THEO
"What's with the giddy look on your face?" Luke asked me as we both left the Hexagon HQ. I shrugged, my finger lightly brushing one of the rings on my fingers. "Woah. You've bonded with Devon, haven't you?" He said, beaming.
"Yeah" I said, a small smile playing on my lips.
"How does it feel like?" He asked and I shrugged.
"It feels really good. I've never felt this good in a long time" I said.
"That good, huhn? That's nice"
We elapsed into silence. I didn't need a soothsayer to tell me that something was troubling him.
"What's bothering you?" I said and he stiffened.
Okay, that confirms it.
"It's nothing. It's just some unimportant stuff" he said and I froze.
He was definitely hiding something from me. I stopped walking and he turned to look at me.
"Don't give me that 'look'" he groaned.
"What look?" I asked, folding my arms. "I don't know. Why don't you tell me?" he snapped.
My eyes went wide
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to-"
"It's fine, but you're definitely hiding something. Why won't you tell me what's going on?" I asked.
He kept walking and my heart sank. Whatever it was, it was bad enough for him to ignore me.
I caught up with him and tried to coax him into telling me why he was acting so strange. He refused to tell me anything and at this point, he was starting to give me more than a cold shoulder.
"Just leave me alone, Theo! You can go ahead and report this to your girlfriend!"
I sighed, holding my hands up in surrender.
"Fine. I'll leave you alone like you asked" I said, moving backwards.
"Yeah, go ahead. Just piss off" he said and vanished from sight.
Luke and I had exchanged punches in the past. We always found a way to move past our differences. Our relationship wouldn't make sense if we didn't quarrel at one point. I was hoping that this was just like the previous fights we've had.
Immeadietly I turned away from him, the air became cold for a split second. An object which was flying too fast for me to identify was heading towards me. Startled, I tried to avoid it but it went for my leg. My knees buckled when the excruciating pain hit me. I could see the spider shaped object, half embedded in my knee with blood staining my jeans. I looked up and saw the person who'd thrown the object at me. The white blond hair and haunting yellow eyes were strikingly familiar. I gasped as the pain in my right leg stared to build up. Bile rose up the back of my throat.
"Matthias ?" I gasped, my vision starting to blur.
"I'm sorry" he breathed and turned away from me.
He spared me one last glance before vanishing into thin air. I was confused. Matthias was alive. How?
The monster embedded in my knee felt like it was moving deeper into my leg. My vision went black for a split second as I let out a strangled scream. I slid down the wall of the alley, pain blinding me. I was on fire. I was in hell. I couldn't walk and I felt like I was really going to die. Despite the fearless rune on my back, I felt my own fear bubbling up inside me.
★★★★★★
LUKE
As soon as Theo turned away from me, I stepped into a portal that took me straight to the house. I felt really bad for treating Theo like that. But, it appeared that I couldn't take back what I'd done. I was just about to unlock the door when Theo's pain sliced right through me. I gasped, my heart beat speeding up.
Something was wrong.
I made it back to the spot where I'd opened a portal, only to find Theo slumped up against the wall of an alley. He was trembling badly and he was bleeding buckets. "This is my fault. What have I done?" I muttered.
I rushed to his side, patting his face. He opened his eyes groggily, his breathing laboured. He was deathly pale with a sheen of sweat on his forehead.
"W-what happened?" I asked when he clutched my upper arm. He let out a loud groan and mumbled some incoherent words.
"My leg" he rasped, tears filling his eyes. I have never been so stunned in my entire life. Theo never cried when he was in pain. Even when we were kids, he never acknowledged that he was hurting. But, at this point, he looked scared. I looked down at his legs, worried. When I finally saw what was embedded in his right knee, I felt like I was going to be sick. I had seen it before. I was quite certain about that.
"Come on, let's go home" I said, helping him to his feet. He gritted his teeth, limping painfully. Suddenly, he stopped. "I can't- I can't walk...it hurts so bad" he panted. I quickly opened a portal and we both got in.
"Mum!" I yelled as we got to the porch. "Mum!" I yelled again as Theo's breathing quickened. The door opened and Rachel stepped out.
"Oh my God! Not this again. What happened?" She asked, joining me to take him upstairs. We laid him down on the bed. There was a frantic knocking downstairs. Rachel went downstairs to open the door. I grabbed a blade and ripped off the lower part of Theo's jeans. The door opened and Devon rushed in, her eyes wide.
"What happened to him?" She cried, placing a hand on his forehead.
"He's burning up" she said, tears filling her eyes.
I tried to pull out the spider-thingy but to my horror, it sank deeper into Theo's knee. He screamed, his back arching off the bed. He fell back to the bed, his body limp.
"Theo? Hey, can you hear me?" Devon said, patting his flushed cheeks. He groaned, reaching out to hold her shaky hand. "Dev?" He croaked. "I'm right here" she sobbed. "It hurts....Get it out, please. Get it out" he croaked.
"Who did this to you?" Devon asked.
"Matthias" he gasped, squeezing his eyes shut.
Matthias?
How and why?
Devon and my mum broke down into tears and I suddenly felt so guilty. If I had stayed with him, we wouldn't be in this mess.
***********
DEVON
"I don't understand. How could Matthias do this to him?"I asked Luke who looked as horrified as I felt.
"It's my fault. I shouldn't have walked away" he said, pacing back and forth. Theo suddenly groaned and sat up quickly. He moaned weakly and gagged. Leaning over the side of the bed, he retched painfully. My heart gave a great lurch at the sight of his helplessness. I held him in my arms, holding back his hair away from his face. He was vomiting blood. Not just any kind of blood. First, he vomited red blood, then he started to vomit golden blood.
"Why is he throwing up golden blood?" I asked Luke shakily. He'd gone so pale, I feared that he was going to pass out. "It's affecting his immortal being.... It's..."
"Luke, what is it?" I asked, dread, paralysing me as I watched Theo gasp for breath. "That's what killed my dad. It's the only weapon capable of killing lightbearers with higher capacity. It's the only thing that kills royalty"
My heart shattered.
"So, he's going to die?" I choked out.
"It's going to kill him if we don't get help"
"How many days does he have left?" I asked, wiping the blood stains from Theo's jaw and lips.
"He has twelve hours left"
My blood ran cold in my veins. "W-what?"
"It kills lesser fae in a split second. He's only still alive because he's no ordinary fae" Luke said, trembling slightly.
"Then, what are we waiting for?!" I cried, dabbing Theo's burning skin with a towel.
"I'll go get help. If he starts choking, turn him over on his side" Luke said.
I nodded and watched him jump out of the window and into the sky.
*****************
LUKE
It was almost nightfall when I got to my destination. I knocked on the front door of an old friend.
"Go away"
"Please, Alba. I really need your help" I said.
"Leave"
"I'll pay you as much as you want but please you have to help me"
"I don't care, Luke. Now, leave"
I swallowed hard.
"It's about Daeron. He's dying...."
The door opened and there stood the multicolored eyed healer. She looked very displeased. She had long white hair but was definitely looking no older than twenty even though she was nine centuries old.
"Lucian, you look well" she said, folding her arms.
"I'm serious about Daeron"
"Do you think I'm a fool? There's only one thing that can kill him. And, it's the dragon's blade. You can't even find it here on earth" she said, glaring at me.
"Why do you think I'm here? Please, Alba. I'll go on my knees if you want me to"
She stared at me intensely.
"Fine. Let me grab my things" she said and shut the door. I heaved a sigh of relief.
**************
DEVON
"Don't you dare give up on me, got it?" I said to Theo who was half conscious.
I took his hand in mine and kissed his knuckles. I started to stroke his hair gently but then, I realized something. His breathing was strained. Too strained.
Concerned, I moved my head closer to listen to his breathing. He was wheezing and he sounded like something was blocking his air passage. He was choking.
I moved him to the side and some black liquid started to pour out of his mouth.
He gasped, opening his eyes half-way. "Be strong, Theo. I can't loose you" I said, brushing his damp hair away from his face.
"It hurts" he whimpered, burying his face in my neck.
Darkness was quickly approaching and Theo had gone limp. He was barely breathing. I tried not to cry but it was difficult not to.
Soon, Luke arrived with a white haired woman. She gasped when she saw how bad the situation was.
She took out a scalpel and made sure it was sterilized before she turned him over. I held his leg up to prevent the object in his leg from digging deeper. I swallowed hard, biting my lips to keep the tears at bay. The white haired woman began to make a vertical cut on the back of his neck. Black liquid oozed from it. Then, she quickly pressed a towel to the cut and turned him over. She grabbed some sort of yellowish liquid and brought the bottle to his lips. He managed to swallow a portion of it. "He'll be fine" the white haired woman said to me.
He's going to be fine, I tried to reassure myself but my heart kept thudding madly.
She moved to his leg and started to twist the hooks of the spider thingy. He groaned, his grip on my hand tightening.
"You might want to give him a gag for this" the white haired woman said to Rachel.
"It's okay, Theo. Just breathe. We're right here" Rachel breathed after she'd placed a gag between his teeth. He nodded his head and closed his eyes, taking uneven breaths. She pulled out the first hook and his eyes widened, the gag muffling his scream. It went on and on until the ninth hook.
Theo was exhausted, his eyelids heavy with exhaustion. The last hook went off and he started to fade in and out of consciousness, his body trembling weakly.
"Now what?" I said after his battered knee had been cleaned and wrapped up.
"We wait. He has to heal himself. Considering the circumstances, I hope he isn't too weak to do that" the white haired woman said and my heart sank. I tucked the blankets around Theo when he started to shiver.
By midnight, his fever spiked up and he kept throwing up. It was horrible. His body was too weak, he kept passing out.
"He's worsening" I said to no one in particular. I was worried sick.
"It means he's too weak to heal himself"
I clutched Theo's trembling hands. "Come on, Theo. You can't give up now" I whispered as I stroked his hair. "If he doesn't heal himself soon, he's going to die"
That sentence made my blood run cold.