CH.92

Knox summoned all his willpower to force his other self that had roughly shoved him outside just moments before back into submission.

It was a like vicious psychic tug-of-war, leaving him feeling utterly spent and disoriented once he'd finally wrestled back dominance.

His vision swam in a dizzying blur, the room seeming to tilt and spin around him in a nauseating vertigo-like sensation.

He hadn't yet been able to replenish his depleted energy reserves.

Enzo and Meredith were at his side in an instant, quickly moving to steady Knox as he sat upright on the bed.

Serena's delicate form was cradled securely in the crook of his other arm, blissfully unaware in her deep unconscious state of the otherworldly chaos that had just violently played out.

Her chest rose and fell in a slow, steady rhythm, a strand of silken hair falling across her peaceful face.

"Easy there, boy," Enzo's gruff voice sounded.

"Are you okay, son?" Meredith asked in a voice thick with worry, her brow creased as she hovered anxiously at Knox's side. "What the hell just happened?"

Knox could only manage a strained grunt in response.

His jaw clenched, fighting to catch his breath. But then his eyes suddenly narrowed to mere slits, blazing with an incandescent fury when a particular memory came crashing back.

He remembered Meredith's brash threat against Serena's life while he'd been in unconscious.

The mere thought that this woman had dared to endanger his eternally bonded mate made his blood boil with primal rage.

He pinned Meredith with a withering glare so intense that she instinctively shrank back with her eyes going wide.

Before Knox could unleash the full force of his wrath, however, Enzo smoothly intervened with a roguish grin playing across his lips.

"Well, well, well," the older man drawled in an amused tone, squatting down to meet Knox's gaze head-on. "If it isn't my oldest friend and comrade Kazdrillian, back among the living flesh and blood."

Enzo was no longer simply Enzo right now - he had reverted to Xaphan.

There was an unmistakable teasing nostalgia in Xaphan's voice as he continued, "Xaphan and Kazdrillian, brothers-in-arms through countless ages and realms. Who'd have thought we'd find ourselves reborn as grandfather and grandson in this crazy mixed-up lifetime, eh?"

He let out a barking laugh, clearly getting a kick out of the bizarre irony of their situation.

Xaphan had often jested about one day having Kazdrellian under his command, but neither could have imagined this strange twist of fate.

Knox, however, was decidedly not in a jovial mood. His expression remained stony and unamused.

"Can it with the games and jests, Xaphan. This is no time for your particular brand of levity." he growled out a terse response.

Sensing the gravity in Knox's tone, Xaphan's playful demeanor sobered instantly. He straightened up, studying his old friend with an intense, appraising look.

"Fair enough," he conceded with a solemn nod. "No more games then. Let's get down to business."

His eyes bored into Knox's. "That little possession stunt pulled back there - was that truly our old celestial compatriot Amaris behind the strings?"

Knox's expression darkened further at the mention of that name. His brow furrow in a pensive frown before shaking his head slowly.

That was undoubtedly Amaris. However, there was something uncanny about her presence. Not like the Amaris they knew from their days in the Sky Empire's ranks.

Something seemed to have corrupted her, twisted her down an even darker path than before.

Knox’s hand tightened reflexively around Serena's sleeping form.

Then his piercing gaze drifted down to her serene features, studying the delicate curves and lines of her face.

Even in slumber, her beauty was undeniable. And yet, a storm of tumultuous emotions churned within him at the mere sight of her.

"Serena," he murmured, the name feeling heavy on his tongue, weighted by the baggage of their shared past.

This was the same woman he fell for so completely like a lovestruck fool only to have her betray him in the most devastating way imaginable. Leaving him with nothing but the shattered pieces of his broken heart and soul.

A harsh, sardonic chuckle escaped his lips as the cruel irony of their situation fully struck him.

Now everything makes twisted sense," he mused aloud, more to himself than the others.

It finally made sense why he was so consumed with the need to destroy her after their night of passion. It wasn't just the pain of her deceit that drove him…

He now understood why he asked her to make him fall for her again, as if she'd done it once before in another existence.

An unfathomable look settled over Knox's features as he extended one hand, letting tendrils of crackling dark energy coalesce around his fingertips.

Slowly, meticulously, he began waving his hand over Serena's body in an intricate pattern, his brow furrowed in intense concentration.

He needed to know if she still had that spark. If she still had the fragment of his own primordial life force that he bestowed on her during his first time on this realm so long ago. If it still resides within her...it could explain why he was roused from his deep slumber.

The weight of the moment seemed to press down heavily on them all as Knox continued his mystical scan.

Finally, his eyes snapped open with a grim look etched across his ruggedly handsome features.

"She's still got it," he said in a low, quiet tone tinged with mixed emotions.

The infinitesimal shard of his own essence still burned inside her like a banked ember, buried deep within her life force.

---

Meanwhile, at a secluded location far from the villa, a cloaked figure stumbled backwards as if struck by an invisible force.

She gasped sharply, one hand clutching at her chest as she fought to regain her breath and equilibrium.

Only moments ago, she had her spiritual essence projected into Serena's mind, subtly manipulating the girl's consciousness in an effort to glean information about Knox. But her soul had been violently expelled and came snapping back into her physical body with jarring abruptness.

She steadied herself against the cold stone wall of the chamber, her heart hammering in her ears.

She could still feel the scorching aftereffects of those azure flames searing through her astral form, ruthlessly burning her out of Serena's body.

A tremor ran down her spine as she recalled the sheer, primal power behind that mystical fire.

She had always harbored suspicions that there was more to Knox than met the eye. But today, she had been given undeniable proof that her instincts were correct.

However, what she hadn't anticipated was for Knox to wield the legendary blue flame itself - an ability spoken of only in the most ancient and obscure texts, a force so primordial and destructive that it was thought to exist only in myth and legend.

Her mind raced as she struggled to make sense of this staggering revelation. How could an unassuming supernatural like Knox possibly possess command over such an arcane power source? Unless...he wasn't entirely ordinary mythic being at all.