Page 131 of Amethyst and Iron
“Cassius, the ward has been breached.”
“That cannot be. There are no Celestial enemies to us. As such—”
“Victor Halrow is using a blood mask. He ingested Lazriel’s blood and he’s had it fused to—”
“If I cast him out from afar right this instant, it will force Lazriel outside with him also.”
“I’m aware. We… we fucking need you and Velra. Now. ASAP.”
A rush of movement drew me back to the front door, just a second before Victor hurtled through and ran at me.
I managed to dodge out of his reach by a mere two inches, and he slammed into the wall, cracking it really severely. Like, structural damage severity.
“You’re not being good for me!” he roared, incensed that it wasn’t so easy this time to fuck with me. “You’re making this much worse for yourself.”
I felt a faint reverberation through the floor a moment before he swung his fist.
I dodged it again, ducking low.
But this time he anticipated and swept his leg at me, his designer shoe slamming into my face. Blood sprayed and bones crunched under the brutality of it, and it had my head snapping back. With another blur, he was there, ripping me off my feet with a sweep. I grunted, spitting up blood as I hit the floor with jarring force.
He snarled and pounced on me, fucking straddling me, his knees pinning my legs down, his hands confining my arms at my sides.
He leaned in close and scented me. “It would serve you much better if you would only kneel to me, acquiesce to my will, and become my plaything. Your current approach endangers not only you, but also your father.”
“What?” I rasped, choking up a mouthful of blood, my ribs trying to heal, one clearly fucking with my lungs. Just like last time he’d attacked me.
I knew my pulse was racing like mad.
I was sweating, but not from the physicality of the fight itself.
It was because I was doing every fucking thing I could to stop those flashes of what he’d done to me last time, to prevent the trauma of it from infecting me right here and now.
I couldn’t let it in.
He’d definitely win out then.
He’d destroy me, he’d take Sylas and hurt him.
“Your approach to my fixation with you positions me as a threat in Remnant’s eyes. So he’ll hunt me, he’ll attempt to take my life. And that is so very bad for himandfor you, now that you’ve developed sentiment toward him.” He smirked maliciously. “We are tethered, Lazriel.”
“Lies,” I choked out.
“Why do you think he hasn’t attempted to kill me? Even with me aligning withPuritas,abandoning his teachings? Because, pretty thing, should I fall, he falls alongside me.”
“No.”
My dad had told me that we’d kill Victor together. Knowing he was tethered to the bastard… it would be suicide.No.He wouldn’t.
“Oh, it’s the indisputable truth. Back when he still loved and treasured me, he spared my life. With the circumstances at play, this tether—Nexus Letale—was the only way. I was his first creation. He made me in his image.” He eased back, his creepy eyes burning into mine. “Yet, now there isyou.Bloodandflesh. Not a sireling, but his biological son.” He roared, lifting one hand off my right arm and wrapping it around my throat. “Your existence ruined everything!”
In his fury, he’d made a mistake.
I took full fucking advantage of it with his arm off one of mine, and jerked sharply to the side with all my strength.
It destabilized him just enough for me to rear back and throw him off. I launched into a blur of backward momentum, channeling my wolf side to twist it into a full backflip off the floor, landing on my feet the second he hit the far wall and dropped on his ass.
He sprung back to his feet immediately, licking his fangs at me.
