Darkening Chaos: Book Three of The Destroyer Trilogy (11 page)

That
was the easy part.

I
hold my power for just a second, terrified by what I’m about to do. Tears spill
down my cheeks with abandon and I do nothing to stop them from falling. Braden
is waiting for the assault that will save him from hurting me. Lance is
standing in front of me, staring, confused with no clue of what I’m about to
do. Milo is holding for now because he can feel me using my power, but it may
not last. Milo watches, wondering what I will do, hoping I will kill Braden. I
blanch at the thought. It’s the only way. Braden will never stop trying to hurt
me. His Oath is unbreakable, even by me. As long as he’s a Guardian, he’s bound
by it to kill me.

As
long as he’s a Guardian.

Slowly,
I begin pulling. Braden’s scream fills the room. My face twists in wretched
guilt as his terrified eyes stare up at me. “I’m so sorry,” I whisper, and keep
pulling.

His
body arches in pain as I tear at his soul. It’s the only way. It’s the only
way. I keep repeating it to myself as I rip apart who he is. My own power
starts vibrating under the strain. The stress reaches my body, and my hands and
arms start shaking as well. For a moment, I am terrified that I’m not strong
enough, that I’ve just killed us both. But as I think of ending Braden’s life,
I drag more deeply on my Strength than I ever have before and force one last
bit of power into my straining Concealment.

Power
snaps back at me in a terrible backlash, and I can feel my body being flung to
the ground. Away from Braden. I try to pick myself up—I have to make sure he’s
all right—but fire so intense it makes me scream sears into my left wrist. My
body curls around my hand as I writhe in pain. It seems to take forever to
ease. I can hear Milo mumbling something to me. I don’t understand what he’s
saying. I have to get to Braden and make sure he survived. I push away from
Milo and stutter when I see both Lance and Braden lying on the floor. Lance! I
completely forgot about what that would do to him. I cringe, but he sits up and
shakes his head, looking no worse than I probably do. He’ll be okay.

I
drop next to Braden and grab his shoulders, shaking him and pulling him up to
face me. His eyes roll open slowly and struggle to focus on mine. When they do
finally see me, he snaps awake and grabs me with such tenacity that I am
terrified it didn’t work. For a moment, he sits completely motionless, trying
to figure out what just happened. I think everyone in the room is doing the
exact same thing.

“I
… don’t want to kill you anymore,” he says slowly. His smile grows. “I don’t
want to kill you anymore!”

He
sandwiches my face between his hands and kisses me hard and fast before pulling
back again. Milo erupts, grabbing Braden and flinging him back. “Get away from
her!”

Braden
stumbles up to standing. Milo tries to grab Braden again, but this time it is
Dean who steps in and blocks him. Braden stares at me in joyous disbelief. “Libby,
how? Nothing could break that. What did you do?” he asks, the last of his words
trailing off suddenly as he catches a glimpse of his right wrist.

My
breath catches, and I can’t breathe or move or think. His hands come up in
front of him as he stares at his bare wrist. He rubs his finger over the place
where his diktats used to be in utter disbelief. My own hands press against my
mouth in fear of his reaction. The motion draws his eyes to my hands, to the
small second row of diktats ringing my left wrist. Three newly raised bars of
scarred flesh slowly turning black, his talents, the ones I stole, stare back
at him. His fear, loss, and confusion swirl around us like a hurricane. When he
finally looks back at me, I flinch away from his haunted eyes and voice.

“What
did you do?”

Chapter
9

Fair Chance

“Braden, wait,” I beg as
he pulls away from me. He stares at me like I’m going to chop him into tiny
pieces and serve him to my dinner guests. I don’t know what to do. He is practically
all I’ve thought about for the last two days. Getting him back was all I cared
about. I did it. I saved him and stopped him from killing me, but what did it
cost? My throat is killing me and will probably bruise from him trying to crush
it, but I know he didn’t want to do it. I’ve already forgiven him. Having him
back is all that matters to me. Apparently that’s not enough for him.

“You
stole my talents?” Braden asks in disbelief, and not disbelief that I was
strong enough to do it, just that I actually did.

“I
had to. It was the only way to stop you.” Please understand that, please.

His
eyes can’t seem to leave his smooth wrist. “They’re gone. I can’t believe
they’re gone.”

“Braden,
I’m sorry. Please, I had to do it,” I beg. I take a step closer and he flinches
away from me. My hand jumps to cover my trembling lips. Tears that want so
desperately to fall sting my eyes. I hold them back and plead with him to
forgive me.

Braden
finally looks up. “I can’t … this isn’t right. I have to go.”

He
starts forward, but I grab his arm. I can’t let him leave. He shivers and tries
to pull away from me. I’m not holding him that tight, but he can’t get away.
His talentless body can’t stand up against me. The grief in his features steals
my hope. Braden tries to pull his arm out of my grip again. I can’t let go of him.
Only when his expression suddenly darkens into pain do I realize that I’m
squeezing his arm to the point of hurting him. I gasp and let go, wanting to
kick myself as I watch the blood race back to his fingers. Bruises are already
starting to form.

“Braden,
I …”

“Please,
Libby, just let me go. Just let me go,” he begs.

“Braden,
don’t leave,” I cry. He can’t fight anyone off, now. He’ll be killed for sure.
“It’s not safe. What if the Guardians come to check up on you? You can’t go
home.”

“I
can’t stay here,” he says, and stumbles toward the front door.

I
react, running for the door, but Milo grabs me before I can get very far. “You’re
not going after him,” he seethes. “He’s done enough damage already. Let him
go.”

“But
…”

Lance’s
touch is much softer. He places his hand on my shoulder. “Libby, let him go.”

Yanking
away from them both doesn’t get me very far. Performing the Serqet on Braden
took too much out of me. All I can do is argue. “Lance, he’ll get hurt.”

“Libby,”
he says, “his talents may be gone, but he still has his training. He’s not
going to let them corner him. Just give him some time to calm down, okay? He’ll
come back. He’ll realize you did what you had to.”

My
face twists into a wry mask of contempt. That’s what he said about Milo, too.
He’ll understand. He’ll forgive you, Libby. What if he’s wrong? I didn’t
realize that while I was trying to stop Braden from leaving, everyone had
gathered around us. Daniel speaking right behind me startles me and makes me
spin around and fall back into Lance. My entire body wobbles. I feel like I’m
about to collapse, all of the sudden. Lance supports me and Daniel repeats what
he just said.

“What
on earth made you think to try that on him?” he asks. His eyes aren’t on me,
though, but looking over at the door his surrogate grandson just disappeared through.
I can tell he’s itching to go after him.

“It
was what Mr. Walters said about him not being the first to betray me, and that
I had to learn from it. I realized my dad was the first. All at once, I knew
how he did it. It was the only thing I could do, Daniel,” I say, begging him to
understand at least. Tears of confused regret and hurt pool in my eyes. I did
the right thing, didn’t I?

“Not
even I can break a Guardian Oath. I knew the only way to make him stop without
killing him was to make him stop being a Guardian. It was the only way.”

Daniel
steps forward and pulls me against his small frame. “I know, Libby. It’s okay.”

“There’s
nothing we can do about him now,” Milo says gruffly. “There’s nothing we should
do after what he just did. If he wants to leave and get killed by the
Guardians, so be it. Why don’t we get back to figuring out what we’re going to
do next?”

My
face crumbles at his callousness. A look of disgust flashes in his eyes before
turning and walking away from me. He’s furious at Braden for trying to kill me
and for kissing me, but judging by the look he just gave me, he’s even more
angry at me for letting it all happen. There is so much I regret, so much I will
never be able to atone for, but sparing Braden’s life is one choice I will
defend to the end.

Lance
walks over to me, and quietly says, “He’ll be alright, Libby. He knows how to
keep himself safe. Let’s just focus on something else for a while. Maybe Daniel
can talk to him later.”

If
he’ll talk to anyone at this point, it will be Daniel. Maybe he can convince
him to forgive me. Everyone else is staring at me, waiting. Finally, I force
myself to nod and follow Lance over to the couch. Everyone is slow to come down
off the shock of what just happened, but Lance and Milo push everyone back to
talking. Their reasons are vastly different, I’m sure, but it helps the room
move on. The argument that had been raging before Braden’s sudden arrival
reappears in no time. The clamoring voices give me an instant headache.

“Stop,”
I bark at them. They all stare at me. “We’re taking a Seeker from right here in
Albuquerque. No more arguing about it.”

“Libby,
it’ll be safer to try somewhere else,” Lance argues.

“No,
we have a better opportunity here. They’re going to be digging out Blackwood
and his buddies for a while and trying to sort out what happened. They’re going
to be a mess, whether they up their security or not,” I say.

 Even
more of a reason for me is that I refuse to leave Albuquerque while Braden is
so vulnerable. He has always tried to protect me. Well, now it’s my turn,
whether he wants it or not. Lance doesn’t look convinced, so I scramble to
think up another reason, one I can say in front of everyone without causing
another fight.

“Plus,”
I say, “I’m already going to be in deep with the Concealment officers for not
showing up for school the last two days. I’m surprised they haven’t already
tried to drag me back.”

Without
Braden to pull me out of class whenever I need to skip out, I’m going to have a
much harder time sneaking away. I don’t notice the quiet for several long
seconds. When I do, I realize the others are glancing over at Lance anxiously.
I turn to look at him as well.

“What?”

For
some reason, Lance looks over at Milo and frowns. Milo shakes his head and
gestures for Lance to go ahead and tell me whatever it is. “You’ve been
expelled,” Lance says. “It was all over school today and yesterday. Nobody
knows why, but Milo thinks Blackwood called the principal after you unlocked
the Ciphers and ordered her to kick you out.”

I
hate school. I hate the kids and teachers who refuse to look at me and talk
about me behind my back. I hate having no lunch hour and extra classes. Why do
I feel so shocked, then? I should be happy, thrilled. Who cares? But no matter
how much I hate school, it is the one normal thing about my life. I show up
every morning, turn in homework, and eat gross food. Blackwood has taken that
away from me, too.

“I
guess … well …” I just splutter nonsense for a second. Hope is staring at me
like I’m a freak, which I am, but still. I can bet school is the last thing on
her frenzied mind.

“Maybe
you can appeal it, if you want to,” Lance offers. “If the Guardians aren’t
going to publicize everything we’ve done lately, Principal Andrews won’t have
anything to use against you.”

I
can’t believe I have to fight to get back into high school. “Yeah, um, sure,
Lance. We can talk about it later, I guess.”

“What
about the Seeker?” Milo asks. “Whether or not you go back to school can wait.”

His
question stings. I am not what he wants to think about right now. I have to
take a deep breath and refocus. Milo is right. I need to stay focused on the
Seekers. I can’t let too many other things crowd into my head right now.

“We’re
capturing a Seeker here. End of discussion.”

Lance
isn’t thrilled, but he is willing to stick by me. “What first, then?”

“Surveillance,”
I say wearily. “We’re going to need surveillance on the compound to find out
what they’ll change, numbers, patrol schedules, everything.”

Dean
and Milo already look like they’re working out schedules in their heads. Lance
is still watching me closely.

“We’re
not going to be able to grab some newbie on ground patrol again,” I say. It
strains my already fragile mind to focus on this so hard, but I force myself to
make the effort. “We need a senior Seeker, a Prime Seeker if possible, someone
who will know about the prophecy and whatever they can do to Ciphers. I don’t
really want to try breaking into the compound, so I want people watching where
the Seekers go when they leave. Lance, you’ll have to have one of the Ciphers,
or me, with you so you know which ones are Seekers. We just have to find a hole
in one of their security measures, and we can grab them.”