{Enki | New Cinder}

“All the Tritans ever speak of is their foolhardy breeding program. I grow so tired of their limited minds. When he can go a week without mentioning it, I’ll grant him one of you as a reward. Like training a pet.”

Celindria—scary, terrifying, and impossible Celindria—was no longer focused on her work. And Chris couldn’t share with the Shadow exactly how fucked they all were now because of it.

Back in the driver’s seat, Celindria piloted Chris’ body to carry the unconscious Karter into the cage. The actual Celindria trained two guns on the Shadow, and they backed away to make room for Karter. He used this time to gaze at her dark gray skin, the thick fans of lashes on her cheeks, the mouth he spent hours appreciating in bliss—

“Karter? Karter!” Para’s broken cries bruised Chris’ heart.

Tameka wrapped her arms around the Valkyrie in a hug from behind, but also to placate the crazy woman with the guns. Tameka said, “Shh. We’ll get her to Xelan and Pablo. They’ll take care of her like they did you and T.a.o.”

Never had Chris ever been so simultaneously happy and scared shitless to see a group of people in his entire life. As Celindria used him to lay Karter on the cot beside the small Seamswalker, he checked out the family which graciously came to his rescue.

Jack looked good. Healthy. Pissed mostly. But he held hands with Ross, so things were looking up in that area. Devis looked whole and mostly concerned for his brother and sister. Bones pulled Para into his arms and brushed his fingers through her short hair. Maybe they’d get more serious after this.

Then there was Tameka. Her name was Fury for a reason. As their leader, Chris trusted her to turn this around somehow and get them the hell out.

With that in mind, Celindria chuffed in his head, unconvinced and eavesdropping on his thoughts, though she offered no additional commentary. Instead, she removed Chris from the cage—

Para’s fingers brushed down Chris’ arm in a wordless gesture, sending pure love straight to his heart. After being deprived of touch from someone he loved and trusted for months, Para’s gesture sprung tears to his eyes.

Celindria stilled inside and outside of his head. Carved from beautiful black rock, this statue—this genius enemy of theirs—reflected nothing but pain. Yet, for one spellbinding moment, she held her breath, waiting…

Unaware of the significance of Celindria’s silence, Ross interrupted the moment to ask, “How did you do that with the Primary and Karter? I thought the one with volition couldn’t feel the host’s pain.”

With the quiet spell broken, the First Progeny exhaled the held breath and triggered the switch to close the gate. Celindria set the guns on the counter and stepped up to the cage. Her full attention on them was not what they wanted, despite whatever they had planned for her. This was bad.

Para muttered to Ross, “Remorse felt everything I did.”

Tameka stared at Celindria as she elaborated, “Kyle said Celindria didn’t feel a damned thing.”

The First Progeny’s eyes flashed.

Were they trying to get Celindria to talk?! No. Stay small. Don’t let her pay any attention—

Devis gripped Tameka’s arm hard enough to indent his fingers into her skin. His eyes were wide when she turned to his emphatically shaking head.

Andrius cautioned, “That subject is forbidden.”

Chris sighed with relief. At least two people here possessed some sense. Meanwhile, Celindria scanned them with her eyes and some tech device. She left Tameka for last and paused the device over the other woman’s green eyes.

Tameka put her face to the bars. “What’re you doing, Celindria?”

“Shopping.”

Chris shuddered. He loved Tameka’s ability and fire, but so much had happened since Pax arrived. Although she and Remorse—and even Silence—kept everything on the down low, he overheard mentions of preventatives against Fury’s draining ability. Something to do with Pax testing it for them. It implied the worst-case scenario Chris did not want to give too much thought. It would devastate them.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

He was about to do something stupid. Something to distract Celindria and pull her away from the Shadow long enough—

Ah. Maybe this. “How are you and Nox the Eternal Bind when you betrayed him like he described in his Verse?”

Inside Chris’ mind, Celindria closed her eyes and exhaled. She eased her neck to the left. Then to the right. Deep inhale. When Celindria opened her eyes again, she set her sights on him. “I believe it’s time for a reminder on decorum.”

Chris’ body walked over to a wall lined with mirrors. The caged Shadow watched him go. He saw their concerned faces in the reflection, unable to look away. Celindria, herself, grabbed a tool from her workstation behind him. Without seeing it, he knew what it was and how she intended him to use it. They’d played this game the first week of his enslavement, but to do it in front of them…

“Did I strike a nerve, Celindria?” Antagonizing her would only make it worse, but dammit, Chris would grit his teeth and survive this.

Her actual hand, soft and caressing, delivered the tool. Celindria kissed his neck with soft, full lips and a warm wet tongue Chris couldn’t wait to rip out. The tool was metallic and thin. A scalpel. She wouldn’t let him focus on it, keeping eyes focused instead on his family, trapped in that cell.

Inside his head, Celindria stepped over to his naked, prone body—The manifestation of his indentured exhaustion. Her eyes to his, she said, “I need not explain my relationship to you. You understand how a woman must be cruel to be kind, to shape him into the man this galaxy needed. I made Nox into a god.”

Chris spat on the floor at her feet. “That’s some toxic bullshit, and he didn’t seem grateful for your charitable education.”

Pissing Celindria off here was better than paying attention to his hand raising the scalpel with a deliberate pace to draw out the fear of her audience. Inside, she remained silent. Majestically, she turned and swept away from him.

But Chris wasn’t done yet. “What makes you think he and Rayne aren’t the Eternal Bind?”

Celindria stopped. Stopped everything. Walking and breathing.

Chris kept pressing, despite what it would surely cost him. “Nox loved Rayne. I’ve never read the unredacted copy of his Verse, but it’s obvious by it simply existing.” Chris whistled, as if impressed. “And boy, I wouldn’t want her for competition. She’s beautiful, smart, loyal, and kind. Sure, you have two out of four of those traits, but why would he ever have settled for you when he could have her?”

The scalpel stopped, poised to puncture Chris’ eye. Close enough that his lashes blinked on the blade. Involuntary tears leaked from his strained eyelids. Inside his head, he swallowed hard. The tension mounted the longer it took Celindria to act—

Wait.

Her shoulders were shaking. Was she… was she laughing?

Celindria’s soft laughter reached him then. It held an edge as sharp as the scalpel. It tinkered on the inside of his skull, louder and louder.

The pierce of the scalpel drew a wail from inside his head immediately as his eyeball exploded. Behind him, the Shadow screamed and begged her to stop, but there wasn’t any outward reaction from him. Not even as he pulled it out and shoved it back into the socket.

Chris swallowed the sharp metallic pain, only to gather enough air to scream again.

Celindria laughed and laughed. Not even cackled. No, her laughter was beautiful and cold. Just like her.

If Chris could vomit, he would. The blade slicing along the pulped nerve sent a message to his brain to run, cower, and cry. Instead, the white and red ruin gushed down his face and dripped from his jaw without a single twitch of a muscle on his face.

Tameka screamed, “Celindria! Stop! I swear to Elden I will send you to the Wrong Side of Eternity!”

Again, Chris stabbed himself in the eye.

Ross hid against Jack’s chest. The King Regent had busted the bars to the cage, leaving Celindria pointing a gun at his head. Andrius and Devis stared with the same expression. They’d seen this before. Para and Bones glared at Celindria, ready to do something about it.

Fury watched Chris shove the scalpel back in and dig it around, with tears spilling down her face.

That’s as much notice he could pay them, but Chris was ready to pass out. Surely Celindria would let him shut down long enough to heal. How could he be any good to her, exhausted, with a missing eye?

Celindria stopped laughing. The hand holding the scalpel fell to Chris’ side. She folded his body down on his knees in front of the mirror. The hard rock floor cooled into his skin through his gear. It wasn’t soothing. It was just hard. Like her.

Ross made a good point earlier. How could Celindria not feel any of this when Chris was near to blacking out?

“You will never ascend to a high enough elevation of existence to understand my motivations or capabilities. You’ve seen what happens to those who try. Until your nacre heals you, you’ll see now for certain. As best you can see with one eye, and that’s the best anyone can ever hope to see me. From an inferior plane. Good night, toy.”

Celindria’s sudden absence was a rare mercy. Chris’ body grew stiff with shock in a kneeling position. His eye throbbed with each beat of his racing heart—

The Shadow caught his attention in their reflection. T.a.o., Para, and Karter had all recovered their free will. Although they said Karter needed to see Xelan to complete the process, Chris still considered this a win. With their combined abilities, surely they were more than capable of bringing Celindria down—

“You will never ascend to a high enough elevation of existence to understand my motivations or capabilities.”

Celindria’s words put a halt to Chris’ positivity. Her abilities seemed limitless. What if she wanted them here?

Tameka flagged him in the mirror, subtly. He focused on the look in her eyes and the strength within them. With only a nod, Fury restored Chris’ faith in the mission. There was no way in hell she’d lead them to defeat.

Now if only they could wait until Chris’ eye stopped throbbing and regenerated. After all, he deserved a little revenge.