"I'm not going to kill you," I said. "You can make the choice yourself."
I picked up Arthur's bone dagger and thrust it into the dirt floor so the hilt was buried and the bone blade stuck out. I then lifted Arthur so he was kneeling in front of the dagger. All he had to do was fall over, and he would impale himself on the blade.
But it would be his choice.
Without hesitation, Arthur threw himself forward and onto the blade of the dagger.
The memories came seconds later.
– A dirty boy holding a stolen wallet and being chased by the police though the cobblestone streets of London.
– A young Berserker coming back to his hometown for revenge on those who had not treated him kindly.
– Arthur carrying Amy over his shoulder through dark tunnels.
I gasped and fell to the floor. I braced myself for the next set.
– A little girl dressed in rags being forced to march with a group of refugees. Hunger pains gnawed at her swollen belly.
– A young woman defending herself against a group of three men with a small knife.
– Sunee, as I had known her, looking at the Sarolt stone as my powers caused it to change to bright blue. I felt her horror as she realized what my powers meant.
I hated seeing the memories. Especially when it made me feel sorry for them and their deaths. These last four had all done horrible things – crimes worthy of imprisonment or even death if they had gone to court. But when I saw those flashes of memory I couldn’t help but feel bad for them and the choices that brought them to this fate.
"Madison?" It was Amy's voice. "Are you still alive?
I brushed a tear off my cheek. "I am."
"Is it over?"
"Yes," I said. "It's finally over."
For her, anyway.
For me, it was far from being over.
I was still 'zerking so I ripped the door off of Amy's cell with one hand. There was no point in hiding anything from her now. She slowly stood up and looked at me with an expression of confusion and caution.
"So you were the one that trapped those men when we were attacked." It wasn’t a question. The connection was pretty obvious.
I nodded. "I was just trying to protect you," I said. "When that guy hit you I... overreacted a bit."
"What exactly are you?"
"I'm a Berserker."
Amy stared at me. “Should I know what that is?”
It took me a few minutes to give her the shortened version of my story, but when I was done, Amy was wide-eyed and amazed.
"So, let me get this straight," she said. "You have super strength, speed, coordination, enhanced senses, and can't be hurt by normal weapons?"
I nodded. There was more to it that I hadn’t explained, but that was the gist of it.
"So, you're like a superhero?"
I rolled my eyes. "Not exactly."
Amy straightened up and folded her arms in mock anger. "So, are you a super villain, then? Because what you described to me was superpowers."
I could tell there would be no arguing this with her. "Fine. A superhero. Call me whatever you want."
"Do you have a superhero name?"
I threw my arms up in the air. "No, I don't have a superhero name. I don’t see how after everything you just went through you can just make jokes about it."
Amy shrugged, and I saw the tears gathering in her eyes. "Because if I can joke about it, it can't be as bad as I think, right?"
I gave Amy a hug and we both cried.
There is nothing like a good cry with your best girlfriend to make you feel better – with the exception, perhaps, of a good kiss from your boyfriend. When we were done, I told Amy about the Haze and asked her if she wanted to forget all of this ever happened.
"I know you went through a lot," I said. "The Haze can make you forget it all."
But Amy wouldn't have it. "You need someone you can talk to about this. That must have been tough to be the only one at school who knew about this."
Then I told her about Ginger and what happened opening night of the play.
Amy scowled at me. "So, Ginger has known about this for months and you've kept it a secret from your best friend?"
"Well, it wasn't by choice..."
"I'm definitely not doing the Haze now. I'm not letting you and Ginger have this Berserker bonding thing in common. Best friends are too hard to come by. I'm not losing you to that witch."
And that was the end of that conversation.
I knew Amy was putting on a brave face. She had been kidnapped, imprisoned in an underground dungeon, threatened, and then witnessed an invisible monster kill one of her captors and then chew the other one to pieces.
But there was no arguing with her right now, so I let her know that if she ever changed her mind, I could cast the Haze at any time.
I picked her up and we ran through the tunnels until we found our way to the stairs where I had come in.
A loud rushing sound came from above. The heavy, metal door that covered the entrance sounded as if it were being hit with an endless stream of gravel.
"I think the weather's gotten worse," I said. "That's not good."
I reached up and lifted the door above me. Immediately, a powerful gust of wind whipped it open and tore it out of my grasp. Within seconds I was soaked as torrential rain blasted down on me and an overflowing stream running down the street diverted into the now open tunnel.
"What's going on?" Amy yelled. Even when yelling, the wind and rain were so loud that it was still hard to hear her.
This was bad. It was almost as bad as the weather in Puebla had been when Thuanar's seal was about to break. I needed to call Rhys and have him come here immediately. I would make myself scarce so he could use his blood to break the seal without going feral.
I reached into my pocket and pulled out my phone. While I had been underground there hadn't been any cell reception. Now that I was at street level again, I got bars. My phone vibrated and showed six missed calls from Rhys and a voicemail message.
I pulled the heavy door closed as best I could so I could check the message, but before I could connect, memories flooded me, tearing my concentration apart.
– A slightly younger Rhys on a fishing boat during a storm. A big wave came over the deck of the ship, and Rhys let it carry him overboard.
– Rhys walking into my classroom for the first time and our eyes met. He also felt the strange connection.
– Rhys laying on a hospital bed, surrounded by doctors. He was signing some sort of form.
"Madison?" It was Amy. She stood above me, looking down. I had somehow ended up on the dirt floor. Muddy water streamed around me. "Are you ok?"
I sat up. How had I gotten down on the floor? I had been about to listen to my voicemail from Rhys when...
...his memories had come.
No!
I closed my eyes and let my head fall back to the ground. My conscious mind wanted to deny this was happening, to reject the possibility. But I still knew it had happened, and I despaired.
Rhys was dead.
Chapter 19
The Unthinkable
Rhys was dead.
Dead.
Dead.
Dead!
No matter how many times I thought it in my head, I just couldn’t seem to wrap my mind around it. How could he be dead?
He loved me! We were supposed to be together. True love at first sight. Soul mates. Destined to be together. We were each other's happily ever after.
“Madison?”
This couldn’t be happening! It wasn't possible. It wasn't fair. Wasn't true love supposed to conquer all?
Obviously not.
“Madison! What’s wrong?”
I felt my last spark of hope slowly flicker and burn out. I was dead inside.
"Madison, wake up!" Amy knelt beside me, shaking my shoulders and yelling over the sound of the rain falling on the metal door above.
I opened my eyes, and
Amy helped me sit up. I didn't resist, but I didn’t help either. I had no desire to move.
Amy lifted my head with her hand and looked into my eyes. What she saw there must have worried her. She pulled back and frowned.
"He's dead," I said. The pouring rain continued outside, drumming on the door above us.
"What? Who's dead?"
"Rhys." His name felt strange in my mouth, hollowed out and dry. A husk of what it had once been.
"Oh, Madison!" Amy started crying and hugged me. "I'm so sorry."
Sorry. Sorry. Sorry.
There was a word that felt completely empty of meaning to me. I knew Amy meant well, but all her words did was remind me about how unfair this entire situation was. A fact I was already intimately acquainted with.
I had found the love of my life only to have him taken away from me. Correction – to have him choose to leave me so I could save the world. Because there was no doubt in my mind that Rhys' death was voluntary. It fit him too well to be anything else.
The howling wind grew even louder. The metal door above us began vibrating as the wind continued to grow stronger.
This was why Rhys had died. He had called me so he could come to Portland and free Osadyn before the seal broke and killed us all. He wouldn't dare risk coming here and going feral. But I had been underground searching for Amy and he ran out of time.
So he killed himself to give me his powers so I could break the seal.
I closed my eyes and tried to regain some portion of my composure. Part of me wanted to just shut down and curl up on the floor and sob until I had no more tears left, but another part of me was angry. Angry at the injustice of it all. Angry that I didn't get a last chance to talk to Rhys. Angry that I wouldn't get to spend the rest of my life with him.
But the danger was real and had to be dealt with. Anger would have to be enough for now.
I 'zerked and stood up. Amy took several steps back, her eyes wide. "You aren't going to hurt me, are you?" she asked.
I shook my head. "No, Amy," I said. "I’m still Madison, just... more glowy." I even attempted a smile, but I wasn't very successful. It didn’t matter – I didn't think she could see it through my glow anyway. "I'm going to get us out of here. I have to stop Portland from blowing up."
Amy let out an uncertain laugh. "You're joking, right?"
"Nope. I have to free a monster before what happened in Nuremberg happens here."
The color drained out of Amy's face. "You're serious."
"Very."
I took Amy's hand, careful not to crush it, and then pushed open the steel door above us. The wind caught it and slammed it open against the sidewalk. The wind was so strong it knocked Amy off her feet, but I still held on to her arm with one hand and the stair railing with the other and pulled us both up the stairs.
The sky above us was filled with black swirling clouds. Things had definitely gotten worse while I had been in the tunnels.
I stepped out into the full fury of the weather and pulled Amy up behind me. As far as I could see there were no other people out on the streets. I picked up Amy and ran for my car.
Torrents of water ran through the streets, but it was still shallow. We climbed into the car and I started driving toward the hotel.
"I'm sorry I can't take you home yet," I said, dropping my 'zerk. "I don’t think we have enough time before the seal breaks."
Amy nodded as if what I said made complete sense to her, but I could tell she was just too afraid to ask me any questions. Which really said something, because Amy never met a question she didn’t like.
Fortunately, the hotel was only a couple of miles away and the streets were relatively free from traffic. Few people were as insane as I was and driving in this nightmare of a storm.
"This is the hotel where we had prom," said Amy when I parked the car. Clearly her curiosity had grown stronger than her fear.
"Yep," I said. "Remember that earthquake that made us all evacuate?"
Amy nodded slowly. "Yeah."
"Well, that wasn't an earthquake," I said. "It was a monster that came to kill me. I was able to use my powers to imprison it, but now that binding is starting to break and is causing this weird weather. If it breaks before I can release the monster, then, well, you saw what happened to Nuremberg."
"So you're going to release a monster that wants to kill you?" Amy asked.
"It's that or blow up all of Portland."
Amy shrugged. "I'm not a big fan of either option."
"Welcome to my world."
I left Amy in the car and tried to enter the hotel. The front doors were locked. I saw people in the lobby, but they were huddled towards the back and despite my repeated gestures and banging on the doors, they wouldn’t come open them.
I didn't have time for this. Portland didn't have time for this. I figured they were far enough away that they wouldn’t get hurt, so I 'zerked and punched a hole through one of the glass doors. Shattered glass flew everywhere as the wind picked up the fragments and began whipping them around.
The people huddled behind the front desk screamed and ran away from me. I felt bad for scaring them and possibly putting them in danger from the weather and the broken glass, but if I didn’t break Osadyn's binding fast it was going to be much, much worse.
I ran through the lobby and up the stairs to the ballroom where I had bound Osadyn. There were several people in there, oblivious to Osadyn’s invisible presence, figuring an inside room with no windows was safer.
Boy were they wrong.
They quickly scattered at seeing my glowing form, leaving the ballroom empty except for me and Osadyn.
He thrashed soundlessly about, uselessly attempting to smash and destroy everything in sight. His long neck whipped around in agitation and his jaws were spread wide in a silent roar.
Then he saw me.
Immediately he stopped thrashing about and focused on me. He glared at me with single-minded hatred, obviously remembering that I was the one that had bound him here.
Slowly he stalked towards me.
There was nothing he could do to hurt me while bound, but for some reason this Havoc still made me very nervous. I searched the room for the seal, keeping one eye on Osadyn.
The golden seal was set in the middle of the floor, webbed with cracks all along its face. A bright light shone from the cracks illuminating the room and casting strange shadows.
I pulled out my varé and walked to the seal. Osadyn stopped moving and followed me with his eyes – watching, waiting. I rolled up my sleeve and drew the varé across my arm. Blood flowed from the self-imposed gash and directly onto the seal. Not a single drop was wasted. The blood changed from bright red to gold and the seal lifted off the floor and into the air. With a loud crack, the seal broke into a dozen pieces which all turned to dust and blew away.
Immediately, Osadyn began to fill with color. Within seconds he was completely solid. He could have attacked me, but instead of trying to kill me, he walked over and lowered his head to look at me.
I knew what he wanted. I could feel it.
I reached out and placed my hand on his head.
The world fell away from me. When I got my bearings I saw I was in the world from my informant's vision. Familiar sites greeted me – the massive tree with thousands of animals in it, the lake with giant swans, and the huge dragon dominating them all.
The dragon crawled all around the tree, along its trunk, and up through the branches, navigating with ease. None of the animals there seemed to be afraid of it or even paid it any notice as it crawled past.
Everything seemed calm and peaceful. Despite the strangeness, there was something about this place that felt comforting.
Until a dark gash appeared in the air by the dragon. The air itself seemed be torn, leaving a jagged hole. The hole grew in size until it was big enough for the dragon to fit through.
The dragon changed directions and began to gallop along the trunk of the tree, away from the hole. But a be
ing as massive as that dragon isn't very nimble. Before it could get its hindquarters and tail out of the way, they began to dissolve and flow into the hole.
The dissolution continued down the length of the dragon until it had been utterly sucked into the hole.
The scene changed. I was now watching five glowing beings fighting the dragon. They were surrounded by large mountains. The one eyed man used his spear to stab at the dragon's face. He was quick and agile, but was clearly having difficulty doing any serious damage.
The redheaded man was there. He seemed to be having somewhat more luck in his attack. Furry twisted the features of his face as he threw his hammer again and again, pounding the dragon from all sides. The hammer was beginning to heat up from the friction and the metal turned a glowing red. Sparks flew from his silver glove each time he caught the hammer.
The two bearded men were there as well. Each of them held a sword and hacked at the dragon’s legs, but there were so many legs and they were so large that the dragon hardly seemed to notice them.
The tall blonde woman with the long braid was the fifth of the glowing beings. She held no weapon, but bolts of blue energy shot from her hands and onto the dragon. They mostly seemed to glance off the dragon's hide, but here and there they popped off scales and made holes in the dragon's armor.
But it was clear their combined efforts were not enough. They had no hope of defeating the dragon.
The scene changed again. The five glowing beings stood in a cave surrounding a waist high stone pillar. Resting on the pillar was a large black orb the size of a softball. The five of them each touched the stone. Slowly, their glows began to fade, and the stone turned from a simple black, to the darkest black I had ever seen, as if it sucked in all the light around it.
Like another stone I had seen before.
When they were done, the five of them were no longer glowing. They looked like ordinary people – dressed a little strangely – but people nonetheless.
The one-eyed man took his spear and touched the tip to the inversely glowing orb. The orb fell apart, split into six pieces. The remaining pieces all had the same black light-sucking quality of the big one.
Bonds That Break (The Havoc Chronicles Book 3) Page 25