Chapter 105

Chapter 105: Chapter 105

Chapter 105

The memory of seeing Leo destabilised, utterly fazed, wouldn’t leave my mind. Following the news of the horrors he’d seen, our attention caught the darkening of the sky.

"He killed Ser Cavriel. His blood...I-I tried to save him, but he was losing too much blood." Leo fidgeted, looking at his own hands, wet with more crimson. The cold air was beginning to dry it on his skin. "I have no one else anymore. I’m all alone in this world. I might as well die."

Weirdly as it seemed, my heart went all out for Leo. I was the Aetherblood yet I felt useless that I hadn’t protected anyone from Nathan’s wrath. How could stealing a fragment of my power suddenly turn him into such a vicious, twisted barbarian?

How could he suddenly become unstoppable?

"Leo, focus!" I grabbed his arms. "What do you mean, Nathan killed Ser Cavriel?"

"He appeared at the cabin. I think he channelled a portal like you’ve done."

"But how...how did he even find you?"

As though to answer my question, my eyes scanned from Kai, who was inches away from us, casting a wary look at the interaction between Leo and I, to the sky.

It was midday, the sun taking a rest behind heavy clouds. Hence why the air was rather cold. But the once peaceful weather shifted. A storm emerged from nowhere, darkening the sky.

The clouds warped into a fold, centering towards a specific spot before the pressure compressed then released, and with the blast in the sky came the existence of a portal right above the fortress.

My body froze as my jaw literally dropped, watching the scene unfold. Following the opening of the portal came a sort of redness brightening the rings at its brink, and then I gasped when my brain made sense of the scene.

"Fuck...fuck!" I screamed. "It’s FUCKING LAVA!" I yelled.

Without thinking twice, I raced forward but Kai caught my arm, pulling me back as lava poured down upon the building.

"I hate to say this, but stay with Leo." He firmly said as he prepared to run towards the building.

"Let me go!"

Freeing my hand, I raced towards the building, Kai’s footsteps behind me.

"Fire obeys. Heat, submit to my will and cease."

The spell flowed through me towards the lava. The scenery was colossally indescribable. One would think it was a hearth at first. Like a large fire pit dug into the heart of the sky, until realisation dawned and it truly was the bottom of a volcano.

Nathan’s evil surpassed any imagination, having created a portal at the heart of the burning liquid and transported it here.

My forehead soaked with sweat, trickling down my cheeks as Kai met up with me. Overhead, molten lava was our entire view. The once tall walls of the fortress melted down like they were nothing, rocks hitting the ground with such thunderous thuds the earth shook, matching the quivering of my heart.

"I call the cold into this heat. What burns, harden. What flows, be still."

I cast more spells, seeing as the first had barely any effect. My arms buckled at the elbows as I bore the weight of the lava, turning it into solid rock. I shifted the temperature of the air around it enough to cool the flow.

The fortress became masked by molten rock, now half its original size.

Then, I focused on the portal itself.

"I am the blood that was before and shall be after. Close."

It did barely anything to shake its brink.

I reached deep into myself, calling out my Aetherblood heritage. Like a pin prickling the back of my neck where my spine connects with my brain, I felt a rush of unbelievable energy.

My eyes beamed an emerald green shade and my feet rose from the earth. My nerves filled with the strength of ancestral Aetherblood, their power coursing through me.

I felt my parents, and the motivation behind their presence.

And in that moment, my voice came out not as my own but as an Aetherblood.

"I am the blood that was before and shall be after. Close."

The portal swirled shut instantly.

Still midair, Kai ran into the crumbling fortress. With my senses inhumanly heightened, muffled screams reached my hearing.

"Still. Let what falls hold its place." I muttered under my breath.

The crumbling of rocks halted, allowing Kai to pull out some people while I used more spells to pull out the others.

In about half an hour, the few who hadn’t been caught by the lava were saved. In the near distance, Kai was on a call for emergency services.

My eyes scanned the area, the true power of Aetherblood still flowing through my bloodstream, and then they stopped at Clawface. He was sobbing.

Unbelievable.

Clawface was on the verge of tears, his nostrils wet with mucus. I approached, and my eyes settled on Mr. Locke. The man was severely burnt, left with one leg without a foot, as if already losing one to the fire wasn’t enough. He was unconscious, his heart beating faintly, and I quickly rushed towards him, dropping to my knees.

"I deny death its claim here. Beat. Live."

My spell healed and stabilised his heart. A part of me believed I could grow his foot and his other leg back from scratch, but I feared I was too weak for that. Besides, I was still just a novice.

And this was why Nathan was always one step ahead of me.

The power of Aetherblood pulsed raggedly inside me, my face fuming with raw fury.

Like being in an abattoir, the smell of burnt skin was thick in the air.

My vision of the future.

It was already coming to pass.

Behind me, I sensed Leo approaching and I turned to him. "I wait for Nathan to come here no more. I go to him, and you will take me."

Leo watched me with wide eyes, his lips parted but careful not to voice any disagreement.

He simply nodded.

"The House of Steele, yes?" I asked once. Leo quickly nodded, suddenly rendered speechless.

My voice rumbled as I opened another portal, this time to the House of Steele.

"What do you think you’re doing?" Kai snapped behind me. He stomped closer but before he could touch me, I froze him in place.

His body stilled, rooted to the ground, and I spoke in a disembodied tone.

"Your mate is more than simply a Luna. He is the Aetherblood, and you will not stop his destiny."

I watched as tears fell from Kai’s eyes as I stepped into the portal, Leo following beside me. Yet I felt nothing. Not even an ounce of softness.

Perhaps truly, to become an Aetherblood was to lose one’s sanity. But either way, as long as Nathan was destroyed and the world where Kai lived remained safe, only then could I be safe too.

From soft, fluffy weather, we entered into an ominously layered sky where thunderstorms split the atmosphere and the air carried an eerie sensation. I closed the portal behind us, Leo coming to my side, but something tickled my senses from behind.

"Clawface...how did you get here?"

"I jumped in." He grinned. The smirk on his face faded when I pointed a finger at him and he raised his hands.

"You’re not really Alex right now, so I’d understand if you wish to kill me. But hear me first. Your plan is to end Nathan, and mine is to protect my Luna, whether he’s an Aetherblood or not. My Luna is in that body." Clawface said, his mind made up.

I gave him a once-over and then focused back on the House.

"I won’t save you if you face death."

Clawface shrugged, brushing off an imaginary chill as he muttered. "Yea, yea. I don’t expect you to."