Page 64 of Guardian of Exile
He held his keycard up to the button for the penthouse and pressed it. “That is the oddest metaphor for a relationship I’ve ever heard anyone use, but putting that aside, you might want to tell him that.”
“I would, if he actually needed to hear it.”
“Someone’s living in denial.”
“Is there a reason you’re so invested in my personal life?”
“Yes—I don’t want him to cut my head off in the middle of the night. He’s freakishly quiet when he moves and not even I can recover from a severed head.” He paused, then added: “I don’t think.”
Irritation bubbled underneath Nyx’s skin. “For one, you have no room to talk. For another, Kaden is not psychotic. Even if he cared that you and I slept together, which news flash, he doesn’t, he’s not some unhinged possessive asshole who would feel the need to murder people who look at me. If I told him to leave right now, he would.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Interesting.”
He was rubbing her the wrong way, and it hit a critical mass that culminated in the veins in her hands creeping up with black. “What’s interesting?”
“A lot of things,” he said as the elevator came to a stop. “But mostly that you haven’t.”
“You don’t know the first thing about—” The elevator doors glided open and she cut off. Kaden stood on the other side. His gaze flicked down, taking in the black veins that had now crept up to her elbows.
“Everything alright?” he asked.
“Everything is delightful, thank you for asking.”
She stalked past him, then turned back in time to see Tristen raise his hands and tell Kaden, “I didn’t do anything.”
Oh for fuck’s sake. “Tristen, can you please make a decision about what to do with the man downstairs in the coma so we can get the fuck out of this city? Kaden, where are you going?”
Kaden looked her straight in the eye and said, “Out,” as the elevator doors closed on him.
Tristen looked at her and said, “I can.”
She waited for Tristen to elaborate, until she finally realized he wasn’t going to, and the reason why dawned on her. “Are you really grammar policing me right now? Fine, will you make a decision about the man in the coma?”
Tristen shrugged. “No need. He won’t wake up or die in the next six months. There’s a rotation of nurses who come by daily and will continue to do so while I’m gone.”
“You know what I mean.”
“Do I?”
“Keeping him hanging on the cusp of death isn’t emotionally healthy.”
“On the contrary, I find it highly therapeutic. Besides, if I kill him now, there will be paperwork. And lawyers. And irate distant family contesting my inheriting everything. We won’t leave for months.”
She threw up her hands. “Fine. Leave him in the coma. Does that mean we’re ready to go?”
All traces of humor fled Tristen’s face. “Yeah.”
Okay then. She dug her phone out of her pocket and texted Kaden: Please come back. Tristen’s ready to leave.
Ellipses appeared on the screen briefly before his reply came back: No point. Morgen and Evra are out.
She wasn’t really surprised they were gone. Tristen hadn’t wanted anyone to come with him while he put his Dead Earth affairs in order, but Nyx hadn’t been willing to risk letting him out of her sight when it was Griff’s freedom on the line if anything happened to the Shaman. Tristen had condescended to let her come with him, and no one else. Since there wasn’t anything else useful for them to do, Evra and the others had been living up the New York City tourist experience while Nyx played bodyguard to the Shaman.
Replying to Kaden, she typed: Where are they?
Kaden: Ask them.
She typed out You are infuriating. Deleted that and wrote Would it kill you to answer a question? Deleted that too and stared at the screen before giving up and texting Morgen.
