Chapter 32 #2
“Oh, it’s playing out beautifully.” My head tilts to the side, and it dawns on me as soon as I feel the indescribable scrape of a needle against my arm. Flames consume me, lighting up with a painful heat.
The guy hisses behind me but doesn’t plunge it into my skin.
He should’ve, because now he’s gonna die for his sins.
Callum grips my arm hard enough to bruise, not caring about the fire that’s blistering his palms. I push the fire out toward his little friend, causing him to back up right where I want him.
A vine snakes down and immediately wraps around his throat, hoisting him up high in the sky.
Voraxis shoots a fireball close to Callum, but he doesn’t move.
My flames grow bigger, hotter, but he doesn’t let go.
He tries to pull me toward him, but I resist. Rage takes over my vision, and the clouds above us—just seconds ago white and fluffy—turn a deep gray, overcasting the land.
Lightning strikes in the sky, and I make sure to miss Voraxis with him still up there, clearly not backing down.
Thunder rumbles through the realm right before rain pours down.
I push him back with a gust of wind, and he sails through the raindrops, skidding to a stop a few feet away.
Odeyssa uses this opportunity, collecting the water with her mind, and it’s show-stopping.
The water sphere forms in a matter of seconds, swirling as it heads over to the guy dangling in the tree at a rapid speed.
I’m not even sure if he’s dead, but I don’t give a single fuck.
Callum grimaces, falling to his knees unexpectedly and bowing his head. I move the water accumulating around us toward him. It slithers over the ground like thousands of baby snakes until they form at the base of his knees. I begin hardening the liquid, making it turn to ice and hold him captive.
His head whips up, eyes pleasing when they meet mine. “Princess, it’s me.” He groans out in agony.
“Nice try.” Wind and rain slap against the side of my face, and I push him back with another gust of wind, relishing in the way some of his bones crack on impact. “Are you sure you’re going to win this game?” I throw back at him.
“Kallie, please. It’s me,” he pushes through gritted teeth.
“I’m not falling for this again!” I scream over the howling wind.
“It’s me!” he yells. “No, it’s not.” His voice changes, lower this time, any signs of pain gone in the blink of an eye. “Look out!” he warns, and I immediately roll to my right, popping back up on my feet. The other guy he came with rushes past, aiming for Callum.
We have to go! Voraxis says, but I can’t focus on him. I need to see this myself.
Not yet! I have to see this.
Callum flips over on his back, and the ice I had holding him hostage breaks, along with my concentration. He convulses on the ground as lightning strikes again.
As the other guy reaches him, I watch in slow motion as he plunges the needle in Callum’s neck, squeezing the end to inject its blue contents into his bloodstream.
But I could’ve sworn the serum was green.
It’s instant, the effect it has, as Callum’s body relaxes.
“Kallie! Now!” I’m not waiting to see this through, because Callum’s eyes open with leisure, turning his head to face me and giving me one of the most terrifying grins I’ve ever seen.
I’ve never truly been afraid of him. Not until this moment.
I sprint left toward Odeyssa and don’t look back.
Voraxis swoops down, ready to get us all out of here.
But on his descent, a shadow lashes out, wrapping around his neck like a collar attached to a leash.
The strength is nothing like I’ve ever seen before.
Voraxis roars with surprise. He pulls against it, trying to break the hold, but it’s no use.
My eyes follow the line, but I don’t need to.
I know it is Callum before my eyes land on him, smile wide as he stares at me, knowing exactly what he’s doing.
“No.” My chest caves in. “No!” I go to run toward him, but Odeyssa grips my upper arm. “Let me go!”
I’ll be alright. Get out of here! But I can’t. I can’t just leave him to fight the battle I forced us in. This is my fault.
All of this is my fault.
I’m not leaving you!
“Odeyssa, let go of me!”
“I know he’s telling you to go, and he’s right.
” My eyes darken, all sense of logic flying right out the window.
I scream a battle cry as I gather as much water as my powers will allow and send it flying in their direction.
It hits both of them, knocking them over and severing the connection he had on Voraxis, but only for a moment.
Voraxis flies a few more feet in the air before he’s captive once again.
“Callum!” I cry. “I know you’re in there! Don’t do this!” But the look he gives me is one I know all too well. The same one he gave me all those months ago when I was in the cage. Distant and void.
“The Callum you knew is gone,” the other guy answers. But he’s not—not entirely, anyway. In the dream, even just now, I saw him. Way, deep down. And I will get him back.
I will be okay. If you won’t go for yourself, go for me. I hear Voraxis’s plea, but it glides in one ear and straight out the other, his voice and the one of reason gone.
As he struggles against Callum’s hold, his tail strikes down, but he misses, just an inch or so off from hitting his mark. He blows fire at the ground, but it only lands around them, creating a circle of flames.
I don’t understand how his hold could be so strong, how he’s able to pull this massive beast like he’s barely breaking a sweat.
Once Voraxis disappears behind the fire, I panic and send another wave of water their direction, putting it out and fighting every urge to run over there as the smoke clears.
When it does, Voraxis shoots up, like he got some sort of advantage, and turns side to side, trying to snap the connection. But it’s no use.
Callum is clearly growing irritated, because another stream of obsidian shoots out from his body, wrapping around all four of Voraxis’s legs.
I can’t just leave you!
His head turns to Odeyssa, like he’s trying to convey something to her, but he doesn’t tell me. In fact, he shuts our bond off completely, and that hurts more than anything.
Not knowing what else to do, I call to the part of me that terrifies me, the one that’s become so much easier to make present.
And I let her take over.
First, it’s subtle. My limbs start to tingle, like tiny bee stings, before settling into a comforting hum.
The lightning above returns with a vengeance, cracking across the sky, imitating my fury.
Both my hands rise at my sides, cupped with the palms up like I’m gathering everything I’ve been keeping locked away inside.
Intense thunder shakes the sky, and I feel Odeyssa pulling at my arm, and it takes no more than a shake to get her off.
Shadows extend from me, four from my back and one from each of my sides, swaying in the wind I create as it picks up.
Eyes trained on the group, I push my hands out in front of me, releasing the inky tentacles to create the chaos they crave.
Callum doesn’t waver. Instead, he sends some of his own my way.
Smiling gleefully, I accept his silent challenge, loving the catastrophe that awaits once they make contact.
His try to wrap around mine and pull me closer, but despite whatever toxins are coursing through his body, mine are stronger.
They eat away at his, dwindling them down until they are just puffs of essence in the air.
The other guy tries to step to the side and make a run for it, and I chuckle because he thought he was going to get away that easily?
Two of my extensions divert in his direction, wrapping around his ankles and dragging him toward me.
I pull him back before Callum can try to get his bearings on him as well, but the guy claws at the ground, begging the earth to help him, but each time he makes an attempt, my powers counteract, and the realm bows to its master.
Balling my hands together in front of me, fire erupts in seconds, spinning around and around, pulsing with the magic I’m pushing into it.
Power, revenge, and bloodthirst course through me all at once, feeding the shadows and fire until I don’t even know where I begin and they end. It’s raw, intoxicating, a high I never want to come down from.
Out of nowhere, Voraxis pushes higher into the sky—the shadows no longer attached to him. “Kallie, for once in your stubborn life, listen and go!” Callum bellows from somewhere in the chaos.
I knew he was in there. It was just a matter of when he was going to show again. “I’m not leaving without you both!” Odeyssa steps into my line of sight. I try to shove her out of the way, but at lightning speed, she puts both hands on my shoulders and pushes me back.
I’m stunned—not that she would do that, but that when I fall backward, I don’t immediately hit the grass. Instead, I end up in a warp hole, spinning in a kaleidoscope of color before hitting black tile. Odeyssa falls in behind me—way more gracefully—and shuts the portal as soon as she’s through.
The darkness I carry with me every day slowly fades from the front of my mind, going back into its cave until I need it again.
My mind clears, and I take in my surroundings.
The portraits along the walls, the artifacts placed strategically, columns that are a work of art all on their own, and the overall architecture could only mean I’m in one place.
If looks could kill, Odeyssa and I would both be dead. “You brought me into a lion’s den?”