Haven (War of the Princes) (40 page)

           
Why did this option seem better now than it did, ten minutes ago? Was it because my life was on the line?

           
I frowned.

           
Nothing had changed.

           
Even the slightest possibility that Dylan could turn on me and deliver Haven to Stakes made me feel overwhelmingly protective. I would
never
let that creature reach my home. My family would be safe, Ruby and Kyle would never be drained or tortured, the people of Haven never suffer, because I wouldn’t allow it. The strength welling up within me multiplied tenfold.

           
My answer emerged as a one-syllable whisper, but it needed no explanation or embellishment. “No.”

           
I felt an odd sense of peace. I was going to die. It was strange to think of my little, insignificant self as the only barrier to break a tide of destruction. I’d be the one to fix my own colossal accident. I would never be reprimanded for my recklessness or suffer any shame, but no one would know of my sacrifice. I’d die an uncelebrated hero.

Funny, curiosity really did kill the Kat. I almost laughed at the ludicrous thought. It figured a phrase so dumb would be the theme of my life’s untimely end.

With what seemed like ease, Dylan lowered me to the ground. His hold on me wasn’t completely released. If I tried to walk, I’d slip and hang there, a fraction of an inch above the ground. I couldn’t escape. When I stood still, he at least gave me the courtesy of leaving me on my feet.

“This was your choice. This is how you wanted it to be,” said Dylan, numbly. He reached down to his boot and pulled from it a copper cylinder. His thumb flicked over the side and he held it up. Like a miniature comet, a red flare, trailing crimson smoke, shot into the sky in a high arch and dropped back to ground.

It was a signal.

“You’re right, Dylan, and I’m willing to accept that. But it doesn’t dissolve your part in this,” I told him, fighting down the sickness in my stomach.

“You made this decision. I didn’t want it this way!” he argued, pacing.

“The choice is yours as much as it is mine,” I countered.

“Yes, and you’d choose to let me die! Why should you get anything different?” he shouted, his face, reddening.

“Because I’m doing this to protect hundreds and thousands of people. Who are you protecting?” I demanded, fervently. The guilty look in his eyes betrayed him. “You certainly didn’t protect whoever it was that you drained.”

He stopped pacing, staring, but not seeing me.
 

“It was a Dragoon. A woman. Her name was March.”

           
If my heart stopped beating and my lungs stopped breathing, I wouldn’t have noticed.

           
March.

           
She was the only Dragoon other than Rune that I had tried to befriend. I remembered putting the clay bird I made in her hand. She had told me she couldn’t keep it. She couldn’t keep friends. But she’d smiled at me.

           
And now she was a grey husk of a human being, staring through dull eyes at a world she no longer could feel.

           
I hardly knew her, but I’d looked at her as a friend.

           
My hands were alive with threads of electricity. I didn’t focus to make it happen… I don’t even think I’d realized that I’d called my Ability forward.

           
“You killed Leila!”

           
He didn’t argue, didn’t defend himself. He stood there like a statue, not realizing that he’d let me free.

           
“You killed my friend!” I wanted to hit him, but he stopped me a split second before I could. His eyes focused on me and he forced me to a jerking halt with The Lift. I gasped in a sob.

           
“I didn’t
kill
her. What I did was worse than death. Stakes killed her. Said her purpose had been served. I thought it was a mercy to her but Stakes was just being tidy. If I didn’t… if I didn’t do what I did, he would have killed us both,” he muttered, more to himself than me.

           
“
There is a wealth of power within you: I want it
,” Stake’s words came back to me.
“And I want you to know, because it won’t change anything, and because I enjoy hurting people. You’ll see it all happen, step by step. You’ll know I’m getting closer. Your friends will bleed and you’ll know it was me. I’ll see all of that pain in your sweet, silver eyes when I come around to take you. Soon”

           
A chill as cold as death itself spiraled down my spine.

           
A dark storm was chasing away the final glimpses of sunlight. It was like all hope was retreating, leaving us in a bloody red pool of unnatural luminescence.

           
Two drops of rain pattered on my face.

           
“No matter what you think, I’ve always cared about you,” Dylan told me. His unshed tears mingled with the determination in his eyes. “I wish this didn’t have to happen, but it does.”

 
          
A soft rumble began to overpower the sound of the wind raking through the tall brush. As it grew louder, so did its distinction. It was the beating of heavy hooves.

Someone was approaching.

“I might be selfish… I might be a coward, but at least I’ll live to regret it.”

Chapter 33: My Ending

           
My newfound bravery abandoned me as soon as Stakes rode into view. Astride the back of his black warhorse, he looked larger than life ever should. Shadows fed into cracks and crevices in his armor. I recognized the marks as the Dragoons’ failed attempts to end his life. Either he had drained another victim or his transformation was finally complete. One side of his jaw was filled only by twisting points of metal. Two frail strips of skin stretched from his cheekbone to his chin, but didn't look like they'd last much longer. The other side of his face, raked with dull steel growths but still primarily flesh, didn't offer much humanity either. His eyes were ravenous. He was insanity and cruelty, not a man at all.

           
To me, he was death incarnate.

           
When those terrible eyes found me, he ground his teeth and smiled.

           
"Timely," he said through a wolfish grin. "I was just returning from setting Breakwater aflame. Don’t fret, little Lord Axton, your brother's men fight fire better than they fight Dragoons, not that my diversion is going to buy them much time. I always thought you commoners were spoiled with too many freedoms."

           
Dylan's face was a mask chiseled of stone. He confronted Stakes stiffly. "I've done what you've asked."

           
"Yes, I see that you have," Stakes said appraisingly, circling like a scavenger. "Our attempt to infiltrate the Lodestone nest seems to have washed ashore. I can't pretend to be disappointed; I'd hoped it would end this way. For you, I mean."

           
Knives churned in my stomach. So there really was a plan to give up Haven's location. I'd done the right thing, but it didn't make me feel any better. I looked at Dylan with a culminating sense of dread.

           
"I did my part. I'd like to leave now," Dylan said, shifting uncomfortably beneath the usurping Commander's scrutiny.

           
"Leave? Does this mean that you desire to abandon your post in my campaign?" Stakes asked in what was a horrible mockery of innocent concern.

           
"We agreed that after I did my part, I'd be free," Dylan said, growing increasingly nervous.

           
"Free? Dear boy, haven't you realized that nothing in life is free?" Stakes grinned.

           
Dylan took a step back. "I can't watch you do this to her."

           
"So! My little puppet, you have a heart after all! Or a weak stomach. We've both seen
that
evidenced before, haven't we?" Stakes chuckled with bemusement, swinging casually down from his saddle.

           
"What you've failed to understand," the Commander continued, stalking closer, "is that freedom is to you as water is to a fish in the desert: a dream, vaporizing with every breath."

           
Dylan swallowed hard. He looked up at me, regret burning clearly in his eyes. It was strange to see such torture on a face so angelic. Or so I thought for a split second as my mind, so taxed by misery and stress, pulled me a step away from the situation. My reverie didn't stand much of a chance. I was too realistic a person to let myself be swept back into the comforting arms of shock.

           
There was no reason for me to identify with Dylan, or admire his features for any reason. He was my enemy. I should hate him.

           
"I'm sorry, Katelyn," Dylan said to me. "You didn't deserve this."

           
Stakes let out a sharp bark of laughter. He was thoroughly enjoying the scene.

           
"Dylan, you
idiot
!" I snarled. How dare he apologize as soon as he had to witness the consequences of his decision? I was enraged. It was the greatest insult I could have imagined. If I could have punched or slapped him I would have. If I never saw his pretty face again it would be too soon.

           
Dylan's hold on me was suddenly gone. I could feel the full weight of gravity take over the cushion that had kept me immobile. I took one step to the side.

           
"Wait right there," Stakes commanded me as if he was a child's patient uncle. My body locked up under the force of that horrible power. I couldn't move my legs or torso. Claustrophobia and frustration screamed in my head. I wouldn't let it get the better of me.

           
Stakes turned back to Dylan.

           
"
Sorry
, Axton? The young man who betrayed her, is
sorry
?" the Commander grinned. "Shouldn't you be thanking her? She's bought a few hours extension to your life. Really, where did you learn your manners?"

           
Dylan’s horrified gaze shifted from me to Stakes when understanding struck him.

           
"No!" I screamed, despite myself.

           
Stakes brandished a knife, contorting the steel with his ability. It snapped like breaking ice, but instead of coming apart, it grew. Stakes threw his jagged weapon expertly, aiming directly for Dylan's throat.

           
Stumbling backwards, Dylan threw up a hand. Sound popped like a whip cracking, and the blade floated benignly, stopped short by Dylan's Ability. I hoped he could immobilize Stakes. The more I thought about it, the more it seemed possible. How much of a fight could Stakes put up if he was unbound by gravity? Maybe there would be a chance to escape. Unfortunately for both of us, Dylan wasted a second blinking hard and breathing heavily.

           
Stakes took advantage of the opportunity. That second was all he had needed.

           
The attacking Commander dropped to a crouch, placing his hands on the ground the way March had when she'd used the stones of the Keep to block my escape.

           
Rumbling started almost immediately. It didn't make sense. Stakes didn't have a stone Ability. Besides, only Lodestones possessed more than one Ability... right?

           
The dirt around Dylan was churning. Pebbles and rocks trembled and flipped.

           
Startled and off balance, Dylan looked at the ground boiling around his feet.

           
Stakes roared in effort. Strings of dull silver and copper sprang like fast growing vines from the soil. Some were thin as threads and others thick as rope. Two rocks, each attached at the end of two cords, tumbled and turned an inch above ground, shrinking as if they were being unraveled.

           
It all happened so fast.

           
The metal, pulled from ore and minerals in the earth itself, curved around Dylan's body, focusing their grip on his face. He collapsed upon the dirt and brittle grass, his arms, legs and body bound by Stakes’ terrible power, and he was left only enough space between coils to breathe. I could hear his muffled screams as he thrashed with futility against his bonds.

           
From the pack of his warhorse, Stakes retrieved a long rope. Quickly, he tied one end to his saddle, and carried the length of it to Dylan. With ease, the Commander adjusted Dylan's constraints so that his arms were above his head.