Page 53 of A Touch of Gold and Madness

“Those daggers you gave me…” I started, unsure. “They glowed orange for me. Why?” I asked, still curious about that strange anomaly. “Is it because they’re yours and are affected by your hybrid nature somehow?”

Griffin… no,Chrome… looked away. More secrets he wasn’t ready to spill.

“Tell me…Chrome.” My arms braided across my chest as I waited for an explanation. I suspected what he held back was monumental.

Chrome rose to his feet. Running his fingers through his brilliant hair, he turned away to look at the deserted street behind the building. He shifted his unnerving gaze at me again before slumping his shoulders in defeat. “I shouldn’t be telling you, yet. But I guess I can indulge you in the large scope of things.”

“Go on…” I encouraged, hugging myself tighter.

“I’m not the only hybrid.” Chrome looked up at the sky as if it would give me the answers instead. “There are two, at least, that we’re aware of.”

I narrowed my eyes. “And?”

“And Forest needed weapons. But not just any weapons.” Chrome fell into a pace. “Weapons that would also open a portal to another dimension or realm. At first, we believed he hated Elementalsbecause his fiancé was depleted by an Endarkened many years ago. She was pregnant with their child, and he’s blamed the Elementals for their deaths. But there’s more to it outside of that…”

“Wait, he’s always said that an Elemental killed his fiancé, and then the Endarkened killed my mother. I was spared because she hid me…”

Chrome nodded but cut me off to carry on with his explanation. “Anyway, everything you’ve been told about Elementals is a lie. He needed a reason to go to war with them, to destabilize the world. Hence the need for his two weapons. He needed Elementals to be hated, whilehewas looked to for hope.” He paused to sigh before rubbing the nape of his neck. “He attacked first, not the other way around. But he seized on the opportunity to throw the blame on us. Bet you didn’t know there’d been a cordial peace amongst the two races before he rose to power.”

“Holy shit.” I blew out a breath. This was not the history we’d been taught. A wall of doubt climbed higher and higher in my mind, refusing to believe that everything I’d been taught my entire life was a total lie. I wasn’t sure what to believe or who to believe. Did I really want to trust what was coming from Griffin Silas, aka Chrome Freyr’s, mouth? Someone who’d hidden his identity through a faked death. There were so many red flags.

“Oh, it gets better,” Chrome said with a sarcastic grin before going on. He continued to pace back and forth, the gold shimmering as his skin caught the light with each pass he made. “With the humans out of the way and the Kinetics brainwashed to loathe and kill Elementals, he was left unchecked in his power. No one was watching him. So, he somehow figured out a way to enter another realm. However, it requires a lot.”

I held up a hand at the blasé way he just threw that bomb out there. “Wait, hold on. You mean to tell me there is another dimension? Another...world?” I was slow to process all the outlandish claims he continued to make.

“Yes. We live in the human realm. But there are an infinite number of them, all stacked on top of one another within existing planes. Your father wants to reach another one because we think he believes there’s a source of great power that resides there. We have an idea of which realm it is, but tocreate a portal between the two requires immense power. From our general understanding, it needs magic of the two races combined. So, he ordered my conception through Amethyst—”

I cut him off. “Do you realize how fucking delusional you sound right now? Griffin! Or Chrome! Whatever the fuck your name is…this is beyond…it’s too much.” I massaged my temples to rub out the growing migraine. I paused, glimpsing the macabre scene of massacred Kinetics—having almost forgotten about it.

“I prefer Chrome.” He shrugged, unbothered by my fracturing mind.

I shouldn’t be showing my weakness, but I was exhausted—physically and mentally. The strength to hold up my walls began to crumble.

Chrome stopped pacing, scraping off the dried blood that marred his golden skin with the sharp edge of an Elemental knife as he waited for me to gather myself. I knew there was more. And I wasn’t sure if I was ready for it.

“I need to tell you the rest before we move on. We don’t have a lot of time before Forest comes after us. So, do you want to know or not? Because if not, you’re free to go.” Chrome loosely waved a hand in a gesture that told me he believed I would run right then. “Free to survive on your own, not having any connections with the humans. Not being allies with any Elementals while being hunted down by your own father with little to no information to weaponize yourself with. Your choice, Princess,” he said, peeking up through a curtain of metallic hair as he scraped the skin on his thumb.

I stalled, almost giving in to the natural urge to run the fuck away and never look back, rejecting the choice of this defining moment.

But what if he was right? If what Chrome was telling me was true, then no doubt the consequences of Forest’s ambition would be devastating. And if there was another Kinetic/Elemental hybrid out there, then we couldn’t allow him to have them as a weapon to further his goals.

The Elemental blade that activated for me flashed through my mind. I quickly pushed it aside, refusing to acknowledge itsimplications.

If I went with Chrome, I knew there would be no turning back from this point. The information I would soon learn would forever change the course of my destiny. I would never be the same, and that scared me.

So much had already happened; could I handle more? I questioned my strength.

The gross feeling of shame sunk in as I realized a significant part of me had still been holding onto the hope that if I could kill Griffin, then it might redeem me in my father’s eyes. And then, I could return to my relatively stable life. Leaving with Chrome would obliterate any chance of that. But I wasn’t so sure I could kill him now. Not when I knew his identity and the heavy implications it held.

Was my unwavering quest for vengeance worth it? He swore he didn’t kill Slate, and I was starting to believe it with each unveiled piece of truth that slapped me, but Griffin’s death had become my purpose outside of simply surviving in the King’s Palace. My reason for not collapsing in on myself from the grief and loneliness. Where would that leave me without it?

I didn’t know where I’d even go if Chrome and I parted ways. If he were somehow masterfully lying to me about all of this, he could be sending me to my death or to some form of imprisonment. I’d killed so many Elementals over the years—twenty-four—so I wouldn’t be surprised if he was playing nice in order to get his own form of vengeance. Then, there was the slight chance he wasn’t coming from malice. Granted, those chances were low, especially in this harsh world.

But if I could gain some information against my father in order to stand some chance of ending him—of ending his abuse on the world—then I had to take it, right? My string of recent failures had me questioning if I was even worthy or capable of fighting for such a cause. But I needed answers more than anything else.

With my decision made, I took a deep breath, sure I would live to regret this. “I want to know. Tell me more,” I said with my shoulders back and my chin held high.

Chrome perked his head up, his metallic waves bouncing as he did. The scraping against his skin stopped, and a sinful smile arched on one side of his mouth. And in a tone that sent heat throughout my entire body, he said, “That’s my girl.”

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