A MORTAL'S BERGAIN
1213 Words
Chapter 21
The heavens trembled.
“Why do you summon me, mortal?”
The voice was thunder and ocean all at once, echoing through her bones. Alexa staggered, clutching her chest as the sound nearly drove her to her knees. The stars themselves quivered in their sockets. She spun, and he was there—behind her, vast and terrible, a silhouette of silver hair cascading like liquid moonlight.
Lucian. The ancient being.
The very air around him bent and shivered, reality struggling to contain his presence. His eyes, aglow with a brilliance too sharp to bear, fastened upon her.
“I—I didn’t summon you,” Alexa gasped, backing away though her feet slipped uselessly across the glassy stone. “I don’t know how I came here.” Her words came out in broken sobs, fear pressing ice into her veins. “I only… I only wanted help.”
Lucian’s aura surged, and the wind lashed at her face. His expression darkened.
“Help?” His voice cracked across the summit like the rending of worlds. “You call out in weakness, clawing at shadows, and the fabric of realms answers? Pathetic. Do you know where you stand, mortal? Do you know what it costs to trespass here?”
Alexa’s legs nearly buckled, but desperation clawed louder than fear. She raised her tear-streaked face. “I have no one else! Tomorrow—they’ll destroy me. They’ll chain me to a corpse and bury me alive in a marriage I cannot escape. I… I’ll die there!”
Her cry tore out of her like blood from a wound.
Lucian’s gaze sharpened, his fury still towering but no longer roaring. He studied her in silence, cold scrutiny in every line of his face. His hand lifted, fingers splaying like pale branches.
“Then let us see.”
A flick of his wrist. Power surged.
The sky behind him swirled into black glass, a mirror vast as the horizon. Alexa gasped as she felt something invasive slip across her soul—like cold fingers trying to peel open her heart.
But then—nothing.
Lucian’s brows knit. His power struck again, deeper, searching—yet the glass remained blank. The girl before him, trembling and fragile, revealed nothing.
His eyes narrowed, though he masked his surprise with indifference. Impossible. Every being left an imprint, a trail of memory, a thread of existence. But this mortal—this Alexa—was veiled, unreadable.
He lowered his hand slowly, his voice rolling low, like the growl of distant thunder. “Name. Give me your family’s name.”
Alexa’s throat tightened. She hesitated, then whispered: “Anderson. The Anderson family.”
The sound of many waters thundered in his voice as he repeated it—Anderson. Each syllable reverberated like a tide crashing against eternity. Alexa’s stomach twisted, but against her terror came that strange, forbidden heat again. The same pull she’d felt the first night—the way his presence ignited something inside her, something that terrified and enticed her all at once. Attraction. Desire.
Lucian waved his hand.
The mirror flared, no longer blank but alive. Images shimmered into focus: the Anderson mansion cloaked in night, its gates bristling with guards, its halls swarming with restless movement. Brooks pacing like a general. Mirabel smirking, though unease flickered in her eyes. Emily watching like a hawk. Mr. Pablo grim, guilt etched into his face as he directed the guards.
Alexa’s breath hitched. To see it all displayed before her, painted in living flame—she trembled, knees buckling as the vastness of his power crashed over her.
He flicked his hand again.
In an instant, the starry summit dissolved. The world rippled, reshaping itself. Alexa blinked—and found herself standing at the center of an impossible hall.
A celestial divine court.
Pillars of translucent crystal rose higher than mountains, inscribed with shifting constellations. The floor shone like glassy water, reflecting endless galaxies. At the far end, atop obsidian steps, Lucian’s throne loomed—a seat carved from living stone, vast enough for giants. Upon it, he sat, draped in silver radiance, his aura cascading like waves of light.
He rose.
Alexa’s breath locked in her throat. Standing, his form seemed infinite, immense, his hair spilling like a silver river, his aura shimmering until the air itself warped around him. He descended from the throne, each step shaking the hall.
His voice filled the chamber. “Why do you think I would help you?”
Alexa’s lips trembled. Her voice broke, but she forced the words out. “Because… because you can. Because you don’t have to save me forever. Just—just make me disappear. Take me far from that mansion. Or—put me to sleep. Deep sleep. A coma. Just for tomorrow. Just enough to escape the engagement… the marriage. I promise to repay you in anyway you want me to”
Her words tumbled over each other in desperation. “Please.”
Lucian’s eyes burned. “ You've got nothing that's of use to me and mortals do not bargainsl with me.”
He took another step, towering above her, his shadow draping over her like night. His aura pressed against her skin until her veins lit with fire, until blood trickled from her nose. Her body shook as though it would come apart simply from standing in his presence.
“If I choose to help you,” he intoned, each word heavy as a mountain, “you will not return unchanged.”
Alexa’s chest heaved. Her vision blurred, but she held her ground. “Then change me. I don’t care. I can’t stay there. I’d rather burn than be buried alive in chains.”
Lucian studied her in silence, his gaze unfathomable.
At last, he spoke: “You will not be spared suffering. But your chains… might be broken.”
His hand lifted, light gathering in his palm like stormfire. “I will set a seal upon your soul. It will last forty-eight hours. In that span, you will fall into a sleep beyond waking.”
Alexa’s heart stuttered. Forty-eight hours. Two days. By the time she stirred, the engagement would be over. The Blackwoods, humiliated, would withdraw. Brooks’s precious alliance would collapse.
A fragile, dangerous hope sparked in her chest.
They will see me as a curse, she thought feverishly. The Blackwoods will never accept me again. And my father—he will have nothing left to force upon me.
Her lips parted, trembling. “Yes. Do it.”
Lucian’s gaze hardened, unreadable, as though weighing something vast and hidden.
“You will be marked,” he warned. Others would sense it.
"Who are the others?? Alexa asked in her heart but didn't dare to ask aloud, chosing not to dwell on it, she nodded, breath ragged. “I don’t care. Please.”
Lightning flared in his hand, raw power arcing like veins of silver fire.
Alexa’s body shook, yet she raised her hand. Slowly, fearfully, desperately—toward his.
The world hushed.
Power swirled.
Their hands hovered inches apart, the ancient and the mortal, a pact hovering at the edge of birth.
And just before their skin touched, the Celestial Court convulsed with light—an unholy covenant beginning to form.
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