Page 13

Chapter 12

Aaliyah

I wasn't sure what I'd been expecting after the teleportation spell left me wobbling on my feet, my head suddenly throbbing, but this little apartment, with a quaint rustic kitchen and freshly cleaned furniture, wasn't it.

Ascension had been akin to a war zone, between the bodies that had been ripped apart and strewn about it, to the hauntingly familiar rooms now painted with aged blood and gore.

Where we'd landed was clean, almost too clean, the entire place smelling slightly like bleach in a way that made my stomach turn. When I swayed again, Sebek grabbed my shoulders, keeping me upright even as I jolted away from him.

His hands were icy, a brush of warped power still stinging where he touched as he directed me to the island in the middle of the kitchen. I kept waiting for the bite of pain, for his fingers to sink too deep and leave welting bruises where he held me, but every move was done with methodical intent.

There were four tall chairs in front of the island, and he lifted me onto one before I could protest.

I hated being dragged around, feeling like a puppet that he could toy with. It put me on edge, and I struggled to stay in the seat, even when he shot me a frigid glare as I shuffled. He was gone in a flash, leaving an audible pop in the air. He appeared again just a breath later, this time in front of me, with a first aid kit.

It was unopened, and he cracked it as he pulled at the lid. Those crazed mumbles began again as he reached out and tilted my head left and right, up and down, while I stiffly tried to stop the mantra as it burned in my skull.

Never make noise.

I didn't want to give him any reason to go feral again, to take back his word of letting the others live. The contrast between the two parts of him I'd seen had been blindingly confusing. Hot and cold, concerned and filled with brittle fury. So, I stayed silent as he moved down, lifting my arms so he could check the range of motion, pressing on the joints that had strained when I'd tried to get away, and placing bandages where my palms were scraped.

"There. All better," he said, finally pulling away, giving me room to breathe as I shrank away from him.

He didn't notice, or didn't care, heading toward the kitchen just to fumble with the fridge and the ingredients inside it. He kept his back to me, and I looked around the room, taking the temporary reprieve from his gaze to get an idea of my surroundings. With more time to look, I realized how little the room actually had in it. It was missing things I'd grown used to, decorations, and signs of life. Everything felt startlingly bare. There were two main doors, one leading to what looked like an enclosed balcony. The other, I assumed, was the door outside. There was also a long hallway that disappeared into darkness.

I itched to move, glancing quickly at Sebek before turning back toward the balcony.

"You won't make it." Sebek suddenly cut into my musing, the sound of chopping filling the room along with the steady scents of fresh garlic and onion. "Get it out of your head, Glass. You're mine. I won't let you escape me again."

The calculated frost had returned to his voice. No hint of the worry that had been there just seconds ago. Again, he turned, the crazed look in his eyes sharpening into dagger-like points that meant to cut.

Eirik had called me that once: his. It had meant everything to me then. It made my stomach flutter and my knees weak, made me feel safe in a world where safety had always felt like nothing more than a lie.

Hearing Sebek say it damn near had me gagging.

Was Eirik okay? Were he and the others safe, had they made it back from Archon's, or were they truly trapped there? Had they found Osiris?

I reached for the itching marks on my wrist that ached like the pressure behind my eyes.

"What are you going to do with me?" I asked.

It was a question I hadn't had much time to ponder with everything that had happened. It had been chaos after Sebek had taken me, but now, in this quaint room, with a man that radiated feral, dangerous power, I needed to know.

He'd been the leader of the same group that had torn me apart time after time. What would I endure to make sure my men stayed safe until the Eternium?

"What should have been done to start with," he said simply, turning away with the same grace he'd faced me with as he tossed his mixture of cut vegetables into a sizzling pan. "Bring back order to the Eternals."

One moment, he was a mumbling mess, screaming into the void like it might respond. The next, he looked like he could pick me apart, like this was all a puzzle he'd already solved, mixing the pieces together to throw me off.

"How?" I pressed, and just as quickly, he threw his head back and laughed .

Laughed belly deep as his fangs dropped, and he flitted to me, his food abandoned on the stovetop, still sizzling until the scent of burning oil filled the air. I nearly fell off the chair as his hand shot out to keep me stable. His grip was tight but not painful. "The only way I can. The only way that will last."

The still-lingering smell of iron that had absorbed into his skin had my stomach turning. My mantra rang furiously in my ears, but I returned his look with a glare anyway.

"You have the same look in your eyes, the same fire. Usire will be proud." That name burned me, and he let me go to brush a hand over my cheekbone. It was said in a moment of clarity, one that lit his eyes as he spoke so softly.

Then his hand dropped, and that feral expression took over again like he realized what he'd said.

"What?" I whispered.

At first, I didn't understand, the name leaving just a touch of pressure building in my skull. But when he ripped his hand through his hair, that confused, angry panic again rearing its head as he spoke, I understood. "You are so like him ."

Pain laced the words, giving them a softness he didn't have the right to use. So like the man who'd raised me, died for me, at his hands. Without a shadow of a doubt, I knew he was talking about my father.

He had the audacity to say he'd be proud? He should be proud now . He should have been proud of me my entire life, from the moment I took my first breath to my first heartbreak, to every first he didn't get to see. My father lost so many things when he'd died, so many wonders that I would never have him to guide me through.

I lost him because of the same man that currently stood rigidly in front of me, his rambling trying to convince either me or himself that his brother wouldn't hate him for what he was doing to his child.

"My father is dead," I snarled, suddenly losing my sense.

I should have stayed quiet, kept it in so I didn't risk the others, but I couldn't stand the look on Sebek's face. The way he smiled so calmly, as if remembering a kind moment between him and the man he'd killed.

"He's not dead," Sebek said, that look back in his eyes, calculating, crazy , as if he believed it. I shot to my feet, and he stepped back gracefully, his head tilting to the side.

The flash of the memory that had come to me in the forest felt raw now, the sight of my mother and father fading from view. Their souls passed on, gone . I remembered the steady thump of their emotions, the way it'd felt like a heartbeat, and the fluttering silence that had followed.

My magic tried to flare, burning hot in my stomach like molten lava, trapped under the surface of my skin, and suddenly I tasted blood as I bared my teeth. The spot behind my ear that was still tender throbbed, and I knew whatever he'd put there to suppress my powers was fighting me. Pushing and shoving, the magic that was bound tried to come to my aid but withered under the magic that held it captive. This time it didn't lie low and refuse my call. This time, my power stretched inside me, and there was a whisper of a dark voice. The one that had been mine at the hot springs came forward again, this time indignant in my head.

Make him regret caging us, it whispered.

"My father is dead because you killed him," I snapped, my vision shifting between clear and clouded black.

A sharp look of surprise, and then he took another step back, but there was no fear in the way he moved. That darkness in me didn't like that; it wanted to see him cower, and I forced another step toward him. "Then you stole me from him, you experimented on me, tortured me!"

His eyes, already a familiar red, flushed with the color, swallowing it from iris to sclera. He bared his teeth, fangs catching his lip. Blood slipped over them, dripping down his chin, hitting the floor as he bent. He snarled, like a wild animal. "I did nothing of the sort!"

"You didn't stop them!" I cut in before he could continue. The power in me raged, flowed, and that molten lava in my stomach spread everywhere else. The blood in my mouth turned to ash, as my vision dimmed to a dark gray, and stayed that way this time as the burning behind my ear grew into an inferno. "Do you think he'd be proud of you ? That he wouldn't be disgusted with what his own brother did to his family?"

One more push, one more , and I'd have control. But what would I do with it?

Kill. A whisper. A promise that caught in my throat and dug like the daggers in Sebek's eyes that reminded me so much of my father.

"Silence, do not speak of?—"

I cut him off, screaming. "You will not stop my voice! Never again!"

The dam shattered, and the gates to my gifts that had been forced shut exploded open. Blood was at my nose, pressure hitting me so harshly that my eyes rolled back. Before I could hit the ground, the distinctive flavor of rotten blood was on my lips, the taste now uncomfortably familiar.

The power that had come to my call had fallen just as quickly to the pressure, the walls that held it building back up, brick by brick. Until I was bound again.

Sebek held me like he was a comfort. He brushed the hair from out of my face, carefully. I could only offer a glare. "I hate you."

His final words were as much of a conundrum as they were agonizing, compounding on the pressure that crested in my skull. "I didn't mean to kill him. Not him, never him. He wasn't supposed to die ."

The Rend swallowed me whole.