Page 164 of A Touch of Gold and Madness

Gray sighed, “Oh, don’t be cute,Father. Two legions of Kinetic Warriors that you garnered from fuck knows where just ambushed the Elemental Hollow that happens to house Chrome and me. You can’t contain your arrogance enough to point it out.” Now, it was Gray’s turn to smile. “Did you know it was a bloodbath? Did you think this blood on me was mine?” An unhinged laugh escaped her, and once again, my dick hardened. “I’ll fill you in on a little secret, Your Majesty…” She took three bold steps to close the distance between them and whispered, enunciating each word. “They’re. All. Fucking.Dead.”

The daughter and father stood motionless, tense, and glaring at each other as if their looks alone could make the other drop dead. I was prepared to step in if needed, but as much I hated Forest for everything he put me through, I hated him more for what he did to Gray. I had stayed in the shadows, hidden away from her, unable to do anything while I felt every fucking horrible emotion he made her feel for sixteen years.

She deserved this kill.

At last, Forest smirked. “As predictable as always. I knew you’d both make your way here, so the palace is cleared out of everyone. Anything you two have planned won’t make a difference. The Kinetics of the Royal Domain are rallying others around the country.”

Forest was extra chatty. I imagined after twenty plus years of strategically planning these events, his ego wouldn’t allow him to contain his pride. He thought he’d won.

Gray ignored him, continuing on as if he didn’t speak. “You can’t kill me,” she said in a low, menacing voice. “You need me. You may have hated me because of my Elemental side, but the fact that you needed me to accomplish your goals made you hate me more. Because you’re a weak-ass man who uses others’ powers against their will because you lack it.” Gray started to laugh, a sexy, raspy sound. “You’re jealous.”

Forest nodded, chewing on the inside of his cheek as he turned and casually strode toward the table where his set-up had previously been. He looked up at the levitating objects, reaching for a sword. I held strong to my grip on it, refusing to let him have it.

“Let him have it,” Gray said, not taking her eyes off her father. “I won’t be a coward like him, just his worst nightmare.”

I relinquished my hold on the sword while Gray summoned a sword of her own that levitated. Judging by the sigils engraved on the blade, it was a Kinetic sword, but she didn’t need a weapon to kill him. In fact, she could easily disarm him with her element, but she was bloodthirsty, and she had something to prove to herself. I was all too happy to watch her unleash her inner savage onto the man who’d taken so much from her.

Forest sneered as he approached his daughter. “Icreatedyou and all that power. Don’t forget that.”

Gray chuckled. “More like spawned me.”

I bit back my own laughter at her smart-ass mouth that I loved so much.

Amethyst’s seedy energy tickled the edges of my awareness, rousing from the hit she took from my magic, but I kept my eyes on Gray and Forest, knowing my mother would try and sneak-attack me from behind. I’d let her think she could, allowing her arrogance to get the better of her.

“I gave you everything, Gray. You were fucking royalty, for fuck sake, you ungrateful little shit. I may have hated everything you stood for, but you weremine. You’d be nothing without me,” Forest spat.

A growl climbed from the darkest depths of my chest. Gray didn’t belong to anyone. Above all else, she was her own person. But I had her heart, her soul. She was mine to protect and serve. Not to fucking own.

Forest snapped his attention to me with a sneer. “Ah, you have your little protector now? I see there’s another bond at play here. I wonder how this will play out.”

“What’s the Syphon Bond?” I demanded.

“You’ll see soon enough.”

My mother’s ultraviolet magic started its pesky burn along my skin again. She crept up behind me. I’d give it to her; she was silent, but I was even more trained since I was last here, thanks to Void’s sensory awareness training.

I waited until she was right on me, clenching my jaw against the rising burn. I felt the air move against my neck, and I ducked just as she was about to jam a syringe full of the redfern and black-crystal mix.

I spun on my heel and kicked her feet out from underneath her. She crashed to the floor but jumped back to her feet without missing a beat—agile as always. At least I got something beneficial from the bitch.

We circled each other, and when I reached a point where Gray was in my line of sight, I saw her in the midst of a fierce battle with Forest. Their swords whirled and streaked through the air before clashing against one another. I believed in her. She could easily take him, but he was dirty.

I trained my attention back on my traitorous mother, who sold me out to her sadistic husband. Her sadistic,deadhusband.

I summoned a sword from the ceiling. The second the hilt brushed my palm, I lunged at my mother. She was weaponless. I body-slammed her with a brutality that had bones cracking. I held the tip of my sword at her throat. She splayed her hands wide at the sides of her head, looking dazed from the impact. “Please. Chrome, don’t.” She coughed. She’d heal if I didn’t hurry.

“That concussion has you all sorts of fucked up if you think I’d let you live.” My teeth were bared, taking everything within me to keep from skewering her throat to the floor and then retrieving my Elemental blade to stab every godsdamn vital organ in her body. I wanted her to suffer, to feel a fraction of what I felt as a child.

I glanced up to check on Gray to see where she was with Forest. He was bearing down on her—hard. Using brute strength, advancing on her with every swing that she was forced to defend. She was already exhausted after the battle, then drained from the ordeal down in the prison from Forest’s gamma poisoning and Amethyst’s ultraviolet magic. She was beginning to panic as her strength dwindled. I felt it.

Fuck.

“I’m…” Amethyst coughed. “Sorry.”

I snapped my head down at her with an astonished look. “Shut the fuck up.” And I looked up just in time to find Forest running hissword through the base of Gray’s spine. Her mouth widened in shock as she looked down and saw a quarter of the sword protruding from her diaphragm.

As the time seemed to slow, my heart stopped, splintering into the fragile shards of ice that composed it.

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