Chapter 48 Drake? A Dreadborn?
Brea's POV
The sharp tug behind my sternum tightened again, like invisible thread being slowly pulled. I pressed a hand to my chest.
Elias was already moving, desperately trying to reboot the dead computer array. The screens stayed black. The ritual circle on the floor had gone completely dark.
“Everything’s offline,” he muttered. “The broadcast went wide. This penthouse just became a damn beacon.”
The silence felt suffocating. Just the two of us trapped in a glass tomb at the top of the world.
Then came the knock. Three slow, measured beats on the heavy oak elevator doors. Calm. Patient.
The Stitch-Pull in my chest flared violently. “She’s here,” I whispered.
From the other side of the door, a voice drifted through — Seraphine’s voice, but twisted with someone much older.
“Elias. Brea.” The words carried an elegant, old-world cadence. “It’s quite the climb with the elevators out. Won’t you let me in? We have three centuries of catching up to do.”
Elias stepped in front of me, hands glowing with defensive magic, but I could see the strain in his shoulders.
Through the door, the voice continued, almost gentle. “I felt you watching, little anchor. You saw the fire. You know why I did what I did. I can give you back the world… I can turn all that grey into color again. Just open the door.”
For a split second, another voice broke through, Seraphine’s real voice, raw and desperate: “Rayne… please… help me…”
My stomach clenched. The heavy metal doors began to glow blue, then started rotting and crumbling away like wet paper.
When the last piece collapsed, Seraphine stepped inside.
She looked exactly the same dark hair, strong jaw, but her eyes were different. Seraphine twirled a small silver needle between her fingers like it was nothing.
She glanced at the computers and Elias’s ritual setup, then gave a quiet, amused laugh.
“You tried to turn my art into science, Elias. How… quaint.”
Elias didn’t wait. He hurled a bright containment spell at her.
Isadora didn’t even flinch. Seraphine caught the crackling magic in her palm, let it swirl for a moment, then absorbed it with a small smile.
“Oh, please,” she said sarcastically, her voice dripping with mock disappointment. “Is that really the best you can do after three hundred years?”
She turned to me with glitchy speed and appeared inches from my face. Her fingers brushed my cheek.
For one blinding moment, I saw color vivid, overwhelming, beautiful color blooming wherever her skin touched mine.
“You’re the only jar left that can truly hold me, Brea,” she whispered, voice soft and intimate. “Why keep fighting the inevitable?”
Elias grabbed my arm. “We’re leaving. Now.”
He crushed the Void-Drop stone in his fist. The air warped violently around us. Instead of a clean jump, he latched onto my core with a drain-link. My magic was the only fuel left for the spell.
A terrifying vacuum opened in my chest, the exact opposite of the Stitch-Pull. If Isadora wanted to fill me, Elias was emptying me completely.
The brief flash of color vanished into absolute black. My hearing cut out next, then my sense of gravity. We weren’t flying. We were falling through nothing.
We tumbled out of the rift six feet above the ground and crashed hard onto rain-slicked concrete in a narrow alley.
This was the Low-Sector the human, lawless industrial slums where the sun never reached.
I couldn’t move. My body felt grey and hollow, magically drained. My pulse was weak and thready. I could barely lift my head.
Elias tried to push himself up beside me, but his hands were shaking badly. He was completely spent.
Within minutes, shadows began to move. A group of rough-looking humans stepped out from the darkness. They were scavengers who survived by preying on anyone who looked like they had money or power. Their eyes lit up when they saw our expensive clothes.
One of them grinned, showing crooked teeth. “Well, well… fresh meat from the topside.”
Elias tried to raise a hand to cast something, but nothing happened. A scavenger lunged forward and grabbed him by the throat.
I lay there paralyzed, forced to watch helplessly. Without magic or tech, we were just easy prey.
Even now, the Stitch-Pull in my chest throbbed dully, steady and rhythmic. Isadora hadn’t lost us. She was simply enjoying the hunt.
I lay paralyzed on the wet pavement, rain soaking through my clothes.
My body refused to obey even the simplest command. I could only watch helplessly as Elias tried to push himself up beside me, his hands shaking violently. He looked completely spent.
The scavengers moved in fast. Three of them, armed with jagged knives and crackling black-market tasers. Their eyes were hungry and mean.
“Stay behind me,” Elias said, trying to shield my body with his own. But he was in no condition to fight. One of the men shoved him hard, sending him stumbling to the ground.
I wanted to scream, but even my voice was gone.
Then the air grew colder. A black-eyed figure stepped fully into the alley. It was Drake.
He didn’t speak at first. He simply raised one hand. A pulse of dark Dread-Energy shot forward, slamming into the lead scavenger’s chest.
The man gasped once, clutched his heart, and dropped dead on the spot. The other two didn’t wait. They turned and ran, screaming as shadows in the alley suddenly rose like living things and chased them into the darkness.
Drake walked over without hurry. He kicked Elias aside like he was nothing, then crouched down and scooped me up into his arms as if I weighed nothing.
The moment his skin touched mine, I felt a cold-burn that sank deep into my bones.
“Drake…You're...” I managed to whisper.
He looked down at me, his expression unreadable. “You’re leaking power like a broken faucet, Brea. That blue light is painting a target on your back.”
Elias struggled to his feet, eyes blazing with anger. “Don’t touch her..”
“Shut up,” Drake cut him off coldly. “The sorcery of your high-floor toys won’t save her now. My shadows can hide her for about an hour. After that, she becomes a beacon again.”
He adjusted me in his arms, holding me tighter against his chest.
“Come on,” he said, already moving deeper into the alley. “We need to move before she catches the scent.”
Elias hesitated for only a second before following us into the darkness.