Stone Cold

Chapter 61

In those few seconds, all her life had flashed before her eyes, from her journey to finding her mother to giving birth to her own daughter. So much had changed in such little time.

She had prepared herself for the worst possible outcome the moment Cyrus yanked her by her throat but the sweet embrace of death never came.

He didn’t let it engulf her.

“Let her go, father.”

Her eyes fluttered open as the air carrying his words gently caressed her skin. It was a voice that she had recently become familiar with. The burst of warmth she had experienced in that moment was enough to make her forget about the death grip Cyrus had on her fragile neck.

Despite being on his knees, Cyrus’ built was large enough to hide a fully grown human male behind it yet she was clearly able to see Felix’s shoulder-length silver tresses hanging over Cyrus’ head. His normally frosty eyes had transformed into a pair of dark rubies fixated on the back of his father’s head.

“My father is a powerful pureblood. Ares will not be able to defeat him with strength alone. You will be needing an element of surprise, a variable to my father’s carefully thought-out plan. I’ll be that variable.”

‘Is this what he was referring as his element of surprise?’

He had his usual impassive expressions plastered on his face, spare for his eyes which had failed to hide his agony.

“I’ll protect you and your daughter as I promised, but not at the cost of harming my own father.”

‘He said he won’t harm his father. Then why did he do it?’

Suddenly, a squelch echoed in the large room causing her to trail her eyes down to Felix’s hand. His forearm was buried deep into Cyrus’ chest. A frown settled on her face as she realized what had happened. Felix was holding Cyrus’ heart in his hand. He hadn’t detached it from its place but just a small tug and his heart would immediately lose its connection from its surrounding vessels.

She realized in that second that Felix didn’t intend on killing his father. He was only forcing him to stay motionless.

“Whatever happens, at the end of it all you and your daughter will be safe.”

‘Did he do it because I got myself involved in the fight and he had sworn his loyalty to me? Did I push him into sacrificing his last family member for my own selfish sake?’

A dreadful feeling settled into the pit of her stomach as this thought dawned over her.

In that moment, all of them had lost their composure, particularly Cyrus. She could feel his grip had loosened significantly on her neck and this had not gone undetected by Ares’ eyes. As soon as Cyrus’s hold weakened, she saw a large hand digging its fingers into Cyrus’ arm tugging it away from her neck. Before she knew, a powerful push was sending her flying halfway across the room, far away from Cyrus.

“Argh!”

A loud moan escaped out of her mouth as her shoulder made a painful impact with the wall on her right side.

Clutching her possibly broken shoulder in her other hand, she slowly stood up, supporting her weight against the wall before she turned around to register the events that had led to her present condition.

Ares was no longer on his knees. He was standing tall, his arm penetrated more into Cyrus’ chest cavity whilst both of Cyrus’ hands were dangling by his side.

Cyrus’ hold hadn’t only loosened on her neck, it had grown weaker inside Ares’ chest too, giving him an opening to free himself and grip his perpetrator’s heart into his own hand, before pushing Faith out of the way.