Page 4 of Night Fae

His father.

Zev's throat closed. Lord Darius's boots clicked against the floor as he approached the table. Even without seeing him, Zev could picture every detail—the perfect posture, the way his fingers would trail across the table's surface, the calculating look in the violet eyes Zev had inherited from him.

"I'm not very hungry," Malik said.

"Come now. It would be terribly rude to refuse such hospitality." A chair scraped. "Especially when we have so much to discuss."

"What do we have to discuss?" Malik sounded like he didn't want to have any kind of conversation with Darius.

Smart man.

The night fae lord was best avoided at all costs.

"I heard the most curious thing." Zev's father's voice carried the practiced lightness of a predator toying with prey. "You mentioned traveling with my son."

"Your son?" Malik's chair creaked.

"Zevran. Though I suppose he wouldn't have mentioned me." A soft laugh. "We had something of a... falling out. It pains me that we haven't been able to make amends."

In the wardrobe, Zev's fingers curled into fists.

A falling out…

That was certainly one way to call it.

"I don't know where Zev is now." Malik's voice sounded impressively steady. Zev couldn't see the human's face, but he hoped it betrayed nothing.

Zev did not want to have a chat with his old man today.

Not if it ended without Zev's blade in the man's back.

Darius's boots clicked against the floor. "But surely you can tell me where you were before? I'd be grateful for any news of my wayward child."

"Another world." Malik's voice hardened. "I didn't mean to come to Veridia."

"How fascinating. How did you come here? Crashing through our wards like that? That was powerful magic." A pause. "Nothing a human like you could wield."

"It was a Barrier Keeper's magic."

"A Barrier Keeper?" Darius did not seem to believe it, and though Zev hated the man, he couldn't blame him. If he hadn't seen the keepers with his own eyes, he might still believe their existence to be rooted in myth as well.

"It's the truth," Malik insisted. "I'm not from here, and I don't wish to stay."

"That's the only thing you've said so far thatsoundslike the truth."

"I haven't told a single lie."

"Humans are always lying," Lord Darius said. "Fortunately, I know how to push them toward the truth."

Zev's nails dug into the skin of his palms. This was not good. He knew exactly what his father's 'pushing' would look like. The man was threatening torture of the sort only a night fae could inflict.

He would slip into Malik's dreams and trap him there.

Malik wouldn't die inside his dreams, but that wasn't a source of comfort. It was a source of horror. Darius would not have to be careful not to inflict lasting harm. He could cut into Malik's skin and slash his organs a hundred times, and while the damage would not be real, the pain would be.

And then he could restore Malik's body and do it all over again.

Zev had been subjected to that experience himself. 'Disciplinary actions' when he was young and not yet strong enough to push other fae out of his dreams.