Chapter 175 Storms in the Sky
Chapter 175 Storms in the Sky
Riven POV
The woods was a living, roaring graveyard of white ice and black pine.
The blizzard didn’t just fall; it weaponized itself, driving sheets of frozen needles straight into my face, cutting into my skin until my cheeks were completely numb.
My lungs burned with every ragged breath I dragged into my chest, the sub-zero air tasting like swallowed glass.
But the pain meant absolutely nothing. The true agony was the suffocating terror clawing at the inside of my throat, threatening to choke me every time my boots skidded over the hidden, icy roots of the forest floor.
Behind us, Abby was barely keeping up. She was shivering uncontrollably, her face stained with a mixture of melted snow and tears of pure guilt.
Every time she stumbled, Zayden would reach back, snagging her by the collar of her jacket to drag her forward, refusing to let anyone fall behind.
I didn't look back at them. My entire existence was locked into the desperate, primal hunt. I was an Alpha who had lost his anchor, and my inner wolf was violently clawing at the walls of my consciousness, screaming at me to find her before the cold claimed her permanently.
Suddenly, the dense canopy of frozen pine trees broke apart.
We burst through the final line of tangled brush and skidded to a halt at the edge of a massive, desolate clearing deep in the heart of the forbidden woods.
The clearing was completely exposed to the elements, a barren expanse of cracked stone and frosted earth that looked like an ancient sacrificial altar hidden away from the world.
But the snow wasn’t settling here.
In the exact center of the desolate clearing, the blizzard was being violently bent and warped by a terrifying, supernatural physics.
A massive, swirling vortex of pitch-black, corrupted energy was roaring upward into the sky, creating a localized cyclone that tore the surrounding earth to shreds.
Shattered rocks and uprooted saplings were caught in the black winds, spinning frantically around a central point like debris in a hurricane.
Thin, jagged arcs of crimson and ink-black lightning crackled violently across the perimeter of the storm, hissing loudly as they grounded themselves into the frozen stone.
And right in the dead center of that apocalyptic vortex was Kathy.
"Kathy!" I screamed, the sound tearing from my chest with a raw, savage force that completely bypassed my vocal cords.
She was on her knees, her small frame violently shuddering against the sheer, crushing weight of the pressure.
Her hair was completely soaked, whipping wildly around her face like frayed silk. She was actively warring with the entity.
The demon wasn’t just pulling her frequency anymore; it was trying to completely surface, trying to violently tear its way out of her mortal flesh to claim her physical form permanently.
The sight was horrific. The thick, ink-black veins had completely overtaken her jawline, creeping up her cheeks and mapping themselves around the sockets of her eyes.
Her spine arched at a sickening, unnatural angle as the primeval parasite fought for total motor control over her central nervous system.
She was clutching her head with both hands, her fingernails digging deep into her own temples as she desperately tried to hold the shattered walls of her mind together.
"Yield, little bird!" A deep, layered, and multi-tonal roar echoed out from the vortex, completely overriding the sound of the wind.
"No!" Kathy’s voice shrieked back, a high, agonizing sound of pure, unadulterated torment that shattered what was left of my sanity. "Get out of my head! Get out!"
"Riven, wait!" Zayden shouted, his massive hand shooting out to grab the shoulder of my leather jacket as I took a frantic step toward the boundary of the cyclone. "You can't just barge in there! The kinetic mass of that vortex will shred your frequency before you even reach her!"
"Let go of me, Zayden!" I snarled, violently tearing myself away from his grip, my fangs elongating past my lower lip as my Alpha aura completely detonated.
A brilliant, blinding wave of golden energy erupted from my skin, clashing violently against the encroaching black pressure of the clearing. "She's dying out there! I don't care about the frequency! I'm going in!"
I didn't wait for his response. I lunged forward, throwing my weight straight into the outer perimeter of the swirling dark vortex.
The moment my boots crossed the threshold, the physical resistance hit me like a solid stone wall. The black wind was a force, screaming into my ears and pushing against my chest with a suffocating, gravity-defying weight.
The jagged arcs of crimson lightning hissed across my skin, instantly burning through the leather of my jacket and searing the flesh of my forearms.
The smell of copper, sulfur, and rotting ozone was so thick I could taste it on my tongue, choking out my lungs.
But I forced my legs to move. I dug my heels into the cracked stone, leaning my entire body weight into the cyclone, my golden Alpha frequency roaring to its absolute maximum to build a defensive shield around my vitals.
"Kathy!" I yelled, my eyes burning with unshed tears as I fought my way a few feet closer to the center. The wind was trying to violently tear my jaw open, trying to rip the words from my throat before they could reach her. "Kathy, look at me! It's Riven! I'm right here!"
She didn't look up. She let out another muffled, breathless scream, her body jerking violently as a massive surge of black corruption pulsed through the veins on her throat.
The entity was suffocating her, systematically severing her human senses so she couldn't hear the outside world.
"Kathy, please!" I begged, my voice breaking completely into a desperate, panicked sob. I threw my arms out, my fingers clawing at the empty air as if I could physically reach across the void to pull her back. "Don't listen to the whispers! I love you, Kathy! Do you hear me?! I love you."
For a fraction of an agonizing second, the relentless, mechanical spinning of the black vortex seemed to hitch.
Kathy’s hands froze against her temples. Slowly, with an immense, heartbreaking effort that looked like it was cracking her very bones, she lifted her head.
The thick black veins pulsed aggressively against her pale skin, but through the dark corruption, her eyes found mine.
For a beautiful, fleeting heartbeat, the terrifying crimson glare glitching across her irises faded, replaced by the deep, familiar, and beautiful gray of the girl I loved.
She looked at me through the storm, her lips trembling, her eyes filled with a profound, shattering sorrow.
"Riven..." she whispered.
But the demon wouldn't let her speak.
Realizing the host was trying to ground herself to my frequency, the entity completely detonated its reserve mass.
The pitch-black vortex violently surged, the winds doubling in speed and expanding with a deafening, thunderous boom. A massive wave of dark kinetic force slammed into my chest, instantly shattering my Alpha shield and lifting me entirely off my feet, throwing me backward across the clearing.
I hit the frozen ground hard, skidding over the ice until Zayden and Amaya caught me, checking my momentum.
In the center of the clearing, the darkness completely closed over her.
Kathy let out a final, blood-curdling scream of absolute, unmitigated agony as a thick dome of solid, ink-black energy encased her completely, completely silencing her voice and cutting her off from the living world…