The air shivered, the cave slippery as it melted to new illusions. The need to escape the treacherous hold of his powers was now replaced by the warmth of her surroundings. She blinked, squinting now at the scene thick with the scent of spring—fresh earth, tender shoots and warm air. The sky was a clear, cloudless blue, and a gentle breeze tickled the nape of her neck.
Wealth could be seen in the homes in the distance, electric lamps blooming over the slopes of crystal, pebbled roads. Flowers and trees carpeted the space like a nirvana. And the terraces were painted in pastel frescoes, decked in wallflowers, and each bisected by a spring. One that meandered to form a gorgeous river nestled in the arms of swaying willows. At the very top of this civilisation was a castle of blue and gold stones that winked in the light of the sun.
"The rule of Hera," the man said. He stood before her, no longer clad in the dark gown but in a billowing cotton shirt. His snowy hair whistling in the wind. The illusion seemed so real that it felt almost impossible. "We prioritised peace and prosperity. Our queen, our empress, she was a fair and kind ruler, and our people were wealthy. We were once the planet of 0, and we ruled the entire universe."
There was laughter, and her gaze turned towards the sound. There were people with white hair and yellow eyes, people who looked like him, people with eyes like her own. Titans. The women were nestled between their children and their Alphas, lying peacefully upon picnic blankets in the gentle sun's rays.
The bastard sighed. "It was common to watch the starflowers bloom every spring." The trees swayed, glittering with what looked like little pink stars. "It is a pity that they've gone extinct after the war."
"You can manipulate what I see, you can rewrite history," Rue said with a hiss. But she continued to stare as an Alpha fed his wife, then turned to kiss the cheeks of their children. Their giggles echoed as he scooped them into his arms. Loving packs. "You don't have to show me this."
"Perhaps," he agreed. "It was the day I became an adult when they struck. The day when I was destined to find my soulmate, my Hera, my one."
Rue stared as the woman choked, blood dripping from her mouth, crimson splattering to the ground. The panic surged; the crowd roared. She watched as the Alpha tried to resuscitate his Omega with tears in his eyes. His lips were smeared with her blood. The children were dying, blood spewing from their lips as they collapsed onto the ground. The image seemed to quiver, and her heart pounded.
"The air and the water took our loved ones from us, and after that, the poison led to the ink." She watched as the cries rose. The men were vomiting, black ink dribbling from their mouths, pouring upon the women. The staggered backwards. "We could withstand its hold, but it changed us." The Alphas roared, transforming, turning, darkness latched into their bodies, twisting over their muscles, forming the exoskeleton she knew. "It made us different. It turned us into monsters. Our dead men lived." The city was now on fire, plumes of smoke in the air, ash crusting the homes. "It was a curse, and we were forever separated from our queens."
The land was now stained in ink and blood, and the air grew heavy with buzzing. The locusts rose from the dead, teeth tearing upon the armies of ships that arrived from the sky. Zeus, poseidons and hades…She knew their powers like the back of her hand. And the shudder of electricity, the bubble of acid, the spark of fire, it all made her heart shiver and fall.
"They came when we were poisoned, gleefully taking all that was left of us." Her mouth fell open as they slaughtered the women and children, blades crashing with the Titans that remained standing on their feet. "The men who lived, flew into space and huddled until we were strong enough again." The sky filled with the locusts escaping into space. "We hibernated in the cold, space froze us, but it was the Lonely's affliction that allowed us to survive in our hard exoskeletons."
The land under them seemed to crumble, turning into an awful rocky wasteland.
"Planet 0 is now merely a tiny rock spinning in space. It took us eons before we found ourselves again, and by then, the world had changed. Omegas were lesser beings, no longer standing upon the shadows of our Heras. History was rewritten, and those of us who had lost our minds became rogue beasts that they culled. The dead live from the poison, becoming monsters that listen to our call. Those who fight the poison and do not succumb to its rot remain as men within. Those who triumph like me will be able to remove the ink and control it."
Rue frowned. "There's a finite amount of you. After so long, surely…"
"The Olympians forget," he answered. He clapped his hands, and the illusion seemed to snap like a bubble, popping open to reveal the cave. Rue jumped, jerking up as unease flavoured her tongue. What the fuck was that? "They do not remember that our blood runs in their veins. Titans were the first ones, and the poisonous ink mutated over time." The king smiled. "What they call Rampage is their souls reacting to the poison; it worsens for them all. The stronger they are, the more Titan blood they have, and so the more they will feel the ache, the need. Soon, they will all die, and those that survive will be cultivated and transformed into our soldiers." There was a glint in his eyes.
"You want the flood their worlds with poison," she gasped at them. "What good is it to kill them?"
"The imbalance is disgusting," he sneered. "To belittle their Omegas? They threaten the raptures of their souls by ignoring the potential. They think soulmates are what killed us. But they forget what was true, and it is our luck."
Rue gasped. "The packs on Hera were made from soulmates?"
"Yes," he smiled. "Just like how you and I are tied together as one."
He turned his hand, and on his wrist was a starflower, glittering softly. Rue watched with horror as he lifted his hand. A flick of his wrist, and a thread of silver appeared in the air. It came from her chest, fluttering in a phantom wind, and then it snapped tight as if anchored. She knew soul bonds, and this was a textbook example that she refused to believe.
"No," she whispered. "Fuck no."
The ancient alien smiled. "My sweet darling, my name is Edmund. I've waited for you for centuries. You are mine; it is foretold in the stars. I am just so happy that you are finally here."
Her inhale was sharp, a wave of nausea consuming her, stomach convulsing as she stared at him, weak-kneed and bitter. "You can't be."
"I am," he murmured. "Your poseidon does not see you in his soul. It is because you have never been theirs. You've always been mine. You know it."
"That's—What the fuck? How the fuck are you getting in my head?" She slipped backwards, trembling as the world seemed to spiral. "I don't—"
"You don't care for soulmates that hurt their Omegas, I know," Edmund soothed, approaching her with a smile, white hair falling across his eyes. There was a hollow beauty to him, sharpened features as if touched by hunger. His lips were stained red with blood. "But I'm not like them. I'm a Titan, and Titans worship their Heras."
"I just want to go to school. I just want to be left alone. I just want to live—" she snapped, panic throbbing within her as she swallowed thickly. Something told her that this wasn't right, something told her that things were all wrong. But what was that silver that came from her heart? "Is it an illu—"
"Illusion?" he finished her words for her with a sing-song lilt. "You know what's illusion and what is not, my queen. You know deep inside that it was all real."
"It can't," she whispered. But her heart thundered, something clicked, something whispered in her ears that it was real. Her soul seemed to cry. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. She felt weak, she felt fucking ill. "It can't be…"
"You're safe," he murmured. He knelt to the ground at her feet, and she felt chilled when he took her hand, fingers so cold it was like touching a fucking corpse. He pressed it to his head and then to his lips. "Good girl," he purred. And she felt a warble of nausea stretch across her belly, a tug of something snapping to his hands, like strings pulling her to the sway of a pendulum. She flinched, pulling her hand back. Something tore.
"D-don't fucking touch me!"
His gaze seemed to darken then. "You are too tied to your temporary drones. They've collared your Omega. It is because of them that she feels so disgusted by my presence. And it is the ink in me that you cannot bear. But my soul, you will heal in my arms, and I will too. You can purify me, and you will no longer feel this way in my presence. You can free me from this hell. You will find me pleasant then, and so so deliciously good."
"N-no," she slurred, she didn't feel like herself as she inched backwards, sluggish by the heady, awful scent of his Alpha. Was it the side effect of the ink, as he said? A darkness seemed to yawn from under her. There was something bitter on her tongue, something seeping into her nose, and she felt like utter shit. "Get the fuck away from me."
"My soul, please relax," Edmund soothed. "I know it's difficult to sink, to rid yourself of your mortal ambitions. But once you do, I promise it will feel so good. You will be so happy, you will understand everything when we become mates. You will understand the power of a Hera, of what you truly deserve as empress." The darkness was bubbling, encasing her feet, and she stared in horror as the water seemed to rise, weighing upon her ankles. He moved, sliding through the sloshing mess of ink that flowed from the walls, and she pushed back as the sticky tendrils crawled up her thighs. "It is written in the stars." His soul bond flashed latched tight upon her soul.
"GET THE F-FUCK AWAY FROM ME!" Her hand reached for the noose between them. "F-fuck." But her bravado was gone, something slowed in her mind, and her head spun. His eyes were the lightest of gold, but now they seemed too damn deep and too damn dark.
"You won't drown in the ink when you're with me," he promised smoothly. "It is so heavy now, but it will feel good when you sink to the bottom. When you share my air, it will be like we are one. You could free us all. You could become our Hera, and it will always feel so good. You will save us all."
"N-no."
"I promise you; this is the last time you will feel the weight of the ink—"
"NO!"
She stumbled backwards, falling and sinking into the walls just before he could consume her. It was just before the threads locked upon her body, just before she got caught in his goddamn web. Her legs kicked out in one last attempt to scream. His smile was warped, showing the sharpest of teeth like a monster, and it blurred as she fell through the flowing ink.
A moment of clarity, and she was reminded of much more familiar shadows, of shadows that felt like the soul. "Levi," she whimpered, arms reaching out towards the darkness. "Levi." Her mind swept towards the feeling of sinking into the warmest, sweetest embrace, to the shadows that didn't feel like the sticky fingers of the devil. "Levi—"
He caught her just as she latched onto him, dragging her deep into his arms, arms that felt better than her own soulmate's. Levi caught her, sweeping her into his embrace, and she inhaled, felt her head clearing to a smell that felt like home.
"Rue, you're safe. Oh God, you're safe," he whimpered, the timbre soft, shuddering relief escaping his throat almost like tears. His fingers were tangled in her hair, his body was pressed so tightly to hers that their hearts were almost one. His body shivered, and his heat seemed to burn the cold away. "I told you my shadows were always yours."
Read ahead on
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/tinyeyecat
Inkitt Subscription: https://www.inkitt.com/tinyeyecat