Chapter 257 No more

Chapter 257 No more
Aria's pov
"Let's play a little game," Mr. Benson says.

The invisible, crushing weight of his magic jerks me up onto my feet, pinning my limbs rigid as he forces me to stare at the ocean of terrified faces gathered below the stage. These are my classmates, my instructors and professors, innocent people who are about to die today unless I surrender to his sadistic demands and hand over ten names to be slaughtered. Up ahead, students who tried to run down the road are being brutally forced back by the guards.  

I feel their grief, their desperation and most especially, their fear. 

No one should be made to live like this. 

Made to live in fear that someone stronger than them can wretch their lives away at any second because he wants to.

Adrian remains suspended in the air, calm and so brave even though I know he’s probably terrified. His eyes stay locked on me and my tears flow some more. I had warned him, begged him to stay away from me, now he is about to face the same death as Nathaniel and Isla. They are all innocent and they died because of me.

It’s not your fault Kael says in my head, his voice so clear as if he is listening to my thoughts, yet I can’t get anything from him except what he wants me to hear.

"How many of these things will I have to kill before you finally learn your place?" Mr. Benson muses.

"No more," I whisper. "Please, just stop."

"You know, with how cozy you and Adrian were at the beginning of the semester, I would have thought if anybody was going to be your mate, it would be him," Mr. Benson chuckles. "Tell you what, little girl. I will spare his life right now if your mate agrees to let him live—let bygones be bygones so young Mr. Veyron here can live a long, peaceful life."

The sick fucker…….

He knows exactly what he is doing with that twisted offer. He knows Kael won’t agree to that, especially if the next student to be chosen will be someone he cares about. I find myself being turned towards Kael. His jaw is clenched and his eyes glow gold. 

That is a definite no. 

Though I still feel pain from whatever Mr Benson had tried to do, our mates' bond is still intact.

"Not something you're willing to consider, Kael?" Mr. Benson laughs.

He is an absolute monster, a sadistic psychopath playing god with innocent lives. As I stare into his smug face, a wave of blistering anger surges from the lowest depths of my stomach and I feel Lux stirs inside me, her anger rising too. Kael is right. This horror isn’t my fault. It belongs entirely to the madman standing before us.

"Are you seriously getting angry with me right now, little girl?" Mr. Benson snarls, his smile instantly vanishing as he turns his predatory glare back onto me. "What can you possibly do? You, your mate, and every single person on these grounds exist entirely at my mercy. You are only breathing because I allow it, and there is not a damn thing you can do to change that reality. Perhaps it’s time I stop playing games and give you a real choice to make.”

Before I can even process his threat, a body materializes out of thin air to hang suspended right beside Adrian. My breath catches in my throat and my jaw drops as I take in the bloody, battered figure hovering in the air. 

It’s Professor Claude. 

He hadn't abandoned us. He had been caught. 

His suit is shredded to ribbons, stained dark with blood, and both of his eyes are swollen nearly shut.

"You two have been naughty. This is how you have been hiding your thoughts from me and thought I wouldn’t find out,” Mr Benson says. “I know everything.”

I can’t tear my eyes away from Professor Claude as he tries to blink and focus through his swollen eyes. How had they caught him? He said he could take care of himself. He said everything will be alright.

"You really thought this weak, pathetic old fool could protect you from me?" Mr. Benson laughs.

I look away from Professor Claude to the madman holding them hostage.

"Why are you doing this? Just let them go.”

“So that you will meet and scheme again? I don’t think so.”

I look at the council members lined up behind him. It’s odd because they were all looking up at Professor Claude, surprises on their faces. As if they too didn’t know about it. Hadn’t they been the ones who caught him?

"Allow me to make this decision remarkably easy for you.”

The next moment my father is hanging beside Professor Claude and Adrian and my heart stops dead in my chest as all the scenarios I had been afraid of starts to play in my head.

"You can only save one of them, Aria and the other two will serve as your first candidates."

His voice sounds hollow and distant, as if he were speaking from under water, but the weight of his words hits my chest like a physical blow. I stare up into my father's face—the man who took me in as a child, who held me through my worst terrors and loved me unconditionally when the rest of the world saw me as a curse.

No. No. No. 

It’s enough.

Mr. Benson is not going to murder my father. He is not going to tear away anyone else I love while I stand by, helpless and weeping. I will rather die than watch my father end up in the same fate as Nathaniel and Isla.

"Pick one, Aria," Mr. Benson demands, turning around and holding his hands behind his back as he looks up at his three captives. "Will it be the coward who murdered your mate's mother and saved your life, the naughty professor who lied and convinced you that you could defeat me, or the man who raised you despite what you are, even though he isn’t your blood?"

No.

I’m not choosing. He doesn’t get to play god with the people I care about any longer. I’m going to save every single one of them.

A blinding fury erupts from the deepest part of my soul, roaring up through my chest and flooding my veins with liquid fire. My frantic, pounding heart suddenly slows to a heavy, deliberate beat, washing a terrifying, absolute calm over my senses as certainty replaces my fear. Lux rears back inside me, spreading her wings of dark, golden flame through my mind as she embraces the chaotic power we have suppressed for so long. The air around me begins to shimmer with intense heat as my vision bleeds red. I stop fighting and welcome it all. The darkness…….the chaos…..the sick things my wolf wants to do flashes through my head and I revel in them. 

I’m a monster. A ravaging dark monster,

"Guess I will just have to make the choice for you, then," I hear Mr. Benson says through the roaring fire consuming my hearing, his hand raising into the air.

"ENOUGH!" I scream.

An immense, golden shockwave explodes outward from my chest, ripping through the air in a blinding burst of power. The strong choking magic locking my body vanishes instantly, falling away like chains as the golden ring of energy expands across the stage, sweeping over the council, the guards, and the terrified crowd of students.

As the light fades, an eerie, total silence falls over the place, and I gasp as I look around at the scene before me.

The entire world has literally ground to a complete halt. 

Mr. Benson is frozen mid-motion with his arm raised, behind him, the council members are caught in mid-blink, some of the guards and students are suspended mid-stride, and even the falling drops of blood from Professor Claude's face are hovering motionless in the air. Down in the road, a flying bird is trapped mid-flap above the crowd, every single person completely locked in a single frozen second……except for me, and my mate.

Kael is staring at me, his mouth slightly open in absolute disbelief as his glowing golden eyes sweep over the impossible, suspended reality surrounding us. 

Did I….

Did I just stop time?

Let's do this Lux's snarls in my head.

My bones pop and shift instantly as the fiery power of the phoenix wolf takes over my body, transforming me into a massive beast of flame and dark fur, and I launch myself forward across the stage, diving straight for Mr. Benson's throat.