Page 60 of Queen of Vengeance

Of course, none of that mattered because he was doing the interview alone.

The weight on Jax’s heart grew heavier with the thought.

He could stand a great many things, but losing his best friend… That was a blow he wouldn’t soon recover from—even if Zane tried to maul him. He rubbed his shoulder, already feeling the numbing potion work its magic.

It was one of Lea’s lesser potions, but not entirely useless.

As soon as he walked through the front door, his mother was waiting for him with dinner already on the table. “Jax, you’re finally home! I was wondering where you were.”

“I was busy trying to make a better life for us.” Jax didn’t mean to come off so cold and condescending to her.

“That’s nice, dear. Why don’t you have a seat? We can have dinner together. It’s been a while since you’ve visited Diesel’s home.” The eagerness in his mother’s eyes made it difficult to say no, but he had things he needed to accomplish. And he wouldn’t achieve them by sitting down and having family dinners.

“I’m sorry. I’m just too busy.” He waved her off as he charged toward his room.

“Alright… Just—don’t get so caught up in where you want to be that you forget where you are.” She folded her hands in front of her, watching Jax stop at the edge of the kitchen to hear her out.

“Where are we, Mother? What do we have? We are nobodies with nothing. My father died a poor man with nothing to show for his life. I refuse to do the same. I’m going to pull us out of this.” Jax didn’t understand what he said to make his mother cry, but the cracks in her voice were like daggers in his chest.

“You’re still so young, son. You don’t understand yet that all you are seeking—those aren’t what makes life worth living.” She took a few steps toward him, but when he turned, she saw how his eyes shifted. She backed away after that.

“How would you know, Mother? You’ve never had any of those things.” He spat the words out before storming into his room and slamming the door shut behind him.

He felt immense guilt over what he said to her, but it was the truth as he knew it.

Just because she was content to live in the dirt didn’t mean he was.

He wanted himself and Chika to experience all life’s finer things.

Jax pulled Lea’s book out of his bag along with the certifications given to him by the Patent Office.

All that he had been after was now at his fingertips. He felt powerful… Like a god. Any residual guilt he felt subsided as he poured through the book for the most impressive potion to show Anzul tomorrow.

“This… is the one,” he thought, holding up the port powder potion. Throughout his studies, he had never seen anything quite like it. “The ability to transport yourself to a visible location.”

According to the book, Lea had tested it before, but he hadn’t.

“If Lea can do it, then so can I.” His finger ran down the list of ingredients and their measurements. He didn’t want to mess something up and only transported his head or a foot somewhere else.

Day quickly became night as Jax worked tirelessly collecting and curating the complex potion.

The sun was just rising over the horizon by the time he finished.

It was much more complicated for him than he thought it would be.

“Damn, I’m running out of time, and I haven’t even tested it yet!” Panic swelled into Jax’s chest.

Was the potion safe for him to try? Would the proportions be different for him? Lea was so much smaller, after all.

“I didn’t make it this far to chicken out now,” he thought, shaking the fears of failure from his mind.

His hand dipped into his mortar and scooped out a handful of the powder potion.

He rubbed his fingers together, analyzing how the dull brown powder crackled with magic between each grain. That was the first boost of confidence he had since he started mixing the potion last night.

“Alright, here goes nothing.” He filled his lungs with a deep exhausted breath before throwing the crackling powder to his feet.

In an instant, he was consumed by darkness. At first, he thought he had shut his eyes, but after blinking, he realized that wasn’t the case.

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