Page 22 of Night Fae

Feel nothing. Be nothing. Want nothing.

He focused on his breath, on the emptiness between heartbeats. With each exhale, he pushed away a fragment of emotion—grief into the shadows, rage into the void, guilt into nothingness. He pulled darkness around his heart like armor.

Rhys would hate seeing him like this again.

The thought was almost enough to break his focus.

But Rhys wasn't here now. Rhys would never be here again, and Zev had no other way to stop himself from flying off the handle.

When he opened his eyes again, his reflection showed a stranger. The glamour hadn't returned—his violet eyes still gleamed—but something else had changed. His gaze was empty, devoid of the pain that had ravaged him moments before. His face settled into lines of cold indifference.

A sharp rap at the door signaled the guards' arrival.

"Lord Zevran, your presence is requested in the blue chamber," a muffled voice called.

"I'll be right there," Zev answered.

He straightened his borrowed clothes, squared his shoulders, and embraced the cold void within. By the time he reached the door, nothing of the broken creature who had scrubbed blood from his hands remained.

The walk to the blue chamber felt endless. Guards flanked him, but Zev paid them no attention. He was focused only on himself, on each step he took and every one that followed.

At the chamber door, he paused. Malik waited on the other side. The human whose life now depended on Zev's willingness to become everything he once despised.

The human who knew nothing of the price Zev had just paid for their continued survival.

The blue chamber lived up to its name. Sapphire drapes hung from ceiling to floor, casting the entire room in a submarine glow. Malik paced the perimeter for what felt like the hundredth time, running his fingers along the cool stone walls. The chamber was beautiful, with a mosaic depicting the night sky covering the ceiling, but it remained a prison.

Hours had passed since the prince's guards had deposited him here. They'd brought food—a platter of fruits and bread that Malik hadn't touched, remembering Zev's warning about court hospitality. His stomach growled in protest, but hunger was preferable to whatever poison might be in the food.

The heavy door creaked, and Malik spun toward it. Relief flooded through him as he saw who came to visit him.

Zev!

He was alive.

And unharmed, at least physically.

The night fae warrior stood rigidly by the door, making no move to approach. Something felt off about him, though Malik couldn't quite place his finger on what.

In Malik's dream, he'd said his father would try to break him.

Had Lord Darius continued his cruel work while Malik was stuck in this chamber?

"Zev?" Malik stepped forward, then stopped when Zev stiffened further. "What happened?"

"They're allowing us a brief visit," Zev said, his voice flat. "To prove you're unharmed."

Malik studied him from head to toe. Zev alwaysseemed closed off. It was part of his persona, and having read his backstory inMonsters of Veridia, Malik understood why he behaved the way he did.

But Zev seemed even more closed off than usual now.

"I'm fine," Malik said, though it hardly mattered at the moment. "I'm more worried about you."

Something dangerous flashed across Zev's face. A momentary crack in his mask. What was he hiding beneath it? What was going on with him?

"What did they do to you?" Malik asked quietly.

Zev's jaw tightened. "They did not do anything to me."