The Dark Heir - Nyx

8. Theia.

The hood fell before he could turn and grasp her wrist. Theia stared at the face that haunted her for centuries, her heart shattering over again. He was devastatingly beautiful, even more than he had been all those years ago. His already sculpted face had matured, leaving him with an unusual look.

His dark hair was still kept long, falling over his brows in loose curls. His face was edged with a thick beard, trimmed close to his jaw. Those eyes that always seemed to pull her in were settled into a disgusting glare shadowed by his lowered brows. He looked more like his father now, and that made bile rise in her throat.

Theia tore her arm from his grasp. Nyx's jaw ticked as he looked her over. "Don't fucking touch me."

"Oh, so you have all the power to touch me? Fuck you, Nyx. Get out of my house," Theia snarled. Nyx's brow twitched before he turned and started making his way through her home. Theia followed close behind, shouting for him to leave. He marched into her bedroom, tearing open drawers and the closet.

"Get the fuck out before I kill you!" Theia shouted, shoving at the arm that was reaching to her top shelf. His body stiffened and his head snapped to her.

"Did you just threaten the heir? Are you that stupid?"

Her nostrils flared as she stood tall. None of his threats were enough to stop her. Theia had enough of this male and she would do anything to make him leave her life again.

"Get out," she repeated in a lethal tone. It just made him scoff and continue his search. When he slammed the closet door shut and aimed for the door, Theia put her full body weight into him. He stumbled back slightly, but caught her arms with a bruising grip that had her crying out.

"I'm so fucking tired of you assuming you did something great. Get over yourself, Theia. You achieved the bare minimum and you ran off. You're a fucking coward. You deserve this sad life living alone and working in the same tavern until you rot with this house. I'm just here to get what belongs to my family and then I'm gone."

He shoved her against the wall hard enough for the wood to splinter against the force. She grunted in pain, feeling the heat of it spreading across her ribs. Theia blinked through the tears that formed involuntarily, noticing where he went next. Nyx rattled the doorknob to the bedroom Theia had locked away with time.

Her heart jolted as she shoved away from the wall with another shout. Nyx realized the door was locked and began hitting it with his shoulder. Theia screamed again, scrambling for the drawer he had left open. Her fingers grasped the dagger she had hidden away. Theia chased after Nyx, making it to him only when he broke the bedroom door open. He turned, hearing her footsteps.

Theia didn't think, she just acted. Her hand drove the dagger into his stomach as she let out another shout. He had broken into her home, threatened her, and let his venomous words choke her. She had never felt more rage, and the satisfaction of feeling the dagger slide through his flesh had her grinning.

It lasted a mere second, because Theia's eyes flickered up to Nyx's and she saw nothing but feral rage. Her hand, now slick with his blood, lost grip on the dagger as he shoved her away. Theia hit the floor hard enough that all breath was knocked from her lungs. She wheezed, feeling the world tilt around her as her vision went blurry. Through unsteady vision, she saw Nyx pull the dagger from his stomach and throw it.

She didn't flinch, expecting it to enter her heart and end the cruel torture he laid upon her. It didn't touch her. Theia couldn't help the pang of disappointment. The dagger stuck into the wooden floor beside her wing. Theia turned her spinning head back to Nyx, just to see him tearing open the closet of Maia's bedroom and grabbing a burlap bag from the floor. She couldn't stop him.

Nyx found the trunk of coins that Rhysand had given her. She'd hardly used any of it, but enough that it wasn't the full amount given to her. Nyx first started putting the coins into the bag but gave up and dropped the bag into the trunk. Theia watched as he lifted the trunk, body straining against its weight, and made his way out of the room. Theia was already done fighting, already a broken mess on the floor, but Nyx still kicked her foot as he walked past and glared down at her.

"I hope that when you're struggling to feed yourself and wasting away, you remember that you are nothing but a thief. You stole from the High Lord, but I suspect your life is punishment enough."

Theia didn't speak as Nyx left her home. She didn't have the strength to tell him that the trunk also contained all of her wages that she had saved throughout the years. He wouldn't have given it to her anyway. Instead of following the heir and demanding her money back, Theia curled into a ball. She was too exhausted to cry, too broken to scream. Nyx had torn another piece of her already fragile self away, just as he always did. This time, she was left with nothing but a sliver.

That sliver of herself was the child that worked to keep her mother alive, just to watch her die when she finally accepted help. It was the piece of her that fell in love with a beautiful male because he promised to take care of her. It was the last crumb of her soul that trusted him to come for her all those years ago.

Theia knew they'd come. The patrolling warriors came knocking when she screamed until her voice broke. She wanted to take the dagger and finish what Nyx didn't have the nerve to do, but the sound of boots on her floor stopped her. Her head rolled against the floor to meet the gaze of a soldier. He looked her over, and then at the broken door above her.

She didn't answer their questions. She just allowed them to take her dagger and station themselves outside of her home. It didn't matter. She didn't move from that spot on the floor. Theia hated herself for letting Nyx rip her apart yet again, but she hated him more for becoming an emotionless monster. She couldn't fathom that he was the same male that kissed her and held her at night. He was nothing like the male that abandoned her; he was much worse.

Theia stayed on the floor until her bones ached from the hard material. She sat up and stared into the untouched room of her mother's past. Theia had always locked that room, so she assumed it would be the best place to keep her savings. Predictable, apparently.

As Theia pulled herself from the floor and stared at the flaking blood on her hand, that suffocating feeling returned. She leaned against the wall, cradling the evidence of Nyx's wound on her hand and cried. She felt like a failure. She'd stabbed the male who destroyed her, but she couldn't finish the job. As she let the sorrow seep from her, Theia couldn't decide who she wanted to kill more; herself, or Nyx.