… Because someone else was lying on it.
Scrambling off the unknown figure, Alex was ready to scream bloody murder until a familiar voice broke through the haze of her alarm.
“You’re not my favourite person right now, kitten.”
Heart pounding, Alex gasped out, “Niyx?”
Half a second later, the room flooded with light as Niyx turned on the power and returned to Alex’s side in record time. If she hadn’t tracked the movement, she would have wondered if he’d activated the Valispath for the quick manoeuvre.
Taking stock of yet another surprise for the day, Alex’s concerned eyes swung over to where D.C. lay, but she was shocked to find her still fast asleep.
“Don’t worry about her,” Niyx said, following Alex’s gaze. “She’ll be out of it until morning. You could set her hair on fire and she’d never know.”
Alex turned back to him with a glare of suspicion. “What did you do to her?”
Niyx grinned unrepentantly and flicked Alex’s nose with a playful finger. “Nothing you need to worry about. Plausible deniability, and all that.”
Sighing loudly as she rubbed a weary hand across her eyes, Alex closed the distance between her and Niyx, collapsing forward and planting her face in his chest.
He hesitated only a fraction of a second before wrapping his arms around her, supporting most of her weight as she leaned into him.
“Today has been awful,” she mumbled into the material of his wintery cloak—something he hardly needed considering he barely felt the cold. “But I’m so happy to see you’re okay. You have no idea how worried I’ve been.”
“‘Okay’ is a relative term,” Niyx said, pushing her from his body and gently onto the bed. “I meant what I said about you not being my favourite person at the moment.”
Alex furrowed her brow. “What’d I do?”
“That.” He pointed a finger towards her blood-soaked jeans.
“And therefore, this.” His finger turned to his own leg, where silver blood stained his dark pants.
“I’m so sorry,” Alex said, wincing. “I didn’t think—”
“For light’s sake, eat this before you waste time apologising,” he interrupted, reaching into his cloak and shoving a handful of laendra into her open palm.
Alex smiled tiredly at him. “My hero.”
Scarcely chewing before she swallowed, Alex closed her eyes as she practically inhaled the glowing flower and felt the effect of its healing. Her relief was so acute that she could have wept.
“Truly, Niyx,” she whispered as the pain disappeared entirely, along with her hunger and bone-weary exhaustion. “Thank you.”
“Now that we’re not both bleeding to death, let me set the scene for you,” he said, standing in front of her with his arms crossed. “There I was in the middle of the throne room with not only Aven and his closest Garseth, but also his strongest mind reader, Signa Zu, the telekinetic Calista Maine, and half a dozen Claimed Zeltora, when suddenly I felt a stabbing pain and found my leg covered in blood.” His voice was pleasant, as if he was reciting events that happened to someone else. “Naturally, all eyes swung my way as I clutched at my wound. So, to cover, do you know what I did?”
Alex bit her lip and shook her head.
“I am Niyx Raedon, firstborn son to Cykor and Kosett, and heir to House Raedon of the Meyarin High Court,” Niyx said, most of which Alex already knew. “I’m also a Zeltora-ranked warrior, and the only reason I wasn’t actively serving in the elite guard before my imprisonment was due to the obligations required of me as heir to my House.”
That Alex hadn’t known, but she didn’t attempt to say as much since his blazing amethyst eyes warned her to keep silent.
“Given all that, I’m sure you can appreciate that I wasn’t pleased when, in order to come up with an excuse for your unexpected wound, I knew I had only one choice.”
Hesitant, Alex asked, “What did you do?”
Niyx speared her with a look. “I told them all that I’d accidentally stabbed myself in the leg.”
Alex bit her lip again—but this time to keep from bursting into laughter. “You did what?”
“By the stars!” Niyx ran agitated fingers through his hair. “I’ve never felt more humiliated in my life!” He slumped onto the bed beside her with a belligerent scowl. “I don’t know what’s worse—having to admit to doing something so foolish, or the fact that they believed me.”
Alex didn’t say anything. She couldn’t, in fact, because she was shaking with laughter and wasn’t willing to risk opening her mouth and inciting his wrath.
“Ergo,” he finished, his narrowed eyes showing he hadn’t failed to notice her humour, “you are not my favourite person today.”
Alex hoped he couldn’t see the amused tears welling in her eyes. When she finally had a handle on herself again, she said, “I can see how that might have been unpleasant.”
Niyx made a growling sound from the back of his throat. But then he sighed and peered at her with concern. “Not unpleasant enough that I didn’t spend all day worrying about you, kitten.”
His words filled Alex with warmth. “I’m okay, Niyx.” At his disbelieving look, she amended, “Or, I am now, thanks to you and your laendra.”
“What happened, Aeylia?” he asked, using the name he was most familiar with. “And why didn’t you seek medical attention sooner?”
Shuffling into a more comfortable position, Alex told him of her day, from her time in Tryllin to Gaiel’s attack in Draekora, including the settlement’s depleted laendra supplies. She then shared her entire Mr. Mystery Man lake experience, before finishing with her grumpy-librarian encounter and her absentee doctor.
“And I thought my day was rough,” Niyx said.
“Told you it was awful,” Alex said around a yawn. The laendra had taken the edge off her exhaustion, but she’d essentially lived almost half a day more than everyone else.
“It’s interesting—I’m curious what would have happened if you’d been injured while inside the Library,” Niyx mused. “I’m not sure I would have known, not until you’d left the time-space vacuum and stepped out into the real world again.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Because if that lake was as icy as you say, then I should have at least felt the phantom cold of your physical distress. Plus, time had paused for me, remember? The world didn’t start again until you stepped back into it.”
Alex realised he was right. “Note to self: injuries in the Library, okay. Injuries outside the Library, not good for Niyx’s street cred.”
Rolling his eyes at her, Niyx said, “There’s at least one good thing we’ve learned today.”
“What’s that?”
“You know how I wasn’t sure if my link to you would protect me from mental gifts in Aven’s army?”
“Uh-huh,” Alex said.
“Well, like I mentioned before, Signa was in the room when Gaiel daggered you,” Niyx said. “Knowing you must have been hurt, my thoughts naturally jumped to you before I could get a lock on them.”
Alex turned rigid.