Page 23 of A Touch of Gold and Madness (Celestials of Arcadia #1)

Chapter 22

Gray

C hrome sat on the squalid floor of the train’s metal container. The Kinetic-powered locomotive jostled us. At last, he informed me we were headed to an Elemental Hollow in Perry.

We didn’t speak on the ride. Needing to be alone, we sat on the opposite sides of the container. My hood masked my face as I rested my head on my knees with my back to him. Thankfully, Chrome respected my need for solitude and didn’t intrude.

I felt insignificant. So small. So disposable. Worthless. A failure. A disappointment. My own father hated me. My only friends were probably dead by now, solely for keeping me alive. The one person who’d ever truly seen me and loved me was dead. And now, I was stuck with someone who was just as hated as myself. If not, more.

It was a depressing turn of events. Chrome, who’d given so much of himself to the Kinetics, was being hunted as if he was a demon stalking the night. We were both premeditated offspring only to be wielded…nothing more. And I’d felt the full brunt of that truth my entire life. Knowing why offered me some level of solace, at least.

Given if everything Chrome had said was true .

I still hadn’t forgotten about his episode the night before. He’d been nothing like the steel warrior he was known to be. Questions surrounding who he’d been speaking to that night kept circulating in my mind. Or had it been anyone at all? Was it voices in his head? If his upbringing had been anything like mine, it wouldn’t surprise me; actually, his was probably much more brutal. And that thought was enough to make me soften toward him just a fraction more. Not because I pitied him, but because he was the one person who I felt genuinely understood.

Hot tears traced a wet path over the bridge of my nose and down my cheek. Thankfully, the train’s roar subdued my sniffles. I’d trade physical pain over the constricting grip in my chest any day. It healed much faster. I learned at a young age to suppress it—a necessary skill to survive. Weakness only earned me punishment and more emotional pain.

But some pain couldn’t be restrained. It would always come back to claim its due, forcing you to face your demons. I fucking hated it.

After some time, I felt his presence drop down beside me. Chrome didn’t speak, and I didn’t acknowledge him as we sat together in our shared pain. His strong aura lent its strength, which caught me by surprise with the comfort it brought.

Only twenty-four hours ago, I despised him and wanted his head. I believed Chrome’s claim that he wasn’t responsible for Slate’s death. Now, knowing the truth about my father and his hidden agenda, I wouldn’t put it past him to have had him killed. I was brought back to Hazel’s confession: what had Slate known about Forest before his death? I had a feeling that mystery was one that would be tough to unravel.

The train screeched to a sudden halt, and Chrome and I sprung to our feet. Chrome had said we weren’t due to stop for another thirty minutes. With furrowed brows, I met his matching confused expression.

Our magic inhibitors were back in place, and I wished I could remove mine to sense what was happening. We were blind to any attack.

Without a word, Chrome stalked to the opening of the freight container and pressed his back against its edge. He glimpsed outside, listening for sounds, and I didn’t dare move .

Something was very wrong.

Chrome’s dark brows pinched tight as he listened. His glare alone could’ve split the aluminum floor in half from his concentration.

He snapped his cutting gaze to me, gutting me where I stood with his intensity. An index finger lifted to touch his lips—soft and slow—in a gesture of silence.

I needed weapons, but I wasn’t sure which kind. There was no way for me to know who awaited us outside.

Chrome tensed before pushing himself flat against the aluminum wall as frantic voices approached us. Footsteps stomped, crunching the gravel as they ran past on the tracks.

My forehead creased as the voices drew closer, wondering what had Kinetics panicking.

I joined Chrome pressed against the wall. With my eyes closed and hearing focused, I stretched that sense as far as it could reach.

A deep growl rumbled, and the ground trembled with it. Earthquakes weren’t common in this region, at least not of that strength. Another growl followed—louder than the last— shaking the train car.

The shudder flung me from the metal wall, forcing me to crash into Chrome’s side. Without looking, he wrapped his arm around my shoulder.

I stood there, steadied against him, studying my hand that pressed against his chest. Hard, tenuous muscle lay underneath the black tee that hugged him. He wasn’t beefy, nor was he bony. Tall and streamlined. Deceptively strong. I had no doubt his muscles were made for display.

Another force rocked the train car, and we stumbled apart to catch ourselves.

A bestial roar deafened the landscape. Fear spiked through me, and I lunged for the blades within the duffels. Thankfully, Chrome returned mine.

I sought the swords first. Whatever was wreaking havoc outside required more than daggers to take it down. Grabbing an Elemental and Kinetic sword, I tossed them to Chrome—who easily snatched them from the air with grace—and grabbed two more for myself before making my way to the opening of the train car. Chrome followed and took his place by my side.

There was no way the monstrous roar was from this world as it reverberated in my chest unlike any animal I’d ever heard. Upon setting my sights on the source, my heart skidded to a halt.

“What the fuck?” I braced my hand on the door frame.

Chrome’s fierce silence told me he didn’t have the answers this time. He embraced the coiled lethality he wore as a second skin while cold violence returned to his ice-blue eyes.

I faced the woods in time to see the foreign creature take out pine trees with a swipe of its paw.

A brown bear, the size of a mid-grade house, wrecked the wilderness surrounding us, but it was the massive black horns gleaming like polished stone atop its head that had me gaping,

I doubted our swords would do the job.

“Take off your bracelet, but leave the necklace on for now. You don’t know what to expect from your Elemental magic yet,” Chrome instructed. “Might cause more harm than good.”

I mumbled an agreement, removing the bracelet. My Kinetic magic I could control. It was one of the few things I had control over in my life, and a sense of calm washed over me at the level of comfort that brought.

The familiar rush of energy electrified my veins. My blue currents raced to life beneath the sleeves of my leather jacket. Closing my eyes, I took half a moment to savor the rush.

The moment I opened my eyes, the monstrous bear obliterated the few Kinetics who’d been running the train. An arm went flying, lodging in a tree limb thirty feet away.

Where in the seven hells did the beast come from? Did it have something to do with Forest’s plan to open a portal? Because it was clear this beast didn’t hail from this world. How were we supposed to fight this thing?

I stole a look at Chrome and saw he was in his Elemental form. The golden skin shimmered on his face and quicksilver eyes swirled with vicious ferocity. He obscured his Kinetic side as his raven hair hung loose around his face.

“Attack together?” I asked. It was a dumb question I realized after the fact. What other choice did we have?

Chrome nodded, not taking his molten gaze from the bestial creature in the distance, “You come from the back, and I’ll keep his attention at the front.”

I gave a stiff nod, wanting to have a bigger role in this fight. It was petulant, but the constant need to prove myself was strong.

It stiffened and sniffed the breeze. The beast grunted and then turned glowing red eyes on us.

It had found its next targets.

We leaped from the immobile train car and took off at a sprint into the woods. I swung the blue Kinetic sword, slicing through the branches that threatened to jab me in the eye. Chrome did the same.

The bear moved toward us, ready to clash with its new prey. As it did, Chrome and I split directions, creating a fork around the beast. Its focus was on Chrome, so it turned to follow him—its size slowing it down. It left me free to take up the monster’s rear.

I lunged at the beast, testing my swords’ effect on it. I sliced at the enormous tendon on its hind leg. Turned out my strike served no purpose other than to piss it off.

It roared, and the trees quaked with the vibrations, which I absorbed. My swords clanged to the ground, falling into a small pile of red and orange leaves as I chose to forgo the weapons in favor of my magic. The energetic waves from the roar fueled me, and I recycled it into a ball of electricity.

I formed a blue electrical orb in my hands, molding it as it grew and grew. Chrome whirled around the bear in his iconic death dance, wielding his swords in an orange and blue blur as he landed well-placed slices across the beast’s lower body.

The beast roared at Chrome. A massive paw the size of a compact car swiped at him, but Chrome ducked and slashed his sword across its paw as it sailed over him .

Our weapons had no effect on the bear except to anger it more. I had to do something.

Once the electrical orb was large enough, I shot a blast at its rear. With a yelp, it slammed into the bear’s ass. The beast stumbled, shaking the earth with each step. I planted my feet to keep my balance as I swayed from the tremors.

Chrome took the opening to leap at its exposed chest with his sword raised high, aimed for the heart. Putting all his strength into the attack, the sword’s tip slammed into the bear’s chest. I gasped as it bounced off. Chrome dropped back to the ground, landing in a crouch.

Our weapons were useless.

The bear snapped its gaping jaws at Chrome. Roughly three sets of razor-sharp teeth lined its maw.

I watched Chrome go on the defensive as I absorbed more energy. Sounds, motion, and light all fueled my magic.

I ran to the other side of the bear, launching smaller electrical orbs at its ribs. I didn’t stop moving as I ducked and dodged, sending large shocks pummeling into its body. Each one landing in a different spot. Eventually, it began to stumble to and fro, unable to keep up with the blasts I launched in a continuous rhythm.

It stood on its hind legs, black horns gleaming from the sun’s rays that streamed through the trees’ canopy. Long, piercing claws threatened to impale me when another deafening roar shook my core. I absorbed it.

My blasts grew bigger and bigger with each attack sent into the bear’s chest and stomach until I formed the largest one yet. Stepping from the beast’s line of fire, I allowed the magic to climb.

“Gray, don’t! It’s too much!” Chrome shouted from behind the beast as we swapped positions. He stood rigid and taut, but his body trembled. Strands of silver framed his face instead of black inky hair.

I ignored him, continuing to build the incoming blast. Another roar and swipe. And this one landed. The world rushed at me, violently spinning, as my body soared through the air .

A loud crack echoed, followed by a blinding pain in my skull from where it struck a tree trunk. Plummeting to the hard earth on my shoulder, the air was knocked from my lungs as I lay in frozen agony.

Upon impact, my vision blackened, leaving me blind. My magic was coiled too tight, threatening an uncontrolled release. I stifled it, but doing so had my magic compressing on the pain that held my body captive.

I couldn’t move.

“Gray!” Chrome shouted in the distance.

I had to get up, or we would both die.

Hot liquid gushed from my side. The deep gouge in my torso from the bear’s claws had me in excruciating agony.

All I could do was wait while I healed, listening to the sounds in order to sense what was happening around me. The darkness I’d been thrust into suddenly lit up with differing energy waves. Normally, I could see them with my eyes closed if I chose. The shorter waves revealed soft thuds, whereas the longer waves meant louder noises. I could also see the temperature waves and the movements of people and objects.

It was a complex ability I’d mastered after years of training. The various waves served as a code that I could piece together to form a picture of events in my near vicinity, almost like a second sight.

I could read the differences between the horned bear and Chrome. Chrome seemed to move with a dexterity and speed that kept his waves in short swirling bursts. The bear had the longer and bigger waves, indicating his size and strength.

The pain in my skull began to ease, and the feeling in my limbs slowly returned. I tested my fingers for movement, relieved when I could twitch them a fraction.

If Chrome could occupy the bear long enough to give me time to heal…

I listened to the violence and could bet he was trying to find all the weak points on the bear’s body, anywhere his blades or power would allow him to subdue it.

A shout sounded nearby, matching the spike in my second vision. “Shit! Gray…” he said, his breaths labored. “You gotta move! ”

I couldn’t. My body was healing, but not fast enough. My hands were the only limbs I could do anything with, so I tried to utilize them.

My vision started to come back into focus, but I could only make out the bear’s blurred body. He loomed over something, or someone.

Chrome.

I twisted my wrist to aim at the body, planning to launch a massive blast. But before I could unleash it, a harrowing, pained groan reverberated around us. It was deep and mournful, and it struck me in my soul. Through my blurred vision, I spotted the bear-beast hunched on its front legs with its head twisted to the side on the ground. Snorts and grunts vibrated the earth floor, shaking my bones. It was suffering, and despite the carnage it caused, a sting of regret ached in my chest.

I tried and failed to get up to stop Chrome from killing it. My arms were like cinder blocks as I clawed the dirt and leaves to drag my body. The bear groaned, and I met its devastated ruby gaze.

The creature was terrified. Understanding slammed into me that it wasn’t from this world, and had only been in survival mode. Similar to myself. And who knew how long it’d been here? But surely, the train spooked it. And when the Kinetics attacked, they put it further on the defensive.

But this? The horned beast—volatile only moments ago—begged for its life.

“Stop! Stop hurting it!” I yelled to Chrome as I heaved my limp lower body through the dirt.

Chrome ignored me, keeping his focus on the foreign animal.

A whimper escaped the massive being, its red eyes begging for help. Liquid silver oozed from its saddened eyes and cavernous nostrils.

“Stop hurting it!” Just a few more feet.

Chrome didn’t budge.

I didn’t know why I had a sudden shift toward the creature, but I couldn’t stand the thought of allowing it to die. I had to save it .

The more I dragged myself across the ground, the more feeling returned to my limbs. I pulled myself into a crawl before standing up. I stumbled toward Chrome, his back propped against the trunk of a pine tree.

Once again, he trembled from the exertion his magic required to take down this massive creature. I didn’t know what Elemental power Chrome wielded, but it was obvious he was a master at it, judging by his previous show.

My foot snagged on a root buried in leaves, and I caught myself before I face-planted. My heart lurched as I glimpsed the light fading from the bear’s scarlet eyes. It was resigned to its fate.

As the bear exhaled with a final grunt, my body collided with Chrome’s, my hands clasping his. My only desperate thought was for the bear to return to its home, away from this cruel and twisted world.

It was a truth in my soul; I knew the horned bear wasn’t a malevolent being. It didn’t ask to be here.

A loud clap, like a strike of lightning, split the air, followed by a white flash of light that blinded us. I tried to shield my eyes, but my palms were glued to Chrome’s.

I risked a glance down between us and saw the light encompassing our hold; our contact was its source.

Feet away from us, the brightness dimmed to a shimmering glow. Its hazy iridescence encircled us and the horned bear.

The bear huffed a hard breath, its gaze landing on the flowing, iridescent curtain. Recognition lit in its eyes, and it clambered to its paws. It took a step toward the magic as if it knew it was the answer to its salvation. Stopping, it turned its attention toward me, black horns aglow from the radiance. Our eyes met for a moment before it dipped its head in... respect ?

All I could do was stare in wonderment as my mouth parted. With a gentle calmness, it walked through the shimmering curtain, disappearing from this world.

Whatever power kept our palms bound dissipated, allowing me to snatch my hands free from Chrome’s. The beautiful curtain dissolved, leaving me straddling the top of Chrome’s torso, our breaths ragged .

“What the fuck was that? And what the fuck just happened?” I asked, attempting to not-so-subtlety remove myself from him while trying not to notice the hardness of his body between my thighs.

“First of all, I’m going to have to ask you to never interfere with me like that again,” Chrome said, pushing up onto his elbows. His hood had fallen, exposing that stunning gold skin and the chromatic hair and eyes.

“Excuse me, but…” I argued.

“No, my power could’ve latched onto you, pulling the iron from your blood. I’m a metal wielder with my Elemental magic. I gotta go into a trance when I do that particular skill. It’s not always easy to decipher who to target. So, when you interfere like that, you’re asking for me to latch onto you,” he explained, peeved.

“Well,” I scoffed and rolled my eyes. “I tried to yell for you to stop, but that clearly didn’t work.”

“Like I said,” he retorted, “I go into a trance.”

“Well, I couldn’t let you kill it. It clearly wasn’t from here and it was scared. I don’t think it was a predatory animal.”

“No, I suppose not.” He said nothing else, but he shifted his attention to a group of trees nearby, seeming to be lost in his thoughts for a moment.

“Any theories on what that—that thing was, it just walked through?” I asked, having an idea but needing him to confirm it. I felt insane to even entertain the thought.

Chrome pushed himself to his feet. With a deft hand, he brushed the dirt and debris from his clothes before running his fingers through his hair. He took his time digging a hand into his pocket to pull out his bracelets. Snapping the black one in place, the gold skin and fluid silver eyes shifted to tan skin and those familiar sapphire eyes. He did the same with the silver bracelet, subduing his silver currents and unique metallic hair.

Finally, he pinned me in place with his gaze before responding, making my heart jump at its intensity. “I think we just opened a portal to the next realm.”