Pet: Revelations - Chapter Twenty-Seven (Patreon)

Iris

I watched the Celestivine who stands in the doorway slice through Ezra with a weapon, tear through Xyrannis like it was paper, and hold Remus hostage by the strands of his hair. To see him standing here after what happened on Xyrannis feels wrong. He is a Celestivine who wants Ezra dead, and almost succeeded in doing so. As a matter of fact, I saw the aftermath slowly eat away at Ezra, almost killing him. Yet he stands in the doorway with no remorse, his eyes shifting to me.

Remus immediately steps in front of me, shielding me from the Celestivine’s terrifying gaze, and I am grateful. I’ve barely gotten to the point that I can look Remus in the eyes. And Remus’s eyes, at least, have a softness toward me. This Celestivine does not like that I am here.

“Moyun shulav don?” Remus says, his tone is sharper than I’ve ever heard it.

The Celestivine chuckles, stepping deeper into the room, and I note that Remus moves with him, continuing to shield me. It terrifies me even more that Remus feels the need to do this.

“Veri cleo tsu temien Me'Rite. Zhivan solur myeon kamal,” the Celestivine says, his tone calm.

Silence fills the air. I have no idea what is being said between them, but it doesn’t sound like a good conversation, whatever it is. I flinch when I feel a hand in mine. When I look down, Remus carefully threads his hand in mine, pulling me with him from the desk. But as he moves, he keeps himself between this Celestivine and me. I remember Remus telling me this was his father, but with the way he acts, it’s hard to believe that Remus has so willingly accepted this life as his own when he clearly doesn’t trust this being.

“Braith.” I flinch when Remus suddenly speaks, his tone louder. It isn’t until seconds later that I realize why, as the Celestivine from the other night comes walking in. The unease that I felt in his presence returns as I take in the strange Celestivine that Remus referred to as “of sorts” when I asked if he was a Celestivine.

In the daylight, he looks less frightening, though he still seems like he shouldn’t be walking around with his veins shining through like that. I am sure his appearance, along with the others who look similar to him, has something to do with the disrupted energy that Remus spoke about with Ezra’s injuries. But if that is the case, I don’t see how this Celestivine is okay, while Ezra almost died.

“Omniel,” he says, bowing to Remus’s father. And when he comes to stand in front of Remus, he does the same. “Omleyah.”

Remus ignores him and turns to face me. He is someone else in this moment. I recognize his demeanor, his eyes, and even his expression as the being who discovered Earth. He is cold and unfeeling, none of that changing as he looks into my eyes. I can’t believe he kissed me seconds ago. Right now, he looks as though he could kill me, the glimpse I had of his old self gone in an instant.

“Once I leave, go with him,” he says, placing the book in my hands.

His tone is curt, and he barely spares me a glance as he moves to his father. The Celestivine glances at me briefly, his expression so much like Remus’s that I clutch the book to my chest to keep from shivering. He narrows his gaze slightly, and I am glad when he finally turns away from me and leaves with Remus.

Braith waits for both of them to vacate the study before moving, and I bite back the bitter laugh threatening to leave my lips when I see how similar we are.

“Shall we?” he asks.

The halls are eerily empty as we make our way back to the doors leading to the part of the palace I’ve been staying in. Braith walks with his head held high ahead of me, and I can’t help but be curious about this being. Remus almost killed him the other night, and it doesn’t seem to have fazed him one bit.

“You speak English, right?” I ask, recalling the way he apologized to me the other night.

To my shock, he nods.

“Yes,” he says.

I half expected Remus to have told him not to speak to me.

“How?” I ask.

He’s silent for a moment.

“Your language is similar enough to others that I know. It wasn’t difficult piecing it together,” he says curtly.

“Oh,” I say. I don’t know why I’m shocked. He is a Celestivine, or rather, a form of it.

“About the other night—”

“It wasn’t my place. I apologize—”

“No, don’t. Not again. I’m sure you were caught off guard and were just following orders,” I say.

His footsteps slow, and he slowly turns to face me, briefly looking at me in confusion before turning back to focus on following Remus’s command.

“I thought you were one of us. It’s rare to see a… species other than the Celestivine within these halls, let alone one who looks like us from afar,” he says.

“It must have been a shock,” I say, recalling the way he recoiled when he saw my face.

He doesn’t respond, and after a moment I realize he isn’t going to. I slowly look around, taking in my surroundings. Remus seemed almost distressed when his father entered the room. I’m curious if something bad is happening. He didn’t even bother to give me an explanation, which is what I have learned is his new personality. He doesn’t expect to explain himself.

“You called Remus Omleyah. What does that mean?” I ask, breaking the silence. I’m curious just how Braith sees me. He doesn’t seem adamant about keeping information from me, and I decide to test just how much he’ll reveal with Remus nowhere in sight to stop him.

“It means he is in line to become the Omniel. In our world, they are who rules,” he says without missing a beat.

“So, there hasn’t been an Omleyah since Remus left?” I ask.

Braith shakes his head.

“The Omniel has tried to replace him seven times. Each has ended in a catastrophic failure. It seems the elders knew what they were doing when they…” he trails off, but I know what he’s going to say.

When they paired Remus’s parents.

Until I encountered his mother and all of her vast power, Remus was the most powerful being I had ever met. And still, his father was out there, able to create a weapon from thin air and cut through Ezra like a knife through butter. It’s no wonder he came for Remus if the replacements didn’t pan out.

I keep my attention on Braith as realization dawns on me.

“So…what happened to them? The others?” I ask.

Braith doesn’t respond immediately, and now I can see that I have ventured into the territory that he doesn’t know if he is allowed to share with me.

“They died, of course,” he says.

My blood runs cold at the revelation. “Of course,” I murmur bitterly.

“But died doing what?” I ask in confusion.

Braith shifts his attention past the glass archway.

“The conversion,” he says.

I follow his gaze. In the distance, I can see one of the portals that lead to a place my eyes can’t decipher. To me, it looks pitch black beyond the portal. But Braith seems to be looking further, his eyes taking in what I can’t see.

After multiple failed attempts, I finally look away from the arch, content to focus on what’s around me. That’s when I notice we’ve almost come to the end of our journey, and the doors loom overhead.

“Actually, I don’t want to go back yet,” I say, stopping.

Braith stops as well, turning to face me. He doesn’t seem to think he has any authority over me, I note as he watches me expectantly. Whatever Remus had to go do was urgent enough that he didn’t give Braith any rules to follow when it came to me, and he seems to think I have authority over him.

I smile, pulling the book behind my back as I look around.

“Show me the palace.”

Remus

I’ve been looking forward to this day from the moment we arrived. My mother’s banishment. If it were up to me, I would have given her a long and drawn-out death. But once again I am at the mercy of councils, and Celestivine are prohibited from killing one another. In the weeks since the decision to grant her banishment, the council has been meticulously planning it out. The location, the duration, and her duties during that time have all been carefully planned to make her pay for what she’s done.

To watch her face when she realizes what I have planned for her banishment helps get rid of the irritation at being interrupted with Iris. My cock still throbs as I try to force myself to come down from my lust to focus. Iris has only ever initiated anything between us three times. And one of those moments was when she thought she was tricking me into teaching her to learn so she could get more information for the rebels.

I still smile at that memory. Seeing her take charge and bait me into teaching her the Leviathan language is a side to her that I’ve always enjoyed. She likes to argue with me about my people being the reason she never made it through her educational system, but she is smart regardless. She’s always been highly intelligent.

Which is why I gave her the book of basics.

I didn’t realize it would mean so much to her, though. And had my mother’s banishment not been decided, Kuron never would have entered unannounced.

“I see you still have yet to give the human your essence,” Kuron says, pulling me out of my thoughts.

“Now isn’t the time,” I say, hoping he’ll drop it.

Now that I’ve crossed the line with Iris, I don’t trust myself with her. I don’t know how giving her my essence in this state will affect her, or even me. I know I’ve frightened her a few times just by being myself. There’s no telling how much more intense my obsession will grow when she is a part of me. Even thinking about it now causes me to lose focus.

Kuron chuckles next to me.

“How do you expect to produce the next Omniel with a being like that?” he asks.

I scoff.

“I don’t,” I say.

Iris asked something similar earlier, forcing me to recall the painful burden I carry alone. I’ve never cared for lines or legacies. I didn’t even have a chance to think about what having a child with Iris would look like. Her simple question in the study made me realize just how little I care about having a child capable of my abilities.

Honestly, I prefer one more like Iris than me.

“You will have to produce an heir, Remus. Once we return, I will look into an arrangement—”

“Don’t bother,” I say.

Kuron places his hand on my chest, the energy field I keep around me humming as his hand hovers over it. His expression is serious as he watches me.

“This is not a negotiation, Remus. What do you think will happen once you are no longer capable of the conversion? Only certain Celestivine are capable,” he says, his anger flaring.

“I am well aware,” I say, moving his hand out of the way.

“This is an inevitable outcome. You can only put it off for so long—”

“I said, I am well aware,” I say, shoving past him.

Ryuk is alive with the knowledge of Me’Rite’s impending banishment. It is a spectacle reserved for only the highest-ranking Celestivine as they travel from far and wide to witness a rarity among our kind. Not only is the former partner of the Omniel being banished, but she ran away from this world, abandoning all laws and principles.

She was a promising Celestivine, her power rivaling even my father, which is why their union was such a big deal. It yielded the perfect results. If only she had at least left me behind when she escaped, she may have never been found. But she wanted to make my father suffer—make the world she came from suffer.

I shift my attention across the arena. Kuron stands among the council, content to give me space after his misstep earlier. I know he will not let this arrangement go. I can only hope that I can find a solution sooner rather than later so that it doesn’t keep coming back.

I look away from him as boredom sets in. I remember Ryuk well. When I was a child, I would come here with Celise. At the time, it was known for its entertainment and grand halls. I have yet to set foot outside of Euoua since arriving, and now I am curious about the changes that have occurred since I was taken.

Not for myself, but for Iris.

I’m sure she would find this world fascinating. I make a mental note to take her to see more of it after the conversion. Even now, as I look up at the sky, I can see signs of the prior conversion failing. Kuron’s desperation isn’t unwarranted.

“Remus!” I look up to see Ezra approaching.

I am shocked to see Xion right next to him. She’s clearly started feeding again, but I can see from a glance she isn’t back to full strength. I wasn’t expecting her to show up to this, not when she still hadn’t gotten over what happened to the man she cared about.

“Brother,” I say, pulling Ezra into an embrace. Though he wears a smile, I can make his discomfort from a mile away. Not only that, but his energy is off. As if he’s been transferring it. But I don’t say anything. Not here.

I look at Xion, giving her the best smile that I can as I hold my arms out.

“I wasn’t expecting to see you,” I say, pulling her into a hug as well. Her energy is still weak, and I take the opportunity to give her some of mine before she steps out of my embrace.

“I wouldn’t miss looking the woman who took Noah from me in the eyes,” she says, her rage palpable as she looks around.

I understand that rage all too well.

“Well, I’m glad to see you regardless,” I say.

Xion gives me a silent nod, looking around.

“They really are making a spectacle of this,” she says, eyeing the Celestivine that continue to pour in.

“This is a once in a lifetime event. No one would miss this,” I say, following her gaze.

I note that Kuron has noticed both hers and Ezra’s presence. He keeps his expression neutral from this distance, but I know that he is internally fuming about Ezra. He has made his stance on Ezra’s existence very clear among the Celestivine of the palace. But Xion and I stand behind Ezra. He will have to adapt if he wants us to keep cooperating.

I turn away from the arena, gesturing to both of my siblings.

“Come. Let us say our goodbyes,” I say, leading them to where Me’Rite is being held.