Chapter 24 #2
His claws shot out like knives, cracking into the ice on the floor.
His angular jaw shifted and snapped, reforming into an oval shape.
Deep eyes became more cavernous, with full lips pulled back from monstrous teeth.
The bone of his nose broke, the sharp ends piercing skin.
Nicholas watched it mend, watched the bridge lower before ending in a rounded tip.
A fine dusting of hair spread over his muscular calves and forearms, and his eyebrows arched and thickened. Gabriel released a groan of pure agony as his thighs expanded, and his broad back and shoulders widened further. The tortured sound rang louder as his palms and cock grew in size.
Gold symbols illuminated his skin, pulsing heat as if fire lived in his veins. Nicholas backed away, his own skin warming as the room melted around them.
The transformation shift went on for what seemed like hours until nothing of Gabriel remained—until Muharib knelt before Nicholas.
He wobbled to his feet, hunched and unsteady in his original form. How long had it been since he walked in his truth?
His silhouette extended, sweeping across the wall behind him, climbing higher as he straightened to his full, impressive height.
He had to be at least seven feet tall and outweighed Gabriel by thirty pounds—give or take. Muharib’s skin was a hue lighter than Gabriel’s, too. A golden bronze versus a dark oak. His hair clipped his shoulders, just as it had in Nicholas’s dreams.
Muharib was striking, his looks prehistoric, rare, extinct. It was clear he wasn’t from the human world. Raw power radiated from him, revealing what Gabriel’s body had kept hidden and contained. Nicholas couldn’t tear his gaze away.
“The shifting… or glamour… Were you born with that ability?”
“No.” He hesitated.
“Zayn’s blood,” Nicholas guessed, remembering the murder spree Muharib went on after his mate died, and how strong and unstoppable he seemed. “It changed you somehow.”
“Yes, it made me more formidable, gave me abilities that proved useful when taking on the council. Those abilities extended to anyone who drank from me thereafter.”
Muharib’s accent was the same as in Nicholas’s dreams, a melodic rolling of the tongue. There were no signs of Gabriel left behind, and the deep sense of loss infuriated Nicholas.
“That’s how you all made it out of Saraad. Hamza and Marcus drank your blood.”
“Not exactly. It was the saahira who Zayn’s mother sent me to find that forged the path for our escape.”
Muharib fell silent, fueling Nicholas’s impatience.
“Explain!”
A stinging chill swept through the room, one that Nicholas ignored in exchange for leveling Muharib with a look. He wanted answers.
“Her name was Jalila. She ended up finding us in a cave after Zayn’s transition. She’d been tracking us. According to her, Saraad existed under an enchanted veil, one that kept us hidden from an outside world we never even knew existed, a veil we could never get around.
“Jalila wanted to break the cursed spell, but it was tied to the bloodline from which the magic originated, a bloodline protected fiercely by the council.”
“The Awlad Abqar clan,” Nicholas whispered.
“In hindsight, I realized she knew we wouldn’t do it, that killing innocent women and children was where we’d draw the line.
So she used my weakness against me, luring me away from Zayn with manufactured proof that one of the council members was visiting a blood-brothel in a nearby village.
Zayn had completed his transition, but was still weak, still vulnerable… ”
Muharib glanced around the bedroom, at the destruction Nicholas had caused.
“He didn’t possess the strength that you did upon waking.”
There was no longing in his tone, no indication that he missed Zayn as he spoke of him, or even that he saw him when he gazed back at Nicolas. Nicholas felt his defenses slipping in that moment, so he convinced himself that the absence of yearning was another lie.
“She put a cloaking spell over the cave, and me, promising to take care of him until I returned. She betrayed us.”
“She killed him, knowing you’d do anything to get him back.”
“Yes.”
“So you crossed the line and never stepped back behind it.” Nicholas thought about Gabriel’s willingness to kill Kyrin’s children. He could only imagine how many other innocents had lost their lives at his hands.
“Did they even know what their ancestors had done?” His tone was harsh, judgmental. Nicholas was hurting, and he wanted Muharib to hurt in return.
“No. At least I don’t think so.”
“Did you even hesitate before slaughtering them? Was there a moment that you thought of anything beyond your own selfishness?”
Muharib jerked away from his harsh words, a hint of Gabriel flashing in his dark eyes. Nicholas averted his gaze.
“I stayed in that cave clutching Zayn’s dead body for two days after his final-death, and then I walked out into the sunlight.”
Nicholas sucked in a breath. Zayn’s blood must have made him insusceptible to the sun, but it was clear from Muharib’s expression that he hadn’t known that before walking out of that cave.
“I accepted her offer, killed every council member while they slept, hung the heads of their men from the pikes along the city wall, dragged their precious seer into the sun, and slaughtered the entire Awlad Abqar clan.”
Nicholas swallowed, seeing the sickening images of the latter from his nightmares.
“So Jalila removed the veil, allowing everyone to break free.”
“Not quite,” Muharib said bleakly. “She made a rip in the veil for us to slip through before enacting a new enchantment. One that contorted sunlight into tendrils of smoke, slipping beneath doors and into bunkers, killing any and everything it came into contact with, including herself.”
Nicholas backed away, needing to put as much distance between himself and the poison staring back at him.
“Did you know?” he breathed. “Did you know that she planned to kill everyone before agreeing to her terms?”
“Yes.”
Muharib stood there with his bleeding heart on display, seeming to silently beg for Nicholas’s forgiveness.
Nicholas swallowed, angry at how much it hurt to get his next words out. “You did all that to ensure Zayn’s return.” Jealousy eroded his glacial heart. “You truly are a monster.”
“I wasn’t promised his return in body, Nicholas. That isn’t how rebirth works.”
“Of course you weren’t expecting an exact physical replica of him, but I have his essence, don’t I? Which still makes me him in your eyes.”
And that was the true crux of it, wasn’t it? He’d never be loved for himself if there was even any part of himself to be found in all of this. Nicholas turned away, unable to look at him any longer.
“Why not just bring him back to life?” he whispered dejectedly.
“She was powerful, but there wasn’t a bloodline capable of resurrection.”
“Oh, but making sure that I lost my humanity was within her power. Why couldn’t I still be human?”
That was something Gabriel hadn’t revealed yet, another element of the bargain that not only returned Zayn’s soul but ensured that Nicholas was born a hybrid.
“She told me about the world beyond Saraad, about human civilization—although nothing could have prepared me for it. As all-knowing as the saahira was, not even she knew if turning a human was possible. I live forever, Nicholas. And I wanted to live forever with you. I couldn’t leave it to chance.”
Gabriel’s self-serving answer tore Nicholas apart. The debris at his feet began to tremble and freeze.
“W-what are these markings on me? How am I able to do what I did in here?”