Chapter 10

~~~~~~NYX~~~~~~

Mate.

The air was knocked from his lungs and he nearly dropped the glass in his hand. 

He felt the bond click into place the moment his eyes met that piercing steel gaze. 

He couldn't see most of her features due to her masquerade mask. He saw her pale ivory leg sticking out from the precarious slit in her dress and he was already drooling. 

He could make out wisps of ash blond hair from under her hood, the same color he had seen in his dreams. 

He had craved a mate since he could remember. Watching the unending love his parents shared created a desire that he could never satisfy with passing fancies. 

And there she was, his other half, his mate, the one who was made for him.

They hadn't even spoken a word and he would do anything for her. 

A smile took over his face as he looked at her, but he felt his heart drop as he watched her uninterested eyes turn to a look of horror. She had felt it too. And she was not of the same loving opinion.

Without acknowledging anything else around him Nyx took off down the flight of stairs towards where he saw her. 

Frustration grew in him as the crowd seemed to intentionally be blocking his path to her. (A/N: They weren't) 

He couldn't get to her fast enough. 

He followed that string-pulling him to her. 

He ignored the call of his parents, pushing through the drunk partiers. 

He didn't care for politeness as he nearly knocked the entirety of the crowd on their ass.

When he finally reached where she stood a minute before, she was gone. 

He frantically searched the crowd for her. 

Trying to feel the bond. 

Where was she?

Where was she?

Where was she?

Where was she?Where was she?Where was she?Where was she?Where was she?Where was she?Where was she?Where was she?Where was she?Where was she?Where was she?Where was she?Where was she?Where was she?Where was she?Where was she?Where was she?Where was she?Where was she?Where was she?Where was she?Where was she?Where was she?Where was she?

A hand grabbed onto his shoulder. 

He turned to see his father's worried face, "Nyx what's wrong?"

Nyx felt like he couldn't breathe. He couldn't talk now! He needed to find her. Needed to get to her. Needed to see her face and hear her voice and touch her.  Oh cauldron he wanted to know what it felt like to touch her. 

"M-mate! My mate, she was here! I-I need to find her! Dad I need to find her!" Nyx said breathlessly. 

"Show me what she looks like, we'll help you find her. But you have to calm down, son. You run up to her in this state you'll freak her out!" Rhys said in a calming tone, keeping his hand tightly on his sons shoulder. 

That seemed to pull Nyx out of his daze as he allowed his mental shields to fall so he his father could see his mate. 

All the color drained from Rhysands face as he saw his son's mate. He knew those cold grey eyes anywhere. They had been haunting him since he first met her in Ketterdam. The same ash blond hair and black gloves. The same soldiers stance and graceful, yet imposing movements. 

"Oh sweet Mother." Rhys whispered to himself as he looked into the panicked yet hopeful eyes of his son. 

How would he tell him?

How could he let his beloved son go anywhere near that monster that terrified even him?

How could he tell his son, his mate was Loki Brekker?

"You know her?!?! I can see it in your eyes! Who is she?" A beaming smile took over Nyx's face but it started to fade as he saw his father's reluctance. 

Before Rhys could respond, Nyx felt the bond. 

His head snapped to the side catching her figure leaving the ballroom at a near jog. 

He abandoned his father, taking off after her. 

"NYX WAIT!" 

The cool night air hit him as he ran out onto the terrace. 

He looked around to see a figure addorned in a silky black dress sprinting down the balcony that went the length of  the Palace. 

"WAIT!" Nyx called out for her, he ran to keep up with he pace. 

He didn't think to just winnow or fly to catch up. He was moving on pure instinct. All he knew was that his mate was here and he had to get to her. 

"INEJ!" He heard the sweet panicked voice of his mate call out as she got closer to the end of the terrace. 

His heart jumped in his throat when she didn't slow down. 

Panic shot through his veins like a bolt of electricity as she sprinted towards the cement bench against the railing. 

She used the bench to catapult herself off of the balcony in the sky. 

"NO!!!!" 

He took out his wings ready to go after her falling figure, but something else got her first. 

A figure of shadows appeared, with two large Illyrian wings. The figure grabbed onto his mate before disappearing into the shadows like they were never there. 

Azriel? 

Irrational anger flooded Nyx, replacing the panic he had felt moments before. What the fuck was Azriel doing with his mate?

He used his daemati powers to call out to his uncle. The second the shadowsinger's sheilds dropped Nyx roared into his mind, "WHERE ARE YOU?!?!" 

Azriel appeared next to Nyx in a state of confusion, before the heir of night grabbed a hold of his collar. 

"WHERE THE FUCK DID YOU TAKE MY MATE?!?!" 

Rhys and Feyre ran out the doors to find the situation. It took everything for Rhysand to pry Nyx off of the frazzled shadowsinger. 

"Nyx! He didn't take your mate!" Rhysand roared into his son's ear struggling to hold him back. 

"Really?!? Because an Illyrian shadowsinger  took her and ONLY ONE DAMN PERSON FIT'S THAT DESCRIPTION!" Nyx growled. 

Confusion took over Feyre and Azriel's features but was quickly replaced by horrified understanding.

"Inej..." Feyre whispered to herself. 

Nyx heard it and his head snapped to his mother. Inej. His mate had called out the same thing. Was it a spell? a name? an ancient language? 

"What the fuck is Inej?" 

They looked to Rhys and it looked like he told them something in their minds as their expressions changed once again to complete terrified awe. 

"R-rhys... Is his mate...?" Feyre asked looking directly at the man still holding tight to Nyx. 

"Ya... She is." 

"She is what? What are you not telling me? What is Inej? Where is my mate, dad?" Nyx was getting angrier by the moment. 

"We need to go home... now." Rhys said ignoring his son's rage. 

The two nodded before winnowing away back to the night court. 

~~~~LOKI~~~~

She had accounted for everything. She accounted for foul weather. She accounted for a boge coming in during the dance. Hell she accounted for Amarantha or the King of Hybern magically coming back from the dead to crash the party. 

The one thing Loki Brekker didn't plan for was finding her mate. 

Loki had convinced herself long ago that the Mother would never hate someone so much as to make them her  mate. 

I mean who could be so fucking unlucky that they got Loki Brekker as their other half. 

But there he stood, prince of night. The most gorgeous man she'd ever seen. 

And he smiled at her, his tan cheeks red, scattered with some kind of dust. It was a smile Loki thought she might die to earn again.

It took everything in her not to go to himI. Cauldron, she wanted to go to him and if I couldn't walk, she'd crawl, no matter how broken she knew she was. 

Dear mother, she was so broken. She was a selfish woman, everyone knew it. Greed was her god and she lived to serve only herself. 

She was damn selfish. 

She was so selfish she refused to corrupt that perfect prince that with her dirty hands. Her dirty hands that killed, that stole, that tortured. Her dirty hands that were always covered in gloves because the thought of touching someones skin makes her want to throw up. 

So she didn't go to him. Even as she watched him race down the stairs towards her, she fought every instinct. She fought every foolish desire to drag him down to hell with her.

Instead, Loki Brekker, Dirtyhands, the bastard of the Barrel and deadliest boy in Ketterdam, ran like hell.

She grabbed her skirt and took off towards the balcony. 

She watched as shadows curled around her, most likely informing Inej of her bosses emotional crisis. 

"INEJ!" She called out, allowing the panic to show in her usually calm voice. 

She heard him call out to her. She almost listened. She almost stopped and turned around and fell on her damn knees confessing all her sins to him. Apologizing for all she's ever done since she used Jordie's corpse as a human shield. 

Begging for forgiveness so that she could look into those adoring eyes forever.

Instead she catapulted off the stone bench and over the railing plunging towards the distant ground. 

The only law that ever applied to Loki Brekker was gravity and sometimes she broke that too. As she felt herself begin to fall, Inej wrapped her in a tight embrace shadow travelling them back to Ketterdam.