All Chapters of DEVOUR THE GODS: They had all the power. He took it: Chapter 1
- Chapter 5
5 chapters
Chapter 1: The Nothing
The fire mage's fist connected with my jaw before I saw it coming.I hit the cobblestones hard, tasting copper and rain. Above me, Damien Cross stood silhouetted against the academy's golden windows, flames dancing between his fingers like trained pets."Stay down, Thorne." His voice carried that particular brand of pity reserved for broken things. "You don't belong here anymore."I spat blood and pushed myself up. My hands scraped against wet stone, finding purchase in the grooves worn by centuries of boots much more important than mine. The expulsion notice crumpled in my coat pocket, edges dissolving in the downpour."I just want to watch," I said. My tongue probed a loose tooth. "From outside the gates. I'm not bothering anyone.""You're bothering me." Damien's flames grew brighter, casting orange shadows across his perfect face. Behind him, other students gathered at the windows. Watching. Always watching when someone like me got reminded of their place. "The ceremony's for peopl
Chapter 2: First Blood
I woke up choking on flowers.Vines erupted from my throat, green and vital, forcing their way between my teeth. I rolled off the mattress, clawing at my mouth, tearing leaves that dissolved into smoke the moment they left my body. My fingers came away clean. No blood. No vegetation. Just the phantom sensation of roots growing through my lungs.The locket burned against my chest.I yanked it away from my skin. The metal had fused to the chain somehow, and the chain had become part of me. I could see where it disappeared into my flesh at the base of my neck, no seam or clasp visible. Like it had always been there. Like I'd been born wearing it.Sunlight slanted through my apartment window. Late morning, maybe early afternoon. I'd lost hours. The last thing I remembered was Mrs. Chen's face, pale and shocked, her hand pressed to her chest as I stumbled away from the chapel.I looked down at my hands.Black veins traced across my right palm, spreading from where I'd first touched the cry
Chapter 3: The Hunter's Thread
The sirens stopped two blocks away.I pressed against the window, watching blue light wash over the buildings. Three Council carriages, each pulled by constructs that looked like horses made of solidified lightning. Fast. Expensive. Reserved for high-priority threats.They thought I was worth the expense. That should have terrified me.Instead, I felt validated.The carriages stopped in front of my building. Guards emerged, six of them, wearing the silver and black uniforms of Council enforcement. Combat mages, all of them. Their hands glowed with various colors. Fire. Lightning. Force manipulation. They'd brought enough power to level the entire block if necessary.Behind them, Marcus Venn stepped down from the lead carriage.Even from four stories up, I could see the electricity dancing across his shoulders. Arcs of white-blue light that made the air around him shimmer. He was angry. More than angry. His father had lost his power to my grandmother. Now history was repeating itself,
Chapter 4: The Undercity
The darkness swallowed me whole.Twenty steps down and I couldn't see my hand in front of my face. The iron door clanged shut behind me, cutting off the last rays of surface light. Just me and the suffocating black and the voices in the locket whispering directions I couldn't quite understand.I raised my right hand. Lightning crackled across my palm, illuminating the tunnel in stuttering blue-white flashes. The walls were old stone, older than anything on the surface. Pre-Council construction, back when the city was a fraction of its current size. Before magical architecture allowed buildings to grow upward instead of just outward.They'd buried this place and built on top of it. Out of sight, out of mind. Perfect for people who didn't officially exist.Perfect for me now.The tunnel stretched ahead, sloping downward at a gentle angle. Side passages branched off every thirty feet or so, leading deeper into the labyrinth. Water dripped somewhere nearby, a constant percussion that echo
Chapter 5: The Test
I didn't sleep.Couldn't. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw their faces. Mrs. Chen clutching her chest. The thread-mage collapsing. Marcus screaming. Elena crying on her mansion floor.The voices didn't help. They whispered through the darkness, layering over each other until individual words became meaningless and only the hunger remained clear.More. Always more. Never enough. NEVER.I traced the black veins on my arms. They'd spread past my elbows now, branching like tree roots seeking nutrients. When I pressed against them, they pulsed. Warm. Alive. Not quite part of me but not separate either.The locket had merged with my sternum. I could feel it there, fused to bone, its crystal heart beating in rhythm with my own. Sometimes I couldn't tell where I ended and it began.Footsteps approached my cell. Multiple sets. Armed, judging by the metallic clinks.I stood and faced the bars.Silas appeared first, flanked by four others. Three men, one woman. All carrying weapons. All radiat