Invincible (The Aerling Series Book 3) (26 page)

Chapter 28

Weight of Two Worlds

(Mason)

“This is so much harder without Sloane,”
Olivia complains.

I’m tempted to laugh at that statement.
I’d almost think Olivia missed Sloane the way she said it. “Take a break from
searching,” I tell Olivia. “You’ve been at it for hours and the Mother isn’t
going anywhere. Just relax for a while. We don’t want to get too close, yet,
anyway. Not until Sloane and Hayden get back.”

Thankfully, Olivia takes my advice and
tucks her power away. She leans her head on my shoulder and closes her eyes a
few seconds later. I know she’s not asleep, but I let her rest and keep my
concerns and worries to myself for now. There are too many to voice anyway.

The road stretches on for a long time,
blending together into an endless tableau of sand, scrub brush, and bluffs. I’m
not even sure where we are right now. Nevada maybe? No, I think we crossed out
of Nevada a few hours ago. I suppose that would put us in Arizona. We’re south
of where we need to be, but we can’t get too close. Olivia was worried about
staying in one place too long, as well, just in case the Mother gets wind of our
search and decides to find us.

Although, the Mother may not be limited
like that in the first place. Tū claimed he couldn’t fly as his reason for
following us. If he can’t fly, he can certainly do something else that lets him
travel quickly. Olivia hasn’t yet questioned how Tū was able to transport
her to the valley he and Tane created for the Mother, but I suspect that’s only
because she has a million other things to worry about right now. I do to, but
it’s been bothering me for a while now.

I know it wasn’t just an illusion. Olivia
was gone. We searched the shelter for her. No one saw her the entire time we
were out in the city searching, either. She simply reappeared exactly where she
had been taken. How did he manage that? Is the Mother capable of the same
thing, or is that some sort of ability Tū possesses? We really have no way
of knowing, but if Tū’s ability to transport himself between places
extends to the Aerling world once the barrier is gone, we’ll have no hope of
keeping him here.

Tū escaping won’t mean the end to our
fight. I’ll follow him back to the Aerling world, but I want to avoid exposing
the remaining Aerlings to a showdown like that at all costs. The Earth is in
danger of being destroyed if the Mother wins, but the Aerling world is already
on the precipice of dying. I fear a battle between Tū and I will bring it
to its knees.

The first war between the Aerling gods
almost destroyed them. A second one…. My thoughts trail off as I consider that
concept. The first war was truly a war between gods. This war? I’m not a god
like the Caretakers thought I was. I was meant to protect the Aerlings and the
world we came from, but what will I be by the end of this battle? If everything
works the way it’s supposed to, I’ll be holding not only part of Tāwhiri’s
power, but the Mother’s and Father’s power as well…and possibly Tū’s.

Is it even possible for one Aerling to
contain that much power? What will that do to me if I wasn’t meant to hold so
much? What will it do to Olivia?

“What’s bothering you right now?” Olivia
asks. Her voice is soft, not at all sleepy as it should be. We’re both
exhausted, but sleeping with so much weighing on your mind isn’t easy.

Sighing, I kiss her forehead before
turning back to face the road. “There’s too much power involved in all of this.
Too much for one person, or even two people, to hold at once.”

“I’ve been thinking about what Sloane
said, too,” Olivia admits. No doubt it’s part of why she’s still awake. “We
can’t keep everything we take. It’s not right, and I think it will hurt us to
try and contain that much power.”

“What makes you say that?” I ask.

Olivia shrugs then curls her hands around
the arm she’s resting against. “I don’t know. Logic, I guess. Instinct? That’s
just too much power, and the Aerlings are already running out. They need all
the power back they can get.”

“What’s trapped here should make its way
home once the barrier fails completely,” I say, even though I know it’s not
really a defense. I don’t even want to keep the power. I just worry I won’t be
able to do anything with it in the end. What happens if I’m stuck with it? What
responsibility will that require? And for how long?

That’s the thought that really kicks me in
the shins. The Mother and Father, even Tū and Tāwhiri, they’ve been
around for millennia. Since the beginning of both our worlds. If I take their
power…what made them live so long? Was it the power, or was it their makeup? If
I survive this, will I be stuck ruling over the other Aerlings for eternity?
What if the same thing doesn’t happen to Olivia? Sloane said she became
less
human when she crossed into the Aerling world, but what if it’s not enough?
Will I be forced to live on as I am now while she ages and slips away from me?
No amount of power would be worth such a cruel existence.

“Talk to me,” Olivia says.

I balk at sharing my thoughts. I don’t
want to put any more fears or pressure on her than she already feels. Falling
back on our earlier conversation, I say, “I think we need to give the power
back when this is over.”

“How?”

Glancing down at her, I see her trusting
expression and panic sets in. “I don’t know. Can’t we just do what you did with
Hayden? You said giving up power is easy. Easier than trying to take it,
anyway.”

Olivia frowns and sits up. Her hand slides
down my arm to take mine, but she’s focused on her response. “Giving power to
someone else
is
easy, for an
Escort
, once you understand why
you’re doing it. If I need to protect you or the other Aerlings, letting go of
my power is simple, but I’m giving it to someone. Just letting it go…I’m not
sure how to do that. I have to have a reason for giving it up and a person to
give it to. I’m not sure how an Aerling gives up power, either. That’s not what
they’re made for.”

“I guess we could just have sex,” I tease.

Chuckling, Olivia says, “As appealing as
that definitely sounds, it wouldn’t solve our problem. Sloane said that power
given up like that is lost to the Aerlings.”

“But maybe that was only because of the
barrier. Aerlings obviously weren’t having sex with humans in the Aerling
world. It could only happen here, where the power would get trapped on this
side of the barrier.”

I don’t think Olivia had considered that
before. Her mouth pulls down in a frown as she thinks. “Maybe that’s true,” she
says quietly, “but it wouldn’t just take away the extra power, Mason. It would
take away everything. You wouldn’t be an Aerling anymore.”

Wrapping my arm around her shoulders, I
pull her closer. “I’m not so sure that would be a bad thing.”

Olivia’s frown deepens. She seems upset by
what I’ve said, but whatever is going through her mind, she clearly keeps it to
herself when she says, “There will be other effects from taking away the
Aerling gods’ power.”

Willing to let her change the topic for
now, I stow the previous problems for the time being, and address this new
concern. “What sort of effects?”

“If we take their power, what happens to
the things they’ve created from their power?” Olivia looks up at me, deep worry
filling her eyes. “The Father helped make some of the Aerlings. The Mother made
the Caretakers. Tū made the Sentinels. What happens to all of them when
take away their creators’ power?”

After a moment of panic for the Parkers,
my heart rate climbs back down to normal. “The Caretakers will be fine,” I say
in relief. “The Mother wouldn’t use any of her own power, remember? She stole
the Earth’s power to make them. They’re linked to this world, not to the
Mother.”

“What about the Aerlings and Sentinels?”
I’m sure the fear she’s still holding is more for the Aerlings than the
Sentinels, but even that is a lot to contend with.

It takes me a while to think through this
problem and offer up an answer. “Regular Aerlings, the ones the Father and
Tāwhiri created, they aren’t like their creators, right? They don’t live
forever like the gods seem to.”

I guess we never really asked Cedrick for
specifics on Aerling life spans, but Olivia is nodding, a hopeful expression on
her face. “You’re right. Sloane was telling me about her family the other day.
Her dad died shortly after she made it back to the Aerling world. There aren’t
any diseases or violence in the Aerling world. Death only comes from old age.
It didn’t sound like it was an abnormal amount of years, either.”

Olivia’s free hand runs through her hair
as she processes this new insight. “Whatever Aerlings the Father helped create,
they’re long gone, right? They have to be.”

“That’s what I would think. The power he
used has either reverted back to him or been absorbed back into the world.” I
feel like I’m carrying a slightly heavier load as we both agree that the
Aerlings shouldn’t be affected by the Father’s loss of power.

“That only leaves the Sentinels,” Olivia
says. The scorn in her voice hints that she doesn’t feel any overwhelming
concern for their fates, but it’s something to consider all the same.

Personally, I wouldn’t be heartbroken to
see the last of them, but it’s difficult to know if they are truly evil, or
simply under Tū’s spell. “I don’t know what will happen to them,” I admit.
“Tū said they barely contain any of his power, but he also made it clear
that they’re connected enough that any power they absorb from murdered Aerlings
flows right to him.”

“Well,” Olivia says, “whatever happens to
them happens. As long as the Caretakers and Aerlings are safe, that’s our
biggest concern.”

For a few miles, we both watch the road
fly by. My eyes start to drift closed soon after that. Worry that I’ll fall
asleep makes me pull off the road at the first motel I see. It looks vaguely
like something Norman Bates might own, but we just need somewhere to take a
break before I get us both killed. I have no delusions of hiding from Tū
after what happened today, but I feel confident that he’ll keep his distance
for now.

I didn’t see his scar change, but I felt
his pain when I caused it. That two-second reminder of what I can do if I can
just unlock my memories should be enough to give us a peaceful night’s rest. I
know I need to figure out what I did and how to do it again, but after I pay
for our room and pull around to the second row of squat little rooms, all I
want to do is curl up with Olivia and forget everything.

We’re lying in bed half an hour later
before Olivia brings up our discussion again. “Taking someone’s power is
dangerous,” she says. Her quiet voice is barely above a whisper, but I have no
trouble hearing it.

“I know.” I only have fragmented memories
of the first time I took Tū’s power, a panicked and desperate attempt to
save myself, to back that opinion, but I know it’s true.

“I don’t…” Curled up against my side, I
can feel Olivia swallow her words.

Kissing her cheek lightly before pulling
her in even more, I ask, “You don’t what?”

Olivia sighs, her fingers tightening
around my t-shirt. “I don’t think you can just
let
your power go if you
want to give it up. I think, you’ll have to take it out by force…like you did
with Tū.”

“If that’s true...”

Olivia looks up at me with tearful eyes.
“Mason, tearing out a being’s power either kills them or leaves them completely
destroyed. If you have to…I mean, if
we
have to, it could kill us.”

All of my earlier thoughts come rushing
back in. A never-ending life where I watch Olivia age and die, it sounds so
horrible. Killing her while trying to strip away the excess power is infinitely
worse. An ache starts deep in my soul just thinking about it. I would take an
eternity without her after having had a long life together over being the
reason for her death any day.

I can’t let her take in any of the power
we plan to steal. I won’t let her die. I can’t. I will let myself burn up from
holding too much power before I let something like that happen to her. I was
born to protect the Aerlings, but a purpose born of blood can never trump my
desire to see Olivia safe and happy. 

Pulling Olivia so her back is pressed
against my chest, I hold her as tightly as I can without hurting her. “The
power belongs to the Aerlings, not us. We’ll find a way to give it back,” I
promise.

“Yeah, but…”

Cutting her off with a kiss meant to
distract, I whisper against her lips, “I won’t let anything hurt you.”

“It may not be up to you, Mason.” She
brushes her palm along the length of my cheek, back into my hair where her
fingers tangle themselves. “Do you remember that time you called from the
Parker’s house and we talked about what it is to be family, what you sometimes
have to sacrifice for them?”

My throat constricts and I start shaking
my head before she can say another word. “I won’t do it, Ollie. I won’t.”

“They’re your family every bit as much as
I am,” she soothes. “Family means sacrifice.”