20. Thyros #2
“You won’t hurt me.” The certainty in her voice hit me harder than any weapon.
My eyes snapped to hers. They were luminous. Brown and gold and blazing with a fierce, unwavering faith that stole what remained of my breath. The faint scar under her eye caught my attention again, before my eyes drifted back to her face. There was no hesitation in her expression.
No fear.
No doubt.
She looked at me as if the truth were self-evident.
As if the idea that I might harm her was not merely unlikely, but impossible.
The conviction in her gaze cut through the last tendrils of darkness clinging to my mind.
Because she was right. By the seven suns, she was right.
I would sooner carve my own heart from my chest. I would sooner cast myself into the deepest reaches of Nox Eternum.
I would sooner let the Harrowed One consume me whole than lay a single harmful hand upon her.
The realization struck with the force of a supernova. The darkness recoiled fully. My breathing shuddered. In that moment, with her palms warm against my face and her unwavering trust wrapped around me like light, I understood a truth more powerful than any whisper from the Abyss.
The Harrowed One could tempt me.
It could threaten me.
It could claw at every fracture in my soul.
But as long as Naeris believed in me, it would never own me.
Before I could answer, Zapharo's voice exploded over the comm. “Alert. Unknown vessel docking. Battle stations immediately.”
The deck lurched beneath us. A deep, resonant impact reverberated through the ship.
Then another. And another. Weapons fire.
The hum of the vessel shifted as shields flared under the assault.
Red emergency lights flooded the corridor.
Naeris and I stared at one another. Our foreheads were nearly touching, and the bond between us blazed brighter than ever.
But one realization stopped me from claiming what was mine.
The Harrowed One had found us, and he didn't come alone.
The wall to my left exploded inward. A deafening blast tore through the corridor, hurling jagged shards of metal and sparks in every direction. I reacted on instinct, seizing Naeris around the waist and shoving her behind me. My aura flared molten gold as I dropped into a fighting stance.
“Moggaddesh,” I ground out.
Three of them stepped through the breach, walking siege engines of obsidian armor and glowing orange fissures. The lead one threw back its ridged skull and roared. The flaw inside me surged.
Black fissures spiderwebbed across the deck beneath my boots. Cold, ancient power flooded my veins like liquid night. Through the bond, I felt Naeris’ reaction slam into me, shock, awe, and something darker, hungrier.
How the hell did he do that? Her thought hit me clear and bright. He just shattered those bastards.
Flashes poured back at me through the golden thread: jagged images of the Harrowed One’s endless voids, the primordial darkness I carried, the terrifying beauty of the power I was about to unleash. She saw all of it. She saw me.
And she still looked at me like I was a god. A dark god of vengeance given flesh. The realization nearly undid me. I moved.
The lead Moggaddesh didn’t just die; it shattered. My blade came down, and the darkness devoured it from the inside before the armor plates could even hit the deck. Black-gold arcs ripped through the air. The creature exploded outward in a rain of obsidian shards and molten orange blood.
More poured through the breach. Five. Six.
A whole boarding party. I let the flaw take the leash.
Reality bent around me. Black tendrils of power lashed out, lifting one Moggaddesh off its feet and smashing it into the wall hard enough to crater reinforced steel.
I drove my hand straight into the glowing fissure of another’s chest. The creature convulsed as the darkness ate it alive from the inside out.
The flaw inside me screamed. It wanted out. It wanted to be unleashed. It wanted to feed. I fought it back.
Naeris didn’t hesitate. With a battle cry that nearly matched the Moggaddesh's thunderous roar, she launched herself forward. Straight at another monster. For one stunned heartbeat, I could only stare.
Then pure terror and fierce pride detonated inside me at the same time. This reckless, magnificent female was going to get herself killed.
Not under my watch.
Naeris already had a blade in her hand. With astonishing grace, she planted one foot against a jagged section of the wall and launched herself upward.
For one breathtaking instant, she seemed to fly, all dark curls and lethal intent.
On the downward arc, she drove the knife straight into the Moggaddesh’s glowing eye.
The creature bellowed. Black blood and vitreous fluid exploded across the corridor. It reeled backward, clawing at its ruined face. But while she hung suspended, it swung its massive hand toward her waist, talons spread wide enough to cut her in half.
I brought my sword down with a roar. The blade cleaved through the creature’s arm just above the elbow. Bone, armor, and flesh parted in one savage stroke. The severed limb crashed to the deck.
Naeris twisted in midair with impossible agility and landed in a low crouch, already balanced and ready. Great Darkness.
There was barely time to register how formidable she truly was. The Moggaddesh staggered, roaring in agony. Naeris surged upward and slashed across the exposed fissures in its throat. Molten light spilled from the wound. The giant collapsed with a thunderous crash.
But two more were already charging through the smoke.
Naeris moved to meet them with a ferocity that stole my breath.
She was fast. Not Arkhevari fast, but precise and utterly fearless. She ducked beneath a sweeping claw, drove her blade into the glowing seam beneath one creature’s ribs, then spun away before it could crush her. The wound didn’t kill it, but the beast roared and stumbled.
The second Moggaddesh lunged for her.
Again the flaw roared, again I pushed it back.
I intercepted it with enough force to shake the deck. My sword bit deep into its shoulder while Naeris darted behind it and buried her knife into the exposed tendon at the back of its knee. The massive creature buckled. I severed its head in a single stroke.
The final Moggaddesh turned toward Naeris, ember-red eyes blazing with murderous intent. Before it could reach her, she drew a compact blaster from the small of her back and fired two rapid shots straight into its eyes. The creature howled, staggering blindly.
I drove both blades through its chest. It convulsed once and crashed to the deck.
Silence fell, broken only by our ragged breathing and the distant sounds of battle throughout the ship.
Naeris stood amid the carnage, her chest heaving, her knife dripping black blood, a smear of soot darkening one cheek. Her eyes blazed with adrenaline and defiance. She looked like a goddess of war.
I stared at her, and awe swelled in my chest until it nearly eclipsed everything else. I had known she was brave. I had known she was stubborn. I had known she was dangerous.
But watching her throw herself at a Moggaddesh twice her height without a moment’s hesitation, watching her read their weaknesses in seconds and fight like she had been born for this… it filled me with a fierce, bone-deep respect I had never felt for anyone except my brothers.
She didn’t need the flaw. She didn’t need me to become the monster. She was my equal. My partner. My Aelyth. And by all the stars, I had never desired her more.
Through the bond, I felt her own wave of awe slam into me, bright, fierce, and laced with heat. She had seen me fight. She had felt the power I did unleash. And the way she looked at me now told me everything.
She still wanted me. Exactly like this.
I reached for her, my hand trembled as I cupped her face, my thumb smeared the soot across her cheek.
“Naeris…”
“I know,” she whispered, pressing her forehead to mine. “I felt all of it. You were magnificent. And I still want you so badly I can barely think straight.”
I shuddered, pulling her tighter against me. The bond blazed white-hot between us even as distant fighting still echoed through the ship.
Around us, the corridor was a ruin of shattered Moggaddesh and black blood. Fighting beside her without the darkness felt… right.
Like I was finally enough.
“Thyros!”
Her scream ripped through the corridor. Four more Moggaddesh poured through the breach, straight for us. We had let our guard down. One heartbeat of relief, and now we were going to pay for it.
Not today. The Harrowed One chuckled deep inside me, low, silken, amused.
Dark power surged through my veins, stronger than I had ever felt before. Cold. Ancient. Hungry. It flooded every cell, singing promises of effortless victory. I hated it. I hated how good it felt.
With one hand, I yanked her hard against my back, shielding her.
With the other, I thrust my palm forward and unleashed a roiling ball of black-gold energy.
It slammed into the four Moggaddesh like a miniature sun gone supernova.
Their armor didn’t just melt; it vaporized.
Flesh, bone, and obsidian plating disintegrated in a single blinding flash, leaving nothing but scorched deck plating and the acrid stink of ozone.
The roar of power that tore through me was nothing like anything I had ever felt. It was intoxicating.
Yes, the Harrowed One purred, velvet and venom in my skull. You can have it. All of it. Come and stay by my side, my son. Mine.
I tilted my head as the power crackled along my skin like living lightning.
Part of me recoiled in revulsion. This was exactly what I had spent centuries fighting against, the flaw that made me less than my brothers, the darkness that had always marked me as broken.
If I let it in any deeper, I would lose myself.
I would become the weapon the Harrowed One wanted: unstoppable, merciless, empty.
But another part—a part that was growing louder, stronger, more insistent with every battle—craved it.
The relief. The freedom. No more endless restraint.
No more clawing to stay good. Just pure, limitless power that could end every threat before it ever touched her.
Temptation began sinking its teeth in deeper than it ever had before.
Naeris’ hand slammed against my back, right over the burning mark.
“Come back to me,” she yelled fiercely, her voice cut straight through the dark whispers.
“Right now, Thyros. I’m not afraid of your darkness, but don’t you dare let it take you from me.”
Golden light exploded through the bond. The obsidian cracks in my aura shuddered violently.
The Harrowed One shrieked in fury and recoiled.
Slowly, painfully, the darkness retreated.
I dropped my hand and staggered. My breathing was ragged, my chest heaving.
But she was looking at me like I was the only thing in the universe that mattered.
“Naeris…” My beautiful Naeris, what would I do without you?