Page 106 of Pet: Torment

“No wonder Me’Rite used her to get to you,” he says, shaking his head.

“You must know, nothing good comes of falling for weaker beings, my son. Your mother is a prime example—Mmph!”

I wrench his arm, using my physical strength to punch him across the face. He stumbles, shock on his features from the power behind my attack. I am not close to being at my full power, but I’ve been allowed to heal long enough that I have enough access to make him hurt. But I close the distance between us, pressing my forearm into his throat as I speak.

“Don’t ever fix your mouth to speak of them. You know nothing of our lives. You have no right to judge us based on what she did. And you will not speak of her here of all places,” I growl.

Kuron continues to glare at me, when suddenly a smile forms.

“Us? Am I to believe the souls your mother dragged into the depths are that important to you? Important to your sister?” he asks.

“If not for one of those souls, you never would have found us,” I say.

His smile disappears as I confirm it for him, stepping away from him.

“The more I get to know you, the more I am surprised, Remus,” he says, looking around. “Why did you want to come here if this place holds so much pain?”

I narrow my gaze. “That is none of your business. Once I am finished here, this place and the entire planet will be no more,” I say.

“You would make an entire planet pay for your mother’s sins?” he asks.

I laugh.

“I tried as a child, but she stopped me because I was too weak. Now, I would make her watch the same way she made me watch everything I cared for be taken from me. It’s only right that I return the favor,” I say, moving to the glass.

The landscape held such wonder in Iris’s eyes. Now, it is only a painful reminder.

“She was right to fear me,” I say.

I feel myself descending into a darkness that I’ve never experienced before. It’s suffocating. But the deeper it pulls me, the less I feel. The pain, the grief, the betrayal; all of it disappears as this darkness swallows me up.

Kuron approaches, keeping his hands to himself this time as he stands next to me. I know he feels resentment for my mother, as well, and I know he is using my grief to deepen his revenge. I don’t care at this point. Not if it means she will feel a fraction of the pain I feel.

“Then allow me to give you the tools to get there, my son.”

Iris

“Agh!” My screams fill the night air as I fight against my instinct to swat the burn away.

“Almost done, just hang in there,” Sky says as she presses the burning wood against my flesh.

“Ahhh!” I continue to scream, gritting my teeth in pain as I try to think of anything other than the scorching of my flesh. My body is deteriorating from the wound Remus’s mother gave me. Not only am I weak, but it isn’t healing. The bleeding won’t even clot. So we made the decision to close it ourselves with what we had—searing it shut.

Though at this point, it feels like I’m prolonging my survival for no reason. Noah is dead, Ezra is close to it, and Remus and Xion are missing. We can only hope the Celestivine who attacked didn’t kill them. Or worse—their mother got her hands on them again.

In the aftermath of it all, we are in the dark. We are on a foreign world, with no allies. Our only clue that the world is still turning after what happened is the rising and setting of the sun. Lucky for us, we have both spent more time surviving in the wilderness than we did at our captor’s sides.

“Ugh!” I cry out, my body sagging against the dirt as Sky finally finishes her patch job.

The sweat covering me feels like I just took a swim in the ocean. What’s left of my gown is hot and sticky, and covered in blood, and my hair clings to my skin. Heat radiates from within me, making me curious how long it will be before a fever sets in. I sob in relief when I feel the cool press of water-soaked fabric against my forehead.

The silence that settles between us is filled with my pained sobs as Sky continues to wipe away my sweat, and I fight the urge to go to sleep as I look over to Ezra’s still form.

“How is he?” I ask in a cracked voice.

“He’s alive. A fever has settled in, though,” she says.

I nod, shifting my attention to the small fire we made. On the other side lies Ezra. We were luckily able to move out of the cave once the high tide receded. I feel guilt for not being able to give Noah a proper funeral, but we are both too weak to carry his body let alone Ezra’s.