Page 37 of The Order: Rise of the New Empire (Order #4)

Chapter thirty-six

Xavier

W rapping his hands around my neck, Mason makes the foolish mistake of not applying enough pressure.

"Damnit, asshole, I'm not trying to hurt you!" Mason yells.

"Not hurt me?" I scream. "You fucking threatened Forest," ripping his hand off of my throat, I squeeze his wrist as hard as I can. "You are willing to harm not only Forest but my child in order to get what you want," I whisper. Squeezing until I hear bones shatter, a vicious grin tugs up my lips. "And now you try and lay your hands on me as if I won't break the neck of every fucking person who comes near her? You should have stayed in whatever hole your people have decided to hide in. None of you will lay a finger on her-" I force myself forward, sinking my teeth into his shattered wrist. Letting out a yell, he forces me backward with his Hold, unable to stop me from getting a few clean licks of his blood. Wiping his blood from my lips, I grin. "Or my daughter," I finish.

Holding his beaten wrist, his eyes are hot with the gleam of his energy.

"This is only a delay in the inevitable. Forest knows her place, and you know it, too. Nothing we do will stop what has always been the way, Xavier," Mason hisses. Twisting his wrist, I marvel at the way his bones seem to snap back into place, healing with such limited effort. "You can break me over and over again, but it won't change the fact that Forest needs to die in order to save us all-"

"I don't want to save you," I yell as I tug on my blade. Pulling it free from its holster, I gravitate its tip directly toward him. "I will burn you all to the ground if it means keeping my family safe-"

"Well said, Xavier," his hand grips my shoulder. "Why don't you let me deal with the vermin so I can keep our family safe."

Flicking his hand, I watch as Mason collides with a few Revolutionists behind him. Taking a stand beside me, Elyon wears his silver mask.

"At what point were you and her going to tell me about the child?" Elyon hisses.

He knows.

He always knows.

"Can you blame me for not having faith that you'd have her best interest at heart?" I sneer.

"Her?" Elyon smiles. "A little girl."

Unsettled by the eeriness in his tone, I look around at the bloodshed ensuing around us.

"And where is your wife?" Elyon hisses. "Now I know why she has been taking a step back from the violence."

Glancing up at where she was watching us, my stomach drops once I realize she is nowhere to be seen.

"Forest?" I whisper, searching for our connection. "Where the hell did you go?"

Met with silence, my priorities quickly shift.

The last place I need to be is here.

Surging forward toward Mason, he cocks his head at me with confusion.

"Where the fuck is she?" I snap. "What did your people do with her?"

Holding his hands up, his eyes lower as he speaks.

"You can't stop what has already started, Xavier," Mason snaps. "Do yourself a favor and stay far away. Your daughter will need you once her mother is gone-"

Gone?

Tuning him out, Elyon scoffs.

"That depends. Will dear Forest live long enough for her child to make it to term?" Elyon smiles. "Or will I have to get rid of yet another casualty standing in my way."

Glaring at him, it all comes together.

"You never had any intention of keeping Forest safe."

Glaring at me, Elyon wickedly smiles.

"I let the daughter I raised willingly go on the chopping block." Dusting off the front of my cloak, his smile deepens. "What the hell makes you think I won't do it again?"

Clouded with anger, I turn to face Mason.

"Where-"

No longer standing before me, I watch him rally his forces, urging them back the way they came.

It was a distraction.

All of this one was one big fucking distraction.

And I fed right into it.

Shifters and Revolutionists alike move in a group, retreating from the bloodshed with little to no care.

"After them!" I yell toward our lingering forces. "Kill any opposing forces."

Grabbing my shoulders, Elyon gets in my face.

"Who the hell allowed you to dictate my men-"

Grabbing his throat, I don't allow him to finish his statement.

"You're nothing," I hiss, lifting him up by his neck, too angered to see past my blind rage. "You will always be nothing," I continue. "You are a useless empty shell of a man, driven by the need to have power. You will leave this Earth mattering to no one and nothing because that's all you are," I hiss. "A worthless, pitiful example of what our kind's worst traits are. You will never harm Forest so long as I am living," holding him up, he gasps, too startled to make a move.

Clawing at my hand, he smiles.

"I-I guess it all depends," he gasps. "On whom makes it to that cabin first."

Winnowing free from my gasp, he vanishes into thin air, leaving nothing but my shaking hand in the space above me.

Letting out shaky breaths, I replay his words.

I guess it all depends on whom makes it to that cabin first.

The cabin.

Forest and my girl.

They must be in the cabin.

Looking around, I stare at the petrified onlookers of the Precipice. Staring me down, Atticus looks at me with raised brows.

"Is she there?" I whisper.

Shrugging his shoulders, he gives me a grin.

"Better hurry, Evermoore," he smiles. "Something tells me the bloodshed has only just begun."