13 #3
“Theo!” Lukas sobbed into my shoulder. “Theo, I’m so scared!
I don’t know what’s going on! I felt this overpowering fear, that something was wrong with my grandma, and somehow …
I found myself back here. I went to find her but there were these people apprehending phantoms with chains and she told me I had to run.
I don’t know what to do, Theo! Help me!”
“It’s okay, Lukas.” I embraced him back, gently pulling him in to comfort him. “I got you.”
“Ah, there he is.” Out of nowhere appeared a tall, muscular man stepping through the doorway.
He radiated a powerful aura, with the presence of someone who wasn’t used to being disobeyed.
His white hair was neatly kept, stark against the sharp lines of his face and the faintly pointed tips of his ears that marked him as fae.
Gray eyes, threaded with subtle flecks of blue, missed nothing.
His gaze settled on me, and it felt less like a glance and more like an appraisal. “That phantom is coming with us.”
“Wait, stop—”
Before I could do anything about it, the man held out his hand, glowing silver chains slithering through the air and coiling around Lukas.
“Fancy meeting you here,” he sneered. I remembered this man from the underworld … the first person Leon had brought me to see when I was captured. Alistair. And he was using the same magic from those black rings, except … this magic seemed far stronger and more stable.
Lukas writhed in pain, crying and wailing as the chains squeezed tighter and cut off his magic.
“Let him go, Alistair. You’re hurting him. He’s not a violent phantom. He’s just lost and confused and he wants to go home.”
Alistair snorted. “Violent or not, he doesn’t belong here. Rest assured, Theo, the rift wardens will make sure he’s taken care of properly.”
I had a feeling our definitions of being taken care of properly were profoundly different. I stepped forward, magic buzzing across my clenched fist, when Nick pushed through the doorway beside Alistair.
“Let them go, Theo.” Nick entered the room, untouched but shaking with exhaustion, his breath coming fast as he held tight to the doorframe.
No one else said a word, but Lukas was still screaming and struggling against the restraints. Ren stood in the far corner, hands ready to strangle someone. My sister was tending to my mother, and Alex gazed up at me with pleading eyes. What would happen to him if I let Alistair take them?
“But—”
There was a retort on my tongue, but Nick cut me off before the words passed my lips. “Trust me on this, Theo. There isn’t anything we can do right now.”
A smirk tugged at the corner of Alistair’s mouth. Alex and I were standing right there, staring him in the face. He might have been outmatched, but there were undoubtedly other rift wardens patrolling the halls. If he really wanted a fight, he could have tried to take either of us.
Instead, he chose Lukas. The choice wasn't strategic. It was deliberate. He knew Lukas couldn't defend himself. He knew I cared. And judging by the satisfaction gleaming in his eyes, he was enjoying every second of this torture.
Heat surged through my veins, anger twisting into something sharp and ugly as I clenched my fists at my sides.
He wasn't taking Lukas because he was the easiest target. He was doing it because he knew it would hurt and it would rile up my emotions. He wanted a show but I wouldn’t give it to him.
Alex gently grabbed my hand. I exhaled heavily, urging myself and my magic to back down.
“Theo! Help me!” Lukas screamed as Alistair tugged on his chains.
“Just … hold on, Lukas! Hold on! I’ll come for you!”
I stood there frozen, watching helplessly as Alistair dragged Lukas away.
For a stunned moment, the room was silent. It was Ren who broke it.
“I need some air. I’ll go check on Stella and Ivy.” And without a second glance, he shoved me aside like he couldn’t get out of that room fast enough.
Only then did the weight of the moment finally hit me.
Ren was seeing my mom for the first time since the incident that had stripped her of who she used to be, leaving her a husk of herself.
He had confessed everything to me, his regret spilling out in broken apologies, but even though I had accepted what he had done, I had never found it in myself to completely forgive him.
“Wait, Ren!” I tried to let go of Alex’s hand, determined to follow Ren, but he only clenched it tighter.
My gaze moved between the demon unraveling in front of me and his unspoken need for someone to lean on, to Alex, my sister, and my mom.
They could have been seriously injured if Ren and I hadn’t shown up in time.
Alex was looking up at me with glassy eyes, weak and helpless and confused.
The quiet strain of being pulled in two different directions threatened to tear me in half.
“I’m fine, Theo. They need you more than I do.”
The lie hurt more than him turning his back on me.
I felt it settle between us, heavy and unspoken, and yet still I let him go.
I stood there, memorizing the set of his shoulders, the sound of his footsteps, the space he’d left behind, until the hallway swallowed him and I was left with the ache of knowing I should have stopped him.