Page 7 of Taming Darkness

“They killed him, trying to change him to a White-Fae,” Darius lies, and his father’s hand stops. He looks at his son. His father glares at him before his brows pinch in the middle.

“How?” his father questions. Darius swallows. He would be taking a total stab in the dark. He didn’t know how to kill off the part that made him Harmony-Fae.

He glances at them, but his father grabs his face. “You better not be lying to me?” his father sneers, and Darius whimpers, his father’s nails digging into his face.

Darius says the first thing that comes to mind. “They drowned him in the bath,” Darius manages to get out. His father watches him, and Darius holds his breath when his father lets him go. Darius goes to run away when his father grabs him by the collar of his shirt.

He shoves him toward them. “Since they killed him, you can kill them. About time, I made you into a man,” Darius' father says.

“Kill me, please, Xandrous. Let her live, do what you want with me, but let her go. Have you no heart?”

“That is precisely why I'm doing this. I am trying to save them. But it's fools like you that are not willing to help this process.” He turns to Darius. “Now kill them,” he growls.

Meanwhile, there’s a strange grunt from the woman on the floor. “He’s just a boy,” Sasha, Kalen’s mother, rasps in outrage, as if she needs to get those words out with her last dying breath.

“So was your son, yet you had no issue killing him, or is that a lie, Darius?” Darius’ father sneers at them. Darius stiffens, knowing his father is testing him. Darius has never killed anyone before, nor did he want to.

He shakes his head. “Good, then you have no issue killing them,” he waves his son forward. “Burn them alive?” his father nudges him.

“What?” Darius whimpers. “I said burn them alive, they're murders, child killers. Unless there is something you're hiding, Darius. Like that, the boy is alive?” so his father didn’t believe him and this was a test to see if he was lying.

“He’s dead, though,” Darius tells him.

“Then you will have no issue killing them. They are monsters,” his father waves him to do his bidding, and Darius trembles.

Darius turns his gaze to the man. “It’s okay, son,” the man tells him, and tears prick his eyes. Yet, the man’s gaze softens, and he nods slightly, reaching for his wife's hand.

“Please, father, I don’t want to do it,” he begs.

“You will, or—” his father doesn’t finish, and Darius faces them. The woman tilts her head.

“It’s okay, sweetie. Don’t be punished for our crimes,” she says, but Darius knows they have no crimes that need to be paid. His father was just a monster. A cruel king. While Kalen’s parents were freedom fighters, wanting to protect the world from men like Darius' father. They were good and loved their son more than anything.

Darius hiccups a sob before shutting his eyes. He flicks his wrist, and he feels the heat of the flames that engulf them. Silent tears slip down his cheeks as he makes a silent prayer to save their son from his father. The smell of burnt hair makes him gag. And their screams will forever haunt him and being in his head, in his memories, I know they still do.

I feel sick at what I just witnessed when the energy around me shudders, and I find the scene melting as the next one unravels in front of me. And it is no better than the last.

Chapter4

~Aleera~

In the next scene, I come to learn that Darius’ refusal to hand Kalen over meanshemust become the “experiment.” What that experiment was, I’m still unclear. What does become obvious, however, is why he hated my father.

My father was the head scientist and the one that came up with the vile tests they ran on him, yet Darius didn’t hate him with the same hatred he did his father in those times. His father would watch, expressionless, while Darius would plead with him to make them stop.

I zoom in on a horrible scene of Darius slumped over in the chair, drool dripping onto the floor. Electrodes are hooked up to his body, which shock him from time to time. After a particularly disarming shock, Darius’ father walks up to him, grabs his hair, and lifts his head up.

“He has had enough. Are you trying to kill your son, Xandrios?” my father asks him. Here he is a lot younger, my father looks like an entirely different man from the man I grew up with. Here he still looked young, vibrant. His eyes weren't so dark with circles and his skin wasn't lined with age, he was also clean-shaven, he didn't sport a beard. Darius hardly spoke of his father, and now I see why. Xandrios Wraith was a monster for the torture he put his son through.

“What? Of course not, Grayson. I am just saying Darius can handle more than you think.” Xandrious argues. My father shakes his head, and Darius eyes them, his vision fuzzy. He just wanted it to end. More than once, he prayed the experiments would kill him.

“We are so close to a breakthrough. We can replicate it, be all-powerful, we can save the world. Save the Harmony-Fae from extinction, imagine how much we can sell this serum for,” my father says. His words confuse me. Wasn’t this serum the reason we were extinct?

Darius’ father purses his lips. “Are you sure it will work this time, you said that last time, Grayson. What a bloody mess that turned into!”

“Positive, we are so close. We just need to figure out the right tweak to his DNA. But that won’t work if he is dead. Take your son home. Let him rest.”

Xandrious sighs heavily and then nods before walking over to Darius, who could hardly move. He undoes his restraints, yet Darius’ eyes are fixed on the vial my father held up to the light before he sets it in some machine that spins it around.

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