Page 21 of Lux

“Ah, a coherent response. Finally, it seems you have regained some of your senses,” the man, Altaris remarks with a sniff. “It appears that over a century in Cassius’s little mind dungeon hasn’t tamed that temper of yours. Still impulsive, as always. Still prone to stubborn resolve when you don’t get your way.”

“Don’t speak as if you know me,” I snap. He doesn’t. Not who I was before or after. No one does—except Cassius. One day, I will make the bastard tell me. I’ll rip the answers from his skull.

“Of course, I would never presume,” Altaris replies, but his tone is light. He is mocking me.

Any other time, I’d care. Not now.

“Niamh. Where is she?”

“While you were getting yourself wrangled by a whole squadron of mortal police before the boneys showed up, she skipped away. Vanished. Perhaps the fae retrieved their creature, but I would hear if their agents came through the portals. They are a noisy, dramatic sort.” He sighs in disgust. “However, it’s been dead silent on that end. Someone else must have her. Unfortunately, that does not narrow it down. There are quite a few unsavory characters on the prowl who would dream of coming across a wayward, unprotected fae. For nefarious reasons, as I am sure you can imagine.”

They would sell her.

Whore her.

Destroy her.

“Not so fast,” Altaris warns as I lunge toward him, aiming for the doorway at his back. “There is the little detail of you having been placed in boney holding to deal with,” he tries to explain. “I suggest you listen, because those chains around your limbs are not for mere decoration. They are more than capable of restraining—and severing the limbs of—vamryre and lunaria alike, so I suggest youcalm yourself.”

He uses that tone again. The stern, authoritative one. In some ways, it reminds me of fucking Cassius, but in other ways, it doesn't. Altaris is stern, but he can’t punish me if I resist him. He can’t torment my brain. He can’t make me see what only he wants me to see.

Yet, he is just as dangerous as the entire vamryre horde. Perhaps more so. He hides his true nature well behind his frilly clothes and polished manners. Bullshit. Lies. Underneath his exterior, he is worse than I am. Rages more than me. Hates far more fervently than I ever could.

He is intriguing, so I listen, even if the chains are thin enough to shatter. Some might take an arm or leg in retribution, but so be it. I’ll crawl limbless to find her.

Suddenly, it feels vital to.

I remember her standing in the gallery, hair alight by the sun, eyes wide and expressive. It wouldn’t take a callus actor to harm her. A bus. A car. A fucking motorbike.

“I need to find her,” I say. If she isn’t dead already, smashed to bits by her own infernal curiosity.

“Finally, you are beginning to see reason,” Altaris remarks. He threads his fingers together and eyes me from across the peak they make. “We must discuss a matter before I can secure your release. The bond on your head is very high, my friend. Two-point-one million arun. That’s practically astronomical. Being a fugitive and wanted for several unsolved mortal murders, and now mangling and disfiguring seven hapless mortal security guards and four boneys, I am surprised they granted you a bond at all. That must be Anna Greeves’s doing, trying so desperately to bring civil order to this haphazard place. In any case, I happen to have exactly two-point-one million arun lying around that I could lend you. Two million will come with no strings attached?—”

“Why?” I snap, sensing bullshit. Everything has a price. Nothing is for free. Two million arun must be stupid mundane money. Play money. Doesn’t matter. No one gives away the lint in their pockets for nothing.

“We can consider it settling an old debt between you and me. Don’t worry yourself about the particulars.”

“Particulars?” There are none. “Don’t know you. Don’t owe you.”

“All very well and good.” He unlaces his hands and waves me off with one. It’s a practiced gesture. He pretends to mingle with the mortal riffraff now, but once, this creature was powerful. Once, he commanded millions with the slightest wave of his hand. He hides it now, but his body remembers. “The point is, you will owe me the remaining arun. You may make your own arrangements to pay it off, but frankly listening doesn’t seem to be your strong suit. Before we see your fae, we need to visit a friend of mine first. Someone who will help us tie up any loose ends when it comes to my repayment. Then we will find your fae. Agreed?”

“No,” I hiss, rattling the chains that bind me. “I will find her first! I must find her now!”

Without me, she's lost, vulnerable to any monster with eyes. Oh yes, they will hunt her. Sink their teeth in and feast on my pretty fae. I won’t let them. I’ll kill them all.

“Frankly, my dear, this isn’t negotiable. Unless you plan on staying in boney prison until some sham trial that Jack will use to flaunt his authority, I really am your only option.”

Him. Lying bastard. He lies to me still. There is something lurking in his gaze, slipping away as I try to find it. He knows something. He is afraid of something, but it isn’t me or my fae. He reeks of guilt. Pathetic. Repulsive.

However, it makes him different from Cassius. His guilt implies that he means what he says. Repayment for payment.

“Fine,” I say. “Just take me to her. Before…”

Before she’s hurt again. Killed. Before I lose her good.

Altaris nods. “Give me a minute or two to track down the riff raff, ah. Speak of the devil and they shall appear.” His tone is a hiss as a woman enters the room through the partially opened door behind him.

She is tall, dressed in black leather with a silver stick in hand. It is long, nearly the length of her willowy frame. Paired with her stiff posture, I assume it is a weapon of some kind. One she desperately wants to use on me. Her dark eyes scan my body with a swipe, cold and appraising.

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