Answering to the King
Jayce
Isense Sienna running towards me, her hand wrapping around my arm, which, only now, I realise is charred and throbbing with pain. Smoke is rising from it, and my gauntlet is burning hot.
A coolness spreads from her touch as she gently brushes her hand up my arm. I flex my hand, my artefacts disappearing in a blinding glow, and I look down at my arm and stretch, feeling as the small fractures the impact of the punch had caused begin healing.
My attention falls on her arms, and I scan her over, making sure she’s ok.
“That- that was not the plan!” Alessandra shouts, storming over to me with her anger surging around her.
I look up at her and cock a brow. “Sometimes decisions have to be made, and we all know we couldn’t have held him.”
Sienna looks up at me, and then at Alessandra, who stares at me without blinking. “He’s gone, and that means we can’t ask him if there was a way to get Mama’s power back!” she snarls.
“A risk I had to take,” I say quietly as I move my arm from Sienna’s hold and bend it before stretching it.
“He isn’t wrong. We couldn’t have held him; a primordial’s magic was no match for us,” Heaven says, a sliver of disappointment in her otherwise calm voice.
“But Mama’s power-”
“It was a risk I had to take. I was not going to put anyone here in danger by letting him live.”
Sienna reaches for my arm again, this time whispering a spell, and the burning sensation begins to ease.
I’m fine, I say through the mind-link.
“And? Mama’s power saves so many lives; without her on our side, we are worse off!” Alessandra shouts, her fists clenched, her eyes burning red.
“And right here are some of the key players for the final battle, including yourself, and as harsh as it may sound, we need to be there – for that battle, more than Aunty Kiara,” I say icily.
She stills. I know my words are harsh, but they are the truth.
Sienna moves towards Alessandra, but she raises her finger, telling her without a word not to approach her. Before any of us can say anything else, someone else speaks.
“You killed him.” We turn to see a pale Katara standing there, her lips trembling as she stares at me, eyes wide with shock and disbelief.
We were so consumed by our conversation that I hadn’t even noticed her small presence, but from the horror in her eyes, she clearly witnessed it all.
“He wasn’t who he said he was,” I say quietly.
Ahren’s standing quietly beside Heaven, his wings gone, a small frown on his face.
“He is the only one who cared about me!” she screams, just as I see Dad racing towards us. She runs at me, hitting my chest, but I barely feel it. She has no strength, but her anger burns in her eyes from behind the tears.
“He was using you to get to us! The harm he could have done was beyond imaginable,” I say sharply, trying to calm her as she starts pummelling my chest. “You have us, Katara.”
“Do we?! Where were you when I needed you? Where were you when Dad needed you to step up as Alpha! You ran away! You’re a coward!” she screams.
I wrap my arms around her, although she fights me, and I stroke her hair. “I’m sorry,” I say quietly. “I really am.”
I wish there was more I could do than just promise her those words that mean nothing to her. I mean them, and I regret that I wasn’t here, but there is nothing I can say that can fix this right now. In time, she’ll get it.
“What is going on here?” Dad asks, looking between us. I exchange looks with the others, but it’s clear they expect me to fill Dad in.
Sighing softly, I look over at him. “It’s a bit of a long story,” I begin.
Dad crosses his arms, a grim expression on his face. “Well, I have all day.”
Icy blue eyes pierce into each of us; the sound of the pen flicking between two fingers on repeat at an excessively fast speed is loud in the silence.
It’s been maybe three minutes, but it feels way fucking longer since we finished filling Leo in on the situation. And nearly two hours since we told Dad, who called Leo for this meeting.
The five of us are seated here along with Dad and Grandad. Katara is home with Grandma. Uncle Alejandro is on a screen, along with Uncle Rayhan and Raihana. The oldest of the three is on mute, courtesy of Leo, who looks livid.
But unlike his uncle, Leo’s taking a minute – or ten to think before he speaks.
With every passing second, I can feel his aura simmer low and high.
Raihana, who is on the same screen as Rayhan, sighs as she leans forward. “They’re all safe. The threat was dealt with, with no casualties. I would say that’s a win. Yeah, maybe they shouldn’t-”
Leo’s eyes snap up to the screen. “Enough.”
She wrings her hands and sits back, shaking her head. Dad massages his temples, and Grandad simply nods, as if in agreement with Leo’s silent displeasure.
“When I was informed that you’ve had something to fucking deal with, not once did either of you think to let me know exactly what it was.
” His voice is low; the snap as he breaks the pen in half is loud before he slams it onto the table, making the entire thing rattle, his eyes going from Ahren to me. We’ve already taken full blame.
“Now, now, let’s not get worked up. We handled it,” Ahren says lazily as he reaches into his pocket. We’re all silent, watching him, and I hear Sienna sigh, covering her face as he pulls out none other than a packet of fucking cookies.
Really?
He opens it and, taking one, bites into it and looks around the table. “Want one?” he offers. A bang goes off, making most of those at the table jump as Ahren jerks back, the tip of Leo’s gun smoking slightly as Ahren stares down at what was once his packet of cookies. “Now, that was just mean.”
“Do not fucking test me. You went up against a fucking primordial!” Leo snarls as he stands, slamming his hands onto the table.
“This is not about you being successful; it is about the risk that you all fucking took. What if you failed? What if one of you lost their powers in the process?! These are risks we can’t afford.
If you failed, he would have been alerted that we were onto him.
Had this attempt failed, it would have been a fucking catastrophe. ”
“We understand that, but you also need to realise that we are capable of taking some decisions into our hands if it is safer to do so,” I say clearly, looking across at him.
We stare each other down; his eyes flicker to a magnetic blue, and my own wolf surges forward, disliking another alpha trying to get the better of him.
“This one was far too risky,” Leo growls.
“Maybe, but I had calculated everything. I made the decision to end him rather than hold him, because that was the safer option,” I continue, my voice sharp but even.
“Although we could have kept him alive; if we had, maybe we could have got Mama’s powers back,” Alessandra says sharply.
She had rushed to call and ask Aunty Kiara if her abilities were back, hoping that maybe after his death it would have returned to her, but it seemed like that didn’t happen.
“Although we had no inkling if that would even be possible. From my own assumptions and theories, I don’t think it would have been,” I counter, looking at her.
On the screen, Uncle Alejandro slams a paper in front of the camera.
UN-FUCKING-MUTE ME NOW, YOU FUCKER!
Leo exhales, his eyes flashing in anger as he presses a button, and Uncle Alejandro growls.
“What the fuck is this bullshit!” he snarls.
“Your microphone was muted, not your fucking audio,” Leo snaps back.
Sienna hides a smile as Grandad smirks openly. “Valid point. Can I give my input?” he asks.
Dad and Leo turn to him. “Sure, why not, since everyone else is,” Leo mutters, taking out a cigarette and lighting it.
“How this was handled was not bad; they were given information that they needed to act on swiftly, as this witness had stated the enemy was after him and was prevented from contacting you, Leo. This woman told him to go to Ahren, which could have been a trap, but they took the risk, met him and managed to defeat a risk that has been around for decades; someone who was a harm to my granddaughter, and any brother would want to protect his sister,” Grandad says.
“And we took precautions,” Sienna adds. She and Heaven have remained quiet for the most part, only adding in the pieces Ahren or I left out. Alessandra is still angry, and she is sitting quietly, her red eyes filled with festering rage.
“And Jayce’s intuition guided him to end it,” Rayhan adds.
“And the only person put in harm’s way was Liam, so really, if anyone should be complaining, it’s him,” Raihana points out.
Dad raises his hands. “I’m not complaining. I understand both sides.”
Leo remains silent. “Are you sure he’s dead?” he asks after a moment, his cold eyes meeting mine.
I look at the scars that remain on my arm, welts that had appeared from the impact of the hit against his sheer power, scars that are in the same position as the ones I had in the Gods’ Realm. “I am absolutely certain,” I reply.
“Then that’s good, but you don’t think it’s the same one who killed Raven?” Leo asks, his gaze flicking to Ahren this time. I remain quiet; the pain that hits my chest every time I remember what happened to her settles inside of me.
“It was definitely different. When I went into the past to that moment, I was blocked in the same way as I was when I tried to see the moment of Aunty Raven’s death, but the energy was different. They’re different primordials, of that I’m certain.”
“I would assume perhaps there’s one for every primordial that ever was,” Sienna says, resting her elbows on the table, her arm lightly brushing mine. Beside her, Heaven nods. “Nyx, Chaos, Tartarus, Gaia and Eros.”
“So you think there are five – now four – of them out there,” Leo says, his eyes darkening as he sits down again, resting his feet on the table as he takes a long drag on his cigarette.
“Yes,” Sienna says.
Heaven flicks her hair. “Our assumption is that this primordial energy came from Tartarus, but that’s just a guess,” she says.
“Intriguing. I just wish we knew what else he could do, but I do agree, getting rid of him was the safest thing to fucking do,” Leo murmurs as Raihana hums.
“Why do you think that?” she asks.
“Because of what Tartarus is,” Heaven answers. Raihana nods as if it makes sense. It consumes… Isn’t that where the Titans were locked away, in the abyss created by Tartarus? That does make sense.
“And what the fuck is Tartarus’ forte?” Uncle Alejandro growls.
My eyes meet Sienna’s, and she hides her smile; we’re both thinking the same thing.
It’s no surprise that he doesn’t know.
I look away first.
Allie sighs. “You should know this already. Tartarus is the abyss that consumes things, Dad.” She glowers. “Why are you even here? Where is Mama?”
Uncle Alejandro’s deep frown softens, and then a grin breaks across his face, his white teeth flashing. “With Kat, the twins are coming.”