He paced deeper into the room and picked out one of the long knives hooked onto the wall. Without warning, his body twisted and the weapon flew from his hand, striking one of the dummies in the corner with a loudthud. The handle shook with the impact.
Biyu jumped at the display of raw power—rawfury—that thrummed over him.
Nikator picked out another weapon and did the same again, and again.
Minos swore under his breath. “Oh, he’s pissed, isn’t he?” He met Biyu’s eyes. “What have you done?”
Startled, she only trembled worse than before.
She could practically feel Nikator’s anger deep in her chest. It was like a roaring flame, dancing and thrashing within her, pulsing through every pore in her body. She could imagine herself as one of those dummies that he had struck. Was he imagining her there? Was he thinking of killing her like his other victims?
“Nik, come on now. Let’s sit and talk—” Minos started.
Nikator released another weapon—this time a shorter knife—and it slammed into the dummy’s head. He turned toward the three of them. His chest rose and fell, but Biyu wasn’t sure if it was from exertion, or the rage that coursed through him, hotter than any fire.
Vita motioned to the couches. “Why don’t we all sit?”
“So we can twiddle our thumbs before Muyang gets out of his meeting?” Nikator scoffed, raking a hand through his deep red hair. “I don’t have time?—”
“We have nothing better to do right now.” Minos raised his hands as if trying to pacify a beast, and it only made Nikator bare his teeth at him. “Let’s talk this through and figure out our options.”
Muyang. Nikator had just … called His Majesty by his first name like it was nothing. The shock of it jolted through Biyu and she could only stare at him as he argued back and forth with Minos. He wasn’t allowed to do that. Nobody was allowed to call the emperor by his given name, unless they were close enough to him to not be scared of being executed. But that should have been impossible. Why would Drakkon Muyang allow histoolsto speak so casually about him?
“Princess Biyu,” Vita said.
Biyu flinched at the coldness in the beautiful woman’s voice.
“Sit,” she said.
There was no way she could not cooperate; these people would kill her without a second thought, especially now that they had a clearer reason to. Biyu lowered herself onto the seat; shudders rippled through her body and she resisted the urge to vomit. She really was going to die here.
Vita towered over her and crossed her lean arms over her chest. She was dressed in a flowy dress. It was pretty and pale, but it washed out her tanned skin and silver eyes, and it did nothing to hide the edge in the warrior’s expression, nor the promise of death that clung to her.
“Can you explain what happened?” she asked, voice low.
Biyu’s lower lip trembled and her gaze cut over to Nikator, who had stopped pacing and snarling at Minos, and was now glaring at her, as if waiting for an explanation. Minos circled around the couch and sat beside her, his arm framing the backof the couch and closing her in. He smelled like wildflowers and spice.
“You don’t need to be so scared,” he said smoothly. “You just have to tell us everything that happened so we can better understand. You didn’t mean to hurt Nikator, did you? I can’t imagine a pretty thing like you doing something savage like that.”
Biyu inched away from him. She didn’t like how close he was, nor how his calm, honeyed voice betrayed the humming, ominous chill that emitted from him. Others probably couldn’t see beyond his easy grins and charming personality, but Biyu could make out the frigidness, the soullessness, in his deep blue eyes. He was a beast waiting to sink his teeth into his prey.
“Princess?” Minos asked. “We won’t hurt you.”
“Yet,” she whispered, trembling.
Nikator stifled a growl and came to stand in front of her. He dropped down to his knees until he was eye-level with her. The blood on his face, arms, and neck had dried, and it only made him look all the more furious, more terrifying.
“You don’t seem to understand the situation you’re in. Tell useverything,” he said through clenched teeth. His attention skated over to Minos’s arm behind her on the couch, and he snapped a response in their foreign tongue to the dark-haired warrior, who lifted his brows and removed his arm. Nikator shifted his razored gaze back to her. He braced his hands on the couch on either side of her, caging her in. “You’re thinning my already thin patience.”
Biyu reeled back in her seat in an attempt to put more distance between them, but that only made him inch closer. The energy around him buzzed angrily.
“Talk.Now.”
“Back away.”
“Princess—”
“I—I can’t think properly with you so close,” she said without thinking.
