Chapter 8 #2
My breath began to fog the glass on the shield of my helmet. Pulling it off, I looked to Slate and nodded toward the roof. He removed his helmet and trailed behind as I climbed the ladder to the flat roof.
The gravel beneath my feet crunched as I crossed to the edge of the building and sat on the ledge. My ankles dangled over the edge as Slate dropped down beside me.
A comfortable silence dragged on between us. Finally, my cousin cleared his throat before turning his head, his hazel eyes hardening. “So, what was that about back there?”
“What?” I asked, keeping my vision locked on the telecommunications buildings in front of us.
“That reckless shit back there?”
I shrugged, not wanting to expose what clawed beneath the surface of my skin. “I was just trying to get through traffic.”
“Chrome,” he snapped.
I turned my head and met his gaze. “What?”
“What the fuck?”
I exhaled, my breath forming a cloud of vapor. “I was anxious to get the fuck out of there.”
“Yeah? At the risk of your life, bro?”
I snorted. “It’ll take a lot more than a crash to kill me.”
Slate reeled. “You can’t be serious.” Retreating his knees to his chest, he shook his head. “You’re mortal like everyone else, Chrome. Don’t fucking forget that.”
I laughed. “How the hell could I forget?”
Slate shook his head. “I’m sure the gossip gets to your head every now and then.”
My face twisted in confusion. “The gossip is the last thing I’ve ever given a fuck about.”
“What do you give a fuck about then?” My cousin inquired, angling his head with raised brows.
A heavy pause weighed between us as my fingertips dug into the concrete of the ledge. I redirected my gaze ahead of me before answering, “Her.”
“Peri?”
“No…” I responded on instinct. “Yes…her, too. But I’m talking about the princess.”
Slate looked down and chewed his lip. “I see. What aren’t you telling me, Chrome?”
“Why does it matter?” I asked, my voice sounding as dead as I felt on the inside. “What can anyone do about it?”
Slate inhaled a deep breath. “I can help.”
“Can you, though?” After this recent bout of punishment, I was beginning to feel more demoralized than ever.
Slate nodded. “Yeah. I’ll find a way to train her.”
“How?” I asked, angling my chin toward him, hoping he had a solution I hadn’t been able to think of yet.
Slate shrugged. “Talk to my dad. Surely he can talk some sense into Amethyst.”
“And if he can’t?” I asked. “Then what?”
My cousin straightened his shoulders, furrowing his brows as if to prove his point. “Then I’ll talk to Amethyst myself. She likes me.”
I chuckled. “Good luck with that.”
Slate scoffed. “She likes me.”
I shot him a look as if he was delusional for believing such a thing. “My mother doesn’t like anyone but her fucking self.”
“I mean, she believes I’m on their side.”
One shoulder lifted in response. “Sure. But then what?”
“I convince her Gray needs to be trained for the good of Kinetics.”
“For what reason?” I pushed, playing devil’s advocate.
Slate hesitated, pondering the hypothetical argument that I posed to him. “If Elementals captured her…then what? She is defenseless. They have the one and only heir to the Kinetic throne. If she can’t defend herself…we’re totally fucked.”
My lips twitched. “That’s a good start.” I nodded, staring down at the traffic stopping and flowing below me. “But your argument will need to be stronger, especially since you’re only fifteen. She’ll slam the door in your face immediately if you don’t have a solid rebuttal.”
Slate’s nostrils flared, and he cocked his head to the side, popping his neck. He blew out a breath. “Yeah.”
“Look at me.”
Slate pivoted, tipping his jaw to the side and looking at me out of the corner of his eyes. With the lift of his brows, he indicated for me to continue.
“I need Gray safe more than anything. I feel her, Slate. She is…mine. But like in the sense that we’re one and the same…
if that makes sense?” I rambled, my breaths coming in short just thinking of her.
“Do you know what happened to her? Was she punished?” I asked, my heart hammering at Grim’s words from the prison.
Slate cleared his throat and snapped his spine straight again.
“Slate.”
His jaw twitched before he sniffled and looked down at the busy street below us. “She was.”
My lungs squeezed, my blood whooshing in my ears. I wanted to destroy whoever laid their hands on her. “Who?” I asked through clenched teeth.
My cousin grimaced and bit his lip, menacing anger illuminating his eyes. “Grim.”
I smiled. “Good. I’ll make his death that much more painful.”
“I couldn’t watch it.”
I froze. “Well, I should hope the fuck not.”
“No…” Slate shook his head. “This was different.”
“Explain.”
Slate sucked in a deep breath. It was obvious he was steeling himself to tell me something that he’d been avoiding.
“The entire Royal Domain was summoned to the ballroom last night. Onyx and I thought it would be about the Elementals or Endarkened, but to our surprise, he brought the princess out on the dais.” He explained how Forest basically wanted to make an example of her, to prove that she wasn’t above the rules.
Even his own daughter would follow them, but he also demeaned her in the process just before he allowed Grim to beat her with his fists and a belt. Or so he was told.
“I couldn’t stay, or I would’ve charged the dais like an idiot and caused a whole different type of mess,” Slate said, dragging his palms down his face.
He pulled his hands inches away and stared at them as if they were foreign objects.
“I couldn’t control it. I felt this…intense urge to fight off everyone threatening her, which is just crazy because I’ve never spoken to her before. ”
I narrowed my eyes. “Well, I like that you’re protective of her, that bodes well for the plan, but that’s…weird. Do you feel her emotions or anything like that?”
Slate shook his head. “No. Nothing like that. I feel drawn to her, but I don’t feel her emotions like you say you do. Just want to protect her.”
I nodded, trying to work through what that could possibly mean. I didn’t know what it meant for me regarding my connection to her. I assumed it was because we were both hybrids, even if she wasn’t aware yet. But Slate wasn’t a hybrid, and he now felt a pull toward her, too?
My head swirled. I needed answers, and I had no fucking way of getting them.
Valik popped into my mind. I didn’t know where he’d come from, but he seemed to know things.
He’d mentioned some type of bond in his ridiculous ramblings, but I hadn’t really thought much about it since then because I was more focused on getting through the punishment.
But Grim had mentioned something about a bond too…
But what if whatever connection Slate shared with Gray meant…more? Where would that leave me?
“We’ll figure it out,” I sighed, scratching the back of my neck. “But use that. Protect her at all costs without blowing the plan.”
The muscles in Slate’s jaw rippled as he nodded. “Got it.”
An Elemental’s energy triggered my senses. I whirled around, looking behind me just before jumping to my feet on the roof’s ledge. Three Elementals surrounded us as they approached. I retrieved two daggers from my belt, one for each hand, as I faced the incoming threats cloaked in shadows.
“Chrome Freyr,” one of them called out, the breeze carrying his voice away.
I tilted my head back, not giving any confirmation. I felt Slate’s vigilance as he took arms beside me, wielding a Kinetic dagger and knife.
The two of us remained on the ledge of the building as the three Elementals closed in from different angles.
The ruddy hues of dusk settled over us. Shadows cloaked them from the dying sun, but I could see that the Elemental directly before us had blond hair, while the man to the left had skin that could’ve blended with the shadows if it weren’t for the gilded gleam coating it.
The third stood on the right, and he was excessively bulky.
I kept my eyes poised on the one in the center, who I presumed to be the leader.
“We didn’t come to fight,” the blond said. His hands outstretched in a gesture of peace. “We came to talk.”
I snorted. “Talk? Is that what you do when your kind depletes humans over and over?”
“We’re not doing that, Chrome,” the leader said placatingly, as if he was familiar with me.
“Don’t talk to me like you know me.”
The blond dipped his head. “Very well…Griffin.”
My face twisted in confusion, and the world began to slow as my mind rejected the possibility. “Griffin?”
“Yes,” the blond Elemental confirmed. “You’re Griffin Silas.”
The air in my lungs bolted, refusing me the chance to breathe. Valik’s words once again haunted me. “What?” I whispered.
The blond man took another step forward, exposing his gilded face in the light. “You’re the son of King Jonas,” he said, his turquoise eyes softening, confirming Valik’s words only four days ago. “Your Elemental birth name is Griffin Silas.”
A ringing sounded in my ears. Until now, I could convince myself that Valik had potentially been lying that night.
I can’t take any more right now. Make it all stop.
“You’re lying.” I couldn’t accept this. Not now. If I was truly Prince Griffin Silas, that meant that Forest was indeed lying about the Elementals depleting humans on the Elemental prince’s orders.
The man shook his head. “No, I assure you I am not.”
“And who are you?” I asked, wondering who this man was to seek me out to tell me such things.
The man offered me a soft smile. “I’m your uncle. Orion Silas. Regent King of the Elementals.”
It had been one thing to have the stranger in the bathroom of The Phantom tell me of my questionable origins, but an entirely different beast to have Orion Silas tell me himself.
Slate cleared his throat and stepped beside me. “Chrome’s father was an Elemental who abandoned him when he discovered that he knocked up a Kinetic woman. The King’s Hand at that—”