Chapter 31 A Bitter Truth
The metal door burst from its hinges and slammed against the floor, the sound ricocheting through the room and dragging me out of the fog of my dissociation.
Within seconds, the crushing weight of Riley vanished from my back.
Air tore into my lungs in sharp, greedy gasps as I blinked up through the haze.
I twisted to see what was happening, but the movement sent a surge of white-hot pain up my spine.
The burn screamed beneath my skin, forcing bile up my throat until I lurched forward, vomiting onto the concrete beside the bed.
Through blurred vision, I saw him.
Aster had Riley pinned against the wall.
The Minotaur’s hand was wrapped around his throat like an iron vice, the force of his grip so intense that Riley’s boots scraped and banged against the plaster.
His face darkened from crimson to a deep, choking purple as he clawed at Aster’s wrist, his fingers slipping uselessly against the creature’s thick hide.
Then the smoke came.
Dark swirls bled from Riley’s body, coiling outward like serpents. They slithered through the air, reaching for Aster, twisting through the heavy horns that jutted from beneath his tangled hair. The tendrils tightened, binding themselves around his limbs and neck.
Aster roared, the sound splitting the air, raw and thunderous. He clawed at the smoke, ripping and tearing with all his strength, but each time his hands closed around a strand, it dissolved into mist, only to reform and strike again.
He dropped Riley, who collapsed to the ground, gasping in shallow, broken breaths. The welts on his throat had already begun to bloom dark against his skin, but his recovery was swift, unnaturally so. His lips curled into a sneer as he raised his arms, the motion deliberate, commanding.
The darkness responded instantly.
It surged forward like a living storm, wrapping around Aster in black coils that burned against his skin. Smoke ropes bound his chest and arms, lifting him clean off the ground. His hooves scraped against the floor, seeking purchase, but there was none.
Riley’s eyes glowed with that same hideous red light, and for a moment, I thought I saw something behind them. Not fury or pain, but satisfaction. A twisted delight in what he had become.
Aster bellowed, the sound vibrating through the concrete like an earthquake, and all I could do was watch, bound to this bed of nightmares.
The darkness obeyed Riley’s command, shifting shape until it became hands, long, skeletal fingers tipped with claws.
They plunged at Aster’s chest, raking down from his sternum to his ribs and then to his stomach, carving a deep, vertical wound.
Blood burst from him in thick, crimson waves, splattering the walls and floor.
I screamed, the sound tearing from somewhere deep in my chest, but it was drowned out by Aster’s roar of agony. The darkness pulsed, twisting inside his body, feeding on his strength.
I yanked against the shackle holding me, thrashing like a trapped animal.
The metal bit into my wrist until the rust gave way with a sharp crack.
I stumbled free, hitting the floor hard before forcing myself up.
Pain seared across my back where Riley’s flames had kissed my skin, but I ignored it.
I could see the door. Freedom. I could run.
I could reach the Rift, hope to get a message through.
But I couldn’t just leave Aster.
Not like this.
Riley turned toward me, eyes glowing like molten coals.
I ran at him, ready to strike, but tendrils of smoke snapped through the air, coiling around me like whips.
They slammed me back against the wall, the impact knocking the air from my lungs.
My arms were pinned to my sides, the darkness tightening until I could barely move.
I wished the light from my scars still remained.
“This is what happens when someone tries to take you from me, Alex,” Riley spat through gritted teeth. His skin reddened with fury, the veins beneath it pulsing black.
“Watch and learn.”
The darkness obeyed his words. The clawed hands shifted direction, gripping my face. The fingers curled around my skull, prying my eyelids open until I could not even blink. I screamed as the pain lanced through me, but I couldn’t close my eyes, couldn’t turn away.
Aster let out a guttural roar, the kind that came from the soul, as the claws tore deeper, ripping through flesh and bone. His body twisted violently before splitting, blood spilling into the air. I sobbed, helpless, my throat raw.
Then, through the chaos, Bronte burst through the doorway, nearly tripping over the fallen metal door. Her chest heaved with every breath, her wild eyes flicking from Riley to me, to Aster’s broken body.
Without hesitation, she raised her hands to her face. Her nails, long, curved like talons dug into the skin around the metal plate that covered her damaged eye. Blood welled instantly, dark and thick, as she pried her fingers beneath it.
With a growl that was part scream, part battle cry, she ripped the armor free, tossing it aside. The exposed flesh beneath was torn and weeping, and the eye, if it could still be called that, glowed faintly like lightning was building.
Thunder cracked overhead, shaking the walls. It was so close, so powerful, that it felt as if the storm had entered the room itself. Bronte tilted her head back, her single eye blazing, and screamed over the roar.
“I DON’T WANT TO HURT YOU, RILEY,” Bronte shouted, her voice rising over the storm. “Let them go!”
Thunder cracked again, deafening, shaking the walls so violently that flakes of plaster drifted down from the ceiling.
She closed her eye, her face contorting and then it flew open, light bursting from it.
Jagged, uncontrollable bolts of pure white lightning split the air.
The brilliance filled the room, searing through the smoke and striking the shadows that bound me.
I threw my arms over my face and squeezed my eyes shut against the blinding light as soon as the bonds exploded in a violent hiss. I dropped to the floor with a hard thud. My lungs burned as I gasped for breath.
“Alex! Run!” Bronte yelled, her teeth bared, her face contorted in pain as she forced her eye shut again.
“We’ll be right behind you!”
I scrambled to my feet, the floor slick beneath my palms, and half-ran, half-crawled toward the doorway.
My balance wavered, but adrenaline steadied me.
I vaulted over the fallen metal door, gripping the frame for support before throwing myself into the narrow hallway.
The air there was cooler and thinner. It was freedom close enough to taste.
The rickety staircase loomed ahead, the path that could lead me out of this hell.
But then I stopped.
Every instinct screamed at me to keep running, to escape while I could, but my heart wouldn’t let me. I couldn’t leave Aster and Bronte to fight him alone. They were risking everything to save me, and I… I couldn’t abandon them to die.
I turned, breath ragged, body trembling, and forced myself back into the room that had been my prison, my torture chamber, and now, possibly, my grave.
The air shimmered like it was burning. Sparks danced across the floor, jumping like fireflies on invisible strings.
The darkness that clung to Riley writhed and reached for Bronte, lashing out in furious tendrils.
She stood her ground, her hands clamped over her eye, lightning pulsing through the cracks of her fingers as she fought to control it.
The glow illuminated her bloodied face, painting her in both agony and defiance.
Riley’s growl filled the air, low and guttural, and the darkness gathered behind him like a living storm.
And I froze, knowing that the next move I made could be my last.
Each time the light flickered, the darkness recoiled, shrieking as it tore away from Bronte’s glow, retreating to the farthest corners terrified of its own undoing.
It was a sight that stole my breath. I had always thought she wore that armor to protect her injured eye, and maybe that was still true.
But now I understood that the metal had been holding back something far greater, a raw and unrelenting power she had been forced to cage.
It was both terrifying and magnificent, and I could not look away.
“I mean it, Riley, whatever you’re doing to Aster, stop now!
” she shouted, her voice cracking with urgency, but like mine before, her words fell on deaf ears.
Aster roared, his cry a deep and guttural sound that shook the floor beneath my knees.
The claws of the darkness embedded deep in his body, gripping each half of him and pulling with monstrous strength.
Blood poured down his chest, splattering onto the concrete in a widening pool, thick and steaming, his fur matting as it soaked through.
“Aster!” we both screamed, the name tearing from our throats in unison.
I reached out instinctively, helplessly, my hand trembling in the air between us, but Bronte was already moving.
Her fingers tore away from her face, and light exploded from her eye, a spear of lightning so violent that it shook the foundations of the building.
The sheer force of it hurled her backward, her body slamming against the ground with a heavy thud.
Yet even as she fell, she gripped her head, guiding the lightning’s path like a conductor commanding a storm.
The bolt ripped across the room and struck Riley square in the chest. His scream was not human.
His body, arched violently, lifted from the floor and flew against the far wall with a crack that echoed through the space.
The darkness that had once swarmed him convulsed and wailed, retreating into him, folding in on itself like smoke sucked into a vacuum.