Invincible (The Aerling Series Book 3) (12 page)

“Yeah,” Levi says, “I guess we’ll
both go. Escorts don’t come back after they take Aerlings home, so it must be
pretty neat there, right? I’ll bet there’s like a ton of awesome places to
explore! We’ll have even more fun than we’re gonna have here.”

Shaking my head, I toss the ball
again. “It’s weird to think we’re gonna move here just like that. I thought we
were just coming to visit my grandparents, then I bump into you and suddenly
we’re making plans to move here. It’s like I got sucked into some crazy comic
book!”

“Pretty cool, right?” Levi is
grinning as he tosses the ball back. “Hey, you wanna…”

His words trail off unexpectedly. A
second later, he turns to squint at the fence. I hold the ball in my hand,
waiting, not sure what caught his attention. I try to ask him, but he shushes
me and takes a step forward. I can feel the air around me stirring. I’ve never
seen Levi use the power to control the air he told me about yesterday, but I
recognize it for what it is immediately. The anxiety holding his body rigid
keeps me from being too excited over it right now.

“Do you hear that?” Levi finally
asks.

I listen as closely as I can, but I
shake my head when I don’t hear anything other than the leaves rustling above
us.

“Maybe we should go in,” Levi says.
He tries to shake off his worry, but he only takes one step before pausing and
looking over his shoulder.

I still don’t hear anything, but
something definitely feels wrong. I reach forward and put my hand on Levi’s
shoulder. “Maybe you’re right. How about we go watch Amy and Alan try to beat
each other in that game they were playing.”

Levi nods. He pulls his mitt off
his hand and turns toward the house. Happy to follow his lead, I’m a few steps
behind him. I stoop to pick up the baseball I dropped at some point. The second
my hand touches the ball, I double over in pain. I hear Levi scream, but
fighting past the agony rushing through me slows me just enough that it takes
me two tries to get back to my feet. As soon as I plant my second foot, the
pain vanishes and I straighten, ready to bolt for Levi…but I’m already too
late.

A man I have never seen before
holds Levi in a stranglehold, a knife pressed to his throat while his vicious
eyes dare me to do something, anything. My eyes dart to Levi. Terrified out of
his mind, his expression begs me to help him. I want to. I want to save him so
badly it’s the sole thought in my mind, but the second I take a step forward,
the man pulls the blade back and away. Blood flicks from the end of the knife
as I start screaming.

Everything moves too slowly in that
moment. The man pulls his other hand away from Levi’s body and lets him fall.
The acidic laugh that drips from his lips echoes in my head as I sprint for
Levi. All I can see is the blood. The blood dripping from the knife. The blood
spilling down Levi’s shirt as he collapses to the ground. The blood covering my
hands as I desperately try to stop it from flowing.

Hope tears at me as I see the wound
trying to close itself. I press my hands in closer, screaming for help, my
tears mixing with his blood as I beg for someone to stop this from happening.
Bodies erupt from the house at my screaming, but the wound stops healing and
Levi’s body goes limp long before anyone reaches us. I know it the second his
life ends. I try to follow him. My soul burns in agony at his loss, crippling
me, tearing a whole in me that I know in that moment will never be filled
again. Collapsing beside his lifeless body, I cry and beg for forgiveness until
the darkness finally claims me.

Sloane’s hands press to my face the moment
I come back to myself. Tears burn hot trails over her fingers, but she only
pulls me in closer, wrapping her arms around me so tightly it feels like the
pressure alone might be enough to put me back together. Her own tears splash
down on my shoulders as she holds me.

“If I hadn’t...touched him, they wouldn’t
have…known where he was,” I splutter. “If I had been faster, maybe…”

Shaking her head back and forth, Sloane
whispers, “It wasn’t your fault. You did everything you could.”

“If I’d been stronger, the pain, I could
have gotten to him faster.” My voice is pleading, almost begging for her to
agree, to blame me, to punish me, maybe. I failed. I deserve her hatred. I
need
someone to make me pay for failing him. I can’t move forward until I make up
for what I’ve done.

The pain I’ve been carrying for eight long
years spills out of me, bashing into Sloane like a torrent, but she refuses to
be washed away by it. Her compassion and kindness swallows up everything I
shove at her. The beautiful comfort of her power wraps around me, consumes me.
I try to push it away, but she is relentless. No matter how hard I fight it and
beg for her to spurn me, she only pushes even harder, filling me with her power
until I have no strength left to oppose her.

“You didn’t fail Levi,” Sloane says
softly. “No, you couldn’t save him, but you didn’t let him die alone. The last
thing he saw was your face instead of the coward who killed him. The last thing
he felt was your power desperately trying to save him. You gave him everything
you could in that moment, a sacrifice worthy of an Escort.”

Forcing myself to meet her eyes, I blink away
tears in confusion. “What?”

“That’s why your power is active, Hayden,”
Sloane says. Emotion makes her eyes glassy and it’s clear she’s having a tough
time keeping control of her feelings right now. “There was no way for you to
save Levi, but you tried, you proved yourself by giving everything you could.
You could still go to the Aerling world if you wanted to. You could help take
the Aerling infants to Caretakers, protect them, protect all of us as you were
meant to. Your power is there inside of you.
You
are the only thing
holding it back, your guilt over losing Levi. There’s no reason for it, Hayden.
You’ve already been judged, and no one in your world or mine could ever find
you lacking.”

“I don’t…” I shake my head, feeling
suddenly lightheaded. “I’m not sure I understand. I can’t feel my power. I have
no idea how to use it. This doesn’t make sense.”

Gently, Sloane presses her hand to my
face, urging me to look at her. When I finally meet her gaze, there is no hate
in her eyes. Only joy and compassion stare back at me. “You’ve been using your
power since the day you met my brother, Hayden. You just never realized it
because it’s such a natural extension of your personality.”

“What?”

“Just like Olivia’s natural desire to help
those in need led to her developing into a Seeker, your natural ability to
accept others for who they are developed into you becoming a Judge,” Sloane
says with an air of reverence. “You can see the truth of a person’s heart. You
accepted what Levi told you because you could see into his heart and judge him
as being honest. With Olivia, you knew how selfless she is, how willing she is
to give up her own desires to help someone else. It’s why you were drawn to
protect her so fiercely. Those who are willing to give up so much are often at
the most risk of being hurt.”

Everything she says sinks in slowly. Reliving
the memory of Levi’s death, I remember how odd it seemed that I trusted him and
his Caretakers so much, but it seemed natural to do so. Somehow, I knew they
weren’t lying to me. Everything Sloane said about Olivia…it’s impossible to
argue with any of it. “And you,” I say slowly, “I know your heart as well.”

Sloane’s eyes widen, but she doesn’t seem
scared. Her palms turn up as if waiting for my judgment, like what I say will
define something within her.

“Your gift may be to sense potential in
people, but you are so emotionally connected to others that you can’t help but
want to heal their emotional scars and wounds. I know Olivia was freaked out by
you sharing her memories, but I get that it wasn’t to steal her experiences.
You were so drawn to everything we’ve both suffered and you were desperate to
fix it. The more you learned from her, the more convinced you were you could
help us both.”

The tension in Sloane’s body slips away as
I speak. “I knew from what Olivia showed me that Levi’s death wasn’t your
fault. I overheard Mason saying that it looked like I enjoyed getting into
Olivia’s head, but it wasn’t that at all. It gave me peace to learn more about
you, because it convinced me that I could help you.”

“Thank you for wanting to help me,” I say
quietly. “Most people wouldn’t have done that.”

“Most people wouldn’t still be in the
middle of all of this when they could have easily walked away,” Sloane says.
“But here you are, doing everything you can to protect Mason and Olivia. Why?”

Shrugging, I give the only answer I can.
“Because they’re the only ones with enough courage and strength to save the
rest of us. And because they’re my friends. If the whole saving the world thing
wasn’t enough, that is.”

Sloane’s hand reaches over and takes mine.
“I wish my brother had gotten to know you for longer, because I know you would
have taught him so much, but I’m glad he knew you for as long as he did. That
gives me more comfort than you can probably imagine.”

Smiling, I put my arm around Sloane’s
shoulders and we sit together like that for a long time. The slim connection
that brought our paths together has turned into a lifeline somehow. It’s not
just what her power does to me, it’s having shared my worst memory with her and
found only comfort instead of condemnation. That’s something I never thought I
would find. While this experience with Sloane has removed so much of the guilt
I’ve felt over Levi’s death, there’s one thing she couldn’t take away. I
couldn’t remember the face of Levi’s killer until I met him again at the
compound. Seeing him then stirred my hatred. Reliving the memory with Sloane
has cemented it. Mason can have all the other Sentinels, but that one is mine.

Chapter 14

Hardly The Worst Thing

(Mason)

“When are you coming home?” Molly begs.

The ache in her little voice tears at me.
I wish I had a different answer for her, but I don’t. “I’m not sure Mollywog.
It’s going to be a while still. We’re trying as hard as we can to find the
Mother so we can all come home.”

“Me too,” Molly says emphatically. “Evie
and I are searching all over the place and I try to tell her which bits are
true. Sometimes it’s easy, but sometimes I can’t tell. It’s harder to do it
this way than just listening to people’s words when they talk.”

“I know it’s hard. You’re doing awesome by
helping Evie, though.” My reassurance makes her sigh. I wish she was here. It’s
not just the constant fear I carry around that the Sentinels will get to her.
Mostly, I just miss her. Even when she’s scared, she’s like a little ball of
sunshine.

Mumbling in the background filters over
the line and Molly grumbles something in response. “Evie wants to talk to you
for a minute,” Molly says. The pout in her voice makes me picture her with her
bottom lip sticking out, an adorable scowl on her face as she thrusts the phone
at Evie.

“Mason?”

“Hey, Evie. What have you guys found?”

Frustration bubbles out of her in a harsh
sigh. “Not much, unfortunately. This Māori stuff isn’t easy to come by.
I’m pretending to be a cultural anthropology student in order to get some
professor in New Zealand to help me out with a few things.”

“Way to take some initiative,” I say with
a laugh.

Evie’s voice lowers as she says, “It’s not
the first time I’ve pretended to be someone else to get info out of someone.”

“I’m not even going to ask.”

“Probably better that way,” she says with
a laugh. “Anyway, this guy in New Zealand told me some different versions of
the Māori creation story that might be helpful. One of them said that the
Māori usually were drawn toward coastal settlements, so the Mother could
be on a coast somewhere if that’s really true.”

It’s something, but there are a lot of
coasts in the world. “And the other stories?”

“Well,” Evie says, “it was really just one
other that Molly thought was important. It talks about how when the Mother and
Father were separated, the Mother’s blood was spilled and it stained the Earth
red. It’s a sacred color to the Māori. I know there are lots of places in
the world that have that chalky red dirt like what was up at Red Rocks in
Colorado, but that might narrow down the search area. It could even mean she
might be here in the U.S., close enough to keep an eye on you both.”

“It might,” I say.

I wish there was more, but I know Evie’s
doing everything she can to find more information. The thing is, the Māori
stories aren’t the history of the Aerlings. They’re stories passed down from
generation to generation that echo what really happened, but they’re sacred
beliefs of one specific religion and culture formed out of real events. The
coasts and red dirt may have something to do with where the Mother is, but they
also may have zero actual meaning.

“I’ll keep looking,” Evie promises.

“I know you will.”

Evie sounds reluctant to let me go, but
eventually she says, “Molly wants to say goodbye. I’ll call as soon as I have
something new for you guys.”

After telling her goodbye, Molly regains
control of the phone. We talk for a few more minutes about nothing in
particular until Evie calls her away to dinner. I feel drained when I finally
hang up and toss the phone aside.

“You guys are so pathetic,” Robin says as
she struggles to eat her dinner with her hands still bound together. Her
awkward situation doesn’t stop her from scowling at me like I’m beneath her.
When I ignore her comment, she laughs. The bitterness in her voice makes my
skin crawl. “I feel like I’ve been watching you two flounder around for answers
for years! It’s actually pretty hilarious when I’m not having to worry about
keeping my head on my shoulders. The Aerlings seriously couldn’t have picked to
more idiotic people to save their world.”

“And I suppose you have all the answers?”
I snap. “How about the fact that fixing the bridge has a cost? Did Tū
bother to tell you that the person who broke the barrier has to be the one to
fix it?”

“Why would I care what happens to Olivia?”
Robin says as she rolls her eyes and takes another bite of her sandwich.

Standing, I stalk over to her and squat
down in front of her bound body. “Not Olivia,” I say slowly. “You. You’re the
one who broke the barrier, Robin. Fixing it requires blood. Your blood. And not
just a little. All of it, in fact. You took vows to protect the Aerlings, and
it looks like that’s exactly what you’ll be doing, whether you want to or not.
How’s that for an answer?”

Frozen with her sandwich halfway to her
mouth, Robin’s mind seems to be racing. “It won’t come to that,” she says.

“I’m half tempted to use you to fix the
barrier regardless of what it might mean just to see you pay for everything
you’ve done,” I hiss.

Robin’s not the only one to stare at me
warily. Hayden and Olivia pause in what they were doing in the little kitchen
and look over at me with concern. Ignoring them, I focus in on Robin. “Clearly,
you’re a much better actress than I ever gave you credit for, but you’re not
fooling anyone anymore. Neither is Tū. We’ll find the truth behind this
war, and
we’ll
decide what to do about it and who to punish. Even if
fixing the barrier isn’t the right thing to do, there’s no way I’m letting you
off scot-free, Robin. You put my family through hell and I fully intend to
return the favor.”

Bristling at the threat, Robin drops her
sandwich back on her plate and glares at me. “You’re such a lost little puppy,
Mason. It was stupidly easy to manipulate you. Poor invisible boy with no
friends,” she mocks. “Make you feel like you’re special, like you’re seen, and
you were eating out of my hand. You didn’t even bother to question how
strangely coincidental it was that of all the places I could move to, I ended
up in the same town as Tāwhiri’s
special boy
.”

Her head shakes as if it’s all just too
much to believe. “Olivia was no better,” Robin snaps. “Sure, maybe her jealousy
made her dislike me, but when Evie realized Tū was the guy who repaired
your dishwasher, how stupid could she have really been to not even wonder how a
Sentinel ended up in her house doing appliance repair? Didn’t even a single one
of you stop to consider that the Sentinels might have bugged your house,
rerouted your phone lines?”

Now everyone in the room is listening in.
Olivia looks ready to kill her, but I can see the regret in her eyes that we
really didn’t catch on to the full extent of Robin’s deception. Looking back
now, of course we should have realized what was going on, but when we were knee
deep in fear, struggling to find answers and save our necks, it wasn’t so
easily seen.

Disgust is etched on Robin’s features as
she turns to glare at Olivia. “It was laughable watching you all try to fool me
those last few days when everything you said was recorded anyway. I seriously
almost started laughing a couple of times that last night. The only thing that
kept me on edge was that Olivia was still too stupid to figure out how to take
you home. If she had only figured that out earlier, we could have avoided the
whole dramatic scene on the cliff.”

“Oh, I’m sure you would have found a way
to make it as splashy and bullet-ridden as possible,” Olivia says with mock
sweetness as she crosses the floor to stand in front of Robin. “You love a good
show, don’t you? It’s just too bad you’re sweet little Sentinel bestie got
taken down in the process. I wonder how she’s doing, don’t you? Even if Mason
didn’t manage to kill her, Sentinels don’t heal like Aerlings do. Strange that
nobody saw any sign of her at the Sentinel compound.”

Olivia takes a few more steps, crossing in
front of Robin and squatting down next to her. “You think you’re so clever for
pulling one over on us when we were scared and confused? Not much of an
accomplishment, if you ask me. How about trying it again when we know how you
got your little school friend to kill Eliana, or how you hurt yourself to try
and get a little kid in trouble? You think it’ll be easy to fool us now, when
your life is in our hands?”

Olivia stares at her expectantly, waiting
for some kind of snippy response. When Robin doesn’t mutter a word, Olivia
smirks at her. “That’s what I thought.” She shakes her head and stands,
towering over our captive. “Dying isn’t an easy thing to face. Trust me,”
Olivia says, “I’ve been there. Dying is hardly the worst thing that can happen
to a person, Robin. Try to remember that the next time you open your mouth.”

Olivia walks away then, but her threat
lingers long after she goes back to setting out dinner for everyone else. It
takes a few minutes before Robin picks her sandwich back up and takes another
bite. When she tries to swallow, the food seems to stick on its way down. Her
already pale skin is ghostly against the flickering firelight in the corner.
Olivia is one of the most caring people I know, but I don’t doubt that she will
make Robin pay for what she’s done if given the chance. I’m not the only one
who believes it, either. Robin wraps her arms around her body and curls in on
herself, wary eyes watching Olivia as she tries to contain her fear.