FORTITUDINE (COMPLETED)

28) Through the Coal-black Eyes of Jacob

Warning: this chapter is kind of gory so I wouldn't eat anything for a while if I were you. It's a major chapter so you can't skip though so good luck!
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'I kissed him. I actually kissed Stephen.' I mentally scream as I walk up to the forest edge.

I look over to see Stephen watching me as he stood several feet away at the edge of the woods. He smiled sadly and raised his hand in farewell before running top speed into the dense woods.

'I will see you again Stephen Andrews. Soon.' I think as I take a deep breath and step into the forest. I immediately cover the area around me in a thick fog.

"That's so cute." Says my twin brother through the mind link. "Little Alexa has fallen in love." He says as if he is talking to a baby.

"So have you and Julia." I sneer as I walk deeper into the forest.  

"Shut up." He shouts making my head hurt. "One weakness at a time." He mumbles.

"Well I would like to get this Trial over with so could you just find me already and try to kill me?" I ask as I near a clearing, making sure to keep the fog surrounding me high and low.

"Oh Alexa, I will kill you." Thanatos says out loud, right behind me.

I freeze, not daring to turn around. I can now feel him breathing down my neck as something sharp grazes down my cheek. I look up to see him cutting me with one of the spikes quickly growing from his arm.

I jerk my head away and spin around to kick him in the stomach which he blocks with his arms now fully coated in long, sharp spikes.

"Like my new attire?" He jokes humorlessly as we circle around each other slowly.

I smirk and shake my head. "It suits you." I mutter. I go to punch Thanatos but he easily blocks it.

"What's that supposed to mean?" He frowns and briefly glances down at his arms.

I let out a dry chuckle and focus on the sky, specifically above Thanatos. "I know you can't feel pain ,but surly, hail has got to hurt."

Thanatos furrows his eyebrows together and lowers his defensive arm slightly. "What are you talking about?" He asks just before a large ball of ice falls directly onto his head.

He stumbles backwards as more egg-sized balls of ice bounce off of his skin. Dark bruises are beginning to form on his arms and face. Just because he can't feel pain doesn't mean it won't effect his body.

I begin to walk slowly towards Thanatos' retreating body as his face begins to contort in pain.

"You did know that I can now control, as well as feel, other people's feelings? Now I may be wrong, but isn't pain a feeling your brain creates to let you know something is hurting you?" I ask as I kneel down in front of Thanatos' cowering figure.

My small celebration is cut short by a dark flash of anger in Thanatos' blue-green eyes. He lets out a shout, similar to an angry lion, and shoves me over twenty feet back from where I had just been standing.

As Thanatos slowly walks toward my downed body his arm spikes begin to grow larger and sharper. He lets out a low chuckle as he watches me from under long, dark eyelashes.

"You seemed to have forgotten my other powers though sis. Let's see, I can grow spikes from my arms, I feel no pain-" I cut him off by giggling.

"Unless it's caused by me." I mumble and he glares at me with darkening blue-green eyes.