Chapter 36 Olivia #2
Balthazar’s expression softened—mockingly so. “Your eyes, child.” His voice was almost tender, which only made it more sinister. “Your eyes are the same color as mine. You cannot deny it.” He extended a hand toward her. “And now, I will take you home, where you belong. Where I will care for you.”
Before Emily could react, he pried Leo from her arms.
Emily screamed.
Leo let out a piercing wail, his tiny limbs flailing.
Balthazar cradled him like a cherished prize, rocking him gently and cooing in hushed tones. “Who’s a precious baby? You are.” He smiled down at Leo, a glint of something dark and possessive in his eyes. “You’re going to be my finest protégé.”
A gasp sounded from across the room.
Tristan stood frozen, his mouth agape, his face darkening with something between disbelief and rage. “But…” His voice cracked. “I thought I was your best protégé.”
Balthazar’s sneer was colder than death. He didn’t even look at Tristan when he spat out, “You were my biggest mistake.”
Tristan recoiled as if struck.
Meanwhile, Emily lunged forward, desperate to reclaim her son, but Balthazar’s grip tightened, blocking her at every attempt.
“Fear not, my love,” he murmured, his voice dripping with twisted affection.
“I shall take the utmost care of you and your son. Yes, I’ve done terrible things—I even tried to kill you a few times—but none of that matters now.
Because when I look at you, I see her.” His eyes darkened. “The one woman I could never forget.”
Emily shook her head, tears streaming. “You’re insane.”
Balthazar ignored her. He held Leo up slightly, inspecting the newborn with reverence. “And you, little prince, shall take your rightful place. I will raise you as if you were my flesh and blood. You will be the next Timebound prince.”
A faint shimmer glowed around Leo’s neck as if responding to his words.
A delicate, glinting necklace appeared—a symbol of the Timebound lineage.
Emily let out a strangled sob.
Balthazar’s grin stretched wider, a victorious gleam in his eyes.
“Behold our proof,” he cackled darkly. “He may be Timebound—but under my hand, he will become unstoppable.”
Emily’s cries filled the room.
And I stood there, paralyzed in a nightmare that had only just begun.
My mind spun in frantic circles. I didn’t have my dagger—Costa had it. And bullets? Useless against Balthazar. I had nothing—nothing but my bare hands against his relentless wickedness.
“Tristan! Help your sister out of bed!” Balthazar barked.
He rose, stepping back from Emily as if she were already his possession to command.
Tristan snapped out of his stunned silence and lurched toward the bed. He seized Emily’s arm, trying to wrestle her from the mattress as she screamed and thrashed in his grip.
“Shit! I can’t do this!” he snarled, throwing up his hands in frustration.
Balthazar scowled, disgust curling his lips. “You’re pathetic, you know that?”
Then, as if nothing was amiss, he bounced Leo in his arms, cooing to the wailing infant. “Who’s my sweet boy, huh? My precious grandson. I still can’t believe it.”
A red haze of fury blinded me.
I lunged for Balthazar, hands outstretched, ready to rip that smug expression off his face.
Leo’s screams rose to an ear-splitting pitch, his tiny body arched and writhing in distress.
Balthazar turned on me with a vicious sneer and struck me across the face with the back of his hand.
Pain exploded across my cheek, and my head snapped sideways.
“You should be grateful you’re still alive, bitch,” he spat, his voice brimming with cruelty. “The only reason you’re breathing is because my daughter cares for you.”
I stumbled back, swallowing the thick taste of rage and blood.
Then, like a lightning bolt, a voice thundered through the room.
“BALTHAZAR! Give the child back to Emily!”
Mathias stormed through the doorway, his eyes alight with anger.
Panic spiked through my veins. No—he couldn’t get involved in this. Balthazar would kill him.
I rushed toward him, grasping his forearm. “Don’t, Mathias! This man is dangerous!”
But Mathias barely acknowledged me. With a single flick of his arm, he shrugged me off like I was weightless. His entire body was rigid, his presence crackling with something dark. Something I did not understand.
A thick silence settled over the room.
Balthazar stood frozen, pale, stiff, his expression twisted into something I had never seen before—not rage, not malice.
Fear.
My head snapped back and forth between them.
What the holy hell was going on here?
Emily’s wide eyes met mine, reflecting the same stunned bewilderment.
Then Mathias spoke.
Low. Menacing.
“I have waited a long time for this moment.”
Balthazar’s mouth worked, but no sound came out at first. Then, at last, a single, strangled whisper—
“You… You’re alive.”
“Very much so,” Mathias said, his voice deathly calm. “Unlike your son will be if you don’t return the child to his mother.”
In a blink, he vanished—then reappeared behind Balthazar, pressing a gleaming blade to his throat.
My limbs trembled violently, and the room tilted. I reached out a hand, steadying myself against the wall.
Mathias was the darkness.
Balthazar barely flinched. His gaze roamed to Tristan, then back to Mathias. “You wouldn’t kill my son.”
“Go ahead and test me.” Mathias pressed the blade harder, a thin crimson line blooming against Balthazar’s pale skin. “I would. And I will. Because you put my granddaughter in pain. Now, give the child back.”
Balthazar threw his head back and let out a peal of laughter, his cackles ringing off the walls. His eyes burned with rage, his expression twisting with loathing.
“You have no power here,” he sneered. “Do you think I’m scared of you? You can deceive these two all you like, but not me.”
Mathias didn’t hesitate. He dragged the knife deeper across Balthazar’s throat. “Give. The. Child. Back.”
Balthazar’s sneer faltered as he extended Leo toward Emily. She snatched him up, clutching him desperately to her chest.
Before anyone could react, Mathias disappeared again—then reemerged behind Tristan.
Emily let out a strangled sob and rolled away, shielding Leo beneath the blankets.
Tristan thrashed, his arms flailing in panic. “Father, do something!”
Balthazar lunged—
Mathias moved faster.
In one swift, brutal motion, he sliced through Tristan’s neck with such force that the head severed cleanly from his body.
I gasped in horror as the rest of Tristan collapsed with a thud.
Mathias caught the severed head by the hair before it hit the floor.
A scream ripped from my throat.
“Here,” Mathias said coolly, tossing the head through the air. “Catch.”
Balthazar had no time to react. The head struck his chest, and instinctively, his hands shot out to catch it.
The moment realization dawned, his face twisted in unspeakable rage.
His fingers clenched around his son’s head, Tristan’s lifeless eyes frozen in a silent, eternal scream.
A wave of revulsion rolled through me.
My legs gave out.
I crumpled to the floor, hands shaking, mind spiraling into darkness.
I squeezed my eyes shut, pressing my palms against my face, trying—failing—to block out the horror that surrounded me. But the screams echoed in my mind, a relentless melody of death.
Tears streamed down my cheeks. My breath hitched, shallow, and frantic. I could feel my soul-shattering, splintering into a thousand irreparable pieces.
Balthazar approached me, his lips curling into a twisted grin.
I sucked in a shuddering breath.
My head spun as I fought to untangle the mess of blood and lineage before me.
Mathias—my mother’s biological father—was Emily’s and my grandfather.
Balthazar—the monster standing before me—was Emily’s father.
And Tristan…
Tristan had been born of Balthazar’s blood and an unknown mother.
I felt the foundation of my existence crumbling.
Who was I?
Where did I belong in this nightmare of woven fate?