Page 96 of From Frost to Flame

Chapter Twenty-Three

Silas

Silas knew this partof himself. It was the part he neglected. It was the part he drowned in ink and shame. All the Death Walker parts he never let grow. All the fears he carried every single day were visible on his little face.

“You’re sure he’s the key?” Lex asked anxiously. “I don’t know how long we can stay here.”

“I’m certain. He’s going to come with us. My mom was right about one thing. There’s no running from my true identity.” He knelt and held out his arms. The child recoiled like a frightened animal expecting to be struck. “She trapped me, so I trapped you away inside myself. How about we leave together?”

The child got to his feet but still didn’t move toward them. His tentacles curled in close to his body protectively.

“It’ll be okay. I won’t hurt you. I’m not going to hide you away anymore.”

The tentacles relaxed slightly, but still he stayed in place.

The child was silent, but Silas could read the question on his face. “I don’t know how we’re going to do it. But we’ll figure it out because we have a home and family now. They’ll help us. We have to trust our new family. Even if it’s scary.”

Finally, the tentacles dropped all defense, and the child effortlessly ran across the top of the sludge. There was a flash of blinding white light, the sound of shattering crystal rang in his ears, and then everything went black.

Silas opened his eyes.

He stood in the wreckage of Orion, disoriented. There was a burn as the shards of her soul burst, turning to dust under his skin. His mother’s talons slipped off and relief washed over him as he regained full control of himself. Castor’s screams grounded him.

“Get him off Lex. He’s going to kill him!”

Off Lex?

His vision came into focus, and there under his paw, laying on the frozen ground, was Lex’s lifeless body.

No, no, no.

Blood dripped off the tip of each of his claws as he pulled them out of Lex’s fragile frame. Whimpers and whines slipped from his lips as he nudged him with his snout in a desperate attempt to wake him.

Please. Please, wake up.Panic washed over him.I killed him. I...I killed him.

A hand on his snout broke him from his spiraling thoughts.

“I knew you were in there,” Lex said hoarsely as he petted the side of his face with a gentle hand.

Silas wanted to hold him. He wanted to take him away from this place and tend to every scratch on his delicate skin. Instead, he snaked a tentacle around him and carefully handed him over to Julian and Mora, who waited with open arms.

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