Chapter Seventeen Not Safe, Not Sorry #2
Coming to terms with the fact that Lennox Hollow might actually be a decent male made Adan's skin pebble and the hair at her nape rose.
"Don't worry, Princess, you'll be safe here."
Thammas taunted. Two things happened very quickly.
Nox growled at his second for using that title, not because of what it revealed, but because he likes being the only one to taunt Adan with it.
Secondly, all thoughts of Nox being decent, dropped from Adan's head like a stone, and she whirled on him.
Her hands pushed hard on his chest and he actually stumbled back.
"You told him!" She snapped, her mis-matched eyes burned with untold rage. She pushed his chest again but this time he was a rock—a mountain of unrelenting steel. "How could you?!" She slammed her fist on his chest, and he snatched her wrists in one hand.
Nox had thought long and hard about telling Thammas about Adan's history.
In the end, he felt like he had no choice.
Mostly because Thammas was eavesdropping and figured most of her story out--Nox just filled in the holes.
"He is my second, he knows what I know."
He would bring hell down upon Thammas for his slip--later.
Thammas, sensing he'd overstepped, had the good sense to back up—slowly.
Hands raised in mock surrender, his face schooled into an innocent expression that didn't fool anyone.
"My bad," he muttered, then vanished around the corner with the speed of a man who had no desire to be caught in the middle of whatever this was.
Adan's chest heaved with fury, her eyes glowing faintly with restrained power. "You had no right."
Nox's grip on her wrists didn't tighten, but it didn't loosen either. He stared down at her, jaw locked, green eyes flashing with something between anger and guilt. "I did what I had to."
She wretched her hand away and Nox let her. "I shouldn't even be surprised." She shook her head.
"I did what I had to..."
"No, you did what you wanted." Her voice cracked with betrayal.
"I did what would keep you alive!" The words burst out of him like a roar, echoing down the narrow hall. The surrounding air thickened, like the house itself was holding its breath.
Adan froze.
Nox inhaled slowly, forcing himself back under control. "I trusted Thammas with it because I trust him. Because if something happens to me, someone has to know what you are."
She hated the way her stomach twisted at those words.
Hated how much his voice—low, raw—made her feel.
That wasn't safe. Nothing about him was safe.
Adan's fury ebbed, another person knew the deepest secret about herself.
Someone she barely knew who now could do anything he wanted with that information.
Nox stepped forward again, all encompassing, "If Thammas breathes a word of this to anyone I promise you his head." Nox knew he had nothing to worry about, but Adan needed to be convinced.
Adan turned away, chest still tight. "Next time, ask before you strip pieces of me away to hand out like information."
Nox said nothing for a long moment. "And I'll be the one doing the beheading."
Her words a vow and her stare an unyielding promise.
The promise of death, and Nox surmised not a quick one.
The fiery look on his princess's face made him instantly hard.
He coughed into his hand and turned away, heading towards the kitchen doors.
If only for a moment to compose himself, least she notices his arousal.
Perhaps, Thammas was right... maybe he should just fuck her.
It might help with the nagging pain in his chest. Or it might be a cataclysmic mistake.
Nox murmured, "I didn't do it to hurt you, love."
She paused, considering him. "But you did anyway." She shook her head in disbelief.
In the heart of the rebellion he built, feeling more hollow than he ever had in his life at the loss of trust in her mis-matched eyes. "I'm sorry, Adan."
The words were quiet—honest in a way that made her spine lock up.
Adan stood before him, heart hammering beneath her ribs, her hands curled into fists.
She wasn't sure which was worse—the fact that he'd told Thammas, or the fact that part of her understood why.
That didn't mean she forgave him--not yet.
But gods, it was getting harder to keep her walls up around him.
He slowly raised his open palm towards her, a small peace offering. "Please," he did nothing to hide the wavering in his voice. The fear that she might not take his hand hung between them like a blade.
Adan stared at it, unmoving. The silence between them stretched, thick and full of things unspoken.
She could feel the tremble in her chest, the part of her that ached to reach out, to let it all go. But trust wasn't a switch. It was earned—and he'd broken something fragile. Her fingers twitched at her side.
"I'm not ready to forgive you," she said quietly, her voice like smoke—soft, but burning. "But I'm too tired to keep hating you tonight."
And then, with excruciating slowness, she placed her hand in his.
Not because he deserved it, but because she needed something to hold on to before she shattered.
This day had just started, and she was already over it.
Already wanting a place to lay her head and sleep until the pounding in her head subsided.
Nox led her into an expansive kitchen that smelt of freshly baked bread, bacon, and eggs.
The room was swathed in light from the wide open windows that also had been spelled for privacy.
The morning sun bounced off the warm white walls and soft oak countertops.
Three other large figures moved about the room that Adan had never seen before.
She knew by their gracefully assured movements that they were the powerful warriors that Nox had spoken of earlier.
The three guards that were currently posted to protect the people of this house.
This was where Thammas had run off to, and was clapping the closest one on the shoulder.
They had the same blonde hair, even if the unknown male was slightly shorter and slimmer than Nox's second.
He whispered something to the younger male, and he quickly threw a look of shock over his shoulder.
Locking his golden eyes on Adan, forcing her to do a mental check on her walls, making sure that they were still firmly in place.
"Adan Byrd let me introduce you to my brother Ren Harkness."
It was obvious that the two males were siblings.
The only difference was Ren's boyish face and dimples still clung to early youthful.
Hope and happiness was not yet crushed by the harsh truth of life.
He gave Adan a small smile in greeting, which she figured was more than she deserved.
Ren raised his palm, his fingers dancing at her, encased in demon-fire as he playfully winked.
She was nothing more than a royal assassin to these people--the kings favourite pet.
They had no reason to trust her, even if their leader commanded it.
However, the two others behind Ren did not seem so kind.
The massive redhead had matching red eyes, the sign of a high-born vampire.
His alabaster skin blended into the background of the white walls.
Nothing about him could allow him to be inconspicuous.
He was almost as tall as Nox, but wider in the shoulders.
His white shirt rolled to the elbows, showing of flashes of black and grey tattoos.
Nox nodded his head towards the tall vampire.
"Aster Fell and Theodora Norris." Adan's eyes dropped to the female beside Aster, she was shorter than Adan but still managed to look down at her.
With a shoulder-length blonde bob. Her heart-shaped face and full lips did nothing to distract from her violet doe eyes.
Giving away what she was, an incubus, able to penetrate dreams and nightmares and create new ones.
Adan was wise to be weary of her. Neither smiled at her, but they didn't scowl either, and Adan took that as a small win.
She felt Nox's hand squeeze her own, It grounded her in a room full of big personalities.
"Well, our plan should go off easily now that we have the City of Bones own Butcher on our side."
Theodora spoke, the tone laced with venom but masked with such sweetness that Adan wondered how old she was.
She looked no older than her own twenty-eight years, but she knew looks to be deceiving.
It would take a small lifetime to form words into daggers with the incubus's accuracy.
"Don't mind Theo." Ren's mouth tilted at the ends.
"She's just jealous, she has applied to the Sicarii guild three times and failed."
Theo sneered audibly at Ren, but said nothing more.
It was rare for the guild to take in applicants.
They generally sought those that they wished to take into their brethren.
Not that Adan understood why anyone would want to do her job.
If she had the choice, she would have left a time long ago.
"So... What is the plan?" Adan asked, looking up at Nox who stood beside her, their hands still intertwined.