The Moon's Fangs | 1
18 | conditions

It felt like we walked in circles. Cold, annoying circles.

There were several times I wanted to say something, especially when noticing we passed the same lump of old crates, and worn-down shacks more than a couple of times.

~Reks Arlen is merely taking extra precautions to make sure the tail Baze sent to follow us loses our tracks.~ Nox pointed out.

Wait. I checked behind my shoulder. Someone’s following us?

~Not anymore. The tracker lost us a little while back.~

Would’ve been nice to know… I sent the Guide mental waves of annoyance, then sent the intangible temper towards the back of Reks’ head since he failed to mention it to me.

“When were you going to tell me someone was following us?”

Reks paused, lifting his hand for me to stop too. When I looked down, I realized we stopped at the edge of the district. Unlike the other districts, this one didn’t have any kind of gate encompassing the level. If I wasn’t paying attention, it would be too easy to miss a step and fall off.

“Someone was following us. And now they’re not.” Reks dropped down to sit on the edge, offering me his hand.

I stared down incredulously at him, then his hand. “Seriously? Can’t you just use your portal ring thing and warp us back, no sweat?”

“Gate ring.” He presented a blank stare. “If we use it out in the open and someone sees, then one of our only advantages is gone. Word will get out and a high rank with some brains and motivation will figure out there’s an unregistered waypoint in Asylum. There’s a chance they’ll figure out how to get access if they’re capable enough. Now come on, we’re jumping through here.”

I squinted my eyes to glare at the top half of his irritatingly handsome face. But for someone who initially claimed to not trust me, the way he easily relayed vital information to me spoke volumes. His attitude and actions were at a complete opposition. It continued to confuse and frustrate the hell out of me.

“I hope you know there’s going to be conditions if this is going to work,” I said, taking his hand and dropping down to sit on the cold ledge. My feet had gone numb from walking barefoot around this district for so long.

“Conditions, huh? Awfully bold of you to try and bargain with a vitiate, Outlander.” His brow rose in interest. He slid his ring off his finger. “Save it for after the jump.” He flipped the ring in front of us, as if flipping a coin into a fountain.

“Are you sure this is safe—”

There wasn’t time for an answer. The ring opened into a liquid galaxy below our feet. My heart lurched as Reks secured my waist with an arm, sliding us both off the ledge to fall into the swirling cosmos.

I clapped my hand to my mouth to ward off the building scream.

One second, my stomach fluttered with the sensation that comes with riding a roller-coaster then the next, my feet lightly touched clean marble.

Reks let go of my waist, catching his ring.

I blinked, looking around at the lab in complete astonishment. Why didn’t Earth have wicked scary-slash-cool teleportation stuff like this yet? Maybe with Nox’s help, I could bring it to the table. Hell, I’d be a billionaire. No. Trillionaire!

“Now that I finally have you to myself…” Reks leaned against the table in front of me, casually sliding his ring back into place on his deeply tanned finger before pulling the mask free from the lower half of his face. “How about you explain why you decided to run from me.”

All to himself… my face heated.

“I… I never ran. I was sleepwalking.” I bit at my bottom lip nervously.

“Really now?” he crossed his arms over his defined chest. “You expect me to believe you sleepwalked your way past my security, past me, swam through the underwater passage without drowning, and managed to get all the way up to the first district of Asylum… asleep.”

I shot him an incredulous look. “Sorry. What? I went sleep swimming? In what, freezing cold water? No. There’s no way I did that. I’m not even wet.”

“It’s a long walk from the bottom of Asylum to the top. The other way out is now blocked by the astral barrier. So, unless you have another gate ring you haven’t told me about, it’s the only way you could have gone.”

Angst twisted my gut. Sleepwalking is one thing… but swimming underwater too? Sleep swimming? That’s just too bizarre.

“Your lab is under the bay of Asylum?”

“Mm… yes and no.”

I gave him a narrowed look. “Well… sorry for causing you so much trouble.” I mumbled, turning towards the cabinets and opening one as a way to escape from the conversation, from the close proximity. Inside there were various tools neatly organized. I closed it, moving on to see what was inside the next one. “Am I off the hook now?”

A devilish lilt crept over his tone. “Not quite. But first, I’d like to hear about these conditions you have.”

Right. I breathed in slowly, composing myself. “If this is going to work between us, then I’m going to need reassurances.”

This drawer had a rack of vials filled with all kinds of different colored liquids. Some glowed. One in the back row looked to contain pure shadows. Like a living umbrage. Ooo.

“I’m all ears.”

“Okay…” I pressed my lips together, fighting back the sudden nerves populating in my stomach. “First condition: you can’t interrogate me or hold me against my will. Second: no lying or withholding information I deserve to know. And lastly…” I looked over my shoulder to see Reks had his full attention on me. I matched his gaze with a cold one. “Lastly. Stop looking at me like I’m her.”

His gaze flickered from the last condition, and I dropped my eyes, pretending to be more interested in the colorful vials.

“Only three conditions?” he asked.

“As of right now, yes.” I traced the rack with a finger, then picked up a vial with fiery-orange contents.

One of his hands pressed against the counter’s ledge on my right side. My breath hitched from his abrupt closeness.

“I assume you must follow these conditions too. Am I right?”

“Hh—what?”

His chest brushed against my exposed back. “You’ll vow not to interrogate me or hold me against my will,” his other hand pressed against the other side of the counter, caging me in. “You won’t lie or withhold information I have a right to know.”

I turned around, realizing just how close we were - how close his lips were to mine. A glint of fiery light reflected off his dark eyes from the vial in my hand. My back pressed against the drawer, which suddenly closed shut from my weight leaning against it.

A swell of heat blossomed across my chest. “And what? I promise to not look at you like you’re her?” My brow arched, but there was no hiding the rise of emotion turning my face red.

I couldn’t stop staring at how the fiery orange liquid lit up his dark eyes, mirroring the color. Like a setting sun on a black sea. Arcane and all-consuming.

“No.” his jaw set. “You won’t look at me like I’m the monster you need to play nice with in order to survive.”

The mood swelling between us froze over, along with the wings of butterflies fluttering inside of me.

My eyes dropped. “I’m sorry. I didn’t realize…”

He dropped one of the arms boxing me in, lightly plucking the vial from my fingertips. “How about we leave the third as a gray area.”

“Yeah. Okay.”

He sighed, moving to return the vial to its place in the drawer.

“That’s really not how I feel about you at all. I really am warming up to you,” both figurative and literally, “We just got off to a bad start, you know? And-”

My lame attempt at backtracking came to an end when Reks opened a small bag tied at his waist. He pulled out a loaf of bread, breaking it in half. “You hungry?”

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