14. THYROS – darkness taking over
We had just emerged from the suffocating tunnel into a wider underwater gallery when the bond slammed into me hard enough to nearly stop my heart.
Naeris.
She was in danger. I sensed combat and blood. Not pain—not yet—but close enough that the flaw inside me instantly reared awake like a starving beast scenting blood in the water.
“Danger,” I snarled at the exact same moment Zapharos and Dravok did.
Xandros stiffened beside us, his eyes going wild. “Ashley?—”
We moved immediately, without any strategic plan; our females were in danger, and instinct overrode everything. There was only the desperate, primal need to reach them.
Water exploded around us as we surged through the submerged ruins at impossible speed. Ancient crystal columns blurred past in streaks of pale gold while the bond burned hotter and hotter inside my chest.
Naeris.
She was close. Not afraid, but worried and furious. The flaw pulsed harder in response. It was hungry. I felt her need for me in the marrow of my bones. It nearly made me fly.
The ruins around us shifted into unmistakable Arkhevari architecture the deeper we descended. Towering arches curved overhead while ancient glyphs ignited along the walls one by one as we passed.
Recognition pulsed through me, but also the undeniable truth that the temple knew what we were. Or perhaps what we had once been. At least the others.
I barely noticed any of it. All I felt was her.
The sharp sting of pain from her shoulder ripped through the bond suddenly.
Too late. The thought detonated through me viciously.
The flaw surged instantly, taking advantage of my own insecurities like it always did.
Darkness rippled beneath my skin. Not now. I shoved it back violently.
But the Harrowed One’s whisper slid through my mind immediately. You need me. My jaw clenched hard enough to ache.
We burst through the final tunnel at full speed. Chaos greeted us.
Crystalline guardians towered throughout the chamber, elegant constructs forged from living stone and glowing crystal.
They moved with terrifying precision, blades of light extended from their arms as they drove Naeris and the others steadily backward.
Naeris stood at the center of it all. Fighting like a star collapsing in on itself.
Blaster in one hand. Blade in the other.
Protecting Ella. Nadine swung a metal rod at a guardian twice her size while Ashley dragged one of the wounded humans across the chamber floor.
Another construct lunged toward them. Ashley spun, raised her blaster, and fired directly into its chest. The shot hit with enough force to shatter the guardian completely. Crystal exploded across the chamber.
For one brief second, relief surged through me, then the shattered fragments began to move.
The crystal pieces trembled violently before skittering back together across the floor with horrible scraping sounds.
Light reignited through the construct’s body as it reassembled itself piece by piece until the guardian stood whole once more.
One of the Pandraxian soldiers stared at it in disbelief. “Oh, come on!”
The construct raised its glowing blade again. Another male lay already dead nearby, his neck twisted unnaturally. I barely had time to register that when one of the guardians slammed Naeris hard against a crystal pillar. Something inside me snapped. The flaw exploded awake.
Dravok swore viciously beside me.
“Not again,” Zapharos growled, his golden aura flaring in warning. “Thyros—hold it together!”
They knew. By the Dark Abyss, they knew exactly what was happening.
The flaw surged through my veins like liquid night, sweet and horrifyingly familiar.
Power flooded me instantly, cold, ancient, right.
Black fissures spiderwebbed across the chamber floor as reality itself bent and screamed around me.
The water in the pools began to vibrate violently, then boil upward in jagged black spirals.
The Harrowed One purred inside my skull, warm and loving. Yes. Finally.
My vision darkened at the edges. Golden light still poured from my skin, but it corrupted in seconds, turning obsidian, then pure void.
The crystalline guardians froze mid-motion.
Every single one of them swiveled toward me at once, their ancient programming recognizing the enemy now standing among their creators.
A terrible, ringing silence fell.
I moved.
I hit the first guardian so hard the construct didn’t just crack, it exploded, and shards of crystal detonated outward like shrapnel. The darkness inside me devoured the animating energy before the pieces could even hit the floor. No reformation. No second chance.
The others stared. I barely noticed.
The Harrowed One roared approval through my blood. More. Take more. Kill.
I slammed into the next wave. Every sword strike split reality with violent obsidian arcs.
Guardians detonated around me like glass bombs.
The temple groaned and cracked beneath the raw force pouring out of me.
The flaw loved this. By all Creation, that was the worst part, how good it felt.
No restraint. No control. Just endless, perfect destruction.
The Harrowed One whispered faster now, seductive and intimate. Take it all. No more weakness. No more pretending to be what they want you to be.
I shattered another guardian with a backhand. Darkness bled from my skin in writhing ribbons. The temperature in the chamber plummeted. Water froze mid-air in jagged black crystal patterns. One of the constructs lunged toward Naeris.
I reached for it without thinking. Gravity folded inward with a sickening crunch. The guardian simply collapsed into itself, screaming, before imploding into a pinpoint of nothingness.
Every surviving guardian backed away from me now, not from the group. From me.
Zapharos stepped forward, his golden aura blazing. “Thyros! That’s enough! You’re losing yourself again, just like on Veyra-6. Fight it!”
Dravok’s shadows lashed out, trying to cage the void energy spilling from me. “Brother, come back. You almost killed half the squad last time. Don’t make me put you down again.”
Their words barely registered. The Harrowed One surged stronger, flooding me with promises of power without limits, rage without guilt, an end to the constant, exhausting fight to stay good.
For one terrible heartbeat, I wanted to let it happen.
I wanted to turn on every living thing in this cursed place and drown the universe in darkness.
My gaze snapped to Zapharos and Dravok. My brothers. My Hall. My hands flexed. Black energy crackled between my fingers. They fear you, the Harrowed One whispered lovingly. They should.
I took one step toward them, ready to turn on my brothers, when the sweetest voice in the universe called my name. “Thyros.”
Naeri's voice cut through the encroaching void like a blade of pure light.
Soft. Breathless. Real.
I turned toward her slowly. The chamber swam. Darkness crawled across my vision while the Harrowed One clawed harder against my mind. Don’t let go. Not yet. She should fear you. Make her fear you.
Naeris stepped forward anyway. Everyone else tensed. Zapharos actually moved to block her. “Naeris—stay back!”
“No.”
Her eyes never left mine. There was no fear in them. No horror. Only fierce, impossible trust, the kind I had never deserved and never would. She reached me without hesitation and pressed her hand flat against my chest, right over my thundering heart. Light exploded through the bond.
Warm. Bright. Hers.
The Harrowed One screamed in fury inside my skull.
Mine, I snarled back, the word tearing out of me with every shred of will I still possessed. She is mine. Not yours. Never yours.
Naeris’ power wrapped around me like sunlight breaking through endless night. The darkness thrashed violently—fighting, clawing, refusing to release its hold—but her touch was relentless. Her gaze held mine with absolute certainty.
“Come back to me,” she whispered, her voice shaking but unwavering. “Right now, Thyros. I’m not afraid of you. I never will be. So stop trying to prove them right.”
The flaw convulsed one final time, one last desperate surge of black fire trying to drag me under.
Then it broke. The obsidian light shattered.
The freezing black crystals cracked apart and melted.
Reality steadied around us with a violent lurch.
Suddenly, crushing exhaustion slammed into me so hard my knees buckled.
Naeris caught me before I could fall, her arms wrapped tightly around my waist. She held me upright, pressing her forehead to mine, breathing hard.
Ruin surrounded us, shattered crystal, frozen debris, the stunned silence of my brothers. But for the first time in my existence, the flaw felt smaller. Not gone. But quieter. Because she had stepped into the darkness with me and refused to let it win.
Her glowing starmap pulsed erratically, matching the thunder of my own heart.
That's when I realized my own skin glowed with the same glyphs.
But I was too focused on her, still scanning the chamber for threats, blaster raised, jaw set like the true warrior she was, to care.
Ashley stood right beside her doing the same.
Ella crashed into Zapharos with a sob. He caught her, and his golden aura flared bright as he buried his face in her hair, murmuring desperate words against her temple, one eye still searching the surroundings, and one arm ready to wield his sword.
Nadine practically collapsed into Dravok’s arms, shaking.
“Oh my God, how did you get here?” she whispered in a voice dangerously close to cracking as his shadows wrapped around her like a living shield.