Chapter 22
Chrome
Ilolled in and out of consciousness, unaware of the passage of time or where this dark, foul place even was.
Who am I?
My mind felt detached from my body as if fragmented into disjointed thoughts that wanted to drift away, yet they were still tied to my brain, keeping me trapped.
My intestines seemed to gnaw on themselves as my hunger soared to new heights, while my mouth was so dry it could have withered to sand for distant deserts.
But it was the blistering yet icy flames of severe magic depletion singeing my veins and cells that kept me locked in my personal purgatory. I wanted nothing more than death, as it was the only escape from this hell. But they’d never allow it.
Most of the time, Grim paid me visits, but my mother and Forest gifted me with their presence as well. They were using this time to truly test my strength and power. My self-control. To see how far they could push their weapon before they’d lose control of it.
The sensory and magic deprivation distorted my reality in ways that were new.
Blurry hallucinations of Gray and Slate would appear to free me, only for them to work together to break each of my ribs one by one.
Glitchy visions of a half-dead Peri wavered in and out from across the cell, but I could never move to save her.
And sometimes, Valik appeared. I didn’t know whether he was real, either.
My essence always sought something to feed from, only to have it denied by Grim’s power.
I thought I kept coming across the essence I sensed the last time I was here.
The one that made my soul feel like jagged shards floating in stasis.
But even in a subconscious state, I veered clear, feeling a tug on my essence the closer it approached.
“Chrome, wake up.” The voice sounded as if it came from the opposite end of a tunnel, reverberating in my head and bouncing around my skull.
I groaned.
“I need you to listen to me. Get up.”
The urgency had me trying to crack an eyelid open. The weight of the universe pressed on them as I fought against it. A blurred shadow of a man knelt before me. Probably another hallucination.
“Chrome…”
“Hmm?”
“Look at me.” Warm fingers gripped my jaw and forced my attention to the masculine voice. “That’s it. Just open your eyes, my boy.” The familiar voice was oddly soft.
The hazy human outline of the man wavered in and out. When he came into focus, Valik stared down at me, a worried expression distorting his smooth features.
“Don’t let them break you.”
A fist clutched my heart, twisting, squeezing, and wrenching the life that clung inside of it. Warm moisture burned my dry eyes. “They…” I whispered, empty. “Already have.”
“No, they haven’t.” The voice wavered in my brain. “Chrome! Listen to me!”
I drifted off again, feeling my life force slip away from me faster than I could close my eyelids.
I was dying. My body couldn’t handle it anymore.
It was tired of fighting. Of fighting for someone else.
What was the point of battling to stay alive if only to serve those who would continue to use and abuse me?
When I couldn’t be the superhero for those I cared about most?
For her? Much less myself. Wouldn’t it be easier for everyone if I were dead?
It would probably be a much a safer world.
My eyelids shuttered, my last breath seeping from my lungs. At least I wasn’t alone in my final moments. Valik had arrived just in time to offer me that much. It wasn’t Gray, Peri, or Slate, but at least I had someone here.
“Fuck…” Valik cursed into my mind.
For the first time in my life, except when I kissed Princess Gray, I was featherlight. Gratitude engulfed me, so lucky for the time I was granted with her before I had to leave this world. At least I got that moment of true euphoria and happiness on the rooftop. It belonged to me.
I drifted above my body on the cell’s cold, concrete floor. Free of all emotion. Free of pain. Free of longing. Free of fear.
I was finally free. I was everything that existed between life and death. Free to explore anywhere. I couldn’t be touched here.
Looking down, Valik knelt over me. A silver light emitted from his hands into my nearly deceased body. My subconscious knew what was happening, but it was slow to process. I tried to grab the thought, but I was being towed back down to the corpse that I’d just departed.
No.
I didn’t want to live.
Let me go. Please!
The heaviness crashed into me like a freight train, all the pain and tumultuous emotions sinking its claws into my soul like a savage beast.
If I had been physically capable, I would’ve punched Valik for taking away my chance of freedom.
How fucking dare he?
An eyelid slit open, my vision flooding with blinding silver light. My insides warmed as if they were placed by a cozy fire on a frigid day. I gasped, the coolness of the air contradicting the heat on my organs.
Fuck, no. I don’t want this. Let me go.
No. Valik’s voice entered my mind. It’s not time yet. You gotta hang on.
I just wanna be free.
I know, he answered. You will be soon enough.
When I didn’t answer, the flushed hands on my cheeks tightened, fingertips digging into my skull.
Trust me, Chrome.
A rush of energy flooded my body, taking me to new heights.
I jolted from the floor, my body spasming upward.
Valik’s hands guided me to a sitting position as I sucked in breath after breath.
The pressure crushing my diaphragm from being back in my body was too much.
Disappointment and heartbreak ravaged me.
Why? Why make me live this life? How fucking cruel.
“Open your eyes, Prince.”
At the unwarranted title alone, my eyelids snapped open. “I’m not…”
“You are,” Valik demanded, leaving no room for question. “Look at me.”
I complied. His haggard jade gaze stared back at me, ancient wisdom glowing brilliantly. Urgency blazed within his eyes, almost transforming them into something supernatural. Well, more supernatural than usual.
“Now,” Valik pressed, his eyes wild yet droopy with exhaustion. “You feel that?”
The panic powering through my bloodstream wouldn’t let me see what he was talking about, so I paused and focused on my body.
The slowing of my heartbeat, the fortification of my will and strength.
I felt so much stronger, like I could take on an army if I wanted.
Like I could evade death. “Yeah,” I said, meeting his frenzied stare. “What did you do?”
“Saved you. The princess. And potentially the world.” Valik’s shoulders dropped a fraction, showcasing the amount of power he’d used.
“What did you do to me?” I whispered.
The strange but familiar man sighed and finally broke my stare. He fell back on his heels. “I just made you indestructible. Should’ve done it a long time ago…”
I tipped my head, feeling clearer than I had in weeks. “What do you mean?”
Valik tilted his chin upward, biting his bottom lip as if debating what to tell me. “I just made it really fucking hard for you to die.” He exhaled a heavy breath, then leveled me with a hard gaze that I refused to break. “Now, don’t make me regret it.”
Days had passed since Valik’s appearance.
I’d remained semi-lucid, feeling every hunger pain and blow since.
It was nice but also a curse, as I had to fully endure the torture that I was doomed to suffer.
At the least, I knew I could trust my mind.
So, for that, I was grateful for whatever Valik had done.
I paced the cell with anxious thoughts of the princess and my sister.
I wasn’t sure how long I’d been down in the prisons for, but I worried for their well-being.
I wondered if Slate had been sent out on any missions, and if he’d be okay without my aid.
But I did my best to focus on getting the hell out of there.
I couldn’t linger on the fact that Valik had literally stopped me from dying while my soul left my body. Otherwise, my thoughts would fall into a tailspin, and nothing good ever came from that. Instead, I focused on the things I could control.
The cell door creaked open, followed by the click of the locking mechanism. Sitting with my back pressed against the concrete block wall, I pulled my knees to my chest as King Forest entered the cell.
The silhouette of the king’s pompous posture loomed above me. I could practically feel his smirk. “You’re awake. You’re getting stronger, I see.” Pride rang in his voice. “Good.”
My weakened limbs hung in their shackles at my side.
I felt nothing as I dropped my focus to his shiny loafers before me.
The cold numbness had settled in deep. I honestly didn’t care what happened to me at this point.
As long as the ones I cared about most were okay, I would be fine.
The king had gotten what he wanted out of me long ago: for me to have my spirit broken as if I were a fucking derby horse.
“I see you’ve finally learned to keep your mouth shut.
” Even the arrogance dripping from his tongue didn’t rouse any emotion.
“Well, now that we know what your body is capable of withstanding, we can see how strong your willpower is. That’s most important.
Can’t have you running off and becoming Endarkened now, can we? ”
The hairs on my arms raised, feeling a different type of “test” coming.
A test that I was vastly unprepared for.
A test that was more malicious than the physical and sexual brutality I’d endured while starved, magic-deprived, and depleted.
I snapped my attention to meet the gaze of the charismatic leader who had the majority of Kinetics fooled into thinking he was a benevolent ruler.
I searched the shadows masking his face to spot his intentions, but it was no use.
“Bring him,” Forest called out into the frigid darkness.
Neither of us spoke as the sound of two pairs of footsteps walked down the hallway. One was a strong feminine gait, judging by the heels clicking across the floor, and the other was shuffling rather than taking assured steps.
I sat up, my spine pin-straight as I studied the cell door, awaiting whatever fate came before me. My senses were as wide open as they could be with the rest of my magic sealed away and emptied.
“Let’s see how strong you really are, boy,” Forest said, his baritone voice smooth like honey as the threat slipped from his lips.
The door creaked open, and I recognized my mother’s perfume assaulting my senses. “Here he is,” she said, excitement filling her tone. “Surely, my Chrome will do just fine. As always.”
Forest chuckled. “Your faith in your son far surpasses mine. I hope you’re right, Amethyst.”
My mother let out an indignant sound. “You’ll see. I wouldn’t have birthed him if I thought he’d be a failure. Otherwise, where’s your child?”
Silence. Heavy, cold, deadly silence suffocated my already stifled cell. My protectiveness of the princess threatened to unleash, but I held it back. It would do neither of us any good if I lost it now.
“Watch your fucking mouth. She’s about to prove her worthiness soon enough. She might be of use after all.” The venom in the king’s voice was as poisonous as his power. “Let’s see if your son is as strong-willed as you believe. Remove his shackles and then bring the prisoner forward.”
My mother’s sharp stilettos echoed off the floor until she stood inches from my leg.
Bending into a squat, she unlocked the shackles.
My currents attempted to flicker to life, but as depleted as my magic was, there was nothing to fuel them.
The Elemental side of my magic suddenly surged to life as it immediately sought out the living beings around me, two of which had powerful auras.
The prisoner that stood before us was much weaker in power, so my magic disregarded him.
I felt my essence reach out to the king, and then my mother, desperately needing to replenish itself from the hunger that shredded my mind and corroded my veins.
Meanwhile, my Kinetic power instantly fed from the outside source of electromagnetic energy.
But I had no control. I had never been depleted to this point before.
It was astounding that I was even halfway cognizant and upright, but I put that on whatever Valik had done to me.
All that mattered was feeding my Elemental magic. It was beyond starved. It latched on to the king, who possessed the strongest aura.
“No! Not me, you fucking dog.”
Lost in the unfamiliar haze of auric feeding, I didn’t see the blow coming. A sharp crack split the air. My cheekbone splintered as my body spun and collapsed to the floor.
“I told you. He is fucking weak and pathetic,” King Forest spat at my limp body on the floor as I tried to wrap my mind around what had happened.
“Either train him yourself, or he is to be terminated. Your fucking call, Amethyst. Either way, seeing as Gray is progressing in her training, she’ll be an Assassin soon enough.
Who’s to say she won’t become Chrome’s replacement? ”
All I could hear was the click of his loafers exiting my cell before the metallic squeaking of the door squealed, slamming shut with a finite boom.