Chapter 107 - 108

Chapter 107: Chapter 108

Chapter 107

"The swamp has increased. Whatever Nathan is doing, it’s darkening this land." Leo muttered bitterly as he scanned the place.

Though he masked the pain, it could still be felt in his demeanour. He scanned the floor, soaked by the mud, before continuing to lead the way.

"We shouldn’t trust him," Clawface whispered over my shoulder, the bass of his voice tingling my earlobe.

"If you wish to turn back, the floor is yours."

He scowled. "Alex will never speak that way. He’s compassionate and ever loving. You’re..." He stopped.

I threw him a glare. The green glow of my eyes flickered as I blinked, reflecting off the skin of his face as measured spite settled in his eyes.

"Here." Leo called our attention.

With my approach came the view of a canteen top, laced with moss and mud. Leo was careful not to touch or even stand close to it.

"We enter through here to the sewers." He recoiled from the thought of it. "I just hope it’s not overly bad now. Anyway, it leads to the stables and through there, to the alleyways where we can then strain our entrance into the Chambers."

"And the chambers is where Nathan shall be?" I asked, my voice a layer of countless more voices.

"Presumably. It’s not like he’s going to stay at the knights quarters or the farmhouse or the maids quarters..."

"That’s well noted." I chimed in, and he cleared his throat.

Fixated upon the opening, I lifted the top with simple levitation. The metal creaked but did not budge. A frown crawled up my face before I noticed the hinges. They were made from heavy metal, slightly rusted from the swamp water, but they would be a pain regardless.

I closed my eyes for a heartbeat and as soon as I reopened them, I muttered, "Yield your strength unto me," and the rattling of the hinges against the canteen top lessened, the strength of the metal being drawn into my own, and once entirely absorbed, it shattered like paper.

My arms hardened from the absorption and then I opened the top, exposing a dark tunnel below.

The rest of our movement carried through the tunnel. I cast three bulbs of light above us. The smell was nauseating at first, enough to turn my head. For the first time since I had adapted the true power of Aetherblood, I had not remembered the weight of my pregnancy, but now it was all coming back.

So, I steeled myself and swiftly raced us out of the sewer.

We reached the stables as promised. Leo scanned the place and pointed towards a distance where the path disappeared under the influence of a heavy fog. The entire place was not only covered in fog, the mist dampening the air, but the sky was devoid of any light. Shadowing clouds clamped the surface of the sky so heavily that I had first thought they would fall upon us.

The street was eerily silent. The stables were emptied of horses. The House of Steele had no subjects on the path. The houses nearby looked unkempt, a vision of what the world would look like under Nathan’s reign.

"He destroyed every life here." I said. My eyes and Leo’s met for a brief moment.

"Yes, he did."

We followed Leo’s lead into the mist. A few more steps and the alleyway came into sight. But before we could approach, Clawface ushered us back.

"Hide...here."

We raced to the nearest wall, flattening our backs against the bricks as if to melt into them. Four knights passed by, their armours clanking in an ominous manner that matched the dark aura of this place.

"Many people have told me to go to hell before, but if hell is anywhere close to this, I definitely don’t want to be there."

"Probably worse than here," Leo said, smirking.

"Definitely changing my ways if we get out of here alive." Clawface muttered.

"And when did you begin to make jokes, Clawface?" I chimed in. "The air really must be that toxic."

We strode forward, continuing to follow Leo’s lead. A few minutes more, we approached an entrance. Leo identified it as the backyard to the House of Steele, and truly, it led into the kitchen.

Vast as the space was, we quickened our steps, emerging into a hallway.

"We are getting closer to the Chamber." Leo mentioned, glancing back at us.

Clawface and I walked beside each other, skin on alert, ears attuned for any sudden movements and eyes cast with intentional wariness.

Leo had barely turned his focus back to the front when an alarm rang through the walls. The ear piercing ringing of bells invaded every space, slamming waves of sound into the walls only for it to reverberate back.

"It’s a setup." Clawface said, his tone firm, matching his flexing of muscles as he stepped forward to protect me.

"A magical trap." I muttered.

The familiar clanking of armour followed by the clamour of approaching guards filled our ears. In the blink of an eye, they filled the space. From behind and ahead of us.

There was no escape either way, and entering through the doors to an unknown room seemed far from a smart option.

So, we stood our ground.

"What are we doing? Fighting?" Leo questioned, his eyes shifting from the guards behind us to the ones ahead.

"We’ve got no choice." I replied.

For one second, there was collective silence and then the guards rushed towards us. My eyes widened as I cast a globe of shield around us, deflecting the spears hurled at us.

The spiked ends turned blunt, falling to the ground. Then, I shifted the globe to surround Leo alone before Clawface and I charged towards the guards.

Except he pushed me back.

"Stay..."

I growled but before I could give him a piece of my mind, Clawface had already charged towards the men. Daggers hidden in his pockets came out to play, glinting under the flickering torches lined along the walls.

I ended the globe around Leo and stretched my hand out for him to take.

"Connect with me. Open your mind to me."

"What?" He looked at me with an obvious expression that said I had lost my mind.

I tilted my head. "We can either all die here or we can go to Nathan directly and fight him."

"What’s my mind got to do with this?"

I smacked my lips, the urge to curse dancing on the edge of my tongue. But I refrained and replied. "You know this place. Tapping into your mind means I can access your memory and find Nathan quicker." I paused, watching Leo hesitate. "I’ll open a portal."

The guards were increasing, and Clawface was slowly retreating, though he held his fight.

"Hurry."

Leo shook at my tone but eventually gave me his hand.

"But you’ll weaken. Channelling a portal weakens you."

"Oh, bestie. I’m glad you still care for me." I smirked, feigning indifference behind a ghost of a smile.

I needed no invitation before accessing his mind. The moment I had a schematic view of the entire palace, I pinned the image of the chambers in my brain.

Next, I opened the portal. The spell unleashed a blast of air, opening an entry leading to the chambers.

Before we stepped through, leaving Clawface in the hallway, I snapped a dagger from his lower pocket. It floated beside my shoulder.

And when we appeared at the other end, Nathan was seated on a throne. He wore the most welcoming smile.

The bastard was expecting us.

Chapter 108

I questioned why it was called a chamber when its size matched that of the palace walls by comparison. The walls were built with intricate attention, their opulent designs a marvel to behold, but unfortunately, the darkness sought to drain the beauty from the decor.

This was no time for observation either.

The floor bore an epoxy design of cobblestones beneath its shimmering texture, capturing the dying light from the torches hung to the pillars. Five pillars held the towering ceiling, where at the very centre sat a glass beaded material. The storm gathered there, threatening to strike down and shatter the glass, charring our skin from our flesh.

Yet amongst these disturbances, I stirred my focus back to the architect of this chaos.

"Nathan." My tone hurled venom. "Your time has come to an end."

His eyes traced my body, head to toe, sharply, and he smirked. "Oh, come on, Alex. You’re in no condition to fight me. You’re basically...indisposed."

I stepped closer, my feet stopping just before the steps leading to the throne. Jagged thorns and twisted vines formed a canopy over the top, a declaration of his self-proclaimed authority.

"You’re a monster, and your evil must be stopped."

"At least, come back in...um, two, three weeks. Something like that, please." He face palmed. "You’re my ex, and I care for you. I loved you."

"Stop this rubbish." I growled. My voice carried over the howling wind in the distance.

"Fine, let’s put a stop to this charade." He said as he rose to his feet. His hands were entwined behind him as he stepped closer.

Five steps separated us when he halted. His eyes and mine locked. Magic charged the air between us. Tension rose without a single word spewed from either party.

We simply let our auras speak.

Until he said cheerily, "we don’t need to fight. Apart from the fact that I’ll beat you, I plan to work with you. Many times you’ve betrayed me, Alex," from the corners of his eyes, he watched me, having begun pacing to the left, his fingers drumming at his nails, "yet I continue to wish to work with you. I’m not the monster you make me out to be. Only if you’d look deeper and see me beyond the hatred that mate of yours has made you believe."

"Fuck you. Don’t bring Kai into this." I retorted. Anger boiled so furiously inside me that vengeance was all I could smell. "What do you call what you did at the House of Michelson? The innocents you burned."

"You have no idea the life they’ve lived..."

His lack of sympathy threw me over the edge. The dagger twirled, cut through the air, and tore towards Nathan. It stopped only an inch from his eye, yet he remained unfazed. He didn’t even blink once.

"It’ll take more than a simple dagger to take me down, Alex."

"Don’t think I’m aware?" My tone shifted, layered by the voices of my ancestors.

They charged my soul and mind, devouring whatever weakness I still had left. Like a werewolf’s wolf taking over their human flesh, the blood of Aetherblood filled me entirely.

Vengeance became my drive. With a backflip, I landed on one knee, my hands behind me. I cracked my knuckles as I dragged them to my sides, the effect rampaging the pillars.

Cemented patches crumbled into fragmented rocks. Thousands of them flanked me. Nathan watched with such an expression I couldn’t tell if he was fascinated or horrified.

The rocks sharpened to a pointed length and raced towards him. As I charged after Nathan, Leo took that as his cue to race behind one of the hidden alcoves.

Nathan thickened the air in response, crushing the projectiles into nothing but grains of dust.

Having avoided the attack and the dust cleared, I appeared before him. His eyes flared, seeing how close I was, and he lunged out for an attack. But instead, I only tapped his shoulder.

"Have a taste of your own medicine." I muttered as we vanished from the House of Steele, materialising in the spirit realm, where my magic as the Aetherblood coursed higher.

The sky churned with a heavy gust of wind, the weather life threatening. In the chaos, I slammed Nathan into the earth, shattering it as he reached the very core where warmth turned into a fiery whiplash. Like a dragon’s lair.

He screamed as one side of his face melted when I pressed it against the molten earth. By then, he found an opening and drove a fist into my stomach.

I tilted my head, bones crackling. "You think I brought you here for no reason?"

Finally, I caught the dread in his gaze.

"It’s the spirit realm where you once stole my power, and it will be your grave."

Our bodies were different here, unlike in the physical world where I was indeed pregnant. Here, I was purely an Aetherblood.

Nathan slipped free, racing out of the earth. Then he attempted to close the opening behind him the moment he surfaced. Except that failed when I turned the earth into water.

I swam out of the ocean, bending the water behind me before turning it into iced daggers. They rained down on Nathan. Deflecting as many as he could, a few cut through him.

Then he yelled, gathering the force of the wind to himself.

"Enough!"

The air pulsed against me, sending me dragging backwards, but I froze the surface of the water, using it to anchor myself.

"I’ve played your games enough." He snarled.

Shutting his eyes, he fought against the realm. I raced towards him, aiming to stop his ascension, but before I could reach him, he had already escaped back to the physical realm.

"Fuck..." I bit the inside of my cheek.

Hurriedly, I followed. Quickly, before he could reach my body.

Snapping my eyes open, I whirled the wind around me, creating a protective globe that shattered when lightning struck it.

A fraction more and I would have been torn apart.

Nathan’s hair, fallen to all sides of his face, masked his perilously darkening expression as he chuckled low and lethargic.

His hands hung beside him, his back bent, his voice a grotesque drawl as it reached me.

"Ooh, darling. I love this love language of ours." He cackled.

In a heartbeat, the ceiling shattered, a storm laden lightning bolt splitting through. Its shriek tore the air as though thousands of souls were carried within it.

Nathan danced the electricity in his hands like it was a toy, his laughter maddening and vile.

"Come at me, Alex."

There was no other choice.

It was either end it now, or let his darkness be unleashed.

There was no stepping back..