Darkening Chaos: Book Three of The Destroyer Trilogy (42 page)

Squatting
down next to me on the floor, Milo lifts my chin. Blood from my split lip
dribbles over his hand. He’s trembling as much as I am, but he refuses to give
up. “Libby, just tell me what I want to know and this can stop.”

“I
don’t know what the others are planning, but if you let me call them I’m sure
they’d be happy to share,” I mumble through a mouthful of blood.

His
fingers clamp down around my jaw. “Stop this, Libby! I know you have some plan
for fighting the Cipher creations. You avoided talking about them before I
brought you here. You were hiding your plans from me. I know you were!”

I
avoided talking about the Dorotabos because I had no idea what to do about
them. I didn’t exactly want to parade that around in front of people who believed
I had everything under control. He shakes me furiously. Even when he stops, my
battered body keeps reeling. Three Milos swim in front of me. I have to close my
eyes to clear my vision. It helps some, but the pain remains, throbbing deep
into my bones. A groan slips out of me. My Naturalism begs for release. It
could soothe my injuries in minutes, but I can’t risk using it. Ever since Milo
started letting Thomas beat me again he’s been giving me a new drug during
these questioning sessions that is supposed to dull me enough that I can’t use
more than a trickle of my talents. It caught me by surprise the first time and
worked beautifully.

Milo
drops me back to the ground and growls in frustration. I push myself up off the
floor, wiping blood from my mouth with the back of my hand. My side begs me not
to move. Thomas did a fabulous job kicking me earlier. I’ve had just about
enough of this for today. Time to turn this session around, even if it results
in another beating.

“Do
you honestly think Howe expects you to get anything out of me, Milo?” I ask. I
spit the blood out of my mouth and stare up at him. “He’s manipulating you. You
admitted to everyone the day you took me that you plan on taking his job. He
has you babysitting me so he has an excuse to keep you out of the loop. Howe
plans on killing me, we all know that, but do you even realize that he has
every intention of killing you, too?”

Milo’s
face screws up in anger. I don’t let up.

“Howe
became president because he was the most ruthless, brutal man in the world.
There is no way he’s going to let you live long enough to challenge him. He
knows you’re going to be more powerful than him as soon as your talents are
unlocked. Which will be what, a few weeks from now?”

I
know that his birthday was yesterday thanks to my visits to the spirit world,
but I’m not supposed to have any clear reckoning of time in here. My words
finally start to sink in with Milo. His anger is suddenly laced with doubt.

“Oh,
don’t worry about your birthday, Milo,” I say. “Howe will keep you alive until
all of this is over. He needs you to show the world I’m not as powerful as they
think I am. He needs to parade you around as a traitor.”

“You’re
just trying to manipulate me,” Milo says through his teeth.

“No,
I’m telling you the truth. Two seconds after Howe kills me, he’ll kill you,
too.”

Fire
sparks around him. Literally. It’s something he learned to do with his
Naturalism from his new buddies, igniting particles of matter in the air. I
think it was supposed to be a secret, but as usual, when Milo gets really upset
he has a hard time controlling his talents. I’ve already taught it to Celia.
Blowing out a long breath, Milo calms himself down.

“Thomas,
we’re done here for today.”

Thomas
grumbles and stalks out of the room. He’s only ever happy if he’s torturing
someone. Milo almost follows him out, remembering the glass of drugged water
before leaving me to suffer. The glass bangs against my tender lip. Half the
water spills down my shirt. It makes my job of corralling the toxin easier, but
it also makes my t-shirt stick to my chest. Luckily, Milo is too pissed off to
notice. He storms out and slams the door behind him. I only slump down to my
mattress out of habit, not any fear of Milo watching me. I still wait a good
ten minutes before spitting the toxin into a hole in my mattress.

A
few minutes later, I’m standing in the spirit world. Just inside the barrier, a
small group of people turn to greet me. There are only three of them since
Celia is keeping as many people out of the spirit world as possible. Only the
most trusted members of our group have been told the truth about what can be
found here now that the Ciphers are gone. It’s hard to keep something like
being able to see people who have passed on a secret, but it’s necessary right
now. We can’t risk someone letting slip that I’m coming here every day. I don’t
want to think about what the Guardians would do to me if they found out.

Walking
over to the group, I hug Hope and receive a clap on the back from Kyla. The third
member is my favorite sentry. Alex Takima shakes my hand firmly. His grip
always momentarily surprises me. His slight dancer’s build looks like it should
be fragile, but he has a lot of lean muscle packed onto his frame. None of them
comment on my injuries. They’re used to them by now, and used to my irritated
responses when they do try to ask.

“I’ll
let Celia know you’re here,” Alex says. Focus lines his features as he prepares
to depart, but I catch his arm before he goes.

“If
she’s in the middle of class, wait. I don’t want her looking like she’s passed
out mid-pirouette again.”

Alex
laughs and nods. Celia has calmed down considerably since joining us, but she
still lets her excitement get the better of her every once in a while.

“Oh,
and feel free to give her a kiss goodbye before she leaves,” I say, making
Alex’s eyes widen. “It always helps her relax better when she’s here.”

“She
told you?” Alex asks. 

Me
and the other girls chuckle. “Of course she did. Celia’s terrible about keeping
secrets like that.”

He
blushes, and says, “It wasn’t really a secret. We just didn’t want anyone to
think we weren’t putting all our effort into training.”

“No
one thinks that, Alex,” I say, my voice filled with longing. If I could be with
Braden right now, there’s absolutely no chance I’d be training.

The
three around me quiet under the pressure of my deflated mood. My emotions are
locked up tight, as usual, but pain slips away from Kayla and Hope to wrap
around me. Both keep coming here, but neither one has been able to contact the
ones they want. Hammond and Mr. Walters are still too newly gone to manage
reaching the spirit world. I thought that was very unfair at first, but as I
watch the tears form in Kayla’s eyes I see the value in not being able to reach
Hammond so soon. If she could find him today and visit him every day after,
there is no way she would ever move on and look for love again. I suppose there
are more substantial reasons for the newly dead remaining out of reach, but
things like that seem to work out for the best, regardless.

“I’ll
go get Celia,” Alex says. He pops away from us quietly.

In
an attempt to make up for depressing everyone with my sullenness, I turn to
Hope and Kayla. I am about to ask them about the Capoeira lessons Braden has
instigated at the training house for everyone. Alex whooshes back into the
spirit world, surprising all of us. We all stare at him.

“Where’s
Celia?” I ask.

“She’ll
be here in a minute. She has to go back to the training house first.”

“Why?”

Alex
shrugs. “I don’t know. She said she has a surprise for you and rushed off
without explaining.”

“Wasn’t
she at school?” I ask. When Alex is working as sentry, it usually means Celia’s
at school since he’s the only one that can reach her there. School gets out
hours before Milo comes to abuse me, but she’s been there rehearsing until at
least six o’clock for the last few weeks. He shakes his head, though.

“We
were just finishing up a rehearsal for our duet. You’re later than usual.”

Thanks
to Milo and his persistence. “Why did she have to go to the training house? She
can’t bring anything with her.”

“It
must have something to do with why she cancelled our plans last night. She said
she was getting close to something,” Alex says. He gives me an apologetic
shrug. “She said she’d meet you at the gateway and for the rest of us to go
home and get back to work.”

The
girls give a few cursory grumbles, but say goodbye and are off. Alex is about
to follow, but pauses. “Do you need help getting to the gateway?”

“No,”
I say, grimacing at how familiar he is with my limitations here. “I’ve gotten a
lot better at speed travelling over the past couple months, thanks to Celia.
I’ll be fine.”

“Okay,
then. I’ve got to get back and finish rehearsing. Celia says my grand fouettés
still need work.”

I
have no idea what he’s talking about. “Good luck with that. See you tomorrow.”

He
dissolves into the mist and I focus my mind and energy on travelling.
Concentrating on my destination, I push my power away from me. The jolt of
movement is encouraging. My eyes stay closed as I move. No need to distract
myself. I don’t need to see where I’m going, anyway. I only need to sense where
I am. That was really what was keeping me from picking this up earlier. I
couldn’t imprint the different feel of each area onto my mind. Spending so much
time here with no distractions has finally let me do that. I jerk to a painful
stop and open my eyes. Rubbing my neck, I remind myself to work on perfecting
my takeoffs and landings.

I’m
the first one here, so I sit down next to the gateway. Usually, I would open it
up, but I’m not sure what Celia has in mind for today. If I’m going to need to
concentrate I’d rather not have a bunch of ghost milling around. Instead, I sit
and practice training techniques to pass the time.

It
isn’t a sound that alerts me, but a feeling. A feeling I haven’t felt in ages.
Pure, exhilarating excitement yanks me up from the ground. I spin around and
gasp at the sight of Braden. Every inch of my spirit body flushes with energy.
I’m running toward him before I can even think to make my legs move. I don’t
need thought when it comes to Braden. My love takes control and flings me
toward him.

“Braden!”
I screech as I crash into him. My elation knocks him over, taking me with him.
The mists bury us immediately. Good thing, because I’m kissing Braden with no
hope of coming up for air. He isn’t holding back, either. I’m pressed as tight
to his body as he can possibly get me. Fire races through me from lips to toes.
If there was actually any air here to ignite, I’m sure miniature fireworks
would be going off all around me.

The
moment comes to an end way too quickly when Braden pushes me back gently and
sits up with me in his lap. His eyes sweep over me, bringing on a frown.
“Libby, you’re hurt.”

I
frantically wave him off. “It’s nothing. Forget it.”

Braden
turns to glare at Celia, who I didn’t even realize was there. She looks down guiltily.
“You didn’t say she was getting beaten again,” Braden accuses.

“I
didn’t want you to worry,” I say in Celia’s defense. I’d asked her to keep
Lance away from Braden during Milo’s visits in order to keep Braden from
knowing what was happening.

“How
long has this been going on?”

“It’s
really only been bad the last couple weeks,” I say, “but after today, I’m hoping
it won’t happen anymore. I gave Milo something to think about. He should be a
little distracted trying to figure out whether Howe is really planning on
killing him as soon as I’m out of the way.”

Celia’s
whimper dulls Braden’s sudden flash of vengeance. I glance over at her
apologetically. We’ve already discussed the likelihood of Milo’s fate. He
betrayed everyone who ever loved him. Me, Celia, his parents, every one of the
Ciphers. He chose his path, and whatever fate that leads to is out of our hands.
I know it is still heartbreaking to think of her brother dying. Despite what
he’s done to me, I don’t like the idea of him being killed, either. She
struggles to control her emotions. I can feel her tapping her Naturalism to
accomplish a small measure of composure.

Braden’s
fingers drift over my split lip and bruised cheekbone. Frustration and anger
boil around him. Taking his face in my hands, I kiss his frowning lips gently.
“I’m okay, Braden. Just don’t think about it.” His body tenses at the suggestion.
I hurry on, saying, “Don’t waste our time together being angry about this. I
don’t want you to be unhappy while we’re together.”

That
softens his anger considerably. His hand drifts to the back of my neck and
pulls me closer. His mouth drinks me in, trying desperately to make up for five
months of being apart. It isn’t enough. His hand presses against my back,
sliding under the edge of my shirt. A delicious shiver runs through me. I want
to slide my hands under his t-shirt, peel it off slowly and explore, but
thoughts of Celia sitting right next to us finally sinks into my brain. I start
to pull back. Braden has forgotten about Celia entirely. He picks up his right
hand, which has been lying idle this whole time, and attempts to pull me back
in. For some reason, Celia pitches sideways and crashes into us. Finally,
Braden gets a grip of his hormones.