Grey III - Revelations

Chapter 48 - Crashing

Then my Pair gasped and clutched at his chest, stumbling back. But even with many feet between them I could see my Pair trying to pull further away. He was fighting being drawn in by some invisible force, like fighting gravity. The Collector's handsome face split into a wide smile at the flowing ichor, and he lifted one arm, his hand outstretched toward his son. I don't know if he somehow moved forward without me noticing or if James was pulled to him, it was almost like the world merely folded, making them nearer.

The Collector's grasp reached James, one hand at his throat and the other lifted to twist into his dark hair, hair that perfectly matched his own. As if that touch was enough to unravel my Twin, our leader, he dropped to his knees, sputtering and choking, with still more black running down his face. His chest began to convulse like something was trying to escape him, his body twitching, and my entire world came crashing down.

This was a waking nightmare. Every worst dream, thought, outcome I had ever imagined was playing out before my eyes. Even all of us together wasn't enough. And the most discouraging part - we weren't even close. This wasn't even a challenge for James' father, for a true Angel, fallen or not. But I would be damned if he put his hands on James ever again. The fear in every line of my Pair's body hurt me, the panic I could feel emanating from his mind shattered something in me.

I shot forward with renewed rage, but everything was too slow, I was too slow, like this was a real nightmare and my steps were dragging through heavy water. I wished I could wake up, but I remembered arriving, I remembered the whole day, afternoon, evening. This was real, and nothing scared me more than that.

Before I so much as halved the distance to the Collector, he lifted James like he was nothing more than a doll, his hand still wrapped around his neck in a steel vice, knuckles white against my Pair's golden skin. His other hand was now free, arm cocked back, fingers rigid and pointed at James, curving like he was drawing something from him, or pushing some unseen force into him. James' feet dangled only a couple of inches above the matted, dead grass, his hands clawing at his father's. But then he stilled, frozen, and the whole of his body tensed. His legs twitched as his black eyes flickered to their midnight navy before rolling back and showing whites as he continued to jerk in his father's grasp.

Our minds were close enough, connected enough, that even though I wasn't currently in his thoughts, some part of my Gift felt his mind reaching for me, and I instinctively grabbed it. I had thought I already felt his fear, the deep-cut terror at facing his father again, his anger and desperation, but that had merely been a pale, foggy silhouette of what he truly felt. Now, as his mind was open and unfettered, as he was barely conscious in his father's hold, I felt the full force of his emotions like heavy, icy waves. Each one rolled over me, pushing me down just as I tried to break the surface and gasp air. The cold touch of each emotion stopped my muscles and slowed my mind.

But the fear and need wasn't the worst of it, because next I felt what his body was feeling, the current coursing through him. This wasn't the pleasant burn of our connection, the 'sting' as he had once called it. This wasn't the current I loved because it was from James. No. This feeling was volts through a live wire meant to incapacitate, to torture and punish. To control. To break. And then James' rigid muscles made sense, the twitch of his legs, the whites of his empty eyes, jaw locked like he might shatter his own teeth. His father was using his power, but nothing like before, not the bolts I could see and divert with my own Sign. This was more akin to when James or Malachi pulled their heat without the flames, an invisible power. And this - this I didn't know how to stop or block.

With how slow my mind was, how frozen it was by James' fear, his pain and panic filling and flooding me, I couldn't do anything. So, I did what I had to. I shut him out, pulling my mind from his, severing our connection so I could think clearly again, so the fog would leave my mind. Immediately, the haze of fear, of desperation and his father's current all began to dissipate. James made a sound then, something like a whimper, but soon it grew until it was a groan, low and long and ground out between still-clenched teeth. The noise was joined by a baritone laughter, the perfect complementing sound for a sick, sadistic orchestra as his father threw his head back in a booming laugh.

But I was only a hair from him, my knives less than an inch away, and I was moving so fast, I had such power behind me. Let him laugh, let him think he'd won, showing his neck like it begged to be slit, let him be distracted by my Pair's pain and fear. Let him die by his own arrogance. Because I would save James, I would save the man who had unknowingly saved me from a life I hated, a world I hated. I would deliver him from his father once and for all. I would pierce straight through that monster, so that James would never have to be afraid again, never be hurt again. And soon, even the memories of his past, the trauma and torture he had lived through and grown from, the guilt he carried, soon even that would fade away and he would only know comfort and love and peace.

Just as my blades swiped, just as they broke the space that the Collector's exposed throat was - I met only air, air that should have held resistance, blood, victory. I was so close, I was there, I could feel the remnants of his power still lingering in the hollow air. But instead of a spray of warm gore and glory, suddenly James and his father were yards away, out of reach, disappearing from in front of me and reappearing further in the same moment. Stepping out of existence and then blinking back again as if distance and space and time didn't matter, like they didn't hold any laws for the being before me.

I felt my head tilt in confusion, my face slacken from its bared-teeth snarl. And then the blood drained from my face, my neck and shoulders and chest, falling all the way down through my feet and into the cold earth, draining away as a sheet of icy horror covered me. He was never within arm's reach, never had been, not unless he wanted to be, not unless it was to reach us. We weren't chasing him, attacking him, we were going to him, no different than willingly offering ourselves up. And now he had James. And I wouldn't be able to reach him unless he wanted me to.

His father hadn't emerged from the tree line, walking out onto the grounds from the shadows. He hadn't used a portal from the magic of some mage like we had. He had simply appeared. His entire host had simply appeared. They had existed in a space one moment that they hadn't been a second earlier as if it was the easiest thing. Because it was. Because he could. He had that power and could be anywhere, everywhere. Which meant I couldn't get to him, I never could. And now, I couldn't get to my Pair either.

I felt the dread show on my face as my eyes met the Collector's across the space. As I realized the true depth of the chasm between us. Between our skills, our powers, our plans. But mainly, the very real physical chasm between myself and my Pair. The space may have only been a few yards, but that didn't matter, it might as well have been the whole expanse of the sky, the width of the sea. And whether I could cross one yard or ten, I still couldn't touch the stars, I still couldn't jump the ocean. The Collector could put any distance between us, at any time. My dreams and prophesies should have shown me as much, how he was always just out of my reach, always just beyond my outstretched hands.

But now, instead of my valiant thoughts of moments earlier, of protecting James from ever having his father touch him again, hurt him and control him again. Instead, a very real alternative was solidifying behind my eyes - a future where only his father ever touched him, one where I never felt him or spoke to him or saw him again. His father could disappear before my eyes and go back to wherever he had been hiding this whole time, and I would never find my Pair, never see him again.

I couldn't think of any worse fate. But then again, I never was very creative...

*EDIT: Heyo! I added part 1 & part 2 together! Same stuff - just all in one (:

Next chapter is the last of Book 3 - and I do love a shocking end. If any of you read the end & are in need of some answers or spoilers - message me with whatever you need. Book 4 is already all planned out, just, only in my head, so I can fill in any gaps you have if you don't want to wait.

I'll edit Book 3 after I post the last chapter. So Book 4 might be a minute away yet.

*update 3/16: book three is edited. So if you see an error, comment it so I can fix it in case I missed it.

*January '22 update: Book 3 is edited again! Mainly so I can get my head wrapped around Book 4 and get back into it - since I'm back in South Korea & I like to think of this as my writing time. Even though I'm busy as hell 😬

Much love!
T