Media is how I reckon Nerissa's eyes look throughout the majority of this chapter...
(and she probably usually looks that pissed off in general.)
The ground rumbles beneath our feet, and the earth around us quakes.
'No,' I say.
The Elysian King smiles, casting a knowing glance at our audience. Someone leans in to whisper in his ear, and he nods appreciatively. Their raucous laughter bubbles in my ears like sour champagne. His arrogance burns my skin, condescending and cold, and I'm sick-- Jefferson would say sick to death-- of it.
'No.' This time, my voice is quieter, but with a note of finality. I'm not saying no because I give up, that's what I want them to know.
Still, Chronus pays no heed. He turns to signal for more refreshment, parched by our head to head, but I step in front of the obliging servant.
'No.'
And the room rumbles this time, louder again. The servant stands still, glass ready to pass, and his mouth popping at my audacity.
At last, Chronus takes notice, even just to swat me away.
'I won, you fool,' he says, waving a dismissive hand. 'If you weren't in love with my brother you wouldn't have gotten here.'
His words make me glance instinctively towards the man in question, my husband. Hadrian's gaze is heavy across the room. I can't make out its meaning, but I know that it means a lot; I'm either being devoured by his gaze, or I'm about to be devoured by his temper.
I tear away my eyes from his, lifting my chin to level Chronus's.
'No,' I say once more, 'that's not true.'
The King's eyes narrow. Mentally, I swallow hard; he's a guy that doesn't like being beaten, let alone showed up.
I'm about to do both.
And I'm about to enjoy it.
'My feelings, as you correctly point out, are for your brother,' I take a predatory step, 'but it was not my feelings, but my actions which decided how this bet panned out. I chose to act on my feelings-- nobody chose that for me.'
Chronus sets his jaw. I see the logic forming behind my argument within his vicious eyes, the cogs of his mind trying to spin and turn the tables once more.
'I win your bet, you misogynistic bastard,' I say, and now I address the room. 'If you are truly the ruler of Elysium, you will honour our bet. Otherwise, how will your subjects trust you when I tell them how flippantly you decide our fates? How will they obey your rules, when you can't obey your own?'
Shuffling throughout the room causes a rising stir. Murmuring starts again, unabated by Chronus' chilling stare. The servant, still stood by Chronus, closes his mouth and looks at me properly for the first time. As though, instead of a girl, he's seeing a heroine.
Chronus shakes his head, stumbling. 'But without my brother...'
'I met and loved your brother before our bet,' I say coldly. Another rumble echoes down the halls-- I wonder if more guests are arriving, or if it's reinforcements for this big threat we pose Chronus.
Chronus tries once again to catch Hadrian's eye, but his brother is still staring at me, lost for words. Together, the two make a very gormless pair.
'Release me,' I say, and the ground rumbles again.
In that instant, Chronus's eyes meet mine. His eyes are dark, blank and pitiful, and I realise then that there's something envious about the way he looks at me.
And then the moment is gone, and the heavy band around my neck splinters and shatters into a million pieces.
Energy bubbles through me, coursing from the ground through my toes and upwards. My arms fly out to the sides and I turn, revelling in the feeling of electricity pounding through my veins.
There's something different about the room; the air seems cleaner, the sound sharper. I cock my head. The murmurs are now distinct, and I can make out a flow of conversation, rather than muffled sounds.
'...can't believe he's let her go.'
'...have you seen her eyes? They're glowing...'
'...do you think Hadrian loves her? He hasn't said anything! Wouldn't he have said something in her defense?'
Oddly, the words have no effect on me. I don't take them personally, but rather as facts, information piling up about my surroundings. My head turns again, and I hone my senses towards my legs, where I can feel a buzzing within my calves.
I take a step forwards, tentative. My legs feel weightless, but the movement eases the adrenaline that demands my legs to run, whilst somehow, I know that I have a lot more energy available to use.
'Nessa...'
The words meet my ears as a caress, and I know that they've only been muttered. I twist towards Hadrian, recognising the soft cadences of his voice, but finding that I move so quickly he jumps at my nearness. In my alert state, I see every smooth sweep of his skin, the flush on his cheeks, and the way his beautiful eyes are so unlike Chronus's. They're an intelligent, magnificent blue-- and before I realise it, I'm peering into his eyes and edging closer.
'Nessa,' he says again, taking a step away, 'Be careful-- it's a lot to take in. Maybe you should sit down...'
'Sit down?' even to my own ears, my words sound strange. When I hear laughter, it takes a few moments to realise that the gurgle came from my own throat. It's a light feeling-- it's a great feeling. I shake my head. Sitting down isn't an option.
But what is?
Turning, I survey the room as it moves in slow motion. My breath feels like a journey, coursing through my nose and into the depths of my lungs in my chest, and it's with clarity that I look upon the world.
The servant has resumed serving Chronus, but the King of Elysium is on his way out of his seat, departing for the evening. His followers are all moving slowly, clumping together into larger groups to gossip, and I move between them as though they are still as statues.
Mercer, I'm pleased to find, is leaning against one of the pillars. He panics as he feels me next to him, a whoosh of air as I sweep through the lines of people.
'Nerissa!' he cries, twitching, 'Where did you come from? You scared me!'
He talks so slowly; again, I cock my head to listen to his words, whilst keeping tabs on the conversations around me.
Why have I never done this before? It is so easy!
I cut Mercer off mid-sentence, because I suddenly know what I have to do. I've always been impulsive, but this feels different. It's impulsive, but I know I'm right. 'We have to go. It's time to hunt for Nate's killer.'
'I can't! I'm...properly dead!' Mercer's protest washes over me. I give him a grin.
'It's fine,' I reassure him. How am I so certain? It's as though there's no doubt in my mind how to help my friend. 'You don't even have a soul badge thing, you just need help getting back up the waterfall.'
'Back...up...' his hand goes limp as I grab his wrist and tug him forwards. Startled voices protest as we pick our way through the throne room at what feels like a snail's pace, and yet Mercer still flounders, slower still.
The more impatient I become, the quicker the world blurs around me. Soon, we're in the corridor outside of the main hall, and the conversations are a little more dulled. Footsteps behind us are quick, and I don't need to turn to see who they belong to. I know that pace. I know that step; a little arrogance mixed with a certainty of purpose.
King Hadrian follows me. I pull tighter on Mercer's hand, making him bite out a wail.
'Nerissa,' the boy cries, 'You're really freaking me out. Can we slow down? Where are you taking me?'
Was the walk outside always this far? I turn each corridor, knowing the route without recalling, and my feet silent as I sweep over the marble floors. Mosaics depicting Chronus's conquests and the Fates' predictions blur into one long tapestry that leads me back to the very beginning, marked by the front door of the palace.
'She won't slow,' Hadrian's voice is much louder, sharper. 'She's been reawakened to powers of a necromancer.'
'What does that mean?' Mercer's voice. We reach the edge of the palace, and I stop abruptly, tilting my head to hear the rush of noise.
Distant voices blend into one hum, but there's a stronger feeling: a powerful one. I can sense hundreds, thousands of balls of energy, all splayed out before me. If I'd felt power in the throne room, it was nothing to the source of power I felt before me. Just breathing the air let me taste the energy, and it sent a rumbling to my stomach as though I were hungry.
A hand touches my shoulder, and it overrides my other senses. Heat courses through those five fingers, sending shock waves of madness through my shoulder. Hadrian looks at me with concern, no idea the power that his hand on his shoulder has upon me.
'Ness,' he whispers.
With the roaring energy behind me in Elysium, and the honed senses I'm feeling only feeding my attraction, I rush towards him.
I'm fast, and I catch him off guard.
My attempt at a kiss draws blood, and I hear him swear.
Burning shame flies up within me-- what was I thinking?-- and I stumble backwards. The city catches my eye once more, and the waterfall beyond it.
That is all I need. I can now accomplish my task, and I can find whoever killed my brother and let him rest.
Or I could find my brother in Elysium and ask him.
My eyes scan the horizon, the ragged buildings that are an eclectic mix of future and past, of beauty and beast. Within them, thousands of those orbs of energy.
No, not orbs, I realise. Souls. It's with certainty that it comes to me, and I'd entirely overlooked the buzzing within the throne room as my own power rather than the people's around me. And behind me, Mercer has a soul too. I see it, churning within his entire being, flowing like silver around his veins. Because that's the colour of his soul; it's a clear, crystalline light.
And when I focus on it, I hear rushing water. Within that water, I hear snippets of his own being; the expectations his father placed upon him, the feeling of being trapped within a manor home, and meeting a girl-- I see an image of a guard, watching over him-- that meant more than any of the rules.
Rushing water is the force behind his soul, the love that broke all the preparations. His soul is so pure, I realise. He had told me that he'd passed the test of Chronus's, but it wasn't until now that I comprehended what that meant.
And yet, purity had gotten him nowhere. He's dead, and his sweetheart grieves him.
Two missions, I decide. One to save Nate, the other to save Mercer.
I grab his wrist again. 'Let me take you back to her,' I say, and his face splits with confusion.
'What are you talking--?'
I jump. Power surges through my legs, and I fly high into the air, Mercer screaming behind me. Not wanting him to fall away from me, I wrap my arms around him as we tilt, and I time the fall so that it's my legs that hit the rocks below. What seemed like a day's walk had brought us up here now took several minutes of me flinging myself, and Mercer, down the mountainside. Instead of shattering my legs, the impact only rumbles the ground below.
Mercer is sobbing. 'Nerissa, this is terrifying! Put me down!'
I laugh, and throw us up into the air again. 'It's not scary! Look!'
The city falls below us as we rise. Mercer peeks out from where his hands are covering his eyes at the city, Chronus's palace falling into the distance as I range further, landing on buildings. A high-rise apartment in the closest district, followed by a statue of Chronus in the second. The third I land on the perimeter walls, and the next in the middle of a market fountain.
The water that I hit spews in every direction, and I cackle.
After the fifth district, I hear Mercer retching.
'Nearly there!' I scream, and this time I run as I hit the ground for a few seconds before jumping again.
Vroomph, the wind rushes through my hair. It feels sensational, pulling at all the brown tangles and sending the strands streaming. Soon, I reach the outer perimeter of the final district, where that bitch of a woman had delegated where I should stay.
It might be my imagination, but I swear I land beside her shitty station, sending dust clouds across her.
Then I'm off, flying back out of those steps that took us down and down into Elysium, and I'm leaping past the guards that Hadrian had demanded clothes from.
I'm beyond them, and I'm at the waterfall.
Now, I see the souls passing through the waters as tiny orbs of light, glowing in hundreds of different colours. Like Mercer's, if I tune into them, I can sense each human before they reach the pool that will decide their fates.
My feet hit the soft earth by the pool, on the grass where I'd awoken. Now, I kick past it in a surge of triumph, travelling in the opposite direction to the streams of water. I rise higher and higher, feeling the salt spraying against my cheeks, until I see that gap in the rock and the waterfall where Hadrian's chamber lies.
I manage to grab the rocks above it, and swing inside.
Mercer is flung across the room; I can still hear him yelling and cursing me.
'You bi--!' Mercer begins, but he's moving with such momentum that he hits a bookcase, and winds himself. Gasping for breath, he just points and mouths insults.
My own arrival is much more graceful. My knees absorb the impact, and I straighten slowly. Now, to the next decision; Nate first, or take Mercer to find his girlfriend?
A splash decides for me. A dark shadow emerges behind us through the waterfall, and a drenched and angry Hadrian glares at me, his eyes glowing as brightly as my own.
'My wonderful wife,' the darker Hadrian croons, 'Surely you aren't going somewhere else? Hadrian really wants to know all about that declaration you made earlier.'
---
Unbeknownst to us both, my transformation had not gone unnoticed. A voice, long unheard, speaks up in anger.
'Who are you?' it says. 'How do you exist?'
---
So excited to have brought you this chapter! What do you think of Nessa's transformation, and their return home *finally*? And of course...the arrival of that dark side to Hadrian, and perhaps Nerissa has one of her own, judging from this chapter...?
Pleaseeee vote comment and let me know your thoughts!
And sorry again for a very late update, but hopefully will bring you another soon to make up for it....
lots
of
love
(AND CHRISTMAS WISHES!)
Larissa