Chapter 97 CHAPTER 97
Things never went my way, because if I had a hand in it, Kovar wouldn't hate me so much, and I'd be able to ask him what he knew about my family. I pretended to myself that I didn't want to know shit about them because they abandoned me in a strange world with no guidance whatsoever but every time I glean a sliver of information about them, my hunger grows.
And now, I'm in an entirely terrible situation and all I want is to beg him to tell me what he knows, what his father knows.
But I've been tormented by this bastard so much that I knew a bit about him, and I know that would be giving him more power than he already had and he wasn't going to give me any answers.
So I tried a different approach.
"You're lying."
"Am I? Then why does my father have a book with your face in it?"
A book.
The words triggered something, a flash behind my eyes so bright I flinched. Not a memory exactly but a feeling, like standing at the edge of a cliff and knowing you've been here before.
It was gone before I could hold it.
"I can see it's starting," Kovar muttered, watching my face with something that looked almost like fear. "That thing you did to the leech. It wasn't supposed to happen yet. You were supposed to stay weak and pathetic long enough for me to do what I was sent here to do."
"What are you talking about?"
His hand moved from tracing my collar to wrapping around my throat. Not squeezing. Just resting there, he then began speaking, words that made everything make sense, but had a dangerous undertone to them.
"My father gave me one job when you got here, falling into your own demise and screaming your heritage to everyone who knew where to look. He did, he's in the King's ear and he gave me a task. Just one. And I kept putting it off because you were so pathetic I figured you'd break on your own and run back to wherever you came from. I wouldn't have to get my clean nails dirty just like my elder brother and I'll still be respected in my clan. But you didn't break. Instead, you grew so fucking strong and you killed a leech, you bonded with someone and now you're changing and my window is closing."
"Kovar, please," I choked out, hating how weak it sounded.
"I don't want to do this, I hate you for being so difficult to hate but I'm not a weakling and won't be treated like one because I couldn't get the job done" he whispered and the terrifying thing was, I believed him. His eyes were shockingly as wet as mine. "But if you ever find out what my father did to yours, my family is finished. And I can't let that happen. I have to kill you now that you're trying to recover or I might never get the chance again and I'll lose all respect from my clan.”
His hand squeezed, going from resting mode to attack mode.
My body reacted violently, as aggressively as possible considering my predicament and the state of my Chi.
Which wasn't quite a good one.
My claws tried to extend but they stuttered halfway. My fire reached for the surface and died in my palm. I tried to take my hands away from the other guy's hand and kicked at the gravel but Penny adjusted his weight and my legs went numb.
Twenty six percent battery doesn't fight back, and my battery was dying.
Black spots began dancing in my vision and I thought, this is it. I'm going to die on a gravel path while everyone I care about is at a pool party.
The leech couldn't kill me so the universe sent Kovar and his goons to come finish off the job. I was going to leave your damn planet alone, why not just wait a few more days?
I was struggling to even cry as the pressure on my life source got stronger, Kovar's hand squeezing tighter when I heard a noise.
Then Penny's weight vanished off my back.
Not slowly. Ripped away, like something massive and furious had plucked him off me.
A sound I'd never heard before tore through the air, half roar, half something ancient.
Kovar's hand released my throat and he spun around.
"What the f—"
He didn't finish.
The other two boys scattered before they even saw what was coming, dropping my arms and running like prey animals who smelled death on the wind.
Penny was on the ground ten feet away, gasping and clutching his ribs, his body bent at an angle that told me something was broken.
I didn't see what hit him at first, relieved to stop being so close to death.
Again.
Kovar stumbled to his feet and turned towards the darkness behind us and for the first time since I'd unfortunately known this boy, I watched real terror wash over his face.
"Master Zade?" he breathed, and the confusion in his voice almost made me pity him.
Almost.
Because the thing walking out of the shadows wasn't the man I'd spent two days in bed with.
Zade's glasses were gone. His eyes were solid gold, burning in the dark like two flames someone forgot to put out. His scales had flared up across his arms, his neck, up along his jaw and they caught the moonlight in a way that made him look less like a man and more like the creature living inside of him.
His tail was out, longer and thicker, rigid, the tip flicking slowly back and forth like a predator deciding where to strike.
It took me a second to actually believe Kovar had called the right name but when he stepped closer and my eyes finally adjusted, I couldn't deny that it was definitely Zade.
Just a different version of him.
He didn't look at me.
That scared me more than anything because Zade always looked at me. Always. I was the first thing his eyes found in any room and I never realised that until now.
Because right now, every part of him was locked on Kovar and the absence of his warmth in my direction told me something I'd never considered.
Zade was capable of killing and he was deciding whether or not to do it. He'd beaten Kovar to a pulp before but the look in his eyes right there and then showed me he was considering murder, fighting the urge with every fibre of his being.
"You can have her," Kovar raised his palms, taking a step back, "I was just trying to scare her, it wasn't that serious."
Zade didn't respond. Just kept walking.
"Master Zade, think about what you're doing! My father is Lord Tarven, you can't just—"
Zade's tail moved so fast I only saw the aftermath. Kovar was lifted off his feet and slammed into the stone wall lining the path with a crack that echoed across the empty grounds.
He crumpled to the floor, wheezing and coughing like a fish out of water.
But as much as that satisfied something deep inside me, it also lit a fire of fear in me.
The consequences of the death of the son of the ear of the king.