Niyx Samantha Kroese (i am malala young readers edition .TXT) 📖

and walked away. “Sometimes the past should not be stirred, Onyx. Look to your future instead. That is why your twin destroyed this place, after all. Once you have secured your place in this world then perhaps will be the time for reflection. Maybe then you will be able to bear the answers to those questions.”

“Why didn’t you come for me?” Onyx called after him. “You clearly know this place, and the Lord of the Divide was afraid of you. Why did you leave me here?”

Sephyrn paused to look back at him, a confused look crossing his handsome face. “That is not an easy question to answer. And I am confused as to why that is your first question. Does it matter so much?”

“You and my mother just let them steal me for the Divide. I want to know why,” Onyx scowled as he caught up.

“I didn’t let them do anything. Your mother did not tell me about you until it was too late,” Sephyrn growled, his voice dangerous. “We don’t have time to discuss this now. Help Niyx first. Then I will return to answer your questions if that is your true desire. Sometimes it is better not to know things that you can’t forget.”

Onyx let Sephyrn go this time, still frowning. He watched his father disappear. The tunnel was the only way out of the Den from this side so Onyx had no choice but to follow. Once outside there was no sign of Sephyrn. Onyx shook his head and turned toward Aderaan. He had to return and figure out exactly what was going on under his nose. The Divide had controlled every assassin in Dakaal. With their rule ended, new assassins would rise. Onyx did not want any of them in his city unless they worked for him. He had to set precautions in place, but he had not counted on the Templars interfering. His father and his past would have to wait.

CHAPTER SEVEN

A few days after they had taken the Den, Niyx stalked through the underground stone halls. He stopped at every room to make certain the Night Creatures had settled in. The underground base with its winding tunnels suited the Night Creatures far better than it had the living assassins. They needed few supplies from the outside and it was difficult to penetrate the defenses with only two ways in and out. Niyx found himself missing the sacred graveyard and his forest. It filled him with righteous fury that the Templars had dared to destroy his village.

Riven floated out of a nearby room to hover next to Niyx. “My Lord, have you considered petitioning the elven King and asking him why they have broken the treaty? Perhaps there is some misunderstanding?”

“The misunderstanding, Riven, is that they do not recognize me as a King nor our people as anything but monsters. I would not even be able to have an audience with Aderaan’s precious King.” They walked to Niyx’s throne and he sank onto it.

“Your twin is part of a powerful noble House,” Riven began to say.

“They do not know Onyx is a Night Creature. That is why the elves allow him to stay in Aderaan,” Niyx cut him off with a scowl. “He pretends to be elven to survive there. It is well known who and what I am.”

“You are a King, my Lord. If you want the other Kings to respect you as one and recognize our people as a nation, you need to start acting as one. Tell Aderaan’s King you demand an audience, or you will declare war on the elves for breaking the treaty.” Riven crossed his thin boney arms, which only made him look thinner and more pathetic. Just three years ago Riven had still been a powerful Night Creature. He had begun to deteriorate at an alarming rate and Niyx had not been able to figure out why.

“It’s too dangerous,” Onyx said as he slipped from the shadows. “If you walk into Aderaan, you’ll become a prisoner of the Templars. They’ll see that as trespassing.”

“Leave us,” Niyx dismissed Riven with a wave. He didn’t miss the irritated look on the lich’s face but Riven obediently floated from the room.

“He doesn’t like you much, does he?” Onyx asked with a raised brow, as he watched Riven disappear.

“Why would he? I took his place as King of the Night Creatures.” Niyx rested his cheek on a fist as he watched his twin brother. “What did you find out?” Onyx had disappeared for a few days and left them to settle in at the Den.

“Nothing good,” Onyx leaned against the wall, as he unwound and rewound the garrote wire around his wrist. “The King sanctioned a new sect of the Templar Order dedicated to hunting the Night Creatures. He did it suddenly and without the approval of Aderaan’s noble council. It’s led by a Templar named Raijin.”

Niyx hissed at the name and stood up, startling Onyx. “Raijin? This is his doing?”

“I take it you know the guy.” Onyx gave him a nervous look. “Who is he? Does he have reason to attack you?”

Niyx paced back and forth before his throne. Anger clouded the memories that danced unbidden through his head. “Before I was King, a few years after they had granted you our people’s gift, I met Raijin in the woods. He tried to capture me. He used Starsilver and some sort of terrible trap made of light magic.” Niyx paused and tilted his head to show Onyx the long nasty scar on the side of his neck. “He tried to decapitate me, but I was too strong for him. It was that encounter which made me discover I could control the hoarfrost. I didn’t think he survived.”

“You were just a kid and he tried to kill you?” Onyx growled. “Why?”

Niyx closed his eyes. He remembered running through the frozen forest away from the terrifying light magic that flooded everywhere around him. He took a deep breath and looked back