Chapter 5

Chapter Five

NYX

Three Years Ago

“Why are you stubborn?” Nyx asked, trying not to yell.

“I don’t want the serum. Why is that so hard for you to understand?” Briggs replied, studying his cards and avoiding eye contact.

Nyx turned her attention to her brother and glared at him before tilting her head toward their friend.

Pyre sighed and placed a ten of spades down. “You might as well give in to my dear sister. You know how relentless she can be.”

Briggs took a sip from his ale, his dark eyes flickering between the two siblings before he set his cup down. “I don’t like the idea of it.”

That was the final straw.

Nyx slammed her cards facedown on the table and threw her arms up in the air. “You’re a healer , Briggs. You know as well as I that draughts and medicine are good things. In fact, you even got Mrs. Woreland to take something for her mood swings last week. Don’t be a hypocrite.”

That got underneath his skin. She could see it from the way his jaw set. Briggs never yelled, or spoke venomously to a single soul, but he felt frustration and anger like the rest of them.

“If you would just give this a try…”

His dark eyes snapped to her face. “I said no .”

“Give me a good reason why,” she pressed.

“Because I don’t want my mind to be tampered with,” he replied softly. “I’ve lived that hell once before and I shan’t do it again.”

She bit her bottom lip as his quiet admission settled over the three of them.

Pyre leaned back in his chair and tipped his ridiculous top hat back, amber eyes characteristically somber as he watched their friend. “I take it you’ve had dealings with such drugs before?”

Nyx felt her heart clench at the look of utter destruction that encompassed Briggs’ features. He’d shared much of his past with them, but always left out the gory details. She knew it was much worse than he ever let on. Each time they had an assignment which meant sleeping over, he had her tie him up so he couldn’t sleepwalk and hurt anyone during one of his episodes. Every time he had one of his waking nightmares, she always sat with him just out of reach, humming to give him the only comfort she could.

“In the pits,” Briggs murmured, his gaze drifting to something far off. “I fought for their entertainment as you well know. But after I was taken as a child, I never stopped fighting back, so they began to drug me.” She sucked in a sharp breath. “When I realized what the Mistress was doing, I stopped eating and drinking so they couldn’t control me. But as I wasted away, the Mistress began sending younger children into the pits—the ones I’d been trying to protect for years. If I died, who would help them?” He shook his head, a sheen of tears filling his dark eyes. “So I began eating, and I would lose time, only to wake up covered in blood and the scent of death.”

Briggs set his cards down and ran a hand over his face. “Then at some point I began to crave it. I wanted the drugs she gave me so I could forget the horrors. But the Mistress was all too clever. She loved to torture those under her control. Once she saw my longing for the drugs, she changed it to something else. It altered my perception so that I felt like I was trapped inside my mind. I could see everything that was happening, but I couldn’t control my own body.”

A shudder wracked his large frame as Nyx reached out and took his hand in her own. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t know.”

Her bear gave her a weak smile. “I know. That’s why I’m sharing this with you. I won’t ever be controlled by a drug again.”

Nyx nodded, feeling her heart sink to her stomach. “You know I would never do that to you, right?”

He held her gaze, warmth finally filling his lovely dark brown eyes. “I know you would never hurt me, but my mind also fears much because of my past.”

She squeezed his hand. “I won’t press you anymore, but I want you to know that what I’ve created is for liberation, not slavery. Everything comes from the forest and is natural. Pyre and I both care for you,” her cheeks burned as his gaze warmed further, “we just wanted you to find some peace.”

“Thank you.”

Nyx released his hand, her fingers tingling at the contact and picked up her cards. The backs of her eyes burned but she refused to cry. How could anyone do something so horrific to someone so gentle and kind? It made her want to raise the Mistress from the dead so Nyx could kill her all over again.

Briggs sniffed, and she caught him watching her from the corner of her eye. “You mourn for me?”

“I do,” she said, her voice wobbling the tiniest bit. “I’m so sorry.”

Briggs studied his empty mug as Nyx pulled herself back together. Pyre tossed his cards onto the table and leaned back in his chair.

She narrowed her eyes playfully at her brother. “You never quit.”

“Seemed like the game was over.”

“You were going to lose,” she accused.

He grinned, tipping his hat forward so it covered his eyes. “I would never.”

“You would always?—”

“If I were to agree to taking your serum,” Briggs cut in. “I would need Pyre to be there.”

Nyx blinked at him. “I didn’t mean to push you so hard for this. Just forget I ever mentioned it.”

“I trust you.”

Butterflies took flight in her stomach as she held his gaze. She’d always hoped he’d say three little words to her that meant everything, but somehow ‘I trust you’ seemed to mean more.

“Thank you,” she whispered. “But don’t make a snap decision. You’ve had some ale. Sleep on it and we can talk tomorrow.”

He shook his head. “No. I won’t sleep on it, and I don’t want to wonder about it, or talk myself out of it. It’s time to stop living in the past.”

She jerked awake.

Nyx blinked hard, her eyes adjusting to the darkness. The coals burned low in the hearth and Pyre stood by the fireplace; his gaze focused on Briggs. Her friend had them tie him to the large upright leather.

Her bear whimpered. Whimpered in his sleep.

She stood from her own chair and moved to her brother’s side. “How is he doing?”

“Quiet until about five minutes ago.”

“What time is it?”

“The middle of the night.”

Briggs whimpered again but didn’t move a muscle. “I can take the shift now. You lie down and get some rest.”

Pyre pulled her into a hug and kissed her forehead. “Stay out of his space. This is a trial.”

“I know?—”

Briggs screamed, the sound so terrified that she clung to Pyre, eyes wide as their friend continued to bellow, still not moving from the sleep. Nyx released her brother and rushed toward their friend. Pyre grabbed her by the forearm and reeled her back.

“What part of stay out of his space did you miss?”

“He’s trapped,” she said brokenly. “Look how he’s not moving with the night terror. I told him he’d be safe.”

Nyx shook off Pyre and approached her bear cautiously, heart breaking with each cry of pain. Tears rushed down his onyx cheeks and his mouth gaped open in horror.

“Briggs?” she murmured, reaching out to cup his cheek. “Wake up.”

He didn’t.

Oh god, what if she’d given him too much?

He screamed again, body twitching in his sleep and she couldn’t handle it for one more second. Without another thought, she climbed into his lap, his ropes pressing against her stomach and breasts, and she leaned close to cup his face.

“Nyx! Get back.”

“Briggs can’t hurt me. He’s in too deep and is tied up.” She choked on her own cry. “I have to help him.”

She began humming her mother’s lullaby and caressed his face, wiping each tear away as it fell. He continued to scream so Nyx wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed his face into her hair. She started singing in his ear and combing her fingers through long dark braids.

His terror, panic, and screams seemed to go on for hours.

Each pained sound he made was like a dagger to the chest.

The sun slowly rose, casting soft light into Pyre’s room in the Dark Keep. Nyx closed her eyes for a moment, still humming the lullaby. Her throat felt raw from singing for so many hours. Her chest vibrated, rousing her, as did the brush of a nose along the column of her throat.

She blinked hard. She wasn’t vibrating. Briggs was growling softly.

Her whole body clenched and released, warmth flowing through her limbs. Drowsily, she leaned back, meeting liquid dark brown eyes.

“Briggs?” she rasped.

“Mate,” he murmured.

Her heart clenched. “What?”

He smiled at her and leaned forward. Her eyes fluttered shut as he kissed her collarbone. His teeth scraped her skin and her eyes snapped open. “What?—”

Pain.

He’d bit her.

She jerked back, her hand flying to her shoulder. “What have you done?”

Briggs grinned, his teeth bloody and then his eyes rolled up.

“Did he just mark you?” Pyre asked, his voice soft and deadly.

“I think so.”

But it wasn’t the glorious moment she’d imagined. Nyx had made a drug that mind-raped him and he’d marked her while out of his mind.

Tears streamed down her face, and she scrambled off Briggs’ lap. “We can’t tell him.”

“The hell you say?”

Nyx shook her head. “He’d never forgive himself, and well… it’s all my fault. He doesn’t want me.” It killed her to say it out loud. She’d done everything in her power to seduce him in the last two years and he’d never once budged on having a mate. “He doesn’t want a mate. I won’t take another choice from him.”

She faced Pyre, pasting on a wobbly smile. “Let me know when he wakes, and I’ll be back. I’m just going to get this cleaned up.”

“You should be here when he does.”

“I can’t. Would you clean him up?”

“You want me to brush his teeth?”

“I want you to clean away the evidence.”

Pyre pinched the bridge of his nose. “This lie will not help you. It will make things worse.”

She turned her back on her brother and strode for the door. “Don’t lecture me on the truth. We both know I learned from the best.”