Chapter Three
Haide
My hand shoots out to stop Zev’s movements. “Why is everything so quiet?”
Zev chuckles, shaking his head. “The Nightkin fixed the island in more ways than you know, Luda. Come.” He nudges his head toward the forest, toward the end of the corridor where darkness bleeds into the glow. “We’re here. Remember Argent’s rock?”
My skin prickles at the words. “Yeah.” It means more to me now that I’ve been to Rathe. Now that I know what the fuck an Argent is. A dead bitch walking is what.
But why is it sparkling? Argent’s rock never glittered. It was a plain boulder that sat in the middle of a clearing. Now, a sheen shifts over it in purple and gold, moving like the sky in Rathe.
I hesitate, suspicion halting my movements.
I trust Zev. I always have, but just how deep does this Nightkin go into the psyche of my best friend?
Storing the thought for later, I stride toward the end with enough confidence to knock myself out.
The door swings open without a sound.
Marble stretches out where packed dirt used to be, white and gold veins catching light from somewhere I can’t see. Flowers bloom in neat rows along the perimeter, their petals thick and heavy with purples and blues that don’t exist in nature.
I scan the space. No crowd. No shouting. No betting circles forming around fighters who’d gut each other for a day’s rations. The silence presses against my ears like water.
Two figures move in the center of the courtyard, their blades catching light in synchronized patterns. They flow rather than fight, each movement precise. Graceful. A dance I’ve never seen on Exile.
The Nightkin stands at the edge of the marble, arms folded behind his back. Red eyes track the fighters without blinking.
One fighter twists, blade angling up. The other comes late.
Steel slices through the air, and we all know it’s the strike of a promised kill.
I wait for the crowd’s roar. The stampede of feet rushing to loot the body.
The arguments over who won what bet. But that doesn’t come, because at the last second, the gifted pulls back and sheathes his blade.
He walks to the edge of the courtyard and falls in line with the others, silent and waiting.
The Nightkin’s head shifts, nodding toward the man who should be dead but isn’t, and my stomach tightens at the strangeness of it all.
It’s not that I wanted to see him die—I couldn’t care either way—but what the hell is this?
Is he…training them?
And for what? Shits and giggles? Cause that’s the most action we get around here that doesn’t come from our own blades.
Zev moves past me so fast I flinch. He crosses the marble in measured strides and grabs the injured fighter by the ankles, dragging him toward a door at the far end.
I watch Zev’s back disappear and wait for the Nightkin to react, but he doesn’t even move. Doesn’t blink. Those red eyes stay fixed on the empty space where the gifted was, like the fact that an exile just showed restraint is expected and not a complete fucking anomaly.
I open my mouth.
Not impressed, Hellpet?
The voice slides into my skull like curdled oil. No sound. No lips moving. Just words pressing into my mind, settling there with a weight that almost feels like home.
My jaw locks. My fingers twitch toward the dagger I don’t have anymore.
“Fuck you.” I shove the thought back at him, hard, picturing it like a fist straight to his face. “What’d you do to my island?”
His head tilts, so slowly the horns catch light and throw shadows across the marble. One massive hand unfolds from behind his back, and a single claw taps against his forearm. Patient. Like I’m a child throwing a tantrum.
Your island, he murmurs in my head, amused. Interesting claim from someone I had to go to extreme measures to ensure she return.
My blood heats.
The Nightkin’s gaze finally shifts to me. He takes one step forward and the marble groans under his weight.
I hold my ground. Barely.
What do you feel, Hellpet? His voice purrs through my body.
“I feel a lot of things right now,” I say out loud, because fuck his little mind games. My voice bounces off the walls and the fighter’s head snaps toward me. First sign of life.
His grunt comes through my thoughts, and I feel the fight in me slip.
Let go, Hellpet. Let me in and let go.
The command rolls through my skull like thunder, and something in my chest cracks open. Warmth floods my veins, thick and slow, like honey mixed with poison. My knees tremble.
Stop it, I demand mentally, but the walls built around me start to crumble. Get out of my fucking head.
His laugh scrapes through my mind, dark and amused.
I’m not in your head. I’m in your blood, in your soul. There’s a difference.
My hands ball into fists, sending a prickle of warmth crawling up my spine. My muscles go slack. My jaw unclenches.
I want to let go.
The thought scares me more than his horns or his claws.
There it is, he murmurs, satisfaction coating each word. That beautiful surrender. You’ve been fighting so long you’ve forgotten what it feels like to stop.
I lock my knees, digging my boots into the ground, fighting the pull with everything I have left.
“You’re a monster.” The words rip from my throat, raw and desperate. “I won’t—”
One second he’s across the courtyard, the next his shadow swallows me whole. Red eyes bore into mine from inches away.
Monster? His claw trails up my arm in a slow sweep, right up to the side of my neck. It stops beneath my chin, forcing me to look up at him. That is a far too polite term for what I am.
My knees wobble, knocking me off balance. If I fall, it won’t be graceful like the girls in Rathe who faint into the arms of their beloved. No. Knowing me, it’d be embarrassing as fuck, and I can’t have that.
Noooo…wayyyyy.
Something bubbles up the center of my chest, I press a hand to my temple to try to squash it down, but it doesn’t work. It rolls through me, warm and disorienting, and before I can stop it—
I giggle.
High and breathy.
I clap my hand over my mouth, eyes wide. What the fuck?
I don’t fucking giggle. Ever. I snarl. I threaten. I kill. But I don’t giggle like some soft girl who’s never had to claw her way through carnage to survive.
Another wave hits harder this time, spreading through my limbs.
“Stop.” I say it out loud, but my voice sounds distant.
I force my legs to move, but another giggle escapes, and I bite down on my tongue until I taste blood.
Focus.
But my feet aren’t cooperating, and the world keeps tilting sideways.
I try to recenter myself, reaching for something. Anything. But it’s to no avail, and then I’m falling.
Before I hit the ground, something catches me. Hard metal wraps around my waist, and I’m flipped over a broad shoulder.
“Put me down.” The words come out through a laugh, but I don’t find any of this at all funny.
No.
I squirm, but my limbs feel loose. Disconnected. My fist connects with his back, but there’s no force behind it. I giggle again, hating the sound even as it spills out of me.
“You know…” I say, the words tumbling free without permission. “I had a mate once.”
The beast grunts.
“Well, thought I did.” Another laugh bubbles up. “Turns out he was a lying piece of shit. Should have seen it coming, though, since I never had those mating dreams Professor Astra said mates have.”
But I had the rest of the signs, didn’t I?
I jerk with his movements, and now I don’t care. I don’t care where he’s taking me. My stomach rumbles.
“He had these eyes…” My voice pitches higher, and I can’t stop it. “Really pretty eyes. Made me want to stab them out to stop staring into them.”
Another grunt.
“I’m serious.” I slap his back again, still laughing. “He said I was his. Said the gods made me for him. Then he threw me away and let a whole room full of gifted try to kill me.”
The beast’s shoulder digs into my ribs, but I can’t feel pain through the floating sensation spreading through my chest.
“You know what the worst part is?” I grin, wide and proud. “I actually started to believe him. How fucked up is that?”
He gives me nothing still.
“I opened portals for him.” The laugh that comes out sounds cracked. “Big ones. Dark ones. With screaming faces and everything.” My hands fly around the place. “It was all very romantic.”
Grunt.
“And he kissed me. Put his hands all over me.” My fingers tingle with the memory, but it feels distant. “Made me feel things. That’s the real crime, honestly.”
We turn down a path I don’t recognize. It must be near the main street, since we were just in the arena.
“I should’ve killed him.” The words slur together. “Should’ve put my blade through his throat the first time he called me his little psycho.”
The beast’s grip tightens slightly.
“But I didn’t.” I hiccup, my head spinning in circles. “Because I’m stupid.” Realization slams into me and the laughter dies in my throat. “I’m so fucking stupid. I thought… I don’t even know what I thought.”
My head lolls to the side, hair falling across my face. Why the fuck can’t I shut up about this?
I hit the ground with a thud, sand flying up around my body. “Hey!”
I should be a little afraid of this beast. Any sane person would be, yet here I am, fantasizing about what his insides look like after I tear them out. Would he be human? Or would he be more monster?
If you tore me open, Hellpet, all you’d find is you.
Something snaps. Whatever invisible strings he had wrapped around my spine, my lungs, my fucking brain—gone.
I sag forward, sand grinding into my palms as I catch myself. My chest heaves. Air rushes through me like I hadn’t been breathing that whole time, and the giggly fog dissolves into something closer to rage.
“What the hell was that? Did you drug me with some truth serum shit? Does that exist here now too? You know, on the island where magic isn’t supposed to fucking exist?”
No drugs. You had a lot on your mind, little mate. Your anger was consuming you. I had to help you settle.
“You piece of—”
Wind whooshes past us, whipping into my face. I tense, tuning in to the sound and recognizing it instantly.
Wings. Not one set or even two. A storm of them, the rhythmic thunder of leathered beats drowning out the crash of waves against the shore. The air pressure shifts, dropping low and heavy, and my head snaps toward the horizon.
The ocean stretches out flat and endless, and above it—
Dragons.
Dozens of them. Their silhouettes cut jagged lines against the sky. They’re flying hard. Not the lazy glide of creatures coming home, but the desperate beat of a race against time.
My throat closes. Thyrix and I didn’t exactly resolve our issues after he saved my ass from being Exile roadkill.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen this many at once. Normally, they ride in pairs, maybe a few more if they’re bored or you get lucky. But this—I’d say it was beautiful if alarm bells weren’t blaring inside my skull.
“Haide!” Zev calls out, running toward me, eyes drifting past my shoulder to what’s in front.
I scramble to my feet and follow his gaze, instantly forgetting about the Nightkin. At the front of the horde—
Thyrix.
“Something’s wrong,” I whisper, searching the dragon’s eyes.
Zev looks to the sky then back at me in confusion. “How do you know?”
“I just do.”
A loud roar ripples through the island, sand flying up in the air and waves crashing against the shore even harder.
I take one step forward, and the pain detonates in my chest, exploding through me like a thousand bombs.
Heat licks up my throat and through my veins, my head ringing until I’m sure my eardrums have burst. I fall to my knees, grabbing my head.
“There’s too much. I can’t—”
I open my mouth to scream, but all I feel is fire, melting me from the inside out.
Fuck, Hellpet!
For the second time in a single day, everything goes black.