Throne of Glass: unOrdinary Fanfic

(6) Of Deals and Devils Dens part 5

Confrontations are made, secrets traded, and gambling with lives is no easy feat

...

Athena took a deep breath. "This past year my organization developed a new product that will change the world as we know it. Combining different elements of chemical engineering, technology, and Aura Manipulation..."

"We've invented something capable of permanently disabling someone's ability." She stared unblinking, cold. John felt a chill run through him from her gaze, his eyes widening in shock.

"What? That's..."

"Impossible? The thing about our family, John. Is that we tend to achieve what the world believes to be unachievable, because that's our inherit right. To challenge and bend the rules to create something unheard of..." her voice trailed off, and her mercury eyes seemed to harden.

"If you don't comply with our terms and agree to work with us as the Nightingale within 42 days, we will use this product and disable Seraphina's ability."

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February 12 2x26, Sunday 7:09 pm, Yellow Meadow Cafe (Lovun)

At first there was this heavy fog clouding John's consciousness, wrought with disbelief. But then too suddenly it all shifted on a tilting axis, the world flipping upside down. Tumbling, twisting, contorting until it morphed into this nightmarish h*llscape.

Images of Sera, bruised and bloody, horrible gashes raked across her face, red dripping from the crown of her head and out of her mouth, crushed under the inescapable fate that comes from being crippled in this super-human society. The same fate he's had to endure for fifteen years of his miserable life. There was no way in h*ll he was going to let that happen to her.

Because Sera didn't deserve it like he did.

John wouldn't let them break her like that, like they broke him.

He couldn't.

Athena wanted to take away her ability? When she had only finally broke free of the weight of those heavy chains the d*mned Hierarchy cast onto her? When she's only had a true taste of freedom for barely over a year?

His sister, the same one who taught him so many things, took care of him so many times, wanted to hurt the only person who he valued more than life itself? The reason he got out of bed every morning?

It was all so hazy, and yet his mind reeled trying to organize the disarrayed mess that now consumed him. There was this burning like a maelstrom in his chest, churning every rational thought into the abyss. The need to destroy was harnessed into a red hot javelin, slicing through the white mist and dispersing it. Everything became clear, vivid in its clarity.

He immediately recoiled, muscles tensed with rigid spasms, preparing to spring at any hint of Athena acting on her threat. John heard the blaring wail of the warning signs he'd set up get drowned out by his raging blood rushing through his ears, his heartbeat thundering in his chest. And like a flash of lightning, an unbridled festering storm, Aura gathered and swelled throughout him. Power that hadn't been used for nearly two years shot out of the depths towards the surface of his skin, eager to be called upon. He felt it thrum like a swarm of angry wasps, buzzing through and numbing his limbs with adrenaline.