Destiny Series Boxed Set

by Bronwyn Leroux

  Jaden froze. Nausea returned with a vengeance. “Tarise?”

  Mocking laughter. “Who else would I be talking about?” Slurpy snapped his fingers. “Now you’ve put that together, come on, you have to agree . . . she came to me.”

  Jaden reeled. Guilt. Shame. Rage. Sorrow. All mixed, forming cement to seal his mouth.

  “You still have nothing to say?” Slurpy tutted. “I would’ve at least thought you’d show some remorse. But didn’t I already say you were no better than me?”

  Blind rage consumed Jaden. He wanted to smack that smirk off Slurpy’s face. He wanted to break something. Smash it to pieces. Tarise had followed through on what she had threatened in her letter. Only it wasn’t what they’d thought.

  Jaden,

  I wanted things to be different. Don’t blame yourself for what I do now. It’s the only way.

  Tarise

  Jaden never imagined Tarise would take her own life. Shame filled him. What made me think Tarise would betray us to Slurpy for a second time? Anguish followed. Why Tarise? Why? Why didn’t you just let us help you?

  Then again, what other choice did she have faced with Slurpy’s power? Regret coated anguish. Tarise died thinking she could never cross the chasm created by her betrayal.

  Jaden ran a hand through his hair. He wished he had followed Markov’s advice. Wished he had given Tarise another chance. Wished he hadn’t been so harsh with her. Was it Kayla who said my actions have consequences? Or did someone else say it—or did I read it?

  With a concerted effort, Jaden reined his thoughts in. He was spiraling. Probably exactly what Slurpy wanted. Jaden focused on something besides Slurpy. Their uncompleted mission. Is there still a chance we can win? Jaden’s soul was so battered he wasn’t sure he could even summon the desire to pick up the mantle again.

  Driving the nail home, Slurpy said, “Oh, and look, here come your parents. I guess they were worried about their precious son. How unfortunate for them. They should’ve considered the danger before venturing closer.”

  With a flick of his finger, Slurpy made jets of lava burst up directly under his parents. Their gliders veered, narrowly avoiding the plumes.

  Slurpy tittered. “Let’s see how high those gliders can fly. And how long your parents last before they lose consciousness and fall off.”

  He lifted his hand this time, dragging a stream of lava from the lake below and literally pulling it through the air to form a flaming, hissing, smoking pillar. Its fingerlike tip reached for the pair of gliders. They were frantic, weaving through the air trying to dodge the fiery finger chasing them.

  There was nothing left of Jaden’s heart. It was an empty spot in his chest. His parents’ faces were bone white, their fear palpable. “Please, stop!” Jaden’s plea wrenched free.

  Slurpy raised an eyebrow. “But why? This is so much fun.”

  “Please, tell me what you want! Leave them out of this.”

  Slurpy focused all his attention on Jaden then. “Do you really think I’ll make this painless for you? After everything you’ve done to ruin the plans I’ve been perfecting for centuries? You and that loathsome Zareh! Why can’t the two of you just play ball and die like you’re supposed to?”

  Jaden tried not to show how relieved he was that the pillar of rock and flame had collapsed back into the lava lake. “That’s what you want—for me to die?”

  Slurpy’s face went slack. Clearly, he hadn’t intended to let Jaden know that. Or not yet anyway. “I don’t just want you to die. I want you to suffer. I want you to feel the worst kind of agony before your demise. I want you to endure years of torture for every bit of the rejection and failure you’ve laid on me with your little adventure.”

  Now that Jaden knew what Slurpy wanted, a spark of rebellion kindled. “Sorry for yourself much?”

  His words only incensed Slurpy. “You think this is funny? That it’s a game? I’ll show you sport.”

  Before Jaden could stop him, Slurpy threw his hand out and snatched at the air. His power expanded like a ripple, flowing outward. The air smashed into the gliders carrying his parents, sending them plummeting.

  Chapter Fifty

  Jaden’s parents spun like debris in a tornado. Even from this distance, Jaden heard the bones in their gliders’ wings cracking, snapped like inconsequential twigs. His parents screamed, the cries drawn out as they fell and fell and fell. Their gliders fell faster, though. Heavier than his parents, the damage to their wings rendered them helpless to save themselves, let alone his parents. They plunged into the lava lake.

  With no sound at all, the lava embraced them, tiny flickering fires the only sign of the gliders’ passing. Jaden’s parents weren’t far behind. An anguished wail escaped. “Mom! Dad!” His parents jerked to a stop, held in the air a few feet above the splashing lava by invisible hands. Jaden’s eyes flew to Slurpy.

  “What are their lives worth?”

  Jaden had no words. He had no clue what Slurpy wanted to hear.

  “Ready to beg?”

  Jaden still said nothing, his eyes glued to his parents. Suddenly, they slipped a few inches. “No!”

  “No?”

  “No! I mean yes!” Jaden couldn’t get the words out fast enough. They came out on a half-sob. Slurpy had twisted Jaden’s words to his own ends. Before Jaden could say more, his parents dropped a little closer to death.

  “I’m waiting.”

  He’s waiting? For what? Jaden realized what, but not before his parents dipped too close to the fiery lake. A random drop of lava sizzled into his dad’s back, and his shriek forced Jaden to his knees.

  Vaguely, Jaden registered Han had vanished again. The flagstone floor under him was so cold it burned. Pain seared his shins where they met the floor.

  It didn’t matter. His parents needed his help. He couldn’t lose them!

  “Please, please, let them go!” Jaden’s words were strangled. He would beg if that was what Slurpy wanted. His tears flowed freely, blinding him. A good thing. He wouldn’t survive witnessing Slurpy dipping his parents in and out of the lava. The thought had Jaden shuddering.

  Like a sword piercing him, Jaden registered what he was sensing from Slurpy. Pure delight. Pure evil. Pure control. That last one was the infinitesimal piece that kick-started his brain.

  Fear. It’s fear Slurpy craves! The more fear Slurpy invoked, the happier he was and the more in control he felt. Sheesh, talk about a self-image problem! Making others less so he can be more. That’s just sick.

  Jaden prostrated himself in front of Slurpy, pretending obeisance. The frigid floor scorched his hands, and Jaden didn’t bother dampening his wail of agony. If nothing else, the ability to scream his lungs out was cathartic.

  Expressing his torment had another effect. Slurpy drooled at his anguish. And while he was still beyond worried about his parents, he sensed the executioner’s hand had been stayed. Slurpy was too busy soaking in Jaden’s distress. Jaden had to play this to full effect. “Please, let them be!” Injecting supplication into his voice wasn’t difficult.

  As soon as Slurpy heard the words, he purred. Purred! Pure pleasure rippled through every decibel.

  Keeping his head bowed meant Slurpy could neither read the emotions on Jaden’s face nor guess what Jaden was thinking. Because thinking he was. Somehow, his brain regained normal functionality when he wasn’t looking at Slurpy. When he wasn’t gazing into those blood-red eyes. Jaden’s mind raced. First, he couldn’t look at Slurpy; those eyes of his were treacherous. Second, his “spidey sense,” as Kayla called it, was screaming at the top of its lungs. He suspected he knew why. But that brought him to his third conclusion. And had him asking a question. What do I fear most?

  Answering that question was simple. Since all this began, the thought of something happening to those he loved because of this quest had plagued him more than anything else. If he could just let go of that fear . . . could he? Or at least make Slurpy believe he had?

  Jaden swallowed the bile thr
eatening to propel itself from his mouth again. What he was planning made him sick. If he was wrong, he would condemn those he loved to death. However, if he was right, and he was sure he was, he might gain the upper hand.

  Jaden spent another crucial second weighing the evidence. Is this what the clues have been hinting at all along? “Believing with faith.” Meaning he had to trust what he couldn’t see. Or that what he was seeing wasn’t what it appeared to be. “Living with hope.” Meaning what he was hoping was true was, in fact, true and not a vain hope. “Conquering through love . . .” That one was more difficult.

  Was Kayla’s love strong enough for her to forgive him for what he was about to do? For taking a leap of faith that would allow Jaden to let Slurpy kill them? Would she and the others understand why? Why he’d been willing to risk their lives on a gamble?

  Could they ever forgive him? Surely, if he loved Kayla, his family, his friends, he wouldn’t want to hurt them? But the opposite was true too, and this piece outweighed all the others. Because of his love for them, he could conquer his fear. He could live with hope. Believe with faith.

  Done arguing with himself, Jaden went for it. Pulling his arms back and putting his hands under his chest, he pushed himself off the floor. Sitting back on his knees, he slowly raised his head, keeping his eyes closed.

  Reaching this place had taken Jaden a long time. To realize no man was truly an island. He was the sum of those around him, in his case, his closest friends and family. And Kayla. Hadn’t they told him he couldn’t take responsibility for other people’s actions? Hadn’t Jaden himself said they would need to work as a team if they were to succeed?

  With desperate hope and blind faith, he released a long, slow breath. As he did, he let go. Of his family and friends. Of Kayla. Of his fear that harm would come to them because of him.

  The effect was instantaneous. Sudden waves of anxiety rolled off Slurpy. Before Jaden uttered a word, the anxiety morphed into fury.

  Jaden grinned and kept his eyes shut tight. “Kill them if you must. Or kill me. I choose not to fear you or what you might do. Those I love will understand this is what I must do. This is my choice, my decision.”

  The shriek had Jaden cringing. “Who told you? How did you know?”

  The garbled questions almost pried Jaden’s eyes open. What color is Slurpy’s face? Red to match his horrid eyes? Purple to complement his black heart? Jaden suddenly found it difficult to breathe. Something was squeezing his chest in an iron grip. Cracking an eye open, he peeked down.

  A wizened talon clamped his torso. Jaden dipped his head further and saw another leg just to the right, ending in a bleeding stump. His memory returned with blinding clarity.

  Scarcely daring to believe, Jaden looked past those horrid legs. The world was just as he had left it. Only one mountain trickled lava. His friends still battled the Gaptors in the surrounding skies. And Kayla and Atu—

  Big, fat tears rolled down his face when he saw them hunched over something. They’re alive! Everything Slurpy had showed him had been an illusion. Some form of hallucination. It was time to show Slurpy who he was tangling with.

  Though his arms were pinned to his sides, his hands were free. Jaden twisted his wrist. His DD was still in his hand. He would have to time this perfectly. Curling the fingers of his free hand around a single claw, Jaden flipped the switch, and his blade sizzled to life.

  A vengeful joy coursed through Jaden when Gapzilla flinched. But the brute didn’t let go. It would need some motivation. Jaden rotated his wrist, slicing off the tip off a claw. The screech was so loud it overwhelmed Jaden’s sound suppressors, but his action had the desired effect.

  Gapzilla let go. His arms abruptly freed, Jaden scrambled for a hold on the leg above him, releasing his tenuous grip on the claw. Latching on, Jaden leaned forward. The current slid off his blade, spitting and crackling, and severed the remaining talon.

  Gapzilla squawked and bellowed, flipping sideways, trying to dislodge Jaden. This wasn’t quite how Jaden had envisioned it, but it was close enough.

  Using Gapzilla’s leg as a springboard, Jaden launch himself upward. Slurpy’s eyes widened as Jaden barreled into him. Jaden’s free hand snatched at the medallion, his fingers looping through the chain holding it. Wrenching the medallion free, Jaden toppled back into open sky. He arced his other hand over his head. With a flick, Jaden sent a current of light racing toward Slurpy.

  Chapter Fifty-One

  Kayla handed the paper with the translation over to Atu, waiting as his eyes flew over the message.

  His eyes widened. “You’re sure this is what we have to do?”

  “Yup. I’ve spent years on that language. Sometimes the translation is iffy because of the tenses, but not this time. This is the perfect translation. Exactly what we should do.”

  “Jaden’s mom wasn’t too far off the mark, then.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “What she found when she went back into that vision of hers.”

  “She didn’t see any animals. How’s that relevant?” Then Kayla understood. “Oh! It’s not about the animals! It’s about where she was sitting—what she was running her hands through.”

  “Exactly. Problem now is how do we gather all the medallions?”

  Kayla’s face fell. “We can’t.”

  Atu groaned. “Right! You don’t have your medallion anymore.”

  Kayla squared her shoulders. “There’s no way we’ve come this far for such a stupid barrier to defeat us. There has to be a way to retrieve it. We have no choice. I know Jaden had some ideas about getting to Slurpy’s world to find me that he never acted on. Perhaps we can raid those.”

  Kayla was so focused on their conversation that she didn’t initially notice Taz’s strange cry. When it registered, Kayla’s eyes flew up in time to see Jaden throw a beam off his DD. Right at Slurpy!

  Everything became a blur of motion. The crackling current flying through the air. The enormous Gaptor’s remaining talon tumbling through the sky. Jaden falling. So fast. Too fast!

  Kayla’s heartbeat sped up. He would plummet into the lava bubbling below!

  Before Kayla could react, Han scooped Jaden up, streaking away with him. Then light split the night sky, so bright Kayla had to turn her back. The accompanying boom rattled her teeth. Thundering echoes clattered up and down the valley.

  As soon as the light dimmed, Kayla whirled, scanning the sky. The gigantic Gaptor had vanished, but a figure was cartwheeling and twisting through the sky. Kayla used her magnification lenses to verify her suspicions. Slurpy!

  From the way he dropped. Kayla realized he was unconscious. Is that even possible for someone with his power? He was headed for the unforgiving rocks covering the canyon below. Will his body break when he hits them? Will that, finally, be the end of this impossible mission?

  Kayla gasped as a rider and glider swept under Slurpy and caught him. Traitors! The thought flitted through her mind before she realized who it was. Iri and Rozie!

  “Iri! What are you doing?”

  “You really think he’ll die?”

  “Can’t we just wait and see?” Kayla couldn’t believe she had said that. How had she turned into a bloodthirsty, revenge-filled maniac?

  “No.” Iri’s voice was firm. “I don’t want what happened to him happening to any of us.”

  Kayla didn’t think she’d heard right. She glanced at Atu, who was just as confused. “What are you talking about?”

  “Clear a space down there. Rozie and I are bringing him down.”

  Kayla couldn’t decide whether to curse Iri, clear the space, or jump on Taz to finish the job herself. That last thought made her realize she was out of control. Since when was killing people alright? But Slurpy wasn’t just a person. He was a monster. With unbelievable power. But did that mean it justified Kayla killing him before redeemed himself?

  Kayla remained rooted to her spot. Atu was clearing a space as Iri had asked. “How can you be so calm about this
?”

  “I have a feeling Iri sees something we don’t.”

  Kayla kept forgetting Atu’s proclivity for profound statements. He didn’t say much, but when he did, it carried weight. The thought of weight, its other meaning . . . Kayla suddenly remembered. “Jaden! Jaden, are you there? Tell me you and Han survived that Gaptor’s death!”

  “Gapzilla? Yeah, he couldn’t take us down even in death.”

  “Gapzilla?” Kayla choked out through tears. He’s alive!

  “Cross between Gaptor, gorilla, and Godzilla.”

  “Who’s Godzilla?” Jaden’s laughter made Kayla smile.

  “I forget you and the others don’t share my penchant for old movies. Never mind. I’ll explain another time. See you in a sec.”

  Iri and Rozie descended, Jaden just behind them. Did he see what Iri did? Does he agree? Rozie touched down. Atu ran forward to help Iri with the unconscious Slurpy. Rozie didn’t leap back into the air again. Instead, she remained right behind Iri. Apparently, Rozie shared Kayla’s misgivings.

  A soft thud made Kayla whirl. Jaden! Safe! Air bubbles suddenly infused Kayla’s whole body, all bursting to the surface simultaneously. She was so light she could float up into the sky and drift there forever.

  With a joyful shriek, Kayla raced to him, flinging her arms around his neck. He caught her up and twirled her in circles, laughing all the while. The sound soothed her soul. The instant he set her back on her feet, she yanked him close and kissed him. Not a peck on the lips. Not a quick show of affection. A deep, passionate kiss, demanding Jaden’s full attention.

  She got it. Kayla smiled through her kiss, her happiness complete. Jaden’s touch erased the pain, the anxiety, the desperation of the last few hours. Kayla lost herself in the kiss and this man who could invoke such bliss.

  Abruptly, Jaden drew back, breathing hard. Her eyes still closed, Kayla reached for him again. One kiss wasn’t enough.