“I didn’t take it this time. You seemed to handle my problem on your own.” Chrome smirked, crossing his arms.
My mind raced, retracing my steps to where it could be. The only plausible explanation was that it fell out of my pocket at the Wind Kingdom during the Infernal attack. I’d been so careful with it; how could that have happened? The chains on my wrists and ankles might as well have wrapped around my heart, severing it in two. There was no hope in getting the letter back this time. I curled in on myself, drawing my knees to my chest.
“How?” I asked, my voice barely a whisper, but I needed to know how he had obtained this letter after swearing he didn’t have it the day it originally went missing. “How did you end up with it to begin with?”
Chrome angled his head to the side as he pondered over my question, casting away the obsidian in his eyes. When he spoke, his voice was strained. “Blaize had picked it up from the floor just outside my bedroom.You’d dropped it when we kissed for the first time. Remember?” He glanced at me, and the tiniest of smiles graced his face. The quicksilver was stronger now, but the Syphon Bond had more of a hold. “When he came to inform us of the meeting, he handed it to me. I recognized that the script had been from your mother. It was too regal not to be. Plus, it was addressed to ‘Aeran’ and no one else called you that. I had every intention of giving it back at the time. I just needed to see if your mother knew anything in regards to Arcadia or Forest’s plans. I read it before the Kinetic attack on the Hollow.”
Chrome sighed, running his fingers through his hair, the metallic waves falling seamlessly back into place. “It stayed with me through the battle at the Hollow, and even after I became Infernal. This bond has kept pieces of the old me alive more than I care to admit. And the night I witnessed you meeting Shadow for the first time strengthened it. Your mere proximity brings it out.” He groaned, clutching histemples as if he were in physical pain from the internal battle. The real Chrome wanted to hold on long enough to get out the truth before the Syphon Bond took over again. Through clenched teeth and shuttered eyes, he forced out, “I had to give it back to you. Before I destroyed it. So I snuck in that next morning while you slept and left it for you to wake up to.” He struggled, the corded muscles in his arms flexing so tight I thought they’d snap. He gasped and groaned, stumbling away from me.
I glanced down at my knees, avoiding Chrome’s deterioration before my eyes. I couldn’t stomach it. When I finally looked up at him again, the black irises had taken over once more. Any flicker of the real Chrome was extinguished once again.
“Gray…” Slate’s voice rasped from the other side of the cell, as if he’d been fighting against tears of his own.
Chrome snorted as he sorted himself out. “Enjoy the show, brother?”
A sudden realization crashed into me. Slate had watched our entire moment.
I stared at Chrome in horror. “You…you knew he was awake this entire time?”
Chrome chuckled. “Figured it was only fair, right?”
I knew this wasn’t the real Chrome speaking to me, but it begged to question, didmyChrome know that Slate had been awake the entire time?
Chrome closed the distance between us, teeth bared as he said, “When are you going to fucking understand? You’re mine. And I’ll do whatever I have to do to make that point crystal fucking clear.”
I glared at the monster embodying the man I loved. “I hate you.”
“You hate to love me, you mean?” Chrome retorted, then turned his attention to his best friend. “I hope you enjoyed my moment of weakness. It won’t be happening again,” he clipped, standing bare-chested with his Infernal veins on proud display. “As for you,” he said, focusing on Slate, seeming to have forgotten about the letteralready, too distracted by his sudden anger toward Slate. “I don’t think you quite get it yet.”
Chrome’s shadows unfurled from his body once again, sending them to attack my Guardian. One by one, the shadows sliced across his body. I screamed, desperate to stop the brutality. A hissing sound came from each wound, crimson flowing from each of his lacerations. Slate’s head fell back against the wall as he groaned, taking the pain as the shadows slashed through his skin over and over again, each one cutting a fresh part of his body. His chest. His torso. His stomach. Neck. Legs. And then his cheeks.
I tried to crawl to him, but my chains jerked me back, nearly dislocating my shoulders in the process. “Slate!”
“The more you go to him, the more he’ll suffer,” Chrome said. “This is happening because of you.”
“No! Chrome…stop. He’s like your brother!” I pleaded.
He laughed. “No, he’s not. No brother would betray me the way he has.”
More shadows scored Slate’s body, but he accepted the lashing in silence, gritting his teeth and staring blankly into Chrome’s eyes with each vicious strike.
I’d never felt so helpless.
The door to the prison cell barged open, slamming into the wall with a loud bang. I jumped, startled by the sudden intrusion.
To make matters worse, my father stood in the doorway, assessing the scene before him. “Chrome.”
My Twin Soul didn’t turn to face him, keeping his shadows out in the open. “What now?”
My father looked at me on the floor. I became very aware that I was still in my bra with no pants on. Mortified, I shifted my legs in an effort to hide myself. A look of fury overcame the former king’s face. “What the fuck have you done?”
“What was necessary,” Chrome replied, sighing as he turned to face him, ceasing his onslaught on Slate.
“And what was that exactly?” My father’s teeth ground together as his eyes seemed to shrink in size. “Did you rape my daughter?”
Chrome snorted a laugh. “Hardly. She was more than willing. Weren’t you?” he directed at me.
Forest’s narrowed eyes landed on me.
