Blood Ties

Chapter 13

It was expected.

Even if they lived through the confrontation with Claude, that didn't necessarily mean that he was to be unpunished. Titan knew this, that was why he wasn't surprised when he was ordered to clean the Emperor's palace for a week. Compared to dying it was the least he could do.

His hands were raw and sore by noon, yet he still had to scrub the floors and walls. But he didn't complain, he felt somewhat at peace while cleaning. Whenever they were short on money his mother would take odd jobs every so often, cleaning was one of them. He watched her go to bars, shops, mansions, parlors, and schools. Wherever she could she would clean. 

When she would arrive at their small shanty of a house she would collapse on her beat-up mattress and sleep her exhaustion away, at least until she had a client or the next job provided enough money for her to find the motivation to get up. He would stay up each night waiting for her to return home, sometimes she wouldn't return till the early hours of the morning.

Titan felt like the blood was draining from his face, he grew a bit dizzy but shook it off. He continued to scrub the windows and zeroed his focus on one smudge that refused to be cleaned. His eyes narrowed, he scrubbed a bit harder on the thin glass. It still refused to budge.

A vein almost popped. His irritation was rising with each passing second. Why was he getting so angry over such a trivial matter? He tried to calm himself down by breathing deeply but it only succeeded in aggravating him more.

He heard a faint crackling noise and realized that it was coming from his body. Little streaks of lightning were forming around his body. His aggravation seemed to die instantly with the observation and was replaced by fear. Why was his magic reacting so strangely?

His magic never used to be so reactive in the past, so why was it becoming so lively? 

His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of footsteps echoing down the hall. Titan tried to calm the sparks that were flying off him but they were only growing stronger along with his fear of being found out. The footsteps grew louder and he started to panic. His heart pounded in his ears and the lightning around his body grew stronger.

His mother told him that a person's magic bends to their will and can only be controlled by them or a magic item. He's been able to control his magic perfectly fine up until now so why is it acting up? 

The footsteps were just around the corner and Titan felt his body energy spike like never before, he watched as his skin took on a strange, eerie glow that illuminated the already sun-filled corridor. His mind only had a second to register the red blob on top of the figure before there was a large thunderous crash that resounded throughout the palace and his mind went blank.

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Athy sipped her milk slowly.

She observed Claude safely behind her cup and watched as he closed his eyes for a moment.

'He hasn't been sleeping...' she thought. His eye bags said it all. 

She felt a sudden shift in the air and a bad feeling settled in her stomach. She looked back at Claude and saw a dangerous glint flash in his eyes. Her stomach dropped.

"Felix," he said calmly. Felix was beside him in a heartbeat. They seemed to have a silent conversation through eye contact. Athy watched as Felix's face grew serious, he departed without a word to the pair.

"where's Felix going, Papa?" she asked.

Claude replied with silence. His muscles were tense and his fingers gripped the handle of the cup. Athy felt the pit in her stomach deepen with his strange behavior.

His jeweled gaze landed on her form and she beamed up at him.

His muscles relaxed a little bit but his eyes never lost their alertness. Her hair became more interesting than the milk she was hiding behind. She started to twirl it around her fingers and played with the ends.

She remembered vaguely what she looked like in her past life. But she remembered having dark hair, it wasn't as well kept as Athanasia's hair. The soft curls are vastly different from her previous life's course strands. It sometimes left her speechless at how different she looked now. 

Her thoughts were interrupted by the soft clinking of Claude's cup on the frail plate. She looked up and their eyes locked. His usual bored expression was intact but his eyes shone with slight curiosity.

She gave him another sweet smile before she patted her hair cutely. Trying to get back into her child role after her train of thought.

"Papa"

"hm," he hummed.

"I think the sun loves you!" she exclaimed. She needed something, the air was getting thick with some strange tension that was putting her on edge. Might as well score some charm points while searching for a topic.

He gave her a questioning look. 

"The sun makes your hair sparkle like gold! It's really pretty and shiny!" she beamed at him with as much cuteness as she could muster.

"It seems that you often think about gold"

'oh boy' she thought.

"Only because it reminds me of you, Papa!" she said smiling at him with the biggest smile she was physically capable of.

He simply sipped his tea and looked away from her. His physical responses were so strange...

The mood was ruined by a sudden boom that ripped through the palace. Athy let out a fearful yelp at the intense sound. Her heart thundered in her chest, the whole situation leaving her frazzled. She looked over at Claude. Her stomach dropped and her eyes went wide.

His face was contorted into something dark. HIs jewel blue eyes were like molten heat that could've killed whatever they touched.

'Glad their not on me...' she thought fearfully. She almost choked on her tongue.

Whoever or whatever made that sound was going to die...

And if it was a person then she prayed they would get away before Claude got to them...

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Been over a week since I've updated and y'know...I need to at least update every five days to satisfy my inner perfectionist q(which by the way is a very small part of me)

forgive me~ 

I'm currently running on caffeine so I'm not thinking clearly...woohoo

thank you to all those who have read my story! I'm so happy that its getting attention (ngl i liked that there are a lot of people reading this ^.^)

but anyway- Later y'all!