Chapter 16 16- Kael
RANDOM FACTS: When the Hunger consumes a person, the body turns to ash. Kael still has every memory they held before their death but he forgets it after three days.
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The male’s pants have grown heavier, and at several points, he chokes on his own vomit which is now like dark murk as my tendrils shove itself through every hole of his body.
The Hunger rumbles pleasantly, feeding on every memory that he has. They are not… unpleasant. But simple.
They are bland at the very least but slightly filling.
Nothing will ever be as filling as Riven.
Only a taste… a taste like last time fizzled through me, giving me another glimpse once again as it always did whenever I seemed close to him.
Reminding me of a world I had clearly forgotten.
“Master.” My ears perk at the voice as Astoria materializes in front of me, his head bowed as he says, “I have searched around for what you have asked, but there is very little information regarding… you. Except the falsehoods. A… you that did not exist.”
Yes. Korvas.
He with Truth, when it is roughly translated.
So little knowledge of me, but it is fabricated.
Regardless of its origin, it was created to foster a sense of loyalty and total devotion to the being who had saved them.
But… I would never save them.
My tendrils pull away as I turn my attention back to the male. I take out the name tag in my pocket, my eyes scanning through it as I say slowly, “Bri— an?”
He does not respond to name, mostly because he cannot remember that he was ever called that.
His body is now twisted into many different directions, every bone jutting out of his skin. He is drenched in black murk, his eyes completely white as he looks like a deflated ball, devoid of air on the chair.
All of his memories are slowly slipping away, each and everyone filling the thoughts in my head as the Hunger feeds from it. There are moments I hold onto a memory, hoping it will show me a glimpse of my own that I seem to have lost.
But nothing lasts before it is snatched away.
I look away from him, the scent of his body turning into ash as it moves through my realm fills my nose but I pay it no attention while my eyes focus on Astoria. “Nothing on an Elowyn,”
“No, Master,” Then he tilts his head slightly. “I… I am not certain if it is in my place to say this… but I believe that I have known you for many years, if they had been someone else—”
“I am older than you would think.” I cut in. “Far, far older.”
The Hunger in me bristles, thrumming slightly with the runes on my skin because even with all the memory gaps I seem to have, I cannot forget the origin of what I am.
Like a… curse.
Still, even Rowan Draken, a Keeper, did not know who she was with all the knowledge he has of me. Yet I know the memory cannot be a mistake.
Not her.
Her face drifts from my grasp, like a thought that I should have never let myself forget. Like a punishment. Another punishment. Like these… runes that dig into my skin.
But it hurts less when I am with him.
“Riven.” His name leaves my mouth differently, my head tilting as I look at Astoria. “My shadows… cannot sense him. He must be somewhere they can’t reach him. Why are you here if they cannot?”
I have avoided Riven because I had almost taken every thought he had to fill with the hollowness I already suffer. He was magnificent. Is magnificent. Like a meal that I have awaited for a millennium. And the Hunger… It persists.
It tells me to eat and wonders why I stop myself.
But my wolf refuses.
Because now we both know that Riven is not only our mate, but we have had another that we cannot remember.
And we do not like that.
“He feels…” I watch him struggle to find the word, his expression strange. “Unwell.”
“Explain.”
“He had a fight with the Beta, I believe. And… he seemed… unwell.”
He says that word again. Like he knows some other word to use but he does not wish to upset me so he uses the least obvious one.
I stare, watching his features for a lie but when none comes, I find the nearest Shadow that could be closest to him and move into it.
My body steps out of one of the trees around his house, my shadows releasing me reluctantly as I realize every single light in the cabin is turned on, making sure shadows cannot be formed.
I walk to the door, my hand pulling open the knob before I slowly walk into the house.
Rowan is the face I see as I enter, his head slightly bowed. “Forgive me, Sir. He… wished to see you but when you wouldn’t come, decided to do all of… this.”
I walk past him, climbing up the stairs before I reach his room and open the door.
The second I do so, I feel something push itself into my chest. Into the place where my heart is supposed to be and when I look down, it is a silver knife being shoved inside me by the one they claim would love me.
He’s looking at me, tears filling in his eyes while he pants, but I am not blind to the rage in them as he hisses, “Just fucking die and leave me the fuck alone!”
I stay still, watching his face to see if there is any other emotion in them that might make me understand if this is all another lie of his due to his incapability of being honest but when I find none, my hand reaches for his neck, clamping tightly around it as I watch the fear rise in his eyes. “I do not have a heart, Omega.”
I throw him to the side easily, the sound of something falling and breaking echoing through the room while I pull the knife out of me and fling it to the floor.
I hear him pant, the sound filling the room as I look around it.
There are things on the wall. Writings. And pictures.
Of other men.
I reach out and pull it from the wall, my eyes going over the image before my shadows swarm it.
When it clears again, it’s dust.
Like a string pilling my senses tautly as my head snaps to Riven who has his clothes off.
My eyes drag over his form slowly. He is trembling, and here, with all the lights on, I see the birthmarks littered all over his skin like constellations, his pheromones swirling through the air as my lips move, “What are you doing?”
Riven’s eyes, as they always are when he is not having his heat, stares at me with the same rage that it always bears as he says, “You, do not own me.”
“I do.” My feet move to him, the Hunger inside me growing, begging me to touch him. To have him. “You breathe because of me. If I wish you dead—”
“Then do it.” Riven’s gray eyes look empty. And cold. Like. A stormy cloud. “I stabbed you with the intent to kill, does it not upset you? Don’t you want to punish me?”
Take him. Hurt him. He is yours to hurt. Yours. Forever. “You cannot harm me. I already know that.”
That is not the answer he wants to hear.
The fire in his eyes grow, red slowly creeping into them before his eyes suddenly move to where the knife is.
He moves to it, but I’m faster.
My hand reaches out to grab him before I pull him back forward but the second I do, his hand reaches out and hits me across the face. Hard.
And before I can react to what’s happened, his lips slam into mine.