EQUINOX || The Catalysts Series, #3

XLV

Through it all, his eyes find hers first.

It's as if Lena is exactly who Caelus is looking for, because he steps toward her without hesitation, casual and like any other time he approaches her in the academy.

"There you are—"

He stops short the moment he fully register the state of her: from all the cuts covering her entire body to the bloodied hand she has shakily plastered to the wall for support, and finally landing on the raw cut on her neck.

As Caelus closes the distance between them, Lena watches as his usual apathy dissolves into confusion, then something else entirely. Caelus may appear indifferent, but Lena has long since known his tell—it's his eyes that will allow her to discern his true emotions, unseen and buried under his aloofness. And just then, once his confusion settles, Lena swears there's a rare emotion in his eyes—something flashing akin to anger.

"What..." His hand reaches her shoulder tentatively, as if he is afraid he might break her. The proximity allows Lena to see that Caelus looks as if he has trouble finding his next words. "Who did this to you?"

"You came," Lena says instead, too relieved and in disbelief. Her two words are a mere breath above a whisper, but the next comes out more hoarsely and more urgently, "We need to leave."

His eyes soften for the briefest of moments, and Caelus holds Lena up with tender hands. "Can you stand?"

"Yes." She swallows. "It's not as bad—"

"Please tell me, Lena," Caelus says softly, but his voice dropping low in warning—not for her, but for the one who'd inflicted harm on her. "Who did this?"

"I did."

Erebus appears from the destruction, appearing like a looming shadow shrouded in shadows as he clears the debris using his abilities, wrecking more havoc in his wake. As the black hole draws most of the debris away, Lena turns to see the ceiling blasted open, and on one side of the open ceiling, fresh air blows in. Caelus had arrived through brute force from above. Lena still can't comprehend why he's here; he'd clearly left with the rest of the students.

Caelus gently sets Lena aside, stepping in front of her protectively. Lena urgently tugs at his sleeve, willing him to leave and attempting to communicate that this is all a bad idea. But Caelus' expression is back to his usual coldness as he passes her and faces Erebus.

The moment Caelus stops in his step, a whirlwind of storm blasts the entire corridor, shredding everything in its path, the vortex consuming the black holes. The walls are further destroyed, and the top of the structure threatens to crumble. Erebus appears with a black mass, expanding toward Caelus, but Caelus blasts it away with so much force the darkness is sent through three corridors before it dissipates.

"That trick won't work twice," Caelus says.

Erebus, whose hood has fallen off from Caelus' attack, stands with a bald head, the cut from his jaw running all the way up above his eye. "Who says I'm transporting you away? You saved me the trouble by appearing here. You need to be here for this to work; in fact, who better than someone so powerful as you?"

Lena catches the barest of glints in Erebus' other hand—hidden at his side—as he uses the other to manipulate more dark masses, readying that particular attack on Caelus.

Erebus attacks, but it's merely a distraction. The man teleports close, using the darkness to suck out Caelus' passive barrier as he strikes feverishly with the final syringe in his hand. Caelus blocks it in the infinitesimal space between his skin and the tip of the needle, but Erebus doesn't relent as he makes the bottle disappear and reappear at his other hand, bringing it down on Caelus once more.