“I promise I will explain everything,” Niz assured her, infusing confidence I wasn’t sure he actually felt in his words as he stepped forward. “But you have to promise me that you will give them a chance and will truly listen to them. I wouldn’t have brought them here if I didn’t believe the world itself, the future of our kind, is at stake.”
“The world?” His father clarified in confusion, his expression open as he attempted to rationalize with his son. “We haven’t cared about the rest of the world in centuries. Why should we start now?”
His words could be conceived as cruel, but they came off more matter-of-fact. After all, the wyvernswerethatisolated from the rest of Alfemir. The rest of the world. Hell, even the stars didn’t touch their people.
“Because this could mean the end of everything. We aren’t talking about a simple war. What I am about to tell you would result in a mass extinction—” Niz’s answer was harshly interrupted.
“Stop!” His mother’s voice was sharp and furious once more, her face pink with anger as she stood from her throne. “I donotwant to hear another word about this. I have no idea what these individuals have poisoned your mind with, but we won’t entertain it.”
“Then we will die,” Niz warned, vehemence laced through his tone. “If we don’t come out of hiding, if we don’t move on from our past and move forward—wewilldie.”
Niz’s words echoed through the throne room as she froze, staring at her son before moving her gaze over each of us, a sneer pulling on her lips.
“Then we die,” his mother spat, turning on her heel and storming from the room through a door behind the thrones. The echo of it slamming shut reverberated through the space. Iexhaled in relief at her departure as Niz deflated, running a hand through his hair.
I wanted to offer him support, but before any of us could say a word, his father stood and approached his son. “I hope you know what you’re doing, Niz.” There was a plea in his words, as if begging his son to help him make sense of this situation.
“I promise you, I wouldn’t have done this without thought,” Niz promised, infusing confidence in his words as he put a hand on his shoulder.
After a long moment, his dad nodded. “Right then—well, it’s clear we aren’t going to agree on anything right now or get anywhere with this conversation…So let’s reconvene tomorrow, shall we?”
“Sure.” Niz agreed, disappointment clear in his tone as his shoulders slumped in defeat.
“I suggest you don’t leave the castle, or even the guest suite…it could always turn violent,” his father warned him quietly, but I knew it was also for us before turning back toward the thrones. “Have the guards show you to the guest suite.”
As he exited through the same door as his wife, silence filled the space around us. Looking at the others, who seemed as concerned as myself as Niz gazed at the thrones in front of us, I tried to offer him words of comfort.
“Listen, I’m sure she’lll understand once we explain?—”
Niz brushed my words off sharply, walking toward the main doors that we had entered. “Come on, let’s go.”
It was clear he didn’t want to talk, but while the dismissal hurt, I didn’t blame him. Despite our plans, this was starting to feel impossible.
19
KIERAN
“Trust is earned,we need to show our respect for their kingdom before demanding anything,” Steele argued again, his hands splayed on the back of the couch in front of him.
After ensuring we were settled in the expansive guest suite, Niz disappeared, leaving us to discuss the situation at hand amongst ourselves and how we thought we could approach it better tomorrow. Without Niz here for input, though, it’d been tricky. How were we supposed to find the line of being respectful to his parents but also not let them steamroll us?
Bastian and Ronan favored strong-arming the conversation until the queen and king gave in, whereas Steele and Gabe believed we needed to show our respect to earn their trust. I was surprised by Steele being on that side, but when he explained that’s how he would respond best as a commander with strangers at the Rebellion, it made sense.
Although this rule of ’respect’ hadn’t seemed to apply to me when I first showed up—no matter what I’d done, it hadn’t been enough for Steele.
I was left with all eyes on me following his words as I tried to muffle a snort of laughter at the thought. It seemed as if themen were treating me like the tie-breaker for their opinions, but I wouldn’t let that be the case.
“We wait for Niz to return to finalize our plan,” I stated firmly, pulling my shoulders back as I stood from my perch on the end of the bed. “It doesn’t matter what I think until we know more about his parents and their way of life here.”
Gabe nodded in agreement as he stood and stretched his entwined hands above his head before leaning to both sides. “I agree. It would be foolish to decide anything without his input. For now, let’s freshen up and change. I don’t know if we’re expected to eat dinner with anyone, but let’s put our best foot forward to be presentable and non-threatening to the wyverns.”
Ronan let out a hearty laugh as he fell back onto the pillows in the bed. “How exactly does one make Bastian appear less threatening? I don’t think a dip in the tub will do the trick.”
I giggled as Bash’s jaw fell open before he countered, “I’ll have you know, I am perfectly presentable at all times!”
As they went back and forth, I let out a heavy sigh and settled onto a plush cushion in the corner of the room near a small bookcase. As the next hour dragged on and we all fell into our quiet thoughts and rotated getting cleaned up, I couldn’t help but wonder if Niz was okay. I glanced up from the book I’d been mindlessly turning the pages on to stare at our closed doors.
Why wasn’t he back yet?
