The guards were keeping them from entering the Hub’s warehouse. Despite the name, it was a glorified storage room. However, it was also the only place in the capital to get the keys to the prohiberis cuffs hanging around River’s wrists. Therefore, he needed entry.
The sooner they got out of here, the better. Nikhail’s chest ached from the loss of his magic, a growing void that had slowly been devouring him from the inside out, and he wasn’t even wearing the manacles. He couldn’t imagine how much worse it was for River.
During the first few days in the Hub, Nikhail had felt his magic dwindle, then disappear. The room where they’d been staying wasn’t like the central section in the Hub, where magic vanished the moment one passed over the threshold.
The gradual loss of his magic had almost been worse than instantly losing it, and Nikhail wanted it back. He yearned to hear the wind whisper in his ear, feel its caress on his cheek.
Williams raised her brow and narrowed her glowing orange eyes—a marker of werewolf kind—not on Nikhail, but on River. Distrust swam in her gaze, and her lips thinned, as though River was a threat.
A growl rumbled in Nikhail’s chest, and although he tamped it down, he glared at the werewolf, hoping to convey his displeasure. It took everything he had not to shove River behind his back to remove her from the woman’s line of sight.
“As I already mentioned, the water fae is not authorized to enter,” Williams said haughtily. “We cannot let her through.”
This again.
Nikhail bit back a groan. “She’s with me.”
Thatcher tilted his head. A lock of dark brown hair fell in front of his forehead, but that didn’t hide the distrustful look he shot in River’s direction. “Do you have a guest pass for her, Galebringer?”
What a ridiculous question. Of course, he didn’t have a fucking guest pass.
The guards knew he and River had been here for the past two weeks—everyone did. After all, the rooms in the Hub were rarely used for longer than a day or two at most. Who would willingly choose to have their magic cut off?
On top of that, there was the not-insignificant fact that news disseminated rapidly through the Republic of Balance. The presence of Representative Waterborn’s daughter in the Hub would’ve traveled quickly through the region, especially since River’s storm had come out of nowhere and had been so widespread.
Nikhail wasn’t sure what Tertia Waterborn would’ve been able to do to stop the gossip, even if she hadn’t been sidelined by her grief. He didn’t even know how Tertia and Ryker had concealed River’s involvement in Chavin’s storm all those years ago.
The power of the Waterborn name was potent, but it wasn’t almighty.
Nikhail ground out, “No, but?—”
“Then we cannot permit her to enter,” Williams interrupted him firmly. As if that was the end of the discussion.
Which itwasn’t. Nikhail wouldn’t allow it to be.
“Surely an exception can be made.” Nikhail looked at Thatcher, hoping the other soldier would see reason.
He didn’t care that pushing this hard sounded an awful lot like begging. For River, he’d do just about anything, including this.
“We just need five minutes in the room,” he added. “We won’t even remove the keys; all I need to do is unlock her cuffs. Then, we’ll be gone.”
Nikhail didn’t have the authority to remove the keys from the room, but in theory, the process of getting the cuffs off was uncomplicated. They could’ve been done and on their way out by now.
And yet, they were still here.
The door loomed above them. So close, yet so damn far. He didn’t want to use force to get in. There were some lines that, once crossed, would be harder to come back from than others.
“Nik.” The word, barely more than a whisper when it left River’s lips, struck him in the center of his chest. His heart contorted. River sounded so fucking broken compared to the woman he knew her to be. It was hard to believe that a mere two weeks had passed since the night they’d spent together.
Nikhail slowly turned, his brows furrowing. A frown tugged on River’s lips, and the look of despair on her face made Nikhail want to roar his anger to the heavens. He hated that River was hurting, that her pain wasn’t something he could easily fix.
“What is it?” he asked, angling his body away from the soldiers.
She rolled her lip between her teeth. “It’s okay.”
“What?”
“You don’t need to push them. It isn’t necessary.”