Chapter Seventeen Not Safe, Not Sorry
"What matters most is how well you walk through the fire."
Thammas spent the night on the couch. They would fly back to the city proper, together, in the morning.
The three of them had an awkward dinner.
Adan was still brimming with silent wrath while Nox pointedly ignored her with a knowing smirk on his face.
Thammas spent his time glancing between the two of them, like they were a riddle to solve.
Adan pointedly ignored Nox's second but could not help the quick glances at the demon on the other end of the table.
Thammas excused himself at the earliest convenience, heading outside in need of a midnight flight to burn off his dinner.
Leaving Adan and Nox alone to stare at each other over the table.
It was a battle of wills to see who would break first.
She was still holding on to her rage, trying to keep it controlled.
It was getting harder to do. If she let it out, she wasn't sure she'd be able to stop herself.
Nox picked up his glass, swirling the wine in it like it was just another day, his gaze never leaving her face. "Still mad, then?" His voice was low, smooth, almost teasing.
She pushed her plate forward, and began to rise, if only to stop them from having a fight. "Some things you should know about tomorrow." He spoke again, stilling her movements, she sat back down and waited. "If you attack or hurt any of my people, I will not be able to protect you."
Adan rolled her eyes, here we go again--warning the assassin to behave herself--or else. "What makes you think I need your protection? Or that I would hurt your people?" She levelled him a glare, pressing her palms into the table.
"Don't be so naive. You do realize that the rebels will have no reason to trust you. They will not know who you truly are. To them, you are the king's assassin, and nothing more."
She bristled and her back straighten like a steel rod.
"I'm sure that there are a few of them that might want to seek revenge."
"I've done nothing to those people..."
"That you know of." that stopped her ranting, her face frozen in shock. How could she have not thought of that? "Even so, they might see an attack on you as the closest they will ever get to the king."
"Can you not control your people?" He could—He would, but they would only be pushed so far. It was her he was worried about, the realization hit her face soon after.
"You have told me countless times that it is you that I cannot control, love." He gave her an indolent look. Like she was the bane of his existence, the link to all his problems.
"So you're worried that the leash on my anger might slip, and I will lash out at your people?" Her fury rose with each syllable. "That is what you think of me?"
He looked at her pointedly, she had not noticed the small flicker of fire that was burning off her knuckles. She smothered it instantly, but that anger stayed on the surface. She audibly groaned, flinging her middle finger at Nox. "I only lose control around you!"
Nox's smirk deepened, amusement flickering in his sharp green eyes. "I'll take that as a compliment."
"It wasn't." She shot back, voice tight.
She immediately regretted her words, and the power they held. She bit down on her lip hard enough to draw blood and bolted.
Nox held his breath until he heard her climb the stairs and the door to her room clicked closed quietly.
As if on cue, Thammas reemerged from his midnight flight. He eyed his lord's stiff frame and chuckled to himself.
"Just fuck her already."
Nox shot him a withering glare, but Thammas only grinned wider, utterly unbothered.
"I am not in the mood, Thammas," Nox muttered, picking up his wine glass again, and downing the remaining contents.
"Clearly," Thammas drawled, throwing himself into a chair and stretching out like he didn't have a care in the world. "You look like a man about to combust. It's painful to watch, really."
Nox exhaled sharply, pinching the bridge of his nose. "You have no idea what you're talking about."
Thammas scoffed. "Please. The whole house is thick with it. You two could burn this place to the ground with all that tension, and I'm honestly surprised it hasn't happened yet."
He tilted his head, watching Nox with a knowing smirk.
"You keep poking at her, like you want her to explode. Maybe you like seeing that fire of hers up close, huh?"
Nox set his glass down a little too hard. "Do you have a point, or are you just here to be a pain in my ass?"
Thammas grinned. "Both." He shrugged, "Look, all I'm saying is that she's already in your head. Would it be such a horrible idea to let her the rest of the way in?"
Nox didn't move. Just sat there, jaw tight, after a moment, "I was under the impression that you don't trust her."
He snorted, "Of course I don't trust her... but you obviously do for some reason. So that's enough for me, but that doesn't mean I have to like her." Then he left, whistling to himself as he disappeared down the hall.
Leaving Nox behind, alone with his thoughts.
--
Nox had all of Adan's essentials from her room in the castle moved discreetly to his penthouse.
From there they were moved in the dead of night to the Vivet.
The location of the Grimms safehouses, just on the outskirts of the Loch.
Home to the poorest and weakest of the City of Bones.
It was why Nox had chosen that location, far away from the prying eyes of the royal elite.
They would not be caught dead in the slums, in the stench and muck.
Few knew, and even fewer understood, that this was the strength of the city.
The very pillars for which it stood and that position demanded respect.
It was why Nox paid special attention to this part of the city.
Providing for it as much as possible without attracting too much attention.
It was a knives edge he walked, but that was his life from birth.
The people of the Vivet knew him, not who he truly was.
They saw him as a hero--saviour of the Loch--even if he saw himself as anything but.
He landed on top of a particularly rundown building.
Only its roof was new, to allow for aerial landings.
He stretched his wings while he waited for his second and the prickly princess.
Who still refused to summon her wings, and had demanded Thammas fly her here--and not himself.
Nox grinned at her green face when they landed moments later.
Thammas was a bastard when he wanted to be.
She pushed him away the second they landed beside Nox, the morning rays just cresting the horizon.
"Did you have to do so many corkscrews?" She seethed at his white-haired second.
He only shrugged, giving her his back, and heading towards the hidden staircase.
The large metal latch flipped open, slamming against the roof.
Thammas disappeared inside and Nox waved for Adan to follow.
She eyed him carefully as she mastered her stomach.
Nox stalked behind her, an ever looming presence.
His height and width completely unavoidable, but his presence was otherworldly—ancient.
The stairs they transcended were simple, steep, and rickety, with no railing.
Nox only stopped to close the latch and lock it from the inside.
Sealing them in darkness, Adan realized they were in a narrow hallway, with only one door at the end.
She cupped her hands and produced to make a small white flame, casting shadows up the walls of the small space.
Thammas and Nox both had to side step to move down the narrow hallway.
Adan sandwiched between them, Thammas unlocked the door ahead and Adan snuffed out her fire as light flooding in.
The sound of laughter filled the space. She could feel the buzz of movement, like the house was alive.
There must have been a silencing spell placed on the walls, she hadn't heard anything until the door swung open.
The frenzy hit her like a brick wall as she was rushed forward into the light.
Her jaw dropped when she realized that wasn't the only spell.
The outside of the dilapidated home was a small, run-down town house.
Inside it was at least three times the size, by the look of the occupants it was a necessary spell.
The door led us to the edge of a landing that looked down at the front entrance below. People scurried about in a flurry of movements, as if this place rarely slept.
No one seemed to notice the arrival of their lord, captain, leader—their--whatever he was to them.
"While you are here, you will not leave the confides of these walls."
Nox spoke sternly from behind her. She almost jumped at his nearness, she was too distracted by the grand hideout he had amassed.
She would have refused his command had she not heard the bright squeal of an infant, and then saw him run across the marble floor.
Adan's very presence here puts these people at risk.
She nodded her head, but kept taking in the magicked home.
"How many people are here?" She asked in awe, following Thammas down the narrow winding stairs only wide enough for one.
His second threw a look over his shoulder at Adan.
Sharing that type of information was illusive to him.
But she was here, she would find out soon enough.
She was too far in now to get out. It was either trust her, or kill her and the latter wasn't an option. To Nox--It was unthinkable.
Not for any feeling he held for her, he told himself, but because she was the last of her kind—precious.
"Consider this place to be a half-way-home. I trust everyone here and protect those that cannot protect themselves. Until they can do that on their own, or we can get them passage to freedom. Every situation is unique. Currently, there are two families staying here and three guards, six now,
if you include us."
Adan blinked, startled by how organized it all was—how warm it felt.
This wasn't the makeshift camp she'd expected rebels to scrape together in desperation.
It was a sanctuary, a carefully hidden sanctuary.
She would lay down her life for those innocents--for this place.
She would do it without a second thought.
Because she saw that look in his bright-green eyes too, Nox would do the same thing—he was doing that exact same thing.