Niyx by Samantha Kroese (websites to read books for free TXT) 📕

body. He went back to where she lay and knelt next to her. He struggled with her death. He had loved her even though she had been so bad for him. She had been the closest thing to a mother and a lover that he had ever known. She deserved death. Onyx knew what she had done to Rubei, and how she’d treated Ruel. Rubei had not been her first victim either. Onyx had been her last.

He sat there with her for a few moments, reflecting. Then with a deep breath he picked her up and carried her to the pile of corpses. He laid her on the pile with more respect than she deserved. Then Onyx watched as his twin’s hoarfrost melted away his past to nothing but bone-dust.

CHAPTER FIVE

Niyx scoured the former Den of the Divide. None had escaped his wrath unless there were agents out in the field. It did not matter. If they returned, he would kill them as well. He had destroyed the throne of the Lord of the Divide and retrieved his own from the sacred graveyard, which had stayed intact, immune to the zealots. The village had not fared as well, however. The Templars had torn down and burned everything. The sight of his home in ruins had filled him with grief. He sank onto his bone throne in the dark room. He did not dwell on the past. He would have to look to their future. The Den was not as nice as his forest, but it was safer for his people and more easily defended. The Den would be a good home for his undead while they plotted how to deal with the zealots. And now he had destroyed Onyx’s past as well.

Onyx confused him. The Night Creatures accepted so much more about the world around them and their lot in life. It did little good to worry about the past or things that were over. Onyx still felt deeply even though he had been raised by The Shadowed Divide as a merciless assassin since he had been very young. Niyx knew they had tortured his brother, so he did not understand the attachment Onyx felt toward the assassins. Niyx had always ruthlessly destroyed any that had harmed him or his family with no regret or guilt about it. It was his righteous duty to protect them. He thought his brother would feel a sense of justice and freedom but Onyx had been morose since the attack. Niyx stood then walked over to where his twin stood on the balcony overlooking the Den below. “Why are you displeased? I don’t understand. Explain.”

Onyx twitched a long ear then turned slowly to face Niyx, his arms crossed. “I’m not sure how to feel. I grew up here. With those people we just slaughtered. They weren’t kind, but they were almost family.” Onyx hesitated as he looked away. “I think part of me loved Jadeia. I hated her too. I wanted her dead but I also wanted to take her to bed again when I saw her.”

Niyx growled and bared his fangs in displeasure as he looked down on the silent Den. “They used you, Brother. Especially that woman; she took liberties she should not have. Your place is here at my side with the Night Creatures. With our people. We are your family now. Soon the Night Creatures will fill this place and you will find them more loyal and trustworthy than your Den of assassins. Did the Divide not torture Ruel and Rubei? You consider them your true family.”

Onyx flinched at that truth and turned away. When he spoke again he changed the subject, “How well do you know our father? Have you spoken to him? Tell me about him. I only know that the Lord of the Divide feared him, and his name was only whispered in these halls. He was the only assassin allowed to work outside of the Divide before I broke free. They killed or enslaved everyone else who tried to be one.”

Niyx looked down at the smear of blood left behind beneath their feet by the Lord of the Divide’s death and scraped at it with a boot. To think his brother had grown up afraid of something as weak as the Lord of the Divide. “The Lord of the Divide should have feared you as well, brother. He controlled you only by making you believe you should be afraid.”

“The Lord is dead. I tried a few times to kill him myself. Our father killed him with no trouble. Tell me why.” Onyx scowled at him, clearly not pleased.

Niyx shifted his weight from foot to foot and considered his words. The things Onyx found important did not even occur to Niyx as something to be considered. “I have spoken to our sire a few times. He does not travel here often; he lives far from here in the lands ruled by the humans in the West. I think there are bad memories and ghosts from his past that haunt him here. He would not enter the forest.”

“Why does he live with the humans?” Onyx frowned. “He did not look human.”

Niyx let out a small laugh at that. “No, he is not human. I know not what he is, truly. It is obvious there is elven in him. He commands strange magic. The forest and the animals bow to his will with just a word. None can withstand him when he comes for them. I know he is the son of the High King of the humans, Eryk.”

Onyx’s dark eyes grew wide again. “The High King is our grandfather?” he asked in disbelief.

Niyx shrugged. He was not sure why that mattered so much to Onyx, but he continued. “Yes. The High King is our grandsire. I do not think he knows about us. He is quite outspoken against the existence of the Night Creatures. We would not be welcome in his kingdom. I have come to