Chapter 65 RAIN OF GLASS
The crack moved along the glass like a slow serpent.
SNAP. SNAP. SNAP.
That thin sound was more terrifying than the storm outside. The King of Ash was still smiling at the top of the dome. He pulled his finger away from the glass and spread his arms wide, as if he were an orchestra conductor.
"Let it begin," he said.
And the sky crashed down on them.
Massive glass panels, tons of thick, bulletproof glass, collapsed inward, unable to withstand the weight of the ice. But they weren't falling alone. Along with the shards, hundreds of Converted Soldiers (Zombies) that had piled up outside were raining down inside.
"Take cover!" Dorian roared.
He threw himself over Serra. Kael, though still dazed, reflexively pushed Lukas and Valeria under a table.
BOOM.
The Winter Garden turned into a wreckage of glass shards, blocks of ice, and rotting bodies. When the dust cloud settled, Dorian coughed and sat up. His back was bleeding; shards had cut his skin, but his healing speed was already kicking in.
"Serra?"
"I'm fine," Serra said, checking the babies in her arms. Atlas and Lyra weren't crying. Lyra had formed a small, dome-shaped ice shield around them, preventing the glass shards from touching them.
"Now!" Dorian said, pulling his sword from the rubble.
The soldiers raining down from above were getting up despite their broken legs and shattered bodies. Growling, they tightened the circle.
But they weren't the real threat.
The King of Ash floated down—defying gravity just like Atlas—and landed in the center of the garden. His shoes made no sound on the broken glass.
(THE LOST BROTHER: VALERIUS)
Dorian cut through the soldiers, walking toward the King of Ash. "Uncle?" he spat the word. "My father had no brother. He was an only child."
The man brushed the dust off his cape. "So that was the extent of the history book your father told you? Pity. He tried very hard to erase me."
The man lowered the 'beautiful' mask on his face. His eyes... were the same color as Dorian's. Volcan green. But black veins swam inside them.
"I am Valerius," the man said. "Your father's 'defective' brother. I had no Alpha power when I was born. They threw me to the border like waste. But there... I found another power. The power of ash."
Valerius raised his hand. The glass shards on the ground levitated, their sharp points turning toward Dorian.
"Give me the silver, Dorian," Valerius said. "The stardust inside your son... That is the key to my immortality. If I take it, I can be rid of this rotting body."
"You'll have to walk over my corpse," Dorian said.
"With pleasure," Valerius said.
And he waved his hand. Thousands of glass shards flew at Dorian like bullets.
(GRAVITY AND THE VOID)
Dorian tried to spin his sword to create a shield, but there were too many shards.
Just then, a wave rippled out from where Serra was.
Not ice.
Gravity.
Atlas had reached out his hand from Serra's lap. The glass shards flying toward Dorian stopped abruptly in mid-air. And then, as if a giant hand had slammed them down, they crashed into the ground and turned to dust.
Valerius smiled. "Ah, yes. That's it. Pure power."
Valerius ignored Dorian and walked toward Serra. Dorian lunged to cut him off, but Valerius didn't even touch him. He just pushed the air with the back of his hand.
Dorian flew backward as if hit by a sledgehammer, slamming into the stone wall and staying pinned there. An invisible hand had nailed him to the wall by his throat.
"Dorian!" Serra aimed her gun at Valerius.
"Don't shoot, sister-in-law," Valerius said in a calm voice. "Your bullets will pass through me. I am not matter, I am an infection."
Serra pulled the trigger. The bullet indeed passed through Valerius's chest, shattering a plant behind him. Valerius didn't stop.
He reached the babies.
Lyra's ice shield melted against Valerius's black aura.
Valerius reached for Atlas. "Come to me, little battery."
(THE HOOK: THE WRONG TARGET)
Atlas looked at Valerius. There was no fear in his silver eyes. There was anger.
Atlas opened his tiny mouth and let out a scream.
This was the scream that had woken the "Old Kings." But this time, it was focused.
The scream hit Valerius.
Valerius's "beautiful" face rippled. His skin cracked, revealing the rotting skeleton underneath. Atlas was tearing apart the man's illusion.
"You brat!" Valerius snarled, retreating in pain.
Atlas was about to destroy him.
But Valerius was cunning. The moment he realized his power wouldn't match Atlas's, he changed his target.
If he couldn't take Atlas, he would take Atlas's weakness.
Valerius suddenly shifted direction and snatched Lyra from her swaddle.
"Let her go!" Serra grabbed Valerius's arm, sinking her teeth into his wrist.
Valerius groaned but grabbed Serra by her hair and threw her aside.
"If you want your son," Valerius said, rising into the air with the crying Lyra in his arms. "Come to Raven Castle. We'll make the trade there. Silver for Ice."
Dorian broke free from the invisible pressure on the wall and fell to the ground. "NO!"
He lunged, he jumped, but Valerius had already risen high, out of the broken dome, into that ash storm.
With Lyra in his arms.
As his twin was taken away, Atlas thrashed in his stroller, reaching his hands to the sky and crying heartbreakingly.
Dorian and Serra stood in the middle of the wreckage, staring up at that black hole in the sky.
Atlas was safe.
But Lyra... the only being who kept Atlas balanced, who kept him sane... was gone.
And as Atlas's cry changed—shifting from sorrow to rage—the foundations of the palace began to shake.
The lock was broken. The monster was about to be unleashed.