Page 161 of Hell Fae King
But no. That didn’t feel right.
This… this visage and the information that accompanied it felt like it came from Typhos.Why am I suddenly aware of his…?The question trailed off in my thoughts as another replaced it.Vita.
I’d shoved all that energy into Vita, breaking some sort of lock inside that had allowed those memories to go to Vivaxia. Or perhaps she’d just inherited the power.
But I, too, was linked to Vivaxia.
And Typhos’s Source.
So something… something had caused a feedback loop. Or maybe the Source was the one sending me these details. Or perhaps it was Vita fighting her way back to Typhos via my connection to Vivaxia.
Regardless of the how or the why, it was happening. Because I could feel the energy humming through me now, the strands far too powerful to be my own. And they weren’t linked to the spell I’d siphoned outside.
However, I could still feel the lingering effects of that magic humming in my blood. Just as I could see the remnants of it all over this palace.
The strands seemed to ripple around me as I moved, my feet automatically taking me to where Vivaxia had disappeared through the threshold.
I wasn’t at all surprised to find her standing on the dais, her fingertips playing across the decrepit throne. A vision in my head told me what that opulent power symbol should look like, and it was nothing like this broken-down chair before me. Even the blood-veins decorating the stage appeared to be dry, the formerly polished golds darkened to a deep bronze.
This platform looked nothing like it used to.
And the same could be said about the Strigoi lingering nearby. Gone was their vampiric presence and in its place, shadows of ghosts.
Oh, they were still alive. I could see their souls clutching onto their corporeal forms. But they were on the verge of death.
All because their king—the one meant tolead—had failed them.
He’d struck a deal with the real devil. WithVivaxia. And the Source had turned on him in response.
I could feel that punishment thriving inside me, the concept one I instantly understood. Because it was exactly as it should be. He’d betrayed Lucifer and the Hell Fae Realm. Why would the Source continue to empower him and his people after something like that?
I almost nodded, like I was agreeing with some figment lurking in my head.
Maybe I was. Maybe I’d lost my fucking mind. Yet I’d never felt more knowledgeable in my life.
It was as though something had cracked open inside me, allowing all the details of this world to flow through the membrane of my mind and into my very soul.
The Hell Fae Source is empowering me, I realized.Or maybe I’m siphoning all of this information…
But no. I hadn’t activated that part of myself. This was coming from somewhere I couldn’t define. A link I had no idea existed. Aconnectioncreated by my soul.
If Vivaxia saw it, she didn’t comment. Instead, she blew the dust away from the throne—dust that used to resemble a king—and sat on it with a sigh.
She needs the conduit to stay in this realm,I deduced.That’s Typhos’s power, and it’s operating as a leash.
For now, anyway.
Because I could see her absorbing the power of everything and everyone around her, could feel her testing my own aura with her ability, too.
Mentally, I redirected her effort, her energy oddly tangible in my mind. Just like everything else around us. I couldn’t tell if I was just more in tune with my siphoning talent or if this was a gift from Typhos’s Source.
Vivaxia arched a brow. “Well, that’s new.” She crossed her long legs and leaned back in the throne, her wings nowhere in sight. She seemed to be recovering from something.
Had the walk into the hallway drained her of energy?That would make sense with the throne being her proverbial leash.So what happens when the conduit runs out of power?
It seemed to be fizzling out near the base, Typhos’s energy barely hanging on.
What would happen then? Would she start absorbing the souls of the Strigoi? Was that their purpose here?
