Chapter 39
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Remus
Usually, at this point in the evening, I have already left the celebration.
I have no interest in socializing. I only ever show for the sake of the Leviathan, so they know that I am very real and have an interest in the well-being of society.
But this night, I feel hesitant to leave.
And it’s all because of the strange human who floats around in my dreams.
I quietly watch her from across the room.
She’s visibly defeated as she fights tears.
I’d find it amusing if it weren’t so confusing.
From the first time I laid eyes on her, she has looked at me with familiarity.
I didn’t think anything of it our first meeting.
As a matter of fact, I didn’t even think of her again until Iriel mentioned her in his desperate plea for me not to take his life.
Then, the day I sensed my essence faintly floating through the building, I discovered her in our records room wearing the hairpin I infused with my essence.
If not for my sibling’s strange obsession with protecting her, I would have killed her on the spot for stealing something so valuable to me.
According to her, however, she didn’t steal it.
She claimed I gave it to her—something I don’t recall ever doing.
It was a lie she fiercely believed enough that her body was showing signs that she was telling the truth.
She was willing to endure the pain I put her through to hold onto that lie—even when more outlandish lies tumbled from her lips.
Then, the dreams came. They were vivid and intense, ranging from times in my childhood that I don’t recall to things that have never occurred on other worlds.
But among these dreams, she appeared in small bursts.
As did a more vivid recollection of moments on Earth that I can’t think of when I am awake.
The most vivid being saving her life on Earth.
I pulled her from burning rubble when I should have left her for dead.
And though she should have died that night from her injuries, I took a chance by infusing her with my essence to save her.
The memory was brief, but with it came feelings I never thought I was capable of having—desperation for her survival being the most intense.
It felt so real, waking up in a panicked sweat, leading me to her for answers.
But her answers were so enraging, so filled with obvious lies that even now, I can’t understand how she seems to be telling the truth each time she utters them.
What’s even more irritating is my sibling’s reaction to it all.
They each expressed anger at me for punishing her.
At first, I thought it was because one of them wanted her.
But as I watch them once again flocking to their chosen partners, I see that they only seek to protect her.
It is obvious they are keeping things from me, making me curious about the human’s lies. Xion refused to tell me anything about her beyond her being brought from Earth. Ezra has avoided me entirely.
I shift my attention away from the party toward the sky.
The new set of rings I put in place dazzles more brightly than the ones my mother had around our planet. I destroyed hers, curious about the effects since what the human said to me made sense at the time. My initial anger was because there wasn’t a change in my mental state after I got rid of them.
Now that I’ve replaced them with my own, the more time that passes, the more my mind is flooded with visions I can’t understand. Some feel like memories, while others are accompanied by a voice that feels familiar, but I do not recognize calling to me.
Only a rare few involve the human, making me wonder why she is so convinced that she was so important to me.
I look away from the rings, in search of her.
She’s moved to a corner with her back to me where she thinks no one will hear her tears.
But I can hear them. They’re soft, and breathy.
She’s a beautiful woman, and while I wouldn’t mind spending a few nights with her, I can’t bring myself to believe we were bonded.
Of all of her lies, that one is the most unconvincing.
Her body would still carry my essence if that were the case, but it doesn’t.
There’s no trace, and removing a bond is impossible.
Unless Iris is right, and my mother is lying about more things than one.
Hearing Iris say my mother is responsible for this situation was enough for me to end her life right then and there.
Unfortunately, my mother’s presence is nowhere to be found, including in her dimension.
It makes me skeptical enough to not discount the theory so soon.
“Remus, there’s a problem.” I look away from Iris to see Xion standing next to me.
Her expression is troubled. I’ve remained distant from my siblings since the human appeared.
But knowing that they are lying to me, as well, shows me that I cannot trust them.
Especially after what I sensed in Iris the night I transported her to my home.
“What now?” I ask.
“The entity that entered the star system is approaching Xyrannis at a speed we can barely keep up with,” she says.
“I am aware,” I say.
Xion is silent for a moment, surprised by my response.
I’ve known for a while. I’ve been monitoring it since it entered the star system.
Things don’t just enter our star system so easily.
Our mother has a barrier that only reacts to certain signatures.
This one was foreign, and yet it entered with no sense of direction until I removed the rings.
I’ve kept this information to myself, not knowing who I can trust.
“You knew and you didn’t think to tell us? Maybe even the council?” she snaps.
I laugh at her accusatory tone. She’s been willingly keeping the truth from me.
Her and Ezra. I’m not sure if it’s the amount of overwhelming information I’ve been receiving since the rings, or if it’s the tension between me and the human from across the room, but my usual reserved demeanor melts away as my anger boils over.
“The same way you didn’t think to tell me that our mother wiped my mind?” I say in a calm voice.
Xion hides her shock extremely well.
“What are you talking about?” she asks.
My gaze narrows, and with it comes the slip of my control as my anger intensifies. The ground shudders, cracking slightly, and her mask of deceit finally falls away as she realizes the danger everyone is in.
I ignore the gasps of the surrounding Leviathan as I step closer to her, speaking in a foreign language so that no one but her can understand me.
“Who is she to me?” I growl out.
For the first time, Xion is without a response. She’s been caught in her own lies, and she knows that with this, the has been damaged. I won’t trust her ever again. She doesn’t respond, trying to come up with a way to lie again, no doubt, and my anger intensifies.
I shift my attention to the human she cares for across the room, his pained grunt filling the air as I use my pull to drag him across the room. Gasps fill the air, but I ignore them, using the same force I did on Iris that day to slowly crush him in front of her.
Xion’s expression shifts to panic, but I’m stepping closer to her, forcing whatever she was about to say to remain lodged in her throat.
“You’ve watched me on several occasions come close to killing her. Do you think I am above making you watch me do the same to him?” I ask, intensifying the pressure. His groan of pain fills the air. “Who is she, Xion? I want the truth.”
“Remus!” I hear Ezra, but I ignore him, my gaze remaining on my sister. I intensify the pressure on her lover, his groan of pain the push she needs. She lowers her head, clenching her fists.
“She’s…the human you bonded with on Earth,” she says.
My ears ring as my rage intensifies.
“And I am unaware of this why?” I growl out.
“Remus…you don’t want to know,” she says.
“Agh!” Her lover’s pained groan echoes over the party that has now fallen silent to watch this unfold.
“It was our mother! You left and came back different, that’s all I know!” she shouts, shifting her attention to the human who writhes in pain under the invisible force of gravity crushing his bones.
“Please, we couldn’t tell you because you just would have confronted her! And we would be in the same boat, we’re still trying to understand everything—”
“You lied to me. You both lied to me,” I say, shifting my attention to Ezra.
He’s standing with his companion and Iris protectively behind him, his expression blank.
I look from him to Iris. She watches me with a worried expression, and it doesn’t affect me.
According to everyone here, it is because of our mother.
I scoff, releasing Xion’s human from my hold. I look at all of them, my anger visible as I speak.
“You were right to lie to me. Of course, I am going to confront her,” I say.
Ezra steps forward. “Remus, we—”
“Don’t!” I snap. A wave of energy cracks the ground beneath me as my anger comes out in a way that I can’t control.
“You watched me live a lie. You let me give in to what she had done, and you were too scared to fight for me, after all I’ve ever done for you.
You don’t deserve my protection. You don’t deserve my care.
You deserve whatever happens to you and this wretched—”
I sense it before I see it. A bolt of energy rips through the rings, sending a chill up my spine at the power behind it.
I’ve never felt anything like it before.
It travels faster than even I can comprehend, and it heads straight for Ezra.
He doesn’t sense it, for some reason, the hurt behind my words still lingering in his eyes as he looks at me.
I’m not fast enough to warn him, nor am I close to being able to stop it as it rips through the sky, splitting the clouds.
The beam of blue slices right through him from behind.
It tears through his back like a harpoon, the force so intense that it pulls him off his feet, digging into the ground to anchor him there.
The aftershock of the blast sends a violent wind that blows everyone except for me and Xion back, sending debris and smoke everywhere. It rips through the sheets surrounding us, knocking over some of the columns.
“Ezra!” I shout, terror ripping through me as I move across the room.
His head hangs limp as his arms dangle in front of him.
I am reaching for his body when an entity appears in front of me.
It’s a powerful force field that sends bolts of energy through me, forcing my body to fly back.
I vaguely register Xion’s scream as I crash into a column.
I am conscious enough to prevent the debris from crumbling on top of me, so it falls around me, giving me time to stand as our attacker lands behind Xion.
She turns, forming a pure energy weapon as she tries to strike, but he catches her hand, his free hand catching her around the throat as he looks at me with eyes resembling my mothers.
The way they gleam is a sign of the power he wields.
The energy is visible, moving and never still.
His hair is white, just like ours but in a braid to hold it out of his face.
He grins in excitement, his eyes illuminating as he looks at me, and I tense when the veins beneath his skin illuminate from the foreign energy rushing through him.
“Oh, my son…how you’ve grown.”