“No.” Mykel shook his head. “I’ve been searching for it ever since and have found nothing. I mean, it’s vanished without a trace.”
“Do you know if it even existed?” I held out my arms.
“Yes.” Mykel nodded, his feet shifting again.
I peered at him suspiciously. “How do you know?”
“Because...” Mykel inhaled, tipping his head back for a moment. “I was one of those who tried to steal it from the doctor.”
“What?” My mouth fell.
He cleared his throat, his eyes not meeting mine. “At one time, I became, well,zealouswith the notion of having eternal life, strength, and power. To grow an army and fight against all the wrongs.” He cleared his throat. “I won’t sugarcoat it. I was one of those fiends out hunting for it. Like in the days long ago when gold was found, and people would slit each other’s throats in the night to steal it. This nectar was causing at least double the level of greed. The desire to claim it turned those hunters into murderers. Fanatical and feral.”
“Did you see it? You know it’s real?”
“It is very real. It disappeared soon after Isawit.” His hands curled as if the nectar was once there. Been so close before it was lost. “And the night I saw it was the night it disappeared... forever. Along with Dr. Novikov.”
I watched my uncle, wondering what he was keeping from me. I sensed there wasa lotmore to his story.
“I didn’t even imagine Markos would be following Rapava’s moremanufactured method. Nothing good ever came from his experiments. This is very bad. This changes everything.” He rubbed his head again. “If Markos found a way to create them and is selling them to Leon? We are so fucked.” He picked up the pills, staring at them like they could give him the answers. “I need to see what else is in these.”
“Why?” I folded my arms.
“This is not the time to get righteous.” He tipped his head at me. “We are fighting for our lives here, and I need to know what Markos is up to, what kind of army he and Leon can create, and why the ‘nectar’ is being talked about again. If it is still out there, I need to find it before Markos puts his plan in action.”
“No matter if it harms and kills humans?” I knew Istvan wouldn’t care about the fae he had to kill to make them, but what about the humans?
“The one thing I know when it comes to war, which Markos and Leon both believe as well, is sometimes you have to sacrifice a few for the greater good.”
In science, there will be sacrifices, but it is for the greater good.Those exact words in Dr. Rapava’s notes came back to me.
I felt sick and disgusted by their way of thinking, but as a survivor of Halálház, I couldn’t help but understand and agree. I knew too well the world wasn’t rainbows and happiness.
Living came with a sacrifice.
A price to pay.
My head wanted to crack open with all the new information rolling in it. Questions and worries pounded against my skull like waves. And I hadn’t even dealt with the biggest one yet. The beast strolling behind me. The tension between us was so sharp, it felt like a thousand cuts burrowing into my skin.
“Don’t disappoint me, Brexley,” Mykel said before we left, and the same brown eyes of my father pinned me.
Mykel was letting us stay, but I understood our freedom was on a very short leash. The Kaptain of Povstat had other business to deal with and excused us from his office with the warning.
With a simple nod I left, feeling the weight of his decree. Me staying in line was one thing, but keeping Warwick under control was a feat I wasn’t up for.
The moment the three of us stepped out in the hallway, I whirled around on them, annoyance folding my arms.
“What are you guys doing here?”
“We came to save you.” Ash tucked back his blond hair.
“I don’t need to be saved.”
“You’re welcome, princess,” Warwick growled, mimicking my stance, treading closer.
“I don’teverneed to be rescued... by you or anyone.” I matched his step, getting into his face.
“Really?” Warwick huffed, his boots knocking into mine, snapping his teeth. “That’s not what it seemed when you had a hundred guards trying to kill you, and you neededmystrength.”
