Page 15 of Celestial Alphas

I grit my teeth. “Turn around, then.”

She glares at me before spinning around. Annie sighs and goes back to sitting on the bed as I undress and pull the dress on. I can’t remember the last time I wore a dress…maybe when I was a kid. It’s been years and years, and I’m not a huge fan of anything that restricts my option of running as far and fast as I can. Or killing. It’s got long flowing sleeves that will get in the way of my attacks, the gown portion goes straight down to the floor for me to trip on, and it’s so sparkly that I’m going to be like a shining star in the forest when I get out. But…it’s pretty. I actually love it. I want a wardrobe full of dresses one day and a pink car to drive around in to pick up my coffee. It’s pretty loose everywhere, except for where it shows a lot of cleavage with a long slit down to at least my navel. Maia turns around. She holds her hand out, and the fabric tightens to my skin, fitting me everywhere perfectly like a glove. She hands me a brush. “Brush your mane of hair, and you’ll be ready to go.”

Annie nabs the brush out of my hand and stands behind me. She starts brushing my hair for me, something she often does because I’ve never been all that bothered about my hair. She whispers low the moment Maia goes to stand by the door. “Look for escape routes. Figure out something, okay? I bet your mates are coming for you. They seem like they may hate you, but they want you where they can hate you twenty-four seven.”

I hear the door click this time before it’s pushed open, and Severi is there. I can’t sense him like the others, not in this place at least. I’m curious how they can make magic like this take over. How they can make it almost feel like I’m human but still feel my Nexus all at the same time. For months here, it was horrible, yes, but also it was the first time I felt this quiet.

Severi has changed into jeans and a black jumper, the darkness of his clothes only further bringing out the brown colour of his eyes. They are so much darker now, and he looksat me with pure indifference. A coldness I’m used to. I think this side of Severi is easier to swallow, easier to hate even with this badly placed bond between us. “Now you look like someone worthy of being my mate. A princess of the Vian.”

Maia’s eyes shoot to me, and she doesn’t bother hiding the disgust in them. She rolls that look right over me. “With me, Gwenieve.”

He comes closer, wrapping his arm around my waist, and my body feels cold everywhere he touches me. Severi’s cold fingers press into my hip. He glances over my shoulder at Annie, who looks worried and terrified by the bed. I try to give her my most reassuring smile, even if I don’t feel an inch of it as we walk out of the room. Maia slams the door shut right behind us and then walks in the other direction without looking back once. I envy the fact she can just walk away. I glance at her right before she disappears into one of the many doors down here. “Who is she to you?”

“Maia is my half-sister,” Severi answers without a care. “Not a princess. Bastard born.”

Interesting. “Okay. Where are we going?”

“To put on a show worthy of presenting to the Vian Court of Knights,” he murmurs quietly. Court of Knights? They have a court? It reminds me of the story of Arthur and the Round Table my dad told me about once. A human story of kings, but the queen in the story was where my name came from. My mother wanted to call me something else, I can’t remember what, but my father was firm on my name. Gods above know he wasn’t firm with her about much else. “My father will walk you out and declare you as the Vian weapon to win the war against both the Nexus and the humans. An endless power source that will change the future.”

“I’d rather fucking die than do anything for you or your shit king!” I shout. Severi immediately punches me hard inthe stomach, and all the air leaves my lungs, replaced with shattering pain. I scream, falling to my knees, and he laughs as he drags me up.

“Now, now, Gwenieve. I don’t want to damage you, but that mouth of yours needs to learn its place.” He drags me along as I wheeze through the pain, feeling the sharp sting on my left side where my ribs must be broken. “All those months, your parents’ deaths. None of it made you reveal your Nexus, but your other mates did.”

“Don’t talk about my parents.” I cough, straightening my back as anger makes me see red. I don’t give a crap if he doesn’t like the words that come out of my mouth. Who the fuck does he think taught me to tell the enemy to fuck themselves? It was some of my mother’s best advice. “They died trying to protect me from you, and you don’t deserve to mention their names.”

“That’s what you believe?” he questions, his eyes drilling into mine. “I’ve waited so long for you to appear, for this power to grace us one more time. They knew and didn’t give you up.”

Crazy fucker. “What are you talking about?”

“Nothing.” He blinks and carries on, dragging me up the stairs, where it is now deserted. I have to pull the dress up so I don’t trip over it. My hair flows around my waist, and Severi occasionally touches it with his hand. It makes me want to cut off the bits he touched. Three long flights of stairs. They leave me slightly breathless, thanks to his punch, before we come to a room that wasn’t here before. It’s new.

He opens the door, and inside, it’s almost like a human police interrogation room with a massive divide in the middle. I can see the entire floor from here. We stand right in front of a one-way mirror glass wall, used to look in on the other side. My stomach drops when I take in the other room. Vian are draining Nexus. There are at least twelve of them, all a mixture of men and women, all different ages, and the Nexus are screaming.The Vian are loving their pain. I rush to the glass, slamming my hands onto it as I helplessly watch. The second the door behind us closes, my Nexus rushes to the front of my mind, but she pauses. She doesn’t take over because she is scared.

I’m glad she doesn’t with the bat shit crazy plan Severi has for me. I won’t be used as a weapon to take over the world for him. I won’t be anyone’s weapon. I should have run away from the academy, screw the consequences. Starlight, the Nexus and human worlds…it’s all at risk because I chose to try to have something I never once deserved. Tears fill my eyes as I stare at the Nexus, recognizing none of them, but they are someone’s child, someone’s sibling. Someone’s someone. But soon they will be another dead body, another stain on my soul.

Severi leans over my shoulder. “Gwenieve, be good and use that pretty power of yours and kill all the Vian. Do it, show me your Nexus and I’ll let the Nexus go. You’ll be their saviour.”

“I’m no one’s saviour…” I murmur. “Why would you want me to kill your people?”

“They are betrayers to the throne. I starved each and every one of them before throwing them in here. Aren’t the screams music to your ears?” Severi laughs, but I feel sick. I might be sick. “Do it. Be my revenge. Be my weapon and you can be as free as you wish. No one to judge you, no one to hold you down.”

“No.” I keep my voice firm. He grabs the back of my neck, gripping it tightly and digging his nails into my skin.

“They’re useless to me. So, do as you’re told and kill them,” he roars into my ear.

A cry of desperation escapes my lips. “No, because I can’t control her! Please, stop!”

Nexus on the other side are still screaming. He hits me in the face first, then my chest, then in so many places I lose count. Only when my voice is breaking, when the screams in the room are fading, does he pick me up and press my bloody face on theglass. “Let her out or I’m going to go downstairs to grab your friend, throw her in the room with them, and kill her slowly. Painfully.” Annie. “Then when your other mates get here, they are dead. I’ll make every bit of their deaths awful. They will tell tales of the monster’s mates who died horrible deaths trying and failing to save their monster from herself. Do us all a favour and fucking let her out!”

My scared, dangerous Nexus comes out, protecting me, as she always does when it gets bad. A wave of grey explodes from our chest as Severi lets go, backing up a few steps. It flows around Severi, not touching him even though he is the one who deserves to die. Everything drains like it always does, leaving no light, no life or anything alive. One by one, they drop until there’s nothing but bodies lying on the floor, and I can’t stop this. I can only watch as I take more lives, mark myself with more blood. The Nexus and Vian are dead in seconds, and I shift back the moment the last body hits the ground.

Then it happens. So slowly to begin with, like a gust of wind blowing through their bodies, and above them light pours out into the shape of a star. Not all of the Vian and Nexus have the light hover above them, but most do. The light is their powers, and my Nexus takes a second to look at each one, rejecting the offer of power she sees. Until she focuses on one power, right at the back. She lifts her hand, and it zooms to us, slamming into our soul. I don’t know what power it is, but she is content to take it. Steal it. The light, the glowing stars, the other powers, are gone within a heartbeat.

Severi watches from the corner, cloaked in shadows. He claps, each bang matching my heartbeat. “Perfect. We will win this war and remake this world, Gwenieve.”

I cross my arms, taking a step back even when my body screams in pain. I can barely open one of my eyes. Severi walks towards me, grinning like he just won a prize. An alarm blastsout of the ceiling, making me jump. A male Vian runs into the room. “Nexus are here, and they are burning the forest down. We have to leave, Your Majesty! They have come for her.”

My Nexus mates are here.

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