Bonds That Break (The Havoc Chronicles Book 3) (37 page)

“And what if you had still gone feral around me?” I asked.

“The good news is that I wouldn’t be nearly as dangerous without my powers. However, if I still went feral around you, I would have never let you know I was alive. It would have been better for you to think I was dead and move on than to be trapped in a doomed relationship.”

Of course he would have done that. That was my Rhys – always the self-sacrificing martyr. It was what I loved about him and what drove me crazy. Funny how it could be both ways at the same time.

I told him everything that had happened while he had been gone. He had heard about the attack on the Manor House from Shing, but I filled in the gaps that Shing hadn’t known. I told him about Josiah and Arthur kidnapping Amy and how I had summoned an Azark that killed them. I told him about Nanti and how he had killed himself to give me his powers.

And finally I told him about the latest visions from my unknown informant, how he had helped me break the bindings on the last two Havocs, and that I had to go to Norway to free Verenix.

When I was done, Rhys’ face was grim. He looked dangerous. “I wish I could have been here to help you,” he said. “I wouldn’t have been as kind as you.”

I reached over the table and took his hand. “It’s over now. I’m the last of the Berserkers and Binders.”

The realization hit me hard. I was the last. All the others were dead. All my friends and those that I had met were gone.

All except Rhys.

“How are you?” I asked.

“I’m fine,” he said, but there was a bit of an edge to it, and I wondered if he was trying to convince himself as well. 

We sat in silence for a moment. Rhys sighed and looked down at our hands on the table.

“Yeah, it’s been hard,” he finally said. “I used to feel so powerful, practically invulnerable. Now I’m a normal person again. No powers, no defenses. I feel like everything is a constant threat. I could be killed by practically anything.”

I gave his hand a squeeze. “I’m so sorry.” I felt myself starting to tear up. I hated seeing him like this. And because of me. That was the worst part. He had broken his connection with the power to save me.

Rhys swallowed hard and took a deep breath. “But I regret nothing,” he said. “I stand by what I did and would do it again. Being able to simply be with you again makes it all worth it.”

I nodded and tried to blink back the tears. I managed to keep from an outright breakdown, but a few tears managed to escape.

Rhys reached into his pocket and pulled out a white linen handkerchief. I smiled and let out a little laugh.

“You actually have a handkerchief?” I asked.

Rhys smiled back and shrugged. “What can I say? I’m an old fashioned kind of guy.”

I wiped my eyes and tried to discretely blow my nose, but that failed miserably. It seemed like everyone in the restaurant turned to look at me. What, had no one ever seen someone blow their nose before?

“Thanks,” I said. “Can we get out of here? I feel like I’m playing the tuba at a funeral.”

It was Rhys’ turn to laugh. “You have such a way with words.”

We went back to the Berserker house. It felt eerily empty. Rhys and I had been here alone plenty of times, but knowing that the others were never going to come back somehow made a difference.

“So we need to go to Norway and free Verenix,” said Rhys. “Do you know exactly where?”

“Sort of. I just saw it from space.” I paused. “Was that as weird as it sounded to me?”

Rhys nodded. “Definitely. Even by Berserker standards.”

I playfully punched him in the arm. “Thanks.”

We got online and looked at maps of Norway. I couldn’t remember exactly where the beam of blue light came from, but I got it close enough. It was somewhere in all those fjords toward the Northwest part of the country. Where there were no large towns or major airports.

We booked our tickets through my concierge. I had to admit it was nice to have her back again. The quickest flight took us into Oslo, which meant we would have a long drive ahead of us once we landed there.

And that was even assuming we could find the place. I had seen it from space and in a dream. That didn’t exactly translate into driving directions.  

There were a few things I wanted to do before we left. On the top of the list was see my dad.

It was not an easy visit as we filled him in on everything that had happened. When we were done, he was quiet and stared off out the window.

“They’re all dead,” he finally said.

I nodded. “They are.”

“And you lost your powers?” he said to Rhys.

Rhys’ jaw tightened. I could tell this was still hard for him to deal with. “Yes.”

Dad nodded thoughtfully. “I still expect you to keep her safe.”

“I will do my best, Scotty,” Rhys said. “I will do everything in my power to protect her. But right now, she’s the one with the fate of the world in her hands.”

“I know,” said Dad. “My little baby, the girl whose diaper I changed, is somehow supposed to save the world?” He looked at me and shrugged. “No offense, Madison, but it’s hard for a dad to not look at his daughter and see the little girl she once was.”

I wiped away the stray tear that had started running down my cheek. “I know, Dad.”

He reached out and took my hand. “I think I’m ready to go back home,” he said. “If I have to sit this out, I don’t want to do it alone.”

When arrived at the house, I told my mom I was going to leave. She was concerned, but when I told her it was for Berserker business, she got that blank look and zoned out.

I never had liked keeping all of this a secret from her, and I remembered Dad’s comment about not wanting to go through this alone, so I made an executive decision. I raised my hands, but this time instead of a blue mist coming out of my hands, I put my hands on her head and pulled the mist out of her.

She stared straight ahead, unblinking for a moment, and then suddenly gasped. She looked at me wide-eyed.

“Madison!” she said. “You... you’re a...”

“A Berserker, yeah I know,” I said. “You’ve known too, but we didn’t want you worrying about what I was up to.”

“And Bruce? He’s one too!”

“He used to be. Now he’s just a normal guy who loves you a lot.” I reached out and gave her a hug. “I’ve got to go do something very dangerous and if anything happens to me, I wanted you to know the truth about us.”

“Dangerous?” Mom said. “I don’t like the sound of that.”

“I know. Me neither, but it’s something that has to be done.”

“Does your dad know?”

I nodded. “He doesn’t like it. But he knows there isn’t much choice.”

“I don’t like either,” she said. “But I trust his judgment.” She reached out and gave me a hug. When she pulled back she wore a thoughtful expression. “Maybe I should go talk with him.”

“Yeah,” I said. “That might be a good idea.”

Rhys and I finished packing and headed out to the Portland airport. It would be several long flights, so I was once again really glad that Berserkers could travel in style. We had first class seats for all the legs and did our best to sleep as much as possible.

When we landed in Oslo, it was mid morning and the temperature was twenty one degrees Celsius. Which meant absolutely nothing to me. Like most Americans, the Celsius system didn’t make a lot of sense to me. The temperature range just felt so
compressed
with a couple of degrees being a big swing in temperature. I would be perfectly fine with switching to the metric system in most things – meters and liters I could understand. But they could take my Fahrenheit system when they pried it from my cold, dead fingers.  

Not that I had any strong feelings about it.

We rented a car and started driving north and west following the major roads. The mountain we needed to get to was somewhere in that direction.

I had never been to Norway before and was surprised by how beautiful it was. Everything seemed open and wide, like being in Utah or Montana. Mountains and fjords were all over, providing breathtaking views.

We had been driving for several hours when I finally saw where we were supposed to go.

As we reached the top of a pass, I saw a bright blue column of light shooting up into the air. It was the same column I saw in my dream.

“There!” I said and pointed at the light. “We need to go that way.”

But Rhys couldn’t see it. It was noticeable enough that he wasn’t just overlooking it, so it must have to do with being a Berserker or Binder that let me see it. Which would also explain why everyone in Norway wasn’t in a mad panic, wondering what that massive blue light shooting up into space was.

I leaned over and cuddled close to Rhys while he drove, knowing that it was possible that this could be the last time we were able to do this. I felt the warmth coming off him. I memorized his feel, the sound of his breathing, even his scent.

Having lost him once, the possibility that I could lose him again was very close to the front of my mind. But if I was honest, the more likely scenario was that I died and he lived.

While he drove, I played navigator and made sure we continued toward the pillar of light. Sometimes we hit dead ends, but once we got close enough, I was able to look on the map and guess what roads would take us in the direction we needed to go.

The farther we got from Oslo, the more rural everything became. Farming, orchards, and raising animals seemed to be common occupations out in this part of Norway. Eventually we came to a small village called Stryn in the Nordfjord region. It was at the entrance to Jostedalsbreen, a large national park that was the location of Verenix’s binding place.

It seemed like every word I read was some impossible combination of sounds that couldn’t actually be pronounced by the human tongue, but Rhys seemed to have no problem with it. Another one the perks of living an extended life with lots of time to learn anything you wanted.

It was getting late by the time we got there, so we found a couple of rooms in a small hotel that catered to tourists. The plan was to spend the night there and then go out to the mountain in the morning.

We had a quiet dinner and then tried to watch some TV in my room. The few channels that were in English had nothing but news and sports, so we ended up talking instead.

“What was it like being dead?” I asked.

“There was this bright light and I started walking towards it...”

I gave him a light smack with the back of my hand. “Really? I set you up with endless possibilities and you bust out the old cliché ‘go towards the light?’ Sad. I expect more from a ridiculous made up answer.”

Rhys bowed his head in mock shame. “That was rather pathetic, I admit. I promise to have a better ridiculous made up answer next time.”

I gave him a curt nod to show that I accepted his insincere farce of an apology. “Good. Now what was it really like?” I asked. “The truth this time, no ridiculous made up answers.”

“I really don’t have much of a recollection of the being dead part,” he said. “I just sort of woke up.”

‘Well, that’s rather anti-climactic,” I said. “No last visions of me, or seeing yourself floating above your body?”

“Sorry, none of that.”

“It was probably because you were just mostly dead. And mostly dead is partly alive after all.”

“That was my thought as well,” Rhys said. “I did think several times that I would have been less nervous if I had a pill from Miracle Max to bring me back to life rather than relying on the imprecise hocus pocus of modern medicine.”

I laughed, pleased he was playing off my Princess Bride reference. “True. You were at a bit of a disadvantage.”

Rhys smiled at me. It was one of his truly dazzling smiles that made his entire face light up and made it hard for me to breathe. “But I did have one thing going for me,” he said.

“Oh, what was that?” I asked distractedly.

“I had something to live for,” he said in a passable imitation of Cary Elwes. “To blave.”

That got my attention. I laughed and scooted closer to him, thinking how much I loved this man and how glad I was that he hadn’t stayed dead.

I pulled his head in close to mine and gently kissed him. “Good answer.”

Chapter 23

My Informant Revealed

We eventually separated and went to bed. I tossed and turned, thinking about what was going to happen tomorrow. It took much longer than I had thought it would to finally fall asleep. I guess the prospect of imminent life-threatening danger in the morning has that effect on a lot of people, so I probably shouldn’t have been surprised. 

What was surprising was the fact that I didn’t have a dream with my informant. I had been expecting some sort of final instructions, or at least a moderately inspiring pep talk. Instead I got nothing. No dreams. No messages.

Nothing.

Rhys and I awoke and ate breakfast together. The hotel catered to international travelers so there was plenty of normal food to eat. Which was a good thing, because some of the local cuisine made my Berserker taste buds cower in fear.

Which reminded me of the fact that Rhys had lost his powers. I wondered what that had done to his senses. I had tried asking my dad when I had found out he had once been a Berserker, but it had been so long ago that he really couldn’t remember the difference very well. 

I almost asked Rhys to describe the difference for me, but after hearing him tell me how difficult it was to not have his powers any more, I decided not to deliberately remind him of their loss.

After breakfast, we set out to the national park whose name I had stopped trying to pronounce after watching the smile on Rhys’ face every time I tried.

I wasn’t a fan of its name, but it was truly a wonder of nature. I loved beautiful views, and this was about as amazing as I had seen. Mountains, fjords, and trees created a majestic tapestry that almost made me forget why we were there. I wanted to skip the part where I freed Verenix and just hang out as a tourist for a while.