Destiny

by A D Starrling

  Redness descended across Vlado’s vision. He stepped up his attack, a roar of fury leaving his throat.

  Godard blocked the first four strikes. The fifth found the skin of his left arm. The sixth sliced a red line across his abdomen.

  The seventh pierced his heart.

  Chapter Forty-Three

  Lily faltered and closed her eyes briefly as the agonizing pain tore through her.

  Tomas stumbled at her side, his anguish echoing across their connection.

  She clenched her teeth and glared at the super soldier army standing in front of the command post on Level Eight.

  We have to get to them!

  Numbness bloomed in the center of Asgard’s chest.

  Madeleine screamed somewhere on his left.

  He stared at the man in front of him and gripped the blade buried in his heart. He yanked it out of his flesh with a grunt, the sword cutting into his hands.

  Olivia’s eyes widened in incomprehension. It took a couple of heartbeats for her to register what had just transpired. Blood dripped from Asgard’s palms where he held the blade that had impaled him.

  Horror filled her. The soul inside her trembled.

  ‘Noooooo!’

  Olivia’s scream of outrage washed over Ethan. He blinked and looked around wildly, his gaze seeking the woman both he and Jared loved.

  For a moment, he could not understand what he was seeing.

  A tortured howl sounded from the figure beside him. The floor cracked around Alexa as she charged through the super soldiers, her eyes glittering with anguish and rage.

  He followed in her steps, his kin at his side.

  Vlado whipped the sword out of Godard’s grip and brought it up to slash his neck.

  The blade shook violently as it struck an invisible force inches from Godard’s skin.

  Vlado looked past the Immortal to the woman behind him. Fear quickened his pulse.

  Olivia Ashkarov’s eyes glowed with a most terrible light. She raised a hand, her fingers trembling.

  Vlado gasped as the sword twisted and crumpled in his grasp, the metal folding in on itself as if it were paper. Coldness filled his skull. He stumbled back, turned, and melted into the crowd of super soldiers.

  Madeleine caught Asgard before he collapsed. She wrapped her arms around him and lowered him awkwardly to the ground, her heart and that of the soul within her breaking and turning to ash inside her chest. She pressed her hands to his wound, tears blurring her vision.

  Anna and Olivia dropped to their knees next to them, their tormented expressions mirroring the agony tearing her apart.

  ‘Why?’ Olivia said brokenly. ‘You shouldn’t have—’

  Asgard raised bloodied fingers and pressed them against Olivia’s lips while Anna gently explored the cut on his body.

  ‘Don’t say that,’ he said hoarsely.

  Asgard blinked as Madeleine’s hot tears fell on his face. His eyes darkened as he turned his head and met her gaze, his look filled with so much love her breath locked in her throat.

  He stroked her cheek. ‘It’s okay.’

  Madeleine scowled and shook her head. ‘No, it’s not!’

  Anna stiffened. She was trying to stem the crimson tide staining the floor beneath Asgard. Color drained from her face when she finally registered the truth in Madeleine’s eyes.

  Olivia froze, her expression crumbling.

  ‘No,’ she whispered.

  ‘Yes!’ Madeleine sobbed. ‘This is—this will be his seventeenth—’

  Anna twisted, her gaze frantically searching the battleground.

  ‘Conrad!’ she screamed.

  The ground trembled under them. The sea of fighting figures parted ahead, the super soldiers falling under the invisible forces battering them. Ethan and Alexa came into view.

  ‘I’m here!’ Conrad shouted.

  He emerged from behind them with Lucas and Zachary.

  ‘There’s still time!’ Anna told Conrad as they slid to a stop and dropped to the floor beside Asgard. ‘His body’s gone into shock but I think you can still heal him!’

  She lifted her hands from Asgard’s chest. Blood pulsed and flowed from the cut.

  Conrad pressed his fingers to the wound while Alexa and Ethan kept the super soldiers at bay around them. Lucas gripped Asgard’s hand tightly, his face full of emotion.

  Asgard gasped and shuddered as Conrad’s healing energy entered his body. Sweat pooled and dripped down Conrad’s face. He closed his eyes and clenched his jaw.

  Asgard wrapped his fingers around Conrad’s left wrist. ‘I’m too far gone for that.’

  Conrad grunted and blinked his eyes open.

  He scowled. ‘I can still give you a piece of my soul!’

  Asgard looked over at Alexa and Ethan where they stood battling their enemy. ‘No, you need to find the children.’ He frowned at Conrad, Olivia, and Lucas. ‘Promise me! That you will find them first!’

  Lucas hesitated before nodding reluctantly. His tormented gaze moved to Anna and Zachary. ‘Stay with him.’

  They nodded, their faces full of sorrow.

  Madeleine stared unblinkingly into Asgard’s eyes as his niece and nephews rose to their feet and joined the fray.

  He smiled at her. ‘You died before me, in the past.’

  Madeleine choked back tears and rubbed her face angrily, not wanting to miss her last moments with the man who had claimed her heart in this life and the one she had lived before. Anna laid trembling fingers on her shoulder.

  ‘Did it suck as much as this does right now?’ Madeleine said tremulously.

  Asgard gasped and chuckled. ‘Yes.’

  A raspy cough left his throat.

  He wrenched his gaze from her face and stared at the Immortals fighting around them. ‘Look at them. Aren’t they glorious?’

  Madeleine bit her lip and glanced at the indomitable figures who had encircled them, protecting them from the epic battle raging across the seventh floor. ‘That they are.’

  Madeleine stiffened as the body in her arms went limp. She looked down at Asgard in time to see his eyes flutter closed and his lips part on his final breath.

  The marked souls shuddered as their bond with Romerus shattered and dissolved and the one whom he dwelled inside passed from this world.

  They opened their mouths and howled, their agony and fury resonating through the bodies of the men and women they now lived within.

  Fire exploded inside Olivia’s chest, her cousins’ and her soulmate’s cries echoing the scream of rage on her lips. The golden lines around her heart bloomed and expanded as Navia merged her soul with hers, filling her blood and her body with all of her power. Heat flowed through her and with it came an unholy radiance that danced along her skin.

  The same light fluttered over the marked Immortals around her, their bodies resonating with their own formidable energy, which melded with that of the ancient souls inside them.

  Madeleine gasped as the terrible pressure erupted and forced her to the ground. The Immortals and humans helping them fell around her. Reid and Anatole staggered and dropped to their knees on her right, their bodies similarly unable to withstand the savage storm raging across the armory. Even Anna and Zachary bowed under the tempest.

  Madeleine clenched her teeth and hunkered down over Asgard. She lifted her head to witness the incredible scene unfolding before her eyes and was filled with awe.

  Alexa moved across the floor, the power thrumming through her so forcefully that her teeth vibrated in her jaw, Mila’s fury a river of fire in her blood and bones.

  The world shivered and shook as she and her cousins carved a deadly path through the enemy before them, their skin shimmering with an uncanny brightness, their bodies consumed by the blazing energy burning inside them.

  Olivia struck first, her psychokinetic blasts driving scores of super soldiers to their knees. The ones who did not fall faltered and froze under Ethan’s elemental energy. Lucas and Alexa weaved and twisted through
the overpowered men, their blades entering their enemies’ hearts and the pulse points in their necks in lightning-fast moves. Conrad moved alongside them with his double-bladed spear and simultaneously healed any injuries they suffered at the hands of their enemy, his fleeting touches reenergizing them as he mended their bruises and cuts.

  They advanced as one, their movements flawless and seamlessly coordinated. They had decimated a third of the super soldier army when they saw him.

  The reborn souls and the Immortals they dwelled in froze for a moment when they finally spotted the man they had been seeking. Sixty feet ahead, Vlado Krall stood inside a thick ring of super soldiers. They started toward him, their steps accelerating as they plowed through the masses separating them.

  A crack appeared in the east wall of the armory.

  Lucas lurched and slowed as violent tremors shook the chamber.

  The fracture widened and multiplied until the entire surface became a giant jigsaw.

  A twenty-foot section of the wall exploded in the next moment. Lumps of concrete the size of his head flew inward and slammed into the super soldiers gathered at that end of the floor.

  More super soldiers came into view through the jagged opening. Lucas blinked.

  The giants were moving backward, boots skidding and scraping across the ground, muscles bulging in their limbs and necks as they strained against the invisible force pushing at them.

  A gasp left Olivia’s lips. Fierce joy filled her face as she studied the strange phenomenon with bright eyes. Lucas’s heart stuttered when he finally spotted what she had sensed.

  The sea of super soldiers parted.

  There, advancing inside the room with unwavering steps, their eyes and skin alight with a terrible glow, pulses of breathtaking energy pounding out of their tiny bodies, were Lily and Tomas.

  Chapter Forty-Four

  Laura bit her lip and groaned as the contraction tore through her. She knew something was wrong from the amount of blood she was losing. Howard and Rosa knelt on the floor between her legs, their faces pale. Rosa stiffened.

  Laura’s heart twisted at the sight of the fear that flashed in her eyes. ‘What?’

  ‘He’s breech,’ Rosa said between pinched lips.

  Laura dropped her head back on Bernard’s lap and panted.

  ‘He wasn’t meant to be!’ she gasped. ‘Seriously, this kid’s not even born yet and he’s already causing trouble, just like his damn father!’

  ‘And his mother,’ Howard muttered.

  Laura cut her eyes to him before looking at the workstation to her left. She could only see the top of the monitors from where she lay on the floor of the bunker.

  ‘Eva, what’s happening over there?’ she barked.

  ‘Do you really wish to know that at this moment in time?’ the AI replied. ‘You appear to be in a lot of discomfort. Maybe you should—’

  ‘Eva, I swear to God, not only will I ground this kid for life if he doesn’t get his ass out of me soon, I’ll ground you too, AI or not, if you do not answer my question right now!’

  A muffled snort sounded in the diplomatic pause that followed.

  ‘I know that was you, Jordan!’ Laura snapped.

  ‘The satellites are picking up quake activity over the primary site,’ Eva said reluctantly.

  Howard’s head snapped around. ‘What?’

  Victor swore across the video call from Vienna. ‘I have to go. We have Crovir Hunters surrounding our headquarters.’

  Ripples moved across the landscape. Ivan steered the snow vehicle around a bump in the ice and glanced in the side mirror. His breath faltered when he looked past the trucks he was towing to the pale, camouflaged dome of the main research facility half a mile behind.

  Snow and ice trembled and danced at its base as it shook.

  He swallowed and peered ahead to the west, dawn painting vivid streaks of pink across the sky at his back. A ridge appeared in the distance.

  Ivan clenched his jaw and floored the accelerator. The children in the vehicle’s cabin held onto their seats and the sleeping infants in their arms.

  The sword hummed past Bastian’s head. He stumbled into the wall of the stairwell and narrowly blocked the next blow.

  Crovir sneered on the other side of their clashing blades and pressed into him. ‘I was always the better fighter of the two of us, brother!’

  Bastian gritted his teeth, his knuckles whitening on the handle of the sword as he resisted Crovir. He snarled and shoved him back toward the banister.

  Crovir narrowed his eyes, slid the edge of his sword along Bastian’s in a shower of sparks, and slipped out of the way.

  Bastian stumbled. He gasped as he found himself leaning precariously over the railing. Motion blurred to his right. He missed the swinging blade by a hairbreadth.

  Crovir swore as his sword clanged against the metal banister. Bastian twisted on his heels and deflected his strikes once more.

  Sorrow surged through him when he glimpsed the deadly gleam in Crovir’s eyes. He recalled another fight then, one that had taken place in another land and time, when he had been bested by his older brother in the final battle of their former lives.

  He truly means to kill me this time.

  Faces fluttered across his inner vision. His father Romerus, who had died at the hands of Crovir. His niece Mila, who had been accused of a crime she did not commit and been forced to stain her hands with her father’s blood in order to stop his madness. Lily and Tomas Soul, who had been taken by force from their home by one of Crovir’s descendants intent on returning the old king to his throne and the empire of the Immortals to its former glory.

  Resolve suddenly flooded Bastian. By engaging Crovir in a fight, he had hoped to buy Ivan Vlašic and the children they had been trying to save time to escape. He knew he had achieved that goal. There was only one thing left to do.

  This. This is for me, and for Mila and Romerus.

  Bastian tightened his grip on his sword and started attacking his older brother in earnest. Surprise flared across Crovir’s face.

  Their blades met over and over again while violent tremors shook the underground structure, and dust and chunks of concrete rained down around them.

  A burst of happiness overshadowed the misery and fury in Lily’s heart when she saw her father and sensed her mother’s presence at the other end of the armory. At their sides were the rest of her family and their friends.

  Emotion choked her throat as she realized how many Immortals and humans had perished to get to them and stop the man who had started all of this. Tomas’s power intensified beside her, his rage eclipsing his brief rush of joy and sadness. She followed his gaze to where Vlado Krall stood inside a deep circle of super soldiers eighty feet to their right.

  He stared from them to the marked Immortals trying to reach him, his eyes full of anger and fear.

  Lily moved with Tomas at her side. Their cadence remained steady as they made their way across the chamber, never slowing, nor faltering.

  The super soldiers fell before and around them, minds shutting down and bodies toppling to the ground under a powerful wave of psychokinetic energy.

  They focused on Vlado Krall’s mental shields when they got closer to him.

  Tomas frowned. His mind is…different. Something’s changed.

  Lily stared. Her twin was right. She could sense a strange force resonating inside Krall, one she had not felt before. It was dark. Man-made. Dangerous.

  Tomas shivered when she reached across their bond and dipped into the blazing source of his powers. He opened up and met her halfway once he grasped her intent.

  Forty feet ahead and to their left, Olivia stilled and looked their way. Understanding dawned on her face. She frowned and nodded once.

  Lily stretched out her consciousness to her aunt’s, drew on the ungodly energy glimmering around her heart, and clenched her jaw.

  This stops now.

  The three of them took a deep breath and let go.

>   Vlado Krall screamed as a dreadful pressure gripped his head. He clutched at his temples and choked on his breath as pain tore through him, filling his vision with red spots.

  He was vaguely aware of the super soldiers encircling him collapsing like dominoes, their giant bodies hitting the floor with dull thuds. He stumbled back several steps and looked around, gaze frantically searching for an escape route, his reason fleeing as icy fingers clawed at the walls protecting his consciousness.

  Vlado froze in the next instant, his heart lurching madly against his ribs as he struggled to grasp what he was seeing.

  His entire army was falling.

  He blinked, shook his head dazedly, and watched the last super soldiers drop like dead weights to his right.

  Vlado stared at the figures left standing in the armory. Five across the floor from him and two smaller ones to his left.

  For the first time in his Immortal life, he could taste defeat. Jonah Krondike’s face rose before his eyes. Rage exploded inside him.

  He scowled. I will not go down without a fight!

  A voice echoed inside the confines of his head. You will not die as easily as him.

  Vlado stiffened and turned to stare at Lily Soul. All it took was one look at her deadly expression for him to know it was her words he had just heard, and become bitterly aware that she had breached the barriers protecting his consciousness.

  The howl of outrage building inside him was cut off abruptly by an invisible force. Unseen bands wrapped around his body and brought him down to his knees.

  Vlado wheezed and fought for breath against the vise-like chain around his neck. There was movement in front of him. He clenched his teeth and slowly lifted his head, muscles straining as he resisted the unholy powers holding him hostage.

  Alexa King reached him first, her daggers singing in her hands as she crossed the blades across his throat and slashed his flesh.

  Conrad Greene came next, his spear spinning in his grip as he twisted around him and stabbed the base of his spine.