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Having no idea where Fletcher was or when he would return, Alex decided that if she wasn’t going to receive pain relief anytime soon, then she needed to at least be in the comfort of her own bed. So she called upon the last reserves of her Meyarin blood—since she waswaypast the limits of her mortal body—and hobbled back out of the Gen-Sec building, painstakingly making her way to her dorm.

By the time she arrived in her darkened room, D.C. was already fast asleep. Not wanting to wake her, Alex didn’t turn the light on, she just blindly stumbled her way forward.

With her eyes still adjusting to the darkness, Alex let out a startled yelp when she collapsed onto her bed only to discover it wasn’t cushiony like it should have been.

… Because someone else was lying on it.

Scrambling off the unknown figure, Alex was ready to scream bloody murder until a familiar voice broke through the haze of her alarm.

“You’re not my favourite person right now, kitten.”

Heart pounding, Alex gasped out, “Niyx?”

Half a second later, the room flooded with light as Niyx turned on the power and returned to Alex’s side in record time. If she hadn’t tracked the movement, she would have wondered if he’d activated theValispathfor the quick manoeuvre.

Taking stock of yet another surprise for the day, Alex’s concerned eyes swung over to where D.C. lay, but she was shocked to find her still fast asleep.

“Don’t worry about her,” Niyx said, following Alex’s gaze. “She’ll be out of it until morning. You could set her hair on fire and she’d never know.”

Alex turned back to him with a glare of suspicion. “What did you do to her?”

Niyx grinned unrepentantly and flicked Alex’s nose with a playful finger. “Nothing you need to worry about. Plausible deniability, and all that.”

Sighing loudly as she rubbed a weary hand across her eyes, Alex closed the distance between her and Niyx, collapsing forward and planting her face in his chest.

He hesitated only a fraction of a second before wrapping his arms around her, supporting most of her weight as she leaned into him.

“Today has been awful,” she mumbled into the material of his wintery cloak—something he hardly needed considering he barely felt the cold. “But I’m so happy to see you’re okay. You have no idea how worried I’ve been.”

“‘Okay’ is a relative term,” Niyx said, pushing her from his body and gently onto the bed. “I meant what I said about you not being my favourite person at the moment.”

Alex furrowed her brow. “What’d I do?”

“That.” He pointed a finger towards her blood-soaked jeans.

“And therefore, this.” His finger turned to his own leg, where silver blood stained his dark pants.

“I’m so sorry,” Alex said, wincing. “I didn’t think—”

“For light’s sake, eat this before you waste time apologising,” he interrupted, reaching into his cloak and shoving a handful oflaendrainto her open palm.

Alex smiled tiredly at him. “My hero.”

Scarcely chewing before she swallowed, Alex closed her eyes as she practically inhaled the glowing flower and felt the effect of its healing. Her relief was so acute that she could have wept.

“Truly, Niyx,” she whispered as the pain disappeared entirely, along with her hunger and bone-weary exhaustion. “Thank you.”

“Now that we’re not both bleeding to death, let me set the scene for you,” he said, standing in front of her with his arms crossed. “There I was in the middle of the throne room with not only Aven and his closestGarseth, but also his strongest mind reader, Signa Zu, the telekinetic Calista Maine, and half a dozen ClaimedZeltora, when suddenly I felt a stabbing pain and found my leg covered in blood.” His voice was pleasant, as if he was reciting events that happened to someone else. “Naturally, all eyes swung my way as I clutched at my wound. So, to cover, do you know what I did?”

Alex bit her lip and shook her head.

“I am Niyx Raedon, firstborn son to Cykor and Kosett, and heir to House Raedon of the Meyarin High Court,” Niyx said, most of which Alex already knew. “I’m also aZeltora-ranked warrior, and the only reason I wasn’t actively serving in the elite guard before my imprisonment was due to the obligations required of me as heir to my House.”

ThatAlex hadn’t known, but she didn’t attempt to say as much since his blazing amethyst eyes warned her to keep silent.

“Given all that, I’m sure you can appreciate that I wasn’t pleased when, in order to come up with an excuse foryourunexpected wound, I knew I had only one choice.”

Hesitant, Alex asked, “What did you do?”