Page 4 of Guardian of Exile

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“We’re going after Tristen without Jevryn,” Nyx announced as she and Griff walked back into the kitchen.

Three sets of eyes stared back at her with no small amount of confusion. Well, okay, two sets of eyes looked confused. The third—Kaden’s—maintained their default setting of inscrutable-but-alert.

“Jevryn is busy,” Nyx continued, since no one was saying anything, “and has asked us to go on without him.”

Evra and Morgen shared a look. “Do you think that is wise?” Evra asked.

And that vote of no confidence didn’t sting. Not at all. Nyx crossed her arms. “Sure. Why not?”

“We seek a Shaman who has taken a life before and suffered no repercussions for it,” Evra said. “Not only that, but for him to be on Dead Earth, of all places, means he was likely either stolen from, or sold by, his family. Neither option will make him particularly trusting, especially towards anyone from the wider universe.”

“When you put it that way, it’s probably better that Jevryn isn’t coming,” Nyx said. “He doesn’t exactly scream harmless-and-here-to-be-your-friend.”

Evra took a bracing drink of her cappuccino before saying, “I think you are missing the point. Veld is dangerous. He already knows that he can kill without consequence, and a Shaman without restrictions can kill in an instant. There are some defenses against Shamanic magic, but those defenses require more than a second’s notice to implement, and a second is all it takes for a Shaman to stop a heart.”

Uh-huh. “If defenses take time, then what is Jevryn going to do that we can’t?”

“Based on what I’ve seen of your father’s death magic, it is one of the few things that could provide an immediate counter to Shamanic intent,” Morgen said smoothly.

“I have death magic too.” Was her father a more badass death magic user than her? Indisputably. But it wasn’t like she was useless.

Evra and Morgen looked uncomfortable. Kaden still hadn’t felt the need to chime in. Griff was watching it all with the air of a parent who had said his piece and was now letting the children sort things out for themselves.

Morgen got up, went to the kitchen windowsill where a potted aloe vera plant was greedily soaking up the morning sun, and plucked it from its resting place. He returned to the cafe counter and set the plant in front of her. Nyx looked at the aloe. It was one of those delicate varieties, the leaves slender and elegant and dotted with delicate white specks.

She gently brushed a fingertip to the underside of one of the leaves. “What is this for?” she asked.

“Kill it,” Morgen said.

Her head snapped up. “What?”

“Kill it,” he repeated. “It’s just a plant.”

She felt an urge to wrap her hands around the plant’s pot and draw it protectively to her. “Why? It hasn’t done anything.”

He pointed at her hands, which had indeed instinctively curled around the pot. “That right there is why we’re worried. You have Jevryn’s magic, but you’ll hesitate to use it.”

“I don’t hesitate when it counts.”

“You didn’t hesitate the one time you used it, because you had a personal stake in killing the person, and you knew he deserved to die,” Morgen corrected.

“Not everyone is Kiev A-Morridahn,” Evra said, picking up the thread of the argument. “You knew exactly what he had done, and exactly what you wanted to do in response. Veld is not the same as Kiev. He was likely taken from his home, and even the Congregation said it understands why he did what he did.

“All of that makes him a sympathetic figure in your eyes. You will hesitate to hurt him. If he lashes out, you will be slow to defend. Jevryn would not be so…inhibited.”

Nyx wanted to snap back that they had her figured out wrong. For one, she was much more sympathetic towards plants than people these days. At least, so long as they were harmless Earth plants that weren’t intending to implant seeds in her to eat her death magic and use her body as a breeding ground. For another, while she would hesitate to kill Tristen, for any number of reasons, she wouldn’t hesitate to defend herself—or anyone else—against him.

Morgen must have taken her silence as a sign that she just needed a little more convincing in order to see reason, because he said, “Kaden, do you want to back us up here?”

Nyx managed not to roll her eyes by sheer force of will. Remembering how angry Kaden had been when she’d gone to Arkadia, and how critical he’d been of her choice to go to the Shadow Market after Seth, she didn’t need to hear what his opinion was on her capabilities regarding Shamanic defense. She could already hear him talking in her mind, lecturing her about how she hadn’t had to make the truly hard choices. She wasn’t an ex-Enforcer who’d spent her adult life answering directly to the governing body of the universe. She’d grown up ignorant and naive in an isolated pocket of existence.

She’d heard it all before, so she more or less knew what he thought about her abilities and her choices, and it wasn’t much of either. She braced herself for his less-than-glowing recommendation.

He didn’t look at her, or anyone else, his gaze on some indeterminate point just past his coffee mug. “She won’t hurt him unless she has to. But you are wrong if you think she’ll hesitate to defend if he attacks. Especially if he goes after one of you, rather than her.”

The room went silent. Kaden either didn’t notice, pretended not to notice, or was simply unbothered by the reaction. Nyx, who was very bothered by the fact he hadn’t sided with Morgen and Evra and brushed her capabilities aside, attempted a levity she didn’t feel. “Well, there you have it. If both my father and Kaden Moor think there isn’t a problem, who is anyone else to doubt me?”