Chapter 87 Into the Belly of Death
NYX
I hated being left behind.
"You need rest," they said. "You're too weak. Let the adults handle this one."
Adults. As if I wasn't older than most of them in the ways that mattered.
I sat in our chambers while Mother and Father went to fight Elena. Walked into an obvious trap without me there to pull them back.
Because things always went wrong.
"You're awake." Marcus stood in the doorway holding a tray. "Thought you might be."
"Did they leave yet?"
"An hour ago. Took Theron, Lyra, and twenty guards." He set the tray down. "Your mother made me promise to sit here until you rested."
"Mother doesn't understand that rest isn't the problem." I pushed myself upright. "I need six months of sleep. Three hours won't make a difference."
"Then why not actually sleep?"
"Worry. Anxiety. The usual." I moved to the window. Dawn was breaking. "Something's wrong. I can feel it."
"You always feel something's wrong." Marcus came beside me. "But you're not seeing anything specific. Just general dread."
"The timeline is murky. Like someone threw mud on a window." I pressed my hand against the glass. "Someone's interfering. Blocking my sight deliberately."
"Elena?"
"Maybe. Or whoever brought her back." I closed my eyes. Tried to push my sight forward. "But something's going to happen. Something they're not prepared for."
"Then tell me what to do."
I looked at him. This human who'd protected me. Who'd stayed loyal through impossible revelations.
"If something goes wrong. If the void takes Father..." I pulled the vial from my pocket. The void poison. "You find a way to give him this. Before the vessel is complete."
Marcus stared at the black liquid. "That would kill him."
"That would free him." I pressed it into his hand. "Mother won't be able to do it. Love will make her hesitate. But you're practical."
"You're asking me to kill my king."
"I'm asking you to save him from worse." I met his eyes. "Can you do it?"
He was quiet. Then nodded. Slipped the vial into his jacket. "If it comes to that."
"Hope is for people who can't see the future. I can see it. Right now it's full of blood." I turned back. "They should have reached the old throne room by now."
"How do you know she has defenses?"
"Because I would." I tried again to see. "There. Something's clearing—"
Pain exploded in my skull. White-hot. I gasped, stumbled. Marcus caught me.
"What's wrong?"
"Someone hit them with a barrier. A ward. Cutting off the bond between Father and Mother." I pressed my hands to my temples. "And I can't see who did it."
"Then we go—"
"No. This is what they want. Wants us to rush in blind." I forced myself to breathe. "We need a different approach."
"What approach?"
"Get Rowan. His resistance fighters know the old quarter." I moved toward the door. "I'm going to get close enough to break through whatever's blocking my sight."
"Your mother is going to kill me."
"Only if she survives." I paused. "Coming or not?"
Marcus sighed. Drew his knife. "Might as well break my streak."
We moved through empty passages. Down to where the first vampires had built their throne. Where centuries of blood had soaked into stone.
"I hear fighting." Marcus pressed against the wall. "Ahead."
The clash of weapons. The crackle of magic. But muffled. Like hearing a battle through water.
We turned the corner.
The hallway ended in a wall of shimmering energy. Dark red. Pulsing.
Beyond it, I saw them.
Father fighting Elena. Mother engaging three Shades—not one, three. Theron and guards trying to hold a defensive perimeter.
It wasn't a trap. It was a slaughter.
"We have to break that barrier." I moved closer. "This is old power. Pre-kingdom."
"Can you break it?"
"Not without bringing the whole building down." I studied the patterns. "But I can redirect it. Create a small opening."
"Then do it. I'll go in—"
"You'll die in seconds."
I looked at the battle. Saw Mother take a hit. Saw Father's void power flare wild.
Saw the vessel. Black crystal and blood iron. Waiting. Almost complete.
"I can use it. I'm small. Fast."
"You said you're too weak—"
"I lied. I'm always too weak and always doing it anyway." I placed my hands against the ward. "Hold onto me. When I create the opening, it'll try to close immediately."
"And then what?"
"Then I interfere at exactly the wrong moment." I found the thread. Pulled. "Ready?"
"No. But do it anyway."
I pulled harder. The ward resisted. Then slowly unraveled. A hole opened. Small.
I dove through.
The old throne room hit me like a wall. Power. Death. Century-old blood magic.
Father saw me first. His eyes widened. "Nyx! Get out—"
Elena struck. Her blade caught his side. Drew blood. Father stumbled.
And I felt it. Through our bond. The void in him surged. Responded to injury. To threat.
His eyes flashed black. Control wavering.
"No!" I ran forward. Dodged a Shade. "Father! Hold it! Don't let go!"
But I saw his face. Saw the struggle. The void wasn't just responding to danger. It was responding to Elena. To seeing her. To the guilt and grief and rage he'd buried for seventy years.
She smiled. "There it is. There's the darkness I've been waiting for. Stop fighting, Kael. Accept what you are."
"I'm not lost." But his voice wavered. "I'm in control. I chose this—"
"You accepted nothing! You're pretending!" She moved closer. "I can see it. See the void winning. In another minute, you'll be gone. And the vessel will be ready."
Mother screamed. One of the Shades had her pinned. Was draining her.
Father saw. Roared. The void exploded out of him in a wave of pure destruction.
The Shades dissolved. The walls cracked. Power enough to level buildings poured from him unchecked.
And his eyes went solid black. Awareness fading. Kael disappearing.
The void had won.
Elena laughed. "Perfect. Right on schedule." She gestured. The vessel pulsed. Began pulling. Drawing Father toward it like gravity. "Come, husband. Let me give you the mercy you're too stubborn to accept."
I ran. Threw myself between Father and the vessel. Felt the pull trying to drag us both in.
"Father! I know you're in there! I know you can hear me!" I grabbed his face. Made him look at me. "You're not lost! You're not void! You're Kael Draeven! You're my father! And you don't get to quit!"
Nothing. Just black eyes staring through me.
"Please." My voice broke. "Please don't make me lose you. We just got you back. We can't do this without you."
Still nothing.
The vessel pulled harder. I felt my feet slide.
Then Mother was there. Bloodied. Exhausted. But there.
She grabbed Kael's other hand. "You promised me forever. You don't break promises." Her voice was fierce. "You hear me? You fight. You come back. You stay with us."
A flicker. Just a flash of red in all that black.
"That's it. Come back." She pulled him closer. "The void is part of you but it's not all of you. Remember? You accepted that. You chose us."
Another flicker. Stronger.
"I'm going to be very upset if you make me raise our daughter alone." Mother's voice cracked. "And you know what I'm like when I'm upset."
A sound. Quiet. Ragged.
Laughter.
Father was laughing. Tiny. Broken. But aware.
"Can't have that." His voice was his own. Strained but present. "You're terrifying when angry."
The black receded. Red fought back. Kael clawing his way to the surface through sheer will.
"That's my king." Mother kissed him. "That's my impossible, stubborn king."
Elena screamed. "No! No, you were supposed to fall! The void was supposed to win!"
"The void did win." Father straightened. Eyes still showing black but controlled. "I am void. I accepted that. But I'm also Kael. Also a father. Also a husband. Also someone who refuses to give you what you want." He looked at her. "You want mercy for me? Fine. But I choose what mercy looks like. And it's not imprisonment. It's not death. It's living with what I've become and making it mean something."
"The darkness will consume you eventually."
"Maybe. But not today." He raised his hand. Void energy gathered. Controlled. "Today I consume it."
He struck. Not at Elena. At the vessel.
Black energy poured into the construct. Overloading it. Shattering it from the inside.
The vessel exploded. Fragments of crystal and iron flying everywhere.
Elena screamed. "You destroyed it! You destroyed months of work!"
"Good." Father's voice was cold. "Now let's talk about why you came back."
But Elena was already moving. Already running. Already gone.
And in the silence that followed, I felt it.
Something else waking. Something the vessel's destruction had released.
Something much, much worse than Elena.
"Father?" My voice was small. "What was trapped in that vessel?
What did you just set free?"