Chapter 52 #2
No one could agree on whether or not Azazel would be in the Heavens Chamber on the night of the blood moon. At least everyone agreed I would be the one to kill him when the time finally came.
It seemed, after we somehow made it into the Heavens Chamber, we’d then move into the Throne Room and use the Jonathan bow to take down Abadon because that was the best interpretation of the most prominent prophecy scroll we could figure out.
Anyways, we still had to wait until the grand opening of the millionth level.
That was two weeks away on the night of the blood moon.
“Decide quickly. I want you here for the blood moon. Come willingly, or I’ll slaughter every single member of your new little family and take you anyway. Regardless, you’re mine.”
A weight settled in my chest.
I should tell Soren about the call.
I wanted to. I wanted to trust him. The way he made me feel last night. The way he was looking at me across the table, even now.
Like we could be soulmates.
I wanted to give in.
But someone here was on Abadon’s side.
I looked around at the faces of my new little family and tried to decipher which one held a secret so dark it would tear us all apart.
Which one of them was working against everything we were fighting for?
It could be anyone.
I couldn’t trust a single one of them.
“I’m only letting you keep your secret because Eliana would be crushed if she knew what you did.”
Was that Zade’s secret? Was he working with Abadon?
But if Soren were on our side, he wouldn’t keep that a secret.
I’d been warned enough about Soren—and seen his questionable morals for myself. His being a traitor made the most sense.
Too much sense.
“Rapunzel has to be willing to fall back and let us fight once the gate is open,” Adriel grumbled over a map they’d been working on most of the morning.
Yanked from my silent and fruitless internal investigation, I scrambled to figure out where we were in the argument and why I was being brought into it.
Adriel narrowed his eyes at me. “I know you wanna kill Azazel, and that’s fine with me. But if you get in our way, you’re just gonna cause trouble again. And I don’t really wanna end up like Matty.”
I exhaled sharply through my nose, nostrils flaring.
Of course that was my fault.
That asshole would blame me even if he had been the very one to abduct Matthias.
A flame lit in my bloodstream.
“Excuse me,” I scoffed, crossing my arms. “Why do you think I can’t take care of myself? And why are you blaming me for the Mods taking him?!”
“You’re hotheaded,” Adriel shot back.
Black pot, if there ever were one. And this kettle was scalding now.
I sat up, the legs of my chair scraping.
“Hotheaded?” I asked too loudly as if trying to prove him right.
“You don’t know how to work with a team,” Marigold interjected with a slight hint of her old sneer.
I opened my mouth, but Salah beat me to it. “That’s really rich coming from you,” she retorted. “As Winifred said before, we’re all here to support Eliana. If you can’t get behind it, maybe you should just stay behind.”
My jaw hung slack.
Did that just come out of Salah of all people?
With a sense of pride and knowing that she was probably the one person I did trust, I turned toward Marigold as I stood. “It’s not like we need you, Marigold. You always scored the worst in our boot camp. At least I can fight.”
“That’s enough, Eliana.” Soren’s soft voice from down the table felt more like a slap than if anyone else at that table had shouted at me.
How dare he take her side? How dare he humiliate me in front of everyone?
He was supposed to be on my side.
“Don’t you dare talk down to me, Soren,” I hissed. “Stay out of this.”
“This isn’t about you proving yourself,” he replied with that same laidback nonchalance.
“You have to understand. Adriel, Zade, and I will have an advantage over everyone else on both sides of this fight. We can’t be worrying about you getting hurt.
You have to be the one to defeat the Dark One and bring back the Anointed.
That’s your job. Ours is to protect you.
We’ve made our choice, and you don’t have one in the matter. ”
I let out one of those growly screams. “I’m done with your shit, Soren. I’m making my own choices from now on.” I hated that I whined. So I squared my shoulders and continued stronger, “We don’t even know if I can kill Abadon.”
“The scroll said—” Astrid started.
“I know! I’ve heard it a thousand times already,” I snapped.
The shame ate at me fast. I shouldn’t be biting everyone’s head off. Not when we all wanted the same thing. What if this was the last time we were all together again?
But do we all want the same thing?
I ground my molars. I had every right to be furious and stand up for myself.
I never would have let myself be reduced to this weak, cowering mess before.
Enough was enough.
“Just let us protect you, Kai Xin,” Rui Xi spoke slowly as he moved toward me. “Please. Whether you kill Abadon or not, I believe the Anointed will come back. As your father, I cannot let you die for this.”
I let out a single laugh, and the rest of the room went deadly quiet. They were waiting. Maybe they thought I deserved to finally get this off my chest. Or most likely, they were all praying I would keep my mouth shut and didn’t want to push me over that edge.
I was so over that edge already.
Tumbling down the cliff.
Free. Falling.
I could handle Adriel’s crap. Marigold’s shit.
Heck, I could even handle Soren’s condescension because I knew where it came from and what he meant by it. As angry as Soren made me, I knew he wanted to help me and keep me safe.
But this man had no right to shackle me. He had no right to stake his claim as my father. He’d given up that right years ago. And not a bone in my body trusted his intentions.
“Seriously!?” I shouted, slamming my hand too hard on the table. Pens clattered, and a nearby pile of papers ruffled. Someone might have squeaked or cleared their throat. “You want to protect me now? Where were you for the last ten years, Rui Xi?”
I picked up a letter opener and gripped it like a knife, my fist so tight around the handle that the edges cut into my skin.
“Drive it through his eye and straight into his skull. Kill him,” hissed the voice.
Didn’t have to tell me twice.
“Where were you when they killed my mother?!” I screamed. “Oh, that’s right. You’re the one who turned her in. You hated The Way. So why are you even interfering? Are you trying to sabotage us? You were a shitty husband and a shitty dad! You’re an all around shitty human."
I threw the letter opener as hard as I could to lodge it into the wall behind him.
Had I aimed, I wouldn’t have missed.
Why hadn’t I aimed?
I ignored the gasps and whispers, heading straight for the tin door we’d come in through a few days ago.
But I didn’t make it two steps past the end of the table before Soren’s arm reached out, his hand clamping around my bicep. “Wait, Eliana.”
I stiffened. Gave the smallest of jerks. I knew it would be useless to try to pull away. Like a trapped animal, my chest heaved with a desperation to escape the crosshairs of a hunter out for my blood, my skin, the meat off my bones, and every internal organ they could use.
He stepped in front of me, his warmth coming out of nowhere and wrapping around me. The cage pressed in on me.
I’m going to die here in this cage, weak and pathetic.
“Just let me go,” I mumbled.
“Never,” he said low enough that most likely no one else heard him.
“He’s the reason I’m an orphan,” I bit out, this time hoping everyone else did hear.
He could pretend all he wanted, but the truth was: Rui Xi Chen was not a good man.
He didn’t deserve their gratitude for helping them.
He had been one of the biggest crusaders against The Way.
He was a traitor who shouldn’t be trusted.
He deserved all the bad things in the world.
Soren’s arms came around me, crushing me to him so tightly that one of my ears pressed against his chest, and his arm covered the other. He wrapped me in himself.
Or stuffed me in a shallow grave.
His next words were muffled, but they weren’t directed toward me anyway.
“She needs to know, Rui.”
Hot tears stung my cheeks. I squirmed fruitlessly against his hold.
I didn’t care what Rui Xi had to say.
Rui? Did he just call my dad Rui?
They can’t be that close in just these few days.
“No, she doesn’t.” Rui Xi’s voice—pleading and defensive—barely reached me through my ragged breathing.
“Let me go!” I finally shouted up at Soren through tears and snot.
He didn’t flinch. If anything, he drew me closer to him, one hand tangling in my hair and the other gripping my side. His warm pulse beat against me.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
Mine warred back.
Thumpthumpthump!
“Tell her, or I will,” he said louder, the sound rumbling over our heartbeats.
Silence stretched too far, the band reaching full elasticity and threatening to snap.
No, don’t. Whatever he’s going to say, I don’t want to know. Nothing good can come out of this.
Not sure how I knew it, but I was confident as ever that I was going to lose everything the moment I learned what Soren was referring to.
I twisted, trying to duck under his hold. He let go, only to grab my shoulders and force my gaze to meet his.
I shook my head.
Red.
His eyes were a black that bordered red.
He didn’t want to tell me either.
But he did.
“Your mother is alive, Eliana.”