Nefarious

C190 - The bright-eyed one

Xylan gestured for the blonde girl and me to step over to Alex and Vera, which we hesitatingly did as we had no choice realistically. "I can't begin to explain how much trouble you guys bring me. Honestly, it's getting too tiring, and the easiest would be to execute you all, but that takes time. Ah, had I only started earlier," he said, clicking his tongue. I unintentionally met his glare after he'd looked at Vera, which only brought him amusement. "Perhaps I should've planned to murder you before Vera, Valerie. I mean, you're weaker and less observant. Additionally, if I'd paid more attention to you, then perhaps I would've known where Xavier hid the note regarding Vera's planned death. Well, you learn from your mistakes, as they say," he said coldly. I resisted snapping back at him as I didn't want to feed into his wishes, and I could tell Alex was struggling as well.

The second Xylan brought up Rain's name, Vera lost it and reached directly for his neck, but Alex stopped her in time. "You'll only make it worse," Alex warned. "Can it possibly get any worse?" Vera called out in pure despair. "Do you want an answer?" Xylan scoffed sharply, tilting his head slightly to meet her averted gaze. "You know what I want, Xylan," she said, looking away from him. Xylan scoffed even louder, getting annoyed visibly by her tendency to avoid him in every way. Xylan's reaction to Vera confused me as it seemed he wanted her attention desperately, and once she rejected him, he kept triggering her into raging only to get a response from her. In a way, it seemed as though he enjoyed having her attention despite it being negative, and so it bewildered me that he talked about actually murdering her.

Xylan allowed merely half a minute of silence before it looked like he suddenly remembered something. "Was it nice feeling hopeful for a change?" he asked, scanning everyone except me. I tilted my head in curiosity regarding his previous sentence. I reckoned he would taunt Vera further, but he walked past her and made his way down to me before stopping completely. Leaning a tad bit closer, though not enough to give Alex the opportunity to act, he looked at me intensely. "Considering the fact that you made it in here, I know you have the note regarding the rigged votes," he said, his tone lowering slightly. The icy undertone to his voice never faded, if possible it only got colder. "You could give it to me willingly, or I'll find a much worse way that doesn't necessarily only concern you personally. We have some others in the room who're probably thrilled to play it tough with you," Xylan continued. "I-" I started, getting interrupted by the door opening. "Finally, took them long enough," Xylan sighed, snickering as he told whoever entered to come in.

I stepped closer to Alex as I heard the footsteps getting louder and heavier by the second. I imagined Xavier's face walking alongside the spies, being forced to hand over our final chance at dethroning Xylan as the leader. My thoughts wandered to the abandoned Rain, which led to me wondering where her baby was. Had Xylan murdered her in front of her own child? I felt my lips parting due to the horrifying possibilities. For all I knew, he could've killed her son as well. A veiny hand reached between the curtains, tightening the grip to part the curtains. Two men walked in with hoods covering their faces. Xylan stepped away from us, stopping at a distance from them. No one said a word, and it made me both worried and confused. I looked up at Alex, but he kept blinking in the direction of the two men instead of returning the look. Looking back, I saw the man on the left pulling down his hood to expose his identity. As soon as the hood fell backwards and he ran his hand through his hair to show his face, I almost choked on the air I inhaled. The sparkling green eyes and long eyelashes looked precisely as before. His hair had grown a bit longer, but I could tell he'd taken care of it and cut it some times. His closed lips parted, his tongue barely touching his lip before the crook of his mouth moved the slightest. "Missed me?" Jace said sharply.