The Swarm Trilogy (42 page)

I quickly turned my head, looking behind me. My mother struggled in a cocoon similar to the one she’d made around me earlier.

“I don’t care about her. I only care about you. I love you, Bryden. You won’t leave me, okay? Chase’ll get Johna. She’ll heal you. It’ll be okay.”

“I don’t regret anything. You have to know that. Not one thing.” His voice quieted to barely a whisper. I laid my ear against his lips, straining to his final words. “I love you.”

He choked, then expelled one final breath of air that sounded almost like he was saying my name.

Chapter Twenty-Five

Chase opened a portal in the cave. “We have to go now, Lianne.” He placed a hand on my shoulder, but I shrugged it off. Xaxier had already left with my mother trapped in the cocoon. He didn’t say where he was taking her. I didn’t care as long as I never saw her again. If I did, she’d be dead in seconds.

“My people will take care of her. We know how to sever someone from their gift,” Chase said.

I still held Bryden in my arms, refusing to let anyone come near him.

“Get Johna,” I said for the hundredth time. “She can help him.”

“She can’t. He’s gone. No one can bring anyone back from the dead.”

I glared at Chase. “This is your fault. You knew he was going to die. You could have stopped it.”

Chase shook his head. “I couldn’t. You know that. I didn’t know how or when or why it would happen. I had one moment frozen in time. It could have happened weeks ago. It could have been years from now. I didn’t know.”

“Then why the hell didn’t you stop my mother before any of this went on?”

“What? You wanted me to kill a woman who’d done nothing?”

“She hadn’t, but you knew she was going to. Isn’t that enough?”

“No, Lianne, it’s not.”

It should have been. I knew. I had time. I could have killed her when I walked into Sebrina’s room. Instead of talking to her, I should have just ripped her heart out, thrown it on the ground, and stomped on it until all the blood pooled on the hard stone floor. I had killed before to save someone. I should have done it again.

Should have.

But I didn’t.

I looked down at Bryden again. His red hair laid on my black dress. I ran my fingers through it, remembering how much that turned him on.

Used to turn him on.

His lips on mine. His hands on my hips, running up and down my back. Those were things I’d never feel again. I couldn’t tell him I loved him. Couldn’t tell him I was sorry.

Couldn’t save him.

He died for me.

But what did he leave behind? An empty mound, with a fire bubbling inside, ready to explode at any second. The girl he’d loved was gone. When my mother ripped my magic from my body, some integral part of who I was disappeared with it. Something poured back into me, but I still hadn’t figure out what it was.

All I knew was that I was irrevocably changed.

“Lianne, please,” Chase said again. “I have to get you out of here.”

“I won’t leave Bryden.”

“I swear to you, I will send someone for him. But we have to leave. I need to get you into hiding again.”

I ripped my eyes from Bryden’s lifeless eyelids. “You absolutely will not. I will never hide from anyone again. I’m not a coward.”

“They’ll capture you and force you to breed for their army. If you won’t, they’ll kill you.”

“Do you think I care if I die?”

“Right now you don’t care. I understand that. But someday you’ll be grateful to be alive.”

I laid my hands gently on the sides of Bryden’s head, moving his head to the floor. I watched his body carefully, hoping for a twitch, anything that might tell me there was a chance of saving him.

Nothing.

I gathered my skirt and stood up.

“Are the Malborn here?” I asked.

Chase nodded. “The first wave of their army arrived not long after you were brought here. Their army is stationed outside the castle. As far as I know, they haven’t made a move yet.”

“I’m going to end this by turning myself in. No more bloodshed.”

Chase grabbed my arm. “You will do no such thing.”

I jerked my arm away. “You don’t get to make decisions for me anymore.”

“Then let him make the decision.” He pointed down at Bryden.

My heart lurched again at the sight of his dead, inert body, lifeless on the dirt-covered ground.

“He sacrificed his life to protect you. What do you think he’d say if he could hear you now? If turning yourself over to the Malborn was the right thing to do, why would he even bother trying to save you? Do you really think he’d send you into Kellan’s arms to be raped until you can produce a child with magic?”

I slapped Chase, but his face didn’t move. It was almost as if he’d expected it. My hand stung. My arm throbbed. My full strength still hadn’t returned yet. I fingered the dagger hanging on my waist, wondering how it would feel to embed it in Chase’s chest.

I recoiled, shocked at my own thoughts. How could I even consider doing to Chase what my mother had just done to Bryden? My hand flew to my chest. My heart beat solidly inside my rib cage, reminding me that I was alive. I didn’t die with Bryden, even though, deep down, that’s what I wanted.

“I’m sorry,” I said, lightly touching Chase’s red cheek.

“I baited you into it,” he said. “You’re thinking a bit more clearly now, aren’t you?”

I nodded. “I was the hysterical one. You should have slapped me.”

“Do you really think I’d do that?”

I didn’t have to answer. We both knew he’d never raise a hand to me.

I slid back to the ground and took Bryden’s hand in mine. “What now?”

“I’ll leave you here with him for a few minutes while I find someone to help me retrieve his body. We’ll treat him to a proper burial, Lianne, I promise.”

“I don’t want him buried here,” I said. “Take him to your homeland. It’s peaceful there, right?”

Chase nodded. “I know my family would welcome him.”

“That’s perfect. He has no family here. Just me. No one loved him like I did. I can’t stand the thought of him being buried here, among the people who hated him so much. They treated him like he was an outcast.”

“I’ll be back with Ace in a few minutes. Are you going to be okay alone?”

I didn’t answer. He left in silence, leaving me alone to face my past, my present, and my future.

“What am I going to do without you?” I asked Bryden, tracing his forehead with my thumb. “I won’t give in to the Malborn, but I can’t run anymore. You taught me to always do what’s right, even though it’s hard. You never gave up fighting for me. Not once.”

I kissed his forehead. He’d already begun to cool. I fought back the tears threatening to overflow. I wouldn’t cry on him or over him. He wouldn’t want me to. Bryden would want me to move forward.

“I will find a way to end this war so no one else will ever have to fight just to live their life. I swear, Bryden, I will find a way.”

A light flickered in the cave and Chase, Ace, and another man I’d never met entered the cave. They carried a stretcher.

“I’m ready,” I said to them. I wasn’t really. I never would be.

“Ace and my father will take Bryden back,” Chase said.

“Your father?” I spun around in surprise. The man who wasn’t Ace, the man with only one hand, saluted me. “Thank you, sir,” I said, not sure how to address him. I knew he was royalty of some sort from Chase’s stories.

“I’m so sorry for your loss, Lianne. Chase explained you’d like Bryden buried in Serenia. We’re happy to accommodate you,” his father said. “You can call me Mark.”

“Thank you, Mark.” I flew into his arms, burying my head in his shoulder. More than anything, I needed a hug. I just wasn’t sure it was right to ask for one from Chase considering his feelings for me. His father didn’t hesitate, not even for a moment. He wrapped his arms around me, letting me leave myself vulnerable for a few seconds.

I backed out of his embrace. When I turned around, Bryden was already on the stretcher. I walked over to his side and kissed his cheek one last time.

“I love you too,” I whispered in his ear.

Mark lifted his hand, taking over the end of the stretcher from Chase. Using magic, he held it up on the other side. Ace nodded to me. I dipped my chin back to him as they walked through the portal with Bryden.

“You first,” Chase said, gesturing toward the portal.

“No,” I said. “I have one stop to make first. Will you come with me so you can open a portal to Serenia when I’m done?”

Chase nodded. I held out my hand and he took it in his. Then I flicked my wrist, opening a portal to a place I knew well. We stepped through, coming out on the far side of the castle, smack in the middle of the cemetery. The wind blew my gown and my hair to the west. The moon stood proud in the sky, illuminating the army camped just beyond the castle and town. Light rain fell around me, but I didn’t put my hood up. A raven flew past. Even that harbinger of death was comforting.

“Will you come with me to Serenia and hide there?” Chase asked. “There’s too many men out there. You can’t take them all.”

I spun around to face him. “And then what? They conquer the Dalagans, kill the Fithians enslaved or imprisoned by my people. Who dies next?” I sighed. “It needs to stop, Chase. It has to.”

“You can’t do it on your own,” he said.

The flames erupted inside me. I felt them stronger than ever, coursing through my veins, becoming a part of me. Reaching inside, I harnessed the source of the fire.

“You can’t bring Bryden back by destroying all of them.”

The tears I’d tried so hard to keep inside exploded. Droplets of ash poured from my eyes as the flames licked all around me. The grass behind me crunched, sounding farther away with every step. Good. Chase had been too close for what I was about to unleash.

I lifted my arms in the air, allowing the rain to cool them. I raised my fingers toward the army camped down the hill. With a small release of my breath, I sent death upon them.

I spiraled my magic upward, into the clouds. The rain turned to fire. Small flames fell on the army, setting their tents ablaze. My tears increased, flowing down my cheeks like a tumultuous river breaking through a dam. I cried out for Bryden, for the life we could have had, for everyone who’d ever been hurt by the magic given to us by those mythical gods Chase’s people worshipped.

The screams of the Malborn being burned alive filled the evening air. The merciless warriors couldn’t defend themselves against the actions of one girl. Their pain fed my soul.

“If there are any among them who are innocent, spare them. Do you hear me?” I screamed it into the sky. “If the gods are out there, only deliver my punishment on the guilty!”

My arms dropped to my sides, spent.

“Lianne!” Chase called from me behind me. I waved my arm at him, hoping he’d stay away. Within moments, his arm encircled my shoulders. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” I said, not sure whether or not it was true. I rubbed the dried tears from my face.

“You’ve changed.”

“My magic is stronger. Something happened down in the cave.”

“That’s not all.” He lifted a section of my hair on his finger, dangling it in front of my face. But it wasn’t my hair. It was curly and long, like my hair, but it wasn’t red. I’d been a redhead my whole life.

Instead, he held a lock of silver hair, so shiny it almost sparkled in the night sky. One week ago, even one day ago, I would have been horrified, possibly even frightened. Not anymore.

“I think the fire is completely inside me now,” I said.

“And your eyes.” Chase held my chin between his fingers. “They’re different. Changing.”

I shrugged. I didn’t care anymore.

The sky rumbled with thunder. Lightning illuminated the sky, showing anyone nearby exactly what kind of wrath I could exact on the Malborn. It was meant as a warning. The first strike against the enemy.

My people would discover soon enough, though, that they were my enemy too.

“Let them bring war to the Malborn,” I said, my voice as dead as my heart. “They will soon find out that the girl they were seeking has died and been reborn as their worst nightmare.”

I wouldn’t rest until I could find a way to block all access to the magic ripping us apart.

Acknowledgments

My undying thanks to the people who helped Afterlife take shape: Angela Carlie, Karly Kirkpatrick, Kathy Fenton White, Margaret, and Tim. A special thank you to my kids. I love you more than words can say.

To Catherine and Christy, who helped me name Mayvis and Elessai.

To everyone who has supported this crazy publishing journey of mine, I appreciate every kind word.

The Sundering

Book Three: The Swarm Trilogy

Megg Jensen

Prologue