“I thought you were dead.”
Five barely audible words had Alex frowning at Niyx in confusion. If anything, his shock had only increased during their short but intense conversation.
“They told me you were dead,” he whispered, still staring at Maggie like she was a ghost.
The silence lasted so long that Alex didn’t think Maggie was going to reply. But then she did.
“To them, I was,” Maggie said. “Just as you were to me. Just as you are to me.”
Niyx flinched at her harsh words, the hurt on his face scoring across Alex like the lash of a whip.
What’s happening here? Alex called out to him. How do you know each other?
Again, he didn’t respond.
“I wondered, you know,” Maggie said, her voice almost too low to hear. “Over the years, I wondered if there had been a mistake. I knew it was wishful thinking, but there were times when I hoped—” She stopped abruptly and looked away for a fraction of a second as if to gather herself. Her eyes were like shards of silvery ice when she turned back to him. “Then I heard you had escaped Taevarg and the first thing you did was kill our king, all in the name of that beast you call a friend. You disgust me.” She pulled in a ragged breath. “If I could have one wish, it would be that you had been killed all those years ago. Prison was too good for the likes of you.”
Seeing the raw pain on Niyx’s face, Alex refused to hear any more. She leapt between them, placing herself in the path of Maggie’s arrow, and hissed, “That’s enough, Maggie. You have no idea what you’re talking about. If you only knew—”
“Kitten, it’s okay,” Niyx said quietly from behind her. “Mayra has more reason than most to hate me.”
Alex stilled and turned back to look at him before repeating, “Mayra?”
Niyx’s eyes didn’t leave Maggie’s, but he did answer Alex, shocking the air out of her once again when he said, “Mayra Raedon. My sister.”
Twenty-Eight
“Your sister?” Alex all but shrieked, glancing between the two of them.
“I stopped being his sister long ago,” Maggie said, her voice hard. “I left Mayra Raedon behind and became Magdelina Llohilas right after my brother,”—she spat the word like a curse—“the person I loved most in the entire world, abandoned me to follow a tyrant.”
Her phrasing prompted a memory for Alex, words Maggie had spoken almost a fortnight ago: ‘The day Aven killed those humans and fled the city was the day my brother lost his life following the cause of that tyrant.’
Alex had presumed her brother had died. But she now realised Maggie had meant something else entirely. Niyx had lost his life—in the sense that he’d lost his freedom. But he hadn’t done it following Aven.
“Niyx was wrongly imprisoned,” Alex told Maggie firmly. “He never approved of anything Aven was doing back then, just as he doesn’t now. He wasn’t even there when the Garseth attacked the humans outside the palace—he was with me. His guilt was presumed based on his association with Aven, nothing more.”
“Then why did he plead guilty at his trial?” Maggie demanded, her cynicism clear. “Why not fight the charges?”
You had a trial? Alex asked him, not having known that. Why didn’t you prove your innocence?
This time, Niyx answered, offering just three quiet words. You know why.
Alex closed her eyes, realising he’d acted his part as the loyal follower in order to position himself for the future. All to help her. Oh, Niyx.
My only regret was leaving Mayra, but then our parents visited and told me there had been an accident. They said she was dead. I had no idea… His voice trailed off, but then he said, What did you mean about her being a fake you?
Alex quickly replayed the memory of Maggie sharing her story. I’m sorry I didn’t think to tell you sooner, she apologised, feeling awful. It never even crossed my mind.
You had no way of knowing, he returned quietly.
While their mental conversation had been swift, Alex knew it was bordering on weird that neither of them had spoken for the duration of it, let alone answered Maggie’s question. So Alex hurried to do so.
“He had his reasons, reasons I’ve already told you. To help fight against Aven, he gave up everything—including you. Though, if he was led to believe you were dead, then he didn’t realise what he was giving up and for how long.”
Maggie’s aim wobbled slightly, something that caused Alex’s breath to hitch since she was still positioned in front of Niyx.
“I don’t believe you.”
Tell her, Niyx, Alex begged him. She’s your sister. If anyone deserves the truth, it’s her.
“And even if I did,” Maggie went on, swallowing, “I still wouldn’t, because even I know everyone left in Meya is Claimed by Aven now. Whatever you might think about the Meyarin you’re protecting with your life, Alex, guilty or innocent, all that’s left is a shell of a being controlled by a sociopath.”
Alex shook her head. “Aven didn’t Claim Niyx.”
Maggie’s gaze slitted. “More lies.”
“He couldn’t,” Alex said, and in a whisper, she finished, “because I Claimed Niyx first.”
Maggie’s shock was so acute that she accidentally released the arrow. Alex’s Meyarin reflexes allowed her a split second to dive to the side, pushing Niyx down with her, but even then she was still clipped in the arm, the sharp arrowhead tearing through her coat and skimming her bicep.
She hissed at the sting of pain and Niyx was immediately pushing her off him and turning her around to frantically inspect her arm.
“It’s just a flesh wound,” she told him through clenched teeth, something he was now realising for himself, since the same injury appeared on his arm. His was much more noticeable since he wasn’t bundled up against the cold like Alex.
“Here,” he said, shoving the flask of laendra at her. She was relieved they hadn’t finished it earlier. Not that her injury was bad, but she was still bleeding all over the snow. Niyx was, too, and his wound wouldn’t heal without hers doing so first.
A couple of sips and a few seconds later and they were both as good as new.
… Until they turned to look at Maggie, who was swaying on the spot, her hand covering her mouth.
“You Claimed him?” the Archery instructor whispered, horrified.
“It’s a long story, but yes, I did,” Alex said, just as quietly, fully aware that she’d just admitted to carrying out a ritual forbidden to Meyarins on pain of death.
“I was attacked by a Sarnaph, May,” Niyx said, apparently deciding it was a story his sister needed to hear. “I was dying. Aeylia saved my life. And when she later tried to Release me, I wouldn’t accept the Release. She can’t control me anymore, but we’re still connected—as you just saw.”