Chapter 137: The Forbidden Secret
"Hello, kid."
Killian had half-heartedly expected the cloak to speak to him. Even if he didn’t smell like blood anymore.
He kept his gaze on the lower area where a body should be.
"Kid?" Killian scoffed. "You don’t sound much older than me. How do you control this from wherever you are?"
Silence.
"Shouldn’t your first question be why I don’t show my face?"
Killian noticed the taxi drive back to the road. He returned his attention back to the cloak floating in front of him. "Well, you want it that way, no? I understand wanting privacy."
"Oh. Well, all those with forbidden elements have to do to hide to appear in public."
Killian’s eyes widened slightly. His foot moved before his mind could stop it, closing the distance between them. "Forbidden element?"’
The cloak moved towards him after he stepped forward. "Yes, Forbidden element. It’s hard to get into the academy if you have one, but it’s better than getting locked up underground."
All the nerves in Killian’s body were at a standstill, but his senses were more active than ever.
’Is this a set-up? How can he just admit in front of a stranger that he had a forbidden element?’ He forced a faint smile, one that crooked a bit at the edge.
"I assumed all those with Forbidden Elements got killed or worse." He didn’t know how his face looked.
Suspicious, worried, totally unaffected by the absurdity of the last few seconds, likely all of the above.
Killian looked away from the cloak since there wasn’t a face to make eye contact. "And what’s that about getting locked underground? I have never heard about it before."
"Really? I shouldn’t tell you then. It gets scary." The cloak floated towards the hospital’s entrance when someone walked out. "See you later, Kid."
Killian hoped they never crossed paths again. He nodded at it and watched it slip into the hospital before the opened door closed.
He kept looking at it as it passed the receptionist table, but the lady didn’t have a reaction and it was almost as if she didn’t see it.
"Am I in trouble?"
"I can’t place a finger on it but this is different from the case of Pixie. You are likely just being monitored. And that is arguably worse."
A heavy sigh left Killian as he continued to the road. From the Void’s words, Pixie and this guy were connected to a Forbidden Element so their interest in him was because they sensed he was as well.
On the surface that could read like he should trust them, but not all Forbidden Element users banded together during their fight against erasure.
Back then, according to the limited information he saw in old archives on the internet, the Mages of Forbidden Elements fought against alone and lost.
"Even if they want to work alone now, it will be to what end? He just brought to light that not every Forbidden Element User gets killed."
"Yes, with how rare but ’random’ being a Forbidden Element User could be, if a son of a higher ranked family became one, he would be less likely be killed for it."
Killian remembered his older sister had said that too. "I can’t take the chance anymore. Since I hid it from them all the whole, and even evolved."
"Taking the chance might mean your physical body being locked up, and your consciousness and soul tied to something inanimate. Yes, you certainly can not take the chance."
Killian stood at the side of the road, cars zooming past him despite his hand out to signal a taxi. He looked back at the hospital, remembering the cloak.
"I hope I never see that guy again."
A taxi slowed down in front of him, and he got in. The text notification he got on his way had a new ID so he could easily guess it would be Theodore.
He covered his face with his hands all through the ride, preparing himself for the grueling hours of being with someone with many personalities.
He reached the academy’s building and alighted from the car. He paused when he locked eyes with the taxi driver.
"You... again?" It was the same taxi he rode to arrive at the hospital, and the same one the cloak guy had alighted from. The old woman smiled softly.
"Did you enjoy your ride?"
For the most part, she sounded like an old lady and didn’t seem to be wearing the skin of someone else.
’I don’t even know why I would suspect that." Killian subtly rubbed his temple as he handed her payment to her.
"I did. Thanks." He hurried into the academy’s building. Uncertainties were stacking up around him and he no longer felt confident in his deductions.
He raised his phone to send a text to Reginald but lowered it when he remembered he never took his number. He opened the new ID’s text.
[Unknown Number]
’Are you free?’
’I’m at the second training room.’
’Alone.’
After rereading the text, Killian closed his phone and forced them into his pocket. His brows knitted toegther while he walked. "Why does he start nice and end with some kind of threat?"
"I realized I had given you teenagers more credit. Theodore might be bad at communicating, like you and Keith."
Killian arrived at the stairs, leading to the second training room. "Don’t lump me in with them." That was his only line of defense.
Knock. Knock.
He heard something creeping towards the door, and it jammed.
BAM!
Killian stepped away from the door. A cold air fanned over his skin and he shrank away from the door knob. He heard the lock snap and the door jammed open itself, before being pulled open.
Ephraim peeked from the small opening. "It’s you."
"Yeah..." Killian stood there, hands hanging by his side.
’What is that cold atmosphere in there? It is as if I’m walking to the top of a mountain.’
He met the icy blank gaze of the younger brother and could only feel unsettled. He looked at the door, and wondered what exactly waited for him behind it.
’Best ending, we just train for his fight. Worst ending, we just fight."
