Page 20 of Draekora

“Go, Roka,” Alex said, giving him a nudge towards the door. “And you’d better think up a good question. Make my time worth it.”

He sent her one last look of concern before he hustled out the door, sealing it closed behind him.

“Finally,” Niyx muttered, jumping to his feet with cat-like agility. “I thought he’d never leave.”

Nerves zinging, Alex held up a hand as he prowled towards her. “I’d prefer it if you stayed where you are.”

“I’m sure you would, kitten,” he said, still moving closer but, thankfully, stopping a few feet away. “Unfortunately, if there’s one thing I’ve learned in the last few millennia, we seldom get what we desire.”

“Why did you want to talk to me alone?” Alex asked, edging out from around him and walking slowly across his cell, deliberately putting space between them.

“I remember you, you know,” he said. “I shouldn’t, but I do.”

His voice held a strange tone, strange enough that Alex stopped trying to distance herself and paused, even as he stepped closer to her again.

“I remember it like it was yesterday.”

Considering it was only three months ago when they’d first met, Alex would have been worried if hedidn’tremember her.

“I remember you too, Niyx,” she said carefully, not entirely sure how mentally stable the Meyarin was after all.

He let out a quiet, mirthless laugh. “No, you don’t. Not like I remember you. No one else does, either. Only me.”

Alex decided that it was a good time to back away from him again. But she hadn’t realised that she’d been retreating towards a corner—a corner that she was now boxed into.

“I was out hunting, you see,” Niyx continued, his amethyst eyes on hers but his mind clearly elsewhere. “I was attacked by what you call a Hyroa and its blood was poisoning my body.” His gaze became even more unfocused. “There was foreign blood in me. Blood not only my own. No one remembers, no one except me.”

With those senseless words, he closed the remaining distance between them until they were toe to toe. He reached out a grimy hand, trailing it down her cheek to rest along the underside of her jaw.

Alex was frozen to the spot. Despite her confident words to Roka, she was now most definitely out of her comfort zone. She knew the power of the immortal race—one slight adjustment and the Meyarin could easily snap her neck.

As if reading her mind, his hand flexed, tensed and curled around her flesh.

“Do you have any idea what it would solve?” he whispered, his eyes staring unfocused at his hand on her neck. “All I have to do is tighten my fingers. It would change everything. Fixeverything. Tell me,do—you—have—any—idea?”

“Niyx…” Alex was terrified of saying the wrong thing lest she provoke the clearly out-of-his-mind Meyarin. “What is it that you want from me?”

At her softly spoken words, he blinked once, twice and seemed to snap back to himself, releasing his grip and taking a quick step backwards.

“A life for a life,” he whispered. “I’m now absolved of my debt.”

Alex’s whole body was trembling. She didn’t know what to say. She didn’t know what to do. All she knew was that something was happening, something beyond her understanding. Something that, even compared to everything else she’d experienced in Medora, didn’t make sense.

“Our time is nearly up, young mortal,” Niyx said, appearing normal again. Or at least as normal as he’d been when Roka had been present. “I’ve already told you more than I should. But I’ll give you a bonus for old times’ sake.”

Alex wanted to tell him he was crazy. But she thought it best to at least wait until she had reinforcements before she did so.

“I’m listening,” she said, pleased when her voice didn’t come out as the whimpering croak she’d expected.

“Hear me, mortal,” Niyx said, leaning in once more and trapping her in his hypnotic gaze. “With the lashing of the branch, the time will be at hand. All will change.” He blinked, breaking the trance, and quirked his head to the side. “Or rather, nothing will.”

At that, the door to the room opened and a highly agitated Roka stepped into the cell. Seeing Alex cornered with Niyx so close, the prince’s handsome face hardened to stone and he rushed forward, his movement so fast that, to Alex’s human sight, he was like a blur.

“Easy,norot,” Niyx teased, raising his hands and stepping away from Alex. “We were only chatting.”

Roka moved Alex to shield her behind him.

“You’ve had your time with her,” Roka said. “Now uphold your end of our bargain.”

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