Chapter 281: A Mother’s Fury
Natalie~
Nathan’s laughter grated against my bones like sandpaper against raw flesh. It echoed in the king’s dark chambers, bouncing off the gilded walls with twisted delight. Each ragged wheeze of his amusement made Jasmine, snarl so loudly in my head that I thought my skull might split in half.
"You think this is funny?" I snapped, my voice trembling with barely contained rage. "Do you think this is a game, Nathan?"
His head lolled back against my grip, his blood-soaked hair smearing thick crimson across my palm. "Oh, little wolf," he rasped out, his teeth bared in a bloodstained grin. "Everything is a game."
Behind me, Zane’s breathing came in jagged, choked gasps. His aura burned so fiercely it felt like standing next to an open furnace. Red, snarled within him, his rage rattling the chandeliers until their crystal teardrops shivered in terror.
"Where is my son?" Zane’s voice was a guttural rasp, shredded and raw, like his throat had been torn open by grief. "Where is Alexander, you sick bastard?!"
Nathan’s eyes rolled towards him, gleaming with unhinged triumph. "Gone," he whispered, "gone forever—"
"That’s it," I said sharply, cutting him off before his madness could infect me further. My stomach twisted in revulsion at his smug expression. I wasn’t about to waste another breath asking a lunatic for answers.
I closed my eyes, inhaling deeply through my nose. Jasmine’s energy coiled inside me, molten gold laced with furious white lightning. Reaching out to the golden threads that tied all living things together, I wove my power into the fabric of the king’s chambers, pulling on the memories imprinted upon the very walls, the floors, the air.
Images flickered before my eyes like an old reel film.
A swirling darkness. Screams cut short. The sickening crunch of bones breaking under invisible force.
I watched as the guards collapsed one by one, their silver-plated armour crumpling like foil under the pressure of an unseen force. Blood sprayed across the king’s embroidered drapes in wide, arcing fans. The servants tried to flee, but shadows snatched them mid-run, snapping their necks with vicious cracks that echoed through the chamber.