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I rushed forward, ignoring the slight chill I felt as I made my way to her side.
“Son?” my mother squawked, her voice shrill. Her fingers wrapped around my bicep, pulling me away from my mate.
I yanked my arm from her grasp. “Never call me that again, you monster!”
My ears popped as the pressure changed in the room. I glanced back at Zosime and watched as her tattoos glowed brighter. The lights flickered around us, bulbs exploding with the surge of electricity.
With an animalistic snarl, Zosime flung the thing onto the table, where it immediately spun around, rushing back across the surface toward her.
I lunged to grab my mate, but the woman I once called mother threw a barrier up between us. “Let the Lure consume her, as it should.” A cruel smile of victory curved her lips.
Zosime slapped the table, hissing in fury and releasing a pulse of energy rippling across the table into the Lure. The amount of energy in that single burst was more than most labs on Earth could have safely contained, and yet Zosime had used it as a precise weapon.
The blinding light temporarily stole everyone’s vision, and I was thankful that, as an Ancient, mine returned supernaturally fast. The humans screamed in terror, but I ignored them for the moment. They would heal. Or, depending on how things went, they could still die.
As my vision returned, I could see a pile of ash where the Lure had been. It wasn’t all the Lure that existed, just a piece. Even now, the inky tentacles still inched across the table, searching for souls to taint.
Zosime kept her palms pressed flat on the table. “I’m not scared of the monster you created.”
Lexi’s chest heaved as she stood. “You should be!”
Darkness enveloped the room, and thick smoke swirled around me, making it hard to keep my eyes on Zosime. I reached forward, determined to break the barrier Lexi had created between Zosime and myself, but it wasn’t there.
Lexi appeared behind me, and when her voice spoke near my ear, my heart lurched. Something cold and slick crept down my neck, arms, and even my lungs grew heavy. The Lure.
Soyale—
I’d no more than thought her name before the entire roof lifted off the building in an eardrum-destroying symphony of groaning and screeching metal. With effort, I tilted my head to survey the damage, and my mouth went dry at the ominous clouds rotating over the building.
When the dark fog was sucked from the room, Zosime stood tall and proud.
And furious.
Her hair and clothes wafted around her as though she were floating beneath the water. Lightning crackled across the sky behind her, and her creamy skin turned a pale blue and pulsed with a power I’d never seen before. Where did it all come from?
It was like seeing one of Kye’s favorite anime shows come to life. Zosime had powered up. But how? Zosime took in the tendrils of Lure that curled around my body, prodding for an opening. I could feel it slivering into my mind, attacking each and every thought I had, tainting it.
I shivered and collapsed to the ground.
“Let it in, my son,” Lexi cooed. “Stop fighting it.”
My hands yanked at my hair, and I gritted my teeth, trying to push it out. I couldn’t let it inside of me, but it dug deeper, wrapping around old pains that I’d long moved past and pushing them to the surface. How easy it would be to give in.
A hiss like I’d never heard ripped from Soyale. Yes, Soyale. I needed to keep my thoughts on her. She flashed her fangs at my mother—both the top ones, and the brand new viciously sharp ones on the bottom. Had she gained those in the upgrade, too?
“How many times do I have to tell people to keep their hands off my mates?” Zosime’s words were calm, but the rage in her eyes burned hotter than hellfire.
Mates. Yes, I was her mate. I belonged to her. Needed to focus on her. My Soyale. The Lure grew deeper, and I cried out as it pierced through my consciousness.
“I’m an Ancient, and he is my son. I will do as I please—” Lexi didn’t even finish her words before she was ripped away from me and flung through one of the shattered windows.
I gasped in oxygen, clutching at my aching chest. It felt like I’d finally surfaced.
“No. You won’t. This is my world, and I will decide what’s best for it from now on,” Zosime called out, presumably toward Lexi, but I didn’t miss how her eyes bore into the human leaders still frozen in their seats and shaking with terror.
A shiver of unease licked down my spine. Zosime was more dangerous than anyone had even realized. With her ability to adapt and evolve, there was every possibility she could adapt to outwit any of the Ancients’ god-like abilities.
Was there a limit to how far magik could alter her body? Because if not, the world of the Ancients might not be ready for what’s coming if they ever cross her. And worse… what if she became tainted, and it was too late to stop her? For all we knew, it might already be too late.
