Chapter 20
Chrome
“Chrome,” Peri hissed from beside me.
I blinked in my desk, jerking out of the memory of Gray’s kiss, her soft lips, and the way her body fit perfectly against mine. Her scent hadn’t left my nose in the past week, and it was all I could do not to track her down in the palace every day since to kiss her again.
The constant tugs of emotional longing on my heart from the cord that connected us told me she had been feeling the same. And fuck, I wished I could go to her.
“Hmm?” I met my sister’s eyes, so similar to my own, but in the warm shade of honey.
Our Physics of Kinetic Abilities teacher, Tealia, languidly spoke from the front of the classroom. I’d been homeschooled since the playground incident in fifth grade, the king having deemed me untrustworthy to mingle amongst humans. Since then, Peri demanded to be homeschooled alongside me.
Tealia’s voice had long since disappeared in the back of my mind, becoming background noise as she explained the subtle differences in infrared and thermal waves and how they affect the Kinetic’s ability to use them. Why I was being taught this again, I wasn’t sure.
Wake me up when we get to the lecture about determining a fetus’s predisposition for which energetic power they’ll receive based on their parents’ abilities.
Peri gestured with her eyes to my desk.
Glancing down, I startled at a piece of paper that hadn’t previously been there. I narrowed my eyes, subtly opening the folded piece of notebook paper to reveal her neat and elegant handwriting.
Stop daydreaming about the princess and pay attention, oh legendary one.
I shot her a sarcastic grin to the side as Tealia cleared her throat, clocking onto our silent conversation and pausing her lecture until she had our undivided attention again.
Our teacher swished her turquoise fringe to the side so it was no longer in her eyes, her bob bouncing in its healthy fullness.
I dipped my head in acknowledgment, a slight apology for our rudeness, to which Tealia continued with the scientific complexities within our magic’s energetic origins.
I propped my face in my palm, my elbow resting on the desk, and slowly singled out my middle finger at my sister for not using her sound abilities to mute our interaction from our teacher.
The rest of the lecture went on with no more interruptions, and once again, my mind wandered back to Gray and the kiss we shared on the rooftop the other night as I continued to relive it over and over.
The princess’s longing, compounded with my own aching heart, made the drive to find her that much more unbearable. The day for her to be fully trained couldn’t come quickly enough. I needed to know she could protect herself if Slate or I couldn’t be there.
As soon as that thought trickled into my mind, her longing suddenly switched to terror, snatching on the cord and jolting me upright in my seat. My hand clutched my sternum as I gasped for air just before I reached for a blade in my weapons belt.
The princess’s panic was more tangible and solid than usual. Instead of feeling like an echoed emotion, it now felt like an extension of my own. Just out of reach, but right there and stronger than ever.
“Is everything alright, Chrome?” Tealia asked, concern lacing her bunched-up features as her hand froze in the middle of writing a definition on the dry-erase board.
Peri straightened in her seat, searching my eyes for answers. She always knew how to read me.
“I…I need…need to go. Excuse me,” I stuttered urgently, almost knocking my seat over as the panic continued to rise in my chest, clawing up my throat and clouding my brain.
I wasn’t sure where I headed. All I knew was that I needed to find her. I needed to get her to safety. All rational thought vanished from my mind as I followed the tether drawing me to her. Gray was terrified and in danger. She needed me. Nothing else mattered.
The cord pulled me to her like the snapping of a rubber band, guiding me as I stormed through the palace halls and to the stairwell. There was no way I’d wait on the slow-ass elevator. My adrenaline wouldn’t handle it.
I charged through the stairwell door, taking the stairs two at a time as I climbed thirty flights to the very top of the King’s Palace.
During my trek, I unsnapped both of my magic-inhibiting bracelets, ready to take on any threat that came at my princess.
In my blind rush, it didn’t even register that my skin shimmered gold and my eyes swirled molten quicksilver. I wouldn’t have given a shit, anyway.
Once at the top, I was slightly breathless as I summoned a dagger to one hand. Slowly, I exited the stairwell leading to the King’s Suite where the invisible cord tugged me. I kept my senses wide open and vigilant as I stalked to the door.
A loud slap echoed from inside the suite, followed by a cry of pain and a body thudding to the floor. My blood pulsed alongside my power, burning to unleash onto the king for laying a finger on her.
I held out a palm to summon my Elemental magic, ready to warp the hinges and the locks so I could bust through to get to Gray.
“Well, well.” At the sound of Grim’s voice, my spine locked.
As usual, my magic went cold in my veins at his presence.
“Paying the king a visit, I see.” His smug tone oozed chills down my neck, my stomach souring at the sound.
“Please, do explain to me why it appears you’re about to make an assassination attempt on the king. ”
I kept silent. There was nothing I could say to avoid trouble at this point. I just needed to get to the princess. Fuck.
Turning around, I met the beady eyes of my tormentor, my teeth clenched together. Grim stood inches away with a smug grin, ready for another excuse to punish me.
“I’m going to fucking kill you,” I gritted out, squeezing the hilt of my dagger, letting my magic roar back to life.
Just as quickly, my power died in my veins, leaving me barren and more pissed off.
Grim laughed. “Are you really?”
Not even deigning him a response, I pulled a knife from my weapons belt and launched it at Grim’s chest. It lodged into his sternum, wiping the smugness from his face as he grunted, stumbling back.
I stalked toward him, throwing a hard punch to his temple just before I kicked the knife deeper into his chest with my heel.
My stepdad crashed to the floor on his back.
I straddled his hips, pinning him while I landed blow after blow to his cheekbones, nose, and temples.
Blood from his nose and mouth splattered my face, coating my fists.
The satisfaction of inflicting pain onto Grim was so easy for me to get lost in.
The violence sparked the beast within me to raise its head higher, hungering for the retribution.
These small victories were always short-lived, but I couldn’t help myself, especially when it came to the incessant drive to get the princess. I had to protect her, even if that meant my own suffering.
Grim’s shouts caused more of a distraction than I wanted. If only I had an Elemental blade, I could just fucking end him now, but without my magic, there was no way to truly kill him unless I were to slowly saw his head from his neck with a dagger, but that would take too long.
The cold steel edge of a dagger pressed against my throat. I froze, the blue sigils ignited on the blade, knowing the black crystal embedded in it would poison me. But it didn’t stop the king from cutting my skin just a fraction anyway.
Fuck.
“What have we told you about that lack of free will of yours?” King Forest intoned from behind me as my throat began to burn.
I dropped my knife, gasping for air as the black crystal began to seep into my bloodstream, setting my throat alight with an inferno.
“Time to teach you another lesson. Right, boy?”
“Up,” Grim’s vile voice slithered through my consciousness.
Nausea from the black crystal caused bile to swirl and purge from my body.
I heaved into the icy cell devoid of light.
Bitterness from the fluids in my empty stomach burned my throat and nose as I coughed, attempting to catch my breath.
Despite being weakened and every fiber in my body feeling wrecked beyond repair, I pushed myself to my hands and knees.
Grim’s booted foot struck my exposed ribs, making me collapse into a puddle of my bile.
I bit down on my tongue, and all I could do was wheeze from the impact’s violent pain.
With my magic drained and suppressed, my body violated and beaten without the ability to heal, I was nothing.
No longer the hero that everyone thought I was.
A stark reminder of the hold they had on my life.
I was nothing but a weapon. A weapon that needed to be sheathed when not in use. Or if it became too dangerous to control.
“I’ll ask again,” Grim seethed above me. “Why were you charging into the King’s Suite? And why the fuck were you exposing your abhorrent Elemental side?”
I spat on the floor beside me, trying to block the magic deprivation’s agony. “I…I don’t know.”
Another kick to my ribs; this time, another one broke. A silent scream clawed up my throat as the jagged edge of the bone protruded from my skin. I couldn’t breathe. Surely, a rib punctured my lung.
“Fucking little liar. What are you planning?” I imagined that his beady eyes had formed slits and his crooked nose angled in a way that appeared more grotesque than usual. I could bet that spit clung to his pallid lips.
I wheezed out a cough, nursing my ribs, hoping against all odds he’d remove the shackles just long enough for me to heal.
I couldn’t physically respond. The ringing in my head only shrilled louder, and the scrambling of my mind grew to exponential levels.
My essence desperately searched for anything to latch onto.