Bonds That Break (The Havoc Chronicles Book 3) (26 page)

I threw out my hands to cast a snare to capture Thuanar, but I was too far away. By the time my cables got there, they closed on nothing but air. Thuanar had already raced over to Miguel and was about to bite down on him, ending his life.

Which is exactly what would have happened except for the fact that Davu got there first. With brutal efficiency he pummeled Thuanar's face with his one good arm and some well-timed kicks, driving him back and away from Miguel.

I raced over to assist and stabbed Thuanar through the side with my varé. He roared in anger and whipped his head around to face me. I thrust again, this time at his face.

He reared back and avoided my strike, glaring at me with hatred, and I could tell he recognized me. I felt waves of emotion coming from him – hatred and fear.

He lifted his head into the air and let out a tremendous roar. The sheer volume and force knocked me back several steps. The wind picked up and started swirling around me.

Then, to my horror, Thuanar slowly faded from sight.

"Where did he go?" shouted Davu. He stood protectively in front of Miguel's inert form. His head turned wildly from side to side looking for danger.

I peered closer to where Thuanar had been and realized that he hadn't completely disappeared. He seemed to be camouflaged somehow – the light warped around him, giving the appearance that you could see through him.

Fortunately, the illusion was not
quite
perfect. It might have been because he was wounded, but I suspected that it had more to do with my mutant powers than any weakness in him. 

"Found him!" I said. I jammed my fist into the ground and grabbed a handful of dirt. The soil was relatively dry and crumbly. I flung the particles out in front of me. They landed on Thuanar, coating his body and outlining it.

But the effect lasted for only a few seconds. It wasn't that Thuanar flung off the dirt – he didn't have to. Instead his magic adapted to it and caused the dirt to disappear as well.

The few seconds were enough for Davu to locate him. He rushed toward the Havoc and began kicking and punching the air, attempting to find Thuanar.

And then his arm disappeared.

Davu dropped to his knees screaming in agony, one arm wounded and unable to move, the other now ending at a bloody stump a few inches from his shoulder.

A second later, the arm reappeared on the ground in front of him.

I knew what to do. I had fixed this before with Josiah. I just need to get to Davu and use a snare to keep the limb attached and stop the bleeding. His powers of healing would take care of the rest.

I ran to Davu, but got there too late. His upper body disappeared and ended in a jagged lump of bleeding flesh. What was left of his body slumped the rest of the way to the ground where it remained, legs twitching.

I didn't even have time to scream before the memories hit me.

– Running with a spear through the savannah.

– Wrestling a massive rhinoceros – and winning. 

– Seeing the face of the young girl Berserker who he knew was the beginning of the end.

Coming so quickly after the last set of memories, these somehow hurt even more. But even as Davu's memories faded, I braced myself for Evette's. They came with surprising force.

– Dancing in a room with three girls during a sleepover.

– Kissing Josiah under the moonlight.

– Watching Sunee cast a Haze on Davu.

I woke up on the ground and gasped from the sheer pain of the memories, and the knowledge that Davu and Evette were dead. My head felt like it had been repeatedly crushed in a vice and then left on the floor to be trampled by the entire cast of Riverdance.

Twice.

I hardly had time to register Yvette's and Josiah's kiss and what the implications of that were, or the fact that I now had proof that Sunee had been casting Hazes on the other Berserkers.

Loud shouts pulled me out of my thoughts and over to where the other Berserkers clustered together. I was still too weak to even stand, so I rolled over to face the voices.

Josiah held Yvette's completely still form. He rocked her in his arms, tears rolling down his cheeks. Obviously there really had been something there and that kiss had not been just a one-time mistake. 

In front of Josiah, Yul did his best to hold off Pravicus by himself. He twisted and turned, hacking and slashing at the much larger form of the Havoc. But not being able to bind it, there was no way he could survive much longer one-on-one.

"I need help!" he yelled, and barely managed to jump out of the way of a massive foot attempting to stomp down on him.

Arthur, Sunee, and Nakai ignored him and huddled together in a whispered conference. Ordinarily I could have heard everything with perfect clarify, but the flood of memories had somehow shut down my enhanced senses while my brain tried to recover from the beating it had just taken.

Jacinda held Dagmar from behind, trying to keep her from running to where Miguel lay still after being hit by Thuanar's tail. I knew he wasn't dead, but he was surely hurt badly.

I tried to sit up, but my head spun. I needed to fight the Havocs.
I
was the one who could bind them. I could protect everyone, I just needed time to recover from the assault of memories.

I heard Jacinda scream "No!"

Dagmar had escaped from her hold and ran past Yul to where Miguel lay wounded.

Jacinda ran after her. "Dagmar! Stop!"

I saw the danger and wanted to yell too, but I couldn't make my throat work. I reached out a feeble arm, but it was nothing but a worthless gesture – I was too weak to move.

Pravicus saw the movement and turned his attention from the exhausted Yul to Dagmar and Jacinda. With a mighty roar, he ran after them.

I couldn't see what happened from my position on the ground, but I did hear the screams.

And then I felt the three sets of memories come at once – jumbled, jagged, and sharp. Too incoherent to sort out.

The pain was beyond description. I remember throwing up, and then I blacked out.

I couldn't have been out long, because when I came to, Josiah, Arthur, Sunee, and Nakai were still there. Yul stood in front of them, yelling.

"Don't you dare abandon us now!" he shouted. "It's your duty to stop these monsters. We all took oaths!"

I got to my knees and forced myself to stand up. The world spun around me. I staggered into a tree and grabbed onto it to keep myself upright.

"There is nothing we can do," said Nakai. "If we stay here, we will all be slaughtered."

"And if you leave now, who else will be killed?"

Nakai ignored him. She looked over to where Pravicus was savaging the remains of Miguel, Dagmar, and Jacinda.

"We don't have time to argue. Josiah, Arthur, let's go." Josiah picked her up, and Arthur lifted Sunee. "Run while you can, Yul. Don't waste your life on pointless heroics. Save your bravery for when you have a chance to win."

Yul stood in front of Arthur. "I won't let you run away like cowards," he said. "I will hold you to your oaths."

"I have no problems with you, Yul," said Nakai. "But do not try to stop us."

"You took oaths!" roared Yul.

It was over in an instant. Josiah stepped behind Yul and ran him through with his varé. The large Berserker fell to his knees, blood spilling from his chest and mouth. His expression was confused, as if he couldn't comprehend what had happened. He grasped at Arthur, who calmly backed out of his reach.

Yul fell onto his face, and lay still.

Once again I collapsed as more memories flooded my mind. I wanted to scream, but didn't have the strength. In the time I was needed most, I was useless.

– Yul huddling for warmth on a freezing winter night in Siberia.

– Sparing with Davu and another Berserker I had never seen before.

– The dead look in Arthur's eyes as he stepped away while Yul fell to the ground.

And then I realized what was to come next. I mentally braced myself. I wanted to smash my head on a rock to knock me unconscious so I wouldn't have to feel these next ones. I knew who they would belong to.

– Onaona paddling out on a surfboard for the first time.

– The feeling of power as she summoned an Azark.

– Watching me as I learned her trick of splitting up the snare tendrils.

I cried.

The tears came hot and fast, blurring my vision. Onaona was dead. She had been Yul's Binder and with his death, she had died.

So many people had died today. So many.

I couldn’t save any of them.

Through my tears, I saw shapes loom above me – Josiah, Arthur, Nakai, and Sunee.

"Kill her," Nakai said. "It is the only way to stop this." The friendly, almost grandmotherly, tone that I was used to hearing was gone from her voice. It was replaced with cold ice, pronouncing my death sentence.

I tried to summon my strength to get up. To move. To do anything. But I couldn't.

I was powerless – completely drained.

And I was going to die.

Chapter 16

The Weight of the World

So this was how it ended? Not killed by a monster, but betrayed by my supposed friends. This was not the way I thought I would die. Not that I had ever given it much thought. I was a teenager with Berserker powers. Death had always seemed kind of far away.

Until now.

Josiah took a hesitant step toward me. "She's dead because of you," he said. "They all are." He raised his varé and held it in the ready position with both hands.

There was nothing I could do. I was too weak to even stand, let alone fight him off. I should have been scared, but I was too exhausted to even feel that.

Instead my thoughts turned to Rhys. I desperately wished I could have seen him one last time before I died. To feel his arms around me – his lips on mine. Was that too much to ask?

This sucked.

Josiah raised his varé to strike. "I'm sorry it’s come to this, Madison."

"Spare me the lies," I said. "This isn’t even your choice. You are nothing but a puppet for Nakai and Sunee. They cast a Haze on all the Berserkers and are using it to control you." Bold words from a girl about to die.

Josiah shook his head. “No, girl, you got it all wrong. Hazes are good for specific commands, but they don’t change the way you think or what you believe long term. Arthur and I have been on board with their plans all along. They didn’t need to cast a Haze on us.”

That was eye-opening. They were doing this without being coerced? “So you aren’t a puppet, just evil?”

Josiah’s jaw tightened and he narrowed his eyes. "I'm doing this to save the world. Can't you see that?"

"Sorry," I said. "All I can see from down here is a guy about to murder an innocent girl and doom the entire world. And I have to say it doesn't look very heroic from my perspective."

"She's stalling," Nakai said. "How many times do I have to send someone to kill this girl before she finally dies?"

I turned my head to face Nakai. "So it was you?" I asked. "You were the one who tried to have me killed?"

"To prevent all this," she said, gesturing broadly with her arms. "None of these people had to die. Just you. Sometimes hard choices need to be made. It was either you or the world." She turned back to Josiah. "Now kill her."

Josiah reached back with his varé, ready to strike, but the blow never came. Instead he flew thirty feet through the air and slid along the ground another twenty until he smashed into the remains of the Manor House.

In front of me I watched as Thuanar appeared between me and the others. His long, sinuous tail whipped back in forth in agitation. Off in the trees, Pravicus left whatever he had been destroying and stomped over to stand next to Thuanar.

The two of them formed a wall between me and the Berserkers.

Protecting me.

Why?

As one, they charged toward Josiah, Arthur, Sunee, and Nakai. Sunee screamed and Josiah and Arthur picked up their binders and ran away, fleeing the wrath of the Havocs.

Thuanar took off after them, but Pravicus stayed and turned to face me.

Great, just what I needed. They saved me from Josiah and Arthur so they could sacrifice me to free another Havoc. Can't a girl catch a break?

But Pravicus didn't make a move to capture me. Instead he lowered his massive body to the ground so that his head was only a few feet from mine. I wanted to run away, or to attack, or do anything but lie helplessly on the ground.

I remembered what Pravicus' primary power was – mental domination. Was that what was going on? Was Pravicus going to take control of my mind? Well, if that was his plan, given my condition there wasn't much I could do to stop it.

Pravicus dipped his head toward the ground, bringing one of his massive horns within arm's reach. The pieces suddenly clicked together, and I knew what he wanted me to do. He wanted me to touch him.

Was it some kind of trick? Is that how the mental control worked? I had to touch him before he could control me? What would he make me do?

As these thoughts swirled around my mind, I gritted my teeth and tried not to scream in frustration. I was tired of second guessing everything. Pravicus could have killed me a dozen times over but did not. That had to mean something.

I was going to take the risk.

With an embarrassingly difficult effort, I reached out and placed my hand on the Havoc's horn.

It was too late by the time I remembered that touching a Havoc would flood my mind with images. After the mental beating I had just taken, more images were the last thing I wanted.

When the vision came, I managed not to scream, but just barely.

I saw a woman with long blond hair tied back in a braid and a crown on her head. She sat on a throne next to the man with one eye and the spear. He also wore a crown on his head. Before them stood the redheaded man with the glove and hammer, pacing back and forth, clearly agitated. Two other men with long dark beards and solemn faces stood on either side of the thrones.