The Scattered | Risen Book III

Chapter Ten

Dead Man Lives
Kiera Reed

I jumped awake to the sound of a wood banging on metal. A cold sweat ran down the back of my neck as I looked up to see a man in a cloak standing over me, holding his wooden staff.

I was restrained to one of Max's metal chairs, behind me I noticed that Max, Karma and Shaun were all tied to chairs as well. While Elliot, Daisy and Alicia were tied to the seats around the wooden table, all were still unconscious.

"Who are you?" I asked.

"I'm the one who has been a pain in your backside for the past few weeks" the man answered.

"Your the one that killed King Joseph?" I asked the figure as they grabbed a fold out chair and took a seat. The person removed their hood to reveal a young blonde haired werewolf man.

"Yes, I'm sorry we have to be in this situation" he explained.

"Who do you work for? Why did you kill them?" I demanded. The man stood up and rubbed his eyes a little in frustration. He then grabbed the arms of my chair and looked me in the eyes.

His eyes were blue, sharp and piercing, cold as ice, but he blinked and I swear they were now a dark, soft green.

Then I saw his werewolf ears slowly shrinking, human ears growing instead, his blonde hair shorting and turning black. His nose, chin and cheek bones cracking and shifting shape.

"Hello Kiera" the new man spoke. He had green eyes, black hair and a small beard.

He looked older, more worn, but it was still the same man I remember from a decade ago.

"Ja-Jayce?" I was in shock, how, this couldn't be him.

"Your dead" I spoke, as more of a question then a statement.

He shook his head.

"I survived, been training in the mountains learning a new purpose." He spoke.

"You- you were alive all this time. You just left us to die? What the hell!" I shouted, ready to punch him out. I've been defending Jayce all these years, we mourned him and made him a grave in Baillieu, yet he was alive all this time?

He backed off and nodded.

"This is why I tied you up" he mumbled.

"Jayce?" Karma spoke from across the room, the others were waking up now, they were all looking at Jayce in confusion

"Why the hell did you leave for so long! Ryder hates you, he has a family and you missed all of it! There were riots and you just, you just let them happen!" I shouted.

Jayce nodded.

"I don't like what I did. But I wouldn't take it back if I could"

"So, if you were so held up in your own life, why the hell did you come back now?" I asked, calming down a bit.

"The Elves, they attacked us. I lived in a cave community, it was called the Gold Training Mountain, it was like the Dojo, just better. It taught me how to master the skills of my natural body, along with giving me the new skill to shape my form to look like other people, right down to the genetic level." Jayce started.

"King Joseph led the charge on my home, he destroyed it down to ash, he was working with a entity named Krolock the Superior, he's a Dark One-"

"The same one that took over Ryder" Max spoke up, filling in the rest of Jayce's sentence. Jayce nodded in surprise that Max knew that piece of information.