tilted towards Alandris. “He grows stronger and your time grows shorter.”
Alandris’s jaw went taut. “I understand.”
I propped myself up in the bed I was lying in as Jyuri and Zorinna left the room.
“What happened?” Alandris folded his arms across his chest, his face stern, as if scolding a child.
“I imagine you are angry.”
A laugh bubbled from his throat and took me by surprise.
“Yes, though I am also impressed. To threaten a Fae lord, you’ve done something akin to shoving your head inside the maw of a starved grizzly bear.
Reckless, chaotic, and so utterly like you, I can’t help but be humored.
” He sat in a chair beside the bed. “Now, then, what happened?”
I didn’t correct him—note that he knew nothing of me at all—because he was eerily correct.
I’d always lived in such a way. Acting on impulse.
Ignoring the consequences. I did what was necessary to survive, to protect myself and those I loved.
The same applied when defending myself against Jyuri.
It was rash to wield my magic against the Fae, but when faced with the split second decision, I’d chosen to throw caution to the wind.
“I struck a nerve when mentioning Zorinna,” I mumbled. “He took it rather personally.”
“Ah, yes, that explains a lot. A slight against Zorinna is a slight against Jyuri. Worse, actually. You are lucky to be alive.”
I rolled my eyes. From what I recalled, I’d had the upper hand in the latter half of our bout, and the latter half was what mattered. “What is his deal with her?”
Alandris took in a deep breath, hesitating, and I anticipated a vague response to avoid the question.
To my astonishment, he was thorough. “Zorinna made a deal with him many years ago in order to help save—” he paused “—a friend she cared deeply for. I don’t know the exact terms of their trade, but I know he and his magic are hers to call upon until that comes to fruition.
I am confident she gave up something enormous in return for such a boon, but she will not tell me when I press for answers. ”
“Making a deal with a Fae is a death sentence. She must’ve truly loved this friend.”
He nodded. “Stubborn as she is, she would never admit it if you asked her, but yes, yes she did. She does.”
“And Jyuri, he’s become... obsessed with her?” The most fitting term for the crazed look in his eyes when we’d fought. It was beyond adoration or love.
Alandris pursed his lips. “He is a most useful and powerful ally, despite his... passions. As for the details of their relationship, I tend not to pry. Zorinna has assured me she can handle the Fae, and I have chosen to take her for her word. He has been mostly manageable until today.”
“Today. When he tried to kill me.” I snorted. “I find it hard to believe that I’m the first.”
His jaw tensed, and his eyes met mine with searing intensity. “I won’t let it happen again.”
“But it will,” I started, watching confusion line his face.
“Unless you continue training me. If not Jyuri, someone else. I can’t control my magic.
” Shame reddened my neck. “I heard a voice speak to me, urging me to take revenge, to relinquish control. It felt good, so good, to have that much power coursing through my veins. I— I couldn’t stop.
It felt like I was behind my eyes, watching someone else take the reins, and all I could think about was that I wanted more. ”
“Nairu....” I expected him to react harshly to my honesty, but he gently and familiarly whispered my name, leaving me utterly dumbfounded. “You can tell me when these things happen. Please tell me when these things happen.”
“We aren’t exactly on the best of terms.” I gripped the blanket between my fingers.
“It would be insane to trust you after you kidnapped and threatened my friends and I. You are forcing me to stay here. I do not know what you want from me, and you will not explain it!” I clenched my teeth.
“At times you are cruel, and other times you are kind, and it’s—it’s infuriating! Why are you doing this to me?”
He winced as though I’d struck him, and a pained sorrow filled his eyes, but it was gone within a blink, replaced with cool apathy. “It is complicated.”
I gripped the blankets tighter until my knuckles ached from the pressure. “Of course it is. I’m going back to my room.”
“Stay. You need to rest. I will go.”
“I’m fine.”
“Look at yourself,” he bit back. “You are far from fine, Nairu. Have you not looked down at your arms?”
I did as he said and bit back a gasp at the sight of them.
My hands were completely tinged black, with tendrils traveling up my arms all the way to the shoulder and possibly beyond.
I scanned the room for a mirror to see if they had marred my face, but thought better of it.
The last thing I needed was that thing to find me again.
They would fade—it didn’t matter how bad they were.
Impossibly, I didn’t feel pain beyond a light stinging sensation.
“Rest,” Alandris repeated, seemingly satisfied with my reaction.
“Why don’t they hurt?”
“We had you swallow a tincture for pain relief while you were unconscious. It should last through the night and hopefully come morning, the marks will have faded in entirety.” He turned his back to me. “If you need anything, I am one door down. Just knock. It doesn’t matter the time.”
I hummed a noncommittal response and waited for the door to close before letting my head fall back onto the pillow.
I was so frustrated I could feel tears stinging the corners of my eyes.
Speaking with Alandris filled me with fire nearly every time.
His entire personality towards me was a contradiction.
Cruel—the captor who could only have the worst intentions.
Kind—the male who comforted me and healed me.
No matter how much I mulled it over, I couldn’t discern which version of him was the real one.
Maybe they both were. Maybe he was simply that paradoxical.
I’d asked him how I could trust him… but I should have directed the question at myself.
I’d told him about the voice in my head, about my fears, how helpless I felt, as if it were second nature to confide in him.
Why? I was still determined to discover his true motives.
I didn’t believe he was telling me the truth, not the full extent of it.
So, why? Why when his eyes met mine, did I feel like spilling all of my innermost thoughts?
Burying my head in the pillow, the sweet scent of lavender filled my nose as I curled into a ball. The bath oil he favored—I’d noted. The scent of him. Calm. Before I could process why the bedding smelled like Alandris, exhaustion-driven sleep took me.