Invincible (The Aerling Series Book 3) (22 page)

Olivia’s dad blows out a long breath when
I fill them in on what Sloane found and said. I look up at him and can tell
right away that he understands my plan. If Olivia can be taught to feel that
baseline of power connecting all the Aerlings back to the first parents, my
hope is that she’ll be able to use that familiarity to locate the Mother.
She’ll have to sort through two thousand Aerlings, first, though.

“That may take too long,” Olivia’s dad
says.

“It will take a lot of power to reach all
the way across the world, too,” says Sloane quietly.

Her comment makes my heart twist. I know
how to make Olivia’s power reach much further, but I can’t bring myself to do
it. Eager tugging on my arm says I’m not the only one who’s figured that out
either. “I can do it, Mason,” Molly begs. “I can help you make Olivia’s power
stronger. We’re siblings. You said it helps. I can come with you and help
Olivia.”

Part of me wants to say yes, but every
other cell in my body repels the idea. Even Sloane looks sick at the idea of
exposing Molly to that. I don’t know how to tell her no. It will crush
her…again. We’re all each other has. Even knowing our parents are back in the
Aerling world waiting for us to return, what Sloane said in the car dims that
pull to go home. I’m Molly’s family. Olivia’s parents and Evie are the ones who
love her and protect her. They’re who she knows and loves.

“Molly, I don’t think the connection to
the Mother will be one way.”

Scrunching her face up, Molly demands,
“What does that mean?”

Sloane reaches forward and takes Molly’s
hand gently. “It means that when Olivia finds the Mother, the Mother will find
Olivia, too. She’ll know we’re trying to find her and stop her. She may run,
but she may come after us, too. Anyone involved will be marked. If the Mother
chooses to come after us instead of running, she won’t stop until she has
everyone involved, even you.”

“I promised to keep you safe, Molly,” I
whisper as I pull her into my lap. “I won’t risk you getting killed just to
find the Mother. We’ll make it work on our own.”

Looking up at me, Molly’s bottom lip
begins to quiver. I expect an argument about needing to stay with me. What she
says proves she understands so much more than most people ever give her credit.
“You can’t protect just me when all the Aerlings are in danger.”

Pride in her compassion and strength
fights with my fear of putting her in danger. One day, she will make an
incredible leader, but not when the cost could very well be her life. “I can’t
not
protect you, either.”

She doesn’t argue this time. Instead, she
presses against me, tugging my arms around her more tightly. We’ve been gone
such a short time, but already this little girl is so much more grown up than
before. Her future shouldn’t be in question at eight years old. No child should
have to wonder if their world will be destroyed and they’ll be left orphaned. I
want to tell her everything will be all right, but the only way it will be is
if we see this through to the end. 

Chapter 23

Wisdom

(Olivia)

This whole traveling between worlds thing
is getting a little easier with every trip. Hayden may not think so as he stands
doubled over, trying to catch his breath, but I only feel slightly winded this
time. When I stand and take stock, I’m mildly surprised to find the room empty.
Mason and Sloane didn’t know exactly when we’d return, and I doubt they’ve just
been sitting around waiting on us for the last three days. Thinking of the time
gap, I grab my phone off the nightstand just to double check it’s consistent.

Yep. Three days gone in the space of what
was for us only a few hours.

Sighing, I drop the phone back on the
nightstand after making sure there aren’t any messages from Mason. By that
time, Hayden is recovered. He starts to say something, but a voice from across
the room startles us both into jumping. I nearly faint when my least favorite
Aerling god materializes into view, sitting completely relaxed on the armchair
in the corner.

“What are you doing here?” I demand.

Hayden has enough composure to ask a
better question. “How did you find us and get into our room?”

Tū’s body moves with frightening
grace as he stands to face us. “Did you really think it would be that difficult
for me to find you? You carry my brother’s power. My power. That is simple for
me to track. Haven’t you puzzled that out yet?”

I’m not sure what he means by that, but
I’m more than a little freaked out. “How long have you been sneaking around
like this?”

“Since shortly after you left my
compound,” he says casually. “There’s not a place on this world you can hide
that I won’t be able to find you, little Escort.”

I feel sick. How long has he been in this
room? Dread creeps up my spine as I consider every move we might make from this
point on. Will he be there…watching? What has he already seen or heard?

Hayden has a different reaction. Anger, deep
and fast-flowing, lights his eyes as he stalks forward. I reach out to stop
him, but he pulls out of my grip and ends up toe to toe with an Aerling god.
Boy’s got some serious guts. I have to give him that, even if I fear he’s about
to get trashed.

“You lied,” Hayden growls.

Tū rolls his shoulders casually.
“That is entirely possible. You might care to mention
what
you think I
lied about, though. Just so we’re clear.”

Clearly irritated by Tū’s blasé
attitude, Hayden’s own shoulders bunch. “About whose fault it is that the Aerling
world is dying. You want to push off all the blame onto the Mother, but you’re
just as much to blame as she is.”

A flicker of confusion passes across
Tū’s eyes before he reverts to his usual indifference. “You should be
careful who you believe on these topics. All I’ve ever done since being trapped
here was try to stop the Mother from destroying both worlds.”

“So killing Aerling children, stealing
their power, that has nothing to do with the shortage of power in the Aerling
world?” Hayden demands.

The way Tū’s jaw tightens alerts me
that something is off. I don’t say anything just yet. Instead, I wait for him
to defend himself. He doesn’t disappoint. “Yes, killing the Aerling children
gives me their power, but I only keep it to prevent it from reaching the Mother
or Father and to give me enough strength to overpower her. She takes just as
many Aerling children, if not much more, than my Sentinels ever have. She was
the first to begin harvesting them. Their power is better off in my hands than
in hers.”

Those first disappearances, they weren’t
Tū, I realize. They were the Mother, siphoning off fresh little bundles of
power wherever she could find them. It must have taken her a while to realize
that power left behind when Aerlings died here of natural causes wasn’t
something she couldn’t access. Always greedy for more, she decided to go
directly after the source of power. She was against the Aerling children being
created in the first place.

I can’t agree with Tū’s response to
that problem, but I am beginning to believe any extra power is better off in
this psycho’s hands than the Mother’s. She goes so far beyond any clinical
definition of psychotic behavior that I don’t even know what to call her.

“That doesn’t change the fact that what
you’re both doing is killing your home,” I say.

Tū scoffs at me. “How could a handful
of Aerling children killed each year do so much damage? Even after centuries,
that would never be enough power lost to cause the Aerling world to fail.”

“It would if Tāwhiri used up the
majority of his power to contain the Father and had to draw on the world’s
innate power to keep creating Aerlings after the Father abandoned helping him,”
I say.

That is enough to knock the condescending
expression off his face. “What? My brother did what?” Tū demands when he
recovers from his shock. “What was he thinking?”

“He didn’t have a choice, Tū,” I
explain. “The Father grew too greedy and stopped helping him create more
Aerlings. He turned on him after a while. Tāwhiri knew he needed an army
and
enough Aerlings to keep Earth going. He didn’t have enough. It took nearly
everything he had left to lock the Father up and hold him there. The world’s
power was his only other option.”

I hope for understanding, but I’m not
surprised by his outrage. Bellowing in anger, Tū slams his fist down on a
nearby table, cracking it straight through. “The world’s power is not ours to
take,” he snarls. “He should have found another way. He should have stopped
hiding, stopped pandering to the Father, and forced him to help us end this. He
was always too soft! Too eager to believe that everyone had more goodness than
greed. My brother was a fool!”

“Fool or not,” Hayden snaps, “he’s gone.
We’re the only ones left to stop the Mother.”

“We need your help, Tū,” I say
carefully.

Tū’s gaze swivels from Hayden’s
glowering face to mine. “My help? I came to you and your Aerling for help to
end this. I am not strong enough on my own and I cannot defeat her.”

“How did she defeat your brothers?” I ask.
“I know about how Aerlings can combine their power to make it greater than it
would be with each person on their own. Why didn’t you all confront her
together?”

Erupting into a volcano of frustration,
Tū roars. “We did! How do you think we were able to separate them in the
first place? It took all of us combining our power just to manage pushing her
out of the Aerling world to Earth! We were scattered by the shock of so much
power being put to use. Tāwhiri, coward that he was, refused to help. He
alone was not cast out with the Mother. Before the rest of us could regroup,
the Mother fell upon her own children and destroyed them by some secret method.
Aerlings are not capable of killing their own through violence.”

“How do you manage it then?” Hayden
growls. “How did you skirt around that rule and kill so many Aerling children?
Innocent bystanders like Levi.”

Inches away from each other, a terrible
fight is brewing between a god and an untrained, newbie Escort. I hold my
breath, afraid to step in and terrified of letting them clash. Tū’s fury
crackles around him like it did in the valley, sparks of electric anger dancing
around his body. Hayden is so focused, he doesn’t even seem to notice. My hair
is standing on end for more than one reason.

“Sentinels are not Aerlings,” Tū
snarls. “They only contain enough of my power to open their senses to the
Aerlings’ presence on Earth and protect them from being killed by power except
for a Warden’s blade. Even I cannot stop that. They are still human, though.”

“But they’re linked to you closely enough
that the power of each dead Aerling flows back to you, right?” Hayden snarls.
“More power, that’s what this always boils down to with your kind.”

“I am not my parents!” Tū shouts. “I
am trying to save both worlds!”

Crowding Tū with a darkly menacing
glare, Hayden says, “How’s that going so far?”

“You stupid little human child,” Tū
growls. “You have been involved in this war for five seconds compared to the
millennia I have worked to find a solution! How dare you question me! You know
nothing of my loyalties or what I have given up to survive and protect my home
as long as I have. You know nothing at all!”

“I know killing innocent children is
wrong!” Hayden shouts.

I see his fist start to move. A frenzied
plea to stop him is on my lips, but knuckles meet flesh before I can utter a
single word. The breath is sucked out of me as the fury-backed punch lands. The
entire room seems to be void of air in that second. Irate, red-faced, Tū
absorbs the blow as his power coalesces in his right hand. Shock and fear on a
level I have never before experienced drops me to my knees. He’s going to kill
him. That single phrase echoes in my mind as tears begin rolling down my
cheeks.

Unmoved by Hayden’s blow, Tū wraps
his hand around my friend’s neck before he can recover from his attack. I
almost scream. If I had any air left in my body I would have. Instead, all I
can do is watch as Hayden’s body is slammed to the ground. Tū has him
pinned beneath him a split second later, and I swear he’s about to start
breathing fire like some kind of mythological…, uh, like the god he is. When
his lips part, I almost duck to shield myself, but all that fires past his lips
are words laced with fury.

“Do you understand, now, how insignificant
you are in comparison to my power? Do you see how little I care about what you
think of me or the actions I have taken to keep both of our worlds from falling
into the abyss?” Tū yanks Hayden’s head up a few inches and slams it back
down. “You are nothing! You
mean
nothing!”

“Maybe so,” Hayden wheezes, “but for all
your power, you can’t do this alone. You need us as much as we need you.”

Red flashes through Tū’s features,
his jaw grinding together as he stretches his neck to contain his fury. Yes, he
asked for our help, but to him this was never a team effort. It was simply us
following his commands and doing what he wanted. When he first began this
never-ending quest for answers, he passed it off like he was toying with us.
That was never the case, even more so now than it was then. He hates the idea
of actually having to rely on someone, to admit his own weakness, but this is
the only way and he knows it.

“Tū, we have to work together,” I
whisper when I finally find my voice again. “It took all of your siblings…”

“Except Tāwhiri,” he growls.

“It took all of your combined power to
separate your parents. All that’s left is yours and Tāwhiri’s power, but
combining just those two holds so much more potential than what you had with
your other brothers, right? Because you’re twins?”

I say it with only half-confidence,
because it’s the best I could interpret from what the Father said, but
Tū’s reaction tells me I’m right. Drawing on that for courage, I say,
“Tāwhiri hated what you were doing to the Aerling children, but in this
one thing, he realized you were right. He couldn’t sit by and expect you to
handle this on your own. That’s why he gave up his power to Mason and me.”

Relaxing his grip on Hayden’s throat
enough that color floods back into his face, Tū continues to hold him
captive, but directs his gaze to me. “Did you tell the Father who you are?”

“Yes.”

“Then you know,” Tū says. “You know
why my brother chose you and your Aerling to hold his power.”

“Yes, I do.” I take a deep breath, hoping
he’ll confirm what I’m thinking, but he remains silent, his intensity demanding
my full answer. “Blood allows power to expand more than two unrelated Aerlings,
but the bond between Aerling and Escort trumps even that. It doesn’t make us
invincible, but it’s more power than she’s had to face before, right?”

My hope of sounding confident and in
control is ruined by that last word, that plea to be reassured that I’m not
wrong, but I don’t care. I just need to know. I’m drowning in fear that no
matter what we do, it won’t be enough. The fate of two worlds is on our
shoulders. Maybe it won’t matter if we fail, because we’ll all be dead, but the
weight of that responsibility is slowly crushing me. I just need to know that
there’s some hope of winning.

“My brother finally showed wisdom when he
chose you, Olivia,” Tū says. The sneer in his voice is hopefully more for
his brother than for me, but I’m going to take that as a compliment whether he
means it as one or not.

“Then you’ll help us?” Hayden rasps.

The sound of his voice produces no
emotional response, but Tū does finally remove his hand from Hayden’s
throat. Standing and towering over the both us of, his eyes fix on mine. “We
will help each other.”