I held my posture stiff as I assessed the crowd with a blank stare, ready to get the branding over and done with. My shirtless skin began to pebble from the chilled air of the ballroom, my silver currents illuminating the brands that marred my arms.
“By now,” King Forest started up again as he walked to my side. His booming voice signaled for the crowd to settle. “Chrome is accustomed to the branding ceremony. We expect he’ll gain even more as the lost Elemental prince, Griffin Silas, continues to order more depletions to build his Endarkened army.” Dropping his gaze, he kept the room in a breath hold for several moments too long just to emphasize his point. When he looked up, he brightened. “I imagine Chrome will take the branding without a flinch. Am I right?”
I pivoted my head and met his depthless dark eyes, meeting the challenge in them. A grin tugged up the corners of my mouth as I envisioned all the ways I planned to kill him slowly, and then I dipped my head just the slightest.
“I have no doubt,” the king replied, his charismatic mask slipping for the slightest of moments for only my eyes to see, exposing the manipulative being that hid behind his smiles and propriety.
To my left, my mother and Grim stepped closer as Amethyst reached for the metal rod containing the angled number two with a small slash through it—the symbol for our Kill Marks—that glowed a bright red from the fire it sat in. She passed it to Grim, who then turned to me with his usual sadistic grin, sending all the wrong shivers down my spine and another bout of nausea tumbling through my core.
“Put on a good show for them, boy,” Grim said as he brought the glowing branding iron closer to my face in a test to see if I’d react. I didn’t. He gave a satisfied smirk as my mother wrapped her steely fingers around my forearm, raising it to where it was parallel with the ground. Grim angled the iron downward andlowered it until I felt the fiery heat nearly ten inches from my skin.
I gritted my teeth and directed my focus back to the crowd, who watched with rapt attention, enthralled gazes glued to me. When the singe of the branding iron touched my skin, I didn’t flinch. My thoughts locked onto Gray—the girl who I’d only ever spoken to once before when I was ten years old but had yet to forget. I could feel it in my soul that she needed me. I didn’t know why or how, but I felt that.
My skin hissed from the branding iron as the agony raged through me, the familiar stench of burnt skin permeating my nose.
Pain had become my best friend—a release rather than punishment. The torment caused by brands stopped about two years ago when I was gaining them at more frequent paces. I screamed the first time, wanting to pass out. But after that, my reactions decreased. It was a reminder that I wasn’t truly trapped like I felt. I was a powerful hybrid that could easily kill the king and Grim. Yet, they had me on such a tight leash I was suffocating a slow death under their control. Ironically, pain offered me a chance to breathe.
The only sound in the ballroom was the sizzling of my biceps' flesh. Both arms were nearly full, so I wondered where they’d start putting them once I ran out of real estate. I didn’t give myself a chance to think about the Elemental lives I’d taken. I didn’t have any extra space within me to carry guilt, too.
As the pungent odor settled into my nostrils, I was brutally reminded of how cutthroat our people were. You damn sure didn’t see the majority of human cultures branding their people for their fucking accomplishments. They branded cows.
Am I their cow?
I held the hazy image of the princess in my mind as Grim pressed the scorching metal to my skin. I’d only glimpsed herat a distance here and there, but never for long. The excitement of seeing her, even for half a second before she disappeared into the crowd, always tricked me into thinking I would be able to reach her. She always walked around scrutinizing the floor, shuffling as if she couldn’t get away from people fast enough.
People talked—a lot. And whenever I heard anyone say anything slightly negative about her, I made sure it was the last time they ran their mouths about their princess. I didn’t know why people thought it was acceptable to slander her the way they did, but I ensured they would respect their princess while in my presence. I supposed the average Kinetic didn’t respect anyone but themselves and the king.
At last, Grim removed the branding iron from my arm. I didn’t acknowledge him as he passed it back to my mother, who dropped my arm to retrieve it. The commoners looked on with shocked expressions as they usually did at my lack of reaction. If only they knew what pain I was truly accustomed to…
“Congratulations, Chrome,” King Forest said, stepping forward again. His chest puffed out in arrogance, and an enigmatic smile graced his green beard. I wanted to mow it with an Elemental blade. “You’ve done so much for our people. We are so honored to be in the presence of such an esteemed Warrior, especially one so young.”
My jaw ached, and my heart raged violently, but I forced a placid smile.
“You’re a legend. Our living legend at that. Thank you for all that you do.” King Forest’s deep brown eyes with amber flecks seared into my soul, daring me to disagree with his little public display.
I swallowed the built-up saliva, forcing myself to hide the grimace. “It is my honor to serve you, my King,” I ground out. “And it is my honor to protect our people and humankind fromthe threat of the Elementals.” The lie sat like a hot stone on my tongue.
Forest grinned, triumphant as usual. “Amethyst,” he intoned.
My mother stepped forward, pristine in her form-fitting dress and sleek plum hair. “Bandage Chrome’s arm and have him escorted from the ballroom.”
I thought of the ointment in my pocket, knowing that if the burn was now bandaged, I wouldn’t be able to medicate it. Fuck it, after forty-seven brands, I became accustomed to this routine. Plus, they couldn’t let me fall to an infection. Not their “legend.”
Amethyst’s deep blue eyes clashed with mine, a sharp grin inching upward just before she twisted at the waist, grabbed the bandages, and came to my side. The look she possessed as she held my stare taunted me. There was a complexity within it as if she tried to communicate something that I had no interest interpreting.
“Of course, my King.” I droned, turning my head away to gaze past the crowd while she covered the wound on my arm.
A minute passed. When Amethyst finished, she slid her hand down my arm until reaching my palm. I jerked, eyeing my mother. Her sneer was etched firmly in place. In a feather-light motion, she quickly squeezed my fingers.
I squinted, confused by what the gesture meant.
“Try not to disappoint me,” Amethyst said under her breath, not loud enough for the crowd to hear, but I knew everyone on the dais could.
I restrained from snatching my hand from her, so I slowly removed it, instead. Challenging Amethyst’s fierce stare, I murmured lowly, “You kinda need a heart for that. Don’t you think, Mother?”
Chapter 4
Slate
