Chapter 16
Chapter Sixteen
Chrome
The smell of burnt fabric and smoke wafting off me overwhelmed my chambers.
Annoyed that I didn’t glean any new information on the stone from Brecken, I shook off my clothes in exchange for some less burnt ones.
I did, however, gain confirmation that the Druids possessed the Seraphite Stone, but that did me no good if I didn’t know how to breach their wards.
I’d study up on their magic and figure out how to dismantle them.
After changing, I went to the kitchen for a glass of water to soothe my dry throat, leaning my lower back against the countertop as my thoughts detoured to Gray.
She still had attachments to the flailing Elementals, and I didn’t understand why.
Didn’t she see that they were a doomed cause?
Kinetics would continue to pick them off one by one, Hollow after Hollow, until there were none left.
They were a dying breed. It was time for her to choose the winning side.
I replayed our memories together. I tried so hard to push away the warmth that spread through my body when she would try to hide her smile from me. The way her eyes lit up when I said something that had made her feel seen and understood.
She had always understood me.
I knew her well enough to know that if I were to force her, it would do more harm than good.
She needed to be willing. I needed her to want to be by my side.
I couldn’t just kidnap her. It might’ve worked in the past, but I knew her better now.
I was different from what I was back then, and I’d learned my lesson.
If I took her and brought her here against her will, she would fight me to the very end.
Especially now that she ran a mission equivalent to a child’s errand—one that she wholeheartedly believed in. I had, too, once.
I sighed, retreating to my room and lying down.
Lacing my fingers together behind my head, I stared at the wood grains in the beams, imagining a world where she and I ruled both realms together as we saw fit.
A world where others knelt at our feet, and no one questioned our authority—a world where the weak perished and the strong survived.
The connection between us hummed, causing me to sit up in my bed as I lightly placed my hand on my chest. Her hunger struck me. The deep-seated need to deplete felt like my own. That feeling that never left me. I lived with it day in and day out, minute by minute, even after I took a soul.
Hope blossomed within me. Maybe it wouldn’t be so hard to turn the tide, after all. I bit my bottom lip, clasping my hands together across my knees. Maybe if I just—
I disappeared from the comfort of my chambers and landed on the outskirts of an Endarkened forest. Elementals rushed about in a frenzy. Some were dead and already being burned, while some lay broken and bloodied on the ground, barely clinging to life. I recognized every face.
Kodiak lay unconscious and seeping blackened blood from a cavernous wound in his chest. He’d always been softer than the other men—perhaps that was his downfall. Or maybe he should’ve trained harder and focused more on his speed.
Void sat at his side, tending the wound, River resting her head on his shoulder. Both of them looked hollow as they stared at Kodiak's pale and unmoving body.
Sporadic fires continued to blaze up. Black smoke reached for the sky, the pungent odor of death permeating the area as the deceased were burned.
Onyx stared blankly into the flames. I did miss his banter, but there was no place in my life for any of them anymore.
I followed Onyx’s amber gaze that glowed in the inferno, realizing he focused on Shadow.
I frowned, spotting Shadow among the Elementals. My lip twitched. I wanted to consume his soul and watch him drop dead, as he was supposed to be. But there would be plenty of time for that later.
A pile of entrails and feathers sat contained in the clearing. I skimmed over the familiar faces of the exhausted Elementals, searching for one exclusively.
Gray’s drive to deplete fueled me, spurring me closer to the edge of the wood, but just out of eyesight. It was a siren song, tempting me closer to her until she swallowed me whole in her drive for power.
My eyes darted from left to right, seeking my queen.
But I did my best to draw her to me through the bond, hoping she would find me.
It was clear that she was deep in the thralls of Elemental magic deprivation.
She must’ve had something to do with the dead griffin.
I expected nothing less from her—my equal.
A fight broke out, and I watched as Slate straddled Gray. My rage climbed to unyielding heights as he pinned her wrists above her head.
I found myself drifting forward, ready to snap his neck for daring to lay a hand on what was mine. He had his time. And that time was over.
A part of me bristled at the dark thoughts gnashing their teeth at my cousin. And while I didn’t like the fact that he straddled her right now, that old part of me screamed his gratitude for keeping my other half safe.
I shut down the old feelings, not having any space or need for them now.
Slate shoved his fingers in her mouth. That would’ve been weird had I not known that he held mushweed in his fingers.
I squeezed the bark of the tree, the inky poison coating my skin.
Thankfully, it didn’t affect me since I was also a product of the same magic that made this tree bleed supernatural toxins.
Gray stilled in her fight against my cousin, and the bond went cold once again.
My fury ratcheted, more than it ever had since being turned Infernal.
Without thought, I punched the tree that I had been squeezing.
My knuckles bled, but I watched the wound stitch itself back together, letting it mesmerize me to a calmer state.
When I glanced back up, Slate was caressing Gray’s cheek.
I wouldn’t stick around to watch this, especially seeing that she wasn’t coming to me, after all.
A sense of relief clashed with my sinking disappointment.
The pesky old part of me wanted her to stay away and be safe from me, but still longed for her.
For the last time, I locked the vulnerable feelings away.
So close. She was so close to coming to me, only for Slate to stop her at the last minute.
I never resented Valik more than I did then.
If he could’ve just left Slate alone all those years ago, Gray would be in my arms now, and probably on the fierce course of devolution.
But she wouldn’t have to suffer through it like I had.
Had I only succumbed to its throes sooner, I would’ve saved myself so much misery.
Once Gray rose to her feet, I traveled back to Goshen Castle, this time landing in the courtyard where a few Infernals passed by, seemingly unaware of my presence as they were entirely under Celanea’s mind-control, following her orders.
My fists shook from anger. I grew more pissed at the old feelings that should be nonexistent, but also at Slate’s audacity.
How dare he take her from me again? I couldn’t wait to finally make him pay for his betrayal.
I stormed to the empty Great Hall, which contained only a table filled with Endarkened floral arrangements.
As often as they were replaced to bring a splash of color to the castle, the flowers were shriveled within the next day.
Nothing survived here. Suddenly, a vase of black roses set me off, and I struck it with my arm, knocking it to the floor with a crash.
Glass shards shattered across the floor, while the roses and their petals swam in the water that had once kept them alive.
It was fine. This was a long-haul game. She was on a slippery slope, and it would make my job that much easier to persuade her to join me, to give in to the call of depletion.
Deep within me, acute clawing starvation scored bold gashes into my soul. I gasped, clutching my chest from the pain. Stumbling, my knees buckled as I hunched over, hugging my midsection. I coughed, wheezing for air through the pain. Fuck, this was the downside of being Infernal.
I cried out from the agony as sweat formed on my forehead and my body heat rose to unnatural temperatures. I managed to lean my shoulder against the wall to help me stay upright. Blackness closed in on the edges of my vision while my body and head grew lighter.
After all the traveling, I was drained. I needed to replenish. Instead of searching for a soul to feed from in between my destinations, as I should’ve done, I’d traveled too much, too fast.
Orion’s soul and the others I’d consumed on the Hollow’s battlefield several days ago had taken me far, but it had been too long.
“Chrome?” a voice said from the shadows.
It sounded too distant. Leofric, or Leo as I called him, because there was no way I was going to say his whole name every time I addressed him, blurred in the darkening edges of my sight.
He was one of Celanea’s favorites, as he had been one of her biggest conquests when he’d been Celestial.
Before he’d turned Infernal, he’d been the Celestial King’s most loyal and beloved warrior.
When Celanea captured and bonded herself to him, turning the Celestial’s most powerful warrior against them, it had been the beginning of the end for them.
The betrayal and loss must have struck deep at the heart of their rule.
“What are you doing?” Leo asked, his energy drawing closer as my vision waned.
I stayed silent, save for my haggard breaths.
Vicious hatred roared somewhere deep in my soul, causing my entire body to vibrate from the restraint.
I hated him, because to me, he represented Celanea.
When I looked at him, I saw myself. Both loyal warriors being controlled and wielded to serve rulers who never gave a shit about us.