57. Kyros #2
“As you all likely know, Astraea has been your Princess under Connard's rule, but what you don't know is that Princess Astraea is actually unrelated to Connard Casmir. She is the daughter of the late Princess Mina Lazaro, making her the rightful Queen of Diemos!”
“Outrageous! Seize them both!” Phaedra calls out, snapping her fingers.
Gaping and sputtering, she panics as she watches me take my claim.
But shadows I know too well, and the chaos that follows erupts into the room.
A choir of screams replaces the sound of music from before.
I reach out and wrap my arms around Astraea, pulling her into my body.
I won't lose her again. She already has one of the blades I gifted her in her grip, pulled from where it was strapped to her thigh. She’s not the woman she was before.
Drabek’s shriek pulls my attention to the balcony once again.
He lands just outside as a portal opens.
Ruaan and Mavros are the first to step from its vortex.
Colette and Viltarin next. Seeing my brother once again as himself fills me with determination.
Our eyes lock, and that silent conversation we always have is more than enough.
We are here. Together again. There is no bond that can rip us apart.
“I don't want this. I don't want more people to die!” Astraea’s cry pulls my attention away from my brother as she calls out over the melee beginning. I look around to see Neer now taking a stand against Phaedra’s guards.
The violence quickly escalating from shoving and shouting to blades, curses, and blood.
As much as I want to acknowledge Astraea’s request, I know the truth.
This won’t be solved peacefully. Death has already begun to paint this room, and those crimson stains will only become deeper.
Out of the corner of my eye, I catch each one of my family joining the skirmish.
They break into groups, fighting and ushering innocents to safety.
“Stay with me,” I grind between my teeth.
As I pull Astraea further away from the worsening conflict.
As we move towards the walls of the room, a cloud of black smoke begins to emerge between the dias and the balcony.
The nightmare creature, the Umbra Vitae, prowls unnaturally toward us.
Her father. Astraea digs in her heels, pulling away from my grip.
The crowd too grows distant as everyone backs away from the monstrous creature that is fuel for the nightmares we all carry.
“Stop–please, I can't lose you. Don’t leave me again. Look around us! Death is already here, Shula.” It’s no use.
She breaks free and turns to face the looming nightmare before us.
“Kyros, wait. I think I can—” But her thought remains unfinished as she stops abruptly.
She stands completely frozen, with her eyes locked on the darkness making its way toward the dais.
Her lips part and tears fill her ocean eyes.
“Cole.” The name is breathed out on a sob as she looks up at me, her eyes pleading.
I fix my gaze on the source of her desperation and the devastating situation her best friend has found herself in.
She needs me to do something to save her friend.
And as much as I care for that lively red head, I won't let Astraea sacrifice her own life to save her.
“Shula, NO—” I growl, but my words are futile as she sprints toward her best friend.
I begin to sprint after her, bounding between the crowd before a scream rips out of Astraea.
I look up to see Colette’s head wrenched back by the creature's blade-like grip. The people Colette was helping scurry away from the attack with cries of fear. I manage to grab hold of Astraea from behind, and her fear for Cole’s life makes her fight hard against me before she slumps with a cry of frustration.
I ease my hold on Astraea’s trembling body for only a moment, but it’s enough that she slips from my arms again.
“Astraea!” I call after her, panicked. She looks over her shoulder, sorrow in her eyes, as she turns and runs closer. I reach out desperately to grab her as I follow behind, but a piercing pain flares at my flank.
I was so distracted that I failed to notice one of Phaedra’s men coming right for me, and now burning heat rushes into my stomach and back, where he stabbed his blade into me.
However, I don’t fall as I spin on my heel and let my shadows crawl from my skin.
They wrap around the man with the death wish like a noose, and with a quick jerk of the onyx rope of sandy shadows, he falls to my feet with a broken neck.
I grunt in pain as I turn back to face my only fear.
Astraea reaches where Cole is being held, now just at the steps of the dias, where Phaedra watches everything. Her eyes are manic with bloodlust.
Phaedra is manic in her laughter, as she gets exactly what she’s wanted. Like a moth to a flame.
“I’ll say, I didn't think it would take so long for me to get my hands on you. Connard had one job. That man was always useless!” She snaps while walking toward the group standing in front of the portal.
My breaths are cleaving out of me as I stand frozen trying to think of how I can get to them before he pulls them into that portal and I lose everything.
“Why? Why are you doing this?” I hear Astraea demand, her voice cracking with pain as her eyes burrow helplessly into her father.
The menacing Umbra Vitae stands deathly still, holding Colette awkwardly by her hair.
Colette cries for Astraea to run. Leave her.
But I know Astraea would never do that. The creature only tilts his head, his eyes lifting to Phaedra, where she shrieks with laughter again.
“He has no choice! He is oath bound to my will—tied to my soul for eternity. Just like you should be.” She growls, spinning in my direction.
Astraea takes the moment of her attention being elsewhere and slides her blade along the palm of her hand.
The Umbra Vitae stares sentinel, watching the crimson pool from the wound she’s created.
She lets her blood drip over the cuffs at his wrists.
I’m unable to hear what Astraea says over the violence in the background, but I watch her mouth move before the creature takes a step back, releasing Cole.
I need to keep Phaedra's attention, but Mavros sees what I do, and he cuts across the room to join me at my side.
“What’s so special about tall, dark, and broody…
Sometimes the funny, charming blonde is a fucking animal in the sheets.
” Mavros says with a wide smile in only a fashion that he could pull off.
The remark does what it’s intended and gets attention on him instead of my mate, giving her time to finish whatever it is she's trying to do. I’ve never been more relieved to hear my brother crack a stupid joke at the most inopportune moment.
“What Mavros means to ask is if there is a reason to all of this other than your inflated ego and need for power you don't possess?” I say, keeping an eye on the situation behind Phaedra as she seethes at my line of questioning, stepping closer to my brother and me. She puts more distance between herself and Astraea, just as I hoped she would. Come on, bitch, keep moving closer to me. I can’t wait to rip your fucking head off with these new claws.
I watch as the Umbra Vitae looks down at his hands, which begin to shrink from long, bone-like blades into something more like mine.
Clawed fingers. His face also begins to morph, skin, muscle, and tendons threading together over the bone mask.
The transformation happens quickly as the entity becomes increasingly recognizable as a man.
Features begin to form and take shape. While I see the resemblance to Astraea, it's not she who I see most in the face looking down at what is transpiring. It’s Shayd.
Her father’s copper-rimmed eyes dip to see what she's done.
Shock painting the features he's been missing for who knows how many years. His gaze jumps to meet Astraea’s.
Irrevocable pain dances around his dusk-painted eyes as he takes her in.
“Phaedra, you always want what you can't have.
That's all this really was… Everything that has happened is because your jealousy knows no bounds.” I growl, keeping her attention on me.
My gaze, however, is trained over her head to my queen behind her.
If I have to, I will rip a portal open at my feet to travel the yards I need to close between my twin flame and me.
“You know nothing about me! I was the eldest child of the King of Diemos; I should have been in line for the throne! He had no sons. It should have been mine all along, but then that stupid man fell in love. That woman stole what was mine before I was even born! My mother should have been crowned Queen, but while she was sick with her pregnancy, that bitch stole her opportunity and she died giving birth to me! To give him the heir he so desperately wanted! It was always supposed to be mine!” She shrieks, breathing hard, and continues to make her way toward us.
“So you have been toxic since you were conceived. Not even your mother could bear staying on the same plane as you.” I deadpan, and she growls in return.
Her eyes become crazed as she stares into me, threateningly, like she is about to attack.
Come on then. The way the glowing haze from the portal disappears in a sudden flash of light as the portal closes snaps Phaedra’s attention to it.
The static that was charging the air falls away, but not before a separate figure steps through.
Phaedra turns to see her creature turning back into a man.