Soul(s) (28 page)

“Let’s go,” Keegan said as he got off the bed and
began to slide on his suit. “It’s time.”

The air was colder in the
mountains and it was windy. I pulled my hair back into a bun, using
that lovely clip I’d gotten the first day Keegan and I had come to
the city. That felt like a thousand cycles ago—so much had happened
since then. But it wasn’t all bad, and I had to focus on the little
scraps of good left in my life.
Keegan.

I looked over at him. We were both seated behind a
boulder in the clearing. Thirty feet or so behind us was our army
of only two thousand. There was no way of knowing how many more
they have, but at least we had the mountain range. It gave us cover
and it boxed them into a small area. I looked down at my
communicator the navigational system showing that the red-squares
were just ten minutes out now. It was almost time; I sent out a
mass order to our fleet.

Ready yourselves. They’ll be on us in minutes.

Tell the Auras on the ridge to
wait for your additional orders to attack,
Keegan reminded me.

I did. They couldn’t jump in too early. The timing
needed to be perfect.

Keegan turned to me suddenly kissing me
fiercely.

I love you,
he thought to me.

I love you too.

No matter what,
he reminded me.
Say it
back.

No matter what.
I thought.
No matter
what.

Get reader they’re coming. Remember we command are
army. They wait till our mark.

I closed my eyes and spread out my mind above me
like an eagle. The halted at the mouth. Their leader stepped
through the army, beckoning a few men to step forward with them.
They were dressed similar to us but their suits had some type of
armor. The weakest point was where the scaled armor ended right at
the neck.

When you attack go for the necks,
their armor is weakest there. Wait for my mark. We want them right
in the middle of us.
I broadcasted to our
people.

I kept watching. They began moving slowly, their
leader unflinchingly moving forward. She held a weapon in her hand
but it wasn’t like our dekus. It wasn’t a sword, axe, or spear—what
was it? I stretched my mind out more. To get closer. I’d never done
anything quite like this, seemed like my powers were always
evolving for the needs of the situation. I just hoped she didn’t
sense me. I wanted to know what that weapon was she had. She moved
closer towards me and I made out a barrel, a trigger. Electricity
was flowing through her body I could feel it. She was powering this
weapon but what was it. I knew it was an advanced version of
something from First-Plane and I was just about to remember when I
felt something else.

A heartbeat.

What are you talking about?
I heard Keegan’s voice in my head.

Their leader is pregnant.

Does it matter? If that their leader, kill her right
now. You could end this war before it begins.

It matters. Would she know and
still fight?
I thought back.

The leader held her hand straight up and then began
to roll it forward at her elbow. The others around her raised their
weapons to the air. Guns—they had some type of gun.

I snapped back into my body.

NOW BEFORE THEY FIRE!
I ordered.

My order was just a little too late. I heard the
blast of their guns and watch a blue ball the size of a plum arch
across the sky. They burst when they hit the ground melting into a
gooey glaze. They hit a person behind a rock and she screamed her
body jerking as the liquid oozed over her. Then she stilled and her
bodied simmered as if she’d been fried.

It’s some sort of electric gun.
Don’t get hit!
I broadcasted.

I heard a few more screams as the orbs landed on
something a life and angry filed my gut. I saw the light raise from
their corpses and ascended into the sky. I couldn’t allow this to
happen. I couldn’t let them kill my own people. They weren’t going
to victimize us.

Get ready, I’m going to distract them and then we
attack. Everyone. I’ll take the leader.

I jumped out just a few feet ahead of their leader.
Her eyes widened in surprise but she immediately fired at me as I
had known she would. But I was ready.

I held my hands up in front me stopping the orbs
just in front of me, and then I reflected them back harder than
they’d been shot out. They flew like missiles knocking the people
down. The leader dodged the ones aimed at her and stared at me in
shock. The others weren’t so lucky. The orbs hit them covering them
in the gel some of them weren’t affected other’s screamed dying
within minutes. Behind me our forces led by Keegan charged the
enemy. I heard the crushing of bones and knew the telekinetic
Aura’s on the ridge were going to work.

The leader looked around her in bewilderment. But
her eyes settled on me defiantly. “What kind of demon are you?” The
woman spat at me.

“Surrender now and we’ll end this. In fact, don’t
surrender just leave and never come back.”

“Leave and never come back?” The woman repeated like
an offended parrot.

“Yes,” I said moving forward. I grabbed her with my
power and begun to squeeze. I hoped to scare her into giving up
without having to actually kill her or her unborn child. I hoped
she believed my bluff.

“No—we’ll never leave. The Banguri
were bad enough,” she snarled back fighting hard against my hold.
“This plain needs to be clean of them. Anything that has to destroy
to live isn’t
pure.
But you,
you
are an abomination. We’ll wipe this place clean!”

“You’re pregnant,” I said flatly.

“What?” she gasped.

Sariah behind you!
Keegan’s voice said in my mind. I dropped their
leader and whirled around just in time to see spikes being ejected
out of a face and shot right towards me. I deflated them easily.
Keegan whirled past slicing the person at their knees before
decapitating them. The blood flood out and lapping on the ground
hypnotically.

I never wanted this.
I thought.

“Sariah stay in the now! Focus! We need you. The
leader is away we can’t let her get too deep in. We need to take
her out now, I’m going after her.”

“No,” I shouted a loud.

“Can you handle it?”

I nodded weakly.

“Then go!” Keegan yelled before turning to help a
Banguri struggling in one-on-one combat.

I grabbed my deku off my back turning it into a long
light Katana. I wielded it fiercely. Pushing the enemy back into
rocks whenever I could—which wasn’t often. I felt like I was
traveling through a field of bodies hacking them down like a sickle
on wheat. I saw the leader quickly instructing someone and pointing
to the ridges above. They’d figured out we had people fighting from
up there. He ran off and then the next thing I knew there were
people began to scale the mountain, heading up. I had to get to her
before they got to that ridge. Without them helping the Banguri
fighters from the top, we’d be quickly wiped out.

I plunged forward, carelessly sliding my deku
through anything that got in my way.

Them or us, has to be us. Has to
be us. Has to be us.
My mind chanted. I
was close behind her when she whirled around striking me in the arm
with a knife. I screamed in pain. It was foolish to think she
didn’t know I was that close behind her. I should have attacked
from further off.

I pulled the knife out of my shoulder and whipped it
out her. I was surprised when it hit her in her stomach.

She screamed crouching low on the ground.

I had to end this now. I grabbed her and put a force
field around myself. I lifted her up, high, higher until she was
like flag in the sky.

ENOUGH!
I
hollered in the minds of anyone I could sense.

Suddenly the fighting just stopped. The leader
screamed in terror.

Surrender.
I thought to her. But she was frantic. She was panicking. She
wasn’t listening to me.

Command your arm to fallback and well end this
now.

Her screaming filled my mind. I couldn’t think. I
couldn’t focus. I couldn’t take it.

SURRENDER!

A few of her army try to run up on
me so I’d release her. But I killed them before they got within six
feet. My mind and therefore my powers were running wild, but I
couldn’t stop now. Not until this war ended. There was nothing I
wouldn’t give,
nothing.

I fell to my knees still holding her up. I was
getting tired. Soon I’d have to let her down or I’d drop her. I
couldn’t hold her up there forever. Why hadn’t she just relented?
Why was I always having to do this? I began to cry. I couldn’t
stop. I was past my breaking point and there was no going back.

Sariah, let me in.

I looked up and saw Keegan through the force
field.

Let me in Wats, he thought again to me.

Don’t you see what I’ve done? I’m a monster.

Let go.
He told me softly.
End this
war.

I can’t,
I thought. My arm was shaking. I knew it was only moments. I
couldn’t hold on longer but I just couldn’t let go. I couldn’t
knowingly drop her, and if she didn’t surrender before I let her go
the war would just continue. Nothing would be resolved.

Choose us Sariah. Choose us. Let her go.

That was it wasn’t it? Choices, it all came down to
choices. She could have given up. She could have not pushed me to
this. Backed me into this corner of no return. Either I did this
and hoped this display of destruction was enough to subdue their
army or I could hope we were strong enough to kill them all.

I choice.

I collapsed on the ground and I heard her screams as
she plummeted into the hard rock. Keegan’s arms were around me in a
moment.

“It’s okay,” he consoled me as I sobbed. “You made
the best choice.”

I felt him let me go and stand up.

“KNEEL NOW!” He roared like a lion.

I looked up, hoping to see proof that my choice was
the right one—and it was. They all knelt in surrender. I started
crying again. This time out of relief. For now, it was over.

EPILOGUE

A soft touch on my face made my lashes
flutter as I gain consciousness. I can’t focus on the face front of
me yet, but the trickle of energy flowing from their touch spreads
over me and I know who it is.

Keegan.

I feel his warm hands cradle the sides of my
face as his lips push against my forehead.

Is it over?
I think to him.

Yes,
he thinks. He kisses the knuckles of my hand before clutching
it to his chest. I can feel the beat of his heart—tap-tap—tap-tap;
far too quick. He’s worried and anxious.

I’m fine,
I think to him then finally I speak aloud, “How
long have I been asleep?”

“
Not too long. A few
hours, at most.”

“
What happened after I…”
The words wouldn’t come out, wouldn’t formulate.

“
There would be no place
to put them all. We took the leaders and let the rest go back.
We’re gave them forty-eight hours to leave. The atlas showed us
that they’ve all for the most part left the peninsula. We’ve been
interrogating them and we’ve found out. They didn’t send in their
whole army like we thought. One of the captures told us that more
would come if they’re not free. The reality is more will come
period. We’re looking some kind of defense blocking across the
peninsula’s bottom land border.”

“
What are we going to do
with the leaders of their forces?”

“
Not sure,” Keegan
answered honestly. “You were the only one who thought they might
surrender. There’s talk of converting one of the Outer territories
into a prison. Iris wants to form a new counsel with you on it to
help decide their faith.”

I cringed at his words and pulled my hand
away from him turning on my side—they basically wanted me to become
a glorified executioner.

“
I didn’t want to be a
part of any of this,” I whispered.

I felt the bed shift and him curl up behind
me pulling me into the crook of his body and knew we must be
alone.

“
Wats, I know that,” he
said softly.

“
I went against my own
soul and I killed a mother. An unborn child!”

He pulled me closer and I felt his energy
flowing into me trying to heal not my body but my aching heart. I
fought it.

“
Let me heal you,” he
pleaded.

“
You always give so much
and I just take. I kill. I destroy.”

“
No, you saved
everyone.”

“
By killing?”

“
Yes! Look at me Sariah,”
he demanded.

I ignored him.

“
Don’t you dare fucking
shut me out! Look at me, damn it!”

I obeyed, rolling over so I faced him.

“
Sariah,” he said again
his voice wet with emotion, “you’re the only thing that matters to
me. I could care less whether anyone else lives or dies as long as
you
live.
But
you, you care about
everyone;
even our enemies. You’re the strongest person I
know.”