A Storm of Flames and Deceit

XXXXX. Sooner

Nephele
I'm not sure how long I had been sleeping, but I do know that something is waking me. I assume the nature of whatever I ingested was meant to keep me in a sustained sleep for a few days until the poison metabolized into my bloodstream, but it would seem something is shaking me.
Someone.
I open my eyes, expecting to see Eris, but all I see are his eyes on a familiar woman. "Delia?" I croak, confused.
"What has he done?" She shakes her head, looking over me in discontent.
"How did you wake me up?" I ask, rubbing my face as I try to get up. "Where is he?"
"I know the nature of what he used on you. How he bespelled you. I used do it to him as a boy when he had nightmares. All it takes to awake is a mouthful of tumeric and lemon juice or time," she explains. "But we hadn't any time so I awoke you now. Lucien told me where you were."
"Where's Eris?" I repeat. I'm not sure if I can about Why's anymore. I only care about what's going on.
"I'm led to believe he's in danger. There's a terrible storm over the palace that Lucien scouted from the woods," she swallows. "I must assume your father has him. I'm not sure who else could stop him but you."
I swallow, stumbling to my closet. I may hate Eris' guts right now, but I'm not going to let anything happen to him. He won't die. Not before I get to him and chew him out for what he did. "Do you know what happened?" I ask Delia as I dress.
"He came to me in the night. Told me I needed to leave. That he would kill Beron," she tells me. "I left, but I don't know what happened after that. When he came, Beron was asleep. He could've killed him then, but he insisted on getting me to safety. I don't understand it. Your father wasn't even there when he made me leave- and that's something I know for absolute certain."
"How do you know that?" I ask, sliding my leggings up my thighs.
"I didn't listen to him. I couldn't. I have wanted to leave that damn palace my whole life, but instead I stayed for a couple hours more. Watching. Making sure nobody else winnowed in," she says, shaking her head. "I only left when Lucien came for me, worried off his ass. The terms of his exile physically prevented him from stepping beyond the winnowing point, and I only left because I knew they'd kill all three of us if anyone saw him there."
I freeze, my shoes strings dropping from my fingers where I was tying them. "Mother of Creation," I swear quietly.
"What is it?" Delia says frantically.
"Eris knew my father would betray him," I say, tying my shoes with urgency now. "That's why he waited to kill Beron. That's why he made you get to safety. He knew things would get ugly. He wanted to get captured."
"Cauldron," Delia swears, her eyes lined in red when I turn to her.
"I'll get him back. I'll finish this," I vow before winnowing from the room.
...
Delia was right. The palace was surrounded in storm unlike I had ever seen, the sky as dark as night even in the afternoon. Father was so rarely this bold, so invigorated with power that he's sloppy. To my surprise, nobody is at the winnowing point which leads me to believe the storm wasn't a lure for me. It makes sense. If Eris truly is ten steps ahead of everyone, what would be the point of everything he had done if only to have me lured here.
Then again, he didn't know I would be awoken.
I follow Eris' scent, finding it more metallic than usual, trying to keep calm even though I know what it means. I would stick to the shadows but it doesn't matter anyway, I'm just as exposed walking in the open. Better to just keep my eyes peeled, sparks dancing across my fingers.
The once golden palace looks far more haunted in the storm, all the lights turned off and the candles flickering as I walk, casting distorted shadows on the cold walls. It could be winter for how cold it is in here, my breath fogging in front of me.
Turning down the hallway, I follow Eris' scent deeper into the castle, seeming to go down in elevation. I tell myself I'm not afraid as I walk, continuing to shout that mantra internally even as a shadow darts across the hallway and I freeze, my fingers sizzling with terror.
Regret pricks at my bones. I don't regret coming after him, but I regret not thinking this through more. Sure, I'm surged with power, but what the hell am I supposed to do now? Another shadow darts from behind me, making me turn my head to watch it disappear in the doorway.
My lightning does me no good, not when I can't find what I need to strike.
My lightning certainly doesn't do me any good when one of the figures shoves a needle in my arm, the other choking me unconscious.
...
My entire body aches when I awake, my skin hurting against whatever stone I had slept against, my throat bruised and paining me on every breath. "Good," a voice startles me awake further, taking my face in greedy fingers, pinching my cheeks together. "You're finally awake. You just missed your father."
I blink up at Beron, gaining sight of what truly happened. It all comes flashing back. The twins taking me down before I had even done anything useful, injecting me with faebane until I was truly useless.
I didn't even make it to Eris before they took me down.
Well, I made it here now, to my horror. I look beyond Beron, finding a slouched figure tied to a chair, his auburn hair matted in blood, his head hung in unconsciousness. It's dark, but I can see that his shirt has been ripped open, peppered in cuts, a constellation of bruises against his slick, fevered skin.
"Of course your husband is here- I should wake him up," Beron delights, shoving my back to the ground, slapping Eris hard across the face. Foolishly, I cry out as if I could stop the crunch of Beron's knuckle against Eris' temple, but nothing stops the swing of Eris' neck as he's knocked awake, spitting blood onto the floor.
"Eris," I fall out in reaction, trying to stumble towards him, only to be kicked back to the ground by the heel of Beron's boot at my throat.
Eris' head jerks up at my voice, his eyes going wide and panicked. "Neph?" I see his face then, his eye nearly swollen shut, his nose dripping blood over his split lip, staining his teeth.
"That perked him right up," Beron taunts, digging his boot deeper into my already bruised throat.
"Let her go," Eris demands, struggling against his bonds as I gasp for breath.
"You know this is all your fault, Eris," Beron muses over his shoulder as I claw at his boot, seeing spots. "If you hadn't soiled yourself as my heir, if you hadn't taken my wife, I wouldn't have to seek other arrangements. Your brothers are inadequate. I need a new heir."
I croak and groan in protest, tears stinging my eyes. "You won't touch her," Eris sneers, struggling against his restraints further, his chair visibly rocking.
"Why?" Beron taunts. "It was her father's idea."
I'm not surprised. I wish I was, but I'm not.
Still, I battle like an ant under his boot, scratching and clawing and crying, spots in my vision as he takes his boot away slowly. I cough for air, grasping my chest hollowly, struggling to my feet only to be kicked in the ribs again, Beron squatting down beside me, laughing.
The world blurs around the threat, my tears stinging as I try to lift my head up, still short of breath. "You're a pretty thing," he muses approvingly. "Still so young and innocent. I might like to take a very long time peeling what innocence remains of you until you are pregnant with my heir."
I could vomit at his words, desperation building inside me as I swing my fist at his head weakly. There isn't much force, but I manage to knock him a bit off balance, despite my lack of upper body strength.
He shoves me back then, burying his knee into my chest as he kneels over me. "You bitch," he spits onto me.
I go to swing for him again, but my momentum is stopped when the ground rumbled, when the fury fell from Beron's face into confusion. He grasped at his chest, as if he had lost something. He hasn't a moment to voice it though before he is thrown off of me, his back cracking against the wall in a spray of flame.
I startle, scrambling away as Eris- suddenly free of his metal bonds that lie melted on the floor in a puddle of bronze- steps forward, his eyes pure orange, his hands ablaze. I stumble to my feet, falling behind him as Beron groans, clutching his spine.
"But the faebane lingers in your system," he grunts, trying to find his feet.
"I took the antidote the morning I entered the palace. I've had my power this whole time," he tilted his head, cold while simultaneously hot. "But I needed that high lord power before I could truly take my revenge. Before I could shed my bonds."
Beron clutches his ribs. "I'm High Lord," he says, as if in denial. Eris laughs sweetly, stepping further in between his father and me.
"Missing something?" Eris taunts, Beron grasping at the hole in his chest where his power once was, where his heart should be.
"I don't understand-"
"Shut up," Eris spits, his fire burning hotter as he steps forward. "I'm now your High Lord- whether you like it or not. And I'm thinking my first act might be a long overdue execution."
He doesn't dally any longer, pushing me out of the cell, lighting the room ablaze, hardly flinching. He watches as his father catches fire, trying to break out of the closed cell door as his clothing blazes around him. As his skin begins to blister and burn. He screams in agony, and even then, Eris doesn't flinch, remorseless.
I have never seen someone die before, but I never expected that I, too, would feel such a lack of remorse. For his crimes, he is answering, in this life and beyond. I don't pity his justice. I only feel surprise as to how quick it all happened, how I wish his death was slower.
Beron is well dead by the time I gain the courage to gingerly approach Eris, the room still fostered in flames that are making me break into a sweat. Laying a gentle hand on the back of Eris' shoulder, I seem to pull him from the flame, the fire dwindling when he looks over at me. His skin goes a bit pale, his eyelids sagging as he collapses against me and I winnow us home.