Rose entered the clearing. She moved around the perimeter, but kept her focus on Blur. “There’s something different about you, Griffin.” She squinted through her hair. “The madness is gone from your eyes.”
Blur smirked. “I’m cured.”
Rose squinted at him. “How?”
“Let’s just say I’ve had a . . . transformative experience.” Another gust blew through the clearing and rattled the effigies strung throughout the branches.
“Why are you here, Griffin?”
Blur said, “I’ve taken your advice, Doctor, I’m playing well with others now.” Rose stopped pacing and stared at him. “Seems you could take that advice yourself.” Blur chuckled.
“I am where I need to be,” Rose said. “It’s not safe for me to be around people.”
Blur tried to shift and stumbled. He no longer felt the familiar energy racing within him—his speed was gone. He stared wide-eyed at Rose. “So, it’s true.” Blur held his hand before his face. He gazed upon it and said, “The rumors about your elevation are all true.”
Rose shook her head. “I’m no different from you, Griffin. We’re both augmented.”
Blur said, “No. You’re no mere augment. However it happened, you’ve been enhanced. You’ve evolved. Come back with me.”
Rose turned away as another breeze tickled the surrounding bones. “You have no idea what can happen to people around me. I won’t endanger lives by leaving here.”
“Is that why you’ve let the locals in Flakstad believe these woods are haunted by a malevolent spirit? To protect them?” Blur sneered. “You are a goddess now—you should rule them. They should cower in fear of you.”
Rose gave him a pitying look. “You’re not so changed after all, Griffin. The hate that controlled you then still burns in you now.”
“I have a reason.” Blur stepped closer to her. Movement without blurring unsettled him. “Look what Crowley did to me. What he did to you. He’s done even worse to countless others and he will continue to create soldiers for his own war unless we stop him. Together, Rose—Wither—we can end his reign of atrocities.”
Rose lifted the veil of hair away from her eyes. She looked past Blur and said, “You’re convincing, Griffin, I’ll give you that. But, you won’t convince me. You relish in what’s been done to you and have never cared for the suffering of others. I can see that much has not changed.”
Blur snarled, and Rose continued. “You thirst for your own petty vengeance. No matter how you dress it up, it’s only that, and I won’t be a part of it. Leave these woods now, Griffin. Do yourself a favor and let go of your hatred once and for all.”
Blur’s voice lowered. “I didn’t come all this way to leave empty-handed. You are the key to my plan, so you will join me, one way or the other.”
Rose stepped forward. “You’re powerless, Griffin. Do not threaten me.”
Blur’s smirk grew. “I’m never powerless, Rose. You knew me before Crowley—you know the truth of that statement.”
Dried leaves blew around their legs, and the hollow knocking above them increased. Rose’s hair fell back across her eyes. She whispered, her words carried on the breeze to be scattered amongst the trees, “What have you done, Griffin?”
Blur walked to the edge of the clearing and yanked down the skeleton of a small rat, holding the brittle bones in his hand. “Your daughter is at Cambridge, no?” Blur watched the color drain from her face. “You vanished from her life so suddenly—how she misses you so.”
Rose’s brow lowered. She warned, “You stay away from my daughter.”
Blur glared at her. “That’s up to you.”
“Don’t test me. I will end you here to keep her safe.”
Blur closed his fist around the rat skeleton. The bones crunched, then slid out of his open palm. “I’m at your mercy, my goddess. But, as I said, I’m playing well with others now.”
A pained look crossed her face. Her anguish excited Blur, and when she spoke again, it was tinged with regret. “What do I have to do to keep Valerie safe?”
Blur strolled across the clearing and patted her on the shoulder. “Leave this place with me. Join me in seeing vengeance served. Do that, and Valerie will remain untouched.”
She scowled at him beside her. “I won’t kill anyone.”
Blur gave her shoulder a slight squeeze. “You don’t have to—you just need to take away what’s keeping me from killing him.”
“There’s no difference,” she whispered.
“Ah, but there is.” Blur let go of her shoulder and stalked into the woods. “Allow me to kill Crowley, and your daughter gets to live.”
Moonlight reflected silver off the green fields around the Cliffs of Moher. Blur stood at the edge and peered down at the angry ocean below. Whitecaps broke on the rocks. He tasted salt on his lips. The wind tore at his skin and howled in his ears.
Thirty feet away along the cliffs, O’Brien’s Tower rose against a backdrop of stars. It rested on a cracked cement platform. Two circular towers—the tallest with a parapet—and one half-wall fallen to ruin. The site closed down and condemned after the Three-Year War between Ireland and Britain.
He turned into the roaring tempest and blurred past the fence erected around the site. Blur stopped inside and bent low over the stone floor. His hand found a loose stone and pressed down on it. Deep within the monolith, gears ground together. Dust blew out from one wall as it shifted out of place to reveal a stone staircase cut into the cliffs.
Blur reached the bottom of the steps before the giant door finished opening. His eyes swept over the hidden room, lit by flickering candles placed in wall sconces. Shriek and Void stared at him from within the gloom. He concentrated and felt his speed leave him. Behind him, he noted Wither standing apart from the group.
Shriek asked, “What are we doing here?”
Blur straightened his back and leered at her. “Preparing. We’ll only get one shot to catch Crowley unawares, so it must count.”
Shriek’s heels clicked on the stone floor as she paced the center of the room. She pointed a finger at Wither and asked, “What’s her deal?”
Blur looked at Wither and said, “She is the answer to our prayers.”
Shriek snorted. “As if. She supposed to harm Crowley with her stench? Smells like she’s been living in a sewer.”
Rose shook her head and said, “Such aggression in you, child. Is that what he’s exploiting to further his cause?”
Shriek took a step toward her and thrust a finger at her face. “I’m no child, and nobody exploits me. You have no idea what I can do.”
“Show her,” Blur said with a nod.
“Griffin,” Rose said.
Shriek screamed, a pitiful display that lacked all force and left her grasping for answers. She whirled on Blur, who laughed under his breath. “You see now what she can do?”
“My powers?” Shriek put her hands to her throat. “What happened to my powers?”
Void moved from within the shadows. He looked from Blur to Wither and slowly removed his rebreather. With hesitation, he took a deep breath and nothing happened. A smile split his lips followed by a hearty laugh. “She can cure us?”
Blur’s voice hardened. “We don’t need a cure. None of us are sick.” He held Void in his gaze until the larger man lowered his head. “What she can do is bring Crowley to his knees. She’ll make him vulnerable—and we’ll make him suffer.”
“Is this what you all want?” Rose asked.
Blur shot her a pointed look. “You’ll find no converts to your brand of forgiveness here, Wither. And you’d do well to remember what’s at stake with your cooperation.” Rose grew silent and Blur continued. “Crowley is in the custody of the DSA, which makes our task difficult, but not impossible.”
“That place is a fortress,” Shriek said. “Not to mention a death sentence for any augment foolish enough to challenge it.”
Blur bragged, “I’ve gotten into tighter places.” He looked at Vo
id. “Their killers will be no match for you.”
Void gave a weak nod and Shriek said, “And what of their other defenses? How do we get past them?”
Blur admitted, “I don’t know . . . yet.”
“Well, no offense,” Shriek said, “but you’re not exactly a thinker. We’re going to need more of a plan than run in there and cause chaos.”
Blur narrowed his eyes. “And we’ll have it. In time, we’ll learn all the ins and outs of that place. And then we’ll strike. If we work together, we shall become the reckoning Jason Crowley has long deserved. The four of us together will be unstoppable!”
Acknowledgements
I would like to offer my thanks to Chelly Peeler for providing the editing of this collection. You were a joy to work with, and I look forward to collaborating again in the future.
Many thanks to Warren Design for his spectacular work on the cover of both the digital and print versions of this book.
Heartfelt gratitude again to Alexa Whitewolf for her numerous reads of the early manuscripts and her unwavering enthusiasm for everything Singularverse. Again, you helped shape this world!
Special thanks to my fellow authors on Goodreads and around the world. Graeme, Lynn, Marie, Anna, Carole, Tim, Derek, David, and anyone I’m forgetting who are always willing to offer advice and support the indie community.
And, as always, tremendous thanks to my wife, Emily, and our son, Connor, for allowing me to continue to do what I love. Couldn’t do it without you. Love you to the moon and back.
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