15

X E N O S

➳

Georgie locked the door behind her and stepped into the cobbled, cool hallway, which was lit by several torches. "The wound is fully healed and the poison will be gone from her body in a few hours." She clasped her hands behind her back as the flames from the torches lit her face. She smiled. "Arya will make a full recovery."

The iron hand around my heart loosened. "Thank you Georgie. You can go now."

She nodded and then quietly disappeared around the corner.

"What are you doing?"

I did not look up after stepping into the room, but continued to inspect the various elixirs in the vials on the maple tabletop in front of me that the old healer had prepared.

A squeak of the tray. She must have sat up. "Xenos?"

I took one of the potions in my hand and studied the blue liquid closely. "Who was it?"

"I don't know," she said indifferently.

I closed my eyes and my hand clenched on a bottle. "Do not lie to me."

"I'm not lying to you." As scratchy as ever.

"You don't know who it was?" I eyed her skeptically and raised an eyebrow. "Someone suddenly attacked you, for no reason?"

Arya shrugged as she sat up straight against the wall and placed the glass goblet she had just sipped from on her bedside table. " Aee ."

"And you think I'll buy that?"

She lifted her chin and glared at me - a dull glow in her eyes. The poison was still not completely gone from her bloodstream. "I don't give a damn."

I shoved my rampaging wolf deep behind the bars, tugging at my frighteningly thin self-control. I sat by her bed for hours. Hoped, prayed that she would wake up. Not touching her now almost drove me insane. "Was it someone from your tribe?"

"How dare you!"

Acid bit into my bones as I asked a question I never thought I'd ask. Which I would never have asked under any other circumstances. But someone had dared to violate something that was sacred to me. And I would never be too proud for that. "Someone from my pack?"

She paused, surprise crossing her face. "No of course not. As I said, I didn't know him."

The glass vial in my hand shattered. 'It was a man? "Anger didn't even begin to measure what was raging inside me. My wolf roared. "A man dared to stab you?"

"What difference does it make?" She had swung her legs out of the bed, albeit unsteadily, and was glaring at me. "Fact is, even if I knew who he was, it's none of your business who attacked me." I growled and started to protest, but she didn't let me get a word in edgeways. “You think I won't take revenge for this? That you have to do this thing for me? That I can't do it myself?” She waved her hands wildly. 'If you haven't figured it out, that's my problem . I take care of myself I …” She pointed to herself and hissed, “ Ehsa .”

“I know you've got it under control, Arya. I know that.” I growled back and stalked across the healing room, hands balled into fists at my sides, until I stopped in front of her. "I know that. It's nonetheless my concern."

She folded her arms across her chest and stared up at me, careful not to touch me. "Then why don't you leave me alone with this? Why don't you trust me?"

“Because I am king and you are in my kingdom . So tell me the fuck who did it."

An infinite cold settled into her eyes. "Go."

I immediately realized the misdeed I had begun. "Arya."

"I said you should go!"

I caught the fists, held them with one hand, and knelt in front of them. Gently brushing the thin braid away from her face, avoiding her snapping teeth, she studied her cheek, which still showed the slight greenish discoloration. It took the last drop of my self-control not to grab her. “It's none of my business because I'm king or because you're on my territory. It's because I'd never forgive myself if anything happened to you.” With that, I left her and locked the door behind me, just in time for the glass goblet to shatter on the door and not on me.

A R Y A

➳

I hated him, I hated him so much! How dare he say such words to me. How dare he make me feel like this.

“Because I would never forgive myself if anything happened to you.”

I shuddered. “Oh, I hated him so much.”

"Thank you Reah for coming." Xenos clasped his hands on the ebony tabletop and his white linen shirt stretched over his muscular upper arms.

"Of course." Reah draped her green wool cloak over the chair and sat down at the conference table across from me, grinning. Her eyes darted to me as she placed the thick, moldy books on the tabletop. "I'm surprised you haven't read about it, too."

I crossed my arms and leaned back on the back of the chair. "Really?"

"Now that you mention it, honey." Reah wrinkled her nose. "No."

Devon chuckled next to me. “Reah, of course not. My honeybee would rather spank us than read boring books in the library.” He gave me a lewd grin. "Isn't it, Honeybee?"

I grinned at Devon. "You can bet your pretty ass."

At this, Xenos growled and made my heart beat faster. I tried not to look at him, really tried, but it was like he was my personal magnet. A magnet I couldn't get away from, no matter how hard I tried. His blue eyes sparkled as he felt my gaze and returned it - a tingling in my body. I walked more and more toward the invisible gorge, came dangerously close to it. Once I stepped over it, I knew I couldn't go back. And I hated him for that, too.

Reah opened the book. 'The genealogical tree of the gods. Hades had two children with Echinda, the snake woman.” Her finger traced the page, following the illustrated branches. "Daemon and Chimera."

Joy, who was also sitting at the table like the rest of us, nodded. "Hellhound and hybrid."

"“Aee”." Reah brushed her black rastas away from her face. “Legend has it that the children of Echinda drank blood at her breast instead of nourishing milk. From birth, Echinda bound her children by a blood oath.”

A blood oath. I had heard about that before. Just the rare idea of it made me freeze. I grabbed the pitcher from the table and poured warm tea into a mug to warm my cold fingers. "She had made them her personal puppets."

Reah gave me a grateful nod as I handed her a cup as well and sipped on the chamomile tea. ““Aee”. She was apparently a very jealous fury who needed to control everything and everyone. Hades grabbed the bull by the horns and mercilessly killed the three monsters - mother and children."

"Only that Daemon isn't dead." Devon sneered. "What a lousy job he did."

"Why would Daemon attack so many packs in cold blood and kill pack members, that doesn't make sense?" Joy asked, frowning.

I shook my head. 'The murders couldn't have been without a reason. There must be a reason he sucked all the blood out of them.”

“Echinda and her children are dark, blackbloods. When it comes to blood, these creatures have special customs.” Reah placed her tea on the ebony table. "You can gain power and strength from the blood of others."

Xenos, who was at the top of the table, leaned forward. “So Demon is weakened. He needs blood to strengthen himself."

I looked at him for what felt like the thousandth time. Couldn't tear my eyes from the dark seas that enthralled me so much I couldn't tear myself away. My fingers gripped my cup. "For what?"

When no one replied, Xenos turned to Reah. “Where would Daemon be? We've already searched most of Fyrsald Forest. And there's nothing beyond the tree line but the Skihlas."

Reah thoughtfully tapped the open pages of the book. “Daemon is a hellhound. He has lived in the underworld all his life. He wouldn't choose a spot in the woods. At least not above the surface.”

"You think it's underground?" Devon shook his head doubtfully. "He's got a whole pack of rogues."

"You're right. Wolves would rather roost with a cat than burrow under the Eder.” Reah rubbed her face. “Let me rummage through the books some more. Maybe I'll stumble upon something. Maybe—” She yanked her hands away from her face. "The cliffs, of course!"

Suddenly impatient, my feet tapped restlessly on the floor. "What?"

She was leafing through her book quickly, then snapped it shut and reached for the next thick ham to leaf through that one too when she suddenly stopped to one side and her eyes widened. "I knew it!" She lifted her head and her eyes shone with excitement. “It was rumored that whole packs dug caves in the rocks during the Red Age, the many years of war. Infinitely deep and long corridors that lay hidden and safe.”

Devon leaned back in his chair. "The perfect hiding place for a once-lost blackblood."

Despite my charged body just waiting to grab my bow and quiver and slay the beast, I couldn't help but keep glancing at Xenos. His words floated through my head over and over again. I felt his hands on my cheek, gently brushing a strand of hair from my face. His fine breath tickling my skin. His lips pressed against mine. The fear in his eyes as he saw me lying on that pathetic plank and doing things to my heart that weren't supposed to be. Things that made me forget everything around me. I became putty in his hands, a mess of nerves craving his attention.

As I said, I hated him. I hated him because I was so close to the gorge that I had to use all my strength to take a step back and not fall down. Because he wouldn't catch me, even if he thought he would. He couldn't, it wasn't in his power.

The chair skidded on the floor as I got up. My time here was over. I would find Daemon, and then my paths and Xeno's would part forever.

➳