Chapter 137 - Taken

Chapter 137 - Taken
Chapter 35 - Taken

Lucien Virell POV

Raelith’s scream tore through the chamber like a blade through wet silk.

Not a mortal scream. Not a sound meant for ears. It was felt, not heard, like someone dragging their nails down the inside of your skull.

I dropped to one knee, clutching my head as Seraphyne hissed beside me with her fangs bared.

“My goddess...”

“BE SILENT.”

Her voice blasted through my veins like molten iron, boiling, blistering, and hungry. The shadows in the chamber recoiled, then bent themselves into kneeling shapes at her feet.

Through the blood mirror, I watched the battlefield beyond the barrier, watched Elowen’s brats tear through my soldiers, watched those dragon-blooded girls shift, and watched the Velmira wolves be ripped away from me by that damned portal trick.

Raelith’s fury hit me like a fist around my throat.

“They were mine,” she whispered directly into my mind. The words were calm, too calm, the way a storm is calm right before it flattens a city. “The dragons. The hybrids. Their blood is the key, Lucien. Their blood is the door. Their blood is ME.”

“My goddess,” I rasped, bowing my head lower, “they will be recovered. Katrina and Chelsea weakened the wards, but...”

“Katrina and Chelsea were USELESS TOYS.”
Her rage snapped, violently hot. “And now they are spent.”

Seraphyne flinched, which meant she was terrified. She never flinched.

Raelith rose from her throne of bone, Vaela’s old body now reshaped into something unholy and perfect. Her long blonde hair dripped with blood that never dried, and her golden eyes glowed with the kind of madness that made gods flinch.

Through the ley lines beneath Aetheros, her presence pulsed like a heartbeat.

“Bring them to me,” she murmured, her voice soft as a lover’s sigh. “If they will not walk into my hands willingly… then I will take them.”

Bring me the royal dragon twins. Bring me the Velmira hybrids. Bring me the heirs who carry the blood of queen and god.

Her smile stretched too wide, and too sharp.

“Let the realm remember fear.”

I bowed deeper. “Command me.”

Her hand touched my cheek, and agony ripped through me, pleasure and pain twisted into one. She fed me a surge of her power, enough to split the stone beneath my knees.

“Kill the others,” she whispered. “Leave none alive who stand between my vessel and me.”

My heart slammed. “Your vessel...”

“Elowen Skye,” Raelith hissed like a prayer. “She carries something inside her. Something powerful. Something that was meant for me.”

Her lips curled back. “I will tear it out of her myself.”

Before I could respond, she thrust both hands toward the ley lines carved into the floor.

The entire chamber shook.

Ley lines, old, deep, sacred rivers of magic, shuddered, twisted, and then rotted.

Black, pulsing vines erupted from the stone, dripping ichor and whispering with a thousand hungry voices.

Seraphyne gasped, clutching her chest as the vines slithered past her ankles.

“They’re… alive,” she whispered.

“They are mine.” Raelith’s voice vibrated like the cracking of bones. “Go, little roots. Show Aetheros what it means to defy me.”

The vines pulsed once, then twice....then shot upward, vanishing into the ley channels. I saw it through the blood mirror. Aetheros… shuddered.

The rot exploded across the realm like veins of lightning....but black, slick, and ravenous.

The academy’s wards sparked. Sparks turned to cracks. Cracks turned to rips. Raelith’s vines shot out of the ground beneath Aetheros Academy.

I saw them split stone. I saw them pierce through dorm floors. I saw students scream and scatter.

And then I saw Raelith’s targets.

Lyrielle Drakenholt... the blue-silver dragon girl.
Nyxaria Drakenholt ... the violet-gold one.
Rhaen and Lucen Velmira... the hybrid heirs.

The vines didn’t strike like whips. They struck like snakes. Four of them. One for each. They wrapped around ankles. Around waists. Around throats.

Lyrielle screamed as the rot coiled around her legs. Nyxaria clawed at the vines with dragon-tipped nails until they bled. Lucen and Rhaen ripped, snarled, and snapped, but the moment the vines touched them, their bodies went rigid, magic static exploding through them.

“YES,” Raelith hissed, her eyes gleaming with vicious triumph. “Bring them to me.”

The vines yanked. The four heirs were ripped into the ley lines. Gone. Stolen. Claimed.

Seraphyne laughed softly beside me, her eyes shining with cruel delight. “The realm will burn for this.”

I rose, my blood singing with devotion.

“It already is.”

Raelith turned toward me, her face full of dark joy.

“Prepare the altar, my love. Tonight… we begin.”
_____________________

Drayen Stormclaw POV

The courtyard went still. Not quiet. Not peaceful.

Still, the way a battlefield gets right before the world ends.

I smelled it first. Rot. Wet metal. Something ancient and wrong slithering through the air. Granalf snarled in my skull, his claws raking at the inside of my ribs.

“Drayen.”

Finnian’s voice cracked beside me. “What is that..”

The ground ruptured. Four black vines, thick as tree trunks and slick with ichor, exploded upward in front of us, shrieking with a thousand whispering voices.

“MOVE!” I roared.

We reacted fast, faster than any group of kids had a right to.

Kaelen shifted instantly, his massive bear form slamming into the vines. Seren and Eryk unleashed vamp speed. Maeve and Finnian blasted spells. Saphira shifted into her lycan form and lunged. Theo latched onto a vine with surprising ferocity, his fangs bared, and his eyes unfocused.

And Nyx and Lyri.....My sisters were already shifting midair, their dragon scales flashing like skyfire.

But the rot…The rot moved faster.

“NO!” I screamed as the vines split in four directions, aimed at the dragons and the hybrids.

Lyrielle dove, trying to dodge, but the vine wrapped her ankle and yanked her down so hard the stone cracked where she hit. Nyxaria’s dragon flames shot out, but the vine sliced right through the fire and coiled around her throat.

Lucen and Rhaen lunged to help, but they were seized instantly, vines locking around their ribs and dragging them to their knees.

“LET THEM GO!” Kaelen bellowed, slamming into another vine. It barely budged.

Mae Verric screamed as she blasted moonfire. It sizzled, but the rot only consumed it.

“Drayen!” Lyrielle choked, reaching for me, her fingers clawing at the air....“help....”

Granalf tore from my control. We shifted in one snap of bone, and one heartbeat. I hit the vines full force.

My claws sliced. My teeth shredded. My wolf howled so loud the courtyard shook. But the rot just pulled tighter.

"They are mine," a voice shrieked through the courtyard, no sound, just power. "The blood, the bone, the heirs.."

“LET THEM GO!” I roared again, but my voice was nothing compared to the vines dragging them toward the ground.

Lyrielle screamed as the stone beneath her split open, a glowing ley line flashing beneath it. Nyxaria’s dragon tail slammed the courtyard rail, shattering it, but the vine held tight.

Lucen’s wolf tried to surface, then the rot locked him rigid. Rhaen reached for Lyrielle, his fingers brushing hers....

.....and then all four were yanked down.

Pulled into the ley line. Taken. Gone. The world dropped out beneath me.

Everything stopped. Everything went silent. Then Granalf roared in my skull.

"GET UP. GET UP NOW. FIND THE MOTHERS."

My wolf shoved control back into my body, and I snapped upright, shifting mid-run.

“GO!” I bellowed to the others. “TO TAYA. NOW!”

We sprinted through the courtyard, kids from every House staring in horror as we passed.

Kaelen still half-shifted, his fur bristling. Seren shaking with fury. Maeve crying and chanting under her breath. Finnian pale and stumbling beside her. Theo stimming violently, his breath sharp and panicked. Eryk’s fangs dripping. Mae shifting in and out of wolf form from pure adrenaline. Azara’s demigoddess aura crackling with stormlight.

We burst into the war hall where the adults were stationed.

Taya Verric spun toward us first, her eyes sharp, power thrumming under her skin. “What happened?”

Rivena wasn’t far behind, her claws already out. Amaris stood ready, Jace shifting beside her. King Myrion and Queen Calavira Sylvendril rose from their seats, glowing with ancient grove magic.

And I....I broke.

“They took them,” I gasped. “The rot...Raelith’s vines, the ley line under the courtyard...”

Taya went white as bone. Rivena snarled, dropping into a crouch. “Who. Did. It.”

“Raelith,” I said. “It was her. I heard her voice. She’s back.”

The room erupted. Rivena’s eyes glowed ocean blue, her aura spiking with rage. Amaris cursed so loudly the walls trembled. Jace punched a pillar hard enough to crack it.

Noctara and Ravek portaled in seconds later, their eyes blazing as they took one look at our faces.

Taya staggered forward, her hands shaking. “Elowen is going to kill me,” she whispered. Then she snapped her head up, her eyes going cold steel. “No. No she won’t. Because we’re going to get them back before she ever finds out they were taken.”

King Myrion stepped forward, roots swirling at his feet. “They were taken through the ley lines. That is old magic...dangerous magic.”

“And we’re not waiting,” Rivena growled. “Tell us what direction. Now.”

I shook my head. “I don’t know where it leads. I didn’t...”

Granalf snarled inside me.

"We know the scent. WE KNOW WHERE THEY ARE."

I sucked in a shaking breath.

“I can track them.”

Every adult in the room focused on me.

Taya nodded fiercely. “Good. Then we move at once.”

Rivena’s voice darkened to a command. “Form a strike team. Now.”

Amaris looked at Noctara, her eyes hard. “We will find your sons. We will find her daughters.”

And then she turned toward me, her voice softening just enough to be dangerous.

“Drayen Stormclaw, lead us.”

I squared my shoulders, my wolf ready to tear the world apart.

“Yes, ma’am.”

And we ran...Because the royal heirs of Aetheros had been taken.

And I would burn the realm down before I let Raelith keep my sisters and my best friends.