The Opelux and Other Monsters || Book One

CHAPTER 35 - ORION

Pharro grabbed my arm before I could follow. "No you don't! We have no idea what just happen. There is no way you're going anywhere near him until we get answers."

Heat burned in my hand. "You don't have a say in this," I said, and touched him with the Veehm.

He hissed and released me instantly, and I took off after Tritteon at a full sprint, knowing perfectly well Pharro wouldn't follow because the room needed guarding.

I heard him swear loudly as I burst through the doors. "Half stay here!" I yelled at the guards, not slowing. "Half with me!" I spotted Tritteon darting through the portal door and threw out a hand, grabbing it with my Thet before it closed, and slid through to find Tritteon racing down a familiar hallway.

"Tritteon!"

He didn't turn or respond in any way.

So I focused my Thet, threw it, and tripped him.

He hit the ground hard, and I caught up to him quickly, jumped on top of him, pinned him to the ground with Thet, and surrounded us in a shield.

"What just happened?" I yelled.

"Daniel," he snarled, his eyes black, blue-black scales erupting across his powerful arms. I felt his chest harden substantially beneath me and knew those scales were spreading there as well. "I know what his Poeir feels like. The traitor is him."

I hissed out a curse. "Why would he try to help me then? What could he have gained by—"

"Time?"

"If anything, everything he's done so far only brought us to this conclusion faster."

"Then maybe he wants all this to be over with sooner. I really don't care why. I'm going to kill him."

I glanced up and down the hallway. "Tritteon, if he really is the Vek, we could save the others by capturing him alive."

His scales bristled. "If I catch him, I'm going to tear his head from his body."

"I promised them I'd do everything in my power to prove their innocence."

"Then you're an idiot."

"You're just going to give up on them?"

"They're a hopeless cause. There's no possible way the Creea will take their case seriously."

"We have to try."

"I won't miss my chance to end him on a fools hope."

My Thet shuddered. And then Tritteon's black eyes flashed solid gold and my Veehm holding him down shattered. He threw me off, slamming my back against the floor, knocking the air out of me, and pinned me by my neck.

"Help me or stay out of my way," he growled, his voice so deep and guttural his body rumbled with the words.

"Please," I choked. "They don't deserve to die for what he did."

"They'll die regardless."

"We have to try."

"No. We don't."

And he bolted over me, straight through my shield. It shattered across his back as he raced toward the double-doors at the end of the hallway, doors I instantly recognized because I'd visited Daniel earlier today.

The only difference between then and now was that no guards stood on this floor like they should have been.

I shoved to my feet and barreled after him. The idiot was going to get himself killed. And I wasn't going to catch up to him in time to go in together.

I threw a new burst of Thet half a second before he slammed into the doors, the wood splintering beneath the force of his body—

And the world exploded.

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