Chapter 26 ~Velra~ #2
And he also wasn’t the serious type, keeping things light.
The tone of his voice… it was really fucking worrying.
“Something?” I responded, unsteadily.
“Shortly after I got off the phone with you… you know I was receiving that influx of fifty hybrids who were seeking sanctuary with everything… and then… I mean…”
My gut twisted.
He could barely get his words out.
And the emotion clogging his throat… it was painful.
“What’s happened, Nyx?”
“The facility was hit as they were arriving and… they’re… they’re all dead.”
I choked and staggered back into the kitchen counter.
I caught Cassius, Lazriel, and Ketheron looking on.
Their absolutely gutted expressions made it clear immediately that they’d overheard it all with their supernatural hearing.
“No,” Ketheron sputtered. “No.” He started pacing. “Too much hurt. Too much injustice. This cannot go unanswered.”
Cassius went to reach for him, but Ketheron jerked back with a burst of speed.
“Do not,” Cassius told him. “This will not end well. Ketheron—”
Ketheron snarled.
Then with a blinding blast of his golden magic, he dissipated in a cloud of teleportation.
“Fuck!” Lazriel cried.
“Ketheron!” Cassius roared. “Return! Immediately! I know you can hear me even through teleportation! Ketheron!”
Holy shit.
The immediate area wasn’t utterly decimated.
That was something.
And it did seem to actually bode well where Ketheron was concerned.
“He hasn’t magically-nuked the surrounding area,” Lazriel spoke, basically voicing what I was thinking.
Cassius was scanning everything as he flew us toward the facility, what Nyx and I were simply calling Facility 3 for now.
Nyx had wanted to give each one a special name, but he hadn’t landed on any that he’d considered special enough yet.
Also, the actual work that CRS did had obviously taken precedence.
Cassius’ wings flapped stealthily, barely making any sound as we made our approach from the rear, coming from the flanking forest.
As he dropped lower, I took in the sight of crowds gathered out front, the swirling, panicked chaos of it all.
I saw Nyx there, his blue hair whipping in the wind.
Vorzyr Titanus was there with him and I watched him step into Nyx’s path, his hulking form providing a barrier to Nyx storming off to do hell knew what.
I was about to ask Cassius to land there amongst them and the crowds of hybrids, but then a violent flare of rose-gold magic caught my eye over in a clearing amongst the trees, the area not visible to everyone outside the facility.
Cassius was already on it, and as we drew closer, I took in Kai Hunter standing before Ketheron, one palm blazing with his power and the other clutching his Aetherbound Scepter.
In warning, it seemed.
“Hurry,” Lazriel urged Cassius.
Employing more speed took force and a suddenness that together sent Cassius’ intended cautious stealth approach to hell.
Their eyes were on us as Cassius touched down hard, so much so that it cracked the ground beneath his feet.
But being as caring and truly loving as he was, he steeled Lazriel and me from it by holding us a few inches off the ground until he’d absorbed the bone-rattling impact.
As soon as he lowered us and released us, Lazriel burst toward Ketheron, standing in front of Kai and throwing his hand out. “He’ll be fine. He’ll calm down. Don’t fucking touch him with that Celestial magic inside that fucking scepter. It’s Ariana’s magic. It can hurt him.”
“I’m protecting him,” Kai retorted, still holding steady, not pulling his magic back, nor taking his direct focus off Ketheron even as he answered Lazriel.
Ketheron was snarling, his body basically vibrating with his upset and his colossal power that was clearly right on the edge of being released.
“Where is Ariana?” Cassius demanded of Kai, as he and I strode over to the three of them.
The last defense when it came to containing Ketheron was definitely Ariana due to the fact that Ketheron had imprinted on her and that connection would serve to hold him together if things went a truly dangerous way.
“The Guardian Movement received intel pointing to consecutive attacks on each CRS facility. She’s at Facility 2 as a mammoth deterrent. Cornelius and Warlow just arrived at Facility 1 while you were on your way here so Cornelius could provide the same deterrent.”
I cursed under my breath. The scale of this… it was worse than I’d even thought. Nyx hadn’t even been able to finish giving me the details of the attack on this specific facility. I’d heard screaming and roaring and then the call had cut out.
Seconds later, me, Cassius, and Lazriel had torn down here.
“Then let Ketheron provide that same deterrent,” Lazriel told Kai.
“Once he calms down, I’ll be more than happy to. He needs to.”
“Needs to?” I questioned. We were missing something.
“Show them,” Ketheron told Kai. “Or I will. And you’ve made it clear you don’t want me employing my power until I have calmed. The same goes for Nyx because he saw it all too. It is why you called in Vorzyr, to soothe him while you dealt with this… cleanup as you crassly referred to it.”
Kai blew out a breath. “How else would you have had me refer to it?”
Kai seemed unusually irritated. I’d heard that he was super calm in the face of a crisis, or anything at all. But right now the strain from him was clear.
Ketheron had said Nyx had witnessed something. I’d just seen the state of Nyx who was clearly in great distress. That had to be why Kai was reacting this way. Because Nyx was hurting, that this nightmare tonight had cut into him so deeply.
“I want it given the weight that is warranted,” Ketheron spoke, answering Kai’s short-tempered question.
Kai grunted, then pulled his power back and strode up to Ketheron, dematerializing his scepter as he did.
He reached out carefully and laid his hand on Ketheron’s arm.
“If I give it the weight it absolutely does deserve, while we are still in the thick of things, if I allow emotion to lead the way, it will compromise my judgment. It will poison rational thought. And that can’t be allowed. ”
Ketheron’s eyes flickered.
“I’m sorry,” Kai told him. “I’m sorry you saw it. It’s absolutely fucking horrific. But that can’t be addressed more than on a surface level yet. All right, sweetheart?”
Ketheron took a moment, then heaved a weighty sigh, his dangerously reverberating power calming noticeably. “Yes. Of course.” He nodded. “I shall heed your words.”
“Very good,” Kai said with a smile, releasing him and stepping back.
I saw Cassius squeeze his eyes shut briefly in relief.
A sober expression spread over Kai’s face as he strode a few feet to the edge of the clearing, then called over his shoulder, “Brace yourselves.”
He swept his rose-gold magic over the area.
I choked as a glamor fell away.
And what was left in its wake made me sick to my stomach.
“Fuck… is that… fifty… fifty was the amount seeking sanctuary… is that… it’s… oh my God.” I slapped my hand to my chest, digging my fingers into my skin, even as they shook from the brutal shock of it, from the horrific sight.
“No. No,” Lazriel snarled, his claws shooting out, his fangs dropping.
Cassius shook his head, grimacing.
Spread over the area were fifty piles of ashes, severe scorch marks encircling them and serving to frame them brutally.
Fifty beings, fifty innocent people, fifty lives… just nothing now.
“They just wanted sanctuary,” Ketheron uttered, a tear trickling down his cheek. I went to him and took his hand and he turned to me, more tears falling. “They were eradicated just for being hybrid creatures, just for being them.” He looked back and forth from me to Lazriel. “Like us.”
I squeezed his hand and he dropped his head onto my shoulder.
Cassius walked by us, stroking my hair on his way, before kneeling down by the fallen, scanning everything in a very telling silence.
He didn’t need to speak to it when it came to me.
I could feel it through the Soul Brand.
Pure, unadulterated rage.
It was why he hadn’t said anything.
We’d come here to reel in Ketheron, but now… now I could feel his strain.
And it spoke volumes.
Cassius was always so collected, so controlled.
But this horrific attack combined with the implications that it had on a personal level to me, Lazriel, and Ketheron… people he cared for dearly… it was challenging all of that like never before.
Kai joined him, crouching down also. “This is Risen Reckoning. Being used against the living in a way it should never be.”
“Yes,” Cassius rasped. “Intense necromantic energy is present.”
“Necromancers are in hiding following the string of brutal murders of their kind,” Kai said. “The coincidence isn’t lost on me. Neither is the fact that Sylas isn’t here with you.”
“The situation is complicated and evolving,” Cassius told him.
“A situation that has just traumatized Nyx, has shoved Ariana into the thick of it and many of her family members, too. So tell me now, is this him? Is he alive?”
Cassius sighed and rose back to his feet. “Yes. It’s him.”
“Morien Morgrave has been resurrected?”
“He has.”
“Does Sylas know? Is that why he’s not here?”
“You know he’s currently powerless, right?” Lazriel said, striding over, not liking Cassius taking the brunt of it.
Kai scoffed. “That wouldn’t normally stop him.”
I patted Ketheron’s hand and walked into the fray, stepping right up to Kai.
“Sylas is aware. Only recently aware, so you can calm down where that’s concerned.
He’s been seeking answers, trying to find solutions.
As you know better than most, that takes time—and caution.
He didn’t come to you because of your ties to the Guardian Movement.
He’s in a precarious position. If it was outed to Ryker and his associates that Morien walks the earth, especially with Sylas currently powerless, they would have locked him down. ”