Chapter 66
“Enlarge my liver,” I said to Adele, who was still clinging to my arm and staring into the darkness, paralyzed with terror.
When I realized she hadn’t heard me, I grabbed her hand, and she jumped, startled. She snapped out of her trance and pulled her hands away from mine. Adele hated being touched.
“What?!” She blinked, dazed. I told her what carniceals were, but explained they were a variation of chimeras—the Yonserian wouldn’t believe in legends and would only become more terrified.
“I’m asking you to enlarge my liver the same way I did with yours. If we don’t do this, we’re going to die. We need to heal Breno to get out of the dome.”
“Don’t make me run through the forest with those beasts on the loose,” she begged, still paralyzed by fear.
I was terrified too, but the possibility of bringing down the barrier had filled my chest with hope, overpowering the fear. We had a mission, and many lives depended on it.
“If you want to stay here, stay. But I need you to heal me so I can go get help.” My hands trembled from fear and cold as I swallowed the bile rising in my throat.
“I don’t know if I can—my gift was never that strong,” she admitted, looking outside, searching for movement down below.
“Yes, you can, Adele. We trained for this.”
I unzipped my jacket and exposed my right side to her. I tried to take her hand, but the Yonserian swatted mine away and pulled back. She really hated being touched.
“I’ll try, but I can’t promise much.” Then she took a deep breath and extended her hands toward me.
“Just start and do your best. As soon as you remove part of the blocker, I can help you.”
Adele pressed her palms over my liver and closed her eyes.
Her power flooded my skin, radiating in cold waves toward the organ.
For long minutes, we remained silent while she worked.
As we waited, I noticed Zion’s feelings coming through from the other side.
Sometimes he flooded the bond with worry; other times he emanated a hatred so icy that even I trembled.
Yet even in the worst moments, he radiated strength, courage, and an unshakeable faith that we would succeed.
I was concentrating on not losing control of my own fear and drawing strength from his feelings, because the general had always been strong for me, and now I felt he needed that too.
I needed to be a pillar, as I’d promised to be.
Twenty minutes passed, and Adele was panting from the effort.
I ran my hand over my face and saw droplets of sweat on my skin.
I showed her—a sign that my liver was beginning to metabolize faster.
I tried to use my powers, but they still weren’t working, and the Yonserian was growing paler by the second.
“Just a little more—I’m sure I’ll be able to heal myself soon,” I encouraged Adele, who was glowing and sweating more than I was.
With my gift active, I could unblock Breno’s and take him to bring down the barrier. But for that, Adele needed to enlarge my liver; otherwise, we’d be useless.
At that moment, our lives depended on her.
Δ
Zion materialized inside the palace, in the king’s antechamber. He was breaking every rule about visitor entry and exit, but he couldn’t waste time going up the normal way. He threw open the royal door, startling the king on his throne, where he’d been watching the games.
“What is this?” Elitium stood up along with Zafira and Koduz.
Serguei remained seated, as if he’d expected the intrusion. Concern flickered in his eyes—he already knew about the problems.
“We need Zafira.” Zion stopped in the middle of the hall—or rather, he was forced to, because the blocker raised a blue wall in front of him, and lightning crackled in Koduz’s hands. “The test is under attack by chimeras.”
Zion chose to mention chimeras—something more acceptable to the Feeric mind.
“Chimeras? Zafira? What does Zafira have to do with this? Who gave you permission to enter my chamber like this?” The monarch narrowed his eyes, his expression both confused and threatening.
“Yugo is unconscious or dead and isn’t responding to calls. We need a blocker with a level higher than 800, and the only one like that is Zafira.” Zion shifted his attention to the freckled blonde woman on the left. “Three students have already died. We don’t have time for formal entries.”
The blocker nodded, grasping the urgency, and lowered the barrier. But the king raised it again, borrowing her gifts and trapping her inside.
“Zafira isn’t going anywhere.” The blonde and the general looked at the man. “The city is full of foreigners. Do you really think I’m going to give up my best defense? This could be a well-crafted plan to leave me vulnerable.”
Zion stared at the sovereign, unable to believe what he was hearing. He pressed his mouth into a thin line because if he opened it at that moment, he’d tell Elitium to go fuck himself. Serguei, sensing where this was heading, intervened before things got out of control.
“It’s not an attack on the palace, Your Majesty.
It’s an attack on twenty children who unite the four nations, and those children are our responsibility.
If we let them die, we’ll have problems with the other cities.
” He used his most diplomatic tone. “There’s no threatening mind within the walls. Let the general take Zafira.”
The king turned to him, scowling.
“Do I need to give you a direct order to keep your mouth shut, Serguei?”
His eyes were razor-sharp as he stared down the psychic, who kept his gaze fixed on Zion. Despite his calm demeanor, the general knew a storm was brewing inside his father. When Serguei didn't respond, the ruler turned to the general.
“Zafira is not authorized to go. It may not be a direct attack, but who can guarantee they won't kill her out there?
She and Yugo are the only high-level blockers, and Yugo must already be dead if he's not responding.
I won't hand over Zafira.” Elitium crossed his arms over his chest, utterly convinced he was right.
“The nation can handle the death of twenty children.
We'll say it was a Drutes attack, and that'll take care of it. In fact, we can use this as a tactic to launch an attack against the enemy.”
Shadows snaked toward the king, who raised the defensive wall even higher. It was as if a clock were ticking in Zion's head, counting each second as the carnisials drew closer to Kyller.
“What kind of king ignores his people when they need him most?” the general demanded through gritted teeth.
He saw Serguei stiffen. The look in his eyes carried an implicit warning: this was dangerous ground.
“I'm not asking you to expose yourself to danger.
I'm asking to borrow Zafira for thirty minutes.
After the barrier falls, I'll handle the problem myself.”
“Are you telling me your king isn't more important than twenty students?” Elitium asked.
Zion felt the monarch's psychic gift probing his mind and, this time, didn't bother pretending—he didn't have time for games. He saw the shock register on Elitium's face when the king slammed into his barrier.
“I'm saying a true king puts his people first, whether it's one person or twenty,” he hissed, while Kaori announced through the communication device that all students in area 2 had been disconnected. “We don't have time—more people just died. We need to act fast.”
Zafira took a step toward the stairs.
“Go sit down, Zafira. You don't have permission to go anywhere,” the sovereign commanded, invoking the blood pact that bound them.
Everyone noticed when the blocker sat down, as if controlled by invisible strings, and lowered her head. A knot of disbelief the size of an orange formed in Zion's throat. He swallowed it down, feeling his patience slipping away.
“And you, general…” The king looked at him while lightning crackled in his hands and Koduz's.
“For the sake of your title, I'd suggest you go back to that test and do whatever you can so the nations don't think we sat on our hands. We need to maintain a good image, so use that energy and that beauty for something useful.”
Zion trembled from head to toe. Pure hatred emanated from him and from the shadows.
“Did you forget that Kyller is inside that dome?” He pointed behind him as if the barrier were there. It was his last sensible attempt to reason with the ruler.
The monarch smiled and shrugged.
“You didn't bond with her. It'll just be one less Drutes in this world.”
And that was it. Zion's self-control turned to ash as the shadows hurled themselves at the barrier the king was building around himself.
Without Zafira to strengthen it, the barrier was weak.
The general shattered it with his shadow-wrapped fists.
But the moment he broke through, a net of lightning struck him from both Koduz and the sovereign.
Even as electricity coursed through him, his mind suffered psychic attacks from Elitium—but this didn't shake him.
He was already used to battling under mental pressure.
Serguei had trained him to fight while maintaining a strong barrier.
Zion fell to his knees, gasping. The electricity rattled every atom of his body as he clenched his jaw to keep from screaming. When the current passed, he struggled to breathe, fighting against unconsciousness. He thought his neurons had fried.
“Who do you think you are to challenge me in my palace?” The king pointed a finger at him.
“Do you think you're powerful just because I gave you the rank of general?
Do you think you can come in here and overthrow me because of a weak, disgusting half-breed who should have died a long time ago?
You're nothing, Zion Voluz, just dust under my feet, just like your father.”