~Trigger Warning: This chapter contains themes of emotional distress, psychological trauma, and the aftermath of manipulation and loss of autonomy. It includes depictions of identity instability, internalized guilt, and parental neglect. There are also references to coercion, past abuse, and complex family dynamics involving betrayal and regret.
Reader discretion is advised due to the heavy emotional content and themes of personal violation and recovery.
Sullivan
—Papa. Help.— The moment the message hit me, the desperation nearly knocked me over.
I immediately went into problem-solving mode. Who is calling me? The telepathic link is old with age, that alone eliminated Noxton as a possibility. I was also pretty sure he wasn't even in Solhara. I could eliminate Minette as well. She hasn't called me papa since she was two and hasn't spoken to me with respect since. That left Koba as the one making the desperate plea.
I forgot in that moment what I was laughing with Finn about. I forgot the sugar-warm smell of citrus glaze that Azalea had cooling on the counter for the cookies we were jointly making to cheer Koba up.
The world blinked, a layer of reality peeled back. I could now see the essence trail of the psychic link like a glowing cord in the astral that would guide my teleport to Koba. Kael'dros Sor'kaiin Vel'an. ("Open the rift, anchor the nexus.") One moment I was beneath Azalea's pendant lights, the next I was inside the gaudiest bathroom I had ever seen. The overpowering scent of pink lychee and black currant was enough to make me nose blind.
I could practically taste the scent like something sour-sweet and sticky in my mouth. I looked around for my son, but because I was nose blind and my eyes were watering, it took me a moment to confirm I was looking at Koba. His attire and the presence of Colt beside him were the primary reason for that conclusion.
Before my Astral Eyes, the young man on the ground was shifting in appearance and essence signature. I stepped closer, entering the small barrier that was placed around the android and my son. The young man curled up on the tile with his shoulders trembling in violent little pulses, looking both familiar yet unfamiliar. His ragged, uneven breathing and the tremors told me his body had decided to shut down from the stress of the situation.
He looks very much like he did the day he had called me for help two months ago. Is he suffering from some kind of essence backlash again? What happened to him in the 20 minutes he has been down here?
As I and Colt watched, Koba's skin tone shifted from the deep cocoa tone he had had all his life to something warmer, gold-threaded, like sunlight had been stirred into him and refused to settle. His hair… his hair was changing too. Strands lightened and changed. Shifting between dark purple with lavender streaks to a light chocolate brown with a golden tint gleaming from each strand threaded through. Koba was in flux, and I didn't know what triggered the phenomenon.
I could not move him without understanding what caused this. I turned to Colt to ask him when he handed me a summary of events. While I was reading it, the sound of knocking continued to thunder against the door. Caught up on events, I made the snap decision to extract him, then get Finn to settle matters here. Koba needed my full focus right now.
"Koba." I kept my voice low, steady, pitched to cut through any panic without sharpening it. "Can you hear me?" No response. Only another tremor that jarred through his frame. "I'm going to call my Kaelin to open a gate. Be ready to carry Koba through." I directed Colt. Colt dispersed the protective barrier, then picked Koba up off the floor. "Ready for extraction, Crown Consort."
I noticed there was a sound barrier activated. Outside sounds could be heard in here, but nothing inside the bathroom could be heard outside. I ignored the continued knocking to call Finn. —Finn. We need a portal. Now.— He must have been waiting for my call. His response came back quickly. —On it. Where am I creating the portal?—
—Lock onto the essence anchor I just placed on the wall. Clear the way for Colt to bring Koba through. Have Azalea prep the healing capsule. —
A pause, the smallest hitch in the link. Then: —Understood.— I turned back to Koba, watching him for any signs his tremors were escalating. I monitored him; I saw how his throat spasmed as if swallowing hurt. The pounding at the door became sharper. More insistent. Someone shouted his name, muffled by the wood. I paid none of it any mind as a vortex of essence opened on the wall to my left, spiraling in a quiet, clockwise curve. The air changed the moment it arrived, pressure shifting, air was being pulled toward the gate like the room wanted to exhale through it.
Finn stepped through just as Colt began to walk past him. Finn took one glance at me, one glance at the overwhelming bathroom, and then his eyes landed on Koba as Colt followed behind Azalea out of sight.
His whole body stopped. Not in fear or surprise but in recognition."How," he breathed, and it sounded like the word cracked on the way out of him. Then, softer: "What…?" His eyes flicked back to me, sharp. "What is going on here?"
"I don't know," I admitted, and the truth tasted like ash. "He called for help. When I got here, he was shifting and shutting down." Finn stared at Koba again, the way a man stared at a storm cloud that had formed inside a locked room. The pounding at the door continued. Finn exhaled once through his nose, long and controlled, then moved.
"What needs to be done?"
"I need you to settle the situation here while we get Koba treated."
Finn's expression shifted, a flicker of something older than humor, older than even irritation. Something like… restraint. He nodded once. Finn's gaze went distant for a fraction of a second. Then he stepped forward, and his form… changed. Not a glamour or illusion. His body itself morphed. His bones rearranged with a smooth, terrible grace. Skin tone deepened, hair darkened, stature adjusted. In three breaths, Finn wore Koba's face completely, right down to the fall of his lashes and the line of his mouth.
Finn met my eyes, now through Koba's features, and spoke without moving his lips. —Go. I'll handle this.—
The pounding at the door became a full-bodied slam. "Koba!" Minette shrieked, warped by the wood. "Open this door!" I didn't argue with Finn. This wasn't the moment for questions. I walked through the open portal into Azalea's apartment. The warm, steady lighting and the grounded scent of citrus and spice made everything feel less like a nightmare. Finn closed the portal behind me.
I went to the medical room where I suspected they would all be. The new healing capsule that was recently installed was not the sleek public models you saw in Sanctum Ajei advertisements. This one was private, compact, and of a different make. A Clan Reign product if I'm not mistaken. Which means this was a gift from Noxton.
Koba had been settled into the capsule. Azalea was adjusting the settings with quick, practiced hands. The capsule hummed low and steady, releasing a faint mist of stabilizing essence that smelled like clean stone after rain. Koba's tremors eased. His hair had stopped its frantic shifting, settling into a darker base with more gold than purple. It was a mix of past and present. His skin tone stayed a warm gold-toffee shade. His breathing had evened out. Its rhythm no longer labored.
Ten minutes ticked by like a held breath. I stood with my arms folded, back against the wall, watching him in the capsule as if vigilance alone could give me the answers I sought.
Azalea stood beside me, hands clasped tight enough that her knuckles whitened. Neither of us spoke. Colt had disappeared. He soon returned with refreshments for us to occupy ourselves with while we waited. After another ten minutes, the capsule finally hissed and unlocked. Koba looked… stable. Different, yes, but not unrecognizable. Like a man who had just danced with the devil and may be better equipped to go another round the next time.
Finn returned at that moment, walking in with tension embedded in his movements. The humor on his face didn't reach his eyes. He and I helped Koba down the hall to his room. From there, we helped him onto the bed. His eyelids fluttered. His mouth opened like he was going to speak, but nothing came out but a raspy sound. Azalea held up a glass of water for him to drink from. After finishing half the glass, his eyes opened to reveal the most obvious physical change. Gold. Not amber. Not hazel. Not a display of an essence skill or ability being used.
His eyes were now the gold of a molten sun. I had only ever seen that exact shade in the eyes of one other man. Nyota Ajei. A sense of cold settled in my gut, heavy and sharp. Azalea leaned forward, her voice gentle. "Koba? Can you hear me?" His gaze tracked to her in a focused and eerily calm manner. Then his gaze moved to me before landing on Finn. He swallowed, then tried to sit up on his own. I stepped forward to help him sit up against the headboard. Then I stepped back because I sensed he needed the space to feel out any other changes. We all watched as he examined his body. His hand rose slowly, as if he needed to confirm he still owned his fingers.
Before he could even ask, Colt appeared on the other side of the bed, holding out a mirror. Where the fuck did he come from? Was there a stealth function on this model?
Out of the corner of my eyes, I saw Finn slide the knife in his hand back into a sheath. I patted my chest, trying to calm my heart down from that jump scare. I refocused on Koba but kept a portion of my attention on Colt. Fucker won't sneak up on me again. Koba examined his face from multiple angles before he handed the mirror back to Colt. "Well, how does my new eye color look? I think it isn't a bad change from the violet. Though I do feel less like your son without it." His voice was rough but steady.
"I think they suit you well, my son. Especially with the other shifts in your appearance." Azalea spoke up with her usual positive attitude. I love that about her. I especially love how that positivity makes people lower their guard so they never notice until too late how Azalea manipulated them.
"Ah, yes. My face shape," he murmured. "And my hair. They are slightly different now." His jaw tightened as he turned his head towards the window, the gold in his eyes reflecting the city lights. "What do you think has happened to me?" Finn didn't answer right away. He stared at Koba as if seeing a ghost wearing a familiar skin. Then at last, he spoke, his voice low and careful. "I think your past is more complicated than we previously assumed. Your whole truth is a mystery that is not easy to solve. I will wholeheartedly help you solve this mystery. In fact, I would consider it my duty to help you, if my suspicions are correct."
Koba's brow furrowed. Finn reached into his vest pocket, producing a small talisman, dark metal with an etched glyph that appeared to be in Vel'Zarim, the language of demons. He held it out like an offering. "This will keep your changes from being noticed until you're ready to reveal them."
Koba's fingers closed around it. He stared at the talisman as if noting something about it that I could not discern. His gaze lifted to Finn with a look that was very similar to the way Finn had looked at him when Finn passed him in the portal earlier. A look of unexpected recognition. "How many lies am I buried under?" Koba asked slowly aloud but almost to himself. "Is this the last lie, or are there more lies to be unveiled? I don't feel like I know who I even am anymore."
He was turning the talisman over in the palm of his hand when I saw the deep crack this event had caused in his usual calm. He wasn't afraid. It was grief and a sense of betrayal. The kind of grief born from realizing you had been living inside someone else's script. The feeling of having been betrayed one time too many.
I felt those emotions infect me too. He was right here, and I couldn't tell. I didn't know. I was so focused on our own plans. And honestly, I hadn't considered him my son because he was being shaped into a mirror of Xerxes and Maeve. I don't know what I did that impacted him enough for him to call me at his most vulnerable moment. He didn't even know if he could trust me, but he made the gamble regardless.
I turned my back to them, to hide the tears that were streaking down my face. We abandoned him. We had our suspicions, but we felt it wasn't worth drawing their attention if we were wrong. We had tried to intervene with Minette because we didn't agree with the nonsense they were filling her head about Omegas and their roles. Azalea, as an omega herself, tried to guide Minette secretly only for Minette to turn her over to Xerxes and Maeve. We learned our lesson not to help the children of Xerxes and Maeve, so we turned a blind eye.
I felt, though, our mating circle bond, the depression of my fated Velari and my Kaelin. They too must have realized we were wrong for letting fear of a second betrayal guide our actions. Though if I'm being honest, I don't think we really could have trusted Koba to understand our intentions before he broke all the restrictions and enchantments on him. Either way, we can't change the past. We can only affect how we behave going forward.
Azalea stepped closer, her presence steadying the air. She didn't touch him. She didn't need to. She unleashed her full Omega aura and scent. She was turning her grief into something positive. Her voice softened around the edges, but her eyes stayed sharp. "You're safe with us," she said. "Whatever happens going forward, you will never face it alone. We failed you once. We will not fail you again. Noxton will return home soon. He is more…flexible in his movements than we are. Maybe what you need to help you at this pivotal point in your life is the option to set aside your Scion status. Noxton will be able to help with that. He has underworld contacts."
Koba looked surprised, then thoughtful, before nodding once. While they were engaged in their conversation, I moved over to the healing capsule to submit a blood sample from Koba into the analyzer slot. The machine lit up, beginning its silent work. I did not look at the screen. I wanted to read the summary report when the analysis was completed.
Koba exhaled and played with the talisman in his hands. He looked to be in deep thought while he sank deeper into the middle of the bed. His shoulders slumped, but his spine stayed straight like a habit refusing to die despite the evolving changes the man himself was going through.
When he looked at us, one by one, his gold eyes did not waver. In fact, his eyes had a stubborn glint in them. "Well," he said, his voice quiet, steady, and strangely stripped of pretense. "It looks like I need those investigation reports you mentioned more than ever now." His fingers tightened around the talisman. He raised his chin, and the question landed like a blade laid gently on a table.
"So lay it out for me." A pause. A breath. Then, with a calm so precise it made my skin go cold, he asked: "What was truth… and what was a lie about my life?"