Chapter Forty-Six
Remus
My home is quiet. It’s quiet, organized, and cold.
It shows no signs of life, the way it did when Iris lived here.
The snow that surrounds this place adds to the cold nature of it.
When Iris lived here, there were signs of life, whether it was books or clothes strewn everywhere, or even warmth from the hearths.
Iris brought warmth into my home—into my life that I didn’t realize I was missing.
And how did I repay her? By causing her to lose not only hers, but the one inside of her.
This place, though filled with memories I will hold onto, holds so much pain now.
It can’t be left to stand. This whole world can’t be left to stand.
The pain that I feel doesn’t deserve to be mine alone.
Everyone who benefited from it should face the consequences.
I hear Kuron moving behind me as he takes in the pristine home.
I can see that he’s trying to ingratiate himself with me, but I have no interest in joining him, let alone returning to my true home.
He’s removed all blocks, allowing my power to slowly but surely return in an attempt to prove he is not my enemy.
Once I fully recover, however, I will spend whatever is left of my life to kill him.
I won’t let Ezra’s death go unnoticed. And if he kills me in the process, so be it.
I have no purpose now that the light I found for myself has been taken from me.
I ignore Kuron’s presence behind me, making my way up the hall to the room that I created for Iris.
It no longer exists, my mother made sure of that.
Every little moment of our growth together has been stripped from this world.
Every piece of her was taken from me. I slowly lift my hand, pressing it against the solid wall that now exists in its place.
The plant I brought back was destroyed, the pendants, the gifts…
every piece of Iris’s existence. I’m sure the hairpin I gave her now joins her at the bottom of the sea, where her body will never be found.
I release a trembling breath, moving out of the hall. There is nowhere in this home that brings me comfort. I don’t know why I came here. Kuron was right. I could never continue a life here. But I don’t need to.
I make my way out of the hall, and Kuron is waiting for me at the center of the living room.
“Remus—”
“Don’t. You do not speak here,” I say, walking past Kuron.
But he grabs my shoulder, forcing me to face him. I shove his touch away, my rage at being so weak fueling me.
“Why do you continue to follow me around? Why do you pretend that either of us means anything to you? Go back to your world, have more children who will take over for you. Xion and I will not,” I snap.
Kuron’s patient facade cracks slightly, his eyes glowing in a calculated rage.
“Remus. No matter what you say, I have no intention of replacing you. You are my one true heir,” he says.
I scoff, turning away, but he grabs me again.
“Where does this animosity come from? I have explained to you that I made a mistake—”
“A mistake you cannot take back! If you really think I won’t try to kill you when I can, then you are not as smart as I thought you were,” I growl.
Kuron glares at me, unfazed by my outburst. After a moment, he steps closer to me, angling his head as he takes me in. He steps back, his eyes roaming over my home, lingering in certain areas.
“Your mother was here. Her trace is all over the place. From what I’ve gathered, she didn’t care for you enough to be a frequent visitor,” he says, watching my reaction.
“She wiped someone’s presence,” he says.
“How do you—”
“When you are a Celesitivine. A fully matured Celestivine, you can sense the tampering of matter,” he says.
“This mourning isn’t just for the half-ling,” he says, his eyes widening slightly when he remembers what happened that day.
“The vessel I sensed your essence in was the woman,” he says.
“No wonder Me’Rite used her to get to you,” he says, shaking his head.
“You must know, nothing good comes of falling for weaker beings, my son. Your mother is a prime example—Mmph!”
I wrench his arm, using my physical strength to punch him across the face.
He stumbles, shock on his features from the power behind my attack.
I am not close to being at my full power, but I’ve been allowed to heal long enough that I have enough access to make him hurt.
But I close the distance between us, pressing my forearm into his throat as I speak.
“Don’t ever fix your mouth to speak of them. You know nothing of our lives. You have no right to judge us based on what she did. And you will not speak of her here of all places,” I growl.
Kuron continues to glare at me, when suddenly a smile forms.
“Us? Am I to believe the souls your mother dragged into the depths are that important to you? Important to your sister?” he asks.
“If not for one of those souls, you never would have found us,” I say.
His smile disappears as I confirm it for him, stepping away from him.
“The more I get to know you, the more I am surprised, Remus,” he says, looking around. “Why did you want to come here if this place holds so much pain?”
I narrow my gaze. “That is none of your business. Once I am finished here, this place and the entire planet will be no more,” I say.
“You would make an entire planet pay for your mother’s sins?” he asks.
I laugh.
“I tried as a child, but she stopped me because I was too weak. Now, I would make her watch the same way she made me watch everything I cared for be taken from me. It’s only right that I return the favor,” I say, moving to the glass.
The landscape held such wonder in Iris’s eyes. Now, it is only a painful reminder.
“She was right to fear me,” I say.
I feel myself descending into a darkness that I’ve never experienced before. It’s suffocating. But the deeper it pulls me, the less I feel. The pain, the grief, the betrayal; all of it disappears as this darkness swallows me up.
Kuron approaches, keeping his hands to himself this time as he stands next to me. I know he feels resentment for my mother, as well, and I know he is using my grief to deepen his revenge. I don’t care at this point. Not if it means she will feel a fraction of the pain I feel.
“Then allow me to give you the tools to get there, my son.”
Iris
“Agh!” My screams fill the night air as I fight against my instinct to swat the burn away.
“Almost done, just hang in there,” Sky says as she presses the burning wood against my flesh.
“Ahhh!” I continue to scream, gritting my teeth in pain as I try to think of anything other than the scorching of my flesh.
My body is deteriorating from the wound Remus’s mother gave me.
Not only am I weak, but it isn’t healing.
The bleeding won’t even clot. So we made the decision to close it ourselves with what we had—searing it shut.
Though at this point, it feels like I’m prolonging my survival for no reason. Noah is dead, Ezra is close to it, and Remus and Xion are missing. We can only hope the Celestivine who attacked didn’t kill them. Or worse—their mother got her hands on them again.
In the aftermath of it all, we are in the dark.
We are on a foreign world, with no allies.
Our only clue that the world is still turning after what happened is the rising and setting of the sun.
Lucky for us, we have both spent more time surviving in the wilderness than we did at our captor’s sides.
“Ugh!” I cry out, my body sagging against the dirt as Sky finally finishes her patch job.
The sweat covering me feels like I just took a swim in the ocean.
What’s left of my gown is hot and sticky, and covered in blood, and my hair clings to my skin.
Heat radiates from within me, making me curious how long it will be before a fever sets in.
I sob in relief when I feel the cool press of water-soaked fabric against my forehead.
The silence that settles between us is filled with my pained sobs as Sky continues to wipe away my sweat, and I fight the urge to go to sleep as I look over to Ezra’s still form.
“How is he?” I ask in a cracked voice.
“He’s alive. A fever has settled in, though,” she says.
I nod, shifting my attention to the small fire we made. On the other side lies Ezra. We were luckily able to move out of the cave once the high tide receded. I feel guilt for not being able to give Noah a proper funeral, but we are both too weak to carry his body let alone Ezra’s.
Once the tide receded enough, we made it to the shore of the beach, and Sky was able to find fresh water. But we cannot go any further with an unconscious Ezra until I get better. And I don’t know if that’s going to happen anytime soon.
Sky laughs, sitting back on her knees as she shakes her head, tossing the wood back into the fire.
“What the hell even was that?” she asks, tears spilling as she looks at Ezra. “Who was that? And why did he go for Ezra?”
I don’t have an answer for her. It doesn’t make sense for whoever attacked to go for Ezra.
Among the three of them, Ezra is the weakest. If he were smart, he would have taken Remus out, not battle with him the way that he did.
Did he not want to kill them? Did he want to take over Xyrannis?
Even if we somehow make it out of the woods, what would Xyrannis look like for us?
“At least he’s alive,” I say.
Every time I think of their mother, my body remembers what it was like to be held by her and stabbed, helpless to do anything other than scream. But her first priority when she showed up was Ezra. And for her to bargain for his life must mean she saved it.
Either way, for us to end up in a cave with an unconscious Ezra must mean the Celestivine who attacked won.
Sky doesn’t respond to me as she gets up, moving to sit next to Ezra.
It’s strange seeing him in this state. Even when the rebels “captured” him on Earth, his spirit was never broken.
But seeing him so vulnerable and possibly on the brink of death is unnerving.
I grunt as searing pain washes over me, rolling over to vomit.
There’s barely anything left in my system, my vomit coming out with blood in it.
“I’ll go look for food tomorrow,” Sky says from across the fire.
“We’re far from civilization. That’s why we had to fly in on a ship. It’s going to be a while before we can reach anyone to help us. It’s going to be a hard road ahead,” she says.
I lie back, my attention focusing on the night sky.
“And what awaits us in a society we don’t even belong in,” I say to myself more than anything, but Sky hears me.
“I don’t know. That doesn’t mean we lose all hope. We don’t deserve to die just because of what happened to them,” Sky says.
I don’t have a response for her. At this point, she is going to have to take over mentally, because I am exhausted. I have fought so hard for so long just to have everything taken from me unexpectedly, this time no different.
I pull in a trembling breath, jumping as a loud crack splits the sky. I ignore the pain as I sit up, watching in terror as lightning I’ve never seen crawls across the sky, stretching for miles in an array of color. But there is no rain, and no thunder, not even a cloud in the sky.
Suddenly, the ground trembles beneath us and I look at Sky in confusion, both of us gasping as the air shifts, turning heavy, making it difficult to sit up. The hair on my arms stand as tension settles over us.
“What is this?” I ask, and Sky shakes her head.
“It’s Remus.”
Both of us jump, screaming as Ezra’s voice carries over the fire.
He’s awake. Sky’s sobs fill the night air as she clasps his face, trying not to hurt him as she embraces him.
She murmurs something to him, and I vaguely catch that it’s in the Leviathan language before his hand gently grips her arm, squeezing tight.
My chest squeezes as I watch them embrace. I am happy for her—for them. It’s the one small bit of relief in all of this. And as she finally lifts her head, Ezra speaks. She finally lifts her head, and Ezra shifts his attention to me, his smile feeling like a breath of fresh air.
“You look like shit,” he says, and I laugh, ignoring the pain it brings me as I wipe my eyes.
Our moment of relief is short-lived, however as another violent crack ripples over the sky, prompting Ezra to elaborate while he still can.
“This is…Remus’s power…he’s done this before. He—ngh! He is collecting the planet’s energy to…make it…implode on itself. He’s destroying it,” he says.
My eyes widen, my heart sinking as I think of what this means. Remus is alive, and for some reason wants to destroy the planet he called home.
“Can’t we stop him?” I ask, causing Ezra to laugh.
“We’re…as good as dead…I’m too…weak to even—ngh!” he groans, his breathing hitching before he starts panting. Sky screams at him, shifting to press her hands against his chest but he starts convulsing, his eyes remaining closed.
I groan in pain as I try to move over to them. By the time I reach, however, Ezra has lost consciousness, leaving us with his terrifying revelation.
Sky is quiet as she gently strokes Ezra’s cheek, her tears falling heavily.
“So, this is it then, huh?” she says, suddenly.
I don’t have a response for her as another violent strike ripples over the sky. It’s larger this time, illuminating us in its electric glow before settling us back into darkness. Suddenly, her hand appears in front of me.
I slowly place mine in hers, both of us squeezing as we accept that this is our end. There is no miracle waiting, no other course of action. We are once again caught in the crosshairs of gods. Except this time, there is no surviving it.