Bonds That Break (The Havoc Chronicles Book 3) (32 page)

He looked up at me with eyes glazed over by pain. "Kill me," he said. "Please."

What was I supposed to do? These were horrific wounds, but if I used my snare, I could probably keep him from bleeding to death and give his power a chance to heal him. He would never get his hands and feet back, but wasn't that better than death?

"You don’t have to die," I said. I used my snare to bind his wrists and ankles. "Give your power some time to heal you."

He began twisting and pulling against my snare. "No!" he yelled. "Kill me!"

"I don’t want to kill you," I said.

"If you live... I have... to die anyway..." His voice was getting softer and he was having difficulty breathing.

The prophecy. It always came back to the stupid prophecy. Everyone had to die but me.

I hated it.

"Do it! Please... the pain."

I couldn't kill him, even though he deserved it for what he had threatened to do to Amy. Or maybe he deserved for me to let him live and suffer more? I was confused. Which was the more merciful choice – killing him as he asked and putting him out of his misery, or letting him live, but with no hands, feet, or face? And what about Sunee? If I killed him, she would die to.

After what she and Nakai had done to the other Berserkers with the Haze, I wasn't going to mourn her death.

"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.