Page 91 of Nyx
“He’s dead,” Ronan says with an obvious threat behind it, “and if you don’t want to meet the same fate, you’ll turn around now.”
Xeni’s brows have furrowed, and when the woman’s gaze lands on him, her eyes narrow further. He jerks in surprise when she snarls, “It sure didn’t take you long togo running back, did it? I heard you helped in the escape, but here you are, buddying up with the military.”
Ronan stands taller, baring his teeth. “I stopped claiming allegiance to the military when they tried to take my mate from me.”
“You wear the uniform,” she challenges.
“So I should fight naked then?” he snaps back. “Come out for battle in fewer clothes so I don’t spook a few useless humans?”
“How do you know me?” Xeni asks, and for such a small thing, the woman is awfully fearless.
“Maybe you’d recognize me if I were still in my cell,” she spits, and understanding washes over his expression as his eye darts between them.
“You were prisoners… both of you.”
“Wonderful observation. You’re delightfully brilliant, aren’t you?”
The man beside her grabs her wrist. “Audra…” he warns, but she yanks her arm away.
“You are brave, human, I’ll give you that.” Ronan’s eyebrow ticks up with that perfect air of condescension, his weapon still readied. “Stupid, but brave.”
“If you were there, you saw what we sacrificed to free you,” Xeni says, though Audra only crosses her arms as she waits for more. “We wondered what had happened to everyone.”
She chews on her lip for a long stretch as she observes us. “How do I know I can trust you?”
“How doweknow we can trustyou?” Ronan counters, but Nyx tugs on my shirt and takes my hand, lacing our fingers together as he steps around me into view.
Both their eyes go wide at the sight of him standing beside me, and Audra’s mouth even drops open by a sliver. “Hi,” Nyx whispers.
“You were… you are…”
“My mate,” I interrupt sharply, cutting off whatever observation she might’ve been about to say.Prisonerortest subject…he’s none of those things anymore. “Nyx is my mate.” She stares again for a long time, eyes darting between the two of us before sweeping back over to Ronan and Xeni.
“Your escaped prisoner really is dead,” Ronan says to break the silence as he gestures at me. “Reyes slit his throat. You’re free to check the corpse if you don’t believe us. No doubt he’ll start stinking up the place soon enough. But you must think we’re idiots to believe the two of you were alone in pursuit of a Nu’vak… even one missing his sword hand. Who else is with you?”
“I am,” someone calls from the woods, and an enormous monster with pale green skin emerges from the shadows. He’s Ronan’s height and Elas’s build, with buzzed hair and two small, blunt horns projecting from his forehead.
“And you are?”
“Matuk,” Xeni answers, and the monster gives him a strained tilt of his lips.
“Yes,” he responds, with a voice much softer than what should come from such a large being. “My name is Matuk, and I was a guard at Ljómur.” Ronan’s hand tightens around his sword’s hilt, and Matuk stops in his tracks with a dip of his chin, acknowledging he shouldn’t come closer.
“Why are you with them?” Ronan demands, gesturing at the humans.
“He helped us escape,” the human man responds before giving an awkward wave. “I’m Samuel, by the way. It feels like I should probably, uh, introduce myself?” He licks his lips nervously as Ronan stares him down, waiting for him to continue. “Right. So, back at Ljómur, when everything… went down… literally…”
“We don’t have all day,” Ronan snaps, and Samuel takes a half step backward as Audra rolls her eyes and proceeds to tell the story.
“It was chaos. The cells were open, guns were firing, guards were dead all over the place, and then some Bhotan female came running in screeching about getting the keys and taking the vans. She was smiling really fucking wide, too, like she was enjoying herself.”
“Lillith,” Ronan, Xeni, and I say as one, and she raises a brow but continues.
“Some prisoners refused to move because they were too scared of retaliation, but a lot of us were ready to get the fuck out of that place. Matuk came in and grabbed some of the ones who were in shock. Big guy just kinda… threw them over his shoulder in a pile and carried them outside.”
“The building was about to explode,” he says in his quiet way. “I couldn’t leave them to die.”
Audra nods and continues. “So many of them ran into the desert to get away from that fucking place… not that I can blame them. Still, it didn’t seem like the smartest move. A few of us who were more cautious formed a group and took a van. Until we can figure out where we’re going, we’re using an abandoned camp not far from here.”
