29. Twenty-Nine

I fucking hate leaving her. It's a bane to my soul.

Corentin's new rule of none of us going anywhere alone is the whole reason I'm having to leave her and accompany Draken. I'd much rather stalk her from the shadows while she enjoys her alone time with her Perfecta Anima.

I understand his reasoning, although I highly doubt there will be any trouble Draken could get into checking on the comatose kid and his parents or transporting some of the shifters to the Central prison.

Walking through the halls of Rebel Castle is a nightmare. The whimpering and crying from the shifters grate on every nerve I have. Plus, the attention seeking and sucking up the shifter E.F. members do to Draken is unbearably annoying. His cheeriness, talkativeness are the only kind I can deal with.

Sometimes.

I swear to fuck, he could tell them, not command, just tell them, to get on their knees, suck him off right here and now, and they would. No questions asked.

My little Primary would bite their heads off.

The thought makes my lip twitch. Thinking about how possessive she is over us has my dick growing painfully in my pants.

Fuck, that warm little body just pressed up against mine. How perfect she'd look strung up by my shadows…

"You're thinking about my little wanderer, aren't you?" Draken's loud-ass mouth says, cutting off my little fantasy.

"Let's get this over with so we can get back to the academy," I say, ignoring his words completely.

"Oh, come on, you can tell me. I think about her all the time. Fuck, yesterday was amazing. The way she—"

"Enough, Draken. I was there, you don't have to recount the events for me. Now move," I tell him, giving his shoulder a shove to get his ass moving toward Layton's room.

Of course all his words do is cause more images of her to come to mind. After her little show yesterday, I had to take a shower and get myself off three times before my dick would finally get the picture.

This feeling, the overwhelming thoughts, the need for her, was the exact reason I didn't want a Primary. The power she holds over me is so much. And I doubt my sweet little Primary even realizes the amount of control she wields over us.

Not that she'd take advantage even if she did. I know that. It's not in her to manipulate someone she cares about.

I'm not good like her, though.

Just as she has power over us, we have power over her. And I have all the intentions of using that to my advantage. I want her to feel as out of control around me as I am with her. I want her full-body shivers, heated come fuck me eyes. I want her to be as obsessed with me as I am with her.

Draken's bee-bopping and humming draw me out of my mind, and I roll my eyes at his giddiness. All day every day. It's mind-boggling.

Coming up to the room Layton and his parents are staying in, Draken presses his hand to the panel, opening it for us. The room is huge since we upgraded them again when his parents asked if they could stay here with him.

Well, really, their options were we'll bring you here once a month to check on him, unless his condition takes a turn for the worse or you stay. We've got too much going on to assign a detail to escort them to and from here every day.

"Draken. Caspian," the mom says as soon as we walk in.

"Mrs. Sira, how is he? Any changes?" Draken asks, even though he isn't a damn doctor, so her answer really doesn't matter.

"No, no changes. Have you all figured out a way to help him?" She sniffles out.

"We're working on it, I promise. We brought you some information on Vito Academy to look over. Corentin thinks it's going to be best when he's better to start attending the academy early. Also, Vince, the shifter instructor, is going to come out here to meet with all of you soon," Draken tells them all happily. I know he's trying his best to cheer them up, give them something to distract them from just staring at their son.

I lean my back against the wall and cross my arms, giving them some space to chat this out. We were only supposed to make sure nothing crazy had happened with the kid and give the parents the info on the academy, but Draken just can't help falling into all kinds of conversations.

My patience only lasts a few minutes before I clear my throat to get his attention and nod toward the door. The faster we move these fuckers, the faster we get back to her.

"We'll see you all in a few more days. If you need anything, let Blaze or Codi know," Draken says, waving as we walk out the door.

"It wouldn't kill you to be more friendly," he tells me after the panel shuts back.

"I was friendly," I argue.

"You didn't speak a word. They're scared and overwhelmed over their kid. They just want some reassurance."

"And they got that from you. I'm not about to contribute to getting their hopes up for possibly nothing," I bite back.

I don't mean to sound so harsh, but it's the truth. We have no clue if we'll find a way to remove his rune before the barrier Aria put in place fails and the kid dies.

"We'll find a way, Caspian," Draken growls, defensive over the kid.

I want badly to tell him off, tell him to get fucking real, but I know he's searching for some light. Anytime Draken finds a kid with loving parents, it pulls at those heartstrings of his that are still attached to the desperate child living inside him. So instead, I just sigh and grip his shoulder.

"Come on. We need to round up the trash we're taking out."

He huffs but doesn't argue anymore.

Walking back down to the second floor, Codi, Blaze, and a few other E.F. members from the palace are waiting for us. Between the six of us, we should get these fuckers moved in no time.

Since the vilest, and what would've been most helpful of the offenders, are dead, all we have left are bottom feeders. If we haven't interrogated them yet, they'll stay. If we have, they'll go.

If it were up to me, all of them would die, no matter the level of involvement, but no, sweet mother dearest doesn't believe that is right. Those with less association will be tried fairly. Blah, blah, fucking blah.

Pulling out my communicator to verify the list of names once more, even though I have every last fucker memorized, my heart stops beating.

Twenty-four missed calls in the last three minutes.

Panic grips me as I call Corentin back. Mentally ordering him to pick the fucking thing up.

One ring. Two rings. Three rings.

I hang up and do it again.

One ring. Two rings…

"Why the fuck haven't you been answering?" he screams down the line the second he answers.

My darkness swells to the surface instantly. The tone of his voice is one I've only heard very few times in my life.

He's completely lost control.

"What's wrong?" I ask. Reaching out, I snatch Draken back to me by the collar of his shirt and start marching down the hall.

"Get back here now. They're attacking the academy," he shouts before hanging up.

The water in my veins freeze. Then melts away by the rage boiling through me.

"Palace team to the academy now. The Mastery's broken through the wards. Codi and Blaze, full fucking lockdown. No one in or out when we leave. Draken," I order and everyone starts moving their asses.

My sight blurs as my shadows creep out of every pore in my body, preparing for the battle we're about to enter.

These fuckers. Constantly, constantly. They believe they can take, touch, and destroy what is mine.

They learn today.

Snatching Draken closer to me, I transport us out with no warning. From the anger vibrating from his body, he doesn't need a warning. He needs to be let loose.

That's right, dragon. Fuel the fire.

Stepping out of the transport, my senses are assaulted with the chaos unfolding in front of me. The air is crackling with energy, tinged with the scent of all the elements colliding, and the metallic tang of blood fills the open, ruined space.

Massive craters dot the training field. The normally shiny green grass is seared black and stained red. Smoke is bellowing everywhere, but yet the gym is untouched. I see the shimmering haze of an enchantment around it. I don't know if it's our enchantment or theirs.

Me and Draken spot a glowing figure right smack in the center of the fucking ruin, and we take off toward him.

When Draken partially shifts and releases a ground-quaking roar, I call on my shadows and use the cover of bodies to move myself all the way to Corentin's side.

"How the fuck did this happen? Where's Tillman?" I shout, releasing waves and waves of water on the fuckers surrounding him.

"Fuck if I know. They broke through right after you left. It took them seconds to get through the wards and pile in. He's trying to make his way to the students. They have them corralled in a shield."

"Where is our Primary?" I growl when I notice she isn't beside either of them.

"The command room. Ry is in there with a slew of the new arrivals."

Fuck, okay, so our enchantment.

The students are being horded like cattle in a makeshift dome, surrounded by six shields pumping their gifts out to keep them trapped in there together. Every student they can get their hands on gets thrown through the shield with the others, then the pest comes right back into the fight, searching for another.

A screech to my right draws my attention to a burly fucker lifting a girl right off the ground by her neck.

Casting a net of shadows around him, I slice through his body in at least a hundred different spots, leaving him nothing but a pile of bloody bits. Sucks for the girl who just plopped right down in the gruesome mess, but at least she's not dead or captured.

Commanding them out to find their next sorry sap, a whistle pierces through the air, loud enough all heads turn toward the gym, and I stop my shadows' pursuit.

Suddenly, as if that was some sort of signal, the Mastery members drop everything they're doing, literally. E.F. members are released, students dumped on their asses. The dome fades away, leaving those who were trapped in a heaping pile, trying to pull themselves back together.

"What the fuck just happened?" Draken asks as he runs to stand beside us.

I don't answer him.

Something isn't right. I can feel it down to my soul.

Something's wrong.

Mastery members begin transporting out, empty-handed. All around the training field, they just poof right out of existence.

"Something's definitely fucking wrong." Tillman huffs as he sprints up to us.

Glancing over at the gym, I catch sight of a man, not one of our men, stepping right through the enchantment.

No. NO.

"That's not our enchantment. They're in the gym," I shout, running full fucking force.

My arms pump just as hard and fast as my heart. Darkness covers every surface of my body. There are no shadows now in the open field between me and those doors, but still my power leaks out of me, searching for its light.

My Primary.

Crashing my body against the steel doors, they do nothing but blast me back. With all my power, I slam my magic into the enchantment, commanding that motherfucker to come down. I don't have to tell my brothers what to do. They know. They now feel it too.

It was a setup.

They're here for her.

"She's not letting me in. She's fucking blocking me out," Tillman yells.

"WILLOW," Draken bellows at the top of his lung as panic bleeds across every one of his features.

Calling his dragon to the surface, his blue flames cover his fist as he throws all he has at the barrier. There's no stopping him now. He's lost the reins on the beast inside. It's a miracle he's not fully shifted.

Corentin glows brighter than a full moon, shoving every bit of light he has forward. He's brighter than the day his gift emerged. There's so much light, all I can make out is the outline of his body.

Tillman stands taller than the highest peak in Terian. When he commands his magic out, the gym doors shake violently. A small fissure sizzles across the enchantment and we all push harder.

I command every shroud of darkness within me to slip through the crack and tear it to fucking rubble.

When I get through these doors, every man in there is dead.

An explosion has the doors flying inward and we pile through the opening as one. Corentin's light guides the way as my shadows cover us in darkness.

Through the black veil, my eyes seek out my soul. My reason for surviving. When I find her, my demons pounce.

For a millisecond, the world ceases to exist. There is nothing, no one. No light, no sound, no taste, or touch. There's nothing but black. That's all I see. Darkness. The void.

As clarity returns, my body and shadows are moving with no command from me.

Gripped in the hands of a fucking behemoth, my Primary has silent tears streaming down her face. Those tears…those tears are for us, not for herself. I see every emotion in those deadly silver eyes. Her demons are on the surface, reaching out to mine.

Primary.

"NO," I scream.

Time stops.

Ice blocks my throat, cutting off my windpipe. For a solid three seconds, nothing. My body does nothing but freezes. Staring at the spot she was just standing.

She's gone.

Breathe. Fight it. Fight it. FIGHT IT.

I lose.

The beat of my heart echoes in my ears, pounding viciously at the cage I've kept it locked in until it burst free from its imprisonment. My gift, the shadows that obey every command I cast, violently explode from my chest, wrapping the gym in pitch-black darkness. The only time they're ever reckless is when I tell them to be, or when it comes to her.

Her. Her. Her.

I search the darkness of my soul for her. For her light. I beg and plead for it to guide me back. But there's no light to be found. Just the demons waiting for me.

They'll kill her. There's no bringing her back.

She's strong. She'll fight until we find her.

There is no finding her.

She's gone. Gone, gone, gone.

They'll slice her up. Do as they please to her body.

There will be nothing left for you to find.

Should've taken better care of her. Protected her better.

On and on they taunt me, mock my fears, my failures. Our failure. We failed her. The answer is clear as day to me. This is what she saw. She knew this was coming. When I saw her darkness glaring back at me after her vision, it matched the darkness I saw moments ago. This was the reason why.

And we didn't stick closer to her. We left her alone in the command room.

Sensing my turmoil, my shadows swirl and coil themselves around me. Their movements mirroring the raging tsunami brewing within me.

"Caspian, rein it in," my brother's voice calls to me, but I ignore him. There's no reining it in.

A solid fucking punch lands across my jaw, knocking me off balance. By the time I right myself, fucking livid, he's standing there, just as pissed. He's a shining beacon of deadly light that nearly blinds me. Something about seeing Corentin so fucking out of control clears the cloud of anger and fear from my mind.

"He's losing his shit too. I'm not alone."

"Of course I'm losing my fucking shit. My Primary was just stolen, my brothers are out of their fucking minds, and no one seems to be able to pull themselves together but fucking me. So get yourself together right fucking now and call your darkness back," he bellows in my face. And it seems to snap me back to reality.

I obviously voiced my observation out loud, but the meltdown he's having currently and the cheap shot he took at me brings me back from the edge I was ready to dive right off of. I pull my shadows back in slowly, promising them retribution for what's been taken from us.

No giving in to the demons today.

Time to find my little Primary and kill every single person who dared look at her.

Now that my shadows are allowing light to filter back into the gym and I no longer have tunnel vision, the destruction in here is everywhere. The gym was never secure. It was under attack the entire time.

E.F. members are sprawled across the floor. I have no clue if they're all alive or not. Some are moving, twitching, some even sitting up, but there's no doubt, they got their asses handed to them.

"Fuck," Nikoli shouts from a few feet away from me before he, San, and Jamie sprint forward.

Damn, when the hell did they get in here?

Tillman and Corentin take off right behind them and I realize it's Ry's prone form lying out in front of the command room door.

At the sound of loud stomps approaching behind me, I turn around to see Draken stalking toward them. Full-on fucking predator mode. Glowing cobalt eyes and claws for hands. He obviously didn't take a punch to the face. Nor am I about to try that shit with him. By the look on his face, he'd slice my throat open first, apologize later.

Instead, I surprise the two of us by pulling him into a hug. I swear I feel his anger leak out of him and into me. Like it's finding its way home. He's not meant to carry the full weight of that emotion around, so I'll help him do it.

"Thanks," he grunts. When he pats me on the back, there are no sharp pricks, so I know his fingers are back to normal.

Jogging our way over to where the others are kneeling around a still unconscious Ry, Jamie has sweat dripping down his brow, concentrating hard and cussing under his breath.

The swelling is slowly fading from his face, but he's black and blue with blood still dripping out of him. He got the absolute fuck beat out of him today.

When he takes a gasping breath, sitting straight up, Jamie slumps to the floor and rests his arms on his knees, panting, while the other two in his Nexus hold him up.

"Fuck, where is she?" Ry chokes out, looking around the gym frantically.

"We don't know where Oakly is, Ry," Tillman tells him solemnly, squeezing his shoulder. No doubt those fuckers took her. Hate to say it, I won't say it out loud, but I'm a little glad my Primary isn't alone.

He continues to look around like a madman before clarity returns to his face, then crumbles. He lays a hand on Tillman's shoulder, and I swear the fucker looks like he's on the verge of crying. If he cries right now, I'll punch him in his fucked-up face.

"I know where Oakly is. Willow saved her. She saved me, all of us in here. She offered herself up if they left all the students and E.F. members. I'm so sorry, Tillman. I tried to stop them. I tried to talk her out of it, but she wouldn't hear it. Said that it had to be this way," he rambles.

I have to breathe through the emotions rising in me again. Thinking about it and hearing it confirmed are two totally different things. It's a blow to my head that I can't fucking handle.

Little Primary, why did you choose all of them? I told you to choose yourself.

"Where's Oakly? We need her to track Willow. Now," Corentin demands.

"Call Gaster. Willow said she's in the secret room," Ry informs us.

His fucking pocket dimension. Of course my Primary sent her there. No one can get to her there without the old man. She's fucking brilliant. No scum fucking Mastery member, even if they were to have followed her, would be able to get through any sort of security measure Gaster spelled.

You thought this through, didn't you, Primary?

You should've gone with her to that fucking room.

As Ry climbs to his feet, his Nexus embraces him the way brothers do. I know the feeling of almost losing a Nexus member. All of us do. We've put ourselves in a situation or two and it's fucking awful. But this feeling, the feeling of having half your soul not with you is so much worse. I'm not even bonded to her.

"Answer the fucking calls," Corentin shouts at the communicator.

He's about two seconds away from crushing the damn thing in his hand. Looking at my own, it's been nine minutes since I arrived.

Nine fucking minutes since I arrived, four since she's been gone.

The longer this takes, there's no telling what they're doing to her, where they're going, who has her.

The darkness teeters on the edge of my vision. Watching. Waiting.

I won't let it win this time, though.

No. This time, I'm going to use it to shroud this fucking realm in darkness until my Primary is back where she belongs.

Elementra help any who get in my fucking way.