Page 66 of Guardian of Exile

15

Fortunately, the endless supply of portal magic available to Nyx via Alihana, combined with her anchor outside the Station, meant Nyx could portal them home from Tristen’s penthouse and skip the unpleasantness of driving. The second they arrived outside the Station’s boundary, an excited whinny split the air. Hoofbeats thundered across the ground, and Griff must have decided it was safe to let Temerex greet them, because she galloped across the boundary, shrilling another ecstatic whinny. It was only as the images flashed into Nyx’s mind that she realized the mistake Temerex had made.

“What the fuck is that?” Tristen asked.

At the sound of his unfamiliar voice, Temerex came to an abrupt halt, a flurry of confused images popping into Nyx’s head. Seth and Nyx, and Seth and Temerex, and Seth next to this person before her now, the two images merging together.

Nyx’s heart turned itself inside out with a painful squeeze. She tried to think of some mental image to convey to Temerex that this was a new person, but she didn’t know what that would be. “No, baby,” she said softly. “I’m sorry.”

Temerex let out a bare trace of a nicker and stretched her neck out, until her nose was in Tristen’s face, nostrils flaring wide as she took deep breaths, catching his scent.

“Uh, guys?” Tristen said nervously.

“She thinks you’re Seth,” Nyx managed. Temerex couldn’t communicate smells in an image, but the image of a dark gray sky she sent Nyx, combined with the way her head dropped away from Tristen with a deep sigh, made it clear what she’d learned. The equine nose was as sensitive as a bloodhound’s. “She thought you were.”

Nyx hugged Temerex’s neck, burying her face carefully against the soft scales. “I’m so sorry, girl,” she whispered. “I don’t know how else to tell you he’s gone.” She had tried. She had worked through her own pain and shown Temerex her own memories of what had happened. But something was lost in the translation, because Tem just kept asking for him.

If she’d been able to bring herself to tell the unicorn-dragon the truth before Jevryn had left the Station, her father could have made it clear. His communication with Tem far surpassed Nyx’s own, since Tem had been designed tailored to his genetics. But Nyx hadn’t been able to tell her before, and now she had no idea when Jevryn was coming back.

Tem’s head dropped heavily onto Nyx’s shoulder. Nyx should have asked Griff keep Tem away from Tristen until she could try to explain it, so it wouldn’t be a surprise. But she’d been so focused on what they needed to do in order to get to Raveras, that she hadn’t thought of it.

Shit. She hadn’t thought of it. Not just for Temerex, but for Griff, too. And Griff was likely heading their way now. She patted Temerex on the neck and stepped back. Everyone looked vaguely uncomfortable, and Tristen still looked weirded out by Tem.

“Hang on a second.” Nyx crossed the boundary, searching for Griff. She’d worried she would find him almost to them, but a quick check through Kaliaris’s senses showed he was seeing a small Arrival through. She breathed a sigh of relief and stepped back to the others.

She forced herself to smile, like Tem hadn’t just cracked her heart open again. “Tristen, this is Temerex, she’s a specialty breed.”

Tristen looked at Nyx like she’d lost most of the screws holding her brain in place. “She’s a scaled unicorn and—why is her tail on fire?”

Way to show off. Nyx sent Tem an image of her tail not on fire, and the flames died. “She’s a magical specialty breed, and she’s very sweet. Basically an overgrown puppy.”

“Her horn looks sharp enough to gore.”

“She doesn’t gore friends. Hold your hand out and make friends.”

He shook his head. “I have already lost two perfectly good fingers. If she bites off a third and a fourth, I can’t reattach them if they’re in her stomach.”

Nyx must have accidentally envisioned Tristen’s explanation and sent it to Tem, because the unicorn-dragon’s head went up and she gave an indignant snort. Nyx rubbed her neck and sent her soothing images. “Don’t listen to a word he says. I know you’re perfect.”

“She can understand you?” Tristen asked.

“Not exactly. But sometimes kind of.” She was not explaining telepathic image communication since she had no idea how it worked. Having soothed Temerex, Nyx got back to the business at hand. “I don’t mean to be rude,” she said to Tristen, “but would you be terribly offended if I hid you in a Station room until I can tell Griff to expect your appearance? He was also close with Seth.” It hurt a little less, every time she said his name. Saying it—like it was normal, like it was okay to remember him—felt better than avoiding it.

Tristen shook his head. “I’ve felt how you’re bonded to that thing, so I know exactly what you can do in there. It’s not that I don’t trust you, but it would be pretty dumb of me to trust you that much. I’m not going into the Station until I’ve found my mother.”

“Okay, do you want to go into Earth Between?” She could always grab a bottle illusion and send Morgen with him.

He shook his head again.

“Do you want to stand right here until I come back?”

“Yes.”

Okay, then. “I might be a while.” She needed to talk to Griff and Kaliaris.

“We’ll keep him company,” Morgen offered, indicating himself and Kaden. He flashed a wide smile at Evra. “Good luck, babe.”

Evra glowered at him. “I am going to murder you.” She had been threatening this ever since they’d determined that Evra was going to need to travel to Raveras first, alone. Which meant her meeting Morgen’s mother first. Alone. The Amazon had explained to Nyx only yesterday that she’d never had a significant other’s mother fail to dislike her, and her jaw was now set in a line of grim determination.