The Forbidden Heiress At The All Male Alpha Academy

Chapter 230: Ash Does not Mean Forgiveness

They were both awake now, just staring at the Morning Sky of the path.

Words weren’t spoken between them yet. The only emotion visible in their eyes was a hint of irritation.

They both felt very different, and of course, they knew their bodies had undergone some kind of transformation and they would never be the same again.

Zeke finally stirred and pushed himself up. He expected his body to feel immensely heavy, but the lightness of it caught him off guard. And he moved so quickly that he found himself standing instead of sitting.

Woah!

"Your Wolf...Moon...is he alright in there?" Sylas asked.

Zeke looked down at Sylas for the first time and was struck once again. Sylas looked different from how he remembered. He wouldn’t have believed it was him if not for those cold eyes he knew.

The fire had burnt it away. The mask that made him Sylas. And now that new skin had formed on him, his face was that of the original.

He now had Zevon’s face.

And seeing that face brought anger and relief to Zeke at the same time.

He didn’t say anything, till Sylas pushed up to his feet and looked straight at him.

"You’re part demon now. Your physical strength had shot through the roof, and your wolf might have been killed during the transformation. Is he alive?"

Zeke still didn’t say anything again. Seeing his older brother standing in front of him again after ten years had passed — got him awestruck. It was like looking into a ghost’s eyes and realising...they never died, because they never did.

"I don’t wanna talk to you," Zeke said and turned around to walk away.

"Your instincts have always been on point, you know," Zevon said from behind, stretching out his muscles, "When you saw me as Sylas in Gravemont, you instantly hated me without knowing exactly why. Your blood knew me, but you just couldn’t recognise me,"

Zeke paused and sighed, a hand turning into fists.

"And I’m going to ask you this question, Zeke...," Zevon said, and gave it a pause before he added, "Why did you hate me? Where did the hate come from?"

"You better stop talking," Zeke warned, his eyes fixed ahead and beginning to swirl with deadly looks that were even worse than before, "I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear anything and I didn’t see you,"

"You still gonna keep pretending I’m not there when I go back to her side? Because that’s exactly what I’m going to do. She’s my mate and—"

There was a sharp intake of breath and Zeke was suddenly standing in front of Zevon. Zeke’s fists had been caught right before they collided with Zevon’s face, and that small move caused the ground to shake a little.

"Fuck you, Warden," Zeke’s eyes were spitting Demonic Venom, "You don’t ever say that in front of me. Hellcat belongs to me, always,"

"She also belongs to me," Zevon replied, "And it’s unfortunate how we both have to get used to it,"

"No!!!" Zeke swung the other arm, and this time it hit Zevon on the face. Or rather, Zevon let himself get hit. The impact carried him smashing through trees, and the earth shook as the trees slammed down on the earth.

Zevon barely had time to straighten before Zeke was on him again.

The second blow came faster than the first. Zeke moved without thinking, his body responding to instinct sharpened by something darker than rage.

His fist collided with Zevon’s jaw, and his Jaw snapped sideways, his feet skidding across the dirt before he slammed shoulder-first into a stone outcrop.

Zeke did not stop.

He never had, when his emotions took control.

He was already moving again, his feet barely touching the ground as he crossed the distance between them. His hand closed around Zevon’s throat and lifted him clean off the earth, his fingers digging in hard enough into Zevon’s back as he was slammed against the rock face.

"You do not get to stand here," Zeke snarled, his voice vibrating with something unnatural, "You do not get to look like him and talk like him and say her name like you earned the right!"

Zevon’s hand closed around Zeke’s wrist with calculated steadiness, and the shadows crept up his arm, shaking around like living smoke around Zeke’s fingers, before it tightened, "You are stronger," Zevon said calmly, his eyes glowing faintly, "But you are still sloppy,"

The shadows exploded outward, and Zeke was thrown back as if struck by a wall of pressure. He twisted mid-air, barely landing on his feet before skidding several meters back, his claws digging furrows into the path to stop himself. He lifted his head slowly and looked up at Sylas.

Sylas stood there, dusting his bare shoulders casually.

Heat surged through Zeke’s veins, and the ground beneath him cracked as power bled outward. His muscles coiled tighter, and his presence pressed down on the forest like a weight it had never learned to carry.

Zevon watched Zeke carefully now, his eyes lingering on the slight outgrowth of fur, and the shape of the claws out of his fingers, "So your wolf survived," he said softly.

Zeke let out a short and ugly laugh, "He did more than survive."

He lunged again, and the path paid the price once again.

Trees splintered as Zeke and Zevon collided mid strike, their forces slamming together hard enough to send a shockwave rippling down Ravenspire Path. Bark shredded, stones shattered everywhere and the ground caved inward beneath their feet.

Zeke drove his knee into Zevon’s ribs. Zevon twisted, letting the blow glance just enough to avoid full damage, then retaliated with a shadow forged blade that formed along his forearm and sliced across Zeke’s side.

The wound closed almost instantly.

"You died," Zeke shouted, grabbing Zevon by the collar and slamming his head into the ground, "You left me. You left me there with him!"

Zevon’s head cracked stone, but he did not bleed. The shadows cushioned the impact, dispersing the force through the earth beneath him.

"I did not leave you," Zevon said, not sounding as calm as before.

"You ran," Zeke roared back, "You tried to escape and you did not take me. I confirmed that!" The words tore out of Zeke like something that had been festering at the core of his chest for a very long time now, "You left me to Cain. You left me alone."

Power surged out of Zeke in a violent pulse, and the demon inside him responded to his fury eagerly, feeding and amplifying it. His eyes burned brighter as he lifted Zevon and hurled him across the path. Zevon smashed through a line of trees, the shadows breaking his fall before he rolled to his feet again.

For the first time, Zevon’s expression hardened, "That is not what happened," he said.

But Zeke was already charging again.

They met each other head-on, shadows erupting outward to meet demonic force, black and crimson power colliding violently. The path trembled beneath them, fissures and cold spreading outward.

Zeke landed a blow that sent Zevon staggering, and Zevon countered by dropping into shadow and reappearing behind him, striking Zeke across the spine with enough force to drive him to one knee.

Zeke roared and twisted, slamming his elbow back into Zevon’s chest. The impact sent Zevon flying once more, but he recovered faster this time, rolling and rising smoothly.

"You never asked," Zevon said, voice cutting through the chaos.

Zeke froze, "What?" he hissed.

"You never asked me what happened," Zevon continued, stepping closer with the shadows trailing behind him like living extensions of his will, "You decided I betrayed you. You decided I abandoned you."

Zeke’s fists shook as he came in again, "Because you did."

Zevon’s gaze softened just a fraction, "I was not trying to escape."

Zeke’s breath stuttered, but the demon inside him growled, urging him forward and urging him to strike again, but something else surfaced. A memory. A flicker of doubt he had buried so deep he forgot it existed.

Zevon did not say more.

Zeke snarled and attacked again, fury reasserting itself. Whatever Zevon was trying to do, Zeke refused to let it touch him. Pain was easier than uncertainty.

And so, their fight resumed with renewed violence.