Chapter 35 Rivals
SOUNDTRACK: War by Tribal Blood
~ MELEK ~
I remained sprawled in the dirt, not fighting, as Lucifer straightened, his foot still pinning my wrist, while several Neph figures dropped from the sky, one-by-one to land, shaking the ground under me with their impact.
I blinked and breathed, focused on regaining control of my scattered wits and pained body. I was hurt, but not seriously. Mostly dazed and breathless. I just needed time, but couldn’t let them know my strength returned. I kept my expression pained, and my struggles weak.
It shouldn’t have been a shock when the third figure to shake the earth, then straighten and push back his hood, was Jann.
We’d planted him in the Advisory Council for exactly this purpose.
Only Diadre wasn’t with him, which made my blood run cold.
Was she out here, too? With Yilan? Had they been discovered? Was that why Yilan had run?
With my eyes squinted closed against pain, and to mask my recovery, I couldn’t see Jann’s face clearly—but I saw enough—the rock-hard jaw, the tension in his shoulders.
My brother raged.
As the Council arrived, they surrounded me—even Althok, which was a surprise.
Jann told me he’d been absent a great deal since Diadre’s encounter with him through the medium.
Lucifer shifted his weight, and ground my wrist into the dirt before stepping off me and beckoning the others closer.
I rolled over with a groan that was only half-faked, and had just pushed up on hands and knees, when the circle of Neph around me shifted aside.
I looked up, and recognized the set of his shoulders a blink before Gall pushed back the hood he wore and stared down at me, expressionless.
My heart went cold.
No one spoke—including Gall—but I caught the eerie light in Lucifer’s eyes as he looked back and forth between us.
I pretended none of the others were there. “Why didn’t you tell me?” I croaked.
Gall’s eyes narrowed. “Tell you what?”
“About Istral. That I’m going to be a grandf—”
The blow landed with the speed and skill of any of my best fighters. Perhaps as quickly as I could have delivered it. I heard the ring in my skull, and my head snapped sideways before I registered any movement. It took seconds of blinking and rolling my jaw before I realized Gall had struck me.
When I looked up at him through watering eyes, his expression was dark. “You aren’t my father—you’re my rival. My enemy. You think I’m stupid? I’ve heard the rumors, and I know where they started.”
It was gratifying that the other Neph shifted on their feet, and looked at each other when they thought I wouldn’t notice.
They’d heard the rumors, too. And maybe they had listened.
I had to fight not to smile. Instead, I sighed, and continued speaking to Gall as if we were the only males here.
“I’ll never be your rival,” I said bluntly.
“Or your enemy. I’ve spoken not one word of rumor about you.
If that’s happened, it didn’t come from my lips.
” I almost winced at the manipulative truth worthy of Lucifer himself.
But it was important that Gall was reminded that I was his greatest ally because I was his father.
Lucifer could fuck all the way off.
Gall hesitated, and for a moment I thought I’d broken through. But he only took a step closer to me, putting himself in my space so I knelt over his feet as he leaned down to snarl at me through his teeth.
“You made yourself my rival, by declaring for my throne. Then you made yourself my enemy by staying here to fight. You had two options—I gave you the chance to leave through the shadows with your mate. That was your opportunity for mercy. But you didn’t do that. So now, I’ll kill you both.”
I had to fight to keep myself from reacting to the cold determination in his tone. “You won’t kill me, Gall. I love you.”
Several cynical huffs and grunts rose from the circle of Neph around us.
Gall’s upper lip peeled back from his teeth.
“Try me, Papa,” he sneered, and my heart broke as he spat the name like a curse.
“You always told me a Nephilim King must be strong, powerful, and ruthless. Guess what? I listened well.” Then he tipped his head in a posture eerily reminiscent of the Fallen himself.
“After all, what’s stronger than hanging the former General from the city gates by his throat?
” He straightened and gestured behind him, towards the city in the distance.
“I’ll make you a spectacle of my strength and power—hang you from the walls so every Neph is reminded of what happens to men who think I’m stupid, and who assume a claim to my throne. ”
“I made my claim before you’d even—”
The words cut off in my throat, as shrieking, jangling pain began in my head and traveled down my spine to radiate out through my limbs. Like fire rode my veins.
The searing pain was acute. I couldn’t measure time in it, so had no idea how long I writhed before I fell into the dirt, panting, and Gall wrinkled his nose and stepped back, nudging me with his toe to roll me onto my back, when I sprawled on my stomach.
When he leaned down to grasp my hair and yank my head up, the expression on his face was one I’d never seen before.
Malicious delight.
“Gall,” I gasped. “This isn’t you—”
“Shut the fuck up.”
“You aren’t my son,” I said hoarsely. “Who are you?”
“I’m your king,” he seethed. “I’m going to prove it to you, and to everyone else.”
It was the only glimpse of the old Gall that I saw—a flash in his eyes of the childish hurt and insecurity that insisted on proving himself. But it was there and gone in a blink until I wasn’t sure I’d seen it at all.
“You had your chance, so now I’m going to hunt and kill you.”
“I won’t run,” I croaked. “You can’t hunt what’s willingly right in front of you—and I will always be willing to be close to you, Gall. You know that. I won’t run.”
Gall smiled. “Yes, you will. Because I already released the hounds and guess whose trail they picked up right away? That cunning little mate of yours—Yilan.” Then he leaned right into my face, and shook my head by my hair.
“Her scent is thicker now that she’s carrying a babe—two souls for them to smell, I suppose. ”
My being lit up with equal parts fear and ecstatic joy—I was stunned.
Was he telling the truth? Was Yilan pregnant? Or was it just one more deception from Lucifer to undermine my resolve?
Taking a grip on myself, I held Gall’s gaze and didn’t break eye-contact. Didn’t even react.
In another telling moment, Gall glanced at Lucifer, his jaw tight.
To my surprise, it was Jann who spoke up first.
“You’ll never get under his skin with threats—the only way to touch him is to force him to watch his mate be harmed,” my best friend muttered.
Tearing my gaze from Gall’s, I gaped at Jann.
Gall tossed me aside and snarled at the others—including Jann—to back away.
“Fight me, or go after her. Those are your choices. Either way, I’ll win,” Gall growled.
I pushed to my feet, rising slowly, weight on the balls of my feet and eyes scanning all of them, but I ended on Gall. “I’m not going to fight you. I’d never hurt you.”
Gall scoffed, but before either of us could speak, those haunting howls rose again to my left.
I snapped my head to look towards it, then launched directly into flight, clawing at the air and powering away from them as fast as I was capable, reaching for Yilan in my mind as I did so, my heart breaking when I felt her brush the bond.
She was frantic, exhausted, and terrified.