Chapter 70: _Trip Down Death Avenue.
Celeste’s POV
*****
6:30pm, Hybrid Trial
It’s been almost an hour since Caelum and I landed in this pocket dimension. So much had happened already that I didn’t know if I could take any more.
Merely looking at the road ahead made me realise... There were certainly more obstacles. More that would test my limits in ways I wasn’t sure I could take.
The silver-violet path shimmered with faint runes which glowed brighter the further I walked. Also, when I glanced to my right, I realised I could no longer see the crimson road Caelum had taken.
Worry hit me instantly.
Yes, I knew Caelum could handle himself. But remembering our hurdle at those mirrors and how his reflection looked. Those cold, bloodshot eyes—
—That wasn’t my brother.
Yet I knew it could be.
And the same thing went for my reflection.
"That’s the whole fucking point of this thing, huh?" I raised my head, squinting at the storm-ridden sky. "Confronting what makes us dangerous. Instabilities we... Hide away."
My jaw tightened when I recalled my own reflection accusing me of hiding a part of me.
By the gods, WHAT could I have been hiding all my life so much that even I wasn’t aware of it?
Soon, runes I didn’t recognise appeared beneath my feet. Some moved, slithering like little creatures and sending out specks of floating silver-violet light.
On a normal day, I would’ve found it breathtaking. If it wasn’t a trip down Death Avenue.
At one point—I paused.
I pulled out my phone, checking the time again. I’ve been advancing this road for fifteen minutes now.
No attacks. No trees, talk less of possible beasts.
Just my thoughts, the storm above and my beating heart kept me company.
It felt... Awfully lonely. I felt lonely.
"I can do it," I chuckled dryly when I remembered Caelum’s words. "No, brother. I apparently can’t. Not... Not without you. Or them."
Talking to myself was the only thing keeping me sane right now.
I could already sense my mind threatening to spiral into the bonds. Taking in each of their emotions at once in an effort to feel protected.
"Just one minute where they don’t consume my thoughts," I whispered, shoving my phone back into my pocket. "That’s all I ask. It shouldn’t be hard, Cel."
Easy to say but nigh impossible to do.
As I continued weaving deeper into the witch road, a thought struck me.
Or rather, a man. A tall, detached man.
Azrael Vaelmont.
Caelum mentioned how he investigated him and discovered he had zero records outside this academy. None.
Now I knew the man was mysterious but this? There were no explanations or excuses for this.
"Could he be some kind of spy?" I mumbled, afraid people could hear me out in the Expanse. "Gods, this is getting boring. Did the Dean run out of magic when he got to working on this—"
I swear I wish I could eat my words and poop them out in less than a second.
My breath caught, fingers curling into fists. Every hair on my arm stood on end as dread crept along my spine.
The runes.
Their light had been serene, a clearer shade of silver-violet than the road itself.
But before my very eyes, they shifted completely. Turning a shade darker every second—until they became pitch black like ink spilt on a canvas.
"Fuck no." I bolted, not daring to look back.
Still, the runes crawled, already spreading forward until they covered most of the road. I subconsciously jumped over as many as I could, panting and hoping nothing crazy happened.
I just needed to get to the end of this damn road and catch up with Caelum.
Shouldn’t be complicated if I—
’Celeste.’ A voice—eerily familiar and foreign at the same time—echoed in the back of my head. ’How long do you hope to pretend? To ignore me?’
Magic bristled in my blood, raising goosebumps along my arms. "H–Hello?!" I called out.
Silence.
Desperate, I sucked in a breath, glancing back just in case. Safe—if you ignore the blackening runes.
"Wolf, is that you?" For whatever reason, I could feel tears in the back of my eyes. "P–Please, tell me it’s really you. After all these years, please tell me I’m a normal hybrid."
The tears spilt down my face. Every breath was forced, my heart pounding.
’I can’t tell you that, Celeste...’ the voice came again, softer. ’It would be a lie.’
Anger swelled in my gut. "Which part?! That you’re my wolf? Or that I’m a normal hybrid? Listen, if this is another—"
’You aren’t a normal hybrid, Celeste Bloodoak.’ This time when it spoke, dizziness blurred the edges of my vision, making me stumble in my running. ’Far from it. And even you are aware of that.’
Above me, the storm clouds coiled, forming a vortex of lightning, gales and fury. My fury.
I remembered the mate bonds. The fact that a Lupine hasn’t been mated to so many mates ever in the history of wolf kind. Or the fact that I somehow attracted the attention of Vein beasts.
’That’s just surface level.’ The voice sounded lighter now. Feminine. ’Your potential is enough to upend thousands of years of balance. You just have to start accepting what you are. All. Of. It.’
Ghostly howls reverberated around me just then. Distant and silent at first. Until they merged into a distorted cacophony of wails, sobs and pain.
Children. Women. People who had no business haunting me.
Pressing my hands against my ears, I screamed. "Stop this!"
A burst of silver energy left my chest, sweeping around me first before clearing the path ahead.
It was then that I saw it.
The road’s end!
With gritted teeth, I pushed, increasing my footsteps even when my legs ached.
However, the blackening runes had reached a peak, completely painting the ground like darkness itself had picked here as a vacation spot.
No—
’You’ll learn, Celeste.’ That voice came again as the darkness on the road spread out like a miasma, blocking my vision. ’We will learn. In due time.’
As the world around me disappeared into darkness, I felt a presence in my soul. And a howl, rippling through every part of my being—
