Chapter 106

Chapter 106: Chapter 106

Chapter 106

Kai’s POV

Everything around me kept moving, but everything surrounding me was frozen in place, and that included my very self.

Trapped under the spell cast by Alex, I remained chained to the ground. Even the grass, meant to be subtle against my skin, prickled like the sharp edge of a blade, possibly drawing blood, but I was unable to feel my skin. My lungs still worked. My heart still hammered. Yet every muscle sat locked, every joint sealed, as if someone had poured concrete into my veins and told it to set.

My eyes trailed a new movement. From the fog of smoke rising behind me, a sports car sped through, coming to an abrupt stop metres away from where I was pinned to the earth. The engine cut with a harsh bark. Tyres dug into the soft ground.

Marcellan rushed out, eyes landing on me as he grabbed my shirt and looked around, frantic in his scanning.

"What... the fuck!"

He recoiled upon seeing my stagnant response, my entire body hardened as though I were made of stone. His fingers dug into the fabric of my collar, then released as if the contact itself burned him.

I opened my mind, entering his, and spoke without the use of my lips.

Release me. Alex has gone mad.

"Oh, fuck." His eyes shifted to the victims of the lava before latching onto me again. "What in the fuckity fuck is happening? Oh, shit. Everyone’s gone mad." He sniffed then coughed, the air toxic to breathe. Ash and sulphur coated his tongue; I felt the echo of it through the link. "Okay, okay... I just gotta..."

Marcellan! Focus! I need my wolf!

He inclined his head, pressing his lips so thin I feared he’d draw blood. Sweat already streaked the side of his face. The amber of his wolf pressed close behind his eyes, restless and hungry for something to tear into.

"Oh, right. Right." Inhaling sharply as his wolf surfaced, causing his eyes to shift to an amber hue like the traces of a dying light, he roared into my ears. "MO... THER... FUCK... KER!"

The scrunching of my nostrils in response to his spitting saliva was my first hint that I was freeing from Alex’s spell. Sensation flooded back in a brutal wave—heat, cold, the sting of half-healed burns along my thigh, the grit of dirt under my palms. I pulsed at my wolf within, awakening him. Warmth unleashed upon my nerves, invading every stream of veins until it reached my spine, and once the electric signal fired up to my brain, I roared back in response, tearing myself out of the invisible coat of the spell.

Bones shifted. Muscle realigned. For one blinding second the change tried to complete itself, claws pushing through, canines lengthening. I forced it down hard. Not here. Not yet.

"Could have chosen a better word, you know." I pointed, and Marcellan shrugged, still wiping spit from his chin.

I gasped as I landed on all fours. My bones shifted and crackled, but quickly, I assured my wolf of no danger and he finally settled back into my mind. His awareness, however, remained locked beneath my skin—coiled, watchful, ready to explode the moment I gave the order.

"Alex has gone mad."

"You said that before. Did he do this?" Marcellan squeaked as he turned to the House. My eyes trailed down to the victims. Bodies lay twisted where the lava had caught them. Some still moved. Most did not. The smell of cooked flesh and scorched earth clung to the back of my throat.

I was about to reply when a long line of ambulances arrived. Their sirens carried a wave of relief through me, followed by a procession of medical workers. They sped towards the victims with stretchers, first-aid treatments and all necessary care. Flashing lights painted the smoke red and blue. Voices barked orders. The living were being pulled from the wreckage. That, at least, was something.

I turned back to Marcellan, seething, my thigh still healing from the burns I’d sustained while trying to save people earlier. The skin pulled tight with every step, the wolf already knitting it back together, but the pain stayed sharp enough to keep me focused.

"The godforsaken rogue did."

"Nathan..." Marcellan spoke as though he tasted the name on his lips. "Fuck. This is maddening."

"Speaking of which, Alex fell into his trap. What I once feared, what Frederick once warned, it is coming to pass."

As though the fog were in agreement, it whirled chills past us. The air tasted wrong—metallic, charged, like the moment before lightning strikes.

"Fuck, Alex is becoming the Death-bringer Aetherblood?"

"If I’m not there to help him, he will." I said, and began walking towards the Bugatti. Every step sent a fresh pulse of heat through the half-healed burns. "And I fear he’ll go to the very extent of risking the lives of our babies if he continues this way." I stole a glance at Marcellan, who was only two steps behind me. "The moment he began to use his powers against me, it was settled. Nathan’s use of the powers is poisoning his mind, and the ego of the past Aetherblood will be their end, Alex included."

The words sat heavy between us. I had felt the shift in Alex’s energy the second the spell locked me down—cold, absolute, nothing like the man who carried our children. Something older had answered when Nathan called.

"Oh, for fuck’s sake. I can’t even think. Shit shit shit. Oh, man. This is all fucked up."

I whirled, eyes sweeping over Marcellan in a once-over. Dirt streaked his jaw. His shirt hung half-torn from the earlier chaos. He looked ready to either fight or collapse. "Stop the cursing and put it to good use. Fight with me. I don’t have time to gather warriors right now. Clawface is with Alex. If we can find him, we’ll find Alex."

Marcellan nodded before he froze. "Crap, wait. We’re going where?"

"The House of Steele."

"Wait, that’s like, in the fucking, I mean, the west." He shook his head. "We are talking hours of driving. About ten, if not more, if my calculation is right."

"That’s why I’m driving."

I entered the driver’s seat. The engine came alive with a soft rumble. Like the beast craving blood within me. Nathan’s blood, preferably. The leather was still warm from the earlier drive. My hands found the wheel without thought.

As I drove out of the driveway, reckless in my wake, the tyres whined and the stones of the asphalt screeched. Gravel sprayed. Behind us the ambulances kept working, lights still cutting through the smoke. I did not look back.

"I’m not letting that power-hungry wanker take my mate from me." I muttered under my breath.

Marcellan glanced sideways for a heartbeat, then placed his hand under his jaw. The car ate the road. Trees blurred past. The sky above the western mountains already looked darker, heavier, as if the land itself knew what waited there.

"I do understand the motivation behind all this. No one ever does something without a reason, and so I wonder... what exactly did we ever do to Nathan?"

That question weighed heavier in my heart than I’d ever let on.

I’d once thought about it too, and it only drew me into a quizzical maze of its own. Memories of old warnings from Frederick surfaced—half-forgotten conversations about bloodlines, about the price of power that refused to stay buried. None of them had ever given a clear answer. Only the certainty that something would eventually come to collect.

"I have no idea," I pressed down on the accelerator, the car zooming as though it would fly, "but that’s what I’m about to find out."

The Bugatti surged forward. The distance between us and the House of Steele began to shrink, mile by mile, while somewhere ahead Alex’s power continued to twist into something neither of us fully recognised anymore.