The corridor outside was quiet, save for the shuffle of feet and the pulse in Halcyon's throat. But anger consumed him, scent deepening into its most unpleasant. Heat was boiling up his throat, sickeningly dangerous, an unfurling inferno.
How could he?
He moved through the halls, desperate to catch Dante, mood souring into something too manic. He knew that his Alpha was merely a metre or two ahead of him, deep in the bowels of his council. And so, his steps quickened; his body wired to believe that if he got to that bastard, he could right all wrongs. But Seraphim caught him by the wrist right before he could reach the last door, pulled hard enough to have him staggering back.
A snarl rippled free..
"You'll only make things worse," Seraphim said sharply, voice lashing into his flesh. "Stop whatever you're thinking of doing right now."
Halcyon turned, eyes wild. His mate's handsome face was stone-cold, devoid of its usual gentleness. The warmth he was so familiar with had been scrubbed clean from his cheeks. Seraphim was just as exhausted, just as infuriated by the situation. Hollowed by the situation. They'd all been forced apart to deal with worldly affairs. Thinking back, he hadn't seen his mates in days.
The thought scalded him.
Was that also a ploy by the Council?
The sudden influx of Lonely breaking all over his galaxies now seemed like a clever ruse. The hasty reports detailing her vitals, all glowing green on his desk, now seemed like the nastiest fucking scheme. He should have known that the trickles of leadership could cover things on the ground.
A better Halcyon would have swallowed down the surge of acrid hatred in his throat. But the Halcyon now wanted to pick fights; he wanted to throw punches. He wanted to sink his teeth into anything that stood in his way. He was buzzing with the need to attack something. Anything.
A growl started in his chest, vibrating like a storm.
"Fuck you," he snapped out.
His fingers closed into a clench, nails biting palms, breath coming out hot. His vision was all red. His mate. His Rue. His moon, trapped on an island, starving to fucking death while he stood in these halls dressed like a fucking peacock. And he could do nothing about it, absolutely nothing. That had anxiety spinning up his throat, clawing at his lungs.
Something within him was boiling him alive, had him pacing, anxiety running up his veins, digging into his throat. He couldn't sit still, couldn't eat, couldn't fucking breathe. Anything he swallowed down tasted like ash, clouded with a bitterness he didn't understand. How could he eat knowing that his Omega was suffering? Regret steamed from within.
Time, if only he could turn back time.
The concern was carved into his bones, settling hard in his gut, buried deep in his ribs. Rue. Rue. Rue. Each day, he awoke in a cold sweat, with an ache in his chest and a deep pain burning in his ankle. Phantom pain. Her pain. He felt fucking crazy; he felt like he was on fire; he felt like he was breaking apart, torn into bits, peeled layer by layer, leaving him raw and screaming. He was a creature turned rabid, eaten alive by his own thoughts.
Rue.
They said that she was dangerous. A Hera who had enthralled him. That what he felt was not real. That she was also just an Omega. Rue was a being that, if he were of sound mind, should not care for. And that was what his people said. The ministers. The scientists. The senators. Doctors. Researchers. Everyone.
But fuck that.
Fuck them.
Halcyon had always been more beast than man. His Alpha knew right and wrong. His instincts were sharper than anyone in his pack. It knew that Rue was not just some poison pumped into his veins. His body recognised her. Before his awakening, before he became an ares and not just an artemis, before all of this.
But he couldn't reveal his concern; he knew he couldn't show his weakness. They'd use it against him, call him compromised. They'd say that it was uncalled for. That it was not what he should have been feeling. That she had claimed his fucking brain, and he was now some fucked up Elder God thrall.
But fuck that, fuck those fucking words. He wanted to hear none of that shit.
Could a heart stop loving if it was already in love?
That thought chilled him to the bone, had fear bubbling up his throat, closing tight. Every time he tried to do something, they stopped him. Dante's men stopped him. Every spy he sent to One was turned back. Every soldier captured. Not even the insects he sent were spared, for even that fizzled through the barriers erected by the zeus, burnt to a fucking crisp before it could reach One.
He wanted only one thing.
The coordinates for her planet.
But every fucking attempt to break protocol had been obliterated.
They treated him like a child.
He was weak.
Powerless in the face of the Intergalactic Court.
And it burned.
He needed the seven, needed Dante. He needed numbers. He needed votes. And that knowledge, that knowing that he was useless, was awful. It made him feel like shit, almost as shitty as the days when he'd believed her dead. Inside, dragons roared and phoenixes burned.
Halcyon's voice was colder now, breath shaky despite the ice on his tongue. "Dante is letting them starve her. Dante is letting them kill her."
His mind worked, turned to Seraphim with a wounded growl.
"And you're doing nothing to fucking stop him."
He should find her, keep her safe. The heart of Four. How could they find her if she was drenched in his scent, deep within his beasts? How could they find her if she smelled like him and only him? His fantasies spun in his head, spiralled like cobwebs and silk.
Manic and crazed.
Claim.
Claim our mate.
Mine. Mine. Mine.
Ours.
Fuck.
He needed to find her, find that fucking unknown planet.
"I've tried," Seraphim hissed, fiercer this time. He had had enough of Halcyon's bullshit, and frustration now bled through his voice. "I've already tried."
"Try harder," Halcyon spat. "You know what? You're just like Dante. Weak." He waved his hands dismissively, trying to push past his lover. "Just another fucking pussy—"
Seraphim snapped, reached to grab Halcyon by the front of his shirt. The poseidon slammed him against the marble so hard, air wheezed from his lungs. Water now rose around them, a maelstrom whirlpool that sealed them off from prying eyes.
Halcyon inhaled sharply. The poseidon was now bubbling with poison, eyes glowing iridescent. Rage flavoured their collective scent. An unhinged gleam burned bright in Halcyon's gaze, a smirk on his lips. He wanted this. He wanted the violence, wanted to stir it all up, wanted to push them both to their limits.
He needed an ally.
"Fuck, you can be such a fucking brat," Seraphim snarled. "He just can't hear you," Seraphim hissed. "The drugs on him are different because he's pack Alpha."
"And so what?" Halcyon spat, breath hot in his face.
Another Halcyon would have found this hot, would have used the chance to trap Seraphim into hate-sex to quell their raging Ruts. But his dick was limp, too fucking distraught to even understand that most of his anger stemmed from a growing Rampage.
"He should be fighting, not walking around like a fucking corpse. He's a fucking SSS-class Esper—"
"He's drugged, for fuck's sake!" Seraphim snapped. "Same as Valentino. And it could be any of us if we stepped out of line. So stop acting like a deranged child, and start acting like the fucking Emperor you are—"
"HE'S OUR EMPEROR!" Halcyon roared; his voice bounced across the halls. "Are Emperors so easily muzzled? Are we so easily controlled?" His laughter erupted from him, incredulous and filled with mockery. "Pathetic."
He dragged Seraphim closer by the collar, lips curled into an ugly snarl.
"Those old fucks are using this as an excuse," he hissed. "They want us obedient, they want us quiet. They want to puppet us, drag us around like puppies. But the artemis of Four, we fight." His voice deepened into a growl, insanity rearing its head inside of him. Blood pounding in his ears, his beasts howled. "And I will kill them. I fucking will—"
The slap cracked across his cheeks, as fast as lightning, stinging on his flesh. Halcyon reeled back, cheek hot from the hit, eyes widening with shock before fury consumed him fully.
"SERAPHIM!"
"You only think with your stupid cock!" Seraphim screamed. "An uprising? Are you out of your fucking mind?"
Halcyon burned then, a sharp pinch of shame twisting through his throat. But that was a low blow coming from Seraphim. "I can do what I want," his voice dropped into a growl, monsters building within him. The ink on his skin began to swirl.
"Halcyon, think."
"I won't roll over like a bitch."
"This is bigger than Rue."
"This is us letting them," Halcyon inhaled before he roared, "WALKING ALL OVER US!"
"HALCYON!"
Seraphim's voice spiked. The water vortex was now shrieking, swirling violently around them. The droplets turned to blades that sliced at his flesh.
"Elder Gods are turning our people into their own undead soldiers. There are planets on fire. Galaxies of people dying. There is more at stake than Rue. There is a greater good we have to obey—"
"Greater good?" Halcyon threw back his head and laughed. "You of all people, talking about greater fucking good? Where the fuck are your waters now, Seraphim? You can't see the future now. You can't read your tides. Now that you don't know, now that you're like the rest of us, blind to the world and the way it turns. Seraphim, you're scared."
"And you are too fucking hot-headed," Seraphim shot back, finger to his chest. "What are you going to do? Charge in? Kill them all? Burn the Empire? Fucking overthrow Dante as head Alpha? Then what?"
Halcyon growled.
"These are the cards we have, the cards that we were dealt. And you know that the Seven's bloodline is at risk. That, despite how your pea brain thinks that it has to protect Rue. You know that it doesn't make any fucking sense. One Emperor mated to an Omega? Sure. An anomaly. Seven? That's fucking madness. We don't mate Omegas; we don't claim them. We just don't."
Seraphim scoffed then, shook his head.
"It's not right. It's not done. It's not going to help our blood. Emperors are also procreators. We need viable successors, dynastic stability. With two of the seven mated to Rue, the universe has every right to control us. And you know that."
"And so what?" Halcyon snapped, hating that Seraphim was right, hating that it was everything he'd been taught. Month ago, Halcyon would have agreed. The thought of claiming an Omega would have never crossed his mind. "We're going to just let them starve her? Let them fucking kill her?"
"No," Seraphim groaned, raking his fingers through his damp hair. "We fucking PLAN, you dipshit. We don't blow up in Court and reveal our fucking feelings. We don't show them how badly we're compromised." Seraphim gave him a look, stepped closer with an ugly sneer. "And unlike you, I've been trying to contact our mates, trying to find that fucking planet they've put her on. Unlike you, I've been keeping up with everything. So you should calm the fuck down, and listen."
Halcyon folded his arms then, a low snarl vibrating out of his chest. "Talk."
Seraphim's eyes were grim, but they softened considerably with his compliance. A sigh twisting free. "You're insufferable, is your Rampage that bad?"
"I'm listening."
Seraphim exhaled. "Despite what they say, Valentino's body is failing. His bonds are protesting their attempts to control him. They're drowning him in suppressants, pumping him with every fucking sedative that they can get their hands on. The eros are working overtime to numb his pain, but it's barely holding. The agony still leaks through. And they know that they're risking his life keeping her on that planet. They're pressed for time, and they need answers."
Halcyon stiffened. "What agony?"
"Just by staying on that planet, Cetus is burning her alive," Seraphim explained. "And Valentino through her because he's taking all that pain in for her, or at least, that's what Altair's assuming." Seraphim shrugged then. "We don't know why Valentino's the one hurting despite all the safeguards they've put in place to weaken her claim on him. The strength of it is…Alarming."
The words seemed to detonate in Halcyon's mind. His pulse spiking, vision blurring. Concern bloomed in his throat. Fuck.
"While Valentino's unconscious through it all, I've heard from Altair that he's also doing something. They can't keep him under all the time, no matter how many fucking Eros are singing him to sleep. He keeps clawing his way up when they're not looking and trying to find her. And Halcyon—" Seraphim's jaw clenched then, a tic throbbing at the edges. "For his sake, please don't make this worse."
"Obviously, we should call the experiment an utter failure," Halcyon snapped. "We should pull her out."
"They're not giving up," Seraphim answered. "They think we're close, and they'll wait for that limit."
Halcyon barked out a humourless laugh, but inside, he was storming. "What else can Valentino do? Send her fucking wet dreams?"
Seraphim scoffed. "He's communicating with her."
"Well, communication is useless," Halcyon slammed his hand against the wall, the stone rumbling. "They're clearly trying to kill her. Not just scare her or study her. Kill her. And right now, you're telling me that they don't even know if they're killing Valentino." He laughed. "We need to get her out of there."
"They're confident," Seraphim muttered, "that an Omega could never have such a hold on an Alpha." He shrugged. "And you're right, I can't see anything when it's related to her, and this whole thing is tied to her future. So, I don't fucking know," Seraphim scrubbed his hands over his face with a snarl, "if what they're doing is the biggest fucking mistake in the whole universe."
"Probably is."
Seraphim gave him a look.
Halcyon exhaled, pinched the bridge of his nose. "What is Altair doing?"
"Raising hell," Seraphim answered. "Trying to get his own dads to stop torturing Valentino in their basement. You don't know what it's like when family gets in the way."
Halcyon rolled his eyes. He'd have his own parents submitting to his Alpha if they even tried. "Tell me someone's working on getting onto the island, or at the very least finding the island."
Seraphim pointed towards the sky. "Kieran and Levi cannot see its location because of Cetus. But they've discovered that it's somewhere between the galaxies that sit behind the planets 46189 and 90642. But we can't intervene or search directly. Not yet. Not unless you want them monitoring us too."
"Did Valentino tell her?" Halcyon pressed. "To go below? Under the island?" The space under the island was a bit of a blind spot for surveillance. But really, it was just fresh water and a couple of edible marine creatures. The bare minimum for survival.
Seraphim paused at that, a hum in his throat. "He did."
"And?"
Seraphim sighed. "She knows, but she was…Upset."
Halcyon's voice cracked. "Of course she's upset. She doesn't know what the fuck's going on." He buried his face in his hands, cursing a storm. "Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. How the fuck did we get here?" He raised his head from his hands. "How is she?"
Seraphim exhaled. "I didn't want to tell you this. But aside from the burning air and the starvation, she's also…Hurt. Cetus attacked her." He pressed a tongue between his teeth, exhaling sharply.
Halcyon's blood turned to ice. "She touched the fucking monster?"
"It touched her, no, it poisoned her." Seraphim jaw tightened, and Halcyon's thoughts curdled. No. Fuck no.
"Why wasn't I told?"
"No one was told. I know this because I saw glimpses of it in my waters," Seraphim answered. "The reports ruled it out as an accident. Said that she was the one who tried to swim out towards Cetus. They assumed she would survive long enough with Valentino already taking away most of her pain. I failed to convince them otherwise, but they promised to take her out by the end of the week."
"By the end of the week?" Halcyon cried. "The poison is meant to kill. For fuck's sake, I don't even know if I can survive that venom for a week. And Valentino can't do anything but draw away her pain. Her body will fail." His eyes widened then. "They want it to. Oh God, Seraphim, they want her organs to fail—"
"I know!" Seraphim burst out. "Don't you think I know that? My hands—" he lifted them, fingers trembling "—are just as fucking tied as yours are." He sank back, sagged against the wall. "There's nothing we can do but wait. Something will happen eventually. They can't kill her, not yet."
"But she'll be broken," Halcyon said. The words burned in him, throbbed in his head. "Or so close to death that even we will struggle to save her." His rage ballooned. "And we don't even know where the fuck is she."
"I know. But there's nothing we can do." Despair shone in Seraphim's eyes. "And that's the truth."
A heartbeat. A long agonising silence. And then Halcyon lifted his gaze. "Are you sure there's nothing we can do?"
"Halcyon—"
"Are you sure?"
His mind was working in overdrive now, considering, thinking. His thoughts were racing, too fast for his tongue, instinct and memory crashing like waves over stone. There were ways, ways for an artemis to speak to his true mate. Forbidden methods. Ancient rituals. His eyes flickered the yellow orb of the moon, spilling cold light through the glass like a blade.
A connection.
A doorway.
A location.
A chill settled over him. His breath caught.
"As my true mate, she could use my dragon," Halcyon whispered, voice trembling as if fevered.
Seraphim stiffened. "What the hell are you talking about?"
"There were moments when she took my beast as her own," Halcyon said, his words tumbling out from him now, raw and urgent. "Weeks ago, she took my eyes. I didn't tell them. I couldn't."
Halcyon's thoughts flew.
"So what if I gave my dragon to her?"
His pulse raced.
"What if I willingly gave her control? Surrendered to her?"
Seraphim paled. "You can connect with her using your beasts?"
"I could try," Halcyon pressed. "My dragon responds to her. Follows her. Recognises her as Alpha. She was the catalyst for its awakening. So, if I just—if I push, maybe she could let me in."
"Don't be stupid," Seraphim waved his hand. "If Levi and Kieran can't find the planet. What makes you think you can?"
"Cetus hides her from their powers. But he can't hide my true mate from me."
Alarm twisted across Seraphim's features, his face steadily draining of colour. "Don't be fucking crazy. Cetus will kill you. You're far too strong; you cannot survive for long on that planet, mind, body and soul. Espers burn the brightest in the presence of Cetus. It will find you instantly. Your powers will draw it in like a beacon."
"Not," Halcyon said, voice low, "if she's under the island." He licked his lips, nervous but determined. "Not if I reach her first."
"Halcyon!" Seraphim cried.
But he wasn't listening anymore, dipping into the beasts within him, reaching for the bond. His Alpha roared, and he allowed it loose. He pressed his hands to the stone walls, closed his eyes, and breathed.
His dragon flew.
Beyond the walls, beyond the noise, through the threads of their bond. Our moon, he murmured. Our moon. His Alpha prowled beneath his skin, shifting, twisting and snarling. He reached. Past the palace. The cities. The planets. The galaxies. The universe.
Find her.
His body surged. Something twisted in his chest, a thread yanking him forward. He staggered, collapsing to his knees, nails digging into his flesh, hard enough to draw blood.
Find her.
He could hear Seraphim calling his name, and then he felt her. She was faint, flickering, trembling. A ghost of herself. A shudder rippled through him. It felt like she was before him, curled in his arms. And then she was inside him, and he was inside her. His Alpha howled, despair flooding him.
His chest seized, and a high, thin, keen slipped from between his teeth as Rue's agony seared through the bond. Her ribs felt cracked when he tried to breathe. Her skin felt raw when he shifted his weight. He tasted the copper of her bitten tongue, felt the sandpaper of dehydration on her lips. Her pulse was slippery in his ears. Discordant, frantic.
Dying.
For a dizzying moment, he was with her, his dragon was with her. The cold stone to his bleeding feet, dampness in his skin. The thinning air. The growing pain, blossoming in her bones, radiating hotter in her ankle. He was in her body, in the cave under the island; he was her.
He succeeded in one try.
He should have done it sooner.
"Rue," he gasped, his voice breaking, came out all strangled. "I'm here."
Seraphim's voice rose. "You've found her?"
"She's under the island—"
Seraphim was holding him now. "The coordinates, which stars? Which planet?"
Halcyon blinked. She was holding something. Something was warm. Something wet. Something that pulsed. Glimmered. His fingers shook, his wrists were bound. It was hurting her, holding her too tight. It pulled at her legs. His dragon thrashed, and yet it couldn't break free. It was so fucking strong and yet, it was stuck.
Why?
How?
"Rue," he gasped. The thing before her mirrored his exhales, shuddering, quaking. Growing. "Rue, where are you?"
"Focus, Halcyon!"
His brows furrowed. "24. 3. 6—"
And then it hit.
The world ignited, turned nuclear.
A shockwave dissipating. Stress growing, his heart rate racing to the skies. His Rampage rising. A convulsion tore down his spine, bending him forward. His lungs were contracting. His vision was snapping, two worlds blending. A cavern of darkness, and then a moon-drenched palace.
The moss. It dragged him, a deadly hook buried in the meat of his soul. It tore into his dragon, his beast roared. He felt her collapse into it, her vision spotting. The living walls pulsed harder, pounded violently, battered his senses until sparks erupted from behind his eyes.
His ears were ringing.
A scalpel descending.
He fucked up.
"HALCYON!"
Something screamed through the bond, a bellow like fire and the most ancient of hunger. And Halcyon was being dragged harder, dragged into it, swept into whatever the fuck was pulling him in. His hands clawed at the walls, fingers in the grit. But he didn't feel the pain.
He felt hers, rippling through him, tearing deep into his veins, his bones, his flesh, his marrow. His breath quickened. His body was gasping, and hers was wailing too. His chest seized. A scream escaped his throat as Rue's agony seared his every fibre. His thoughts turned static. The Alpha in him howled, battered at the bars of his flesh.
Something was wrong.
The moss.
It was so fucking strong.
"Halcyon!"
He convulsed, his veins searing with molten light. His body arched, blood bursting from his nose. The pain was more than pain. His lungs forgot how to breathe. He fell to his knees, choking, his stomach twisting until he vomited bile and blood. The smell of salt filled his nose. His skin steamed. His scream ripped through the hall.
The bond was violently ripped wide open.
His spirit howled, colliding, tangling, fusing. Awareness burned hot in his mind. The moss was all over them. The friction. The burn. And he was aware of her, so fucking aware. And also, of something else.
Something foreign.
"Stop!" Seraphim's voice slammed through the chaos, sharp and terrified. He was beside him in seconds, catching him as he convulsed. His waters flowed over his skin, swept over his face. "Halcyon! Look at me, you have to stop—"
But Halcyon's eyes were rolled white, his mouth open in a silent gasp as his pulse fluttered. Sweat poured down his back in rivulets. His dragon screamed. His blood boiled. Their pulses combined. He was being swallowed alive. "She's—" he coughed, spitting blood. "She's—Something's—"
"I told you to fucking STOP—"
"There's something else under the island," he wailed. "There's something wrong—"
"GUARDS! SECURITY! F-FUCK. DANTE! Stop, you're going to kill yourself. Cetus is going to kill you—"
"I—I-can't—" Halcyon rasped. "She's in trouble. It's not Cetus, IT'S NOT CETUS—"
His words flowed from him now, rapid, desperate, so quick that his tongue tangled over the syllables.
"Seraphim, Seraphim, they got her. They're there. They're already there. T-they were waiting for me. They were waiting for me—"
"HALCYON!"
And Halcyon knew no more.
*
Rue
Her hands were shaking.
The pain came in waves, rippling and twisting through her veins like a living, pulsating organ. The moss was spreading across the walls, stretching and throbbing, slick with lichen and tissue. A lattice network that stretched all over.
The walls seemed to breathe with her.
Each rise and fall of her chest matched the slow exhale of the cavern. She could see it moving, see the black-green threads reaching across the rock. Her head throbbed. Her skull was a hollow shell filled with the pounding of something that wanted in. The ache dug through the soft matter of her brain, deep down into bone.
Then came the sounds. Her name. An endless humming.
Rue. Rue. Rue.
The echo slithered through her mind like a fever dream, each repetition cracking another seam apart. She felt herself unravelling, the edges of her thoughts pulling apart thread by thread. The moss pulsed faster, reacting to the sound.
The pain in her ankle spiked.
She realised she was being swallowed alive.
She struggled. Panic was bubbling up her throat.
And then he was there.
Halcyon.
Hands on her face, hot and shaking. Her dragon.
"Rue," he breathed, and the way he said it scalded her. His voice trembled against her skin, molten and unreal. She wondered if this was madness. If he was really there, or if her dying mind had shaped him out of want. "Rue, where are you?"
I'm here. She wanted to say.
Pain and pleasure blurred into one. It seared through her. The world fractured. He was drifting in and out just as she was. Each time his awareness surfaced, words slipped through the cracks. Her body pulsed with strength, and heat roared through her veins. She thrashed. The moss collapsed, snapped, peeled.
And then something changed.
RUE.
Her name out loud, pounding. The vision of Halcyon vanished; something red trickled down her nose. It pierced through her consciousness, excruciatingly precise. A blade to her thoughts. She closed her palm over her ears, but her body was melting into the moss.
It was dragging her in.
And now she was deep in it.
Don't fight this.
Don't fight me.
Each whisper was a new scalpel. It pared her down to the nerve. Breaking her open until the walls seemed to breathe through her lungs, until the roots throbbed with her blood. Her brain was a mush of words. The fire was there, burning. And still, Halcyon's voice bled through the noise, faint and broken.
"RUE!"
Was it Halcyon trying to speak to her? She laughed. A raw, wet sound that cracked her throat. It hurt. Everything hurt. It felt as if the moss was unfurling around her limbs, peeling her apart with infinite care. It was dissecting her to the bone.
Everything turned red.
And then the scene went quiet.
She was released.
Her eyes flickered open.
"Hey, Rue." Halcyon beamed from above, drenched in the light of the sky. The sun was bright. There were birds. The air was warm. She felt no pain. She squinted. "Did you miss me?"
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