Demonic Po*nstar System

Chapter 604: Frantic

Talia did not answer.

She sat there in silence, eyes resting on Vaelira without heat or sympathy, arms lifting to cross over her chest in a closed posture. The absence of response weighed more heavily than any argument. Vaelira searched her face for judgment, validation, outrage, and found none of it reflected back.

The room remained still.

Then the reinforced door parted with a muted hiss behind them.

Neither woman turned.

”Talia,” Tessa’s voice called from the doorway, weak and emotional. ”Step out for a moment, please...”

Talia and Vaelira held each other’s gaze for another moment, tension hanging thick between them, unspoken conclusions forming on both sides. Then Talia rose from her chair, smoothing her hands down the front of her thighs as she stood. She did not offer a farewell, did not spare Vaelira a final glance. She simply walked past the empty chair and out through the open door.

The seals hummed softly as the room closed again.

Vaelira snapped.

A raw snarl tore from her throat as she slammed her fists down into the mattress, again and again, putting everything she could muster into the motion. The restraints limited her range, the splints locking her arms into shallow, useless impacts that barely disturbed the bedding. Each strike sent sharp pain lancing through her ribs and shoulders, forcing pained gasps from her lungs as her body rebelled against the effort.

She kept going anyway.

Her growls degraded into strained, broken sounds as agony spiked with every movement, her body trembling violently while accomplishing nothing. Frustration burned hotter than the pain, fury turning inward as she lay trapped in place, reduced to shallow motions and labored breaths, punching the mattress with all the hatred she had left and paying for every second of it.

Vaelira’s breath tore in and out of her chest as the last blow landed against the mattress, pain spiking hard enough to blur her vision. Her fists slackened, strength bleeding out of her arms as tremors ran through her restrained body. The room swam, white light smearing along the edges of her sight as she dragged in another rasping breath.

Her gaze lifted.

A figure stood beside her bed.

He filled the space with sheer presence, tall and immovable, his outline cutting into the sterile glow like a wound in the air.

The overhead lights washed the room in clean brilliance, yet his face remained drowned in shadow, features swallowed by something heavier than darkness. Only his eyes pierced through it, burning red and alive with motion, the color churning and swirling ominously, making him an otherworldly sight. There was no iris to anchor them, no familiar structure to cling to, only depth and pressure and a sense of overpowering hatred that pressed straight into her chest.

For a heartbeat, her mind failed to assemble meaning.

Her breathing hitched. Her body froze.

”Kaiden...?” The name slipped out raw and uncertain, her voice scraping through damaged tissue as her eye widened. Recognition crawled in slowly, piecing together the height, the build, the posture that radiated sheer violence in a manner Vaelira has never seen before. He looked wrong. Larger. Sharper. Like something that was shaped by rage rather than flesh.

Understanding followed a moment later, colder and far more precise.

She lay broken and bound to a bed. He stood alone beside her. The room held silence thick enough to choke on, the wards humming steadily as though unaware of the imbalance unfolding inside them. This situation carried only one direction, and every instinct she possessed screamed the same truth.

This could never be allowed to continue.

Vaelira opened her mouth and screamed.

The sound ripped out of her in a hoarse, desperate wail, pain shredding her throat as she forced it louder, calling names, calling titles, dragging every scrap of breath she had into the effort. ”Tessa!” Her chest burned as she gasped again. ”Talia! Help! Someone! Anyone! Get in here!”

Her voice bounced off the reinforced walls and folded back onto itself, swallowed by the room’s wards and sterile surfaces. The hum of glyphs carried on unchanged. Footsteps failed to come. The hallway beyond the door offered nothing; the space sealed tight around the bed and the man standing over it.

She screamed again, pure and unadulterated panic breaking through the remnants of arrogance, sound cracking as her lungs strained against fear. Her eye darted toward the door, then back to him, searching for movement, for reaction, for anything that suggested interruption.

All the while this was going on, Kaiden remained still.

He did nothing to silence her. His hands stayed at his sides, shoulders squared, posture relaxed in a way that spoke of absolute control. The red in his eyes rolled and churned as he looked down at her with a shadowy expression.

”M-monster!”

”Don’t leave me alone with this THING!”

”Tessa, I’m sorry!”

”I’ll behave! I promise!”

Vaelira’s screams degraded into ragged cries as pain and terror tangled together, each breath shorter than the last. Her body shook against the restraints, muscles firing uselessly, strength bleeding out with every failed attempt to move. The man beside her bed never shifted his stance.

”Are you done?”

The words were calm and measured, cutting cleanly through the chaos of her screams.

But the silence only lasted for a single moment.

”No!” Vaelira shrieked immediately, the sound tearing out of her with renewed force as panic surged hard enough to drown pain. Her chest heaved violently beneath the bindings, breath stuttering as she strained against the restraints again.

”Please! Someone! Talia! Tessa! Anyone, please!” Her voice cracked as she screamed names again and again, throat shredding with each attempt. ”I didn’t mean it! I’ll do whatever you want! I’ll become your ally, your slave, your lover, whatever you want! Just don’t leave me here!”

Her eye locked on the door, wide and shining, desperate for it to open, for any figure to step through and shatter the moment. Nothing answered her. The wards hummed on. The light stayed cold and bright. The man beside her bed remained where he stood.

”They betrayed me...” the final realization dawned on the blonde woman. ”They let you enter while they stepped aside! They sold me out!”

Kaiden ignored her observations when he spoke again.

”She deserved Maximilian?”

He said it evenly, voice steady and controlled, the words delivered without volume or haste. The tone carried pressure that settled deep into the room, into her chest, into her bones. The red motion in his eyes slowed as he spoke, holding her in place far more effectively than the restraints ever could.

Vaelira’s words cut off mid-breath.

Her chest rose and fell in short, terrified pulls of air as the meaning landed fully, violently. Her eye widened further, fear eclipsing everything else as she stared up at him, pupils shaking, breath turning shallow and erratic. Every excuse, every justification collapsed under the weight of that single question.

She did not scream again.

She could only breathe, fast and broken, frozen beneath his gaze as the room closed in around them and the reckoning finally began.

”I-I’m sorry...” That was all she could offer.

But her apology would prove to be far too small a peace offering.