He said that things were about to change, so I fully expect Alexus to show up any time. Though I still, after all these weeks, cannot fathom how the prince thinks he can keep Alexus here.
I also cannot fathom how he thinks I would change everything about who I am for him. That I would stand at his side as he ruled our world with Thamaos. But I also asked him to be a different person. I could love him if he was someone else. The problem is that neither of us is willing to alter ourselves enough to suit the other. Not in this lifetime.
I’ve almost drifted to sleep when I hear a sound on the stairs. I look up first and see a long shadow. Then I sit up.
The very last thing I expect comes sauntering down the stairs like the prowling wolf he is. Neri.
I blink and rub my eyes, certain that the prince had to have drugged my wine. But when I look up again, Neri’s still there, stepping off the bottom stone of the stairs, frost covering the earthen floor in his wake.
“Colden Moeshka,” he says, gripping the bars of my cell. “I’m here to set you free.”
I start laughing. I don’t know what comes over me. I am very clearly drugged, high as a kite soaring on Malgros’s shore.
Neri frowns. “You giddy bastard, what’s wrong with you?” He grips the bars and again, and frost coats the iron in a blue-white glaze.
Cold drifts into my cell, rolling off Neri in waves, sending a familiar chill across my skin. He’s really here.
I get up and start toward the cell door, but I pause, hesitant and untrusting as fuck.
“Freedom, gifted by you, wouldn’t be a kindness,” I tell him. “I know better than to think it would. You must get something in return. That’s simply how you operate.”
“I am very much a dealmaker. What makes you think it isn’t a deal that brought me here?”
I narrow my eyes. “A deal with who?”
I don’t expect him to tell me. I expect a vague reply meant to leave me guessing. Instead…
“Nephele Bloodgood.”
My stomach turns heavy as a lump of iron. “She would never.”
He laughs, his lip curling back over a fang. “Seems as though I’ve heard that said about her before. You underestimate that woman’s determination to get what she wants.”
My blood chills in a way it hasn’t since Winter Road, and I stalk closer to the bars. “What did you do? How is she beholden to you?”
It takes him a moment to reply, and for the flash of a second, I swear I see a bruised ego. “She’s a clever witch. Perhaps I’m beholden to her.”
Though I want to believe that’s the case, I shake my head, clenching my fists. “She had to bargain as well. What are you taking from her?”
He leans in, a snarl on his face. “I’m taking nothing from her. She’s giving me life in exchange for me returning your power and setting you free. She also gains my servitude for as long as she lives. She and I will be connected for the rest of her days, and there isn’t anything you can do about it.”
Stunned, I blink and scrub my hand over my mouth. Clever witch indeed, though the thought of my Nephele enduring this beast’s presence for the rest of her life…
“I don’t have to accept.”
A low growl leaves his chest. “You would deny my aid?”
I consider this in a way I don’t think I would have months ago. On Winter Road, feeling defenseless—save for my sword—after so many years of having the power to protect myself and those I love, was the closest thing to death I’ve experienced. My power felt like such a safe haven, more than I realized, and I was unmoored when Neri took it away.
And yet, after some time without it, I feel more like the young man I used to be. I feel the warmth in a touch a different way, the heat of a kiss, the soothing warmth of a bath. Even firelight is a different sort of pleasure now, rain and sun on my skin. Now, all these simple things are comfort to my weary bones rather than a reminder of the humanity I lost.
I might still have eternal life until someone takes my head, but without that old power, I will live those days more like a man and less like a god.
“You need to think about this?” Neri says. “You are captive in the Eastland Territories, soldier. Do you remember nothing of your training under my leadership?”
“Apologies, but it’s been an age.” I keep my voice light with mockery. “Perhaps I don’t recall what you’re getting at.”
Neri hates me, after all this time, a truth that’s evident in his glowing, amber eyes. “If an advantage over the enemy is offered, you take it. If it means living to fight another day, you take it.”
