Chapter 5 Winter #2
“Your friend, Ambrose Wisteryn, considers any destabilization to the balance a threat. He doesn’t take into account that those can be positive.
A mark of evolution. It’s simply the way he operates.
Ketheron is imbued with knowledge of many True Celestials due to how he was forged.
He will have pieces of information about me, which he’ll be using to form a whole, a whole that will not be accurate as he draws from opinion also, the fact that the Celestial Plane was displeased with me because I stood apart from their indoctrination.
Keep in mind that the Severance proved their indoctrination was harmful to the mortal plane.
Those here rejected it. The very thing, I myself rejected long before that came to pass.
But, unlike those involved in the Severance who are heralded as heroic figures here these days—Ariana, Ketheron, Cassius—I was not afforded that mantle. ”
“Does my father… did he know you when he lived there?”
“Cassius and I did interact several times during our time rooted to the Celestial Plane, yes. Alas, I believe he now shares the rhetoric of others, and he will likely refer to me as an abomination.” He shook his head sadly.
“Just as the supernatural world refers to you. They do not do well with what stands apart, Winter. You and I have both suffered under that mentality. And even as time marches on, the painful lessons learned, they will still always default to that.”
“A perversion of Celestial power,” I murmured.
He arched an eyebrow. “Is that how Ketheron referred to me when you had him investigate my attempted bonding with you?”
I started. “How do you know about—”
“The investigation?”
I nodded.
He pressed his hands to my pecs, making me throw my head back as the most intense wave of that incredible soothing and animating heat rolled through me.
“I have merely been watching over you. It vexed me that I had to contact you that way initially, knowing it would likely unnerve you, and that you’d resist through misunderstanding and believing it was harm being visited upon you.”
“Yeah,” I groaned, the incredible feeling taking away the worry that had surged moments ago. “That makes sense. You didn’t have a choice.”
“Exactly, deathborn darling. My situation limited me. As did the suffocating control you live under through your family, and those in supernatural governance monitoring you all too invasively.” His fingers flexed on my chest. “Your family hasn’t told you about the many watchlists you’re on, have they?
That even me spiriting you away just for a brief conversation today would have risked extreme action being taken against you if I had not concealed us.
You see, it’s always one step away from you being acted upon.
To being punished for just being what you are. ”
Fear and worry didn’t come this time.
That seemed impossible now… for some reason.
But his words did register, the danger from a logical standpoint at least. “If anything unexpected happens… or I do anything unexpected… they think I’m… unstable?”
“Unstable. Compromised. Out of control. Out of their control, Winter.”
“And paired with you… a perversion of Celestial power… that’s… heightened?”
“Exponentially.”
“Why a perversion? When I felt it first… expelled it after… I thought it was like Draco’s power.”
“Draco was far weaker than I am. But, yes, he also used his power outside expectations. Unfortunately, his goal was to do harm, so now anything similar is likened to wrongdoing and evil. My power is interpreted that way because I have used it to create what was not sanctioned.”
“Sanctus.”
“That, yes. But also things like this.” His hands left me and then he upturned his right palm. His midnight-blue magic sparked and a jagged rock materialized. “This is in its natural state. I just pulled it from our immediate surroundings.”
With a dazed nod from me, he swept his other hand over it, glowing with his magic.
Sparks rained down over the rock for several moments, and then I jolted at a burst of white and blue film obscuring the sight of the rock.
In seconds, it dissipated, and the rock was gone, another object in its place.
It was a black lacquered twisted cone with a needle-sharp tip that had a gold band wrapped around it and midnight-blue gems set into it.
“A Spiral Thorn,” he told me.
“You… how? Black magic can warp the intent of things, but this is… you’re reshaping reality?”
“We’ll refer to it as that for now.” He spun the thing in his hand, eyeing the gems etched into it with admiration. “Until you are ready.” With a flick of his magic, he freed my left hand from the binds, then drew it toward the Spiral Thorn.
Instinctively, I tried to jerk away, but he held fast. “Shh, all is well. This will not even sting in your current deeply comforted physical state. The act itself will last merely a moment, yet it will assist you greatly.”
With another sudden flick of his magic, he drew a tiny cut across my wrist, just deep enough to make a couple of pearls of blood leak out.
He was right, I didn’t feel a thing.
He smiled, then did the same to himself.
And then he pressed our wrists together.
When he pulled away, our blood smeared his arm only. How the—
He swept the tip of the Spiral Thorn through it, then slathered it all over in the combination of our blood. His blue magic radiated out, enveloping the entire thing, before then dematerializing. I saw the Spiral Thorn glinting a moment before he stowed it away with his power.
“What was that?”
“They come this way. Our time is at an end. For now.”
“And the blood… the Spiral Thorn?”
He wove his fingers in mine. “When you’re ready, miraculous boy.
You are already overwhelmed with what I’ve imparted to you.
You require time. And when they reach you in moments, that overwhelm will intensify.
” He grimaced. “Unfortunately, it won’t be helped when my warmth leaves your system.
I cannot maintain it over a great distance, especially not between planes. At least not in my current condition.”
“I… what? No, that—don’t. Don’t—”
“I’m not doing anything. It’s their interference.
Their lack of understanding when it comes to you and what you actually need.
” He released my hand and it fell heavily against my side.
I felt a cold infecting me, the warmth retreating.
“I will return. In the meantime, before you are ready for me, you may reach out whenever you like.”
“How?”
He smiled. “Should you wish it, you’ll know, believe me.”
“Was that what the Spiral Thorn was about?”
He didn’t speak to it.
Instead, he swept his magic over the Nihilumbra apparatus and it dissipated.
My boots met sturdy ground.
My body was free.
And then in a burst of that blue light, the world outside came flooding back.
So brightly.
Too brightly.
I staggered when I tried to spin around, apparently not ready for that sort of movement.
He was gone.
Ruxnoth was gone.
So suddenly.
And that warmth… it was draining out of me.
I grimaced and squeezed my eyes shut at the awful sensation of it leaving me.
It felt like… like loss. Like grief.
No. No.
Don’t.
Don’t go.
No.
I slumped to my knees in a forest somewhere, one I couldn’t even hope to place right now.
I tugged at my chest, finding I was back in my charcoal T-shirt and hoodie.
But it didn’t feel like it. There was no warmth.
Just like before.
Just like usual.
Just like fucking always.
A burst of slithering black suddenly erupted around the area, those familiar black tendrils bursting into being.
I hadn’t felt it, though. The surge of magic had been glamored. Majorly.
Not just that specific magic, but also what it was enveloping, as I realized in the next moment when Ambrose, Ketheron, Dad, and Vaxan materialized from it.
Ambrose was shielding their power from being felt by the world around them.
Because of what Ruxnoth had told me about.
It was true.
It was all true.
And they were unwittingly proving it.
Dad’s crimson magic was flaming violently as he tore the distance toward me, while Ketheron swept his golden power around, seemingly searching for Ruxnoth, probably trying to track him.
Vaxan bolted over, his magic not flaming, but his scales covering any part of his skin visible, in clear primal battle mode.
I started when Ambrose snagged my dad’s arm and it had the crimson flames lessening in ferocity. “Careful. I can’t maintain this for long, especially if we need to engage Ruxnoth.”
“We won’t,” Ketheron called over. “He’s vanished.” With a grimace, he added, “No trace. Nothing at all. I felt him here briefly when we arrived, but he’s cleansed it now.”
My dad cursed, and then he was skidding to his knees in front of me. “Winter!” He grasped my face, studying me frantically, looking me over, then sweeping his magic over me too. “Are you all right? How do you feel? Did he harm you?”
Vaxan came to my left side and grasped my hand, making me realize that it was trembling—all of me was.
“Fine,” I rasped. “I’m unharmed.”
“Unharmed?” Ambrose spoke. “Not harmed at all in that monster’s captivity? Or just currently? He healed you? Hid the damage he inflicted?”
I didn’t answer. I couldn’t.
I just slumped against Vaxan, and my dad released me and pulled his magic back.
“You’re safe now,” Vaxan spoke soothingly. “We’re here. We’re here with you.”
“We need to get him cleansed of that thing’s infection,” my dad spoke to Ketheron. “I can feel it there.” He rubbed my shoulder, telling me, “Everything will be okay. All right, Win?”
I stared out at him.
“What is it?” he asked, worriedly.
“You didn’t tell me.”
“Tell you what?”
“About Temperance.”
He choked and jerked back a little, his hand leaving my shoulder.
“Listen—”
“They don’t want me.”
“Who doesn’t?”
“The world.”
“Winter, however that motherfucker has framed things to you, that’s not—”
“It’s worse than I thought.”
When he went to speak again, to likely attempt to reassure me by downplaying the truth, I looked away, and sank into Vaxan.
The last thing I felt was Vax tightening his hold, before all the trembling gave way to an overbearing exhaustion that pulled me into sleep.