Page 105 of The Storm of the Empire

I looked between them, but they both avoided my gaze. “Umm, will one of you tell me what he’s going on about please? I’ve already had quite the last twenty-four hours. I’ve got magic now, then learned I’m a ryder, and we flew through a fucking storm summoned by my flyer because apparently we can do that now, too. I did not think I would survive.” I count things off on my fingers. “I’ve been captured and escaped. Discovered Octavian is still alive, kind of—that one is going to haunt me.” I shuddered. “The way his face moved was really not cool.”

Jaxus’ eyes grew wider with every point, but when I got to Octavian, he held up a hand. “What?”

“We did try to tell those guards we needed to speak to Nyx. As Hazel said, we have a lot of new intel.”

Jaxus scrubbed a hand over his face. “Let me go see if he and the King are done. Don’t tell another soul, and please don’t mention this to the King if he stops you on his way out.”

“Do you think they are going to believe us?”I asked in mind speech while we waited for Jaxus to return.

She lifted her shoulders.“A week ago, I would have told you Nyx would believe anything I said. Today, I’m not so sure.”

“I can’t believe they’d doubt us, but maybe I would too had I not seen it with my own eyes.”I hesitated.“We saw it, right?”

“We did. They were real. I felt them under my sword. They can’t make us hallucinate that.”

“How is Octavian still alive?”I was just running through the stream of my own thoughts.

“I don’t know. He only looked half alive if you ask me. Maybe it’s a ruse?”

“Do you think they’d keep him alive, or the figure of him at least, to keep the momentum for their cause?”I needed some of this to make sense. The last few weeks had felt like a fever dream.

“It could be anything with him. The bastard wouldn’t go easily. If I know anything about him, it’s that.”

Jaxus returned, putting a finger to his lips, then gestured us towards Kiera’s office. He had us wait there and said he’d be back.

“Why are we being treated like spies?”Hazel almost laughed in her mind voice.

“Because we are. Like it or not, we are operating outside of the official channels.”We were going to be viewed with some level of suspicion by some, but at least she trusted me now.

“I heard that. And I do.”

I narrowed my eyes. “You can hear everything? How? I’m not thinking it at you.”

“Until you learn how to shield your thoughts, I will be able to.”

I pulled a face because that meant she was going to be able to hear all my very obscene thoughts about her.

“Yes, I can. And I rather like how naughty your mind is so don’t stop on my account.”

My skin heated.“If I didn’t think Jaxus would be back any second, I’d have you over this desk right now.”

“Tease! Later.”

I lifted my brows.“Really?”

“Promise.”She paired her words with the sexiest smile, and I knew she was going to drive me crazy before the end of all of this.

“Are you going to tell me about what Jaxus meant when he said you hadn’t told me something?”

“Later for that, too. I don’t think we have time now.”

I nodded, pretty sure I had an idea but wanting to at least talk about it. This was a lot of change. Then something occurred to me. “So wait, are we in the flying legion now?”

But she didn’t reply because Nyx stalked into the office, looking undead himself. “I had to tell the King I needed the bathroom to get a minute to breathe. What’s all this about?”

“You might want to sit down,” Hazel said.

“I’m fine.”

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