Chapter 101

Chapter 101: Chapter 101

Chapter 101

My journey back home was laced with a labyrinth of harsh thoughts. They spiralled through my mind, bombarding me so relentlessly that they became more of a headache.

Leo was changing, and this new personality scared me.

It was certain he had nothing more to lose, so whatever could he do now?

I thrust forward as the car engine chortled to a stop. My lashes battled, casting the view of the fortress before me.

"Thank you," I said to the taxi driver before climbing out.

Shutting the door behind me, I caught his gracious smile. The good man hadn’t collected a fee, and I was grateful because I hadn’t had one to give to begin with.

"It’s not every day I carry a Luna. The gods must have blessed me today," he had mentioned earlier.

To use teleportation was to drain myself, and to channel a portal yielded no less of the same result, so it was better to opt for a drive. The only con was the sluggishness that came with it.

Inside the towering walls of the fortress, I headed towards my room. I twisted the door handle until the breeze carried a familiar scent that invaded my nostrils.

And I paused.

The door creaked softly as it opened, revealing Kai. He was seated on an armchair next to the bed. His index nail picked at his thumb.

Without turning his head, he questioned, "Your bed wasn’t unkempt this morning. Rather, it was empty and tidy."

He drawled out the moment while I stepped closer.

"Where did you go?"

Of everything I’d been prepared for, seeing Kai physically was the last of it, and what was even crazier was the fact that we hadn’t spoken either.

"I couldn’t sleep. I’m not so familiar with this place, so I went out on a morning walk."

"I came to surprise you. I’d been waiting since before the first light of dawn."

"Do you refer to me as a liar then?" I concluded, twisting his suspicion into an insult.

A charming smile radiated across his lips, curving them upwards. "No, darling."

Something about those eyes masked a fake expression. He stood and stopped before me before wrapping his arms around me. The result was my complete freeze.

"I’ve missed you, sweet peach."

I didn’t say anything. Kai pulled back and watched me from arm’s length, his hands resting lightly on my shoulders. My stomach fluttered at the sight of him, to be honest, but my resolve twisted and hardened my heart, casting away the true buttery feeling.

"Why are you here?"

"What do you mean? I’ve come to see you."

"I thought you were enjoying your time at the castle, and I was specific with my request. I didn’t want to see you."

"That must have been a slip of the tongue. How do you mean, didn’t want to see me?" he questioned brightly.

I hated his pretence as it clawed at my throat. I needed a matching energy, and he wasn’t giving that. All it was doing was making my blood boil even harder.

My anger was surpassing far more than simply the catalyst that had begun this conformational change in my view of Kai, ’my ass king.’

"I’m not included in any court matters or council discussions. Advisors probably see me as nothing but a Luna and a vessel to bear your child. People in the pack barely even know me because I’ve barely come out for them to know me. I’m being kept like a fragile package, and I’ve come to accept that..."

"No, that isn’t it."

"Do not interrupt me," I shunned. Silence whizzed past before I continued. "Please, let me be. I’m starting to enjoy the peace that comes with this place."

"We are a couple, Alex. Are you even listening to yourself?"

My breath caught at his stern use of my name. He usually called me sweet peach.

"You’re taking this too far. What exactly is on your mind?"

"I..." I halted abruptly.

He raised a finger into the air as he pressed on. "I’ve withstood your rage and confrontational outbursts, yet it makes no sense to me why you’re this..." He gestured at the extent of my fury by compressing his hands together, as though he were squeezing the air between his palms into the shape of a ball.

"It makes no sense," he finally finished.

I turned my face away. I caught a reflection of myself in the mirror. Half of myself.

My eyes darkened beneath the weight of the wrinkles etched across my face, my lashes aiding the shadows they cast. A grim look was plastered across my demeanour, and my chest puffed out as though I wanted to fight someone.

"Are you planning something behind my back?" he questioned more firmly.

Kai’s approach was anything but soft and tender.

His own anger was rising.

"I’m not a fool. Do you not love me anymore? Is that it?"

My body twirled before my mind even registered the movement.

He continued. "After your awakening from Nathan’s clutches, you’ve been different. At first, I blamed Marcellan, thinking his closeness with you was changing you, but this is all you. What happened when you were gone? Is it fear? Fear of becoming a Death Bringer Aetherblood?"

He kept going on and on, and with each sentence, his tone hardened and intensified. Before I knew it, I shot my hands to my left, releasing the pressure that had been eating away at me.

Glass shattered. The windows blew open, the curtains swayed, their rod bent, the mirror behind me broke into fragments, and the bed beside us shifted.

Kai’s eyes fluttered. Shock lingered within those intoxicatingly bewitching orbs of his.

"What’s happening?"

I slapped his approaching hand away.

"The more I’m accepting this power, the more it’s darkening inside of me. All this time, I wondered why my parents never wanted revenge for their deaths, but it all makes sense now. To become an Aetherblood is to be both evil and good. Even if I save the world from Nathan, the people I’ve killed remain dead. What’s the meaning of changing the world when I can’t save..."

"We kill to save."

"Maybe for you." My chest heaved harshly. "I’m not a killer. I don’t enjoy the massacre of death."

"Is that your trouble?"

"Or what if..." The words hardened in my throat.

Kai shook me.

"Say what’s on your mind, Alex. We are one."

"Well, what if you die?" I threw my hands into the air. "You’re so hard headed about protecting me, but what if you failed to protect yourself? Then I give birth and live life alone. Do I keep killing all the other Alphas who wish to take your place on the throne while I wait for your heir to grow old enough to become king?"

Kai’s eyes grew unsettled by my far fetched imagination, but he didn’t argue against the negativity I had just placed on the table. Something about his composure had calmed.

The vision from the future flashed across my eyes again. The leftovers of charred flesh, no less terrifying than skeletons littering the earth, and Kai, a lifeless being, as the highlight of it all, left me unnerved. My nerves tightened around my neck, and adrenaline shot through my bloodstream.

Kai was silent.

I didn’t want to stay any longer. I rushed out of the room, almost coming to a halt as Mrs. Locke came into view from around the corner. I gave her a sharp, courteous nod before hurrying down the hallway to anywhere but the inside of the fortress.

Chapter 10