His words slithered in my mind, sending my stomach plummeting to the ground at my feet. Arius had taken Kahleena as leverage, while Kahleena thought he was her mate. So why would Arius need Zahruk? Unless he’d selected him specifically? If Arius controlled Zahruk, who knew every secret and trained every soldier, it would be catastrophic. Zahruk knew every one of our fail safes and battle strategies because he’d created them himself.
“Kahleena thinks Arius is her mate,” I disclosed softly, glancing to my right as Spyder stepped out of the shadows. His expression was one of shock as shadows drifted around his frame, slithering over his fingers like they were caressing them lovingly. “How long have you been hiding in the shadows?” I asked curiously.
Spyder didn’t reply before he flicked a glance to the cages and clapped his hands, activating the wards that prevented those within the cells from hearing anything being said beyond the four walls that trapped them.
“What the fuck did you just say?” he demanded, roving his gaze over my face. I repeated it, and he slowly shook his head. “That’s impossible. Arius, Heir and Prince of Etherlands, cannot be your daughter’s mate.”
“Actually, that’s exactly what I just said, Spyder,” I countered with apprehension and confusion.
“Where the fuck did you hear that name, and why the hell would you think he’s anything to your daughter?”
“He’s who took Kahleena and also who abducted me from the office the day you walked in to find Zahruk and I stabbing each other. Kahleena was given a vision of him as her mate,” I disclosed, frowning when he laughed and shook his head in denial.
“That isn’t possible.”
“Why?” I countered hesitantly as he continued slowly moving his head back and forth.
“Arius was locked inside the mansion two thousand years ago.” Spyder turned, peering through the cell at Zahruk, whose eyes shimmered and became the color of liquefied silver. “He’s a calculated, twisted son of a bitch, Synthia. The fates wouldn’t be that cruel to Kahleena.”
“How do you know that?” Ryder asked hesitantly.
“He’s my son,” Spyder replied softly while holding Zahruk’s silver glare.
Chapter Twenty-Two
The entire corridor went so silent I doubted a single person was even breathing as Spyder’s announcement reverberated like a war drum around us. Alden had even abandoned his rage and was watching Spyder just as intently as Zahruk was. The mercurial coloring of their intense stares revealed the truth of Arius’s threat of having eyes on us. He had the ability to watch us through the eyes of those infected. Arius was able to merely slide in, and see whatever he wanted as long as he had someone infected in the vicinity he sought to spy on.
“Say what?” I countered, gaping at Spyder’s statement. “I’m sorry, but I think I misheard you. He’s your what now?” I was trying to soothe the rapid beat of my heart, which pounded hard and so fast I feared I’d black out.
“Not in the way you’re thinking. I didn’t fuck someone and make him. I created Arius with magic, using my blood, a sliver of essence from Lucian, Nyx, and Eris, to formulate and produce something no one could destroy. It worked, but it worked a little too well. He surpassed every expectation and was brilliantly ruthless. I didn’t give him the capacity to love anything other than himself, so if he is her mate, he likely has no idea. Honestly, I’m not sure why no one tried to stop me when I created him. It was a bad fucking idea from conception,” Spyder explained, flicking a look of consternation at Lucian, who grunted.
“Arius severed our link and went mad with the need for destruction and mayhem. That is why he ended up in the mansion, the one place I’d been confident he wouldn’t be able to free himself from.” Spyder looked proud that Arius had bested him, which made me want to throttle him a little. Okay, that was a lie. I wanted to throttle the smug, proud creator of the little monster.
My mouth hung open, and the world spun around me while I attempted to wrap my head around what he’d just said. The implications of Arius being that old and powerful were as vast as my horror that such a creature held my baby girl hostage.
“You’re telling me that your fucking creation stole my daughter?” I enunciated every single word, watching as he spun and grimaced at my horrified, pale complexion. “A fucking titan has my child?”
He blew out the air from his lungs and shuffled his feet before pegging me with a guilty stare. “That’s pretty much the gist of it, I’m afraid.” Spyder shoved his hands into his pockets and shook his head. “I never imagined this would happen. He shouldn’t have been able to unravel the time riddle to escape the mansion, but clearly, he did. Obviously, I miscalculated just how intelligent he would become.”
“I did not see that coming,” Lena muttered with a tremble in her tone. “Oh, Spyder, you fucked up.”
Lucian stood behind Lena, laughing without offering Spyder any pity. He tenderly pulled Lena back, sliding powerful arms around her before setting his chin on his shoulder, smiling roguishly. Midnight-blue depths shifted from amused to worried as he looked at Spyder.
“Why are you looking like you’re about to throw up?” Lucian inquired carefully.
“Because if the person who has Kahleena really is Arius, he’s not just a fucking titan,” Spyder disclosed, groaning while he rubbed his eyes. “He’s the fucking essence of the ether, which is what fuels magic throughout the entire universe.”
“Fuck,” I whispered with horror blazing in my eyes. “Jesus fuck, this isn’t happening.” I gripped my hair, yanking on it while the entire room gawked at Spyder. “Can you find him? Can you do anything to stop him?” I spewed the questions out rapidly as the implications of what he just said played like background music in my mind.
“Maybe,” Spyder admitted, rubbing his thumb over his bottom lip. “I’m not sure I can do it without him realizing I’m looking for him. It might speed up the timeline of whatever he’s planning. If Arius is here, then nothing you do will stop him. Long before Danu entered this world and claimed ownership, it was a void of life, and the perfect place to create and test my ability to build a magic system. I then created Arius and used him as the source of power and unleashed him inside this realm. I wasn’t even certain if he would live, but he did.”
A shiver shot through me, wrapping my heart in a layer of fear before it tightened, and squeezed painfully. I hadn’t thought it possible that things could get worse, but the universe was having a good laugh at my expense.
“The land changed once he was here. This realm was no longer an empty void of landmasses. It took shape and life the moment it adhered, and claimed Arius as its power source. In accepting him, the world began to flourish and grow into something unseen before. Creatures were drawn to it, as well as gods and goddesses. The thing is this: Arius was the source of magic to this realm as well as any realm attached to it.” He paused to exhale before starting up again. “Danu merely added her own, which was weaker than the ether Arius offered the world. He’s able to fuel anywhere he is with primordial magic, which hasn’t been seen since he was locked away two thousand years ago. Now that he’s reemerged, it’s returning, and Faery has started to revert to what it was when it was the Etherlands.”