“She’s the fucking Princess—she’s myfriend!—You were supposed to look after her!”
“Bala!” Lex shouted in her face.
Tears were in Bala’s eyes as her heart broke.
“You were supposed to look after her,” she breathed.
Bala finally stopped struggling. Her insides continued to shatter and tremble as she watched Nadir groan and lean back against the wall.
“It’s okay, Lex,” he finally said, touching the bleed of his lip with his thumb. “I deserve it.”
“No more than I do,” Lex said, looking over her shoulder at him.
"What happened?" Bala demanded.
Nadir leaned his head back against the door and pulled his knees into his chest.
The pair told her everything.
Everything from Nyssa and Nadir giving each other up, to the fight with Lex, to losing her. Everything about him looking for and finding her.
By the time they were finished, tears had fallen down Bala's cheeks, and she couldn't help but wonder why Nyssa had pushed herself so far into this.
“I don’t understand,” Bala finally managed as she sat on the chair. “If you know where she is, why are you not storming the gates to get her back?" She met Nadir's eyes. "I thought you loved her?”
Lex’s widened eyes snapped in his direction, and Nadir sighed heavily.
"Don't you think that's what's making this so hard?" he managed, pain strewn across his features. “She made me promise—”
“Damn your promises, Nadir,” Balandria interjected. “Where is she? We’ll go get her tonight.”
“You can’t.”
“Why the fuck not?”
“Because she’s gathering information for us,” he almost shouted. “She’s somehow managed to worm her way into negotiations and meetings between the Noble and his guards. She made me promise to allow her to do this. She has a plan.”
Balandria’s fist tightened around itself. “I’m going to kill her.”
“Yes, well, you can get in line,” Nadir muttered.
For a moment, Bala didn't speak. She merely stared at Nadir, her hands still on the phoenix dagger on her side.
“What’s her plan?” she finally snapped.
“Their King is set to arrive in two Dead Moons. She plans to get herself out, possibly call the Noctuans to aid her.”
“She wants to use my creatures?”
“Do you have a better idea?”
“Yes,” she said fast. “Go get her tonight and take it all down with us.”
“That will look like an attack from us. My home will be ambushed,” Nadir argued.
“So I should be okay with using my creatures as bait?”
“This is the only time the Noctuans will actually go near their home. She’s just using them to scare the strangers. If she can even call them. There is a chance she won't be able to.”
