The Return of the Gods (Children of the Sun Book 1)

Chapter 26

"You really think it'll be safer in Irithara?" Nira asked, looking like she was questioning his intelligence. "Relioth's not dead. He'll attack the Empire as soon as he can, so maybe the safest place to be is right here."

Well, she had a point, but Nef didn't let that stop him. "Yeah, maybe, but if you stay here, he can kidnap you whenever he wants to, and I don't think he'll be happy when he finds out we escaped." Relioth probably already knew, but that didn't matter. "Plus, I dunno if you noticed, but Enorians don't seem to like Iritharians very much right now."

Nira nodded grimly. "I can understand why," she said, although she didn't seem to think so. In fact, she was glaring now. She looked like she wanted to go back to the Citadel and punch some of the people there in the face.

"Yeah, well, with how it is, I don't think they'd just deport you if they found out who you are." Nira grimaced and looked away. Nef didn't understand their backward laws when it came to this kind of thing, but he knew that they wouldn't get any better anytime soon. "And you haven't been wearing those contact lenses, and even though it looks really good on you, blue and violet aren't normal eye colors in Enoria."

Nira's hand went to her right eye as if to check if the contacts really weren't there, but she put her hand back down before she could even touch an eyelash. She looked nervous now, even though no one else was in the small alley Rayni had parked the car in. "There's been so much going on, I completely forgot about that."

"And I forgot to remind you." That wasn't the exact truth. Nef hadn't reminded her because he didn't want her to hide who she was behind colored contact lenses and probably also hair dye since Irithara's royal family was supposed to have dark blue hair, not dark brown like Nira's was right now. And Nef didn't think the eyes were that noticeable. It seemed he had been right so far because no one had called attention to it yet, but that was only a matter of time.

"I don't want to leave," Nira said and shrugged again.

Before Nef could figure out how to reply to that, a car landing in front of them interrupted his and Nira's discussion. It was a white van—not the largest Nef had seen, but that didn't mean it was in any way small. He was worried for about two seconds before Kara's head peeked out a window.

"Get in," she told them.

Nef and Nira exchanged a look before quickly doing as they had been told, sitting in the back with Alor. Rayni was taking off again a moment later, flying gods knew where. Before Nef even asked what they were planning on doing and what exactly had happened, there was the sound of scratching behind him, followed by a pained whine.

He hadn't been prepared for what he saw when he turned around.

"Gods," Nira said, seeing the state Mel was in as well. It wouldn't be that horrible if Nef could tear his eyes away from the bone sticking out of the bleeding hole in the Eternal's right wing. The left wing looked broken too, but at least it wasn't bleeding.

Nef put a hand over his mouth and swallowed in an effort to stop his sudden urge to vomit. Mel seemed to be unconscious, but at least his heavy breathing and occasional pained noise meant that he wasn't dead.

Once Nef managed to look at something else than the wing bone, he noticed that Mel now had armor in this form as well. It looked kind of badass. Or it would if the Eternal wasn't passed out and bleeding in the back of a van, of course.

"What happened to him?" Nira asked, not sounding even half as horrified as Nef would if he had asked the same question.

"Relioth," answered Alor with a sad sigh. "Mel tried to get him away from Kaleth, and...." Alor left it at that. Nef looked back at the shaking Eternal behind them, and a question immediately occurred to him.