Reaching the doorway, I released the shadows from my palm to twine around the door handle. After my transition from Celestial to Infernal, I developed new abilities. Instead of working with metal and electromagnetic energy, shadows aided me and worked at my side—along with a few other perks. With a flick of my fingers, the door clicked open and widened for my entry. I retreated my shadows back into my body to protect them from Celanea’s unwavering cruelty when she didn’t get her way.
A light trilling giggle sounded from the opposite end of the room. “Aw, my little pet. What took you so long to come to me?”
I bowed at the waist, holding it for several seconds until I knew she’d be satisfied. When I straightened, Celanea’s golden eyes speared through me, restraining my feet where I stood. Her wild black hair reached her ribs—a glittering onyx crown cresting the top—and obsidian lip shade painted her feral smile.
Forest stood at her side, gazing at her as if the sun rose and set at her name. I resisted the urge to recoil at the sight. “I came as quickly as I could, my Queen.” The words tasted bitter, as they always did when I called her that. She might own me, but she wasn’t my Queen. Only Gray would ever hold that title.
“Very well,” the Tempest queen conceded, sighing as she perched on her throne. Light tried to filter through the stained-glass windows from behind, but they were so darkly tinted that the room was still dim. No glowing flames levitated in this room—not that I needed them. “You’d best have news about that blasted stone.”
I straightened, gripping one wrist with the other in front of my body. “Unfortunately, my leads for the Seraphite Stone have turned up empty, my Queen.” If Celanea thought it was important, then that meant I needed it instead.
Celanea jolted to her feet, her eyes morphing to yellow in the dimmed room. When I first met her, she’d looked like a walking corpse, decrepit and an absolute horror to set your eyes upon. Now, she appeared young and dangerously beautiful. She materialized a jagged dagger in her palm and charged toward me until the serrated edge of the blade pressed against my throat.
I didn’t flinch, keeping my stare on the Tempest who had taken control of my mind and body in ways that Forest or Grim never had.Thisbeingused dark blood magic, something no one in my home world possessed.
With a rough nick of my skin, she jerked away from me. She cast her feverish stare onto the blade, hunger bringing her to life at the sight of my blood on its edge. “I think I need to strengthen our bond a bit, don’t you think?”
My nostrils flared as I clenched my jaw. The last thing I needed was for her grip on my mind to strengthen. At any moment, she could easily slip into my head and deliver orders, which I mostly had no other choice but to comply with. However, I learned early on that it was unusual for me to have any thoughts of my own at all. As an Infernal, I was meant to be an extension of the Tempest who cast the original bond. Now, as in the past, Celanea had an entire Infernal army that fought for her. For me to have the slightest bit of autonomy wasn’t normal, so I did my best to keep that fact hidden from her. But there would forever be a part of me that needed her to know she couldn’t fully keep me under her thumb.
The shadow that remained by her throne shifted, and Celanea gasped as she began to move her fingers methodically above the blade. “Bring me more Endarkened so I can draw more power from them.” The Tempest began to mutter words in a foreign language, continuing to weave her fingers, her tone desperate.
Forest bowed his head. “Of course, my love,” he said, before he spun on his heel and exited the throne room.
Several seconds passed as Celanea’s frustration grew until she released an ear-piercing screech and flung the dagger from her grip. It sliced through the air toward my face. I fought the urge to snatch it with my shadows and instead slightly ducked my head to the side to dodge it. That blade was made of bones and imbued with pure evil itself. To be stabbed with it was a death sentence.
Celanea stormed forward again, her teeth bared as she forced her essence into my brain. When she spoke, I heard her voice simultaneously from the outside world and in my mind. “Bring me the Seraphite Stone. You have two weeks before I decide you’re anabsolute waste. Before I kill you, I’ll make you watch me torture your Twin Soul, slowly, like I did a millennium ago.” Celanea’s feral snarl transformed into a frazzled smile, and she began to chuckle. “Oh, my pet. Please don’t make me kill that pretty face.”
Before I knew what was happening, Celanea grabbed my cheeks and forced her icy-hard lips against mine. Unable to help it, I recoiled, but she didn’t pull away. Pressing her tongue at the seam of my sealed mouth, she licked across them, a shameless moan escaping her throat.
My stomach turned, and no matter how much I tried to pull away, she tightened her grip on my mind to make me freeze in place and take it.
“You taste so delicious,” the Tempest queen whispered against my skin. “Kings usually do.” She pressed a kiss to the corner of my lips. “But you, my dearest Chrome. You are the perfect combination of corruption and purity. However, I won’t stop until your corruption is complete.” Another kiss. My insides burned, dying to free myself from her poisonous touch. “You know why?” Her voice lilted before she brushed another sensual kiss against the shell of my ear. “Because you’re all mine. And once I discover how you managed to evade the absolute corruption of the Syphon Bond, then I’ll destroy you bit by measly bit until you’renothing.”
When I collapsedthe veil separating Arcadia from Terraguard, Arcadia joined with the human world in disjointed chunks. It had been Celanea’s plan all along. When she’d cast out the Celestials, she and her fellow Tempests took over and began to feed from the aether that served as the magic source in Arcadia. Aether existed in all living things, even the air. They began casting Syphon Bonds on everything, depleting the land’s magic to fuel their own. In doing so, it essentially poisoned what I had learned was once a beautiful world.
The effects the Tempests had on Arcadia resembled those of the Endarkened in our world. Since the Tempests had essentially run out of real estate in Arcadia, Celanea had decided to infiltrate Terraguard, knowing that Kinetics and Elementals resided there. Navigating the world as it currently stood had grown much more difficult with its new layout.
Unable to fade now that I was Infernal, I recently discovered I could travel with the help of my shadows, which carried me any distance that was the focus of my intention. It required a lot of strength, so if I was low on magical reserves, I resorted to traveling on foot until I could replenish. I was immune to the toxins that dripped from the dying Arcadian trees, so that was a perk.
The bond snagged in my chest.Gray.
After seeing Shadow talk to her in the alley that night, I knew now more than ever that I needed to act fast. I needed her to join me. Fuck everything else. It was her and me against the world…or worlds.
We could make them all bow at our feet. No more stupid wars. No more psychopathic kings or Tempests hellbent on controlling others to do their dirty work. No, it would just be us and the world as we saw fit. We’d be untouchable. Unstoppable. The possibilities were endless.
I stood at the edge of the tree line looking onto the Hollow, my former home. The sun had just set, and my shadows allowed me to blend in with the trees. A part of me missed my connections to my old abilities, but it was simply due to practical reasons. My emotions no longer clouded my judgment, nor did they weigh me down. No more pain. The best freedom I could have ever asked for.
Unfortunately, there were a few moments from time to time where emotions would try to rise, but I suspected it was the untainted part of the Twin Soul Bond that belonged to Gray. At least, I hoped.
Watching the familiar Elementals leisurely stroll across the back lawn and into the lodge, I felt nostalgia. A cavernous part of me missed those who had taken me in all those years ago, and the friendshipsand loyalties that had been more like a family's. In the beginning, it grew lonely in Goshen, as the other Infernals didn’t socialize with one another. Their only existence was to serve Celanea in all capacities, which, in return, reminded me that I didn’t need those connections or the irritating nostalgia that came with them. I was fine on my own.
However, nothing compared to the bond that I shared with Gray. It was a literal tether connecting her soul to mine. A tether that died a little more by the day. Our bond would be restored once she became Infernal, because the Syphon Bond was cast on her as well.
I pushed down the nostalgia. It was unwanted and unnecessary. It did nothing to serve my purpose.
I leaned back against the tree to my left, watching the goings on at the Hollow, observing how most Elementals moved with purpose and alertness, while others moved as if their wards protected them from all dangers and threats. I wondered if they’d caught on to the fact that my magic had faded from the wards since I’d turned Infernal. That now, it held only Onyx’s magic, and it wouldn’t be long before the glamour around the Hollow completely vanished.
A pair of Elementals, a girl and a guy I’d trained, walked hand-in-hand toward the tree line where I propped myself. Lake giggled at something Aster had said. When she tripped over a buried log in her path, Aster wrapped an arm around her waist, ensuring she didn’t fall. Lake smiled up at him before standing on her tiptoes to press a gentle kiss to his cheek.
