Chapter 80 The Horror In His Mind Pt. II

Chapter 80 The Horror In His Mind Pt. II
INDIE
       I rushed toward the bars, but my hands passed through them like smoke. The scene dissolved.

Another replaced it.

Zade lay chained to a metal table while faceless figures carved symbols into his skin. His jaw was clenched, his breathing shallow. He looked towards the ceiling without seeing it.

I felt every cut. Every violation of his body. Every time he forced himself to become numb because feeling anything would destroy him.

Tears blurred my vision.

"This isn't happening now," I told him. "Zade, listen to me. This is a memory."

He didn't move. The room shifted again.

He was curled naked in the corner of another cell, knees pulled to his chest, blood drying between his thighs and across his hips. His body shook, but his face remained blank.

My heart descended into panic.

I couldn't breathe. I approached slowly, terrified that one wrong movement would frighten him farther away.

"Zade..."

He stared through me. A door opened behind him. Heavy footsteps entered. His whole body stiffened.
His mind abandoned him before the shadow could reach him.

I dropped to my knees in front of him.

"You're not there anymore," I whispered frantically. "You escaped. You found me. You found Lila. Leon is waiting for us. You have a home."

He didn't give me a response.

A voice curled through the darkness right then.

"Does he now?"

Varak.

The shadows thickened along the walls, gathering into the vague shape of a man. I stood, placing myself between him and Zade.

"You can't have him."

Varak laughed softly. "I already do. You're looking at what remains."

I glanced back.

Zade was still curled against the wall, his eyes lifeless.

"This is what he truly is, Flamekeeper. Everything else was a performance. The Alpha. The father. The mate."

Varak moved closer. "All masks built over an empty shell."

"You're lying."

"Am I?"

The cell vanished. We stood in a vast cavern now.
Hundreds of memories surrounded us like floating mirrors.

Zade screaming as claws tore into him. Zade drowning in black water. Zade being forced to fight other prisoners while guards watched.

Zade staring at the bodies afterward, unable to cry.
Zade begging once. Only once. Then learning never to beg again.

Each memory struck me physically. Pain ripped through my muscles. My lungs burned.

Invisible hands held me down. A blade dragged across my skin. I stumbled, choking back a scream.

Varak watched with amusement.

"You love him?" he asked.

I glared at him through tears.

"Yes."

"Then feel him."

The memories crashed into me all at once. I fell.

My body hit the cavern floor as decades of pain flooded through me. Assaults. Starvation. Torture. Humiliation. I could no longer tell where he ended and I began.

My fire sparked beneath my skin.

Golden light crawled over my arms. Varak went still.

Then he smiled. "There you are."

The shadows lunged.

They wrapped around my wrists and ankles, dragging me across the stone. I screamed as darkness climbed my body, burrowing beneath my skin, sucking the flames.

"No!"

I fought, throwing fire outward. It exploded through the cavern, the mirrors shattering.

Varak laughed. The sound came from everywhere.

"Yes," he whispered. "Burn."

The fire surged higher in response to my fear. Too high.

It poured out of me in uncontrollable waves, racing through the plane like a wildfire. The shadows drank it greedily, pulling the flames away from me and feeding them into a massive set of black chains suspended above the cavern.

The chains began to glow. Understanding struck me.

This wasn't only Zade's mind. It was the gate.

Varak had brought Zade here because the chains binding him to the dead plane existed inside the same place. And I had walked straight in carrying the key.

"No."

I tried to smother my flames. They wouldn't obey.
Varak's presence pressed against me, cold fingers curling around my power.

"You came to save him," he murmured. "How touching."

The black chains cracked. One link split open. Thunder shook the cavern. Somewhere far away, Leon shouted my name.

The sound was faint. I clung to it.

"Leon..."

Varak tightened his hold. "Forget him."

Another chain cracked. My flames burned hotter.
I screamed, fighting to pull them back inside me, but every ounce of panic fed them more.

Then I heard something beneath the roar. A hoarse voice. It was so weak, I had to strain my ears to listen.

"Bunny..."

I twisted around. Zade stood several feet away.

It wasn't the Alpha I knew. Or the broken prisoner.

This was somewhere between them. His body was covered in wounds. Chains hung from his wrists. His violet eyes were dull, but they were fixed on me.

He looked exhausted and numb, barely present.
But this was proof that he had heard me.

So, I reached for him.

"Zade."

His gaze dropped to the fire pouring out of my body and feeding Varak's chains. Fear flashed across his face.

"Run," he whispered.

A crack split through the cavern as another chain broke. Varak laughed with triumph.

Zade's eyes widened.

"INDIE, RUN!"

The darkness surged between us. And this time, when Varak moved, he wore Zade's face.

I froze.

He drew closer, looking painfully identical to my mate down to the blood drying on his mouth and the silver ring around his violet irises. But his smile was wrong.

Behind him, the chains binding the dead plane groaned as my fire crawled along them.

One broken link swung freely.

"You came all this way for him," Varak said through Zade's mouth. "Yet you're the reason he's suffering."

I forced myself to look past him.

The real Zade stood several feet away, naked and covered in wounds. His wrists were still chained, his shoulders hunched as though even holding his head up required more strength than he possessed.

He stared at me numbly. There was no anger or hope on his face.

"Zade," I whispered.

Varak stepped into my path. “He can't hear you."

"Yes, he can,” I spat, refusing to back down.

"He doesn't want to."

The false Zade tilted his head, studying me with cruel amusement.

"You saw what was done to him. You felt it. Every hand. Every blade. Every time he left his body because staying inside it hurt too much."

My stomach rolled. I could still feel the memories clinging to me.

Cold stone beneath my knees. Restraints biting into my wrists. Hands that treated his body like it belonged to anyone but him. And through it all, the awful silence of his mind shutting down so he could survive.

Varak leaned closer.

"He's tired, Flamekeeper. Why can't you let him rest?"

My fire surged. The black chains above us cracked again.

Varak's smile widened. That's it."

I looked up.

Flames streamed from my arms toward the chains, but they weren't simply burning them. Varak was pulling them from me, feeding on them.

Every burst of fear, every spike of anger, and every desperate thought of losing Zade made the fire stronger—and gave Varak exactly what he needed.

I closed my eyes.

"Indie!" Leon's voice echoed faintly through the darkness.

His hand was still around my ankle in the infirmary.
His magic was still holding onto me. I clung to the thought, thinking about Zade's cold hand in mine, Leon's palm over my skin and Lila waiting with Mr. Wolf.

Home.

"Stop fighting me," Varak whispered. "You can't control it."

I inhaled slowly. The fire burning over my skin faltered. Then I imagined pulling it inward, containing it.

Leon had taught me that flames weren't only destruction. Fire needed air. Direction. Boundaries.

So I gave mine walls.

The inferno receded from my arms, sinking beneath my skin in bright golden threads.

Varak's expression darkened for the first time.

"What are you doing?"

I opened my eyes. “Taking back what's mine."