Invincible (The Aerling Series Book 3) (31 page)

Chapter 34

Even

(Mason)

Terrified of losing her, my head darts up
to search the people around me for help. That can’t be the answer! Every face I
meet only looks back at me with despair. They can’t help me. No one can. I
don’t know what to do. This will kill her. This will kill Olivia and I’ll be
the one who steals her life.

“I’ll guide you,” Sloane says softly. Her
hand lands on my shoulder, followed closely behind by Hayden’s on the other
side.

Looking up, I see that Sloane’s other hand
is still resting on Emma’s arm, lending her guidance and support. Dividing her
power, she can’t do it. She already told me that when we rescued the man from
the fallen building.

As if reading my thoughts, Sloane
whispers, “I won’t let you down, Mason. I won’t let Olivia down, either.”

“She said it would work,” Hayden says as
his grip tightens on my shoulder. “Olivia said you could do this. She has faith
in you. Have faith in her.”

I do have faith in Olivia. I trust her
with my life. But it’s her life in my hands now, and I don’t know if she’s
right to trust me. The rush of pulling in power is sickening and exhilarating
at the same time. Once I start, I can’t stop. I don’t know
how
to stop!

“We’ll do it together,” Sloane says calmly
as her power begins flowing into me.

Right away, calmness spreads with the
touch of her power. It’s not nearly enough to overtake the all-consuming fear
raging through me, but it is enough to dull the edge and let me focus. Somehow,
my mind clears. I send myself back to that moment in the field before I started
stripping away the Mother’s power.

Olivia disappears from my mind. Not by
choice, but by necessity. All my focus is harnessed as I pull in all the awful
power raging inside of me. Hugging it to my core, I keep it safe even though
the pain of trying to control so much nearly breaks me.

Fear spikes through me as I prepare to
start pulling. The most precious thing in any world creeps back into my mind
and all I can do is hope she was right to put her faith in me. Sloane’s power
reaches up in a comforting touch and wraps itself around mine. I can feel
Hayden’s there as well, supporting and enhancing Sloane’s power. I am terrified
of failing, but hesitating will kill Olivia just as surely.

With a prayer to an unnamed god on my
lips, I beg, “Please let this work.”

My wind spirit wraps itself around me as I
begin pulling. A terrible scream is ripped out of my mouth as the power begins
flowing in. I feel everything it was doing to Olivia as the torrent slams into
me. It’s too much! Panic makes me try to stop it, but I can’t. It won’t stop
coming! Only Sloane’s power holding tight to mine, guiding it and keeping it
steady, keeps me from losing it.

I keep pulling and pulling, soaking it up
like a man dying of thirst, but I’m already so full I’m terrified I will burst
from the pressure. My fear only grows when the mixture of power I threw at
Olivia during the fight begins to dry up and I can’t stop drinking.
Tāwhiri’s power comes next, speeding through me to merge with the half I
already have. I beg for that to be the last of what I take, but my soul turns
to ice as I start drawing on Olivia’s power, desperate to stop, but completely
unable to halt the flow.

“It’s okay,” Sloane whispers beside me,
but I rebel against her comfort.

“I’m killing her! I’m taking her power!” I
say in panic. My eyes pop open and I see Olivia’s body relaxing into utter
stillness. “No! I have to stop!”

I turn to Sloane, begging for help, but
she only shakes her head. “This is how it has to be, Mason. Trust me.”

Furious that she isn’t stopping me, I
lunge at her, but my power snaps back at me in a devastating blow as the last
of Olivia’s power smashes into me. She’s gone! Even without touching her I can
feel her life force resting inside of
me
instead of her own body. I
stole it! I reach for her, desperate, mad with grief, incensed that they all
told me it would be all right and it’s not!

Hayden tackles me to the ground before I
can touch Olivia. His forearm rests against my neck, choking me, holding me.
“Listen to Sloane! She’s trying to save you both!”

What does he mean? Frantic, I try to throw
him off me, but the power ricocheting around inside of me intensifies and it
starts trying to find a way to escape! Screaming, I lose all connection with
reality as I try to fight it off, stop it from ripping me apart. It’s all
useless!

“Keep going,” Sloane begs, her voice right
next to my ear so I can hear her over my own screaming. “Let go of the power,
Mason. Get rid of everything you don’t need.”

“How?” I beg as the pain tears me apart.

“The same way you took it from everyone
else,” she says hurriedly. “Pull it from yourself and let it go. That’s what
Olivia was trying to tell you, but you have to hurry. We’re running out of
time!”

Time for what? my crazed mind wonders, but
Sloane’s power bashes into me again, forcing my thoughts to the power and
nothing else. I have no clue if she’s right, but I’m desperate to get all of
this horrible power out of me, so I do the only thing I can.

I grab hold of everything trying to kill
me and start tearing it out.

Ripping away the Mother’s power, I scream
in agony as it scrapes its way out of me. Just a small section at first, even
that is torture, but I keep going. I pull more and more, forcing it to let go
of me and find escape. I’m ready to fall over in exhaustion before I get the
first piece to the edge of my range of power and desperately shove it away from
me.

That’s all it takes.

As soon as that one bit escapes,
everything else start pouring out of me in search of freedom, eager to escape
the trap of being held for eternity against its will. Collapsing to the ground,
I am powerless to stop it now. The Mother’s power escapes, followed by the
Father’s. Tū’s is next, then Tāwhiri’s begins to fade as well, but Sloane’s
frantic voice pierces my foggy mind with a plea.

“Don’t let it all go!” she begs. “Stop it
from taking everything or you’ll both die! Hold onto Olivia’s power, and yours.
Keep part of Tāwhiri’s, too! Don’t let it all go, Mason!”

Scrabbling, I have no idea why she wants
me to keep part of Tāwhiri’s power, but I grab hold of the last bit and
struggle to keep it from leaving me. Holding onto it takes all my strength, and
the vacuum of power traveling out of me searches for something more. Mine and
Olivia’s power begins slipping away, succumbing to the promise of freedom.

Throwing in everything I have left, I
latch onto those three bits of power and fight to keep control. They want to
escape, but I can’t let them. I don’t even know why, but Sloane is yelling at
me to hold on as her power stretches as much as it can to help me.

“Close the gateway!” Sloane shrieks.
“Hurry!”

I have no clue what she means, but she
must, because her power starts prodding mine, guiding it to stop the outward
flow of power and begin rebuilding the natural barrier that keeps my power
within me. It feels like ages before the world around me stops trying to suck
up my life force. All I want to do is fall over and not move for a year when it
finally snaps shut without stripping me of everything I held onto, but Sloane
yanks me back up and shoves me toward Olivia.

“Give it back. Hurry, Mason! There isn’t
much time left! She’s almost gone!” Sloane’s terrified eyes push me to act.

I reach for Olivia’s body, amazed it’s
still here and not vanished into ether when I took her power. “How?”

“Use what’s left of Tāwhiri’s power
to build a bridge. His power is what’s making all of this work,” Sloane says in
a mad rush. “Do it now!”

Refusing to let Olivia slip away from me
again, I accept Sloane’s power as it rushes into me, and together we use what
little I still hold of Tāwhiri’s power to form a bridge between Olivia and
me. That’s as far as I need Sloane’s help, because I know what to do now.
Olivia’s power eases away from where I was cradling it and flows slowly back
into her body. My eyes are closed, but I can feel it seeping in, helping Emma’s
power repair and heal all the wounds she’s been forced to endure since the day
we were thrown into this war of lies and power.

The last of her power has almost left me,
when something instinctual stops me and keeps it from leaving. Sloane didn’t pull
away once Olivia’s power began returning to her body, and I feel her tense
beside me. In that moment, I understand something I never could before. I
thought the ban on humans and Aerlings having a relationship was something the
Mother created to punish people who sought to escape her. It’s not.

Holding both mine and Olivia’s power in
the proverbial palm of my hand lets me see the truth. The ban wasn’t the
Mother’s doing. It wasn’t a ban at all. Humans and Aerlings aren’t kept from
mixing because it’s a betrayal of their world. It isn’t a betrayal at all. It’s
simply a choice. One that requires a sacrifice to be made.

Despite what the Mother and Father have
done, how much of this world they corrupted, the power I held within me was
pure. It isn’t based on fear or greed or selfishness. When Olivia and every
other Escort is faced with the choice of saving themselves or saving their Aerling,
survival is based on love and selflessness.

The answers have been here all along, but
it took this moment to see them clearly. Saving me changed Olivia. Sloane told
me that the power turned her less human and more Aerling, but that’s not
exactly true. She didn’t
change
, she merely opened herself up to
becoming more than what she already was. Now it’s my turn to do the same for
her.

Instead of returning the last of her
power, I hold it close, next to my heart where it will always be safe. I never want
it to leave me, but I can’t leave Olivia incomplete. Taking hold of my own
power, I don’t send it through the link. I didn’t need the link in the first
place. All I needed was to be willing to sacrifice part of myself for her.

Leaning down to her flushed cheeks, I
stroke my fingers across her skin softly. Her eyes move beneath her eyelids and
her breathing escalates, but her eyes don’t open. They won’t, not until I
finish giving her what she needs.

No one moves to stop me when I press my
lips against hers. As our mouths meet, so does our power. The small piece of
Olivia’s power I kept back is pulled loose, and I almost panic. Before I can
react, everything changes. My power rushes into her and hers into me, mixing,
blending, becoming something entirely new. Part of who I am as an Aerling is
stripped away, but it doesn’t scare me to let it go. Essential parts of Olivia
flow freely over to me and fill in everything I’ve given to her.

There is no longer her power or mine. It
is irrevocably combined. It was never about choosing a side. It was about
becoming something more.

As our newly intertwined power settles
back into our bodies, forever linked, Olivia’s eyes flutter open in shock. I
have no doubt she can feel what just happened, but her first thoughts aren’t
about power. “You saved me,” she cries. “I knew you would.” Her hands reach up and
crush me against her, our mouths meeting, begging to never be parted.

“You saved me first,” I say between
kisses. “We’re even.”

Olivia pulls back, laughing as tears run
down her cheeks. “We’ll never be even, but I’ll never stop trying.”

“Neither will I.”

Chapter 35

Breathe

(Mason)

No one inside has noticed us yet. It’s
almost a relief. I think we all need a second to take in the fact that we’re
home, for good. I pull Olivia closer and kiss the top of her head.
For good
isn’t exactly accurate since we have a lot of work to do still, and big
portions of that will require trips back to the Aerling world. There won’t be
any more running or hiding, though. In that respect, it’s over and we’re free
to live our lives however we please.

“Mason!” a little voices shrieks. Even
through the window Molly has her face and hands pressed up against, we can all
hear her joyful screeching and see the crocodile tears streaming down her face.

Olivia releases me as Molly sprints away
from the window. Seconds later, she is barreling through the back door.
Dropping to my knees, I wrap her up the second she crashes into me. Her
hysterical sobs wrack both our bodies and I do my best to comfort her.

“Mollywog, it’s okay. We’re home. It’s
over. You’re safe now. We’re all safe now.” She keeps sobbing, and I keep
rocking her back and forth.

Not surprisingly, Molly’s screaming roused
the rest of the house, and soon after, everyone begins piling into the
backyard. Olivia is attacked by Evie, who is also sobbing so hard Olivia can
barely keep hold of her. I stand, Molly still in my arms, and am immediately
welcomed into the massive group hug going on. I laugh when I find Hayden
squashed in next to Olivia, her mom’s arm around his shoulders as tears spill
down her cheeks.

“Your family will be here as soon as they
can, and the Parkers,” Olivia’s mom says to Hayden. “We called them both the
second we heard Molly start shrieking. She’s been parked at one of the windows
waiting for you all to come back since you left. When things changed…” Choking
up even more, Olivia’s mom shakes her head and can’t continue.

Taking over for his wife, Olivia’s dad
says, “We didn’t know what was going on, but the Caretakers felt what you did.
Somehow, they knew the Mother was gone. Then the Sentinels started dropping
like flies…we knew you had done it, Mason, but there was no way to know what
had happened to any of you. The Caretakers didn’t think you’d made it.”

“The Sentinels…” An odd pang strikes me as
the reality of what Tū’s betrayal cost hits me. “Are they all dead?”

Some,” Olivia’s dad confirms, “but not
all.”

“The young ones seem to be the only ones
who’ve survived,” Evie breaks in. “Their memories are all jacked up, but from
what the Caretakers can tell, the ones who survived are ones who’ve never
killed an Aerling. They can’t know for sure, but the ones they know have killed
Aerlings are all dead. Including the one who killed Levi,” Evie says to Hayden.

I know part of Hayden wanted to be the one
responsible for exacting justice from Levi’s killer, but instead of being
upset, he only looks relieved.

“You should see the news coverage!” Evie
says. “Nobody has any clue what’s going on and everybody’s freaking out about
germ warfare or something.” Evie shakes her head before leaning it against her
sister and pulling in closer. “It’s weird just sitting here knowing the truth
but not being able to tell anyone.”

Olivia lays her head against her sister’s,
smiling. “Well, that’s not exactly a new thing for our family.”

Chuckling, I start to say something when I
realize Sloane is standing off to the side just watching our reunion. Gesturing
for her to come over, everyone around us jumps when they see her. Sloane is
even more shocked that they can see her, but I’m not. “Everyone, this is Sloane.
She helped us through all of this, and she doesn’t have any family left, so I
thought maybe she could be a part of ours.”

“Why can we see her?” Olivia’s mom asks.
She shakes off her amazement a second later and says, “I mean, of course we’d
be happy to have her stay with us for as long as she wants, but I am curious.
She’s an Aerling, right?”

“I am,” Sloane begins, “but I…well, I
mean.” Her face flushes scarlet and I step in to give her a break.

Looking toward Olivia’s dad, I say,
“Remember how I told you Aerlings and humans weren’t allowed to mix?”

He nods slowly. “Yes. I’m still wondering
what that means for you and Olivia. Are you home…to stay?”

“I’m not going anywhere,” I say, glancing
over at Olivia with a smile. She returns it wholeheartedly. Turning back to her
dad, I finish my explanation. “There wasn’t really a ban. It just worked
differently than anyone realized. We can be together, but there’s a cost.”

“What cost?” Evie demands. Her eyes are
narrowed, lasered at me and Olivia in quick succession.

I appreciate that she’s feeling
protective, but I can only smile. “I had to give up being a full Aerling, and
Olivia gave up being completely human.”

“What does that mean?” Olivia’s dad asks
warily.

“Nothing bad, I promise,” Olivia tells her
dad. “It just means that now we’re part of both worlds. Mason doesn’t have to
make himself visible anymore. When he’s here, he’s part of this world. When he
goes back to the Aerling world, he’s part of that world.”

“What does that mean?” Molly asks quietly.

Setting her down on her feet, I squat down
to face her eye-to-eye. “It means that when I’m here with Olivia, I can’t
access my power except the little bit I need to stay alive.”

“But…” Her worry deepens into fear. “How
will you train me?”

Pressing her close to my heart, I stroke
her hair gently. “Molly, the barrier is gone. You don’t need to be scared of
failing to reach your full potential. You have all the time in the world to
train. I’ll still teach you. We’ll just have to go back to the Aerling world to
do it. We’ll take you soon. You want to meet our parents anyway, right?”

I expect excitement from that last
question, but I’m caught off guard when she bursts into heavy, wracking sobs
all over again. “I don’t…want…to go…away from…you,” Molly bawls.

She’s too upset to talk to or listen to an
explanation, but before I can even try, Olivia’s dad bursts in. “The Aerling
children here, what’s going to happen to them? Will they all be taken away? The
Parkers and Montgomerys, they’re both worried someone is going to come and take
their children away.”

Olivia steps out of Evie’s strangling grip
and puts her hand on her dad’s shoulder. He mentioned the Parkers and
Montgomerys, but I can tell from the fearful way he’s looking at Molly that
he’s not just scared for them. It fills my heart to know Olivia’s family has
taken in my little sister so completely already, and Olivia echoes that
sentiment.

“Dad, no one’s going to take Molly or any
of the other Aerling children away. Yeah, the parents are eager to see their
kids again, but we already discussed it with Cedrick,” she explains. “It would
be too traumatic to uproot them all so suddenly. The Caretakers are the only
family these kids know.”

“What’s going to happen then?” her dad
asks. Molly’s head pops up, begging the same question.

Olivia smiles down at Molly, winking at
her like they share a secret. “Visitation, to start with. Escorts will play
taxi driver and help shuttle the parents back and forth to get acquainted with
the kids. The Aerlings here will be able to choose whether to stay or go once
they’re old enough. It will all work out. Some of them, I’m sure,” she says,
glancing down at Molly again, “won’t want to leave their families here.”

As Molly takes in everything that’s been
said, her still-teary eyes focus on me. “I can stay with you? For always?”

“If you want, Mollywog. I’ll always take
care of you.” I kiss her forehead before looking at her again. “If you ever
want to go with our mom and dad, though, that will be okay, too. I’ll come
visit you all the time.”

A new round of tears spill over her
cheeks, but this time they aren’t filled with sadness. I pull her back into a
hug and cradle this precious little girl. I don’t know if she’ll choose to stay
with me forever. The Aerling world and real parents who love her will be a big
draw. I don’t know that I could ever fulfill that role on my own, but if she
chooses to stay, I’ll do my best for her. Looking at the people gathered around
me, I know I won’t have to do it on my own.

“So, how does all this explain Sloane?”
Evie demands, one hand on her hip as she stares at Sloane with narrowed eyes.

I almost start laughing when Hayden’s hand
slips into Sloane’s and Evie nearly loses her cool. “Uh,” Hayden says, his eyes
darting around, “it’s kinda a long story, but what Mason and Olivia did…uh,
yeah.”

“You and Sloane?” Evie says, choking on
the words. Throwing her hands up, they slam back down on her hips. “Does anyone
else think that happened a little fast? Your brother is going to freak!”

Trying really hard to control her
laughter, Olivia wraps her sister up in a squeezing hug. “Evie, Hayden became Sloane’s
Escort. It’s like Hayden said, there’s a lot more to their story than you
realize. Be happy for them. I am.”

Evie’s eyes snap up to her sister’s, and I
realize then the reason for her outrage. There was a time that Evie tried to
convince Hayden she was plenty old enough for him and would have been more than
happy to fill the spot Olivia refused to take in his life. It was a passing
thing, one Olivia shut down just as quickly as Hayden, but I thought for a
moment that Evie still harbored feelings for him. As she sees her big sister’s
obvious happiness for her friend, I realize that wasn’t it at all. She was only
worried about Hayden moving on and hurting Olivia. I smile, glad to be back
with my family.

There’s still so much to explain, so much
work to do to sort everything out, but soon the excitement of our arrival begins
to mellow and we all head inside for some much needed rest. I want nothing more
than to collapse on the couch and watch TV for the rest of the day, enjoying
the fact that everyone I care about is safe and happy.

That fantasy gets put on hold as soon as I
see a burly Caretaker Officer standing in the living room with Robin kneeling
at his feet. I’m not the only one taken aback, but since I feel like this is
something I need to take the lead on, I turn Molly over to Olivia and step
forward.

“The war is over,” the officer says. “Her
actions have been judge by the Caretakers. She has been labeled as a traitor
and condemned to death.”

More than one gasp rises from behind me,
but I keep my expression even.

The Caretaker in front of me clearly heard
the reactions from behind me as well. He doesn’t falter in the face of them,
but he does say, “Despite the ruling handed down, the Caretaker Council also
felt that you should be given the decision of what her final punishment should
be. Our laws dictate death, but there has already been too much killing. If you
wish to grant clemency, we will honor your decision.”

Shocked that this is being dumped in my
lap, underneath the fear of having to make such a decision, there’s some relief
that they hadn’t already executed her. Squatting down in front of her, I flinch
when Robin meets my gaze. The haunted expression in her eyes says she knows
everything. The war is over. She lost. Not just the war, but everything. Her
family will never accept her again. The friends she thought she had among the
Sentinels are gone, most of them dead now. The glorious future she’d envision
has been replaced by one of captivity. Even if I allow her to live, she’ll
never be free.

“Mason,” Molly whispers from beside me, “I
have an idea.”

I turn to face her with a questioning
glance. “An idea for what?”

Her trembling hand points at Robin. “Let’s
make her forget.”

Olivia kneels down next to us. “How?”

“It’s like feeling lies,” Molly says
quietly. “I can turn it around.”

Not sure what she means, I ask, “How would
that make her forget?”

“Instead of feeling the lies people speak,
I can turn what they think into lies.” Her eyes dart up to Evie. “I did it on
accident the first time.”

Olivia’s parents chuckle behind their
hands. Evie turns her nose up at their mocking, and I remind myself to ask for
the full story later. Turning my attention back to Molly, I say, “Are you sure
about this?”

She nods and slowly moves closer to Robin,
her shaking hands extending to touch her head with one finger, like she’s
afraid Robin will bite her. Access to my power is cut off while I’m here, but I
can still feel Molly using hers. Focusing, I follow the steps she takes. She
once explained to me the different ways truth and lies felt to her power. I
can’t do what she can, but I watch in amazement as her power infiltrates
Robin’s memories and changes the shape of them, from smooth and flowing truths
to spiny lies that stick and cling together, turning her memories into a mess
of confusion.

When Molly jumps back, her power follows.
She presses herself against my side and stares at Robin fearfully. We all wait
with baited breath to see if it worked. Slowly, Robin’s eyes roll open,
confusion and fear fill them in an instant. “Where am I? Who are you people?”