Page 175 of Once the Skies Fade

“You can’t, can you?” I asked.

The female offered a small shake of her head, her eyes dropping to the table.

Niko breathed out a sigh. “I’m sorry. We have spent too many years—sacrificed too much—to put it in jeopardy now.”

Isa spoke for the first time since we’d arrived. “Putwhatin jeopardy? What are you trying to accomplish with the humans?”

Niko nodded but avoided answering her questions. “I truly am sorry we cannot allow you to go rescue your mate.”

My shadows shifted in my palms, and I closed my hands tighter to hold them back.

“I’m not leaving without him,” I said, fixing a hard stare on him. “I will, in fact, kill anyone who stands in my way—even you.”

The pair pushed to stand, their fangs slipping out over their bottom lips as they snarled, but I was on my feet just as quickly. Opening my palms, I released my shadows, sending them across the table with a silent command. I stopped them in mid-air but left them hovering close to the nightwalkers’ faces. In my periphery, Isa and Asher remained seated, but noticeably on edge, their eyes shifting between the vampires across the table and me.

“You dare threaten us, Ms. Vael?” Niko hissed out. Snapping his fingers high above his head, six nightwalkers materialized from the dark edges of the room and took their places behind each of us. “This behavior will not earn you any favor with us. Put your shadows away before my guards snap your necks.”

Easing my shadows back into my hands, I settled into my chair, gesturing for my hosts to do the same. They didn’t move.

“Master Vranic,” I said as respectfully as I could. “There must be a way to work together here so I’m not forced to sever our years of partnership. Yes? So, whatcanyou do to help us?”

It took them several breaths before they finally lowered into their chairs. Their fangs slipped from view again, but they remained quiet with a wary gleam in their eyes.

Isa peered up at the two nightwalkers standing behind her as she asked the royal couple, “If you can’t name the individuals, can you describe them for us?” They remained quiet, the only sign they’d even heard her being a tightening of their features as they—hopefully—contemplated her suggestion.

“Or send someone with us,” Asher commanded, not bothering to phrase it as a request as Isa had. “We have an extra mount.”

I snapped my head around to stare at him. That third seat was to bring Matthias home, and I was about to remind Asher of that, but his confident gaze and faint smile assured me he had already considered this.

“And have them do what, Mr. Starck?” Sasha asked. Her brows fell low over her cold eyes. “Shall they point out the ones we need protected? Risk exposing them? I don’t think so.”

Niko shook his head slowly. “Agreed. We can’t send anyone with you, nor can we provide names, but”—he caught Sasha’s uneasy gaze, and they had a brief but intense, silent conversation before he snapped his attention back to Asher—“we will need time to deliberate.”

Sasha scowled, clearly over this meeting, but she added, “There is one other issue with your plan.Wedon’t even know where they are located. The humans are able to mask their scent, their heartbeats. It took our man years to successfully infiltrate them, and even then he had to entice them to come to him. How do you plan to succeed where we have not?”

“With this,” I said, pulling a gold coin from my pocket.

Chapter 82

Matthias

Fire tore through my throat as I released another ragged scream, sending the sound past flesh worn raw by hours of ineffectual, inevitable wailing as Graham unleashed his quiet wrath on me. He’d ceased providing water, leaving me weak and dried out as if I were a corpse dug up from the ground. Where his tools came from, I didn’t know, and at this point, it didn’t fucking matter. He could have conjured them out of the stars-damned air. Knowing how he’d gotten them wouldn’t help me endure the torment any easier.

The clank of metal falling to the stone floor drew my eyes open, and I waited for the haze to clear from my vision, thankful for even the slightest of reprieves. My fingers burned—shooting sparks of pain into my hands—as I tried to move them against the arms of the chair I was now chained to. Even through my blurred sight, I noted the slick darkness at the end of each finger. The faint sound of blood dripping to the stone floor hit my ears, pulling my gaze down to my fingernails dotting the floor.

“You know, general,” Graham started from beside me, wiping his bloody hands on his trousers. But I didn’t turn toward him, my attention locked firmly onto the pieces of me he’d strewn about like bread tossed to birds. “I had almost thought youincapable of feeling pain with how little noise you made before. I have to wonder—is this that much more painful? Or does the lack of all hope simply make it seem so?”

Ripping my chapped lips apart, I rasped out my answer. “Fuck… you…”

Graham let a single laugh escape before he grabbed my hair and yanked my head back. “That’s not on the agenda, I’m afraid. But just wait?—”

Heavy footsteps echoed around us, and Graham shoved my head forward again.

“About time,” he muttered, turning for the doorway behind me. “I hope you have good news for me, Alek,” he said, even before he’d left the room.

My head bobbed from side to side for a moment, my eyes struggling to remain open, until I forced myself to turn an ear toward the other room. As pointless as it was to expect any help, some small part of me insisted on staying in this doomed fight and pushed me to listen for any hint of what was happening outside.

“What do you mean she’s not dead?” Graham’s low frustrated hiss blew a hint of life into my dying hope, like a breath resurrecting a flame from glowing embers.

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