The Ouiums Journey: Hell Broke Loose (book 1)

Chapter 33

As the world spun around me, I stood up slowly, ignoring the pain and numbness, holding onto my arm where it hit the fence. It hurt like hell and might've been dislocated, so I used a quick healing spell to ease it.

Clueless about what was going to happen, my only thought was to conserve my powers in the case the worst came. My head was killing me, the pain centring on the sides of my forehead and crossing both sides to the back.

This should give me the boost I need for what's coming. The Ouium genome is working like crazy, sucking all the dark energy in massive amounts. I need to control it.

I lifted my eyes slowly, adjusting as the migraine forced me to squint repeatedly. At last, the focus returned to my sight, and my heart skipped a few beats. I gasped, suffocating for air when panic wriggled through me, cutting into my stomach.

In the centre of the stadium sat a man as if on a throne, one leg over the other, resting one arm mid-air as the other held the glass of whiskey left behind by Akin. Even as he sat barefoot, he wore a luxurious white silk suit with an undone tie hanging around his neck. A matching linen button-up shirt was tucked inside long, tailored, formal white trousers fastened loosely by a silver-studded belt with a buckle to match.

A figure out of my worst nightmares. The devil himself, sitting on his throne wearing a cynical, yet condescending expression as he glared my way. Long black toenails were playfully bouncing up and down, twiddling freely in the open air. Tanned skin, slightly reddish and smooth. His head hung back just enough to let the long black hair sag like a mantle for his scalp, making smoke rings in the air from the lit cigar he held with his other hand.

I wished never to see you again, yet here we are.

I stood watching him, paralysed, looking at the scar running down his forehead to his right eye, pitch black, empty apart from a spark of fire. He was smiling silently in triumph, measuring me.

"I fail to understand this... obsession... you mortal beings have with earthly objects." He looked back at the glass and cigar, smiling again full-heartedly. "Have this, get that. Indulging oneself, succumbing to whatever poison you choose to kill you. When they die? They come to me for all eternity." He lifted both hands high theatrically and laughed at the world. "It's the same as saying let us kill ourselves and be sent to Hell, and get tortured for the rest of eternity."

His words echoed loudly in the stadium like a roaring fire, engulfing everything, vibrating the air and shaking me to my very core.

Breathe Esa. Do not let him get to you. Where is Skylar? Yes, focus on him.

"Those who get the best of luck come to me for real quality time." He shifted his eyes back to me with a playful wink, taking another sip from the whiskey and exhaled tastefully. "You know, Esa, Akin worshipped me for so very long. Calling me, as I sent him visions in the form of dreams. All along thinking I was guiding him for something grand, something Avant-garde." He chuckled sinisterly and took another taste of the cigar. "A poor choice as he forgot what I am—unlike you, my dear Esa."

"Thegon..." I whispered through the immense pain in my chest, eyes locked on him as prey would with a hunter. His grin widened, and he played with the whiskey glass, using his finger to circle the top.

"In the flesh," he said with a slight bow, and then he straightened up. "I have been waiting for this business trip for quite some time now, my dear boy. Come now, don't be shy." He flicked his cigar hand forward, and my body floated, pulling itself through the air towards him until it abruptly stopped, sat in mid-air before him, and a glass of whiskey manifested in my hand. "Don't be so rude, come and drink with me. It's a celebration."