Page 22 of A Touch of Gold and Madness (Celestials of Arcadia #1)

Chapter 21

Gray

C hrome Freyr might have been a legend amongst our people, but he had always been an obscure and untouchable entity when he’d been alive. He was sixteen when my father announced his death, a little over ten years ago. Most cultures wanted to immortalize their legendary figures, but there were very few photos of him throughout the King’s Palace. And the ones that existed never showed his face clearly, almost as if Forest had been trying to hide him, for some reason, which I’d always found odd. The main defining trait he’d had was his short, metallic hair, the color of chrome…a trait Griffin lacked.

My heart lurched. Griffin’s knowing gaze locked onto mine. All of his previous humor had completely vanished. They were no longer the rich blue I’d come to appreciate. Now, his eyes were molten metal, swirling like liquid silver paint as they had been the first night at the speakeasy. And a gold-flecked layer of skin illuminated him in the sunlight.

“That’s impossible. Chrome is…”

“Dead?” he finished for me. A deep chuckle vibrated his body, but there was no amusement in it. “Nope. As you just witnessed, I’m too dangerous for the king to let live. ”

“But… but,” I began, struggling to wrap my mind around his claim. “Chrome was a Kinetic. You’re not.”

Griffin or Chrome—I didn’t know anymore—offered a sardonic smile. “I’m not? No, I suppose Forest and my mother kept that little secret locked up tight down in the prison with all the rest.”

“If you’re truly Chrome, and you’re a Kinetic,” I started, leaning back to rest on the heels of my feet. “Then show me. You’d have currents and…” I focused on his black hair and his chromatic eyes.

Griffin took a deep breath before shifting to pull up the sleeve of his hooded cloak. By exposing the gold skin of his wrist, a silver bracelet with embossed Kinetic sigils stood out against his complexion. I’d never noticed it on him before. With shaking fingers, he unclasped the latch.

The black cloak followed, revealing his inked arms for the first time. More white lines marred the tan flesh beneath the golden sheen, indicating more scars, but I caught the distinct signs of a specific type of mark. Raised welts in the shape of Kinetic symbols were barely perceptible through the tattoos and gilded skin. Brands. So many of them. Dozens of kill marks lined the entirety of both his arms, from shoulders to wrists.

In the stretched silence, I questioned whether I was having a mental breakdown, but the truth was there before my eyes.

Griffin gasped.

I watched as his black hair morphed from pitch-black into metallic, shining chrome. The color was reminiscent of the chrome bumpers on a car. It was unlike any Kinetic I’d ever seen. His golden skin and quicksilver eyes remained, but I stood transfixed as silver currents pulsed from his fingertips and up the sides of his neck. They made the familiar path downward before darting up again.

I tried to wrap my mind around what I was looking at. How could someone encapsulate both Kinetic and Elemental traits and abilities? I backed up a few steps, shaking my head in denial. This wasn’t possible. There was no known account of this happening. The cognitive dissonance was real. Not only was Griffin Silas the boy who’d protected me all those years ago, but he was also Chrome Freyr, who was supposed to be dead. The guy I’d always in some way fangirled over for his accomplishments. Someone I’d always aspired to become.

I wondered if my father knew. Of course, he did. But what was Amethyst’s role in this?

“How…”

Chrome shrugged. “It’s a long, fucked up story.”

“So, I’ve been committed to killing the most revered legend in our recent history?” My mind was a tangled mess. I didn’t even know where to begin processing this revelation, but that seemed like a solid place to start.

“Yeah. Funny, right? You love and despise me,” Chrome said, one side of his mouth curved upward. “But I’m one and the same. Kinetic and Elemental. Griffin and Chrome.” Griffin’s—or should I call him Chrome?—gaze burned with an intensity that said he was fighting back another truth, but he held his tongue with a clench of his jaw.

“Those daggers you gave me…” I started, unsure. “They glowed orange for me. Why?” I asked, still curious about that strange anomaly. “Is it because they’re yours and are affected by your hybrid nature somehow?”

Griffin… no, Chrome … looked away. More secrets he wasn’t ready to spill.

“Tell me… Chrome .” My arms braided across my chest as I waited for an explanation. I suspected what he held back was monumental.

Chrome rose to his feet. Running his fingers through his brilliant hair, he turned away to look at the deserted street behind the building. He shifted his unnerving gaze at me again before slumping his shoulders in defeat. “I shouldn’t be telling you, yet. But I guess I can indulge you in the large scope of things.”

“Go on…” I encouraged, hugging myself tighter.

“I’m not the only hybrid.” Chrome looked up at the sky as if it would give me the answers instead. “There are two, at least, that we’re aware of.”

I narrowed my eyes. “And?”

“And Forest needed weapons. But not just any weapons.” Chrome fell into a pace. “Weapons that would also open a portal to another dimension or realm. At first, we believed he hated Elementals because his fiancé was depleted by an Endarkened many years ago. She was pregnant with their child, and he’s blamed the Elementals for their deaths. But there’s more to it outside of that…”

“Wait, he’s always said that an Elemental killed his fiancé, and then the Endarkened killed my mother. I was spared because she hid me…”

Chrome nodded but cut me off to carry on with his explanation. “Anyway, everything you’ve been told about Elementals is a lie. He needed a reason to go to war with them, to destabilize the world. Hence the need for his two weapons. He needed Elementals to be hated, while he was looked to for hope.” He paused to sigh before rubbing the nape of his neck. “He attacked first, not the other way around. But he seized on the opportunity to throw the blame on us. Bet you didn’t know there’d been a cordial peace amongst the two races before he rose to power.”

“Holy shit.” I blew out a breath. This was not the history we’d been taught. A wall of doubt climbed higher and higher in my mind, refusing to believe that everything I’d been taught my entire life was a total lie. I wasn’t sure what to believe or who to believe. Did I really want to trust what was coming from Griffin Silas, aka Chrome Freyr’s, mouth? Someone who’d hidden his identity through a faked death. There were so many red flags.

“Oh, it gets better,” Chrome said with a sarcastic grin before going on. He continued to pace back and forth, the gold shimmering as his skin caught the light with each pass he made. “With the humans out of the way and the Kinetics brainwashed to loathe and kill Elementals, he was left unchecked in his power. No one was watching him. So, he somehow figured out a way to enter another realm. However, it requires a lot.”

I held up a hand at the blasé way he just threw that bomb out there. “Wait, hold on. You mean to tell me there is another dimension? Another...world?” I was slow to process all the outlandish claims he continued to make.

“Yes. We live in the human realm. But there are an infinite number of them, all stacked on top of one another within existing planes. Your father wants to reach another one because we think he believes there’s a source of great power that resides there. We have an idea of which realm it is, but to create a portal between the two requires immense power. From our general understanding, it needs magic of the two races combined. So, he ordered my conception through Amethyst—”

I cut him off. “Do you realize how fucking delusional you sound right now? Griffin! Or Chrome! Whatever the fuck your name is…this is beyond…it’s too much.” I massaged my temples to rub out the growing migraine. I paused, glimpsing the macabre scene of massacred Kinetics—having almost forgotten about it.

“I prefer Chrome.” He shrugged, unbothered by my fracturing mind.

I shouldn’t be showing my weakness, but I was exhausted—physically and mentally. The strength to hold up my walls began to crumble.

Chrome stopped pacing, scraping off the dried blood that marred his golden skin with the sharp edge of an Elemental knife as he waited for me to gather myself. I knew there was more. And I wasn’t sure if I was ready for it.

“I need to tell you the rest before we move on. We don’t have a lot of time before Forest comes after us. So, do you want to know or not? Because if not, you’re free to go.” Chrome loosely waved a hand in a gesture that told me he believed I would run right then. “Free to survive on your own, not having any connections with the humans. Not being allies with any Elementals while being hunted down by your own father with little to no information to weaponize yourself with. Your choice, Princess,” he said, peeking up through a curtain of metallic hair as he scraped the skin on his thumb.

I stalled, almost giving in to the natural urge to run the fuck away and never look back, rejecting the choice of this defining moment.

But what if he was right? If what Chrome was telling me was true, then no doubt the consequences of Forest’s ambition would be devastating. And if there was another Kinetic/Elemental hybrid out there, then we couldn’t allow him to have them as a weapon to further his goals.

The Elemental blade that activated for me flashed through my mind. I quickly pushed it aside, refusing to acknowledge its implications.

If I went with Chrome, I knew there would be no turning back from this point. The information I would soon learn would forever change the course of my destiny. I would never be the same, and that scared me.

So much had already happened; could I handle more? I questioned my strength.

The gross feeling of shame sunk in as I realized a significant part of me had still been holding onto the hope that if I could kill Griffin, then it might redeem me in my father’s eyes. And then, I could return to my relatively stable life. Leaving with Chrome would obliterate any chance of that. But I wasn’t so sure I could kill him now. Not when I knew his identity and the heavy implications it held.

Was my unwavering quest for vengeance worth it? He swore he didn’t kill Slate, and I was starting to believe it with each unveiled piece of truth that slapped me, but Griffin’s death had become my purpose outside of simply surviving in the King’s Palace. My reason for not collapsing in on myself from the grief and loneliness. Where would that leave me without it?

I didn’t know where I’d even go if Chrome and I parted ways. If he were somehow masterfully lying to me about all of this, he could be sending me to my death or to some form of imprisonment. I’d killed so many Elementals over the years—twenty-four—so I wouldn’t be surprised if he was playing nice in order to get his own form of vengeance. Then, there was the slight chance he wasn’t coming from malice. Granted, those chances were low, especially in this harsh world.

But if I could gain some information against my father in order to stand some chance of ending him—of ending his abuse on the world—then I had to take it, right? My string of recent failures had me questioning if I was even worthy or capable of fighting for such a cause. But I needed answers more than anything else.

With my decision made, I took a deep breath, sure I would live to regret this. “I want to know. Tell me more,” I said with my shoulders back and my chin held high .

Chrome perked his head up, his metallic waves bouncing as he did. The scraping against his skin stopped, and a sinful smile arched on one side of his mouth. And in a tone that sent heat throughout my entire body, he said, “That’s my girl.”

We sat inside the ravaged tattoo parlor on the front side of the building. We couldn’t continue to talk about these sensitive topics out in the open. I’d suggested having the conversation during the trek to our next location, but Chrome insisted there were ears everywhere. Nowhere could be trusted not to be overheard by the king’s spies. And I agreed.

Broken, filthy glass scattered all the surfaces while dusty items littered the floor. Light filtered in the space, casting shadows in corners of the shop where we cloaked ourselves from view.

I sat on an overturned stool. The ruffled dust caused me to sneeze, and every time I shifted my weight, the ripped and warped tattoo chair wobbled. My feet dangled above the ground as if I was a little girl, reminding me of all the times my father sat me down to scold me for hours.

Chrome lounged his back against the red wall in front of me, one foot crossed over the other as he gathered his thoughts.

“Okay. You said my father ‘ordered your conception through Amethyst.’ What did you mean?” I asked, picking up where he’d left off.

Chrome shrugged. “He captured Elemental King Jonas and forced him to impregnate Amethyst. Amethyst was all too willing for ‘the greater purpose’. Clearly, their attempts were a success.” Despite the look of abject horror on my face, he said it as if it didn’t bother him, but it was clear he didn’t care to elaborate. “Then, the king and Amethyst raised me to be their poster boy child soldier. They forced my abilities to awaken when I was only ten through high levels of duress.”

I cocked my head to the side. “By ‘high levels of duress’, do you mean they beat you? ”

His molten eyes met mine. So much pain haunted him from their depths, causing my chest to tighten. “Something like that.”

I knew exactly what he meant.

Chrome cleared his throat, and the haunted expression in his mercurial eyes dissipated with the action. “So, anyway. They trained me in both my abilities from an early age, eventually forging me into a glorified warrior. On the outside, I was the face of the Kinetic race, but behind closed doors…” Chrome dipped his chin as he trailed off. “But they needed two hybrids. Whereas they trained me and kept me informed of my abilities, they hid everything from the other.”

Buzzing resounded in my ears as I sensed where this was going. My breathing came in shorter and harsher breaths, my hands beginning to quiver with anticipation. I wasn’t ready for the revelation I knew was coming.

“What are you talking about?” My voice betrayed me in its unsteadiness.

Chrome held my gaze, undoing what little resolve I clung to. “At first, Forest didn’t trust anyone else with his secret, aside from my mother, to partake in this task. This information was too sensitive to have it leaked. But he later enlisted help and captured an Elemental woman—a powerful one.

“He wasn’t pleasant with her. For two years, the king held her captive, torturing and debasing her in the worst of ways. The only time he’d released her from captivity was to force himself on her until she became pregnant. Once she’d successfully conceived the child, Forest eased on the torture…only so that the baby would be viable. When the baby was born, he killed the Elemental woman. And no one outside of his tight circle ever discovered what he’d done.”

Regardless of the wobbly chair, I was grateful to be sitting down. I stared at Chrome as he continued unraveling every thread of control I held. I begged the gods for this not to turn out the way I suspected. “What happened to the baby?” My voice was a whisper, the buzzing growing louder in my head.

“Forest raised her to be his own personal assassin. ”

And there it was. The truth I’d been dreading to hear. The truth that would forever change everything.

I clenched my eyes shut. My head was a whirlwind, and I focused on my breaths until it sunk in.

Chrome continued, despite my despondence. “It’s never been a secret that the king wasn’t fond of his ‘adopted daughter.’ I’m sure you’ve always wondered why. And with you being an heir to his throne, he could never risk the knowledge of your origins becoming public. With his war against the Elementals, people could never know he’d conceived a child with the enemy. The fact you had Elemental blood in your veins disgusted him. Like me, you were merely a weapon to be wielded at his disposal. If or when you proved to be too much of a threat or liability, then he’d scrap the project.”

Everything began clicking into place. All the questions I’d secretly held over the years formed logical answers. My head spun, and the world began to drop away, leaving me swaying on the unstable stool.

I’d always known my father was a dick, but Chrome’s truth bombs only solidified him to be more monstrous than I’d ever believed possible. A part of me questioned the validity of Chrome’s claims. But inside, I felt the weight of the truth. A truth that was suffocating yet liberating.

“So, that’s why he made it my mission to kill you. He believed I was the only one capable of doing it,” I said, realizing how wrong my father had been. I’d just witnessed the scope of Chrome’s power and abilities, and I didn’t come close to that. I was one of the best-trained Kinetics, and definitely the most feared. But my power was only a fraction of Chrome’s.

It had been a suicide mission from the start. Perhaps he’d hoped we’d kill each other in the process, effectively taking out two birds with one stone. At the least, one of us would kill the other, minimizing his threats.

Chrome nodded slowly, letting me piece together the remaining details on my own.

“He must’ve known it was a suicide mission for me.” My head lowered to my chest, deflated.

“Not necessarily. I’m only as powerful as I am because I’ve been training both my halves since I was ten years old. You’re only at half the power you’re capable of because he’s suppressed your Elemental side for so long. Which is why I need you. I need to get you trained and ready to kill him,” he explained. He took a step closer to me before finishing, “Together.”

“How has he been suppressing my…my…” I stumbled over my words, struggling to voice aloud the fact I had the blood of both races running through my veins—something I’d always believed to be genetically impossible. It’s what my father had always instilled in us.

Chrome didn’t answer. He just simply looked down at the black crystal necklace that hung around my neck. The only sentimental object I’d had of my mother’s, or what I’d always believed to be my mother’s.

On instinct, I reached for it and gripped it in my palm.

“That necklace is black crystal, correct?”

I nodded, squeezing the round, polished stone tighter in my fist to ground me. “My father told me it was my mother’s form of protection against Elementals, that she’d have wanted me to have it and to never…” I trailed off as another realization clicked into place. “To never take it off. Not for anything.”

“Precisely. It’s kept your Elemental magic and traits hidden all these years. But I have reason to believe he didn’t rely on that necklace alone. He must’ve been putting low doses of crushed black crystal in your food as a backup.” An eyebrow lifted as he waited to see if I’d confirm that. I had no way of knowing, but…

“The king always had a cook prepare my food,” I pondered out loud as I ran my fingers over the single braid on one side of my head. Looking at the glamoured ice-white waves, I wondered what my skin would look like if I was an Elemental, shimmering in gold. “I was never allowed in the kitchen, and I vaguely remember walking in one day to find her crushing something in a bowl. She was terrified to see me standing there, and she tried to usher me out, but my father walked in. And the next day, I had a new cook. She never spoke to me. And I never saw the other one again. I really liked her.” I questioned if I’d unknowingly sent a woman to her death. She’d always been kind to me. She was a bright spot in my bleak childhood.

Chrome watched as I analyzed my hair. “It sounds possible. ”

“How can I trust you’re telling me the truth?” I looked at him from beneath my lashes, still pinching my strands between my fingers.

With pursed lips, he cocked his head to the side and pushed off the wall with his shoulder. “Because, Gray, I have no reason to lie to you. I truly do need your help. We all need your help. If Forest opens a portal to the next realm, consequences unlike anything we’ve ever seen could swallow this world. We don’t know for sure what realm he’s trying to access or even what would happen if he did, but we can’t risk it.

“I don’t know how he discovered this information. Everything about our origins has either been hidden or eradicated. I do know that we didn’t originate in this realm. That’s all anyone knows. But we need that information to learn more about what he’s planning and how he intends to execute it. We have to kill him before it’s too late.”

I held Chrome’s gaze, seeing him as two different individuals. How long would it take me to see him as one person? How long would it take me to come to terms with the possibility I was an Elemental? All I had to do was remove the necklace.

I was shattering. My head felt foggy, and I didn’t know where to begin processing everything I’d just learned or if I should even believe it until I saw it for myself. But for now, I’d do what I needed to get through the day—suppress it.