Chapter 97 The Typhoon

Chapter 97 The Typhoon
The silence in the infirmary didn't last long.

It started with a hum. A low, vibrating frequency that seemed to come from inside the walls. The fluorescent lights overhead buzzed angrily, flickering like a strobe light in a cheap club.

"What is that?" Abel asked, pulling back from me. He looked up at the ceiling, his body tensing for a threat.

"I don't know," I whispered. But that was a lie. I did know.

It was me.

The feeling in my chest was expanding rapidly. The "void" left by the curse wasn't empty; it was a vacuum, and now, my own natural magic was rushing in to fill it. But it was coming too fast. It felt like a dam had broken inside my ribcage.

"I feel... full," I gasped, clutching the sheets. "Too full."

I tried to swing my legs off the bed to stand up. As soon as my bare feet touched the linoleum floor, a spiderweb of cracks shot out from my heels. 

The floor tiles shattered with a sharp crack, turning to powder beneath my weight.

Abel jumped back, startled. "Evelyn?"

"Don't touch me," I warned, my voice sounding distorted, like it was being spoken through a fan. "Something is wrong. My skin... it feels like it’s vibrating."

I looked at my hands. They were trembling. The air around my fingers was warping, like the heat haze above a highway in summer.

"Freya!" Abel barked. "Fix this! What is happening?"

Freya was staring at me with wide, fascinated eyes. She didn't look scared; she looked like a scientist watching a nuclear reactor go critical.

"The Blood Knot," Freya muttered, stepping closer but keeping her hands behind her back. "We thought it was a drain. A parasite."

"It was!" Abel argued. "It was killing her."

"Yes," Freya agreed. "But it was also a regulator. Think, Abel! She is a hybrid. Born of a Wolf and a..." She trailed off, glancing at the door. "She has immense latent power. Kane knew that. He didn't just bind her to feed off her. He bound her to cap her."

Freya looked at me, her expression grim.

"He put a lid on a volcano, Evelyn. And we just blew it off."

I tried to take a deep breath to calm down, but the air rushing into my lungs only fueled the fire. A pitcher of water on the bedside table suddenly exploded. Shards of glass and water sprayed across the room, but they didn't hit me. They vaporized before they could touch my skin.

"I can't stop it," I panicked. The room was spinning. The heart monitor next to the bed shrieked and then sparked, the screen going black as the circuits fried. "It’s too much noise. It’s too loud!"

"Focus on me," Abel commanded, stepping over the cracked tiles. "Evelyn, look at me. Ground yourself."

He reached for me.

"No!" I screamed.

I threw my hands up to push him away, not physically, but instinctively. A wave of force, pure, concussive energy, blasted out of my palms.

It hit Abel squarely in the chest.

He was thrown backwards as if he’d been hit by a truck. He flew across the room and slammed into the opposite wall, cracking the plaster. He slid to the floor, groaning.

"Abel!" I cried, horrified. I scrambled back on the bed, curling into a ball to make myself smaller. "I’m sorry! I didn't mean to!"

Abel shook his head, pushing himself up. He looked winded, but unhurt. His eyes, however, were filled with shock.

"I'm fine," he wheezed. "I'm fine. But... that wasn't wolf strength."

The door to the room burst open again.

Oliver ran in, holding a tablet. He looked pale. He looked from Abel’s bruised form to the shattered floor tiles, and then to me, glowing faintly in the flickering light.

"Alpha," Oliver said urgently. "We just received a message."

"Not now, Oliver," Abel growled, getting to his feet.

"It’s from the Hellbound Estate," Oliver insisted. "It was sent to your personal encrypted server. It’s a direct comms link."

Abel froze. He looked at me, then snatched the tablet from Oliver’s hands.

I watched Abel’s face as he read the message. His jaw tightened. His knuckles turned white as he gripped the device. A low, menacing growl rumbled in his throat.

"What does it say?" I asked, my voice trembling. The lights overhead finally gave up and popped, showering the room in darkness. The only light came from the faint, violet luminescence now radiating from my skin.

Abel turned the tablet so I could see it. The screen glowed in the dark room.

There was no subject line. Just a single sentence, written in elegant, mocking text.

"I hope you can contain the typhoon you just unleashed."

I stared at the words.

Kane knew.

He hadn't fought Abel not because he was afraid of losing. He had let us win. He had let us break the contract because he knew exactly what would happen when the leash was cut.

He had been acting as a dam for three years. He had been siphoning off the excess magic that my body couldn't handle, using it to fuel himself, yes, but also keeping me stable.

Now, the dam was gone.

"He thinks I'm going to self-destruct," I whispered, the realization settling in like ice water. "He thinks I’m going to destroy everything around me."

I looked at Abel. I looked at the wall I had just thrown him into.

"And he might be right."

Freya stepped forward, her face illuminated by the violet glow of my skin.

"Then we must teach you," Freya said, her voice cutting through the panic. "Kane controlled the storm by bottling it. We will not bottle it, Evelyn. We will teach you how to be the eye of it."

She held out a hand, palm up.

"But we must hurry," Freya warned, looking at the sparks jumping off my hair. "Because if we don't bring this under control by sunrise, you won't just destroy this room. You will level the entire Pack House."