Woe be anyone who crossed Nikolai. If it wasn’t sure to increase Betsy’s curiosity, he’d be warning her to stay away from the big guy.
Nikolai had said he’d know if Lucas needed help. The Liberi’s ability was unnerving as hell. Was Lucas protecting Nikolai from the world, or the world from Nikolai?
His fingers shook as he pushed open the front gate. Truth was, they needed protection from each other.
25
Nikolai lay on the bed.
His entire lower leg dangled off the end. Aria had pulled the drapes to darken the room, but the sun pushed past the cloth.
He should be tired, but his body vibrated as he tracked the Morph’s energy. He had no idea why, but the longer he spent in the shapeshifter’s presence, the more linked to him he became. If he let his thoughts drift, he saw through Lucas’s eyes.
He closed his own, and the images flashed through his mind—of feet clad in an old pair of runners, walking up a set of stairs.
The voice hammered at him.He is nothing. He is distracting you from what is really important.
“That doesn’t look comfortable,” Aria said.
Nikolai shoved the annoyed inner voice away and glanced at her. She’d been quiet since Lucas left, and he’d thought she was asleep. But she lay curled on her side, facing toward him, watching him. She’d taken off her cloak, and her scales gleamed softly in the subdued light.
She was so beautiful.
Nikolai yanked his gaze away. “It’s better than sleeping on rock.”
Her eyes widened a little. “Didn’t you have a bed?”
Memories of his old life—they seemed, now, like they’d belonged to another person. The longing to return to it swept through Nikolai and robbed him of breath. He stared up at the plaster ceiling overhead and closed his eyes, but Aria awaited an answer.
“We slept beneath the stars,” he finally said.
For a moment, she didn’t reply. Then, “I don’t usually sleep well inside a building. Most often, I curl up as a Dragon on some cliff or dune. I prefer the stars, too.”
He smiled. “Maybe we should move up to the roof.”
Aria snorted. “She likely charges more for a view. I get the feeling Betsy would do well in the underworld.”
“Underworld?”
She hesitated before replying. “Where I come from. Some realms are run by a pretty vicious bunch.”
“Betsy doesn’t seem vicious,” he pointed out.
“No, but she is greedy.”
“Well, the bed is comfortable.” Nikolai pulled the pillow from beneath his head, fluffed it, and put it back. “Not her fault it’s too small.”
“Yeah.” Her eyes gleamed amber at him, and his heart did an odd flutter in his chest. His breath hitched again, but for a much more positive reason.
Within him, something else took notice and surged once more to the surface.
She is a distraction, nothing more. You are meant for bigger things.
He pushed it more firmly away and smiled at Aria. “You must be exhausted. Get some sleep.”
She’d just obediently closed her eyes when pain surged through him, as though he’d been hit by lightning. And within his mind, someone screamed.
Not someone.Lucas.His terror radiated straight through to Nikolai. He shot out of the bed, and an image flashed through his mind—of a face with hatchet-sharp features, and eyes the color of blood.
