40. Dexter

40

DEXTER

I woke with an abrupt and violent searing pain down my face. The sting of the laceration shattered the remnants of my sleep as I jolted up in bed to face my parents.

Fuck.

I’d forgotten to put the charm Hunter gave me back on after my shower.

The gold chain bracelet with the enchanted X charm on it that would’ve hidden me from my parents lay abandoned on my nightstand.

Poppy and Rod Shadowheart stood at the edge of my bed, their faces twisted with fury. The icy anger in their eyes sent a chill of absolute fucking dread down my spine.

Mother’s inky shadows encased us, the room around me shifted and twisted, plunging us into a whirlwind of darkness I couldn’t control.

Her magic scattered, and I realized we were at Sunstone Revive. The sacred gem glowed faintly in the night. The air was thick with a dark energy, but the stone beneath us radiated warmth. I pushed up off the sunstone’s surface and took a couple of stumbling steps back.

My mind was still fogged by sleep. There was no moon in the sky, so the only light was the glow from the sunstone.

“Why haven’t you completed the dark magic ritual?” Rod spat, his voice dripping with irritation.

I loathed this man…my father, but Mother was almost worse with the way she seemed bored with every little thing that happened.

My pain bored her.

Before I could form a single excuse, Mother’s shadow tendril clamped around my wrist with a scalding vise-like grip. The scent of burning flesh hit my nose. It tightened through my skin and to the bone, forcing me to my knees.

“Do it now,” Poppy commanded before yawning. She ran a hand through her blood-stained white blonde hair.

What had they been doing for her hair to be blood-stained?

I was thrown to the ground, my hands flattening against the smooth stone that had saved my mate once…

“I…can’t.”

“You won’t ?” Rod pulled out a small vial with dark magic swirling inside of it ominously. “You will do as we say, Dexter. You are our blood.”

I barely had a moment to comprehend what was happening before Poppy’s shadow tendril struck me, slashing across my back. It ripped my skin open and tore my shirt off my body.

A fiery line of agony stole my breath, and then, Rod went behind me. “Don’t think we don’t know about that charm your counselor gave you. We have intel in the academy, Dexter. We knew exactly where your new room was right after you moved.”

“Who?” My breath caught as pain slithered through me.

The vial of dark magic shattered against my wound, glass shards embedding themselves into my flesh.

Rod cackled. “As if we’d give up our inside source.”

Dark magic mingled with my blood, an invasive, suffocating force that made my skin crawl.

My parents watched with cold detachment as the ritual began to take hold, but all I could think of was that Pandora had purged me of dark magic once before…I’d finally begun to think clearly.

The shadows around me came alive, writhing and twisting as they fed on the dark magic. My mind fell into despair again, and everything became fucking wild once again as the dark magic coursed through my veins.

“You’re not worthy of being initiated into Dark Veil,” Poppy drawled, “but you are a good enough lab rat.”

The agony of the shadow ritual and the dark magic invading my soul and mind brought back flashbacks of them killing my sister. My heart felt like it was carved from my chest as I remembered her eyes locked onto mine before her head rolled.

Pain reminded me of her— of Selene. It was the entire reason I feared it. Since her head wouldn’t go back on, they cut my head off instead.

My head fused back, but my sweet, kind sister’s didn’t. I didn’t understand the complexity of shadow demon anatomy or why we even could survive being decapitated when other demons couldn’t. More importantly, I couldn’t understand why her head hadn’t reattached. It wasn’t fair.

To my parents, we were nothing more than tools to be used and discarded. I’d never forget that.

The pain was a twisted reminder of that horror, of my failure to save her. I might have only been six, but I knew how to control my shadows…mostly.

Her screams echoed in my mind, and the memory of her terrified eyes seared into my soul.

“I’ll listen—” I choked up blood. “I promise I’ll listen—just stop,” I gasped out, the words barely coherent through my pain.

Their torment was unbearable, and my mind slipped further into the darkness. Dark magic swelled around me as if it was coming from the sunstone itself. I was knee-deep in gooey dark magic, and Poppy’s shadows continued to slice into me as my shadows formed more dark magic from the Veil.

“Dex!” Pandora’s voice pierced through the haze, her scream echoing in my mind like a beacon of light that I knew wasn’t there.

Her presence would be a stark contrast to the cold brutality of my parents, but a fucking welcomed one.

The pain came to an abrupt stop.

“She’s interesting,” Rod murmured, his gaze softening as he looked in the direction of my mate.

Poppy’s shadow sliced him across the face. “She needs to convert, but you will not interfere.”

Then, they vanished…their forms dissolving into the shadows just as they’d come.

I blinked the tears away until I could see.

She was there. I wasn’t hallucinating.

Pandora's dark smoke poured from her lips and enveloped the sunstone, consuming the dark magic that was covering it.

Her power slipped past my lips, and I welcomed it. It cleansed the dark magic inside of me completely before retreating back into her.

She stumbled forward and fell to her knees, her eyes wide with horror as she took in my state. “Dex,” she rasped, her voice trembling. “What have they done to you?”

“What about you?” I trembled, sucking in a deep breath and relishing in the fact that my mind was no longer clouded by dark magic. “Are you okay?”

“I’m more worried about you.” Gently, she reached out and wrapped her arms around me, her warmth a much fucking needed balm to my tormented soul.

Something in me broke as she held me in her arms.

I hugged her back, tucking my face into the nape of her neck as sobs wrecked me. My tears soaked her hair, but the pain, the fear, the guilt—all of it poured out. I couldn’t fucking stop crying on her.

The way my soul lurched toward hers was intense in a way I’d never felt before—I fucking needed her.

“I’m sorry, Pandora, I’m so sorry,” I kept repeating, my voice nothing but a whisper. “I’m so sorry.”

I had wanted to be the council’s inside man for her, but to my parents, I wasn’t even worthy of joining their fucking cult. I’d only ever be just a lab rat—their disposable asset.

Hunter and Reed found us at the same time, and I knew Pandora’s emotions through the bond they shared had called them to her. They must’ve felt her panic. Apparently, she’d been out for a walk when she found me.

Time blurred as we went to Hunter’s room in the faculty wing.

Every step there was a struggle, my body weak and trembling from the entire fucking thing. Sunstone Revive had healed me physically, but the soul-deep pain made it hard to fucking breathe.

Both Hunter and Reed kept looking at me, and Pandora’s arm was wound around mine as we walked.

When we finally reached his room, the tension in my shoulders eased slightly, though my mind remained a whirlwind of anxiety.

“Take a shower.” Hunter nodded toward his bathroom.

I didn’t respond as I went in and shut the door behind me.

The silence was fucking heavy as I stripped off my bloodied pants and boxers. I didn’t even bother picking up the tatters of my shirt when we’d left.

As soon as I turned on the shower to hot, steam filled the air. I stepped under the scalding water, hoping it would wash away the pain. The heat did little to soothe my soul, though it did clean the blood from my skin.

I had failed to deceive my parents and get initiated into their cult, but a part of me was relieved. Dark Veil had taken my sister away from me, and I couldn’t stand the thought of being initiated into the cult that destroyed her…and myself.

A knock on the door had my head turning.

Pandora entered and set down a change of clothes on the sink, her eyes cast down so she didn’t see me naked. “Hunter said you can wear these.”

I tried to muster a flirtatious smile, my voice cracking as I spoke. “Thanks, trouble. Aren’t you going to look at me and see what your mate looks like naked?”

“You don’t have to pretend with me, Dex,” she said softly, her gaze lifting to meet mine—but she didn’t look at my body. “You’re my fated mate, regardless of if I’ve forgiven you or not…I can’t stand seeing you hurt. I won’t let you be a pawn for Dark Veil. Hunter filled me in on what they wanted you to do.”

Her words cut through my remaining defenses. Her big red eyes, full of genuine concern and…something deeper, bore into me. It wasn’t anything I’d seen before.

She stepped closer, her hand resting on the counter. “You don’t have to do any of this alone. We’re in this together.”

The sincerity in her voice made my blackened heart clench, and I let out a shaky breath. “I don't know what to do, Pandora.”

“We'll figure it out together. I promise,” she murmured.

I nodded, unable to speak past the lump in my throat.

She gave me a small smile before leaving the room, giving me the space I needed to gather myself.

As the door closed behind her, I turned back to the shower, letting the water pour over me and wash away the remaining blood.

I leaned against the cool rock wall, and the steam swirled around me, mingling with the lingering shadows that clung to my skin. I closed my eyes, taking deep breaths to calm my racing heart.

Pandora Gravesend… she was trouble, sure, because she flipped my entire world upside down the moment I laid eyes on her. But more than that, she was my mate.

I began to scrub away the blood and grime. Pandora’s touch had been gentle when she’d found me, her words filled with genuine care .

She cared about me.

She had seen me at my fucking worst and didn’t turn away. Instead, she hugged me. My soul called out to hers in a desperate way. I needed her so fucking badly.

Once I was clean, I stepped out of the shower and wrapped a towel around my waist. I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror. My eyes were hollow, and dark circles marred the skin beneath them. The cuts on my back had already healed, though.

It was the emotional wounds that would take longer to fix…I just hoped Pandora wouldn’t mind being patient.