My heart stutters in the real world as I watch Darius father through his eyes. A tiny six-year-old boy, he clenches his jaw, steels his resolve and lift his chin, stepping through the portal back to his waiting father. The moment he does, his father grabbed him.“What have you done?” Xandrius growls at his son, shutting the portal.“He’s useless to you now, dad,” Darius says, his gaze ice-cold. His father snarls, backhands him, making him hit the ground. He lands on the floor on his stomach. He wipes his bleeding lip and rolls over, sitting up, just as his door burst open. Darius cold gaze moves to the door to see his mother. “No!” she snaps at Xandrius as he starts undoing his belt. “Get out, Lilith!” he yells at his wife. She shakes her head, this was nothing new for Darius, his mother always fought for him, even though it just got her hurt. Darius gets up, his mother attacking his father just as he is whipped with the belt. The blows are repeatedly rained down, his mother taking
Tobias Darius was gone, and we were sealed in by Darius’ magic. Aleera was stuck in this memories state, her eyes flitting back and forth, her power magnifying with each tortuous second that passed as I paced back and forth while getting dressed. Black and gold webbing bleeds out of her pores, spreading like a rash over most of her body, her breathing becoming rapid as we watch her. Kalen’s worry and fear bleeding into me like poison as he chews his nails, staring absently at where Darius just left through a portal. Lycus grips his hair, he now has shorts on, but his fear is also potent, only amplifying mine. “What are we going to do?” Lycus whines, she had only been out for a few minutes, yet that was long enough for Darius to escape us and trap us in this room. We could still feel him, though we knew he was badly injured. We have tried to break the seal that snared us in, yet we were just wasting the energy and power we needed when it dropped.With each passing second, we felt
Aleera POVThe memories wouldn’t stop. I come to learn, through them, that the plague was never meant to be a plague at all. It was supposed to be a cure for Harmony-Fae who were dying off from some virus that spread like wildfire. Darius being Demonic-Fae was not affected by this virus, they couldn’t explain why, neither was his sister. However, what my father created was never a cure, it was a plague. Xandrius ordered him to destroy it when they realized what they created. After all the things I saw him do, I wasn’t sure how someone like him wanted to stop the unpredictable epidemic outbreak.And yet, they were hoping to find a cure. However, my father was scheming behind Xandrius’s back, plotting a way to take down the Demonic Kingdom and the Vamperic kingdom. From what I saw, he was adamant to destroy everything, sacrifice as many lives as needed, in his way just to get closer to his goal.My father became the very definition of a mad scientist with a god complex. All of his plan
Aleera POVThe fumes were horrendous, and the liquid bubbled like a potion some film directors portray only in sci-fi movies. I kept watching Darius as he started crushing up the devil's bane. My eyebrows furrowed in silent question. What was he planning to do with that thing? It was extremely toxic to demons, so getting a hold of that much of it had to be challenging. Was he trying to kill his own father?Darius added sulfur and a heap of other, even more dangerous, ingredients. I couldn’t stop wondering where, from who, and how the heck he got his hands on such poisons. It was such a wide variety of dangerous and toxic that I knew Darius had to be aware of the things he had there. It couldn’t be a coincidence. I refused to believe or even think that he had no idea what those things were. Besides, the book he had opened looked like it could have been at least a hundred years old. It wasn’t the plain old recipe book, either. And I knew he wasn’t baking a cake.My heart thundered ag
Aleera POVAs more memories washed past me, I couldn’t be bothered to focus on them. I didn’t care for them. I cared for the feeling of agony tearing through my chest as his pain bled into me through the bond. The pain was so intense and raw, so damn fresh, that I didn’t believe it could be eased by the most skilled healers. Nothing I did would pull me out of the trance my body was in. It didn’t matter how hard I tried to fight back, how much of my energy and my own power I forced into breaking the veil - it didn’t move. It didn’t let me go. It forced me to watch his memories. I was stuck in-between the pain and past. The veil forced me to endure Darius' pain physically in this memory state and in the waking world. Even in my current surroundings, I could hear them. As if the veil took pity upon me and let me listen in while the memory scenes kept rounding me. The foreign feeling forced me deeper into the past of the very man who shared his pain with me. Their voices rounded me l
Aleera POVAs the memories slowly started to fade, the shadows started slivering over my skin. I shuddered, feeling for my magic, desperate to reach it and grasp it in my hands. If I managed to capture it, to hold onto it for long enough, I would be able to break free and go after my mates. They needed me now more than ever. Especially Darius. A loud sob tore out of me at the first twitch of my fingers. Any movement was welcomed, needed and long-awaited. The necessity to move and get out of my own mind was so intense that I kept forcing my thoughts and prayers towards another movement. Once my prayers were answered and my toes wiggled, I finally came back to my body.My power flexed - strong, intense, angry, and so, so dark. Yet, to my surprise, it was so light, like a feather. As if it floated in my veins, under my skin. It was an odd and unheard of combination. I sucked in a breath as I found my bond manifesting and bonding onto them. I could feel them as if I were them. Could
Tobias POVI sailed through the air and landed heavily on the other side, my weight leaving an imprint in the dirt. Only a few of the hunters glanced away from their prey, the rest of them didn’t pay me any attention, as if I was no threat. What they didn't know was that the way they scoffed at me only lights up the fire inside me more. Their indifference added fuel to my anger, setting off a violent inferno of flames, ready to break free and turn everything to ashes. They were underestimating me, I wouldn't let that go unpunished. I would be damned if I ever allowed those fools to believe they were better than me, that I was no match to them. The power hunter on my left pointed at me, and a spiral of fire shot out of their outstretched hand. They can’t be thinking I didn’t see this coming. Although many might get scared by the sudden attack, it was nothing compared to the fire that raged through me. There's no way I was going to let this go their way. All of them were going to
Darius POVAs the words left his lips, he lunged at me with one arm held up like a boxer and the other he jabbed at my forehead. Instead of merely dodging, I stepped in and twisted beside the attack before bringing my leg up and kicking Terry straight in his jaw. The impact was so strong his teeth clashed together, and I had no doubt he lost more than a few as a result. I didn’t have to wonder for long, as the proof was right before my eyes the next moment. One of his green splintered teeth dropped to the ground, and he held up a hand to his lips to stop the blood from dripping. "Lucky. Shot." He sneered. I barely held back the urge to roll my eyes at his statement and rage. Had he forgotten that I am a Wraith? That name doesn’t instill fear for no reason. For all his bulk, Terry wasn't very good at actual fighting. At best, he made me feel more like I was thrown into a ring with a child. Or a child who couldn’t swim and was chucked in the deep end of a pool for the flailing he d