Page 119 of Cryptic Dreams
“No!” I scream as Atticus nods to Hans, the piece of shit happily cranking the lever that slowly begins opening the ceiling. “No! Zephyr, no!”
Pulling and ripping at my chains, my body goes numb as my fear trumps the pain, as I fight and claw my way free so that I may save my mate.
“Hurts, doesn’t it,son?”Atticus whispers, his tone full of amusement, his expression almost joyous as he leans down toward me, grabbing my face to force my eyes on Zephyr. “Watching the only thing you’ve ever truly loved, the one creature who fully accepted and understood you, who supported you blindly, pay for that devotion?”
The first beam of the early morning sun streams down in a thin sliver, hitting the bare skin of Zephyr’s shoulder as she turns her head and closes her eyes tight. Her bravery shines through as that beam slowly widens from a pinprick to quarter size, the delicate golden flesh of her shoulder blistering and smoking right before my eyes.
“Phantasia was the only one of you I loved, the only one who knew what it truly meant to rule and go to any lengths for the greater good. You took my daughter and true successor from me, and I’m going to repay you for that tenfold.”
I watch in horror, still fighting my chains as my mate tries to lean out of the sunlight—the coveted sunlight she once loved and longed for—her chest rising and falling quickly as more beautiful skin begins to burn.
“I will kill you,” I cry, my black tears falling in hot, angry streaks. “I will kill you and Drusilla, every last member of the Counsel, and I—”
“You will watch as I take your entire world and burn it to the ground. Zephyr is simply the beginning.” Atticus grins like the fucker he is as he squeeze my face tighter. “Declan and Lydia, the owners of that club. I will keep you alive long enough to watch me kill everyone you care for and when I’ve had my fill of your despair, when you are broken beyond repair and nothing but a hollow shell…” He turns away from me as Zephyr screams, my gentle breeze succumbing to the pain as shestilltries to remain brave. “That’s when I shall finally kill you.”
“Zephyr, no! Please, please I’m begging you. Do not do this. Spare her! Please!”
My father laughs in my face and meets my eyes. “When have you ever known mercy from me,son?When have I ever shown you anything but how callus I can be?”
I break his stare and keep fighting the chains, desperately trying to get free while I watch my mate suffer for my sins. And just as the sunlight engulfs the entire left side of her body, Zephyr’s eyes pop open and fix to mine.
“I love you.”Her voice in my head is the sweetest sound, one that both breaks my heart and uplifts it.“I love you, Wraith. Until the very end…”
She screams again, one of pure agony as I watch her left arm catch fire and whether it’s the adrenaline caused by fear and my need to protect her, or my mate’s words and the strength she was able to send me through them, I do not know, but with one hard yank and a feral roar, I break the chains on my right arm and immediately grab my father by the throat.
“Stop this,” I growl in his face as it begins to turn red. “Stop. This. Now.”
I see his guards scrambling toward us, hear them yelling for me to release the High Elder but just as I’m about to tell them they’ll have to pry his lifeless body from my cold, dead hands, all hell breaks loose in the arena.
Several areas of the stone wall explode in sync, the iron doors behind me doing the same, and when my head whips toward them I feel a sadistic grin tug at my lips.
Declan and Lydia, Orion and Aries, Edith and Ester, dozens upon dozens of my followers—my friends—come charging through the rubble, weapons firing at will while they chant and bellowDeath to the Counsel! Long live Kadoc! Wraith of Carmarthen reigns!
I quickly turn back to my mate, my gentle breeze crying and screaming in agony as the opening in the ceiling grows, as it widens in a way that will prevent anyone from freeing her, and that is when I snap.
Tapping into our bond and the strength that resides there, I lift my left arm and yank once, twice, three times before it’s free then both hands are around Atticus’s throat.
“Stop this at once. Call off your lapdog and save my mate while you can. Spare her and I will give you a swift death.”
My sire’s eyes begin to bulge as they bounce around the room, taking in the war that’s broken out as his men fight mine.
Bodies drop like stones, both sides racking up counts, bullets flying and blades clashing. The spectators scream and scramble for the exits but none of them are leaving here alive, not when they clearly support this bastard and his corrupt and disgusting government.
No one will be spared, everyone will pay.
A strangled cry comes from my gentle breeze and I watch in complete horror as more of her perfect body is destroyed by the very sun she loves so much.
No.
God, no, please.
Do not take her from me, do not let her suffer and pay for my centuries of sin.
Have mercy on her pure heart, her beautiful soul, and forgive her of her only fault. Take pity on her for loving me.
Please, spare my mate and take me instead.
Atticus starts to laugh as my panic grows, the realization that he is the only one who can save her a knife to my breaking heart.
