The Omega Bond (Book Five in the Omega Game series)

Chapter 3

Didoka

City of Leukos, The Dark Desert

Present day…

If dragons could walk in dresses then Nira was the very representation of a dragon queen. She was dressed in an intricate green stola that covered her arms and half of her hands, it fell decadently on the floor while she walked from one corner of the room to the other. Her red hair was a wild mess of curls that bounced with every step she took. The sunlight coming from the open windows highlighted the overly presumptuous jewels she was wearing. A golden tiara on her forehead, a choker made of gold and emeralds on her delicate neck and gigantic golden rings in every single finger of her hands. She looked like a queen, a deadly, angered queen, that was about to cut heads if anyone dared to bring up the subject of Fair.

By my left Katala was dressed in a blue stola that made the violet in her eyes look even lighter, like the lilac of some flowers that grew around the Yellow Islands. Their correct name was Emelinas Lilacas, an edible flower if I remembered correctly. Among its many properties they could be dried and drunk in teas that calmed the nerves. It was a common remedy among pregnant women in the Yellow Islands. And they could also alleviate symptoms like headache, nausea and…

“Stop thinking,” said Kun, taking my fingers out of my mouth. I’d been nibbling on my nails again. I always did that whenever I was nervous. I frowned, staring down at my hand, which looked comically small in contrast to Kun’s much bigger one. I looked up to my mate and through our bond I felt his worry. It was easy to get lost in his gray eyes any other day, but today they were haunted by the shadow of the concern he felt for the conversation that was about to go down. So far nobody had brought up the matter of the Neutralizer but I could see in everyone’s faces that things were about to go down.

Noctis had taken a seat by the right side of the Wolf and both of them had been talking in low undertones since we had arrived. Baltus looked worried while he talked with Zeke and Killuna by the other side of the round table and Leukos had been impassively overseeing the entire scene unfolding before her eyes. When the doors of the room opened we all moved at the same time, facing the two lonely figures that entered the space with somber expressions. Aros and Ang nodded their heads when entering and then parted ways.

“She is not attending the meeting,” said Aros to all of us, going straight to Nira and gently cupping her cheek. They shared a silent message with their eyes while Ang kept walking to the table and silently took his seat between Zeke and Killuna. They had been tasked to bring Fair to our meeting. It had been two days since she hadn’t allowed Ang or any other god to come close to her, opting by sequestering herself in her room and only letting Nira go in. I looked to Ang and found him scowling at the table while holding his wounded arm to his chest. It was covered in white bandages all the way from his fingers to his shoulder. I had a look at it the day before and it appeared he was healing well enough, albeit a little slowly, considering that as a god he could heal faster than other Alphas.

What Fair had done to him would probably leave a scar on his arm. One look at his worried face and I knew what happened had already left deeper scars in their relationship than the one in his arm. Fair was the Neutralizer, a weapon that could kill gods. Wounding Ang was only a miniscule show of what she was capable of doing. Such raw power couldn’t be contained, nor controlled. It could only be adapted. And adapting took time. Years even. If my calculations were right it would probably take from five to ten years for Fair to learn how to use her powers and that was only if she found a way to control them without hurting all gods in the process. What had happened to Ang didn’t even cover the tip of the iceberg.

“Of course she is not attending!” growled Nira, pushing her arms up and stepping away from Aros' embrace. Her pale blue eyes swept across the room and focused on me. My friend started walking to the table, crossing her arms over her chest in a defensive pose, “She is scared after what happened. Didoka, you must talk to her. Make Fair understand that what happened wasn’t wrong. She is just a child, she didn’t mean to hurt Ang.”

“She didn’t,” intervened Ang right away, pushing his wounded arm up for all of us to see, “It doesn’t even hurt. It was nothing.”

“Lower that arm right now Ang Wolfson or there would be consequences,” threatened Leukos with a chilly tone that made the short hairs at my nape stand to their ends. Ang dropped the arm so fast that it would have been almost comical in any other situation. After an almost frigid silence Baltus broke the awkward moment with an easy laugh, pointing at the plates full of Basbousa pastries covering the center of the table.

“Why don’t we all relax a little bit? Right? We are all so tense! Nira, you might want to sit down and have Basbousa. They are still steaming hot and so fresh. Just like you like them,” Baltus smiled, his withered face frank and open. I was starting to realize the silver fox was the member of the family that acted as leverage between every single member. Basbousa was Nira’s favorite dessert. Whoever had brought them had known previously that she would be the hardest member of the family to placate. Nira shook her head, resuming her walk around the room and ignoring the Basbousa altogether.

“Fair needs me right now,” she said to everyone, staring at us over her delicate shoulder, “I don’t have the time to entertain this conversation longer than is needed. I’m only here because I know you will make a decision regarding my daughter and I will not let any of you steal that right from her. Whatever happens, and I mean whatever happens, I will only accept Fair’s decision about this entire matter. I don’t care if she is the Neutralizer or a goddess, or a beam of sunlight. She is mine and I will protect her to the very end!”

“No one is trying to make decisions for her,” said Noctis from his chair, leveling Nira with one of his feral looks. Nira stopped, narrowing his eyes at him. I could feel the air crackling in the room. The atmosphere changed, turning tenser and colder. If stares could kill then Nira’s eyes were sweeping the floor with Noctis’s head.

“Let me remind you that Fair is above everything else an Omega. Excuse me for being crude, but you know s**t about others making decisions for you Noctis. I would accept that coming from Didoka, Katala or Leukos, but from you? Not a chance. Tell me, what have you all planned for her? Hmm? Getting her away from here? Hiding her? Protecting her? All those are decisions made by Alphas, to ensure balance and peace. Damn that! And f**k everyone that tries to take my daughter’s decision away from her!” Nira hissed and I’ve never seen her look as angry as right then. I’ve never seen her look as ferocious and savage. She would be, without a doubt, the most furious mother this world had known. And I was glad Fair had a mother like her, that would protect her to the very end, regardless of who she had to fight or what she had to do to ensure her happiness and wellbeing. I’d never had that and Fair was damn lucky to have Nira.

Katala pushed her chair back and got up, opening her palms in a placating gesture and holding Nira’s wild glare, “We don’t want to make decisions for Fair. But we need to discuss our options. Something needs to be done, after all, we found the Neutralizer and we previously agreed on bringing Mourna down after we found the weapon that could kill gods.”

“That was before knowing that Fair is the Neutralizer!” hissed Nira back at her cousin. Katala clenched her jaw, staring pointedly at Nira. They had never fought before, I really didn’t know what I would do if things came down to those two fighting each other.

“She is the Neutralizer,” said Leukos then, making everyone back down for a bit with her calming voice, “Regardless of who she is, or what she represents for all of us. Fair is the Neutralizer. Her childhood is over and she knows that. The kid is probably terrified and after what happened...she needs time to come to terms with her new reality.”

“We don’t have time,” Wolf’s voice was like a hammer, nailing the most important reminder of this entire discussion down. His black eyes focused on Nira and then on Aros, who stayed by the middle of the room, staring at his mate with a worried glance, “She can’t stay in the Dark Desert. Is dangerous here. Mourna will come looking for her. The entire world will come looking for her. She already is in danger, whether you like it or not.”

“Then I will destroy every single one of them!” screamed Nira, her blue eyes turning red and scary. Teran was probably as angry as she was and it would only take one more push for them both to lose control over themselves. I could see it. Nira hit her chest with a fist, pointing her hand to the world outside,“ Starting with Mourna and the rest of the f*****g world! She is just a child! She didn’t ask for any of this! Whatever happens she is just a child! She is...she is...”

Aros acted fast, going for his mate in two steps. He had probably felt through their bond that Nira was reaching her limit because the moment he touched her Nira started crying. In silence Aros placed her head against his middle and gently massaged her head, letting her cry. He shook his head at us and we all nodded, understanding that Nira needed a second to gather her wits. I waited for a moment, opening my mouth and then closing it, before deciding it was time to share my hypothesis about the entire situation.

“We don’t have time, but we need it,” I said slowly, and every single person looked at me in attention. I cleared my throat and tried to speak louder, “The Neutralizer...it is a weapon, but not a simple one. Weapons need to be wielded, unsheathed, and used like one will use an arrow and bow. The Neutralizer has a mind of its own. It cannot be used. I might have awakened her powers by using the old tongue, but that’s only temporary. Something tells me Fair will not react the same way if I say the same words to her again. We didn’t think about this before, because we didn’t know the Neutralizer was Fair, but she needs to grow unto her powers. Right now it would be pointless to face Mourna even if we have her. She wouldn’t know how to use her own powers against him.”

“Are you sure about this?” asked Killuna, making me pause and tilt my head to the sides while I contemplated all the different variables of this algorithm.

“Yes and no,” I said slowly, “I’ve read a lot more about the Neutralizer in these past days. The Neutralizer is depicted as a separate consciousness from the old gods, a judge of sorts. It uses its powers at will and not when ordered by anyone. Whenever I see images of the Neutralizer it looks like a grown man, already in full control of his powers. I have no idea how Fair ended up being the Neutralizer.”

“So, is she a man?” asked Zeke with a frown. Ang slapped the back of his head, making his young brother hiss in pain and look back at him in surprise, “What? It’s only fair to ask! And Killuna can’t see anything about her, not her past, present or future. She is a blank space, which makes this entire situation even weirder.”

“That’s true,” conceded Killuna, looking at me with his mismatching eyes, “Do you have any theory about why I can’t see her?”

“I don’t know exactly how your powers work,” I said tentatively, although I would have loved to understand Killuna’s powers. I knew by my conjectures he controlled time, which was amazing, if not a little bit scary. I did know I had a thousand possible theories about why he couldn’t see Fair’s past or future, “I only know Fair is not exactly a product of this world. She was created, made out of the very fabric of god’s powers. She wasn’t born, so I think she doesn’t have a start and an ending, which also means she can’t be entirely killed.”

“Is she a man or not?” asked Zeke again and Ang growled at him.

“No, she isn’t. I believe her power is passed from one version of a previous Neutralizer to the next one. That’s why in some books she is referred to as genderless. In this new version of the Neutralizer, Fair is an Omega, but maybe in her next version she will be an Alpha.”

“Your Omega is awesome,” murmured Zeke to Ang, who only smirked, smiling a bit.

“I’m going to serve your ass back to you if you keep saying that horseshit,” threatened Aros to Zeke from the other side of the room and Zeke only rolled his eyes at his older brother while we all shared a moment of silence.

“What do you propose, Didoka?” finally asked Wolf, from his place at the head of the table.

I took a moment to look at my hands and think about the best way to voice my concerns and my advice without provoking Nira’s wrath any further. At the end I realized there was no proper way of saying what I was about to say. I sighed, facing the others with a sad look.

“Fair needs to be taken away,” Nira gasped in outrage but stayed quiet. I swallowed nervously and said the rest of what I intended to say, “ Mourna might know we have the Neutralizer, but he has no way of knowing who it is. If we keep Fair hidden with us he is only going to find it suspicious. She needs to be sent away to a place where she can be invisible. She can’t be more of the secret she already is. She needs to disappear.”

“What are you implying?” asked Nira, pushing her head away from her mate’s chest and looking at me with her brow narrowed. I frowned, lowering my gaze.

“I have a plan...but nobody is going to like it.”