To ruin an Omega - Chapter 451: All hail the loser

Chapter 451: All hail the loser

FIA

I could feel Cian’s questions building through the bond. They sat heavy in the space between us, unspoken but present. He had pieced some of it together from what Dimitri said, from the way I reacted, from the venom in my voice when I threw the word rapist at him. But knowing fragments of something and hearing the full picture were different things entirely.

He wanted to ask.

I felt his restraint just as clearly as I felt his curiosity. He held back because he sensed how raw I still was, how close to breaking apart I had come standing in front of Dimitri. The bond pulsed with his careful concern, his desire to know warring with his need to protect me from reliving whatever had carved that much pain into my voice.

When we stepped inside, the warmth of the house hit me first. Then reality crashed back in.

“Your mother…”

The words left my mouth before I could stop them. My hands flew to my face as everything I had pushed aside came flooding back. The grand Luna had thrown herself between Aldric and me. Even number four… Prue. The fall she had suffered… I hated to think the worst.

Cian’s hand found my shoulder. Steady, as it was grounded.

“She is fine.”

I pulled back to look at him, searching his face for the lie.

“Are you sure? She took so much protecting me.”

“Her suffering the worst brunt from Aldric’s poisoning might have done more than enough to damage the perception of her strength.” His voice stayed even, but I caught the tension underneath. “But my mother is a born Luna. She is a fighter.”

I wanted to believe him. I tried to let his certainty settle the panic rising in my chest.

“What about Gabriel?”

The question came out quieter. More afraid.

“You must know what happened to him before you came for me. What Aldric did to him.”

Cian’s jaw tightened. I felt his rage spike through the bond, hot, sharp and barely controlled. It burned through him like wildfire before he forced it down, wrestled it back into something manageable.

“I do.”

Those two words came clipped and hard.

He took a slow breath, letting it out even slower.

“He is in a cell where Aldric cannot take over and harm more people.”

The image of Gabriel trapped in his own body made my stomach turn. Aldric still being able to wear his face, use his voice, and control his limbs while Gabriel screamed from somewhere inside himself with no way out.

Cian moved toward the stairs. His hand gestured for me to follow.

“Let us get you cleaned up so you can rest.”

“I can help him.”

Cian stopped and turned to face me with confusion pulling at his features.

“When I use my healing, it does something to the runes he is covered in.” I stepped closer, met his eyes directly. “Your uncle Gabriel does not need to suffer even more after what was done to him.”

“You have already given a lot.”

“I do not feel so weak that I cannot manage this.”

The words came out firmer than I expected. I held his gaze, refusing to back down even as I felt his hesitation pulse through the bond. He wanted to say no. Wanted to protect me from spending more of myself when I had already been through too much today.

But I needed this.

Needed to do something that mattered, something that helped instead of destroyed.

His resistance wavered. I watched him consider it, weigh the cost against the benefit, against what it would mean for Gabriel to have even a moment of relief.

“No problem then.”

The agreement came reluctantly, but it came.

I smiled at him. Small and grateful.

We headed toward the prison together.

The air changed as we descended. It grew heavier, damper, thick with the smell of earth and stone and something else I could not quite name. Something that clung to the back of my throat and made my skin prickle.

The solitary cell sat at the end of a long corridor. Isolated. Away from everything else.

Gabriel looked up when we approached. His face carried exhaustion in every line, but his eyes cleared when he saw me. Something like relief flickered across his expression.

“I am glad you are alive.”

His voice came out rough, strained from disuse or screaming or both.

“It spares me more suffering.”

Cian called to the sentinel stationed nearby. The man moved forward without question, keys already in hand. Metal scraped against metal as he unlocked the cell door. It swung open with a groan that echoed down the corridor.

Cian entered first. Cautious. His body positioned between me and Gabriel in a way that looked casual but was anything but.

“Which one is really you?”

Gabriel’s mouth curved into something too tired to be called a smile.

“It is me, Cian. Aldric has a much harder time taking over now after what your mate did.”

He turned his attention to me then. Gratitude sat heavy in his gaze.

“I thank you.”

I walked forward. Each step brought me closer to him, closer to the runes I could already feel humming beneath his skin.

“I believe him.”

The words came out certain. I did believe him. Something in the way he held himself, the way his voice shaped the syllables, told me Gabriel was the one in control right now.

“I do think you should keep your distance.”

Gabriel’s warning cut through my certainty. He shifted backward, put space between us even as his hands gripped the edge of the stone bench he sat on.

“The strength at which he fights with now is so scary to feel. He knows to fear you.”

“He is right to be afraid.”

I kept moving forward despite his warning. The hum grew louder in my ears, clearer, like a melody only I could hear.

“He knows annihilation is near. He is the kind of man to fear death too after all.”

My hands began to glow. The light started faint, then grew brighter, spreading across my palms in waves of moonlight silver edged with blue. Beautiful and terrible all at once.

“I hope you feel fear all the way out, Aldric.”

I reached for Gabriel. My hand extended toward him, glowing fingers stretching across the space between us.

“You deserve nothing but the worst.”

Gabriel’s hand shot out and caught my wrist.

The grip came hard and fast, crushing. I saw the change happen in his eyes. Watched terror flood his expression as something else clawed its way to the surface and took control.

Aldric.

But Gabriel fought back. I felt it in the way his fingers trembled, in the way his grip loosened fraction by fraction even as Aldric screamed inside him to hold on, to hurt me, to do anything to stop what was coming.

His hand fell away at the end, releasing me completely.

Then Aldric’s voice broke through. Pathetic, desperate and nothing like the confident monster who had poisoned the grand Luna, attempted to hurt Cian and myself so many times and even went far enough to destroy so many lives.

“No. Wait.”

The words came out broken. Begging.

“Is this how easy you will let me go? After all the things I did?”

Gabriel’s body turned toward Cian. Aldric wore his face but could not hide the fear bleeding through every feature.

“You do not know half of what I did to you. I have a lot to say.”

Cian’s expression stayed cold. Unmoved.

“It is irrelevant. You are irrelevant. Only the relevant are kept.”

His voice carried the weight of finality. Of a judgment already passed and sealed.

“I do not want to think about you anymore. And when you are gone, you will be out of mind.”

I stepped closer and let my glowing hand hover just above Gabriel’s chest.

“You wanted to matter, didn’t you?”

The question landed soft but cutting.

“In the end, you are nothing but a worm begging for its life.”

“You Omega triffling Bbbb…”

Gabriel surged back to the surface. I saw him take control fully, saw the determination flood his features as he fought Aldric down one last time.

I pressed my palm against his chest.

The light exploded outward. It covered Gabriel in waves, spread across his skin and sank deeper, searching for every rune Aldric had carved into his flesh. Through his torn shirt, I watched them ignite. Each mark blazed with that same moonlight blue, burning bright enough to make me squint.

Gabriel screamed.

The sound tore from his throat raw and agonized. But underneath it, layered and wrong, I heard another voice. Aldric’s voice. Screaming too. The two sounds overlapped and twisted together, impossible to separate, impossible to tell where one ended and the other began.

The light grew brighter.

The screaming grew louder.

Then it stopped.

All at once. The light died. The screaming cut off. Gabriel collapsed forward, gasping for air, his body shaking with the aftermath of whatever had just happened inside him.

I pulled my hand back. The glow faded from my palms slowly, reluctantly, until nothing remained but skin.

It was then that Gabriel looked up at me. His eyes were clear. Completely clear. There was no shadow lurking behind them. No second presence waiting to claw its way back to the surface.

Just Gabriel.

“He is gone,” he whispered.

The words came out like a prayer. Like something he had stopped believing could ever be true.

I nodded. My legs felt weak suddenly. The exhaustion I had been holding back crashed into me all at once.

Cian’s arm wrapped around my waist before I could stumble. He held me steady, took my weight without question or complaint.

Cian then spoke, regarding his uncle. “I would like that to be true. But I will have Elder Moira check you and your loyalties first before you are released from this cell.”

“There is no problem at all.” Gabriel mouthed back.

“Then we are done here,” he said quietly.

Gabriel nodded. He stayed on the ground, still catching his breath, still processing the fact that his body belonged to him alone again.

Cian guided me out of the cell. The sentinel locked it behind us, though I suspected Gabriel would not need to stay there much longer. Not without Aldric inside him. Not without that threat hanging over everyone’s heads.

We walked back through the corridor in silence. My body leaned heavily against Cian’s side. Each step took more effort than the last.

But Aldric was gone.

Really, truly gone.

And that made every bit of exhaustion worth it.