Echo (The Halo Series Book 2)

by Melody Robinette

  Teeth clenching and red flaring up in her vision, Aurora shook her head. “He…he hurt me, Soren,” she said in a quiet voice. “I didn’t want him to hurt you too.”

  Soren’s eyes flashed up at her. “He told me he would never hurt me. He said he wouldn’t ever hurt anyone. And he said you might say that. He said you would lie.”

  Aurora felt her eyebrows rise to her hairline. “You think I’m lying?” Soren met her eyes briefly, before looking away and shrugging. Aurora leaned forward, ignoring the pain in her wrists. “Do you think he would tie me up like this if he wouldn’t hurt anyone?”

  “He said you were dangerous.”

  Her mouth fell open. Tears stung her eyes. It had been eight years since she’d seen her son. She wouldn’t have thought he would have the ability to hurt her like this, just with his words. But her heart felt like it was struggling to beat—like her actual heart was sobbing from sorrow.

  David had turned Soren against her. He’d made him believe she was the dangerous one. And children’s minds were easily molded. But they were also inherently good. If only she could get him to see what his father was really like.

  “I won’t try to tell you I’m a good person,” she said in the same quiet voice, “because I know you won’t believe me. You don’t know me well enough to trust me. But, I will say you shouldn’t take David at his word. Listen to what he says and watch what he does when he doesn’t think you’re around to see.”

  Soren frowned, but he looked at her, really looked at her for a long time. She hoped he could read people as well as she'd been able to at his age. She’d obviously lost that ability in her teenage years…and, after the little situation with Samuel on Etheria, she wasn’t all that sure she’d ever completely gotten it back.

  The door to the bedroom opened then, and David stepped inside.

  “Soren, go to your room and play with the new toys I got you. I need to speak with your mother alone.”

  Aurora wondered if Soren noticed the coldness in David’s voice, the unfeeling tone of his words. But the small boy obediently nodded his head and left the room, taking any warmth Aurora felt with him.

  She suddenly felt chilled down to the bone, like she’d been bathed in ice water.

  David shut the door behind him and turned to face her. “Have a nice little chat with your son?”

  “Our son, you mean? Yes, it was lovely. Clearly, you’ve been busy brainwashing him to hate me.”

  The smirk that turned up David’s lips made Aurora physically sick. As he drew closer, the nausea only intensified. “Well, I’m afraid it wasn’t terribly difficult. Are you really that surprised? You did abandon him, after all.”

  A burning rage that had been building inside of her erupted like lava in a volcano—melting any ice her insides had collected. “I gave him to a family that wasn’t completely screwed up like we were. To a dad who actually had a heart, who wasn’t a sexual predator, who didn’t treat women like they were toys meant to be played with. And I gave him to a mom who wasn’t completely broken inside. I gave him a chance. How dare you try to make me feel guilty about that? Do you not remember how he was created in the first place?”

  Rather than getting angry, David looked rather pleased by her outburst. “Now, now, little lamb. Lower your voice. You don’t want your son to be even more afraid of you.”

  “If he hears the words I’m saying, then he’ll be more afraid of you.”

  David chuckled. “He’s a child. He understands very little.”

  Aurora realized David actually thought this to be true. Clearly, he hadn’t been around children much. Sometimes she thought they understood more than even adults were capable of processing. She decided not to argue this. David didn’t understand people because he was hardly human himself.

  “So, could you untie me?” Aurora asked dully. “My wrists are starting to bleed.”

  “And have you try to attack me or run away? Hardly.”

  Aurora sent him a glare she wished could burn him as much as it burned her insides. “So you’re just going to keep me tied to this bed forever?”

  David clasped his hands behind his back, pacing slowly towards her. “Not forever. Just until the Stockholm Syndrome kicks in.”

  “Are you kidding me?”

  But he didn’t answer her this time. Instead, with a predatory look in his eyes, he climbed onto the bed. He straddled her lap. He clawed hungrily at her back that arched in protest. Then he began to move up her shirt onto bare skin.

  No, her brain thought. Not again. Not again. Stop.

  She screamed, a blood-curdling, wall-shaking scream, but he stuffed a wad of fabric in her mouth, gagging her. Tears welled up in her eyes, rolling down her cheek as she realized he was answering her earlier question about Stockholm Syndrome.

  His answer was:

  No.

  He wasn’t kidding.

  Forty-Three

  GRAY

  Gray was jerked violently out of his sleep, the image of Aurora being abused by David still splattered like a painting of a nightmare on the backs of his eyelids.

  He hoped to the Light it had only been a dream. The sick feeling in his gut told him it wasn’t.

  Running his hands through his hair, he pivoted to look at Jax. The giant of a Halo sat cramped in the pilot’s seat, looking calmly down at a newspaper.

  Turned out Jax could fly passenger jetliners.

  After they’d broken a billion American laws, Gray had climbed into the front of the plane with Jax, who could sense Gray’s nerves.

  “These things basically fly themselves,” Jax had assured him, leaning back comfortably in his seat and letting the autopilot do most of the work.

  Now they were thousands of feet in the air, and Jax was reading an article about the “sleeping virus” rather than watching the sky ahead. Gray shifted forward in the co-pilot seat, rubbing his face with his hands. “Can this thing go any faster?”

  Jax folded the newspaper closed. The front page read: “The End of Times?” in big, bold lettering above a picture of people crying in front of a church. “Faster?”

  “Yes. Faster.”

  Jax shrugged and flicked buttons and pulled at knobs that meant absolutely nothing to Gray. He felt the plane increase speed, which should have relaxed him, but didn’t.

  Jax glanced obliquely at him. “You have a nightmare?”

  “Hope so.”

  Never in his life would Gray expect to be riding in the cockpit of a passenger airplane…and never in his life would he expect not to care at all.

  There was something to be said about the remarkable view of the wide open sky before him. And, in other circumstances, he would marvel at the beauty of it all. But, as it was, right now all he could do was nervously bounce his foot and clutch at the armrests between periods of wringing his hands. He’d thought to try and sleep would get his mind off of what could be happening to Aurora, but clearly that had been a terrible idea.

  “So, this girl of yours,” Jax said curiously. “Did you meet on the ship?”

  “She’s not technically my girl, to be honest… She’s actually my Stellar.”

  This prompted a look of confusion from Jax and a brief overview from Gray on the subject of Celestials and “soul mates.” Jax let out a long whistle when Gray was finished. “Man. That’s heavy.”

  “Guess that’s one word for it.”

  “So, is that why you’re going after her? Cause, if she dies, you die?”

  Gray shook his head almost immediately. He hadn’t even considered that. He would’ve gone after her whether their souls were linked or not. “This is just what we do. She runs. I chase.”

  Throwing his head back in a laugh, Jax said, “Always the thrill of the chase. It’s like a drug, right?”

  Gray had never thought about his relationship with Aurora in these terms, but they seemed to fit. Drugs were intoxicating and all consuming. They changed a person’s life. When they weren’t using them, they were thinking about them
. But drugs were poisonous and often deadly… Aurora was like breathing in life. She was more like oxygen. Gray could hold his breath, but eventually, it would start to hurt, and his limbs would tingle and go numb. And he’d need to breathe again.

  Gray turned to squint at the puffy clouds beneath them, like they were flying low over a blanket of freshly fallen snow. It was strange, Gray thought, to be surrounded by such a serene sky in the heat of a holy battle. Shouldn’t it be dark and stormy and raining fire while the Earth split open?

  As they began their descent into Seattle, the tension in Gray’s stomach steadily increased…then went to another level.

  Jax sucked in a sharp gust of air as the bottom of the plane broke through the floor of clouds to reveal the city beneath them. “Aw shit.”

  Gray really wished he hadn’t questioned the beauty of the clouds because underneath them it wasn’t raining fire or splitting earth…but it was close.

  From the sky, it was difficult to discern what the little ant-like figures were, but Gray leaned forward and squinted to attempt to see.

  At first, he thought maybe Seattle had yet to be locked and that people were still out and about. But that wasn’t the case. The figures were beasts and demons crawling through the streets like the vermin they were. The cement colored robes of the Horns could also be seen.

  Flames licked the air as buildings burned along with mounds of what looked like garbage. But as the plane lowered every so steadily towards the runway, Gray realized with a wave of nausea that the burning piles weren’t garbage…

  They were people.

  Forty-Four

  CHORD

  “Mother of fucking Madonna.”

  Chord handed Logan the note Gray had left on the kitchen counter next to the always-full jar of sugarclouds.

  Sev flashed Chord a mildly amused look at his choice of profanity. “Have I mentioned recently how truly attractive the American language is?”

  Chord ignored Sev’s comment, pointing at the note Logan was now scanning with narrowed eyes. “Gray went after Aurora, who he apparently thinks is in Seattle. With all of the airports closed and the bus stations, how in the hell are we supposed to—?”

  As if answering his question, Echo suddenly shuddered to life and began to pull away from the port on its own accord.

  “Guess we’re sailing there…?” Brielle said uncertainly.

  “Well that’s just bloody brilliant,” Chord grumbled before speaking only to Sev, “There you go, Sevastion. There’s a little of your beautiful British language for you.”

  Logan snorted before turning away from the group. “I’m going to shower and sleep before we have to put our armor back on and fight a bunch of beasts and demons all over again.”

  Brielle agreed and followed after her. And, as the two girls vacated the kitchen, Chord and Sev were left alone.

  Partly to have something to do and partly because he was a fat kid at heart, Chord reached out and plucked a sugarcloud from the jar in front of him before popping it into his mouth, letting the creamy sweetness melt across his tongue.

  He was tired of being the one who followed after Sev like a pathetic little puppy dog. If the British bollock wanted him again—unless he’d changed his mind since they’d left the fountain—then he would have to work a little harder.

  Chord’s eyes avoided Sev’s gaze, glancing outside. The sliding glass doors were closed, and Luna stood beyond them, leaning against the railing of the boat, looking more than a little despondent. She looked lost. Like a child who had toddled after a balloon in a fair and turned around to find their parents gone.

  Sev's voice saturated Chord's distracted thoughts.

  “I was thinking, if you weren’t very tired, we could discuss the demon compendium a bit more. I’ve completed a handful of entries that just need—”

  Chord cut him off. “Yeah, sure. I’ll—uh—I’ll meet you in the library.”

  The flippant way Chord had said this seemed to confuse Sev. Good, Chord thought. Look who’s holding the reigns now.

  Would he ever lose interest in games of the heart?

  Probably not.

  But, for now, he’d keep Sev guessing because Luna seriously looked like she was contemplating pulling a Rose-from-Titanic and climbing over the railing of the ship. And Chord was not about to pull a Jack Dawson and save her stupid ass.

  But, supposedly, it was his heavenly duty to help people. So, he parted ways with a pensive Sev and slid the glass door open, stepping out onto the deck.

  The frigid air bit harshly at his face. He really wished Caducus had chosen to take over the world in the springtime. Winter sucked.

  Luna didn’t acknowledge his presence as he moved to stand beside her, mimicking her stance of clasped hands and forearms resting on the railing.

  “I know what you’re feeling.” His voice sounded meager in the open air, the wind from the speed of the fast moving boat dulling its volume. But, even so, Luna heard him, turning her head ever so slightly in his direction. She kept her eyes on the water, as if contemplating how it would feel to dive in.

  Chord continued on. “You feel like you did everything you knew how to do to try to keep him, but it wasn’t enough. You feel like you aren’t enough and you don’t understand why. You’re feeling second best. And you’re going over and over everything you ever said or did, analyzing what you could have done differently to make him stay, to make him love you instead of her.”

  Luna didn’t acknowledge she was listening. She didn’t respond. But her eyebrows turned up, and her bottom lip quivered slightly before she bit it to stop the shaking.

  “It really sucks to love someone who doesn’t love you back,” Chord said in a slightly haunted voice, remembering all the guys he’d fallen for throughout the years, all the guys who didn’t return his feelings. Both straight and gay. “It sucks to see everything you’ve ever wanted in them, but they can’t seem to see anything in you. And it sucks even worse to love someone who loves someone else. But you can’t torture yourself because your puzzle piece didn’t fit into their puzzle.” Luna cracked the first smile Chord had seen from her in the past 24 hours, and he nudged her playfully. “Shut up. It’s a metaphor. Just go with it.”

  “My brain knows you’re right,” Luna said in an unsteady voice. “But my heart doesn’t care. My heart still thinks he’s supposed to be with me.”

  Chord nodded in understanding. “Hearts are annoying little assholes sometimes. They refuse to just let things go.”

  With tear filled eyes, Luna took a deep breath and let it slowly out. Chord said nothing else. No more metaphors about puzzle pieces or personifying organs. Language Arts had never been his strong suit anyway.

  “I knew she left,” Luna whispered. "Aurora, I mean." Chord raised an eyebrow at her, staying silent as Luna let out her confession. “I knew she left. I found her note in the kitchen and...and I crumpled it up and threw it away. Then I tore out all of the other pages in her sketchbook and threw those away too.”

  Aurora was one of Chord’s favorite people in the world, so he really wanted to judge Luna for what she’d done. But, then again…he couldn’t say he’d never done crazy shit in the name of love. So, he decided to show Luna a little bit of empathy. He could be a good person when he wanted to be. “Hey, we all do things we regret every once in awhile. In my case, it’s typically on a daily basis.”

  Luna shook her head, and a few tears spilled down her cheeks, dropping in minuscule puddles onto the silver railing. “No. You don’t understand. I’ve done a really, really bad thing.”

  Chord waved a hand in dismissal. “Dude, I’ve burned all of my ex-boyfriend’s clothes before. Throwing papers in the trash is nothing.”

  This time Luna shook her head and clutched onto Chord’s arm, fixing him with a petrified look. “No, Chord. I—I made a deal with a Horn.”

  Chord felt his face tighten, the muscles in his brows clenched inwards as he frowned. He wasn’t sure he wanted to ask, but he did
anyway. “What do you mean…?”

  Another wave of tears poured down Luna’s bloodless cheeks. “He told me to keep Gray and Aurora apart. He said he was going to draw Aurora away. I think that’s why she left. And they’re going to be waiting for her there.”

  “Well...Aurora is strong. She will be okay,” Chord said, trying to soothe her even though he now sort of felt like pushing the girl overboard.

  “I don’t care if she’s okay.” The hint of malice lacing her words told Chord that Luna was clearly not over the fact that Aurora basically stole her boyfriend.

  “But if she’s not okay, then—”

  “If Aurora’s not okay, then Gray’s not okay,” Luna interrupted bitterly. “Yeah. That’s why I’m worried.”

  Forty-Five

  AURORA

  Time meant nothing in Aurora’s room of torture.

  There were no windows to let in the natural light. Just a little lamp David kept on at all times. Apparently, he had learned something from Samuel about Aurora, Gray, and available windows. Not that Gray even knew where she was.

  The more she thought about it, the more Aurora wished she had mentioned in her note where she was going…and left out the little part about not coming after her.

  At the time, she hadn’t wanted Gray to leave the others when they were meant to be locking the city. For all she knew, her dream was nothing more than that.

  A dream.

  It wouldn’t have been fair to drag Gray into this. Mortal damage had already been done between Gray and Luna with the Stellars' moment of weakness. The kiss she couldn’t quite forget. The second of two.

  Well, actually, she could forget it for a moment. Because, each time David slipped back into her room, she wiped her mind blank, preparing for what was about to come. He acted as though what he was doing to her was completely normal—like she wasn’t tied up against her will.

  But she never stopped fighting.

  She bucked and kicked and thrashed and tried to make it as unpleasant as possible for him, but he still continued on as if nothing was amiss. She screamed too. But no one came to help her.