Page 110 of The Aether

“He didn’t have to die! I could’ve reformed him.” Furious tears flooded the councilman’s eyes.

“No, sir. You couldn’t,” she said simply. “He was afraid of Morcant, just like you. But unlike you, it made him happy to hurt children.”

“Your father didn’t give my boy a chance. Why should I give you one?”

Fuck.

Damian closed his eyes and hung his head. The man with the scar and yellow eyes had bore no resemblance to Buttagier. Neither did they share a name. How the hell was he to have known?

“Yoursonset explosives along the tunnel’s ceiling. Enough to level a city block, Buttagier,” Creed Caldwell stated. “Innocent mortals. It seems you chose the wrong bastard to love. You picked the bad seed,Father.”

“Enough!” the Fates cried out. “We care not for the procreation of others or their petty squabbles. The child is too powerful to remain in possession of her abilities. They shall be removed.”

“No!”

Damian surged forward, with his group of Sentinels at his back.

But they were too late.

CHAPTER38

Thunder boomed, and the floor below them shook as a metal cage emerged from beneath the marbled tiles. It encircled Sabrina, and sigils burned into the bars with a sizzle and pop. Damian recognized most of the enchantments, having encountered them throughout his lifetime. They were eerily similar to the ones created to entomb his mother and contain her magic inside the garden walls.

Memories of Sabrina’s birth, of her first steps, along with other special moments that were imprinted in his mind and on his soul, began fading.

A sick realization gripped him.

They intended to take her from him ineveryway!

“Beastie!”he roared.

A sweeping wave of his arms sent people tumbling out of his path as he raced for his daughter. The Fates cried out their affront as if surprised he would dare attack them.

But he’d dare anything.

“I’ll not lose you. I’ll not lose you,” he cried. Gripping the bars, he screamed his pain, both internal and external, as the enchantment seared the flesh from his hands. The agony caused his emotions to riot, and his power, amplified by his heightened state, turned destructive.

Dust showered the occupants of the chamber as the entire building rocked on its foundation.

Columns crumbled, and terrified screams rang out.

The supernatural illumination flickered out, plunging the entire place into darkness.

“Fools! He’ll kill us all!” Isis shouted over the noise. “Stop this at once!”

Tuning out the noise, Damian called to his daughter. “When I tell you, teleport to safety, Beastie. Do you understand?”

“No, Papa,” she said tearfully. “You have to stop this.”

“I’m trying. I—”

“No! You have to let me go now.”

“Never!”

She sobbed her grief and collapsed on the floor of her prison. “They will kill you. You have to stop.”

“Not until you are free,” he told her raggedly. The urge to gag was strong, but he doggedly ignored the smell of his charred flesh as he used his enhanced strength in an attempt to part the bars. They barely budged. “Goddamn it!”

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