Ego recovers first.

  “Fuck yes, I can.”

  She pulls a knife off her belt and launches it toward the one at the front. His hands fly to his neck as he gurgles a shout, the hilt protruding from his skin with the blade stuck deep. The squelch of it being ripped from his throat breaks the standoff, and the guards charge.

  I twist, shielding Xeni with my body as Cato sprints into the mix with a roar, joined by our new anonymous savior. Sakane sneaks around the outside, using the shadows and chaos to jump in and jab through calves and arms before disappearing again.

  I wait, tense and ready to protect my mate, but in mere minutes, the anarchy disappears and is replaced by stifling silence. Xeni groans, and I glance down to find his eye fluttering open.

  “Hey, princess,” I whisper.

  He tries to sit, but shivers with the effort, so I grip him tighter until I’m sure he’s stable. His gaze sweeps the tunnel, clocking the bodies that litter the ground before fixating on his father’s bloody back.

  “What…” he mumbles in a slur.

  “We must hurry,” the golden monster commands as he steps closer. He’s half a head over Cato’s six-foot-two frame, with a square jaw and strong nose framed on a stony face.

  “Come.”

  He turns and walks away as if there’s no question we’ll follow, and a shared glance with the others confirms we have no other option. Xeni is barely able to get on his feet, and the rest of us are exhausted.

  Once these bodies are discovered, the demand for our heads will only get worse.

  Cato nods at me, and Ego and Sakane fall in line as I support Xeni. The monster leads us into another tunnel before unlocking a door that’s nearly invisible in the shadows.

  He holds it open as we enter, and I glance around at what appears to be an old control facility with a long, thin beam of moonlight pouring through a high grate. An archway splits the far wall, though it’s too dark beyond for me to see anything.

  Our panting breaths are the only sound as the monster turns toward us, barely more than a phantom in the dim light.

  Xeni leans against a table, pushing his hair from his sweat-damp skin with shaky hands as he breaks the silence.

  “Who are you?” Xeni demands.

  The air seems to be sucked from the room in a sudden vacuum that makes my ears pop. He steps forward, and my gaze sweeps over his ethereal appearance.

  Copper skin shimmers in the faint moonlight, reflecting it in a scattered spectrum that dances across the walls like captured starlight. Hair like spun gold cascades over his shoulders in fat, gleaming spirals, framing horns thicker than my wrists. They curl back and around his ears like a ram, ending in points beside the hinge of his jaw.

  When he opens his mouth, small fangs flash beneath his lip.

  I hook my arm around Xeni’s waist and pull him against me protectively. The monster stares for a long, unblinking moment, golden eyes moving over each of us in turn, and no one dares to breathe louder than necessary.

  Finally, he tilts his head, the motion regal.

  “You may call me Sovran.”

  He offers nothing else, and I glance at the others to find them as frozen as me. Sovran doesn’t appear to be an immediate danger, though. He returns to the door to listen, completely ignoring us.

  “Are you alright?” I whisper in Xeni’s ear, smoothing his hair back as his head thunks onto my shoulder.

  He twists to look at me, and I swipe the blood from his face. Exhaustion carves dark rings above his cheeks, and his body is heavy even as he sets his jaw.

  “I’m fine,” he insists.

  “Liar.”

  He offers me a fluttering smile as I clean him, keeping most of my attention on the stranger at the door.

  “You’ve never controlled that many at once, have you?” I ask.

  He glances away and pulls his lips tight. “No. Father could handle a crowd with little effort, but I… I’m not as strong as him.”

  “Don’t you even think about apologizing, and never compare yourself to him. You’re the only reason we’re standing here right now. You’re better than him by leagues.”

  “Your mate is right, you know.”

  Both our heads snap up to watch Sovran approach, and I hug Xeni a little tighter.

  Sovran chuckles, deep and melodic. “Do not worry, human. I am no threat to you.”

  “You knew my father?” Xeni asks.

  “Indeed,” Sovran says, but doesn’t expand on his answer.

  Xeni is cautious as he stands tall, and I keep my hand on his hip as he steadies himself. “That doesn’t exactly give me confidence in your intentions.”

  Sovran’s face remains somber as he dips his chin in acknowledgment. “Trust me when I say Zadeus was no friend of mine. A common enemy, as it turns out.”

  “He’s not an enemy anymore,” Xeni counters.

  A flicker of something that looks like sadness crosses Sovran’s expression, but a determined hum leaves the back of his throat. “That he isn’t. By the Fates’ will.”

  “By my will,” Xeni retorts with a touch of anger. “If the Fates wanted him dead, he would’ve been ash in the wind long ago.”

  “Perhaps,” Sovran concedes.

  I take Xeni’s hand as his temper grows. Now isn’t the time for arguments, especially with the person who just saved us. He glances over his shoulder at me, faint ruby streaks still painted over his skin.

  I pass him a water bottle to drink and use another to wet my hands. Xeni scowls as I clean him, no better than a spoiled child who doesn’t want his bath.

  “Are you done being a mother hen?” he demands, though his tone is soft.

  “For now.” I swipe my thumb over his cheek again.

  Arms folded over his chest, Sovran watches us with mild amusement.

  Xeni sits taller and turns to him. “You never answered my question. Who are you?”

  Sovran tilts his head in that assessing way he has. “A friend.”

  “How did you know we needed help?” Ego asks.

  Sovran’s golden eyes flick over to her. “You are a very loud bunch.”

  Xeni’s suspicion comes in bounds as his gaze roams Sovran’s expansive frame. His leather pants are in good condition, although his white linen shirt is splattered with a fresh spray of blood. He’s out of place in the filthy darkness, though I can’t imagine anywhere he’d blend in.

  After a long stretch, Xeni leans closer. “I’ve been a medic for twenty years and studied every species. I’ve never seen or read about someone who looks like you.”

  “That doesn’t surprise me,” Sovran says.

  “Talk about vague answers,” Sakane mumbles.

  Sovran’s eyes move to him for a moment before he huffs an impatient breath. “I am the only one of my kind on this plane.”

  My brows bunch as I consider this. “How did that happen?”

  His jaw tenses in the smallest show of irritation, the muscle kicking before loosening again. “Bad timing, one could say.”

  “Bad timing,” Xeni mutters as he drags his palm over his face. “Okay, let’s try this… what is your kind? Can we start there?”

  Sovran glances up at the small grate above, tilting his ear toward the moonlit opening. He doesn’t seem to be in a rush, staring at the dark sky outside before meeting Xeni’s gaze.

  “My people are called the Lythienne,” he finally says as he glances between me and Xeni with a slight shake of his head. “You won’t find us referenced in any written history here.”

  “But you’ve been here since the fall of the veil?” I ask.

  He stares at me for a long moment, golden eyes unreadable. “More or less.”

  My eyes flick toward the others. They’re all as bewildered as I am, frozen in collective what-the-hell.

  Ego finally breaks the silence. “Not to break up this… whatever the fuck this is, but if we’re going to get out of the city before daybreak, we need to figure out another route. If they’re patrolling the direction we were headed, we don’t stand a chance.”

  She glances around the dark room, narrowing her eyes into the pitch-black corners like they personally offended her. “Is there another way out of here?”

  “There are ways to escape the city, yes,” Sovran says, calm as a statue.

  Ego’s cheek dimples with irritation as she purses her lips. “Wow. You literally just answer exactly what’s asked, don’t you? No more, no less. Like a magic eight-ball with abs.”

  Sovran’s brow lifts a fraction. Barely, but it’s there.

  Ego throws her hands up. “Okay, let’s try this a different way. We were planning on using an old culvert on the eastern wall, but if this path isn’t safe, I don’t know another way. So spill. Alternative routes. Now. Use your words.”

  Cato snorts. “You’re gonna need a bigger stick to poke the sphinx here.”

  Ego shoots him a look. “I’ve got plenty of sticks, thank you. And I’m not afraid to use them.”

  She turns back to Sovran, planting her hands on her hips. “Come on, Goldilocks. Give us something we can actually use before the sun comes up and turns us into target practice.”

  Sovran’s eyes roll up toward the sky again like he’s thinking, and I fight not to twitch in the deafening silence. He nods to himself and glances at the door we entered.

  “The culvert is no longer passable,” he says. “It is not safe. There is another path we must take.”

  “We?” Xeni asks.

  Sovran’s brow ticks up another notch. “Yes,” he says simply, then turns his back to us and points towards a doorway on the far wall. “There is a working bathroom through there. Clean up and get some rest. We leave in an hour.”

  Xeni

  The group exchanges glances, though no one tries to argue against Sovran. If he wants to be in charge of this hot mess, we’re all too exhausted to fight it.

  Bash squeezes my hand, his eyes searching mine. “Come on. Let’s get you cleaned up.”

  I nod, exhaustion pulling at me like gravity as we step into a dimly lit bathroom with two sinks and two stalled toilets. It’s seen better days, like everything else down here.

  The others linger in the main room, giving us privacy without needing to be asked. Bash closes the door behind us with a soft click before he turns to me. His eyes roam over the blood and grime streaking my skin, stopping to track the bruises and cuts from the fight.

  “Sit,” he says, guiding me to the edge of the sink.

  I perch there, legs dangling as he turns on the faucet. He tests the water until it runs warm, then searches for a towel. When he comes up empty, he pulls his shirt over his head.

  My gaze drifts over his exposed torso. “No one told me there’d be entertainment.”

  A reluctant smile tilts his lips as he wipes the blood from my hands and arms with careful strokes. The silence stretches, but Bash’s mind is occupied, so I give him space to process.

  “Do you want to talk about what just happened?” he finally asks.

  I stare at my hands as he cleans them, watching the pink-tinged water swirling down the drain. “It’s not very complicated, really,” I say with a shrug. “I killed him, and I don’t regret it.”

  Bash pauses, his shirt hovering over a cut on my forearm. His eyes meet mine, searching but not judging. “You don’t have to regret anything.”

  “He was a monster,” I continue, gaining conviction as the words spill out, “and I’m not sorry he’s gone. The world is better without him in it.”

  Bash nods slowly, resuming his gentle cleaning as he moves to my face and dabs at the dried blood near my temple. “You did what you had to do. That doesn’t make you like him.”

  Of course he would hear that fear, even without me saying it out loud.

  I swallow hard, the lump in my throat easing at his reassurance. “All I feel is… relief. Like his hands had been around my neck for my entire life, and now they’re gone, and I can fucking breathe.”

  “Good,” he whispers, cupping my face with a clean hand.

  His thumb brushes over my cheek, similar to how my father would always touch me, but this one is different. It’s like he’s erasing the memories from my skin and rewriting them into something beautiful.

  Something that belongs to us, not the past.

  “You deserve to be free of him.” Bash presses a soft kiss to my forehead. “You survived him, Xen, and you didn’t become him. I’m so proud of you.”

  The emotion hits me then. Not sorrow, and never mourning.

  Profound release.

  I lean into Bash, letting his arms wrap around me as he finishes cleaning the last traces of blood from my neck.

  “Thank you,” I murmur against his shoulder. “For being here. For…” I force another swallow. “I don’t think anyone’s ever been proud of me. Not for anything good.”

  “I’ll always be here.” He pulls back to meet my eye with that steady gaze that grounds me. “And I’ll always be proud of you, Xen.”

  “Promise?” I ask in a whisper.

  His smile is sweet as he nods. “Cross my heart.”

  Another long sigh pushes from my lungs as exhaustion hits me hard.

  Bash clocks the flutter of my eyelid, and glances down my body. “Let’s get the rest of you clean. We’ve got a long night ahead of us.”

  He helps me strip the remnants of my ruined clothes. The fabric is stiff with blood and sweat, but his hands are careful as he pulls it off and scrubs away the remaining grime. He checks every bruise and cut with quiet concern.

  I examine the cut on his neck, but it’s not as deep as I feared and has already clotted. We wash it, too, though Bash hisses when the soap hits the wound.

  We change into spare clothes from our bags and step into the main room feeling a little more prepared for whatever comes next. The others take their time cleaning up, and we snack on some dried foods and rehydrate while we wait.

  Sovran studies each of us, then leads us into the darkness beyond the archway. The room opens into a long chamber where the walls are filled with dials and ancient electronics coated in thick dust. Down the middle of the space is another control center, and a dozen or more worn stools sit along the edge. Beyond, plain metal doors make a perfect pattern on the far wall.

  Sovran glances over his shoulder and meets my questioning gaze. “This was once where the subway system was controlled. It ran for a short time after the veil closed, but maintenance issues shut it down quickly. Our kind was always too stubborn to ask for help.”

  I hum my agreement as I let my attention wander over this piece of history, locked up tight underneath the city that’s forgotten about its existence.

  “Why has no one found this place?” Sakane asks.

  Sovran tilts his head again as he watches us inspect the glass dials and screens. “The door you entered wasn’t created by the humans and isn’t on the maps. It was built to be hidden and has long served its purpose.”

  “By you?” I ask.

  Those golden eyes seem to ignite as he stares. “Indeed.”

  He gives us his back once more as I twist my head to look at Bash.

  “What the fuck?” he mouths, but I only give a helpless shrug.

  We all hurry along behind Sovran. Metal jingles softly in the silence as he unlocks another door, and we push through into a long corridor identical to the ones we just traveled.

  “More subway lines?” I ask.

  Sovran nods as he beckons for us to follow. “Over the years, I’ve closed off passageways for safety.”

  “Could we have even gotten to the culvert through those tunnels?” Sakane asks.

  Sovran shakes his head. “That passage is no longer safe.”

  Sakane’s face crinkles, undoubtedly picturing his precious maps in his mind. “Why not? Do they guard it?”

  A touch of impatience flickers on Sovran’s face at being questioned. “It was discovered by patrols and has since been filled with debris. It is impassable.”

  “Well, that admittedly would’ve sucked to find out,” Bash mumbles.

  We walk in silence for a stretch, and when the path splits, a brick wall covers the opening to our left. Bash blinks at it a few times before staring at the back of Sovran’s head.

  “How long have you been down here exactly?” he asks.

  Golden curls bounce as Sovran steals a glance backward at us. “Time is irrelevant.”

  Bash scratches his head and frowns. “Um, okay, I see the, uhhh, the poetry in that sentiment, but I have to say, I strongly disagree. Time is kind of important to us right now.”

  Sovran lifts another brow at Bash, then shakes his head and faces forward. “Humans,” he mutters.

  These tunnels are cleaner than the ones before, and Sovran leads with confidence as he navigates each twisting turn. We reach a dead end, where a ladder scales the far wall to a manhole above. Sovran doesn’t hesitate or look back to check on anyone, just climbs the rungs like he’s done it a thousand times.

  From the way his ass muscles pop in that leather, he probably has.

  “Ow,” I hiss as Bash’s elbow meets my side, and I turn to him with my mouth hanging wide open.

  “Saw that.” He hikes his brow and fixes me with a look.

  I grin at the show of jealousy, and some of the day’s tension lightens as he waits with his hands on his hips.

  “Don’t worry, darling,” I say as I wrap my arms around his waist, gripping his ass cheeks and giving them a squeeze. “I’m a one-ass kind of guy, and yours is my favorite.”

  “I do not get paid enough to listen to this,” Cato mutters, hurrying to climb behind Sovran.

  “We’re getting paid?” Sakane asks as he follows.

  “Enjoy the view!” I call, then bite back a yelp as Bash lifts me off the ground. My legs wrap around his waist and I clutch his neck.

  “What is this?” I demand playfully. “Gonna carry me up the ladder? Is this becoming a new tradition?”

  “Ass,” he mutters as he digs his fingers into my side.

  I barely hold back my shriek as he hits me right in the spot that’s so ticklish. I thrash in his arms, and he chuckles as he places my feet on the ground. We both glance at the ladder, where Sovran and Cato have disappeared from view and Sakane and Ego follow behind them.