Page 74

74

Revelation

NYX

“ I don’t get why we’re loitering up here on this fucking mountain doing nothing instead of going after Rashira.”

“You’re too hasty. You don’t see the bigger picture.”

“And what picture is that, exactly? The one where we sit around like a couple of useless cunts?”

I listened to the quiet bickering voices, finding strange comfort in them as I nuzzled into the silk pillow. I was exhausted, but my brain couldn’t help but stay alert and eavesdrop. They were out on the terrace, but their voices carried to me just fine.

Solaris was quiet for a moment. Then, “Even if we did go after her, without my magic, I am no use to you. And while you are powerful, Groundshaker, I’m not sure you can face her fleet alone.”

Jed made a noise of disgust. “We seriously need to get those manacles off. Besides needing you to fight, you’re a fucking liability, man. Any second you could fall into the shadows again and drag us down with you. They need to come off.”

“You don’t say,” Solaris quipped dryly.

“You must have some idea of how to remove them.”

Solaris’s silence had me perking up, not wanting to miss his reply.

“It doesn’t matter,” he said finally. “It will never happen.”

“What is it?” Jed pressed.

“I’ve thought about it, and only one route makes sense to me. The person who put them on me must take them off. Spells and dark objects usually work along those lines. As within, so without. The one who put them in place must take them away.”

“Natalia.”

My heart sank at the sound of her name as it spilled like acid from Jed’s lips.

“Mhm,” Solaris muttered, equally bitter. “And even if she ever wakes from her deep dark sleep, she would never remove them.”

“Nyx could make her. We could fucking make her. She’s one girl.”

Solaris scoffed. “I wouldn’t be so sure anymore.”

I sat up on instinct. What in the seven hells did that mean?

They were facing each other, the night an inky black backdrop behind them. Their profiles were eerily similar. Solaris’s nose was sharper, but the curve of their lips and jaws was the same. A shiver ran through me. I wondered if, on some level, I’d known they were brothers all along.

Their voices dropped several octaves so I could no longer eavesdrop. I sighed, collapsing back onto the pillow and staring up at the ceiling as firelight made the shadows dance. The longer I watched them, the more real they became. From senseless forms to living creatures. Wolves and serpents, owls and rabbits. Running, fighting and dancing together on the stone walls.

Was Solaris right? Was Natalia the only one who could get manacles off? I pondered that but didn’t know what to make of it. My mind reeled with possibilities as I watched the shadow creatures perform their foreboding ritual.

Jedidiah had a point, though. We needed to kill Rashira. Every minute that passed where she breathed air haunted me. I could have fucking killed her. The regret was debilitating.

I slipped out of bed, my feet silent on the cold floor as I gravitated toward the terrace. They were silent out there now, staring out at the twinkling lights of the city below.

I wondered if taking my place between them would ever stop feeling so mystifying. If my entire body would ever stop reacting.

My heart raced, my eyes fixed forward as I rested my hands on the ledge of the balcony. My peripheral vision was overwhelmed with them on both sides. They each fell still, the air thickening around us.

I feigned nonchalance, clearing my throat and pushing my hair over my shoulder. “Jedidiah is right,” I murmured, turning around and hopping up to sit on the ledge. Facing them instead of the city. Their gazes had my skin flushed but I forced myself to go on. “Rashira needs to be dealt with. We can’t let her accumulate more power. She saw the dragon. She knows the three of us are together. She’s going to be plotting. We can’t wait.”

Jed gave a light scoff. “Exactly.”

Solaris started to protest but I cut him off. “With your ring, Solaris, she can shadow-glamour people—and you guys need to believe me when I tell you, it’s impossible to detect. A regular glamour can be sensed, but the shadow-glamour is different. At this point, we can’t trust anyone.”

“We don’t need to trust anyone, ” Solaris hissed.

“I mean, sure.” My voice was raspy and low. “But even right now, I’m still second-guessing if you guys are even really you.”

“What?” Jed snapped.

Guilt bubbled up my throat like hot bile as I forced myself to meet his eyes. “I know it’s fucked up. But it’s true. You don’t realize how real it was when they were pretending to be you.” I glanced at Solaris. “What if you never actually came back to life?” Then I looked at Jed again. “What if you never came back from the city? What if both of you are—”

Jed grabbed my hand and I gasped as he placed my palm against his cheek. His skin was fire-hot like it always was. His stormy eyes poured a desperate plea into mine. He didn’t say anything. He wanted me to feel it.

My pulse was going wild.

After a moment, he leaned in and pressed his forehead to mine. His smoky, earthy scent filled my senses and I knew. I just knew. The vampires had smelled like death—it was the one detail that had betrayed them.

“Do you doubt me?” he whispered.

My belly dipped then rose, the truth absolute in the feel of his hot skin on mine. I shook my head. “No.”

The moment expanded and stretched like a lifetime. We stayed like that, our foreheads pressed together, breathing each other in.

When he finally pulled away, I instantly missed his touch.

Solaris was watching with guarded eyes. His spine was straight, his entire demeanor formal, as if he were a guest or something. As if he was imposing.

Jed and I both looked at him, almost expectantly. His hand twitched at his side. Maybe he meant to extend it to me, so I could feel that he was really him, but he didn’t.

“I know it’s you,” I breathed.

He nodded. He already knew.

“How?” Jed asked, trying to not sound perturbed.

“Because, when I attempted to burn his manacles, his skin didn’t burn. I know it’s him.” I pried my eyes away from him to fix them on Jed. “And I know it’s you. Fuck what I said before—I’ll never mistake either of you again.” The atmosphere intensified but I kept going. “I can’t say the same for anyone else, though. And despite the circumstances, I do want to reunite with my girls. Soon. My life has a gaping hole in it without them that I can’t suppress anymore. I need them back. We all do if Natalia has to be the one to remove the manacles. But I’m not going to be able to trust them until we get that fucking ring.”

“Me and you can do it,” Jed said to me, his tone unwavering. “We can take them. Your dragon is always watching, too, isn’t he? We can fucking do it.”

“No,” Solaris growled. “It’s too much of a risk. If Nyx shifts again and can’t summon flame, then—”

“Then we will bring the house down with a fucking earthquake.” Jed glared at his brother, a silent dare in his eyes. Try and stop us.

Solaris’s fists clenched at his sides, the silver in his eyes scorching. “No.”

“No one elected you king!” Jed shouted, shaking his head. “You don’t call the shots, Solaris. Sit the fuck down.”

“Oh my Goddess— do not start !” I cried, hopping down from the ledge to stand between them before they could charge each other. “I’m not going to let you guys ruin another lair. Fucking calm down. Jed .”

Stormy eyes sliced down at me. “I’m not going to let him lord over us, Nyx. We can do what we want. We…” He trailed off when he glanced over my shoulder, his gaze clouding over with horror. “No!”

I whirled, my heart tumbling into my guts. Solaris’s eyes had gone fully black, his jaw slack.

“ No, no, no! ” Jed snarled, pushing past me to grab onto his cloak. “Fight back! You can’t let them win! Breathe, man. Six seconds in, six seconds out. Fucking push the shadows out. You don’t have to surrender. Fight back!”

Solaris held onto Jed’s arms, and he tried—he tried to push the darkness out. I watched, frozen in place, my heart ejected from my body as Jedidiah attempted to walk him through it. Solaris sucked in a deep, shuddering breath. On the exhale, his eyes flashed silver.

A kindling of hope lit inside me. Jed coaxed him to keep breathing—to focus solely on his breath. They were locked on each other just like that night on the terrace of the penthouse. Except this time they weren’t trying to kill each other. No.…Jed was…trying to save him.

The shadows hissed and whirled around Solaris, glaring at us through his blackened gaze.

“I need to fly,” he gasped, yanking out of Jed’s grasp.

“What?” I yelped. “You can’t fly right now! You’ll fall!”

“Flying helps,” he insisted, but his eyes were fucking pits into the void, and shadows twined around him like misty tentacles. He stumbled backward, ignoring our protests. His wings cracked the air like thunder as he turned away from us and launched into the sky.

We watched him go, the night gobbling him up as the thread that bound us together stretched agonizingly.

We were left breathless and aching, the air chilling over as if it were grieving his departure.

“FUCK!” Jed erupted, turning sharply to stalk back into the room. “He’s never coming back. That was it. That was the last time. It’s over. It’s fucking over.”

“Don’t say that!” I cried as I followed him in. The throb in my solar plexus made it hard to breathe.

He whirled to face me, his chest rising and falling. He glared at me with an ominous gleam in his eyes that made my belly swoop. I knew that look. The fire crackled and spat coals onto the rug, but neither of us paid it any mind. His mouth opened and closed, his jaw tense, like he was bracing it for the words he was about to say. “He saved my life.”

I was physically knocked back. “What?”

Jed breathed hard, those big eyes that had bored adoration into me, kept secrets from me and burned judgment at me, now fogged over with tears. Firelight cast shadows over his face, making his features more severe. “When Aries stabbed me and pushed me off of that cliff I was as good as dead. And as I was falling I made peace with death. I made peace with it, okay? I didn’t catch myself with a portal. He came for me! He whisked me away in a storm of shadows and breathed life back into me. He left me alone and alive and now—now just as he wormed his way in, he’s gone, and he’s not coming back, and you’re going to hate me forever.” He collapsed into the armchair and buried his face in his hands.

The revelation trickled over me like ice melting over a hot stone.

Solaris saved Jedidiah’s life.

It clicked. Suddenly so much shit made sense. What had he said before? I’m alive because the devil willed it.

My head spun.

Jed reached into his jacket and tossed the selenite stylus my way. It hit the floor with a clank and slid to me, stopping just in front of my feet. “Go, Nyx.” His voice was thick, as thick as it had ever been, his cheeks damp. “Get out of here. Go back to your coven. Where you belong.”

I stared at the crystal that would take me anywhere I wanted.

Then I devoured the space between us and climbed onto his lap. He tried to push me away but I locked my arms around his neck, burying my face into his hot skin. “I’m not going anywhere.”

A ragged sound escaped him, but he surrendered, wrapping his arms around me.

I breathed him in. Listened to his pulse thrash. Silently thanking the Goddess for not sentencing his bones to an eternity lost and alone at the bottom of the mountain. “If there’s only one act of reverence that Solaris ever does, I’m fucking glad it was that. I don’t care why or how you’re still here, Jed. I’m just grateful you are. I need you.”

“No!” he growled, his fury startling me. “You don’t need me. You don’t need any of this bullshit! You should have left us, Nyx! You should have never risked your—”

“What was I supposed to do! Leave you for dead?”

“Yes,” he snapped, his tone jarring and absolute. “That’s exactly what you should have done.”

I kept my eyes locked with his, knowing they beamed with defiance. “Never.”

He swallowed. When he spoke, his voice was low and morose. “You could have been free of us.”

My pulse crashed like angry waves against my ribs and in my ears. Jedidiah had changed in ways that were impossible to fathom. Sitting in the dark while the fire cast him in cruel, flickering light, he resembled Solaris more than ever. Not just physically, but the tortured, vengeful shine in his eyes—that was something he shared with his brother.

I dared to cup his face in my palms. He shuddered under my touch, his eyes involuntarily fluttering closed. “I broke the spell that kept the penthouse hidden and protected. I fell into the shadows before I reset the salt circle. It was my fault the vampires got in and you were taken. I should have never left you. Everything you went through was because of me. It is you who should wish to be free of me.”

He was shaking his head before I was even done speaking. He leaned closer, his eyes still closed, and pressed his forehead to mine. “No. All that bullshit we put you through before the shadows claimed us… Nyx, you deserve so much better. I like to think I’m a better man than him. But I’m fucking kidding myself. We are born of the same monster. Please, Nyx. You need to leave now, while you still can. Run. Cast a portal and don’t look back.”

His pain stirred something inside me, something ravenous and protective. Even with my body crushed against his, I wasn’t close enough. I needed to claw my way inside him and burrow in the cage of his ribs, to wrap myself around his heart and guard it like a true dragon.

“I’m not going anywhere,” I vowed, and let my own monster free.

My heart seized in surprise. This shift…was intentional. I had never been in control of it before.

Jed’s eyes blew wide, fire dancing in his pupils while they expanded like oil over water.

I shuffled off his lap and stood before him in my true, unsightly form. I ran my tongue over my fangs, peering at him through my reptilian eyes. “If you are a monster, what does that make me ?”

His chest heaved, but no trace of fear or revulsion came over him. He took in the sight of me the way one might watch a comet burn across the sky.

Then he rose to his feet, his expression soft.

“A dragon,” he whispered, brushing his thumb across my bottom lip. “You’re a dragon.”