Chapter 6 Sylas Morgrave #2
The urge to do the same was intense. To touch her, to touch him, to sink into them.
But I couldn’t allow myself to be comforted yet.
I had work to do. Namely, researching a way to render those necromancers Ruxnoth was working with incapacitated. It might technically be possible for me to siphon them. But the consequences… they could prove fatal.
“Sylas, do you hear me?” Velra asked in her gentle-but-firm tone.
“My hearing is just fine, Dark Beauty. But you know we can’t protect him fully if he’s not—”
“We knew this day could come.”
I grimaced and turned my head away.
I heard the clack of those normally incredibly distracting thigh-high boots of hers.
And then I was sucking in a breath as her fingers brushed my cheek, and she eased my head back her way, Cassius standing there with his arms folded across his chest now.
“Didn’t we?” she pressed. “We knew there was a strong possibility of someone or something trying to use our son purely because of what he is.”
“Yes,” I ground out.
“It’s been twenty years. Twenty years he’s been kept so very safe. But now it’s here. What matters is what we do now to resolve it, and to make it better for Winter, to get him through this. But we also can’t do all the heavy lifting for him.”
I grimaced again.
A rush of wind whipped through the lab, and then Lazriel was standing on my other side. Actually, pushing up against me in those tight blue jeans and his forest-green hoodie.
“The fuck we can’t,” he burst out with, shaking his head at Velra and Cassius. “He’s our son. Ours to protect at all costs. We’ll tear that shithead warped Celestial to shreds for him.”
Velra dropped her hand from me and pinched the bridge of her nose. “Cassius,” she called over her shoulder.
Cassius’ lips quirked at Lazriel. “Impeccable timing, wild one.”
“Wow. Sarcasm, Cas. You’ve clearly got some shit to let out, too. Wanna head outside and decimate the surrounding area? Nobody’s gonna feel it in the outside world with it being a Rifted Cradle and all, so you can go all out.”
“Perhaps later,” Cassius said, striding into the room. “However, for now, heed my words. Winter needs to be empowered.”
Velra nodded and went on, “If we do this for him, shield him from it all, and lock him down here, take care of the threat, he’ll interpret the world as a place that he can’t be a part of.
Completely. He’ll internalize it all the way.
Sylas, you told us that he said the world doesn’t want him.
We all know that’s not true. Things don’t work in absolutes, but because of us shielding Winter so much, he doesn’t understand that. ”
“Fuck,” I grunted, giving a nod. “Yeah, when he wakes up, we’ll take his lead. With the intent being to bolster him, but not to… you know.”
“Bulldoze over him and decimate the threat and any other issue he may have in his life going forward?” Cassius said.
“You joke, but if I could, I would.”
“We’re all well aware,” he said, amusement dancing in his eyes.
“But you have also held back a few times, so there’s that,” Velra added.
Lazriel rubbed my back. “Credit where credit is due, necromantic heartthrob.”
I swung my head to see his eyes hooding a little.
When Lazriel got worked up, he needed physicality. And often a lot of it. Sexual, for the most part. I wasn’t exactly in the zone to give that, and neither was he, really. He was just off-kilter, hurting, like all of us.
I wrapped my arms around him, guiding him in front of me. He sank against me, his back to my chest, a sigh of contentment escaping him. “It’s all okay, babe. We’ll make it okay.” Off Velra and Cassius’ looks, I clarified. “The way we discussed.”
Velra stroked my cheek, then nuzzled against both of us. “Love you,” she told us, ruffling Lazriel’s hair, then slipping her hand into Cassius’ as he reached out to her.
We returned the sentiment and held each other for several moments, until Velra abruptly tensed, and eased back. “Shit. Where are Winter’s loves?” She eyed Lazriel. “And your dad?”
“Upstairs in Winter’s room. Dad hasn’t seen him yet, and he couldn’t wait any longer, so I took them all straight up there. Then I scented you guys out and headed down here.”
“How are they in light of all of this, and Remnant explaining the need for extreme discretion?” I asked.
“You know my dad. He’s got a soothing way about him, and a way of revealing information clearly but somehow also without too much overwhelm. They’re good now that Winter’s been found. Just really worried about him.”
I tightened my hold on Lazriel and he nuzzled against me, craning his neck to offer me a reassuring smile.
“And the discretion aspect?” Cassius asked.
“Zayn Riene is not a concern. He understands how we must operate. He’s spent time under this very roof.
Also, as you reported several days ago, Sylas, he is all alone regarding other attachments, his parents barely in contact with him due to their own trauma. ”
“And Vaxan used what was supposed to be a secret ability in our pursuit of Winter,” I told them.
“Not only that, he ended up inadvertently demonstrating its impressive reach and what a resource it could prove to be in many situations. By doing that, he’s gone against a Basilisk Kingdom directive, implicating himself. ”
“Compromising himself if he were to speak of this, you mean?” Cassius said.
“Yeah. But even without that, we don’t need to worry. What I saw of his care for Winter… it’s far deeper than mere infatuation or fascination.”
“What about Evira?” Lazriel asked, having seen some fallout of that firsthand during Torvek’s attack on our son. “Her attachment to the Dracoryn Realm and all that? Is it gonna be an issue here?”
“She’s not as attached as we’d initially been concerned about. At least not politically,” Cassius told us.
“What does that mean?” I asked.
“You’re aware I’ve been monitoring the Dracoryn Realm since Torvek attacked Winter and it became apparent that the Evira-Winter relationship would be revealed—and not taken well to over there.
As a result of this monitoring, it’s come to my attention that Evira has given up her title. Earlier today, in fact.”
“She gave up Crown Heir for our boy?” Lazriel spoke.
“I highly doubt that was the only reason, especially when paired with my research on her,” Cassius said.
“She’s attuned to bigger picture issues and matters.
She’s also a free spirit.” He gestured around at the four of us.
“Familiar, hmm?” He continued, “Holding the title of Crown Heir was tethering her to a life she is currently branching out from, keeping one foot rooted there, while the other is at Loxley Academy and also wishing to move into the wider world. The way her closeness with Winter was viewed, the reason it had to be kept secret in the first place by them, clearly didn’t sit well with her either.
She doesn’t care for speciest thinking.” He smiled at Lazriel.
“But, yes, one of her reasons for stepping down was to protect and nourish her bond with Winter, to ensure it couldn’t be severed by the weight of Dracoryn Realm political expectations and protocols. ”
We fell silent for a few moments as the weight of it all settled over us.
And then I tensed when what I’d known was coming my way finally hit.
Velra narrowed her eyes at my Nexus Band ring.
Here it comes.
“We felt you unmute it, so… good.”
She was ramping up.
“Good, hmm?” I pushed, knowing she needed to get it out. “Listen, me not telling the three of you about Winter—”
“You mean our son being kidnapped by a highly dangerous True Celestial intent on using him for some insanely balance-destabilizing task?” she ground out.
I held her intense gaze. “Yes. If I hadn’t been able to recover him within such a narrow window, my intent was to wait until you returned from the Dark Fae Realm, until Lazriel was back from Vyrn Hollow and away from Jaxon Silver and Vorzyr who he’d been meeting with there, and until Cassius had signed off for the day with his work alongside Ariana.
And then I would have filled you in.” I blew out a breath.
“The specific circumstances at that time, where you all were, who you were with… that was what made me keeping it quiet, muting the Nexus Band, necessary. If anyone outside of those involved had discovered Winter had been taken by the likes of Ruxnoth, it would have—”
“Fine,” Velra cut in.
I cocked an eyebrow. “Fine?”
“Yeah. I get why you did it. I get why you had to do it, to play it that way, to keep it from us… temporarily.” She winced. “It’s just… it’s our son, Sylas.”
“I know. I know all too well.”
“I would have done the same thing,” she admitted. “I just don’t like it, that it had to be that way. All because of external factors and things the supernatural world has put in place against our son.”
“You know, though, it’s not all like that,” Lazriel said.
“One example of that is Winter’s three loves.
Like with Evira stepping down from her role in the Dracoryn Realm.
Win saying the world doesn’t want him is bullshit.
Look at this, her doing that. That’s some actual recent and blatant proof right there for him to see when he wakes up. ”
“While I agree that will help, Winter will need more,” Cassius warned. “Ruxnoth’s manipulations aren’t to be taken lightly. We’re dealing with a malicious mastermind incredibly skilled at coercive psychological entrapment.”
I growled low in my throat with Lazriel following suit.
I saw Velra shudder, deeply disturbed.
A rush of wind whipped through the room, and then Remnant came to a sudden stop before us. He smiled out at Lazriel being held by me, then he cleared his throat and told us, “Zayn is seeing to the settling in due to his familiarity with your home.” His lips quirked. “He’s taking charge in fact.”
“Oh crap,” Velra uttered.
“Yeah. I’ll go take point,” Lazriel said, easing from me.
He kissed my cheek, lingered for a moment over Velra and Cassius, then spun to his dad.
“You’re gonna be here for a little while yet, right?
Mom’s gonna be meeting with Jaxon Silver really late and she said you were going to pick her up for a date much later on tonight? ”
“All true.” He laid his hand on Lazriel’s shoulder.
“And I will stay as long as you need. As long as my grandson needs.” He eyed me.
“And in that time, you and I need to discuss enhanced safeguarding for Winter using a combination of Requital and The Shadowed resources in order to keep it off the radar of the wider supernatural world.”
“Yeah, if they clock stepped-up protection on Winter, it’s really gonna give away that there’s a massive issue,” Lazriel surmised.
I caught Velra’s eye. Fuck. “We’ll determine what can be done, but no decision is gonna be made without input from Win.”
I saw Remnant clock the situation impressively well, briefly arching an eyebrow, but then merely giving a nod. “As you wish.”
He tensed then and craned his neck a few moments before Zayn appeared at the doorway, looking intent yet also nervous as he stayed at the threshold but looked in at the five of us.
His gaze settled on me, finding comfortable purchase there I suppose because of our recent interaction regarding that vampire clan takedown.
“Sorry to interrupt, but Vaxan overdid it with the vibrational tracking and he needs to eat ASAP, but his Basilisk diet is really specific and—”
“I’ll take care of it,” Cassius told him. “He also channeled Ketheron’s power, the Celestial aspect. That can cause this sort of thing for non-Celestials. A hangover effect essentially. I need to determine the severity of it. It should just pass, but there are instances where help is needed.”
Velra grasped his arm. “I’ll go with you. The Basilisk people don’t exactly have a stellar history when it comes to the Celestial Plane. And unlike Ketheron, you were actually up there while all of that was going on against his people.”
Cassius winced. “Ah, understood.”
“You’re still on the dinner thing, though, right?” Lazriel called after them as Zayn bounded out of the lab with Velra and Cassius following.
Cassius eyed him over his shoulder. “Satiate yourself with a blood bag in the meantime, wild one.”
Remnant stroked Lazriel’s hair as they hurried to see to Vaxan. “I’ll summon a feeder. Although, that’s not all that you need.” He sighed and looked at that accursed vial on my worktable, then told me, “You need a reprieve before you begin that research.”
That became basically impossible to deny when he also noticed the mess all over the other side of the room from my outburst a little earlier.
“I’ll start dinner off until Cassius is done helping Vaxan,” I said, leaning in and kissing Lazriel’s forehead, then clapping Remnant’s shoulder, before striding from the room. “Come on, then,” I called over my shoulder. “I know you’re gonna have a fuckload of input about it as usual.”
“A fuckload? That’s kind of overstating it, don’t you think?”
I shot him a look. “Is it?”
He ruffled my hair. “Aww, love you too.”
I snatched his hand and kissed his fingers. “Love you, too, babe.”
I loved them all.
So very dearly.
In times like this, that was half the trouble.
And when it came to our son, that love… the weight of it… sometimes it was unbearable. Yet, it was also every fucking thing.
No matter what I had to do, what I had to face, what I had to sacrifice, I wouldn’t allow anyone or anything to take that away from us.
“The world doesn’t want me.”
I couldn’t get those words he’d uttered out of my head.
It wasn’t about want. It never had been.
It was about what it always was. Fear and misunderstanding.
If the events of today got out, if Ruxnoth’s intentions for Winter became known beyond our inner circle, they should be fucking afraid.
Of me.
Because there’d be no more playing the game. No more treading oh-so carefully as I had for many years now.
If they came at my son, I would unleash.
Everything.