Chương 86: A Girl for a Guy

POV: The Dark Lord, Milo Miles"What's the matter?" Eveli—I mean, Eve. said. Her worried face was still close to mine from the embrace.

"Something happened. Nyx wants us back, fast." I didn't say the rest of what I was thinking. Nyx wasn't weak, and for the link to just cut out like that, either someone was jamming it... or, worst case, Nyx was already down. Neither option was good. Eve's expression tightened at once. She probably realized that if something had happened to Nyx, then Lunessa and Mel were almost certainly in danger too. The wind picked up, cool against my face. I called for Luke to stop, and told them both to hang on.

We didn't have time to go back manually now; we would go back by teleportation, now. Eve nodded, took my hand, and I noticed, even through all of it, that it wasn't my wrist. It was my hand. And without really thinking, I laced my fingers through hers. Under any other circumstances, I'd have been over the moon about it. I pressed my free hand flat and firm against Luke's back, and teleported.

The moment we landed, nothing looked out of place; no smashed walls, no scorch marks, no sign of a fight, but the second-floor window was hanging open, which was odd. I hopped down off Luke and went straight for the kitchen, and there were shattered plates across the floor, stir-fried pork scattered among the shards. Something had happened to Lunessa. I checked Nyx's room. Empty. The elf's room. Empty. Bolted upstairs, no one.

When I looked down from the second-floor window, there was Luke already outside, nose to the ground, before she took off toward the treeline at a dead sprint. Eve caught my eye from below and waved me after her. Right, if I remembered correctly, Eve had said the arrogant elf used a camouflage spell, and that Luke had sniffed her out anyway. Which meant our attackers were almost certainly elves too. And Nyx, Lunessa, and Mel had been taken, because there was no way that one bratty elf managed all this on her own.

I vaulted out the window, scooped Eve up as I dropped with a proper princess-carry, which earned me a small startled yelp before she went quiet, clearly deciding this wasn't the moment to argue about it, and shot off after Luke, who was already well ahead. By the time I caught up, she was firing green blasts in wide arcs through the trees, and a couple of pained groans could be heard from the underbrush.

I scanned around, and there they were; two elves sprawled on the forest floor, and an unconscious Lunessa laid out beside one of them. One of them must've been carrying her, cloaked, the whole way. Without Luke's ridiculous nose and eyes, we'd never have spotted them.

"Sis!" Eve was out of my arms and rushing to her before I'd fully landed. I set down nearby. Lunessa looked unhurt; just out cold, like she was sleeping. Which meant Nyx and Mel should be close by too. Hopefully.

"Luke, can you sniff out the others? They should be carrying Mel and Nyx." Luke's heads went up, snuffling at the air for a few seconds, then all three snapped to the right, and she bolted off again.

"Eve, get Lunessa back to the house and stay with her," I said, turning to the two groaning elves. One of them cracked her eyes open and started to move, reaching for something, maybe, but I was on her before she managed it, and hit her with a lungful of Sleep Gas. The other was still out, but I gassed her too, just to be safe. They'd make useful hostages, at least. Or a decent source of answers, once I figured out what the hell was actually going on here.... Man.

At this rate, keeping hostages was just going to become a permanent feature of the house. I flew close behind Luke as she let out a huge roar straight ahead, and another elf snapped into view, hurled off her feet and slammed into a tree, an unconscious Mel tumbling from her shoulder as she fell. I gassed the elf before she could recover, then swept the area for any others, but I couldn't find anyone else.

"Luke, can you find Nyx?" Luke put her nose to the air again and took off, weaving through the trees, and I followed. But she never struck. No roar, no blast, probably not enough of a trail to lock onto. I told her to try again. She did, and we combed through the forest, back and forth, and came up with nothing. The dread started stacking up in my chest. I knew that with every second that passed, the smaller the odds of finding her.

Still, I kept Luke sniffing while I broke off in another direction entirely, shouting Nyx's name into the trees, half-hoping she'd come to, hear me, shout back. Nothing answered. It had been a while now, and there was still nothing. When I finally circled back to the clearing, Luke was already there. She shook all three of her heads at me. Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon. I'd known she wouldn't find her, but watching her confirm it made something in me drop.

The clearing had gone quiet. Eve was probably back at the house by now, with Lunessa and Mel. There were a hundred questions I needed answered. I should've been marching inside to start squeezing them out of the elves. Instead I just stood there, unable to drag my mind off of Nyx. Where was she? What was being done to her? Damn it. It was like I'd been cursed where Nyx was concerned. It had happened with Ywain, and now it had happened again with the elves; every time it actually mattered, I failed to protect her.

Like the universe was toying with the both of us. The attack had to come the one time I wasn't here. And out of everyone we'd found, Nyx had to be the one we couldn't— No. No, no. I couldn't let myself go down that road. Did I just think we should've lost Lunessa or Mel instead of her? That was—no. That was a disgusting thing to think, and I hated that some part of me had thought it. This was on me. Simple as that. I should have teleported straight back the second I'd dropped off the hostages.

Blaming the circumstances, or the timing, or anyone else wasn't going to bring her back. What I needed to do was get to the bottom of this. Now.... Come to think of it, I hadn't seen the bratty elf. And if it really was the elves who'd hit us, then odds were she'd been the one pulling the strings. Had I screwed up, letting her go? Had Nyx been right about her all along? I rushed back to the house, and I found three elf girls were slumped against the wall near the bathroom, still out cold.

Eve sat at the dining table; the shattered plates and spilled food were already gone. She must've cleaned it up.

"How are Lunessa and Mel?"

"Upstairs, in bed. I think they'll be fine, it was only the tranquilizer darts, so they're not in any real danger," Eve said. I was moving to wake one of the elves when I heard a small, muffled sound. Like a sneeze, stifled halfway. I turned, and so did Eve. No one was there, but I'd definitely heard it. The sound came from farther back, from one of the rooms. There was really only one place it could've come from. So I trusted my gut and headed into the arrogant elf's room. Empty, at first glance.

I scanned it anyway, and the only spot big enough to hide a person was the wardrobe. I crossed to it and pulled the doors open, and there she was, folded up inside, cowering, looking up at me with wide, glassy eyes.

"You've got some explaining to do," I said.

"And you'd better do it fast." POV: The Assistant, Nyx When I opened my eyes, the first thing I registered was that my arms were raised and I couldn't move them. Something cold and faintly soft wound tight around them. I tugged, and they barely budged. My head swam, my vision smeared at the edges, but even through the blur, I could tell I was somewhere new. It looked like a ruin of some sort; there were rubbles and destroyed pillars around me. My back felt cold. I was tied up against the wall.

"Oh, you're finally awake, demon princess." A familiar voice. And the instant it reached me, every nerve in my body curdled into pure irritation. A blurred shape resolved in front of me, sharpening as my sight came back, until I could make out exactly who it was. Ywain. I fixed the most annoyed glare I could muster onto him. He only smiled back, which irritated me even further.

"You must be wondering why the elves are helping me," he said.

"No, I'm really not." I kept my voice flat and bored.

"Go build yourself a little elf harem for all I care. Why stop at the girls, while you're at it? Grab a few of the pretty elf men too. You strike me as the sort who's so starved for attention he wouldn't much mind which flavor it came in—" His hand shot out and clamped around my chin, squeezing my lower jaw hard enough to hurt, but I'd rather die than let him see that it did.

"You'd do well to remember," he said, low, "that you are in no position to speak to me that way. I can do anything I like to you right now, and there's not a single thing you could do to stop me." He let go, and gestured lazily at my bound arms.

"Those vines have sealing properties woven into them. Whatever you try, you won't be slipping free of them. So I'd suggest a rather more respectful attitude." Then his mouth curled again.

"I could do whatever I want to you without you being able to resist much at this point. The only reason I'm not is that I'm civil enough to offer you a deal first." Every word out of him was more repulsive than the last. He was truly disgust given form. Pathetic.

"You honestly think I'd make a deal with you?" I let out a short laugh.

"Do I look like an idiot to you? Do whatever filthy little things you please, I will never strike a bargain with you, you freaky gooner."

"Oh, I think you will." He said it with maddening certainty.

"Lulu's told me a great deal about you, you see. Including your... history. With your former lover." Right. Of course she had. Not that it mattered. Let him have his little scrap of information, what could he possibly do with it? I already knew how to make Milo remember. Whatever trick this dumb ugly love-starving creature thought he was holding, I could simply ignore it.

"You know of the golden apples," Ywain went on.

"I do, and I know they're not yours to hand out."

"But know what they do, don't you? That a bite can return a person's memories of their past lives." I said nothing.

"And I know," he said, softer now, "how badly you've wanted Milo to remember."

"So what?" I snapped.

"Your whole goal is to kill us. What could Milo remembering possibly get you?"

"I want Evelisse."

"... What?"

"I know she's been a thorn in your side." His smile widened.

"Snatching your precious Milo right out from under you. And Milo, with no memory of what the two of you once were, has grown terribly close to her, hasn't he?" Something twisted, cold and sharp, in my chest. I kept my face still.

"So here is my offer." He spread his hands, as if presenting a gift.

"I know where the apples are. And believe me, you'll never reach them without me. The elves are on my side now." He let that hang a moment.

"You help to get Evelisse to meet me alone. In return, I give you a golden apple. And then? You and Milo can go off to somewhere quiet and leave all this fear-farming nonsense behind. A good, peaceful life. We each walk away with exactly what we want, and not a drop of blood spilled." He tilted his head.

"Doesn't that sound rather lovely?" I looked away and didn't answer.

"It's now or never, demon princess." The smile never wavered.

"You're welcome to say no, of course. But I promise you, you won't like what happens if you do."