Chapter 10 Cassius
~Cassius~
Something was wrong.
Velra had muted herself again.
I could barely feel her at all, save for a brief spark of pleasure.
Given that Sylas had messaged me that he was temporarily back above ground, that pointed toward him being responsible.
Or possibly her pleasuring herself in a bid to ease some of her pain and terror regarding Lazriel being taken from us.
Either way, though, aside from that one spark of positivity I’d felt from her, that had been the extent of it. And the last time she’d performed a spell like that, she’d acted unilaterally and endangered herself, both physically and mentally.
I wouldn’t have it.
I would not.
This couldn’t continue.
I hadn’t been able to convey my true upset with her concerning those actions she’d taken, because Lazriel had been kidnapped, so she was hurt and emotionally vulnerable, as all three of us were, and not in a state to launch into a heated discussion like that.
But with it seeming like she was acting dangerously once again, I would have little choice but to engage in that way now.
I came to a stop outside her dormitory in Obscura Circle, and drew in a centering breath.
Then I called my white power and pressed it to the door, facilitating myself access through the ward protecting the room.
The lock clanged as well, then I pushed it open, and kicked it shut behind me, only just managing with the intensity rolling through me to do so without decimating the door frame and Hades knew what else.
However, I was immediately pulled up short by the sight before me.
Over on the other side of the room to my left Velra was tucked up in her four-poster bed.
And tucked up in Sylas.
Relief flooded me.
Unfortunately, the full sensation was compromised when I caught sight of a ruined spell in the center of the room—ashes, frost remnants, and a nasty residual taste that I recognized as black magic having been present.
I scrubbed my hand over my face as I looked back at the two of them.
They were bare, the blankets not fully shielding that fact. Velra was sleeping in Sylas’ embrace as his hand rested on her stomach, her exquisite breasts on display, rising and falling beautifully with her easy breathing as she slept.
They appeared peaceful, perhaps also satiated—especially knowing Sylas’ sexual appetite, as Lazriel had come to term it. I smiled to myself. As if he was one to comment on that. His was indeed voracious.
A twinge of pain, that same twinge I’d been feeling constantly since he’d been taken, assaulted me yet again at the thought of him.
Fortunately, a grunt from Sylas snapped my attention to the pained sound instead.
I walked to the bed, Sylas not stirring.
His body jolted though, then began shuddering.
And then I saw it.
No.
His hand resting on Velra’s stomach was desiccating.
A gray tint spread over the back of it, then traveled along two fingers, while also starting up his wrist.
I swept over to the bed, easing on to his side as carefully as I could in my panic, so as not to wake Velra. She hadn’t been sleeping very much at all lately.
I stroked Sylas’ hair, then ran my knuckles over his cheek.
His eyes snapped open and he jolted as he saw me right there in his vicinity.
And likely also, the look on my face.
“What is it?” he asked, concern blazing. “What’s happened? Is Lazriel—”
“His status remains the same. This alarm you’re witnessing from me concerns you.”
He frowned and went to bring his hand to his face—the one on Velra that was desiccating.
He couldn’t, the limb currently non-operational while it was in that state.
He sucked in a harsh breath and I saw his utter struggle to swallow down his clear terror. He’d been through far too much of this—years of it—and it had finally ceased. Yet, now there was this. The return of that nightmare for him.
“It… no… it shouldn’t be possible. It isn’t possible,” he murmured to himself.
“I need to head to the Guardian Compound and retrieve whatever they have left of your serum.”
“You think I’d leave it in their hands?”
I frowned. “Where is it, then?”
“Before I made Kai leave so he didn’t have to witness me having my magic bound weeks back, I asked him to store the remaining vials of my serum. They’re at Solumira.”
“Fine. Then I will go there immediately.”
As I moved to do just that, he snatched my wrist with his remaining good hand. “The Healers had to use a mass amount just to keep me somewhat stabilized. There’s not enough left. A day’s worth, maybe.”
“Sylas—”
“There’s no point, Cassius.”
“Of course there is. I’ll have Ariana and Kai manufacture more right away and—”
“I can’t go through that again. Being pumped full of that toxic shit, having my magic bound again…
this necromantic core transplant was supposed to be the solution.
At least long enough until I was able to take what my father had stolen to permanently restore myself.
If it’s not then… then that’s it. I won’t be able to call my power to maximum effect in order to take back what I need from him, so the entire thing is moot. ”
Just as I moved to speak, obviously to attempt to reason with him, Velra awoke with a gasp.
Her gaze shot straight to me.
“Cassius,” she breathed, eyes wide. “What’s wrong? What’s happened? I felt your panic through the Soul Brand and…” She looked between me and the door to her dormitory. “Yeah… you clearly burst on in here, which is you in urgency mode.”
“You felt me through the Soul Brand?” I muttered.
“Yeah. Why the tone?”
“You are preventing me from doing the same, from feeling you.”
Her brow furrowed. “What? No, I’m not.”
“I cannot feel you.”
“I swear I’m not doing anything. I don’t know why—” She choked as her gaze fell on Sylas, specifically his desiccated hand on her. “Fuck. What’s going on? No. No. You can’t be desiccating… the transplant...”
She lurched then and hastily lifted his arm off her, then hauled herself to the edge of the bed and vomited all over the floor, catching the drapes in the process.
As I rushed to her, pulling her hair out of her face, my gaze shot to Sylas.
He went to reach for her as well, to comfort her, but he started in shock and we both watched the desiccation heal of its own accord.
“How in Hades?” I uttered.
Sylas frowned, then looked from his hand, to Velra vomiting. “Motherfucker.”
Before I could ask what he’d just realized, Velra ceased vomiting, and I lifted her back onto the bed. With a sweep of my magic, I had the vomit cleaned away, then I settled with her, wrapping her up in my arms. “Breathe, little shadow. Take a few moments.”
“I don’t understand,” she rasped. “I’m not having a trauma spike at this exact moment… the throwing up… why?”
Sylas moved up close to her other side and stared at her in what appeared to be absolute shock—an extreme rarity for him.
Then he reached out and placed his hand on her belly again, skin to skin, because she was fully naked—well, apart from me now wrapped around her.
He hissed as his hand started to desiccate again.
He pulled it away. It healed instantly.
“Does this have something to do with the spell I saw the remnants of when I strode in?”
Velra winced. “That was… a mistake.”
“It surely was.”
Her gaze snapped to mine, and I had to resist the overpowering urge to delve into it now. I couldn’t harp on it when she was in physical distress.
But it would be delved into later.
“If it was the spell, I should have felt it immediately afterward.” She looked to Sylas. “Right?”
“Right,” he answered distractedly, his focus on her belly.
“Sylas,” I urged. “What is it?”
“The desiccation… it’s nothing to do with my sickness. It’s not the same, even though the result looks the same. This is… it’s drawing on my necromantic energy. Feeding off it. Needing it.”
“What?” Velra asked. “It… some infection I’ve come down with? When I was in that cell with Sorin, maybe he afflicted me with something? He couldn’t harm me with brute force magic, but maybe there was a workaround to the protections we had in place?”
“No. Not an infection,” Sylas spoke.
His gaze locked on mine.
The intensity in it, his shock… then factoring in her vomiting also, certain other things that I’d put down to trauma responses just like she had… even it sounding like her magic had misfired where muting her emotions from me was concerned… the realization slammed into me.
Both brutally and… beautifully.
I couldn’t… I didn’t know how to reconcile it.
This was…. unprecedented, and that didn’t even do it justice.
“Give me your hand,” Sylas urged me.
I didn’t even hesitate for a fraction of a second.
He grasped it, then placed my palm over her belly, while his covered the back of mine—a barrier to the desiccation as he employed his magic.
“Carefully,” he told me.
I nodded, then called my white power gently, while his necromantic energy emanated, his red glow flowing into me as he used me both as a conduit and a power boost to overcome even the most stubborn of magics.
And stubborn it was.
Velra looked on, eyes wide, as I called more power and Sylas spoke an incantation.
“Rescinde larvam. Tutus es. Revela te nobis.”
Drop the mask. You are safe. Reveal yourself to us.
He told us, “I’m using Soul Track in combination with a Veil Lift, just a temporary one for now, so as not to cause any destabilization or distress.”
A few moments later, I felt it—first a rush of intensity and Velra’s emotions from the Soul Brand no longer muted, which was now clear hadn’t been her doing this time at all.
And then I felt… a heartbeat.
Velra choked out a gasp. “This can’t… no… I’m part Wraith, this shouldn’t be possible.”
Sylas’ eyes flamed with his power, indicating he was doing more than just dropping the illusionary magic that had been in effect concealing this miraculous turn of events… he was studying.
He blinked as a curse escaped Velra, then he called his power back, and I snuffed out mine.