MORTAL CHAINS 🖤🖤

CHAPTER 4 AND 5

*CHAPTER 4*

*LUCIAN POV*

The penthouse is silent. Seventy floors up and still this human world is too loud. Cars. Voices. The city breathing like a sick animal.

I stand in the middle of my living room, bare feet on cold marble. The curtains are black silk. Heavy. Expensive. Dead.

“Drake,” I say. Voice low. Commanding. The way it worked for a thousand years.

Nothing.

I try again, older words, words that used to make the air burn. “Drake. Answer me.”

The air stays dead. This cursed body is a cage. No fire. No smoke. Just lungs that ache and a heart that beats too fast.

Rage builds. Slow at first, then all at once. I slam my fist into the wall. Marble cracks. Plaster dust falls like snow. I do it again. And again. Until my knuckles split and bleed red, too red, too human.

I look at the blood and laugh. Bitter. “This is what Irene wanted. To make me weak. To make me bleed.”

The curtains catch my eye. Black silk. Like funeral cloth. Like the banners of the kingdoms I burned.

Heat builds under my skin. The fire she said I would never have again. It isn’t command. It isn’t power. It’s just frustration boiling over.

The curtain nearest me shimmers. Then a corner turns brown. Then black. Then flame licks up, fast, hungry.

I don’t move. Let it burn. Let this whole penthouse burn. Let the city watch Drazek Corp turn to ash.

The fire alarm screams. Sprinklers burst overhead. Cold water hits my face, my chest, and the fire dies with a hiss. Smoke fills the room. The smell of wet ash and failure.

I sink to my knees on the wet marble. This body is disgusting. Feeble. It shivers from water. From cold. From nothing.

“Damn you, Irene,” I whisper. “Damn your mercy.”

My phone buzzes on the table. Unknown number. Text:

*Unknown*: Control it, Dragon King. Or she’ll see you burn.

I crush the phone in my hand. Glass and metal grind to dust.

She. The psychologist. She’s the tether now. Every time she shows mercy, the chains loosen. Every time I want to burn the world, they tighten.

I hate her for it.

*ALLICIA POV*

I’m asleep by 11pm. Exhausted. But sleep doesn’t come easy.

The dream drags me under fast. Fire again. Chains again. The dragon screaming. But this time the woman with silver eyes isn’t whispering. She’s standing in front of me, close enough that I can see her irises are like melted metal.

“Child,” she says. Her voice isn’t sound. It’s inside my head. “He’s breaking his cage. If he burns the city, the curse wins. You have to make him feel before he feels only rage.”

“Who are you?” I ask. My voice shakes. “Why me?”

“Because you chose mercy when the world chose survival,” she says. “You sat with broken children and called it healing. You chose to feel when he chose to kill. That is why the tether chose you.”

The dragon turns its head. One massive gold eye fixes on me. For a second I’m not afraid. I’m sorry. Sorry for whatever made it scream.

“Make him feel, Allicia Mensah,” the woman says. “Or we both burn.”

I wake up gasping at 3:42am. My bedroom smells like smoke. Not much. Just a hint. Like someone blew out a candle.

I check my phone. No messages. No missed calls. But my email dings. Security footage from my office, sent by Maya with a note: `You should see this. Lights went weird after your last patient left.`

I click play. 9:52am. Lucian walks out. The hallway lights above him pop, one by one, like popcorn. Glass rains down. Staff scatter. And Lucian doesn’t flinch. Doesn’t look up. He just walks through it like rain.

I rewind. Pause. Zoom on his face. For half a second, as the first light explodes, his shadow on the wall isn’t human. It’s huge. Wings spread. Tail curled. Then it’s gone.

`What are you, Mr. Drazek?`

I’m not asking his file anymore. I’m asking the dream. I’m asking the woman with silver eyes.

At 7am my sister calls. Naya. Voice tight.

“Sis, Kofi canceled dinner with Mom again. Says he’s ‘busy with family issues’. But I saw him yesterday at that bar downtown. With a woman. An older woman. Sis, she was wearing jewelry. Old stuff. Like museum pieces. And she called him ‘Drake’.”

My blood goes cold. Drake. The name from Lucian’s thoughts. The name he tried to summon.

“Naya,” I say, slow. “Don’t see him again until I say so.”

“Allicia, you’re scaring me. What’s going on?”

“I don’t know yet,” I admit. “But I think these two men in my life are connected. And I think one of them isn’t human.”

She laughs. Nervous. “You’ve been watching too many shows, sis. Kofi is just a jerk with secrets.”

“Maybe,” I say. But I’m already pulling up Drazek Corp’s staff list. Searching for the name Drake.

Zero results. Of course.

At 9am sharp, Lucian is back. No knock. Same suit. But today there’s a faint burn mark on his cuff. Like he stood too close to a flame.

He sits without being asked. Doesn’t smirk. Doesn’t test me. He just looks tired.

“You dreamed about her again,” he says. Not a question.

My heart stops. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Liar,” he says softly. Almost gentle. “I can feel her through you. Irene. She’s using you to talk to me.”

The lights flicker. Once. Twice. The cracked glass on my wall splits a little more.

I keep my voice level. “Mr. Drazek, if you want to talk about dreams or goddesses or whatever this is, we can. But you have to start telling me the truth.”

He leans back. Studies me like I’m a puzzle he can’t solve.

“The truth?” he says. “The truth is I’m a monster, Dr. Mensah. The truth is I was cursed to this world because I enjoyed the sound of people screaming. The truth is the only reason I’m still sitting here is because when you talk, the fire under my skin goes quiet for five minutes.”

He stands. Walks to the door. Pauses.

“Session three is tomorrow, 9am. Don’t be late. If you are, I’ll assume you’ve chosen to burn.”

Then he’s gone. Cold air. Silence.

I sit in the quiet and write one line in my notes:

`Patient claims non-human identity. Subject to psychotic delusion OR subject is not delusional.`

I underline OR twice.

*LUCIAN POV*

As I step into the elevator, my reflection in the steel doors flickers. For a second I’m not a man in a suit. I’m scales and claws and a thousand years of blood.

The doors close. The reflection settles. Just a man again.

But in my chest, something shifts. The fire under my skin doesn’t go out when the doors shut. It dims. Because of her voice. Because of “numbness is still a feeling”.

I hate that it works.

I hate that I’m going back tomorrow.

*CHAPTER 5*

*NAYA POV*

Allicia thinks I’m being dramatic. She always does that therapist voice when she’s scared. `Don’t see him again until I say so.` Like I’m twelve and Kofi is a boy who steals my lunch money.

But she didn’t see her. The woman from the bar.

I told Kofi I needed space after he canceled dinner with Mom again. He said “Come meet my family then, no more secrets.” Big talk. So I showed up at this old bar downtown last night. Place called The Ashen Crown. Smells like whiskey and something older. Like dust and metal.

Kofi wasn’t alone.

She was sitting in the back booth. Late 40s maybe, but her skin was too smooth. No lines. Hair black like ink, pulled up with a silver pin that looked like a claw. And the jewelry. Lord. Necklaces, rings, all gold and red stones. Stuff you see in museums behind glass. Stuff that says “I don’t buy this, I inherit it.”

She smiled when I walked in. Teeth too white. Too sharp.

“So this is the sister,” she said. Voice smooth, like silk over a knife. “Allicia’s little shadow.”

I froze. “You know my sister?”

“I know her patient,” she said. Then laughed. “Relax, child. I’m family too. In a way.”

Kofi looked uncomfortable. He kept glancing at the door. Like he wanted to run but couldn’t.

The woman stood and walked to me. She was tall. Taller than she looked sitting down. She smelled like smoke and cold air. Not perfume. Something burnt.

“May I?” She touched my face. Just her fingers on my cheek. Cold. So cold it burned.

For a second the bar went quiet. No music. No voices. Just her eyes. They weren’t brown like I thought. They were gold. Slit. Like a cat’s. Like a lizard’s.

Then it was gone. Brown eyes. Normal. She pulled her hand back and my skin stung where she touched me.

“You have his mercy in you,” she murmured. “Weak, but there. Interesting. Irene always did love picking the wrong people.”

“Kofi,” I said, voice shaking. “Who is she?”

He wouldn’t look at me. “Naya, just go home. I’ll explain later.”

“She calls you Drake,” I said. Because I heard it. When she thought I wasn’t listening. “Drake. Like the dragon from stories.”

The woman’s smile widened. “Stories are just truths people aren’t ready to hear yet, dear.”

My phone buzzed in my pocket. Allicia. I didn’t answer. I couldn’t. The woman was still watching me like I was a bug under glass.

“Run along now, Naya Mensah,” she said. “Tell your sister I said hello. Tell her the tether pulls both ways. If she makes him feel, I’ll feel it too. And I’ve been hungry for a very long time.”

Kofi finally grabbed my arm. “Go. Now.”

I went. I ran. Didn’t stop until I was three blocks away and my lungs hurt.

Now it’s morning and I’m at Allicia’s office without calling first. I burst in while she’s with some other patient and I don’t care.

“Sis, we need to talk. About Kofi. About Drake. About the woman with gold eyes.”

Allicia goes pale. She dismisses her patient fast, apologizing. Locks the door.

“Naya. Slow down. What woman? What did she say exactly?”

I tell her. Everything. The bar. The jewelry. The cold fingers. The name Drake. The way she said Irene.

When I say “Irene,” Allicia’s pen drops to the floor.

“Irene,” she whispers. “The goddess. From my dreams.”

I grab her hand. “Sis, what’s going on? Is Kofi in some cult? Is that CEO guy part of it? Because Lucian Drazek was at the bar too. He was upstairs. I saw his shadow on the wall. It wasn’t his. It was huge. Wings.”

Allicia doesn’t breathe for a long time. Then she stands, walks to her window, and pulls the blinds shut.

“Naya,” she says, voice low. “I need you to listen to me. Do not go back to that bar. Do not answer Kofi’s calls. Do not say the name Drake out loud again.”

“Why? Because you think I’m crazy?”

“No,” she says. Turns to me, and her eyes are wet. “Because I think you’re right. And if you’re right, then we’re both in danger.”

There’s a knock on the door. Three slow knocks. Then a voice, muffled, too deep to be human.

“Dr. Mensah. Open the door. We need to discuss your sister.”

Allicia and I freeze. I know that voice. I heard it last night, upstairs in the bar. Lucian Drazek. But it sounded different through the door. Older. Like stone grinding.

Allicia looks at me. Then at the door. Then back at me.

“Stay behind me,” she says. And her hand is shaking as she reaches for the doorknob.

*LUCIAN POV*

I shouldn’t be here. Kings don’t chase. They command and wait.

But when I felt the tether jerk, when I felt her fear, Naya’s fear, I moved before I thought. One second I was in my penthouse staring at wet ash. The next I was three blocks from this office, moving faster than these human legs should allow.

Drake’s servant found the girl. Irene’s little pawn. If she gets to Naya before I do, the girl becomes leverage. And leverage means pain. Means screaming. Means I lose.

I raise my fist to knock again. My control is thin. The fire under my skin is loud. The girl smells like Allicia. Like mercy. Like the one thing that makes the chains loosen.

The door opens. Allicia stands there, body between me and her sister. Professional mask on, but her eyes are wide. Scared. For Naya. Not for herself.

Always mercy. Even now.

“Mr. Drazek,” she says. “This is highly unprofessional. You can’t just—”

“Move, Dr. Mensah,” I say. Voice not mine. Voice from centuries ago. “Your sister met with a servant of mine. A servant you should never have met. She’s marked now. By blood. By name. By me.”

Naya makes a sound behind Allicia. Small. Terrified.

Allicia doesn’t move. “Then unmark her. If you have that power.”

I laugh. Bitter. “I have no power, psychologist. That’s the curse. I can’t unmark what I’ve touched. I can only stop others from touching it.”

The lights above us flicker. The air gets hot. Smoke, faint, curls from my collar.

Allicia sees it. Doesn’t flinch. “Then stay. And we figure out how to stop the others. Together.”

Together. The word hits me like a blade. No one has said that to me in a thousand years. Not as an equal. Not as a choice.

I look past her at Naya. The girl is shaking. But she doesn’t look away. She has Allicia’s eyes. Stubborn. Human.

“Fine,” I grit out. “But if one scale shows, if one flame slips, you run. You both run. Because I won’t be able to stop it.”

Allicia nods. Steps aside. Lets me in.

The moment I cross the threshold, the temperature in the room drops twenty degrees. Frost spreads across the window. My breath fogs.

Naya whispers, “Sis... his shadow...”

I don’t look down. I know what it shows. Dragon. Chained. Waiting.