Chapter 38
Chrome
The Kinetic Warrior’s cheekbone crunched beneath my fist. He stumbled backward on the skyscraper’s rooftop.
I matched his steps, following up with an uppercut beneath his chin.
The Warrior’s glowing blue blade clanged to the gritty surface.
Taking advantage of his disorientation, I landed hit after hit to every sensitive area of the body I knew would incapacitate him: liver, kidney, temple, nose, and throat.
The Warrior’s partner lay feet away, unconscious and near death from a dagger lodged close to his heart and a deep slit in his throat. I didn’t have long before he began to heal enough to remove the dagger from his chest.
If only I had an Elemental blade. The ones I’d grabbed from my locker two weeks ago were gone.
One resided in a river in North Carolina, another buried in the smoking pile of rubble of a building in Philadelphia, and the other ruined by New York City traffic after plummeting from a high-rise.
All lost during fights and no time to retrieve them.
For now, I relied too much on my abilities to keep me going.
I shoved the heel of my boot into the Warrior’s chest, striking him to the ground.
Violence claimed me. Nothing less than death would suffice. I kept my Kinetic magic suppressed with a bracelet to prevent the palace from detecting me. However, they didn’t have my Elemental energetic trace yet.
It was morbidly poetic, really. I’d give Forest credit in that regard.
Chrome Freyr died with Peri. And by suppressing my Kinetic side, I happily embraced Griffin Silas.
Soon, my black hair would be long, and the gold skin would throw people enough to keep my true identity hidden.
Especially since it was widely believed that I’d died.
No Kinetic that saw me in passing would assume that Chrome Freyr was a hybrid who still lived to terrorize his people.
The urge to deplete the Warriors tempted me, much like the nicotine that constantly whispered to my brain to feed it again. Except the drive to deplete was multiplied by three. The withdrawal symptoms had already begun in recent weeks, starting with the shakes and sweats.
“Wh…why?” the Kinetic I faced gasped from beneath me, his hand clutching his throat. Even through my Elemental traits and glamoured Kinetic appearance, he recognized me up close.
I smirked. “The Kinetics have done nothing but take from me. It’s my turn to return the favor.”
I summoned my element, seeking out the iron in their blood and drawing it out of the two Kinetics’ bodies squirming on the ground.
“Prince Griffin Silas has quite the reputation to uphold,” I started, still extracting the metal from their blood. “I can’t disappoint.”
Other than Slate, I had nothing holding me back from giving into the darkness that had been bred into me.
Each Kinetic death was a message to the king, a reminder I still lived.
Each death was on him. Not that he cared about anyone besides himself, but it hurt his numbers and made him regret ever ordering my conception seventeen years ago.
It was only a matter of time before I had his head.
“He took everything from me,” I taunted him with a lilt in my voice. I didn’t even attempt to hide my debilitating mental state anymore. “It’s only fair that I do the same to him.”
“You…you died,” the Warrior choked.
“No,” I retorted, a maddening grin inching up the sides of my face. “I was reborn.”
I didn’t give him a chance to respond before I snatched the iron from the two Kinetic’s blood with brutal swiftness. No guilt infected me as Peri’s words rang in my head, “I love you, big brother. Go be free”. The memory of her tears and her sacrifice burrowed claws of rage deeper into my heart.
I had become the monster that they wanted. The only difference was I wasn’t their monster now. Their little pet had turned on its master.
“Chrome.”
As the two Warriors slumped to the rooftop with the final beats of their hearts, I angled my neck. Pops and cracks sounded from the stiff joints. “What can I do for you, Uncle?”
“Let me help you,” Orion said gently.
My nostrils flared. “Help? You want to help?” I scoffed before I slowly turned to face him.
Orion stood empty-handed and alone on the New York City skyscraper. Horns blared hundreds of feet below us. “All I’ve ever wanted was to help you.”
I chuckled, aware of how unhinged it was beginning to sound.
Honestly, I didn’t give a fuck if I was losing my grip anymore.
For once, I could be liberated. No one controlled me except for the beast inside me that wanted Kinetic blood, which worked out, because I wanted the same thing.
“A whole lot of help you’ve been, right?
” I held my arms out to the side, another cackle escaping my throat to be carried away by the never-ending sounds of traffic in the city that never slept.
“Come home, Chrome,” Orion repeated the same words he’d said to me all those months ago on a separate rooftop. Home. I never truly had one of those, and I didn’t see myself ever being fortunate enough to land in a place where I could be fully accepted as I was.
“Why? So you all can use me for my power, too?” I shook my head. “I’ll pass. Thanks for the offer, though. In the meantime, I’ll do your dirty work on my own accord by wiping out as many Kinetics as possible.”
“You can’t fight this war on your own, Chrome. You’re powerful, but you’re just one person,” Orion nearly pleaded. “Elementals would rally behind you.”
I rolled my eyes. “As wholesome as that sounds, I’m better off on my own.” I confiscated the Kinetic blades from the dead Warriors with my element, pocketing them in my weapons belt. I’d be sure to take their useful gear, too, once I got rid of Orion.
Orion sighed, rubbing his palms over his face in frustration. “We’re at war—”
“Oh, really?” I cut him off. “I didn’t realize,” I retorted dryly.
“We’ll eventually get the princess home, too,” Orion hedged, pausing to test my reaction.
I raised a brow. “Oh, yeah? You’ll harass her like you do me?”
“No. You’ll bring her to us.”
I leaned my head back to face the sky, barely able to see any stars through the city lights, and released a deep belly laugh. Once I started, I couldn’t stop for nearly a minute. “I will? Where was I included in this plan? Besides, she doesn’t remember me, so there’s that little issue.”
Orion blanched, his face paling. “What do you mean, she doesn’t remember you?”
“I took her memories of me. Just waiting to have my memories of her wiped, too.” I shrugged, despite the knot twisting in my heart at the thought of her. Valik wouldn’t take my memories involving Gray yet. He said the timing had to be just right.
“Chrome, you’ve been through a lot. More than anyone ever should, but you have people waiting for you to come home…” Orion begged, shoving his hand into his light sandy hair.
“Stop saying that!” I snapped. “I have no home! Don’t you fucking get that? I don’t want to belong to anyone anymore.”
The lights from the city illuminated the teal in Orion’s eyes, fear and defeat shining in them. His crestfallen face didn’t hide the pain of his failure to bring me back with him.
I held his gaze, my jaw clenched, letting my turmoil settle into my bones. “I won’t kill any Elementals,” I conceded with a sigh. “Will that be enough?”
My uncle closed his eyes, his gilded skin shimmering in the city lights.
“Fine.” Reaching over his shoulder, he unsheathed a sword while retrieving a dagger with the magic from his element.
The unlit dagger hovered in front of his face as the sword glowed with swirling orange symbols on the blade in Orion’s grasp.
“If you insist on fighting this war on your own, then at least have weapons that will kill Kinetics. You don’t want to rely too much on your element; your chances of depleting an aura increase infinitely by doing so,” he explained as his eyes danced over my aura. “You already seem close…”
“I’m fine,” I sneered, not daring to admit I’d already depleted once.
“Chrome. It’s a slippery slope,” my uncle warned, his brows furrowed. “You’re a walking time-bomb. Be mindful.”
“I said I’m fine.” I hated feeling so exposed, like he knew all my sins. No way did I plan on allowing him to grow close to me. I couldn’t bear the look of horror and disappointment that would pierce my armor once he discovered the truth.
Using my magic, I summoned the two blades he offered to me. With one in each hand, they lit orange at my touch. I tested their weights and feel in my palm. They weren’t perfect for me, but they would do. Having weapons again in my hands grounded me. “Thanks.”
“If you ever need anything,” Orion started, “don’t hesitate to come for me. Find me in Clayton. I’ll sense you.” My uncle took a step back on the rooftop. “Good luck, Nephew. Stay alive and give ‘em hell.”
I nodded, followed by a feral grin creeping up the sides, the glow from the blades casting an orange blaze against my face. “Oh, I plan to.”
The burn of the vodka shot brought me peace. One good thing that the Kinetic Palace offered me was a fake ID. Bet that I held onto it after my escape. King Fuckface never took my wallet from my pockets. I guess he didn’t see any need to.
A mix of hip-hop and pop music blared throughout the hole-in-the-wall bar. Preferably, I liked punk or emo music, but it was a dying genre, considered unpopular.
I pushed the paper bills across the bar to the bartender. He’d kept a wary eye on me all night while I drank silently by myself. The moment I cocked an eyebrow at him, he’d avert his gaze to anywhere else in the establishment, especially when I drew my upper lip into a sneer.
No one bothered me here, and that was the way I wanted it.
Even through my glamoured appearance and suppressed magic, humans could sense I was a predator amongst a weaker species.
They would lean away from me as I walked past, cast uneasy gazes at me, and men would protectively wrap their arms around their women as if I was going to pounce on them.
Inwardly, I rolled my eyes. There was literally nothing the human men could do to stop me if I did decide to attack, which I wouldn’t.
As much rage as I felt, I had nothing against humans.
They were weaker than me, and I always believed it made you an absolute bitch to attack someone who couldn’t defend themselves.
I’d never stoop as low as Forest and Grim, no matter how out of control I became.
I kept my senses open, constantly scanning the bar for incoming Kinetics.
Since being in New York, blending into the masses that a big city provided made it difficult to pinpoint me, like finding a needle in a haystack, especially with my energies suppressed.
Since the rooftop a few days ago, I hadn’t stumbled across any more Warriors.
As nice as it was to catch my breath, I began to grow bored.
I sighed, resisting the urge to pull my phone from my pocket and mindlessly scroll through social media apps under a fake account. It did me no good to look back at the lives of those I’d left behind. I was no longer a part of them. I was an enemy.
I garnered the bartender’s attention again. “Vodka and coke,” I said, reaching for more cash from the wallet I’d pickpocketed on the subway earlier that day.
“Oh, don’t worry, man,” a stranger’s voice came from beside me. “It’s on me.”
I tensed, sensing the Kinetic aura that had slipped through my defenses. Adrenaline pulsed through my blood, and I clamped down on my cold desire to deplete him. “Nah, I’m good,” I argued, pushing the bills onto the bar top.
The guy appeared to be in his early twenties.
A bright, charming smile—one that seemed too familiar—lit up his face.
One side of his inky black hair was drastically longer than the other shaved side, and his warm brown skin made his whitened teeth stand out that much more.
“Keep it. You need it more than I do, friend.”
Friend? The condescension coiled in my chest as I tightened my jaw, clutching my fists closed to resist the urge to knock him out, which I eventually would before I killed him.
To avoid a scene and attracting attention to myself, I allowed him to pay for it while ordering himself a whisky on the rocks. I rolled my eyes at the cliché choice.
My shoulders vibrated from the effort it took to refrain from attacking. I needed to leave and make him follow me. But mostly, I wanted to know why he looked familiar. He wasn’t from the Royal Domain—that much was true.
“Who are you?” I asked under my breath, my voice barely audible over the loud music.
The Kinetic tipped his head back and laughed as if we were old friends catching up. “Not your enemy. Just relax and drink.” His accent was thicker, somewhere from the south, but not my part of the south. Perhaps Cajun?
I turned my head to get a solid look at him, assessing him in every way I could to determine his strengths and weaknesses. When our gazes met, all the oxygen in the bar seemed to disappear into a vacuum. Those eyes were…
My nostrils flared as I tried again through gritted teeth. “Who the fuck are you?”
The Kinetic sighed, shaking his head, causing his hair to swish across his defined cheekbone. “It’s that obvious, yeah?” He rubbed his jaw. “Fine. If you must know, I’m Shadow.” With a smirk, he added, “Shadow Freyr.”