Chapter 42
Chapter Forty-Two
Remus
I jolt awake as the intense pain assaulting my body penetrates the silence.
Vomit rushes violently past my lips, and I immediately taste the metallic tang of blood as my stomach and ribs clench in pain.
I groan, unable to do anything to stop the pain that radiates over every inch of me.
I can’t fight the shudder as vision after vision flashes across my mind, threatening to make me go insane right at this moment.
The nausea it causes is agonizing.
“It’s unbearable, isn’t it?” I flinch as the familiar voice cuts through the haze. Everything clears, even the visions, and I am able to focus on what’s in front of me—or rather, who. It’s the Celestivine who claims he is my father.
Kuron.
With his presence comes everything else that has happened since. The battle, Ezra, the collapsing earth swallowing the defenseless humans because of my mother’s rage; all of it.
I lunge for him, but an intense wave of pain hits me, and I realize something is holding me back.
I look down in a panic, noting that the same blue beams that held Xion and me at the cliffside are wrapped around my arms, tethering me to the ground, draining what little energy I have left.
I flinch as another vision flashes across my mind.
I’ve been held like this before…several times.
Each time, by my mother.
“Now is that any way to greet your father after all these centuries?” he asks.
“Fuck you,” I hiss at him.
My words mean nothing to him, however. He steps back, laughing.
“I see your mind isn’t the only thing Me’Rite has corrupted,” he says.
I don’t respond. I know nothing of this being.
But he seems to know me. He’s comfortable in my presence and doesn’t fear me at all.
If anything, after that battle, he’s continued to hold back to prove something to me.
But he can’t possibly think I would do anything or agree to anything for him after what he’s done.
“Is there really no curiosity about your past? Where you come from? All the missing time in your mind that doesn’t make sense?” he asks.
I look away.
“You killed my brother. We have nothing to talk about,” I say.
He grunts in irritation, walking away from me.
“Your mother has let your heart become too soft. You are a Celestivine, Remus. That bastard has no place in this world—no place to call himself your brother of all things,” he says, his anger palpable in the air.
I don’t fear him, however.
“That ‘bastard’ is my brother,” I say.
“Can you not see he was born to replace you?” he snaps.
I release a humorless laugh, holding his gaze.
“There is nothing left for us to talk about. You might as well end my life now. I have no intention of doing anything you want,” I say, trying to hold back the pain of losing so many important people so quickly.
Silence drifts between us, and he continues to watch me, trying to figure out my intention.
“I think there is plenty to speak about, Remus,” he says.
The air behind him ripples, and Xion appears. She’s lying on her side, with a similar binding to mine around her arms. She’s awake, but her eyes are dulled as she stares at nothing.
“Xion!” I call to her, trying to move, but I can’t. These bindings drain my energy with even the slightest movement. Xion doesn’t even react to my voice.
“You should try to minimize movement. The more you struggle, the more it takes,” Kuron says, proving my theory as he moves toward Xion.
“Don’t fucking touch her!” I shout.
Kuron stops, turning to face me.
“What do you think I would do to her? She is my child, as are you. I only want what’s best for you both. Me’Rite’s decision to steal you both away from me is what caused this, not me,” he says.
I can’t bring myself to care about anything he just said. In my eyes, he is just as much an enemy as my mother.
“Why go through all of this just to get us back? Why destroy the lives we have here?” I ask.
Kuron straightens, his expression becoming eerie as he looks at me. He then shakes his head.
“These are not lives befitting of Celestivine. This is beneath you both,” he snaps.
Suddenly, the air ripples again, and this time, it is my mother who appears.
She is bound with the same blue beams, her eyes wide with tears as she screams at Kuron in a language I somehow know, but don’t recall learning.
She doesn’t look after me or Xion at this moment.
She’s screaming at him for the destruction he’s caused.
She’s claiming she wants her revenge. She’s cursing him and me for the loss of Ezra’s life.
Kuron ignores her completely, his attention remaining on me.
He’s letting me understand the situation.
He’s showing me just how much she has used me in my lifetime.
She doesn’t care about me. She doesn’t even care about Xion.
This was all caused because of her, but she still sees us as the reason for it ending this way.
Kuron moves away from my mother, approaching me and her gaze follows. She quiets down, her expression shifting from anger to desperation.
“Kuron, Kuron stop!” she shouts as he approaches.
His expression is blank as he kneels in front of me, reaching for my face. My mother’s cries are desperate. But not for my life; she doesn’t want Kuron to reveal all the secrets she’s kept locked away inside of me to remain hidden.
“I am a victim just like you, Remus. I hold no animosity for you. I held none for the halfling you saw as a brother. Let me show you…let me help you remember,” he says.
“No! Don’t! Don’t listen to him! Don’t!” My mother’s screams break through my thoughts, and they are the last thing I hear as Kuron’s fingers gently press against my temples.
His eyes remain focused, the purple glittering more intimidating than my mother’s ever has.
I feel his touch in my mind, seconds before everything grows too bright, and I am assaulted by my past.
I know this world. From the moment I could comprehend, I’ve known it as my home.
The grass is taller than me this time of year, and Celise decided to do my training out here today.
I was supposed to be focusing on consuming energy.
The joke is on her, however. I’ve mastered consumption, and I have no interest in training today. I’ve grown bored of it.
“Remus! Remus, come out now!” she calls in the distance.
I laugh to myself as I stand. I learned how to mask my energy signature.
Father taught me a few weeks ago. I wasn’t able to perfect it until this moment.
So even if she tries, she won’t be able to find me unless I allow her to.
I’ve grown bored with the training lately, my mind wandering to more advanced techniques.
Celise is a master of her craft and the only person besides himself that my father trusts with my training. She was around long before my father’s reign, and I am sure she will still be here after.
I turn away from the sound of her voice, content to run away when I feel a snag on my foot. I cry out, collapsing in the tall grass just as Celise appears next to me, snatching me up.
“Found you!” she says, laughing at the shock on my face.
“But how?” I ask, my disappointment evident.
She raises a brow.
“You may be a prodigy, but you are still only a child. Your body still releases its own type of energy that even you cannot sense,” she says.
I huff in irritation, pushing out of her arms, and she laughs, lowering me to the ground.
“Where did you learn to do that anyway? Masking your energy is still a very advanced technique. You shouldn’t be able to do it just yet,” she says.
“Father taught me,” I say.
She chuckles, crossing her arms. “Of course he did. That’s enough training for today.
Come, I’m sure your father wants to see you before he has to leave for the conversion,” she says, holding her hand out to me.
I glare at her hand, my stomach twisting in unease.
I ignore it, moving past her to the palace.
I don’t miss her soft chuckle, however, as she follows closely behind me.
“You should be proud, Kuron. He is showing promise beyond his years. He’s even surpassed you when you were a child his age,” Celise says to my father.
He stands silently behind his desk, his attention remaining on our home world beyond the glass wall that allows him the view.
“I had no doubt he would be. Remus will be a powerful ruler someday. He may even be able to bring us back into the light,” he says, turning to face me.
“And how is Me’Rite adjusting to the news?” Celise asks.
I tune out their conversation as they move on to speaking about my mother.
I’ve rarely seen her lately, but Celise is constantly worried about her, as is my father for some reason.
But they say words that I don’t know the meaning of, and so I drift into thinking about other things.
I don’t know why Celise is always so concerned about my mother.
She hates Celise. She is mean to her and never misses an opportunity to humiliate or insult her.
My mother is generally not a nice individual. But my father says it is a good opportunity to learn patience. My mother only needs time, is what he always says, but I can’t understand what that means.
Time for what?
It’s become second nature for me to avoid her most of the time. Lately, I can’t remember a day when she looked at me without anger or resentment in her gaze.
“I wish you the best on the conversion, Kuron. We all do,” Celise says, pulling me from my thoughts. My father nods, and Celise bows to my father, then to me, before leaving the room. My father doesn’t waste a minute as he turns to me, pride in his eyes.
“Did you really manage to mask yourself today?” he asks.
I slowly nod, pushing down the disappointment I feel with myself for not being able to control it fully.
My father senses my disappointment, however, laughing as he approaches, kneeling to my height to speak.
He holds his hand out in front of me, the air rippling and twisting with power I cannot sense yet, but I can see.
“You are still only a child, Remus. You have not matured into a pure energy being. When that day comes, you will be unstoppable,” he says, grinning.
My eyes widen in excitement, and my father stands.
“Come. Let us visit your mother. I’m sure she’ll be excited to hear of your progress.”
I doubt she will be. My progress is just another reason for her to despise me. But I am not one to question my father. So, I follow him to my mother, hoping she is in a better mood today than she has been lately.
“Remus…wake up, my love.”
I slowly open my eyes, blinking rapidly to pull the sleep from them. I am exhausted. Today, more so than usual, seeing as I used power that my body isn’t yet ready for.
“Wha—”
“Shhh, quiet,” my mother says, holding her fingers to her lips. Her tone confuses me as I rub the sleep from my eyes. I shift my attention to my window. It’s nighttime. But she doesn’t seem concerned in the least as she gently pulls me out of bed.
My mother hasn’t bothered visiting me, let alone touching me.
But she pulls me along sweetly from my bedroom.
The palace is empty, more than likely because everyone has gone to watch the conversion take place.
But as we pass my parents’ room, I hesitate, pulling against my mother to go see my father.
But he isn’t here. He is doing the conversion.
My mother roughly pulls me so that I stumble, but I look back at the door, my heart aching with sadness. I don’t know what’s going on, or why we are leaving suddenly. But I know my mother wouldn’t do anything to hurt me. So, I mindlessly follow her through the palace without question.