The iron bound doors of the recovery room settled into their frame with a final heavy thud. Kova lingered for a moment.
His gaze was fixed on the red mist that began to cover his brother, a thick and humid shroud that swallowed Koma's form. The mountain was quiet, but it was the silence of a held breath. Kova turned his heel and moved through the obsidian halls toward the chamber where Jaeren's massive cooling form lay on a stone slab.
Lokee stood by the head of the corpse. Her hands were hovering as if she were afraid to touch the legendary dead. Juno was anchored in the corner. Her eyes were wide as she watched the man who had just dismantled her life.
Kova didn't offer a greeting. He pulled a thick herbal scented vellum from his belt.
"Lokee," Kova began, his voice cutting through the gloom. "Elowen and Kalamity were too soft. They wanted the soul to feel comfortable. That was their failure."
He unrolled the scroll. His finger traced over Elowen's frantic notes.
"Her tactics were weak. A Harmonic Anchor is too slow. We will use the Carrion Rhythm. I am going to shackle the soul by force."
"I will create a spiritual vacuum. The soul of Jaeren is still trapped in the marrow. It hasn't fled. It is just dormant. It needs a spark. I will provide a jolt of raw spite to jumpstart his heart."
Lokee's breath hitched. Her eyes darted between the scroll and the corpse. "Kova, a spark from your darkness is unstable. The world will try to snuff it out."
"Let it try," Kova replied, his eyes glinting. "I have already planned for the leak. We won't use Pressure Seals. We will use Stained Shackles. I will coat them in my own void so the spiritual filth becomes too heavy to evaporate."
"I will anchor the dark directly into his marrow. We will hide the body from reality itself with a Shroud of Absence."
He looked at Juno. She was trembling. Her pink flames were flickering weakly in the damp air.
"What do you have planned for me?" Juno asked. Her voice was shaking.
Kova ignored her. His eyes never left the vellum. To him, her voice was nothing more than the scuttle of a rat in the wall.
"Begin the Rhythm, Lokee," Kova said, his voice flat. "I have a King to visit. If he denies our payment, I will kill him. By the time I return, I want his heart beating."
Kova didn't walk to the exit. In a blur that defied the physics of the room, he simply vanished. As the fastest of the Speedhardt bloodline, distance was a suggestion he rarely followed. A sharp crack of displaced air was the only evidence he had ever been there.
A heartbeat later, Kova stood at the gates of the Royal Capital. The mountain was miles behind him. He moved through the city streets like a flicker of lightning until he reached the Great Hall.
His boots clicked against the polished obsidian floors as he approached the towering doors of the King's Counsel Room. Princess Athena stepped out from behind a massive marble pillar. Her silk gown brushed against the stone.
"Greetings, Princess," Kova said, not breaking his stride.
"The formality is exhausting, Kova," she replied, her hurried steps echoing as she followed him toward the doors. "We have known each other since we were children. Must you play the part of the stoic blade every time you return? You walk as if the world is your enemy."
Kova stopped at the threshold. He looked at her, his expression softening with a genuine, quiet warmth. "The world is fine, Athena. But your father is my enemy."
Athena froze. Her eyes widened as her hand reached out to grasp his cloak. "What do you mean? Kova, wait."
Kova didn't answer. He simply continued his walk toward the Council Room, leaving her hand to fall away. He didn't want her caught in the crossfire of what was coming. He moved with a heavy silence, his focus shifting back to the man behind the heavy oak doors.
He pushed them open. King Voss Halloway sat at the head of the table. His eyes narrowed as he surveyed Kova, his jaw tightening.
"Why did he send his lesser, weaker brother?" Voss thought. "Koma is the one who claims to be a god, yet he sends this shadow who thinks he is above all. I do not talk to insects."
"Where is Koma?" the King demanded. "I expected a report from the Supreme, not his subordinate."
Kova let out a low, vibrating chuckle. He leaned over the table, the shadows in the room seemingly stretching toward the King. "Subordinate? Call me a shadow no one in this world can contain, Voss."
He tilted his head, watching the frantic, uneven drumming of the man's pulse. He could feel the cold sweat and the way the air in the King's lungs turned to lead. A thin, predatory smile touched his lips.
"Oh. I get it. You are scared of me."
The King's face flushed. "You dare speak to me with such delusion? You are a tool. An asset of this crown, and assets do not dictate terms."
"The mission is complete," Kova continued, his voice calm. "Jaeren is dead. My family has fulfilled our duty. However, the price of that victory has far exceeded the pittance you call a salary."
A single, thick tentacle slowly slithered out from Kova's back. It plopped onto the mahogany table, its oily surface shimmering under the torchlight. Slowly, it began to creep across the wood, leaving a faint trail of energy behind it as it reached toward the King.
"Think carefully, Kova," the King said, his voice strained as he reached for a tone of fatherly reason. "Outside these walls, you are monsters. Here, you are legends. If you leave, you are giving up the only thing that keeps the rest of humanity from hunting you down like beasts."
The tentacle reached the edge of the King's papers, hovering inches from his hand.
"We are leaving because we have outgrown the cage," Kova replied. "How can someone weaker than us offer protection? I want diamond aelons. Every single one. We are no longer your royal guards."
Athena rushed forward. "Kova, please! Don't leave the kingdom like this."
Kova looked back at her one last time, his gaze lingering with a somber softness. "The kingdom is a cage Athena but it was never meant to hold us."
He retracted the tentacle into his back. "I will be staying in the capital. I expect my diamonds by the morning."
Before anyone could draw a breath to respond, he simply disappeared. The room remained in a deafening silence until the King's right hand man, Renci, stepped forward, his face twisting with disdain.
"Why do we let them walk freely? They are monsters that should be chained."
Athena turned on him, her eyes flashing with a sharp warning. "Mind your tongue, Renci."
She turned to her father, her voice trembling but urgent. "Father, please. Give them at least half of the diamonds if you have to. Just give them a reason to stay peaceful and let them walk away."
Voss Halloway sat motionless. To his advisors, he looked like a man weighing his options. To himself, he felt like a man facing a predator.
"I will never give them diamonds," he muttered, his voice shaking. "I will never let them simply walk away."
Voss closed his eyes for a second. He had survived wars at the side of Kalamity. He knew the weight of true power.
"Koma is the spitting image of his father,"
Voss thought, his skin crawling as he remembered Kova's hollow smile.
"The same raw strength. The same godlike ego but Kova is the one who strikes fear in my soul."