Chapter 52
KAI
Kai was home.
Well, not truly. But he was in Deimos. The world seemed darker now in this part of the past. That void within grew greater, a chasm primed to swallow him whole. He wasn't sure how much time had passed, but he knew that time certainly had.
Deimos appeared different, ancient, as he peered down from his overlook, sneaking away from Aneurin, who’d been meeting Alpha Orin, who looked very different to Kai, though he was his many greats great-grandfather.
Kai probably should’ve taken a closer look at the documents on the desk in his study.
“Do you know how horribly a war with Io would go? No one will win,” Orin said.
Kai let out a hard breath, not bothering with the door to step back inside the room, his magic-laced form able to easily slide through walls.
“I’ve already gotten Iapetus and Rhea on our side,” Aneurin said from where he sat in the seat across from him. Something about him had become… darker, more unhinged. “We cannot cower. This is the time.”
“This is the time,” Orin mocked, making Aneurin’s power flare. He wasn’t sure if Orin had felt it, too, but it knocked the breath from Kai’s lungs, making his own beat in response.
One and the same.
“How do you figure now is the time, Aneurin?” Orin asked, folding his wrinkled hands.
“Because,” Aneurin gritted. “The goddesses have blessed me with a weapon like no other in the world.”
The weapon Jonah had told them Aneurin spoke about—the one he’d used to convince other packs to join his cause.
Orin scratched his beard, clearly not taking this as seriously as Aneurin intended. “And that is?”
The Alpha of Phobos ground his teeth before a lethal calm settled over his face. “It's better understood by demonstration, I believe.”
“Very well, and how—”
Kai’s breath caught with Orin’s, feeling his own power writhe as Aneurin’s lashed out. It speared straight for the walls of Orin’s mind, tearing through and leashing it as if it were as easy as breathing. In the distance, Kai swore thunder rumbled.
Orin blinked, his eyes wide and bloodshot as he choked and spluttered while Aneurin’s mental claws held tight. No matter how much Orin, another alpha, fought and thrashed, he couldn’t get free.
Kai felt sick over what he sensed.
It was an intoxication with such undiluted, undisputed power to shape the world as he wished.
Maintaining his hold, his eyes a glow of bleeding crimson and shadow, Aneurin had risen, going to the window and peering out.
“You won’t breathe until I wish it. You will think nothing but what I allow.
Every memory you have, every feeling you’ve ever felt is mine.
” He ran his hand over the stained glass, and Kai blinked when he thought it had gleamed.
“I can see, feel, taste, and hear the world like no other. It’s mine.
All of it is mine.” He slid his hands into his pockets.
“And you know what the most interesting part is?” He chuffed a laugh. “I can’t be killed.”
Kai couldn’t feel his body while his own mind whirred, while those last words bludgeoned him over and over.
He should’ve been dead after fighting the bak in the tunnel.
“The Beta of Iapetus stabbed me right in the heart.” Aneurin tapped his chest. “It was supposed to be a nice dinner, too—a celebration. I’d gotten them to agree to my plans, but you can’t trust anyone, I suppose.
I bled, and that was it. I healed. I made him use the same knife to slit his own throat. ”
Made him.
Kai was going to be sick.
Aneurin squinted, seeing something beyond the glass, and Kai felt, despite the power, whatever this was frightened him—reached for him.
Aneurin jerked back, and Kai felt the power straining as if something else were trying to pull his strings.
The Alpha of Phobos spun, facing Orin on the brink of asphyxiation. He released him and casually sat back in his seat as the Alpha of Deimos slumped in his chair, his face beet red as he clawed at his chest for air.
“It's a shame the gift didn't pass to us both, cousin. We could've returned our bloodline to its former glory. A powerful Ares once again. I don't understand why our forefathers split it.”
He sniffed the air, scrunching his nose.
Orin had pissed himself.
He let out a deep sigh as he slid a piece of parchment across his desk with a quill. “Now, you're going to write a letter for me, and then we're going to make a public address.”