Chapter 40: Chapter 40

Aries makes a sharp turn into their neighborhood, dashing down the road with his heart smashing against his ribcage.

When they arrive at the Chiangs’ stand-alone home, Aries swerves recklessly onto their driveway, half parked on their front yard. They all rush out and race to the front door.

Aries is about to knock, but the door is already ajar. He wipes his mouth with his hand, quashing the dread blooming in his gut.

He eases inside and the others creep in after him. The air is laden with the stench of a slaughter, heavy with an overpowering metallic, coppery tang.

They venture inside and the furniture is upturned and destroyed, precious vases shattered, fragments litter the floor.

At the one end, Sanako sits slumped against the wall, bathed in her own blood, with multiple stab wounds.

In the living room, Daiyu’s body is smashed through a glass coffee table, pierced by shards and still is riddled with countless holes and callous carvings.

Akin claps a hand over his hand and flees the horrific scene to empty the contents of his stomach.

Akin and Mia continue to the dining room. The table is on its side. Opal’s father is sprawled on the ground, pooling in red.

Opal is kneeling right by him, at the shore of the red sea, curled over like a centipede, clutching onto herself and quivering, not making a single sound. Her hair slick with blood, curtaining her face as she rocks back and forth.

Aries approaches her but doesn’t touch her.

“I—I don’t know what happened.”

“I know…it happened to me, too. It wasn’t them. And it wasn’t you.”

“It was ~me~,” she whispers furiously. “~I~ did this. I wasn’t being controlled.”

“By they were,” he rebuts. “You had no choice. Akin didn’t, and neither did I.”

She rises with petrifying slowness. Mia finds herself inching away a tiny step back, then two. She turns around, face splattered with runny red speckles, her clothes damp with the blood of her family.

Opal inclines her head, tears merging with red. She releases an ear-splitting scream, skyward as if cursing the heavens for her tragedy.

She stumbles back; her cry reduced to woeful whimpering, the back of her trembling hand pressed against her mouth, squeezing her eyes shut.

She mumbles something incoherent.

“What?” he says gently.

“~This is your fault~.”

She tears her hand away and glares at them both. “I told you this would happen if we kept ignoring him. I told you. I told you. But you didn’t listen to me either. If we had just gone back they still might be alive!”

Aries turns away hotly, emotions boiling away his empathy.

“You can’t blame us,” Mia says too softly. She raises her voice. “We don’t know if going back would’ve helped or made things worse.”

“I’m going back,” Opal whispers dangerously. “I have nothing left to lose anymore. ~Nothing.~”

“She’s right.”

Mia and Aries swivel around to see Akin in the doorway, his hand gripping the frame.

“She’s right,” he repeats brokenly. “This ends now.”

***

Aries’s car is parked on the gravel beside the roadway. Oblivious cars zoom past infrequently.

Everyone is scattered. Aries leans against the flank of his car, and Opal is a few paces away from him, her hair free of her sacred ribbon.

Akin stands idly in front of the car a few meters away, and Mia stands a few yards away behind it.

“Hey, Dad, it’s me again.” She looks up at the rapture-blue sky, a continuum of bright blue. “I used to leave these voicemails with the secret hope that somewhere…you were listening. But now I know you’re gone.

“I know everything. And I can’t even be mad at you, scream at you…or thank you. I’m afraid your sacrifice might be for nothing…and if it is, I want to say goodbye, and thank you.

“You may not be my father, but you’re my papa. And I love you, even in a hundred lifetimes and a thousand different realities. I will always love you.”

She hangs up and lowers the phone to her side, turning around and walking back numbly.

Aries glances at her, and his eyes drop back to the ground. “You good?”

“No.”

She opens the backseat, chucks her phone inside, then closes it.

“Let’s go.”

Aries frees a whistle; a short burst that beckons Akin. Opal is already at the tree line and they all gather as they make their way inside with reeling minds and haunted eyes.

The trek to Table Bridge is arduous because of the new, unbearable heft they bear in their chests, eyes pressed back by tears, and they travel in a deafening silence.

In due time, the sound of rushing water fills their ears and when they emerge, a white hooded figure is on the bridge.

Irene turns to face them, alarmed by the palpable despair they all radiate, a dark cloud looming, a veil cast over their faces and pain bellowing in their eyes.

“What are you doing here?” Opal demands.

“Mia called me. And she had good sense in doing so. What you’re about to do is madness.”

Opal’s haunted stare turns into a deadly glower. “I’d like to see you try to stop me.”

“She’s not going to stop us,” Mia affirms with the same ready-to-die resolve. “You can help or go.”

Irene backs away further onto the bridge, outstretching her arms in mock invitation.

Opal steps forward eagerly. Aries follows and so do the others in single file. They line up on the edge, daring to look into the waters.

Terror blitzes through them all at once, but they muster strength against it, undeterred and determined.

“For Erin,” Mia murmurs. “And for Keila.”

Akin blinks back the ceaseless tears. “And for our families.”

Together, they leap into the water and Irene follows with a swan dive. They blaze through the waters and come back on the other side.

The others climb out briskly, but Irene lingers a second to take in the marbled interior. Fleeting awe fades quickly, and she vaults over the ledge, following them out.

Mia stumbles to a pause and so do the others. Another presence. One they know.

She looks at Akin. “You feel that?”

He nods knowingly.

“She’s here,” Opal murmurs.

They go down the corridor and they cut through the opulent edifice to exit on the other side, which is a journey all in itself.

They appear outside again at the wide empty space of green and they dash across to the separate annex with no interruption.

They reach it safely and they make the long, deep-tunneling descent to the subterranean chamber.

Akin appears in the massive archway, then so do the others. The group descends the mountainous steps, a host of memories flooding back, every emotion and every sense of imminent peril.

The empyrean pool is filled to the brim with iridescent water, sparkling ever so brightly in the silver light pouring through the domed glass ceiling etched with glistening inscriptions.

They all crest the brink with Irene at their rear, vigilant, watching the sole entrance and exit, wary of any visitors apart from them.

“She’s down there,” Opal confirms.

Aries lurches forward, but Akin snaps out his arm to stop him. “You have a brother. It can’t be you.”

“And you have a father,” Opal points out, edging closer. “I have no one. I will go.”

“You have us, and I can’t stand to lose you, too,” Akin says, staring into her eyes deeply. “Any of you.”

He looks past her to look at Mia and she nods. He turns his head to his other side to glance back at Aries.

“If you take too long, I’m going in after you.”

Akin ignores him and springs inside, swallowed by the opaque waters, unable to see anything despite the light turquoise color.

The others wait with bated breath, staring into nothingness as they wait and wait.

“What’s going on down there?” Mia says, agitated. Restless. “Do you think Keila is already dead?”

“Then how could we feel her?” Aries says to lend them both a slither of hope.

They wait.

Angsty, Aries shakes his head. “Nah, I’m going—”

Akin blooms out of the water, and another face emerges. He holds Keila bridal-style in his arms. Her piercing blue eyes flutter open and her chest rises with an infinitesimal breath.

Akin releases her and she straightens, her platinum hair disappearing into the water. Keila gazes into his eyes and cups both hands on his cheeks, bringing his face closer.

“You came for me?”

He nods rigidly. “We all did.”

Keila breaks into a smile. Another color spills into her eyes, stirring a dark purple in her irises.

Akin rips her hands away from him and splashes backward. From the root of her hair black runs down like an inky wave and streams into the water, flooding it instantly with a bubbly, oil-like black.

Aries lunges, but Mia catches his wrist and drops to her haunches.

She reaches out to touch the blackened water, and with her fingers just inches above the surface, it burns her like a breath of acid. She yanks her hand back to her chest.

However, Akin is unscathed, despite the waters being contaminated with acid like sulfur.

Keila rotates around in the water without moving her arms and grins at Akin with a piranha-like smile. “There is a poison in you, my love.”

“Akin, get out!” Mia screams.

Akin flails and swims wildly to the side and helps himself out of the pool. Mia grabs him to help him out—a searing pain sends her staggering back. Aries catches her to keep her from falling.

Mia gawks at her burned hand, blisters bubbling in her palm with the full sear of a third-degree burn that goes through the skin, damaging tissue underneath.

A sudden explosion racks the building. They all snap back, gawking at Keila grinning at them. She flicks her gaze up to the ceiling and a seismic eruption tears through the entire building, stone debris hailing from above.

“Out, before she buries us!” Irene hollers.

Mia and the rest of them race back up the mountainous steps, shielding their heads from the rubble raining down. They reach the archway and still have to gallop up the stairwell to the surface.

When they arrive, a blockade of debris seals off the entrance and they fumble back. Seconds later, the stones explode away and the force sends them flying back and tumbling on the ground.

Irene remains strong in a lunge with her weapon rooted into the ground. She snaps up. The others struggle, clambering back up, stretching out aches as their gaze transfix on her.

Promptly, the being that had been Keila glides out and lands on her bare feet.

She is enameled in dark royalty with an elegant black dress with cut-outs at the waist. The material crisscrosses over her midsection with big enough straps to cover breasts.

An ornate, gilded avant-garde breastplate whirls over the curves of her body, matching the swirling gilt armlets.

“Forgive me,” she says with a god-like echo in her reverent voice. “But it had to be done.”

“Which part?” Aries says, fueling courage with fear. “You trying to crush us?”

“The tabernacle had to be destroyed,” she says, dark purple eyes glittering with danger and allure. “Everything I have done, I have done for you.”

Mia frowns. “~You~ have done?”

A comet of shadows shoots out to the open field between ruin and palace. It whirls around her and darkness fleshes out to shape into a form behind her. The Sporkah rises to loom taller than her.

A synapse sparks in her brain. “This was never about freeing Shadow. It was about freeing you.”

Not-Keila rewards her with a blinding smile.

“The third seal has been broken. Two more must break before I can be released, which is why I occupy this worthy vessel.” She gestures to Keila’s body. “I needed all of you, and all of you I need still for my resurgence.”

“Just like we told your pet,” Aries says, stepping forward menacingly, “we’re not going to help you do anything. Not when you forced us to kill Erin, forced us to kill our own families, and now you’ve possessed Keila.

“I’m starting to understand why you were locked up. Freeing you was a mistake.”

“I never forced Erin to do anything,” she says innocently. She clasps her hands in a regal stance.

“She understood what needed to be done. First blood is a holy holocaust, a sacrifice of a willing mind and a pure heart.”

“Right,” Akin says with a sardonic tone. “Just like my mom willingly tried to kill me.”

Not-Keila gives a dignified shrug.

“You all refuted my requests, and you forced my hand, so a more dire course of action had to be taken.” Her eyes drift to Opal. “Is that not so?”

Opal breaks into a grin. “It is, Your Reverence.”

They all gape back at Opal, and watch as she struts over the field.

Pieces of clothes fall away to reveal the splendor beneath; crimson garb unfurls to the ground, leaving a blood trail as she moves with grace to stand at Not-Keila’s side, her raven-black hair falling down her bare back.

“No,” Aries breathes. Rage and betrayal war within him.

Mia stares. “What…”

“Opal,” Aries starts, not knowing where he’s going. “She’s in your head. She—”

“She is not forcing me to do anything,” Opal says truthfully. “I came freely and gave her my allegiance. As you should, too.”

Aries blurts a scant, scathing laugh. “All this time. Just like that?”

Opal smiles at him patronizingly.

“You say that like I’m a traitor or something,” she says with her eyes gleaming with divine enlightenment.

“The only betrayal would be us going against our own destiny. We are meant for a higher calling. And I know, being who you are, you know that it’s true.”

“I never forced anyone,” the creature that had been Keila says with a devilish smirk.

“Opal has served me from the beginning, as did Keila. As you all sought to cleanse your minds of this place, pretending to be the mortals you wished you were.

“You all were ignorant of Keila’s suffering, her mind dancing with thoughts of death.”

Mia’s breathing snags. “Suicide?”

“The human side of her was suffocating her from the inside with depression and anxiety. She wanted to be free and gladly swore fealty to me, as did Opal—and as will you.”

“Never,” Aries spits out.

“It is written, engraved in the Ephemeris—” her eyes flit to Irene. “Did the rogue not tell you?”

Guilt splashes her face, blinking fast suddenly.

Mia hurls a glare at her. “Tell us what?”

She releases an amused laugh, brimming with malice. “How predictable. Of course, she withheld that truth. As always, human nature never ceases to disappoint. Beholden to your self-serving ambitions.”

“What is she talkin’ about?”

“When the rift has been torn and the first five seals have been broken—the Assecla will be summoned,” she says, reciting the prophecy, “conquest, war, and death, with them. The Assecla shall bring the Apocalypse.”

Mia impales her with one last glower.

“That is the foretelling. I am the Apocalypse they speak of so immaturely. And you, you my beloveds, my most treasured. You are the Assecla, my followers who will be death’s companions—so they believe.”

Akin takes a thoughtless step back, shaking his head vigorously. “No.”

“Yes,” she grins with a dark maliciousness. “My name is Azura, a name that resounds in the annals of history, spoken in legend and uttered in fear.

“Many say I seek to wreak destruction since destruction was inflicted on me—that I was forsaken, or that my brother transgressed my faith in him, almost ensuring my demise.

“Neither is true. My desires are not propelled by the vengeful logic of mortals. I am not swayed by such triviality.”

“You lie with every breath!” Irene yells so loud, her neck strains. “You were too powerful to slay, which is why the Vesturium had you imprisoned after the Sagetai felled both Vilnus and his son.

“You bore the legacy of your line, which helms only devastation.”

“I speak what is,” Azura says with a winsome smile, bewitching their attention, their eyes rapt on her, unlike the rogue who has fed you lies to turn you against me.

“The moment you are within their grasp, the Ecclesia will slaughter you like lambs. For that is how precious and yet fragile you are while your power slumbers.

“You are vulnerable, and the Ecclesia will exploit that just as the rogue has, preying on your ignorance.”

Azura floats forward as if she walks on water.

“That is how the Ecclesia operates. She blinded you from the truth because your true power lies not in your abilities, but in the knowledge of who you are and the acceptance of such.

“Once you realize the majesty of your identity and the inheritance that comes with it, they know you would become invincible.

“To keep you weak is not to bind you, to keep you weak is to rob you of your identity: then you bind yourself. I only desire to free you.”

“And what would that cost?”

“~Aries~,” Mia whispers with reproach.

“It would cost you nothing. Those who swore fealty to me did so with free will. She glances at an unrepentant Opal.

“Aries, you have suffered much at the hands of man. Embrace who you are. There is no reason to cage the beast within.

“Accept your destiny and join me, rule beside me, and thrive with the glory and grandeur that kings and gods shall envy.”

Aries remains silent for a moment, like he’s deliberating.

“You see, I would trade all of that for my grandmother. The woman that raised me, who saw the darkest parts of me and loved me, anyway. That’s what you took from me…and you made me the one to do it.”

Irritation flashes across her face, too fast for the human eye to catch.

“It was necessary to bring you back here. You are not safe in the mortal worlds, as I have said before. The Ecclesia would rid this tier of you and exterminate every trace.

“Your human brother Calum, he too has suffered greatly.”

“So you did all of this to protect us?” Mia asks.

Azura looks at Mia as if she has just seen her for the first time, and bows her head to her royally, as if she were her equal.

“Anything for the blood of my kin. I suppose the rogue had not disclosed what you are either.”

Mia’s eyes snap to Irene, who looks away with shame.

“We may not know the full truth,” Akin said, moving to be ahead of all three of them. “But we know enough. I don’t trust the ~rogue~, you, or the Ecclesia. But I believe they were right to lock you up.

“Anyone who kills when it’s expedient deserves to be caged. You have no moral boundary, and that’s why you’re a threat.”

Azura’s siren-like eyes fall on him. The dark purple swirls within them, affirming her authority.

“If that were true, your righteous judgment should be shared with Aries. He and I should both be condemned for the principles we both emulate.”

Aries bristles, his face blanching.

Mia’s eyes thin into distrusting slits. “Aries is nothing like you.”

She laughs again, a dark and daunting sound.

“He is every bit of me, as you are. Aries, have you not confessed your deeds to the others? The souls you sundered from the earth to preserve your power?

“There is a reason you were born into and crave a place of authority. It is your nature.”

“Stop.”

Akin throws him a nervous glance. “What is she talking about, Aries?”

“How the lies fester like a sickness. Human nature is truly the plague.”

“Is that your goal?” Mia questions, outrage weaving into her voice. “You want to wipe us out?”

“~Them~,” she amends. “You are not among the weak and fickle. And no, I do not wish to destroy anything. I come to save. I am the salvation of all the worlds, not only for the mortals.”

“You are just as deceptive as your father. Runs in the family,” Irene remarks. “If you wish to dole out the truth, don’t omit the parts that discomfort you and do a disservice to your distorted narrative.

“You know the~ Ukure~ and the son of Set will arise to vanquish you, for that is what is written.”

“If I perish, so shall they,” Azura responds with an unfazed grin. “I might not be at my own full power, as I would be in my natural form, but I have spent epochs growing stronger while all my enemies withered.

“Now I alone remain. I do not fear the ones who are even unaware of the powers they possess.”

“You seem to know much about us, Azura,” Aries says with a bite in his tenor. “What you should know about me is that I don’t negotiate.

“I don’t understand any of the terms you two be throwing out, but I know this. We will never join you.”

“And perhaps,” Akin says with mock thoughtfulness, “the Ecclesia may want us dead. But I’m guessing they want you dead even more. I believe we write our own destinies.”

Aries nods condescendingly. “Ye, and I think ours will change when we ally ourselves with Ecclesia and rid this tier of you.

“The Vesturium failed to kill you, but I have a feeling that we won’t.”

“I have had quite my fill of your barking.” Azura lifts her chin, her fury so tangible the air ripples with heat.

“Why am I always regarded as a peril? One only becomes what they have been treated as and if you view me as your enemy, I will show you just how perilous I can be.”

An unseen pressure compresses Aries’s airways and he chokes. Opal watches with a blank stare. Akin claws at his neck as if prying something off, yet nothing is there.

Mia hurries to him and he falls back—she catches him by the shoulders—his weight too much for her. She eases them both to the ground. Akin shudders in her arms as his lungs constrict.

She glances at Irene, who’s already passed out on the ground. Aries drops to a lunge, gasping in vain for breath.

“Stop!” Mia screams.

Azura permits her irritation to show.

“Time with the mortals has weakened you. You may revile me now, but in time, comprehension will dawn upon you.

“The mortal realms loathe us all because our power cannot be contained. We are not limited to our flesh and the depraved nature bound to it. Despite their rebellion, I will save them all.”

“Like this?” Mia gestures to a thrashing Akin in her grasp. “By tyranny? One thing you may have forgotten about humans is that we don’t like being controlled.”

An unworldly rage heats her blood, her innards set afire. “And yes, we can be vengeful, especially if you hurt the people we care about.”

Akin falls limp. Mia places him on the ground gingerly and stands up.

“And for that, ~you will burn~.”

Her insides come alight with a voltage of power, scorching her flesh from the inside, surging rampantly. Mia’s eyes burst with an amber glow, consuming both pupil and iris, aflame with blood-orange.

The Sporkah backhands Opal from behind and she goes flying. Azura whips around and gnarled fingers clamp hard around her throat.

Mia’s head tilts to the side, and the Sporkah raises Azura high before it launches them both into the blasted off entrance of the tabernacle, bulldozing through a mountain of stone at the velocity of light.

The fiery glow in Mia’s eyes dissipates, but her insides are still charged, abuzz with pulsating power. Akin sucks in a shaking breath. Irene jerks awake, her hand clutching onto her weapon.

Mia pats his cheek and urges him to get up.

“Let’s go.”

“What happened?”

“Let’s go!”

Aries scurries up to a stand and arrows straight to the building, the rest of them in tow. Once they make it at the entrance, a jaw-wrenching shriek rips through the Black Glade.

A swarm of inky-scaled hellions bursts from the tree line, chasing after them. The four of them use every reserve of speed and vigor to catapult themselves through the palatial hallways of the primary edifice.

One of the creatures catches up.

Irene propels herself into the air and bounces off the wall—swiveling to be above it. She raises the weapon above her head and it transforms into a longsword before she plunges it into its body, black blood spurting out.

She rips the sword out and swings it around as it elongates and narrows into a staff, then she stabs it forward so the spearhead tears through another.

Irene jerks it out and runs onward, buying them some leeway, but not enough. The others are waiting at the ledge and the moment they see her, Akin and Aries throw themselves into the water.

Mia follows and Irene leaps into the air, diving inside with a hellion on her tail. Venom-filled claws clamp onto her calf, puncturing her flesh. Irene screams, bubbles exploding from her mouth.

An amber glow ignites Mia’s eyes. A seething light strikes the rift. The waters churn beneath them, opening up a surging vortex like a black hole.

Irene’s blade runs through the creature’s head and she thrusts her other foot at it so it goes spiraling down, vacuumed by the roiling vortex.

It speeds up until it seals with an explosion, sending a violent tremor to ripple through the natural and unnatural world, quaking either surface.

The glowing light in Mia’s eyes fizzles out and the ebbing power saps her strength, rendering her unconscious.

Irene latches onto her with one arm secured around her waist and the other holding her weapon. She depletes her energy by swimming to the top, hard and fast.

Once she emerges, Akin jumps back in to relieve her of an unconscious Mia, and he carries her out of the river.

When Irene reaches the edge, Aries offers his hand and pulls her out effortlessly. She drops on her back, her breathing coming out ragged.

“What’s wrong with her?”

He kneels down with Mia on his lap, cuddling her body to his chest.

“Nothing. It’s the first time she used her power, too much and too fast. Her mortal vessel couldn’t handle it. She will wake. She just needs to rest.”

Akin’s eyes inspect Irene’s wounded leg. Deep claw marks ripped through fabric and flesh.

“Then what’s wrong with you?”

“I’m not your concern.”

“Good.” Aries pushes his hair back, plastering his drenched hair to his head. “Then start talkin’. No more lies.”

Irene props herself on her elbow.

“Look, I promise to light a campfire and tell you all about it over s’mores and marshmallows, but I need to get you safely out of Braidwood.

“Mia drained a lot of her life force to close that portal. Let’s not make her sacrifice futile.

“Now that Azura is free, it’s only a matter of time. Though she is strong, she will wait for the Eternal Eclipse to breach ~this~ world. She is not our problem, for now, but the Ecclesia will be.”

Akin summons strength and heaves himself off the ground with Mia in his arms, her dark hair reaching for the forest floor.

“We have no choice.” His eyes rove down her throat with woeful wistfulness. “Two of us are murderers.”

“We can’t leave without tying up loose ends, first,” Aries states.

“Are we at least going to stay in ~this~ world?” Akin asks.

“For now,” Irene concedes.

***

Dusk sweeps the sky, dusting the horizon, sending up streaks of orange and hot pinks.

Akin opens the front door of his house. He steps carefully inside like the tiles will break beneath him.

He creeps down the foyer and down the hallway, his mind tormented by violent images, ears ringing with the sound of his own scream.

He comes into the kitchen, nostrils invaded by the smell of bleach and other chemicals, but it’s spotless. Akin goes around the island counter where his mother’s body had lain.

“Akin,” his father beckons from upstairs. “That you?”

He swallows, but the lump in his throat refuses to go, only expanding to hamper his breathing.

Akin exits hastily and walks to the grand swivel staircase that swoops upward. He jogs up until he reaches the top.

Akin regulates his breath and slows his pace to an average speed and goes down a dark mahogany corridor.

He knocks at his father’s home office and enters, closing the door behind him. Akin goes to stand in front of his furnished desk arranged neatly with documents and folders.

“Have you seen your mother? I keep calling, but it goes straight to voicemail. It’s unlike her not to call me back.”

Akin takes a while before he responds. “Um…she’s probably just at the restaurant.”

“I called there, too. She hasn’t been in today.”

Akin forces a stiff shrug. “Then she’s dealing with fresh shipments or something. I’m sure she’ll be back any minute,” he says, a wince pinching his face, stung by the lie.

“Usually, I’d wait, but I’m starving. Think we should grab a bite, then act hungry when she comes back?”

Akin doesn’t respond, his unblinking stare locked on the vinyl flooring.

His father’s playful smile fades. “You okay, son? Akin?”

Akin blinks again and nods absently.

He takes off his reading glasses and rolls out of his leather chair to stand up.

“Don’t,” Akin says brusquely. “I’m fine.”

“You don’t look fine.” He rounds the corner to come closer to him. “What’s wrong? Clearly something is eating at you.”

It is taking all of him to keep from breaking down at this very moment.

“How would you even know? You can only know that about someone when you spend time with them.”

His father sighs regretfully. “I’m sorry that it upsets you so much that I tried to build this life for you. I grew up as an orphan, and I made sure that if ever I had a kid, they would never suffer like I did.”

“It’s not always about money.”

“Says the boy raised with it. You don’t know what lack is. You were raised with a mother who adores you and a father that would do ~anything~ for you. That’s how I prove my love, but if you need to say it.”

He goes up to Akin and grasps his shoulders, then places a stern hand behind his neck.

“~I love you~. And I’m sorry you felt I cared more about my work than I did for you.

“Which is why I was going to tell you that this coming quarter I was going to resign from my active role in the company and do what founders do and delegate.

“That means less work and more family. So I’ll have all the time to watch your matches for the rest of the season. And later in life when you’re playing alongside Messi and Neymar.”

Akin reaches out to him and reels him in a firm hug. Surprised, he responds warmly.

“You will never know how proud I am of you.”

Akin looks up to keep the tears from falling. He claps a hard hand on father’s back and draws away.

“Thanks, Dad. I’d love to stay but I’m meeting with some friends. That cool?”

Akin’s father nods cheerfully and returns to his seat. “Sure, be back at a reasonable time.”

“Always,” Akin lies with a shuddering voice.

His father’s eyes narrow at him curiously as he recedes to the door.

Akin opens it and pauses.

“And, Dad…I love you, too.”

His smile brightens his face.

“See you later, son.”

He departs from the office and closes the door. And his knees buckle, and he drops to his haunches with his hand still fisting the handle.

He composes himself, laboring his breath before he rises and lets go. He leaves the house knowing full well he’s not coming back later. At least not for a very long time.

He emerges and quickens his pace to reach the car in the driveway. He opens the back seat and climbs in, releasing an explosive breath.

Mia and Irene both keep their eyes in front of them. His eyes swarm all over the interior until something catches his attention.

Irene has a tattoo on the back of her neck, slightly obscured by her ponytail; a marking of a sword pointing south with a snake wrapped around the blade.

“Is it done?”

Akin cringes at the coldness. “Yes. What about the Chiangs?”

“I spoofed their accounts and broadcast a message to their employers, friends, and family that they will be taking a family vacation. A false correspondence that will lend us time until they figure out they’re not coming back.

“Sanako, however, resigned from her position permanently. I found out that her attorney was trying to reach her for a confirmation of the insurance policy she had taken out. Her sister was a benefactor.

“In the event Sanako died, her loft in the city and her assets would be transferred to Opal for sole ownership.”

Akin drops forward to bury his face with his hands.

“I have to stop off somewhere. I have my own loose ends to tie. Mia will drop me off at the library. There are some supplies I need to acquire.

“You two head to Braidwood General to get Aries. After, we’ll rendezvous and make get the hell out of Braidwood.”

Akin remains as he is, and Mia persists in her silence.

“Do I want to know how Aries had connections to scrub two crime scenes? And get rid of four bodies like it was nothing? Is he working for a crime syndicate or something?”

Mia shakes her head. “He doesn’t work for anyone.”

***

Aries meets with Jax in the parking lot.

“You look like shit,” he says, strolling up to the Aries, who rests against the hood of his car. “Is that why I haven’t been hearin’ from you?

“You’re making some of the clientele nervous. You know the higher-ups only do business with the big boss.”

“Then they should be talkin’ to you.”

Jax’s smug smirk slips off his face. “What?”

“You said that my grandfather wanted to keep the business in the family. And you have served him and me with honor. There’s no one I trust more than you, brother. Which is why my fall will be your rise.

“I’m giving you full control of the organization.”

“Aries, no—”

“It’s no different. You’ve been running things, mostly. Now you don’t have to answer to me.”

Jax nears him, using a clandestine voice. “If you’re in trouble, talk to me. We can get you out.”

“When have I ever needed help?”

Jax actually thinks it over. No scenarios come to mind.

“I have to disappear for a while. Keep my seat warm for me.” He claps his shoulder and bends down to pick up the pristine white bag, fresh from the Apple store.

“Whatever you’re in, you don’t gotta worry about Calum. I’ve got eyes on him.”

Aries pauses, glances over his shoulder and resumes, making his way to the hospital. Once he’s inside, he takes the elevator and his personal phone buzzes with a notification.

He checks the message. It is sent by an unsaved number, but he knows exactly who it is.

He pockets the phone without answering. He rides the elevator to the third level and walks down the immaculate corridor.

He enters Calum’s private room. He’s asleep.

Aries closes the door with excessive care and moves to relocate the visitor’s chair right beside his bed and drops the bag by his feet. He settles in the armchair and observes his brother.

Calum’s forehead is engraved with a small frown line, asleep but not at peace. Fifteen minutes pass before starts waking up, peeling his eyes open and seeing a familiar figure beside him.

“Aries!”

Calum flings his arms open and Aries practically throws himself at him. The chair scrapes back and he lays his head on his small chest and he can hear his big heart thumping with joy.

Calum cradles his head, holding onto him as tightly as he can. Aries pulls away reluctantly and settles down next to him.

The mattress lets out a whine as he swings his arm over and Calum draws to his flank, nestling himself against him. Aries drapes his arm around him and plants a long, lingering kiss on top of his head.

“You have to break me out of here. I’m so ~bored~, and the food here sucks. I miss gran-gran’s cooking.”

“Sorry, little one. You can’t leave until that leg of yours is a bit better.”

“Then I’ll have to use crutches,” Calum moans. “It never ends!”

Aries chuckles, the rumble in his chest vibrating through him.

“What about the pain?”

“What pain? I’m a Black, I don’t feel pain.”

Aries snorts at him. “Okay, tough guy. So then you won’t be needin’ this.”

He slants to the side to pick up the white bag and Calum’s eyes bulge at the logo on it.

“Is that—is that—”

“It is,” Aries says and drops it on his lap.

Calum takes out the box ecstatically, ogling the picture of the iMac laptop on top.

“No freakin’ way!” he screams excitedly. “Thank you, thank you, thank you! You’re the best brother in the world!

Aries relishes the praise, for a moment forgetting the real reason why he’s there. But the knock on the door reminds him why. His grin vanishes.

The door opens, and a head pokes through the door, malachite-green eyes staring back at him. Aries snaps to his feet. Calum glances at the man, genuinely not recognizing him.

“Give me a minute,” Aries mutters.

Charles closes the door like a scolded child.

Aries faces Calum with tears searing behind his eyes. An alien feeling.

Calum’s eyes flick up and sees his eyes become shiner and shiner. “Ari, are you okay? What’s wrong? Who was that man?”

Aries comes back to him and extends his hand to him. Calum smiles knowingly, and they do their handshake. And Aries ends it by drawing him closer to honor the crown of his head with a final and devastating kiss.

Calum can feel his distress, though he can’t explain it. His brother is always been indestructible and dauntless but now he looks like a frightened pup.

“Ari, what’s going on? Tell me.”

“The man you saw…it’s him,” Aries utters lowly, the inside of his mouth goes arid. “It’s…Dad.”

The horror that grows on his face makes his tears burn even more, demanding its release.

“Why? I don’t want to see him. Tell him to leave.”

“I can’t. I want to. But I can’t,” he says helplessly.

“Aries, what do you mean? What’s going on?”

Aries takes a steadying breath, though it trembles. “I have to go away for a while—”

“Go?” he squeaks, doe eyes shimmering with tears. “Go like dad did? Where, why, why are you leaving me?”

“Never.”

He reaches for him, but Calum shrinks away.

“It’s not like that. I promised you I would never leave you like he did. You know I keep my promises. I have to go because I got into a lot of trouble, so you don’t get hurt. You have to stay with him.”

“Why can’t I just stay with gran-gran and wait for you to come back?”

Breathing suddenly becomes an effort.

“Because it’s not safe. Ma can’t protect you, but Charles can. He will keep you safe until I get back. I promise you, I will come back.”

Aries unclasps the plain silver chain from his necklace and places it down on the bedside table. “I swear on my life.”

Calum shakes his head fervently, his face taut in a sob, tears pouring from his eyes. “Please, don’t send me away, I’ll be good—I promise, please just don’t leave, Ari.”

His throat burns, he blinks fast, the pain excruciating, like nothing he has ever felt.

“Ca—” his voice cracks and he quickly clears his throat. “Calum, I love you, you are my everything. You know, you know I’d never abandon you. I’m coming back.”

Calum’s face twists into a sorrowful scowl and he takes up the box and shoves it off his lap. It crashes on the ground and Calum frees a short, high-pitched scream, hatred drowning his doe eyes.

“I hate you!” he screams with a cry, gasping for air. “I hate you and I never want to see you again. You’re dead to me! ~I hate you~!”

“Ca—”

The door opens and a concerned, passing nurse enters, her eyes bouncing between them.

“I was just leaving,” he mutters.

He darts to the exit.

“Wait!” Calum squeaks, his voice wailing a new pitch. “I didn’t mean it. I’m sorry, just please don’t leave me!”

Aries chokes on a breath, keeping his back on his brother, for he knows even if he even glances back, he won’t be able to leave. And he must, for him, he must.

Aries shoves himself outside the door, shouldering past their father.

“You’re doing the right thing, Aries. I’ll take care of him.”

Aries leaves with not so much as a backward glance. A quivering fist on his mouth as he goes back to the elevator, a maelstrom of emotions raging within him, pounding through his veins with the force of a thousand storms.

Eventually, he reaches the atrium, where he reunites with Akin, who is waiting for him. He exits the hospital and marches heatedly to his car in the lot. Akin follows after him, accelerating just to keep behind him.

“I told Mia to drop me off here and wait for Irene to fetch whatever she needed,” Akin said to Aries’s back. “I said I’d wait for you and we can ride out to meet them halfway before leaving.”

Aries marches on, his breaths audible.

“Yo, you good? Aries, talk to me, man.”

Aries stops at the car and tries the door with unnecessary aggression. He curses and fumbles for his keys.

“Aries?”

“What!”

Akin’s eyes widen at the outburst, then fill with compassion.

“Don’t look at me like that. Don’t you fucking look at me like that!”

Akin realizes his goodbye with his brother didn’t go well. “I’m sorry—”

“Shut up—”

“You did what you had to.”

Aries launches a punch at his jaw, then his gut, knocking the air from his lungs. Akin doesn’t fight back, he keeps his hands at his sides. This enrages Aries more, and he releases a barrage of devastating punches.

“Fight back! ~Fight back!~”

He grabs Akin and slams him against the flank of his car with his fist raised, ready to throttle him again.

“Do it,” Akin says calmly, and nods. “You don’t want me to fight you. You want me to hurt you, hoping the physical pain will mute the pain in your heart. It won’t. But if this helps you, do it. I can take it.”

Aries snatches a fistful of his top with his other hand. He freezes. Akin nods encouragingly, not wanting to be beaten but wanting him to feel some measure of solace, however small.

This pain in Aries breaks open, years’ worth of anguish. For the first time in a decade, it has its release. Tears leak from his eyes one by one, then a flood ensues.

Every tear he held in when his father left, his mother died, then his grandparents. And now when he loses his brother.

Akin dares to reach out to him. Once he sees it’s safe, he pulls Aries toward him carefully, but Aries closes the gap and grips him in a bone-crushing hug.

Aries drops his head against his shoulder, weeping silently, strangling his sob and trembling in his grasp.

“You did what you had to do to protect your brother. He doesn’t understand now.” Akin gives him a comforting, strong squeeze. “But he will, because you’re going to come back.”

Aries pulls away abruptly and snatches the end of his top, then pastes it over his face, exposing the hard lines of his stomach, wiping his cheeks dry. He lets go and draws out his keys, unlocking the car.

Akin rounds the BMW and hops in from the passenger side. Aries pulls out of the parking space and Akin takes out his phone to call Mia.

She gives him the location of their next meet, then he relays that information to Aries. His response is limited to a terse nod.

Akin hangs up and drops the phone on his lap, staring at it thoughtfully.

“I’m probably going to have to get rid of it, aren’t I?”

Aries glances at his phone, then nods again.

Akin inhales a shuddering breath, seeking some kind of solace outside the window.

“How did it go with your dad?”

Akin keeps his gaze out of the window, fighting back his own tears. “We both said what we needed to say.”

The two drive out to the edge of town where they regroup with Mia and Irene on the side of the road, parked near the ~Welcome to Braidwood~ sign. Across from it, a few yards ahead, is the ~See You Soon~ post.

They exit their vehicles and gather between the cars, standing in a circle. Irene stands with her one leg bent, her weight off the wounded one.

Burning to know, Akin asks, “Will we ever come back?”

“Not for a long time,” Irene answers without filtering. “Mia and I have only survived as long as we did because her powers were dormant, as were yours, and I had the Gurusha conceal her aura.

“Now that they have awakened and there was a power eruption when the rift was sealed—all that protection is gone.”

“And where are we going to go?” Aries demands.

“You don’t think I had a contingency plan at the ready?”

Aries nods condescendingly.

“For you and Mia. I’m sure you didn’t factor in Akin and me. And definitely not the fact that eventually they’re going to realize Akin’s mother and Opal’s family are missing indefinitely. It’s going to raise questions.

“Then they’re gonna wonder why Akin’s son just up and vanished. Eventually, he will become a prime suspect and they will come looking for him, evidence or not.”

Irene snorts with dry humor. “Human authorities are the least of your problems. All you have to do is follow me. Can you manage that?”

“Running isn’t a strategy,” he retorts.

“Neither is dying,” she counters. “Before you transition into your full form, the Ecclesia will take your heads when they realize what you are all collectively, not just individually.

“My best bet is to leave this tier to appeal to the Vesturium, not to kill you.”

“But you’re a rogue,” Mia says to point out the peril. “Wouldn’t they kill you, too?”

Irene snorts wryly. “They would want to. However, they believed the Assecla would not come for epochs, and the ones believed to stop them would be the Ukure. Erin breaking the first seal fast-tracked the timeline by centuries.

“If the Ukure have not risen yet, Azura will breach this world with no opposition. At that point, she would be too powerful for the Eccelsia.

“The only ones who would have the power to stop her are the ones who were empowered to serve her.”

Akin’s jaw loosens.

“You think we can actually stop her? What I said back there at the Black Glade was all talk and bluff.

“You didn’t see the way she came out of the water and obliterated that building without even blinking? And that’s her at her weakest. What happens when she’s at her peak?”

“You will be too,” Irene says with calm certainty. “And you won’t be alone.”

She turns and limps back to the driver’s side of the silver Volkswagen. Aries goes back and Akin’s movements stutter before he follows suit.

Irene moves off and Aries is on her tail as they hurtle down the road. Akin looks into the exterior mirror, watching the signpost descend into the tarred horizon.

Aries glances back too, the only thing that bound his soul and heart to Braidwood, he has forsaken in his rear-view mirror.

The three of them don’t fully comprehend the danger they are in, nor how they are a danger to the world.

Balance is a law that cannot be transgressed. Neither can destiny. Three of them have already succumbed to their ancient fate, now only three remain, resisting against a primordial tether.

They will either be the world’s salvation or its damnation.