Page 24

His power pulses and the pressure in the air intensifies.

It's difficult to take a single step without exerting more strength than I should need to.

I'm standing at his feet when pain explodes in my wrist, a familiar burning sensation that sizzles and sears through my veins.

The pain overwhelms me so quickly that I find myself perching low before the Saviour and grit my teeth.

Pain is only temp —

No!

The word echoes in my head, cutting off the sound of that familiar voice—soft and warm and reassuring. I don't want it. I don't need it. Not anymore.

Get out of my damn head!

The Saviour’s eyes lift to mine, and my jaw slackens at the sight before me.

His red eyes swirl violently, specks of gold moving within the storm raging inside him.

It's like watching gold melt in a pool of lava.

The destruction swallows up his irises, and it's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen.

He snarls, "I told you to fucking leave."

His entire being vibrates, and I know that look. The battle that rages inside him; I've been there. Far too many damn times. The chaos inside him wants out, and it wants destruction.

"All this anger over a little spat with an Oracle?"

"Umbra doesn't like Gods. I don't either, but…" His voice doesn't even sound human, and I can't put words to the effect they have on me. "I get they're on your shit list, but it's hard to control him when they're near."

I bite into my lip, the pain pulsing inside me over and over again, paralysing my goddamn limbs. "The Gods aren't on my shit list. I just like to piss them off."

"You can't fool me, Nightmare." He chuckles, low and deep and pained. "I know hate when I see it."

"Of course, because that's all you're made of, isn't it?

" He stares at me blankly. "You can't fool me either, Saviour.

I see you like you see me." I lean close, my movements slow and deliberate as I cup his face.

The moment I do, his body stops trembling; instead, he's frozen.

"Your hatred will be your undoing, and I intend to use that. "

The energy around him surges—a low, resonant hum filling the space like the distant roar of thunder, and for a moment, I think he might snap at my words.

His voice, low and deep, seethes, "And your need for chaos will be yours."

He knocks my hand away from his face as I lean close, as if I’m about to share a secret only he is privy to and whisper, "That's my plan."

"I know," he says, "but it's not my plan."

He stands to his full height. It's only now that I realise the pressure and the pain are gone. I follow him, the two of us standing toe-to-toe. Something about his words—the tone of his voice, the promise in his eyes,—twists something inside me, something uncertain.

"What are you talking about?"

"You'll have your wish, Nightmare." He tilts his head as I also stand to my full height "But only when I say. You want control? I'm taking it. You want chaos? I control it. You want to play mind games? Go right ahead and play, because I can, too."

I grit my teeth, glaring at this bastard before me. "You'll regret it."

He's in my face so quick, I barely see it—his large, tattooed hand wrapped around my throat and pulling me close as he sneers, "No, Nightmare, you will.

Because you were right; I can kill you. So go ahead, burn my kingdom to the ground, because I know you can, and in return, I'll take what's probably the only thing your cold and empty existence craves— death. "

His words are sharp, like this sudden feeling inside me—gone as quick as the prick of a needle.

A flash of heat, sudden and foreign, rises from somewhere deep in my chest and spreads outward.

For a single, blinding moment, the world narrows to nothing but that feeling; a tight, pulsing ache that I don’t recognise, don’t understand.

But I know what it is; my instincts tell me what it fucking is— anger . Raw and consuming and unfamiliar. I know he sees it, because his lips twist into a satisfied grin, and I grit my teeth. "Get off me."

He doesn't, because of course.

"Feel that?" he drawls, his breath hot against my lips. "Get used to it, because I'll personally introduce you to emotions, so when I take what you so badly crave..." He presses his lips to my ear, seething. "You'll feel every agonising moment of it."

"And you'll be okay with that?" I taunt, trying to pull myself together at the promise in his words, and this feeling of doom which hangs over my head. "When I burn everyone and everything you care about?"

He shoves me away violently, and I trip and fall back onto my ass. The Saviour stands over me like a large and imposing Titan. His eyes—fuck, his eyes—burn like two embers, twin pinpricks of fire in a face too shadowed to see clearly as the darkness bends towards him, clinging to his sharp edges.

His lips twist into a smile, but there is nothing human about it.

It is slow, deliberate and cold—like a predator toying with its prey.

"I've lived a long time in regret, and because I'm a petty bastard, Nightmare, I'll choose to live with it for the rest of eternity, and you'll join me in that hell, where we'll burn together if you fuck with what's mine. "