Page 93 of Guardian of Exile

A hand, large and warm and rough, covered the nape of her neck. Warm breath landed softly on her ear as someone whispered, “They can’t show you anything that’s real, Nyx. Anything they’re offering you is a lie.”

Kaden. The voice, the hand, the breath—it all belonged to Kaden—and it grounded her. The magic whispering in her mind didn’t want to show her her future—it wanted to take her past so it could give it to Loclyn. She could not let that happen.

She shook herself like a dog and Kaden’s hand fell away as she came fully out of the grip of the siblings’ magic. She glared at them, her voice descending into ice. “Don’t do that again.”

Loclyn leaned forward, excitement in his eyes. “There it is. That disdain, so like his. And to think I doubted it could be true.”

Nyx’s body went rigid, but she forced her voice to remain calm. “What are you talking about?”

“Jevryn A-Morridahn has a daughter.”

Her expression must have given her away, because he laughed, a low sound like rocks tumbling over each other.

“How did you find out?” she asked. Could others find out the same way? Had he told anyone else?

“Did Jevryn tell you I gave him oversight of Kyvren when he asked for it? Given all the little details that are so nicely coming together, now I know what you are, I imagine he asked for it because of you. At any rate, I gave it to him because Kiev promised he would make it worth my while. I don’t know what Kiev’s business there was, but I do know he wanted Jevryn to engage with him again.

“I suppose he ought to have been careful what he wished for, since it seems Jevryn finally killed him. When I felt him die, I thought he would get away without delivering on his promise to me. So I went to his home, hoping to find something useful, and I did. I found his last living Shaman. And she was only too happy to tell me all about you. A shame to have to kill her after, but I couldn't risk the information going further."

Tira. A wave of sorrow washed through Nyx. Tira had been so broken, in Kiev's home. When Nyx had asked Jevryn to retrieve her, he'd told Nyx the woman had killed herself, because she'd been too connected to Kiev to survive his passing. Nyx wondered now if he'd truly believed that, or if he'd known another councilor had been involved and had chosen not to tell her.

Loclyn walked forward, and only sheer force of will kept Nyx from backing up. “So many things make sense now. Two councilors dead in such a short span of time, and no signs as to why, when we have coexisted for centuries. We have our squabbles, of course, and the occasional assassination attempt is to be expected from time to time, but we have not lost one of our number since the dawn of the current age.

“But a child of Jevryn A-Morridahn explains so much. You never love a child so much as you love the first one. The rest of us, we have all had offspring throughout the centuries. Enough to understand that we will lose them, to not grow terribly attached to them anymore. Only Kiev and Jevryn avoided reproducing. Until now. He hid you for so long, but Koral must have found out, didn't she?"

“Yes,” Nyx admitted, deciding that the easiest person to play was the one Loclyn would expect her to be—the girl she might have been if her life had gone differently. A spoiled scion of one of the most powerful men in the universe, who expected there was nothing Daddy couldn't save her from. “So imagine what Jevryn will do to you if you hurt me.”

“I would,” Loclyn allowed, “but seeing as how he would have to crawl out of the hole I dropped him into, I’m not terribly worried.”

Nyx felt the blood drain from her face.

Loclyn noticed. “Oh, you needn’t fear for his sake. He will survive. He always does. But it will take him weeks to claw his way free, and when he does it will be far too late to save you.”

“I haven’t done anything to you.”

“It isn’t about you. It’s about him. I am enjoying imagining how quickly he is ravaging his body to escape the trap I caught him in, because I told him exactly where I was going when I left him. I will enjoy more the look on his face when he realizes all that effort was pointless.”

Anger boiled up in her—that she was nothing more than a pawn to him, that this wasn’t even about something bigger, like the Harvester. It was only about hurting her father, and using her to do it. “Haven't you people taken enough from him?”

Loclyn laughed. “What? You mean his precious Arradin? Kiev may have meant that as a curse, but if he’d thought past his own short-sightedness he would have recognized it as the gift it is. To destroy Arradin is to destroy this Station, and we cannot afford to lose one. Even one as insignificant as Earth’s.

“Arradin is untouchable in a way nothing a councilor loves is. Jevryn ought to be grateful. If I could take Arradin from him too, I would.”

“You hate him that much?”

“I do. Ask me how I know what your loss will do to him.”

She didn't, but he told her anyway.

“He cost me my firstborn.”

Interesting phrasing. Not he killed but he cost me. But however he said it, she knew from the look in his eyes that there was no reasoning with him. No appeals to logic or empathy would sway him. He’d come here to kill her, and he would not leave until he had.

But she needed time. She could feel, through her tie to Kaliaris, Tristen’s magic moving through the Station. It had halted when it hit the Station’s Heart, and she didn’t know if he was talking to Kaliaris, or if he needed something from them that they weren’t giving. But considering Loclyn had not yet reacted, she had to assume Tristen hadn’t yet cut his tie to the Station. And she wanted that tie severed before she made her move. The councilors might not have much control over the Stations, but any amount was more than she wanted if it came to a physical altercation.

Her best option was to distract him until Tristen removed his control over the Station and then isolate his entire party in a doorless, windowless room. He’d felt safe coming here because he’d known he could neutralize Griff. In any other Station, taking the Avatar out of play would be enough. Because the Stations were designed to allow the Guardian control of the Station only via the Avatar. But she had altered her bond to the Station and changed the rules of the game, and Loclyn didn’t know that.

She needed to keep him talking. “And if you have another child? Will you want them to pay the cost for what you're about to do?”