Bonds That Break (The Havoc Chronicles Book 3)

by Brant Williams

  Besides, if I kept the powers, what would that do to my relationship with Rhys? It would have been difficult enough to age slowly and have him be a normal mortal, but to never die? Who would I share my life with then? What joy would I have? Would I find a series of partners, each time knowing that they would grow old and die while I remained young and perfect forever?

  It would be a powerful, but cold and empty life.

  “I am not going to keep your powers,” I said. “We need to find the stone, and I will gladly return them.”

  The look of relief and gratitude in Frigg’s eyes almost made me cry. I remembered how Osadyn had been so determined to free Pravicus. Looking at the two of them together, I could see that even when stripped of all but animal instincts, Odin and Frigg were still deeply in love with each other. Odin had somehow managed to rise above his destructive nature and seek out his wife.

  I wanted that kind of relationship with Rhys. I couldn’t do that if I had powers, and he was mortal.

  “I have it,” said Rhys. He held out the stone. “It was on the cave floor when I woke up.” I took the stone from his hands and held it in my palm. It began to pulse and suck in the light.

  “What do I do?” I asked Odin.

  Lodur and Hoenir each held Odin up while he struggled to raise his spear with both arms and tap the stone with its tip. I felt a sharp pain in my palm as he touched the stone.

  Then I began to change. It was hard to describe all the senses and ways of experiencing the world when I had the power. We don’t even have words in our language to describe how I experienced the world. Now, I could feel all that draining away.

  I had thought losing the powers would be painful or somehow horrible, but it was surprisingly mild. It felt like I was deflating – like I had been a balloon or a tire inflated beyond what was safe, and now I was back to normal.

  What I should be.

  My vision and other senses returned to normal. All traces of Berserker enhanced senses were gone. Instead of feeling like I had lost something, it was actually a relief. As a Berserker, I had been over-stimulated for so long that it actually felt good to be back to normal. I wondered if Rhys and my Dad had felt this way, or maybe it was different for me since I had taken on so many other powers and gone beyond what a human could endure.

  The stone let out a bright burst of white light and then fell apart into six pieces. I held them out, and each of the five Aesir took a stone.

  Rhys and I watched as their powers came back and they began to glow. Their emaciated bodies grew younger and filled out with muscle and flesh. What had once been five ancient and decrepit invalids were now five glorious beings, shining with power.

  Odin breathed in deeply and held his spear aloft, shooting out a blast of blue lightning into the air. He grinned at me, his single eye alight with joy.

  “Thank you, Madison,” he said. “You have given us back that which we had thought lost forever.” Odin then bowed and the other four followed suit.

  “We’re the ones who should thank you,” I said. “You sacrificed your power and lives to protect the world from Loki and Nidhogg. Without that sacrifice we would never have been born.”

  Odin looked down at the last stone in my hand. “There is one stone left,” he said, gently. “With Loki gone it is rightfully yours if you want it. You can join us and become one of the Aesir. We can feast together in Asgard for the eternities.”

  “What about Rhys?” I asked. “Could he share this with me?”

  Odin shook his head regretfully. “No. Not in the way you are thinking of,” he said. “To join us and become an Aesir you would have to come alone.”

  There wasn’t much of a decision to be made here. I had already made this choice when I gave Odin back his powers. I had tasted power already. Admittedly it was very sweet and delicious, but without someone to share it with, it would ultimately be empty.

  I looked at Rhys, not to see if he wanted me to accept their offer – I already knew he would want me go if that was my desire – but to let him know that this was a choice I was making of my own free will. I was aware of my options, and I chose him over anything else.

  Our eyes met, and like that first time back in school, it felt like I was once again looking directly into his soul. Only this time, he saw into mine as well. We stayed that way for several moments, drinking in the understanding of one another, feeling the warmth and love we had, and then the indescribable realization of seeing that love magnified and returned a thousand fold by the other.

  And then the moment passed. Tears of joy ran down my cheeks as I turned to face Odin and shook my head. “Thank you for the offer, but I’m going to pass.”

  Rhys took my hand and held it tenderly. We would stay together. Fragile and mortal, but together. Sharing the good and the bad, all the joy and pain that life brought.

  No amount of feasting in Asgard could be better than that.

  “Very well,” Odin said. He looked at our linked hands and smiled. “I understand.”

  “May I ask you a question?” I asked.

  Odin nodded his assent. “You may.”

  “What will you do with the final stone?”

  “I do not know,” Odin said. “I had hoped you would join us.”

  “Can I make a suggestion then?”

  Odin nodded.

  “Destroy it,” I said. “We saw the damage that one bad person could do with that much power. I don’t know that there is a single human on this earth, myself included, who could live with that much power and not become corrupt. Who knows, the next time it might be something even worse.”

  Odin turned to face the other Aesir. “What say you?” he asked.

  “It cannot be destroyed, my brother,” said Lodur. “Power such as this cannot be destroyed. It is eternal and everlasting.”

  “But it could be diluted,” said Hoenir. “If you smash the stone, the energy contained will go free. It will find other hosts throughout this world, but none will have it all.”

  Odin turned back to me. “Will that appease you?” he asked.

  I nodded. “That works.”

  “Then I shall do it,” said Thor. “Mjolnir is the only weapon powerful enough to do this.”

  I handed him the final stone and he walked off until he found a flat rock to place it on. Then he raised his hammer high above his head with both hands and brought it crashing down onto the stone.

  Light flashed and energy crackled through the air. Tiny flecks of stone flew up into the air where they swirled around and then disappeared.

  “It is done,” Odin said. “That power will now find a thousand or a hundred thousand hosts throughout the earth. But no one person will ever have it all again.”

  Then Odin raised his spear high above his head and the most brilliant rainbow I had ever seen descended from the sky and ended at his feet. A huge, white horse with eight legs came running down the length of it. Odin and the horse greeted each other and it was hard to tell who was more excited to see the other.

  “Sleipnir, how I have missed you!” Odin said. He leaped onto the horse’s back, and Sleipnir reared back with excitement.

  The other Aesir stepped onto the rainbow and it supported all their weight as if it were a solid object instead of light refracted through water droplets in the air.

  “Farewell, Madison and Rhys,” Odin said. “We owe you a debt of gratitude that has not yet been repaid.” As he spoke, two black ravens flew from the sky and landed on his shoulder. They turned their bodies and poked their beaks into his ear, and I had the strangest impression that they were whispering to him.

  Odin waited patiently until they pulled back. Then he removed a loose feather from the tail of one of them and handed it to me. “Hold this feather and speak my name if ever the need arises, and we will come to your aid.”

  I took the feather and stepped back. The rainbow began to retract, carrying Odin and the others away with it. Rhys and I watched as the rainbow bridge carried them into the sky and b
ack to Asgard.

  “Well, that was an adventure,” Rhys said. He put his arm around my waist, and I snuggled in close. “It’s going to be kind of hard to top that.”

  “I don’t want to top it,” I said. “I will be perfectly happy to live a normal, boring life with you.”

  “A life with me is guaranteed boredom,” Rhys said.

  I pulled back and punched him in the shoulder. “That’s not what I meant and you know it!”

  Rhys laughed and pulled me in closer.

  “So what now?” I asked. “Where do we go from here?”

  “Now we live however we choose,” Rhys said. “But now we are part of the world – not the protectors of it. We live one day at a time, one act at a time, building our lives together piece by piece.” He pulled me in and held my face in his hands. “But I do know that whatever I do, I want to do it with you.”

  Then he leaned in and kissed me. A long, slow kiss, completely unhindered by fear or responsibility. I felt as if every nerve in my face and lips were heightened and had come alive at once. The kiss was nothing short of glorious, and took my breath away.

  “Nothing boring about that,” I said when I had recovered enough to speak again.

  “Oh, there’s more where that came from,” Rhys said. He gave me that smile that always made my legs wobbly.

  “There better be.”

  He took my hand, and together we looked out over the beautiful landscape before us. It was truly a stunning view. We stayed that way for several minutes, just breathing the fresh air and reveling in the lack of monsters to fight.

  “Well,” Rhys finally said. “Shall we head back?”

  I took in a last deep breath and nodded. “We probably should. It’s a long way back to the car. Too bad we don’t have Berserker speed anymore.”

  “Oh, I don’t know,” Rhys said, starting to walk. “I’ve spent too many years rushing through places like this, too busy fighting or chasing Havocs to really enjoy what’s around me. Right now I'm content just to be with you and take joy in the journey.”

  Joy in the journey. I could be good with that.

  Together we began the long hike down the mountain.

  Acknowledgements:

  First thanks goes to my wife Caroline. She has been my first reader and closest partner with me on Madison's final story. She encouraged me and supported me throughout the process. I wouldn't have finished this book without her love and support.

  Thanks to Tian Mulholland for using his mystical powers of graphic design wizardry to once again create an extraordinary cover. Without him no one would ever bother to look inside one of my books.

  Thanks to Aaron Williams and Kevin McKinney for beta reading and giving me feedback. There are far fewer inconsistencies, plot holes, and continuity errors in this book thanks to them.

  Thank-you to all my fans (it still sounds presumptuous to even use that word) who have waited patiently – and in some cases not-so-patiently – for this book to come out. I know how much I hate waiting for the next book in a series to come out, so I feel your pain. Thank-you for sticking with me long enough to finish the journey. I sincerely hope that it has both met your expectations and delightfully surprised you.

  I apologize for the scare at the end of Chapter 18, but it had to be done. If it makes you feel better, my daughters stumbled upon that last page several months ago and were forced to endure almost half a year of not knowing how that particular plotline would wrap up. It was their punishment for sneaking a peak at an unfinished draft. :)

  And, as always, thanks to my parents for instilling in me a love of books and reading. I am lucky to be their son.

  One last thing before I end this. Please keep in mind that one of the best things you can do for an author like me is to spread the word. If you liked the Havoc Chronicles, please tell your friends and family about it. Post something on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pintrest, your blog, or whatever platform you communicate on. The second best is to leave a review on Amazon and/or Goodreads. It is readers like you who help me keep writing. Thank-you!

  About the Author

  BRANT WILLIAMS never outgrew YA literature and thinks almost any book can be improved by the addition of magic, superpowers, or monsters. He graduated from Brigham Young University with a Bachelors degree in Psychology and a Masters Degree in Organizational Behavior. He lives near Portland, OR and has a fantastic wife and four beautiful children who make him smile.

  You can find out more about Brant Williams and his books at www.havocchronicles.com or follow him on Twitter @wobblyg, or like The Havoc Chronicles on facebook.com/Havocchronicles.