Page 112 of Akur

“Yes.” Akur’s words made a hush go through the room. They were all silent before V’Alen seemed to sit up straighter.

“And you escaped,” he said.

Akur grunted a laugh. “I didn’t. But she did. She saved me.”

They were all looking at her now.

“I had help.” She cleared her throat. Somehow, she just knew what she was about to say was going to turn this meeting into a glacier. “A Tasqal. He helped us.”

The silence that followed her words was deafening. Diana was the first to react, shooting to her feet with such force her chair floated away.

“ATasqal?” Her voice dripped with venom. “You trusted a Tasqal?”

“Diana, my mate.” Yce’s calm voice cut through the tension, but the lightning beneath his skin pulsed faster, betraying his own unease.

“No.” Diana’s eyes blazed. “This is…incomprehensible!” She slammed her palms down on the table, an echoing thud going through the room.

“Enough.” Akur moved between Diana and her, his massive frame blocking Diana completely. His voice carried the weight of someone who’d seen too much to suffer prejudice. “Despite how it tastes like excrement in my mouth to say this…that Tasqal risked everything. Without him, we’d both be dead or worse. I’ve fought their kind for many moons, but I know honor when I see it.”

“Honor…” Alaina shook her head. “From a Tasqal?”

Yce leaned forward as Akur settled back. “He speaks the truth. They both do.”

That tickling in her head grew more intense, and she met his gaze. “He’s part of a faction within their society that wants change. They’re sick—dying—”

“Yes,” Diana spat. “Let them all die.”

“You’re right.” Constance took a deep breath. “I don’t want them to live either. But he helped us. They’re not…they’re not all as bad as we think.”

For several heavy minutes, the silence in the room felt like lead.

She took another deep breath. “I believe there are those who are truly sorry, truly tired of all their species has done. But they are afraid. Their leaders—the High Tasqals—they’re planning something big. Something bad. They have an Arois prisoner.”

At this, Yce’s entire body grew more tense, the lightning beneath his skin flaring bright enough to make her squint. “Yes,” he breathed. “I havefelt him through the void. But his signal was…wrong. Twisted.”

“They’re using him,” Akur spoke up. “They’ve found a way to harness his power, to combine it with an orb. They plan to use it to create a massive portal—to transport humans to their world.”

Alaina’s head snapped up from where she’d been resting it against her arms. “What?” She and Diana said together.

Yce’s light flickered violently. The temperature in the room seemed to drop.

“Describe him,” he demanded, his voice suddenly carrying an edge she hadn’t heard before.

“Tall, like you,” Constance said. “But his light was…gone. Like…dim. The gem in his forehead wasn’t shining like yours, either. He looked—”

“Dead,” Akur finished. “But still breathing.”

Yce turned away sharply, his hands clenched. Diana was at his side immediately. She pulled him into her. “Yce…do you know him?”

“No,” he said, his voice barely a whisper. “But he is suffering…and if they plan to do this…to use that orb to create a gateway…”

Constance looked around, gaze shifting from one person at the table to another. “Can they really do that? Are these psychic powers that…well…could one being be that powerful?”

The lights in the room flickered and dimmed, and an icy wind swept through the sealed chamber. Yce turned back to them, his entire body now crackling with energy. The lightning beneath his skin wasn’t just pulsing anymore—it was racing, streaming across his form in violent arcs that made the air taste like metal. His eyes blazed white-hot.

“You have no idea what we are capable of.” His voice resonated oddly, as if coming from everywhere at once. Small objects on the table began vibrating. “The void speaks through us, shapes us, fills us. And if they have found a way to corrupt that connection, to twist it…” The temperature plummeted further, their breath now visible in clouds before their faces.

Diana’s hand on his arm seemed to ground him somewhat. The intense display of power ebbed, though the lightning still danced beneath his skin at a frenzied pace. “One being? No. But a being forced beyond their limits, their power stripped raw and connected to something like that orb…” His eyes shone again. “They could tear reality apart trying.”

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