Chapter 256 Torn

Chapter 256 Torn
Kael’s pov
Aria’s scream splits my heart wide open.
Her pain and guilt overwhelms me. I had dropped my bag to run to her but my body got held in place by that bastard's magic. I had to watch my mate being flown towards the kid's body and I know he did that just to torment her, to let her know there is nothing she can do about it. The kid's body is then flung into the forest and I can hear the creature in there go into a frenzy as they close over the kid's body. I know Aria can hear them too.
"Who’s next?" Mr. Benson asks, his tone so casually indifferent as if he is offering us afternoon tea. 
What’s wrong with the man?
Ghost thrashes furiously, trying to force control, but the oppressive spell holds us both pinned like insects on a board. I watch my mate still extended in the air. I can feel that she has given up, there is nothing but grief radiating from her and it breaks my heart that I can’t comfort her. Worse than the screaming students and teachers who had started to run down the road in a futile bid to escape, is the betrayal I feel. All this is happening because I trusted someone other than myself.
"Change your mind yet?" Mr. Benson asks.
I look from Aria to the smile on Mr Benson's face. The vampire stands beside Alpha Roderick as if the chaos isn’t bothering her.
"Bring my mate down," I growl, forcing the words through gritted teeth, every muscle in my jaw aching from the strain.
"Ahhh, yes. Your stupid mate bond. We are going to have to remove that nonsense if we are going to make any real progress here." 
With a flick of his wrist, Aria’s hand flies to her neck, and I feel a searing white-hot agony rip through her neck and mine at the exact same moment.
It feels like a jagged blade is being shoved directly into the mark on my neck, twisting deep into the meat and bone. Ghost howls in pure agony inside my head, his panicked thrashing mixing with the flood of Aria’s pain through our bond.
Nooooo! He is taking her from us! Ghost shrieks, his voice laced with a desperate terror I have never felt from him before.
He can’t take her, Ghost. She is our true mate. He can’t take her from us
But it feels like he can. Maybe he can. Mr Benson's power is unlike anything I have ever felt before. His magic is different. It feels like fire flowing through my veins, head and body. It feels like dark magic…..something no one is allowed to practice but he does so openly. Everyone knows he is practicing it, you just have to take a look at the forest he has created around all the academies. 
But I pray to the moon goddess that what I just told Ghost is true. That our bond with Aria is fated and unbreakable. It’s the reason Mr Benson had tested them in the first place.
Don’t use your energy, Ghost. Conserve it
We can take this. I have put my body through far worse torture than this in the past trying to control Ghost, a truth proved by my basement full of heavy silver chains. Ghost gradually calms his frantic energy, allowing me to focus entirely on Aria, whose body is locked as rigid as iron under Benson’s hold.
Breathe through it, Aria. Professor Claude isn't here to save us, so we only have our bond to protect us right now
I can't, I can't she sobs back into my head, her mind a frantic storm of sorrow and terror. I don't want anybody else to die because of me
They will die anyway. Focus on something else. Let him think his magic worked so he brings you down, and then get ready to save your father
"You will thank me for this eventually," Mr. Benson says, adjusting his sleeves. "Your emotional attachment to each other is holding you back from your true potential, and you will work far better separately. In fact, I think I should make that a rule for everyone from now on. Mates are completely pointless when the whole purpose of this council is to make rational decisions uninfluenced by sentiment."
As he speaks, I catch the brief, subtle shift in posture as Thallia, Nerezza, and Thalric exchange darting glances with one another. Were they mated? Was that the special bond Professor Claude said they shared? 
The agonizing searing at my neck finally begins to recede, and I see Mr. Benson turns toward Thallia. She immediately begins a low, rhythmic chant, her hands weaving complex patterns in the air that send a sudden surge of power rippling through the atmosphere. Mr. Benson draws in a deep, satisfied breath, his eyes flashing with a bright, terrifying aura when he opens them. 
So that is how he is doing this shit. We were wrong. It’s Thallia who is enhancing him, not Silena. Councilor Silena stands behind him alright, but she isn’t doing anything.
Thallia will be the first one to die Ghost growls inside my head.
I agree.
"Now, where were we?" Mr. Benson asks.
I find myself being turned around toward the panicking crowd of students, who are being herded back by the guards. The whole academy is trapped. 
Another scream erupts from the crowd as a second body is yanked off the ground and hoisted into the air—Aria’s former roommate, the girl with the pink hair. What was her name……Isla.
"Ah yes, your little roommate. What do you think, Aria? Is she making you change your mind?"
Aria’s gaze locks onto her friend, and the sheer volume of her grief spikes so violently through our bond that it threatens to drop me to my knees. 
"No, no, no, no! Not her, please!" She cries out, her voice cracking as she fights uselessly against the invisible force pinning her body. "She is innocent! Please, she didn't do anything!"
Seeing my mate in such agonizing distress shatters the last remnants of my restraint, and my eyes glaze over into a blinding, blood-red rage. I slam my weight forward against the binds, my claws elongating and tearing through my own skin as I try to shred the magic holding me in place. It’s useless.
Mr. Benson twitches his fingers, snapping Isla’s neck with a sickening crack that echoes over the field. He hurls her lifeless body into the exact same tree line as the boy before releasing his hold on Aria, sending her crashing onto the stage beside me where she collapses onto her knees, her head bowed and her shoulders shaking with uncontrollable sobs.
"I really want to get this done today and get out of this shithole," Mr. Benson says, stepping between Aria and me with his hands tucked behind his back. "So please, just do as you're told and stop making this difficult. You won't let me into your heads because you foolishly think that will protect you from what is coming, but it won't. Submit to me now and make this transition a little easier on yourselves, or simply be crushed on the wrong side of history."
Stay strong, baby. Look at me. Breathe through it
"Let's get this over with. Give me names," Mr. Benson demands.
When neither Aria nor I speak a single word, he grunts in mild annoyance, and yet another student is plucked from the crowd and hoisted high into the sky. Aria gasps and I find myself torn as I look into the eyes of the coward I’m supposed to kill myself.
"Yes, yes, you really like this one, don't you, Aria?" Mr. Benson laughs. "Let's see if he will finally make you see the light." 
Adrian doesn’t make a sound as he is pulled over our heads by the invisible force to the place the last two students have been.