Page 58 of Mindeater

I spot the muscle in his jaw flex. He ignores me, as I expected, and tiny sparks fly from his fingertips. Danny sucks in a breath.

While I should be more concerned about the blatant display of magic, I’m too livid to care. I keep goading him. “Do you still have night terrors? I bet it keeps a lot of people awake. Even alphas can whimper.”

The sparks become a solid mass of energy, vibrant and electric.

My bravado wavers as flashes from the Barrens resurface. I know that energy. I was this close to it. “Ryx?”

“Telex aren’t the only monsters in this world,” he starts, manipulating the mass into a long, whip-like shape. It thrums and vibrates, stretching impossibly long. He unwinds it like yarn, each pass of his hands expanding it further until it’s three fingers thick. Once he's shaped it to his liking, he cracks it across the floor, white fire exploding where it lands.

I’ve never seen anything like it.

“Your kind love their whips, don’t they?” he muses, watching the flames dance before disappearing. He flicks his gaze up to mine and smiles wickedly. “I wonder what scars I can add with this?”

The blood drains from my face. “I don’t know where the fucking secret entrance is! Patryn’s tunnel leads to the estate!” I blurt without thinking. He can’t whip me with that. It’ll kill me. I’m sure of it.

Whatever he is…it’s meant to be my undoing. Others are Telex’s mortal enemies. I’m only now understanding the full scope of why.

“This will sear the flesh and muscle off your bone. Can you regenerate that much? Heal fast enough?”

“I told you what you want to know!”

Something horrible glazes over his expression. “Is that what you told them? Hmm? Gave me up just because of a little fear?”

“Aryx,” Danny warns.

But Ryx doesn’t hear him. His eyes are glazed over with rage. “What did they threaten you with, Saren? To take away your home? Your clean clothes? Fresh food?”

“It wasn’t like that! I didn’t have a choice!”

He gives a test strike somewhere beneath my feet. “That sounds a lot like an excuse and not a reason.” I stare in horror as the veins pulse under every inch of exposed flesh. He’s going to kill me. “How long were you plotting against me? How long did you wait for the right moment? What were you promised? What was the payment for my blood?”

I open my mouth to try to reason with him, but he keeps going, fury pouring out of his eyes and into my horrified stare.

“What WAS IT?! Tell me! Fucking tell me! What mattered so much that you sacrificed me at their feet!” The whip flies through the air.

I scream.

“ARYX!”

“WHAT!” he shouts back.

The neon viper grazes my stomach in a wave of white-hot. I may as well have been struck with lethal venom. My body seizes; pain on a level that shouldn’t be possible shocks my system, and I feel my heart stop. It kicks against my ribs after a few seconds, and the spot where I was touched turns black—the whip pulses and quivers. Through hooded eyes and delirium, I see what’s happening.

“Fuck. Fuck!” Danny cries, throwing his gun to the ground and ripping open the door. “Nina! NINA!”

Ryx can’t control whatever that thing is. It’s climbing up his body, encircling his waist and neck. To both my shock and horror, it’s not burning him or slicing his skin. But his veins are as bright as the whip. They undulate and ripple under his skin as his eyes roll back in his skull.

Within seconds, a woman appears. She doesn’t look at me.

Her long black hair billows around her, revealing pointed ears. Her palms glow bright blue as she steps into the snare and cups Ryx’s face. The whip responds to her touch, kissing her, coaxed to dim and retreat into Ryx’s trembling hands.

“No,” Ryx rasps. “Nina, fucking, no!”

“You idiot!” she hisses, fingers still that neon blue. “Dad is going to have a heart attack over this!”

Dad?

“Stop it! Stop it right now!” He cries and shoves away from her.