He chuckled, then swept a wave of his magic ahead of us.
An illusion fell away, revealing a massive hexagonal dark building just a few feet away. It was a really cool sort of modern fortress with glowing crimson veins infused in it.
Requital in all its glory.
He gestured toward it. “Ready to venture inside?”
“No fucking question. I can’t wait.”
“Then let’s get started.”
19
~Winter~
The mark of his displeasure rolled through the dreamscape.
It was in every aspect of it.
He’d pulled me into a wasteland.
Dead, skeleton trees with bark like charred bone surrounded the area, some even hollowed out. The ground was cracked black earth that splintered under my bare feet and had me hissing with every step I took. With my physiology, I’d heal quickly, but then another step would slice into my skin or even stab through it.
But I couldn’t stay still. He was using his magic to force me onward to three hundred feet in the distance where he sat on a throne made of twisted white shimmering bone and a gray film glinting off it from the corrupted necromantic power he was pulling on from his allies.
The sky was a low and oppressive cloud layer with faint, midnight-blue light bleeding through—the mark of his magic.
A harsh wind even whipped through the area. Normally, I couldn’t feel cold temperatures due to my death-cold state, but he’d obviously infused that stabbing ice sensation he’d assaulted me with in that pool dreamscape before to create thismagically-manufactured wind that could actually make me feel it, cause a nasty chill in me.
The time before this, a few days ago, right after me performing Risen Reckoning, I’d gone to him in another dreamscape after he’d beckoned me, and when he’d pulled me into it the place had been full of warmth and coziness—a luxurious lounge he’d created with gold velvety furniture, legs and armrests encrusted with all sorts of jewels. He’d brought me in dressed in my jeans and hoodie, my comfort clothes. For once he hadn’t altered me in that way. Because he’d thought I’d been there to agree that it was time for me to go with him to Sanctus.
Instead, I’d told him that I’d needed more time.
He hadn’t exactly taken well to that, even with me making him believe that it was because I wanted to practice wielding that level of power that Risen Reckoning drew on more, thinking I wasn’t ready for what he needed from me yet.
While he’d let me go, he’d punished me by not infusing me with that warmth.
Days it had been now and I was growing more antsy, that cold was worsening. And I knew it would soon escalate to that stabbing ice sensation, which would be difficult to function through. It was already straining enough to put on a front around everyone, not to feed from Zayn except during sex, and to appear like nothing was wrong.
Ruxnoth had made it abundantly clear that he’d harm anyone I told. Harm to him given his power set and means could literally mean complete devastation—even death.
I continued on through this hellscape, grimacing as the way the bastard had dressed me this time had that chill assaulting me all the more from the magically-manufactured wind, because the gray T-shirt I was in was shredded, barely holding together in its tatters. The same for the jeans, the kneeseven completely worn away. There was no hoodie either. And the barefoot thing obviously wasn’t helping.
“Good boy,” he rumbled when I was about ten feet out, so close finally.
He released that pull, then, and I came to a jolting stop, looking up at him sitting there, this time wearing his lavish gold and navy baroque patterned coat, albeit still shirtless beneath.
His eyes narrowed dangerously. “In that sense at least. You didn’t resist my little leash there.”
Wait. Did he know that I could have?
It was vital that he didn’t recognize that I could impact this dreamscape.
While he knew my power had hit extreme levels, something he’d felt from me performing Risen Reckoning through the connection he’d established between us, for me to impact a True Celestial with warped power bolstered by twenty necromancers was, let’s just say, a tad beyond that.
Without workarounds.
Him not knowing my true knowledge levels due to my subterfuge should have him still believing I was helpless in this situation.
