WebNovels

Chapter 35 - it happen again

December's reluctant sun had dipped low, painting city's skyline in strokes of bruised orange and indigo, the kind of twilight that made the city's edges blur like a half-remembered dream. Lara and I were tangled on the pier again, the sea's restless murmur a counterpoint to the heat building between us. The boards creaked under our weight, damp from the day's lingering mist, but her body was fire against mine, warm, insistent, her legs straddling my hips as she rocked slow and deliberate, her skirt fanned out like a dark petal over my jeans. Her hands framed my face, thumbs tracing the sharp line of my jaw, her amber eyes locked on mine with that piercing intensity that always unraveled me, thread by thread.

"Rei," she breathed, her voice a husky whisper laced with the salt of the sea and the jasmine that clung to her skin, her lips brushing mine in a tease that sent sparks skittering down my spine. I groaned low, my fingers digging into the soft give of her thighs, pulling her closer until the friction bordered on ache, her heat seeping through the thin barrier of fabric. She'd kissed me earlier, fierce, claiming, her tongue mapping my mouth like territory she owned, and now it was building again, that slow burn that made the world narrow to just her: the way her breath hitched when I nipped her lower lip, the faint tremor in her fingers as they slid into my hair, tugging just hard enough to sting sweet.

The pendants lay heavy against my chest, warm but silent, Phobos and Deimos' presences a dull hum I'd long since tuned out. Ophy's last intrusion, a spectral hiss in my ear during a library tangle two nights ago, his mist coiling around us like jealous smoke, had faded to background static, dismissed with a kiss that left Lara gasping against my throat. *Fracture's Edge: Imminent,* the OS had pinged that morning, a cold chime in my skull as I pedaled to meet her, but I'd silenced it with a swipe of will, choosing the curve of her smile over the coil's tug. This was happiness, her nails scraping my scalp, her hips grinding in a rhythm that promised unraveling, the sea's spray misting our skin like a benediction.

"I could stay like this forever," I murmured against her mouth, my voice rough, hands sliding up her back to bunch the fabric of her blouse, exposing the smooth expanse of her spine. She arched into the touch, a soft moan escaping her lips, music that drowned the distant horns of the city, the faint rattle of the chain-link fence behind us. Her eyes fluttered half-closed, lashes dark against her flushed cheeks, but there was something in her gaze, a flicker too quick to catch, like code glitching in the dim.

"Forever sounds good," she whispered back, leaning down to capture my lips again, deeper this time, her tongue stroking mine in a slow, deliberate slide that made my blood roar. Her hands roamed lower, fingers slipping under my shirt to trace the ridges of my abs, nails dragging fire across my skin, circling the pendants with a touch that was almost reverent, or possessive. I bucked up into her, earning another gasp, her body responding with a grind that had us both trembling on the edge, breaths mingling hot and ragged. The world was hers, us, nothing else mattered, not the unanswered texts from Mira, not Lena's clipped warnings, not Ophy's ire boiling to something darker, unspoken.

Then the air shifted. A twang sliced through the dusk, sharp as shattered glass, a bowstring's snap, followed by the whistle of an arrow cleaving the wind. It buried itself in the board between my shoulder and Lara's thigh, quivering with lethal precision, its fletching glowing faint crimson, etched with Sagittarius's arc. My heart slammed, instincts flaring late but fierce; I rolled us sideways, pinning Lara beneath me on the damp wood, the pendants igniting sudden and scalding against my chest.

*Archer!* Phobos's wire voice surged, cool and urgent, threading through my skull like ice in my veins. *Centaur's gallop, evade!*

*Strike back, kid!* Deimos roared, gravel over thunder, the pendants vibrating with a low, building hum that rattled my bones. *Venom's wake-up call!*

Lara's eyes widened beneath me, amber flashing shock, real, or so it seemed, her hands clutching my arms, nails biting crescents into my skin. "Rei, what the hell, "

The second arrow came faster, a crimson streak aimed for my back. I twisted, shoving her aside as it grazed my shoulder, tearing fabric and flesh in a hot line that burned like liquid fire. Blood welled, warm and sticky, but the pain sharpened me, the OS flickering to life in my vision, green HUD blooming faint at the edges, stats scrolling: *Threat: Sagittarius Rider. Hostile. Veil Breach Imminent.* I scrambled up, hauling Lara with me, her body pressed close as we ducked behind a rusted piling, the sea's spray now a cold slap against the wound.

Hoofbeats thundered, not real, but the echo of them, a galloping specter materializing from the twilight haze. That tall figure clad in golden-green armor, with an archer motif on his chest and an energy bow in hand. His helmet, shaped like a futuristic cowboy hat, glowed yellow from its eye sensors.

a longbow slung across, quiver brimming with shafts that hummed with zodiac fire. He nocked another, the string creaking taut, his voice a bellow that cracked the air like thunder: "Ophiuchus whelp! Your coil frays the veil, I'll kill you!"

Lara huddled against me, her breath coming in sharp bursts, hand clamped over my bleeding shoulder. "Rei, your shoulder, oh god, we have to run, " But even in the chaos, her touch grounded me, her body a shield I wouldn't let go. The pendants thrummed hotter, Phobos and Deimos coiling awake in my veins, the venom stirring gritty and insistent, whispering echoes of scales and strikes. I hadn't trained, hadn't hunted, but the old rhythm surged back, raw, unpolished, fueled by the fire in my blood and the girl trembling in my arms.

"Stay down," I growled, shoving her deeper into the piling's shadow, my free hand closing over a loose plank from the pier's edge, splintered and makeshift but better than nothing. The Rider loosed another arrow, the shaft exploding mid-air into a net of crimson fire that scorched the boards where we'd been, the heat singeing my hair. I lunged, venom flooding my limbs in a sluggish rush, too long dormant, but enough to blur my edges, scales flickering faint under my skin like a glitch.

He wheeled, bowstring singing again, but I was already moving, the plank swinging in a desperate arc that cracked against his bow, splintering wood and sending the arrow wild into the sea. His laugh was a snort, equine and mocking, as he backhanded me with a gauntleted fist, brass knuckles etched with arrowheads slamming into my jaw, stars bursting in my vision. I tasted blood, copper and venom mingling, staggering back into Lara, who cried out, her hands scrabbling at my shirt.

"Rei, no!" She surged up, but the Rider was on me, hooves stamping craters into the pier, his bow discarded for a short sword that gleamed with poisoned edge. He thrust, blade whistling, and I dodged on instinct, the tip carving a shallow line across my ribs. Pain lanced white-hot, but Deimos's growl fueled me, *Bite, kid!*, and I countered, fist connecting with his armored gut, venom surging through the blow like a shockwave. He grunted, staggering, but recovered with a kick that sent me sprawling, the world tilting as I hit the boards, salt water soaking through my clothes.

Lara screamed, my name, a plea, and the Rider whirled toward her, sword raised, embers in his eyes. "The Pisces leak's consort? You'll fog with him." Time slowed, the OS screaming warnings, Phobos's wire coiling tight: *Protect the nest!* But before I could roll to my feet, Lara moved, not scrambling away, but forward, her body unfolding like a trap sprung.

The air around her shimmered, warping like heat haze over asphalt, and her amber eyes ignited, not with fear, but with a glacial blue glow, twin abysses swirling with illusory depths. Scales erupted across her skin in a cascade of pearlescent silver, fins flaring from her forearms like spectral blades, her hair whipping into tendrils that lashed like whips. The jasmine scent twisted, souring to brine and delusion, her uniform shredding into a suit of fluid armor that flowed like water over her curves. She was beautiful still, devastating, a siren carved from nightmare, and her laugh was a ripple, cold and echoing, as she extended a hand toward the Rider.

"Pisces," he snarled, recognition dawning too late, bow snapping up anew. But her fingers flexed, and the pier buckled, illusions blooming from the ether, phantom waves crashing over him in a torrent of false water that bowled him back, hooves slipping on spectral foam. He fired blind, arrows dissolving into mist at her gesture, his bellow turning to a gurgle as she wove her hand, tendrils of blue energy coiling around his throat, squeezing the air from his lungs.

I froze, the world crashing back in fragments: the blood on my shoulder, the sting in my ribs, the pendants scorching like brands. "Lara?" My voice cracked, raw and disbelieving, as I pushed to my knees, the venom in my veins turning to ice.

She didn't look at me, not yet. With a flick of her wrist, the Rider convulsed, his equine form buckling as illusions pierced him, not real wounds, but delusions that made him claw at phantoms, eyes bulging with terrors only he could see. "Toy with the coil, archer?" she purred, her voice layered now, echoing with underwater murmurs, a salesman's lilt twisted into something venomous, mocking. "Sagittarius hunts alone. Go fog your own edges." The tendrils tightened, and he collapsed, body dissolving into crimson motes that scattered on the wind, erased, not dead, but scattered, a veil-tear sealed by her whim.

The pier fell silent, save for the sea's lap and my ragged breaths. Lara, *Pisces*, turned then, scales retracting like shed skin, fins folding into nothingness, her eyes dimming back to amber but holding that blue undercurrent, a riptide waiting. She stepped closer, skirt reforming pristine, blouse mending as if the fight had been a dream, but her smile was a blade now, curved and cruel, the half-smile I'd fallen for twisted into something predatory.

"Surprise, serpent boy," she said, voice silk over shards, crouching before me with graceful ease, her fingers, cool now, laced with brine, tilting my chin up. Blood trickled from my lip, and she thumbed it away, almost tender, before licking the crimson from her skin, eyes fluttering in mock ecstasy. "You were such a pretty puzzle. All those cracks, begging to be pried. The doodles, the kisses, the way you *chose* me over your coil? Delicious."

The hollow in my chest yawned wide, a chasm swallowing the fire I'd built with her, the pier dawns, the library tangles, the nights tangled in her sheets. Betrayal burned hotter than the venom ever had, Phobos's wire fraying to screams, *Toyed! The nest was bait!*, Deimos's roar a thunder that shook my bones, *She played you, kid, strike! Snap the illusion!* The OS flooded my vision, stats scrolling frantic: *Threat: Pisces Rider. Infiltration Confirmed. Erasure Protocol: Engage.*

But I couldn't move, rooted by the weight of her gaze, the way her hand lingered on my jaw, thumb stroking like a lover's caress. "Why?" The word scraped out, broken, the scar on my knuckle throbbing like a fresh wound. Ophy's warnings crashed back, *She's the fracture, a zodiac leak you ignore*, his ire not jealousy, but truth I'd dismissed for her light.

Lara, no, *Pisces*, laughed, low and liquid, leaning in until her lips ghosted mine, breath tasting of salt and lies. "Why? Because Ophiuchus forbidden is *irresistible*, Rei. Scorpio's labs spun me your way, test the coil, see if the venom bites back or breaks. And you? You broke so sweet, trading scales for skirts." Her fingers trailed down my chest, nails sharpening to points that pricked the pendants, drawing twin beads of blood. "You'll call Ophy, uncoil the fight... or drown in me."

She kissed me then, not fire, but flood, her lips crashing with illusory force, visions blooming behind my eyes: phantom waves dragging me under, her body arching in ecstasy that twisted to erasure, Andi's face fogging in glass rain. I thrashed, venom surging sluggish against the delusion, hands shoving at her shoulders, but she only deepened it, tendrils wrapping my wrists, pinning me as the pier dissolved into blue abyss.

The pendants blazed, Phobos and Deimos surging in tandem, *Breathe through it! Snap the bait!*, and I bit down, hard, on her lip, venom flooding the wound in a bitter spike. She recoiled with a hiss, illusions shattering like foam, the pier snapping back solid under me. Blood, hers now, pearlescent and toxic, dripped from her mouth, her eyes narrowing to slits of glacial blue.

"Naughty serpent," she purred, wiping her lip with the back of her hand, the wound sealing in a shimmer. "But the game's just starting. Toy with me now?" She rose, graceful as a wave retreating, her form flickering at the edges like faulty code. "Call your ghosts, Rei. Or next time, I won't let go."

She dissolved then, misting into the twilight, leaving only the echo of her laugh on the wind and the sting of salt in my wounds. I collapsed against the piling, shoulder throbbing, ribs aching, the hollow a roar now, betrayed, toyed, erased in ways no venom could touch. The OS steadied, quest pinging cold: *Fracture's Edge: Breached. Recalibrate: Hunt the Flood.* Phobos hummed faint approval, *Nest burns, but coil tightens.* Deimos chuckled dark, *Bite back harder, kid.*

I staggered to my feet, blood soaking my shirt, the sea's spray washing the taste of her from my lips. Happiness? A pretty poison. But the fight, the real one, was waking, and this time, I'd uncoil it all.

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