The Noru 2 : The Last Akon (The Noru Series, Book 2)

by Lola StVil

  “Makayla, dinner.”

  The panther roars as she opens her massive jaw and clamps down on Crash’s hand. The screaming is unbearable. Crash is writhing in pain yet he makes no attempt to move away from the animal, as Malakaro is controlling his actions.

  The animal eats slower, as if it knows that will add to Crash’s torture. The groaning and crying reach a fevered pitch as Makayla’s jagged fangs reach out for more of what was once Crash’s right hand. I try to look strong and unaffected; if Crash’s fate is to be mine too, I will at least pretend to be courageous.

  Despite the blaring cries, the smell of flesh, and the unending stream of blood, I can still look at what’s happing. That is until a bloody morsel slides down the corner of the panther’s mouth and onto the floor; I look closer and realize it’s Crash’s fingertip. That’s when I have no choice but to turn away. Meanwhile, Malakaro summons the table again, this time with only one chair and one drinking glass. He sits at the table and calmly pours himself a drink. Apparently in this lair, this kind of thing happens all the time…

  *******

  A short while later, the great hall has been cleaned and the sounds have all died down. The space is now filled with silence. Yet that too brings about its own form of terror.

  Malakaro comes closer and starts to circle around me.

  “There were thousands I could have picked to be a Kaster. Do you know why I chose you?” he asks.

  “I have strong powers,” I reply.

  “Others were stronger and had more experience. I picked you because your hatred for Omnis was full. Complete and without end.”

  “He’s not my favorite being,” I admit under my breath.

  “Yet now I see that I was wrong. Something has changed in you, Ruin. Something is corrupting you,” he says as he looks deeply into my eyes.

  “There’s no change in me,” I assure him.

  “Kill thinks it happened when you went into the cave to free Rage, but he’s wrong. You were damaged long before that.”

  “I am the same Kaster I was before. I wasn’t going to free Rage. I was going to try and get information out of him,” I tell him.

  “Ruin, don’t lie. It’s something humans would do out of fear. Let us not be so…common.”

  “Fine, I was going to help Rage. I don’t know why,” I inform him.

  “Like I said, you’ve been corrupted. I believe it happened when you encountered a certain Noru. You are a priceless and fragile figurine. He touched you. Left fingerprints on you and now…now you have lost your value and I have to break you.”

  “Do whatever you need to do to me. I can take it,” I promise him.

  “Your power, your brazen attitude and untapped potential make me wish there was another way. It’s sad to destroy a powerful weapon simply because of a small malfunction.”

  “It’s not a malfunction. Silver helped me, so whatever, I tried to help him,” I mumble.

  “You see, it’s that I need to take--your newfound empathy. The only way you can be of use again is if you allow me to suck the poison from your system.”

  “I tried, nothing helped,” I say, mostly to myself.

  “You think you have been wrong all these years and that good is worth exploring?” he asks.

  “No, not good, just him. I think he could be…”

  “You think Silver could be a weapon for evil?”

  “Yes.”

  “That is not why you tried to help his father. You helped because you believed it could get you what you most want.”

  I don’t reply; I just look away. He looks at me with growing interest.

  “Let us see what you most desire, shall we?” he orders.

  I want to resist but I know it would be pointless. So, I stand in front of the Merge and wait for what I know will soon appear. And sure enough, within seconds I am watching images of me and Silver in deep conversation, laughing, kissing, and…

  “I see,” Malakaro says simply.

  “If you’re going to kill me, then can we get a move on it?” I order.

  “Had anyone else used that tone with me, I would have summoned for their tongue. But you, you are…different.”

  “How?”

  “You’re the only who hasn’t desired my death in the Merge. Although wanting to be with my weak half sister’s lover is rather disturbing.”

  “Silver is not with Pryor!” I snap.

  “I heard of a kiss, am I mistaken?” he asks.

  “What? No, they never…he just needs to embrace who he is.”

  “Silver knows who he is: a weak-minded, feeble half-breed.”

  “If we had more time together. If we could have…”

  “You think that your feelings for him could be returned? Is that what I am sensing in you? Hope?” he asks, disgusted.

  Once again I am silent. Malakaro pauses and gets very pensive. When he speaks again his tone is soft and certain.

  “The Noru will die. There is no other ending for them. Yet, it would be a shame to lose a Kaster because she has fallen prey to the Noru. I planned to kill you. I am certain I still might. But it would be more gratifying to have you rejoin evil, where you belong.”

  “I’m no angel lover, but after what happened in the cave, I don’t know that I can be…a Kaster.”

  “You have more than enough rage and destruction in your life to continue to be useful to me. All that has to happen is the hint of hope you have needs to be taken away.”

  “Call Makayla if you have to but it won’t work,” I warn him, although my voice betrays my fear.

  “No, I won’t need to do that. The best being to take away your last speck of hope is the one who gave it to you in the first place.”

  “You mean…”

  “Yes, I will let Silver break you for me. And he will, Ruin. He will crack you wide open and pull out the last strain of hope you had left. You will leave fractured, lost, and suffering. Then you will be ready to rejoin us.”

  “Silver is not like that.”

  “THEY ARE ALL LIKE THAT!!!”

  I’m taken aback by his blatant wrath. When he speaks again, he is back to his calm demeanor, but underneath it there is still a current of ire.

  “My father, Marcus Cane, was the most powerful angel in the universe after Omnis and yet he couldn’t find a little baby. He opted to pretend I never existed. Instead he spent all his time with his overrated, naïve, and offspring. The First Guardian scorned my family so that him and his whore wife could raise a brood of humanity loving asinine fools!”

  I don’t reply, instead I search the room, in hopes of finding a way out. This is stupid since he could control my actions and make me stand still should I try to run. He comes over to me and gently places his freezing hand on the side of my face.

  “Ruin, you have a small speck of humanity in you. I will have it removed. Then you will be like me—cold. Egocentric. Calculated. Cruel. Perfect.”

  He places a dark stone in the palm of my hand. There are streaks of light beaming through the stone.

  “Go to Silver. Tell him how you tried to save his father. If he is taken with you and proves to be who you think he is, then I will set you free and will not hunt you.”

  “What will the stone do?” I ask.

  “It’s called a Medi. It measures something that is no more than a myth—love. If Silver loves you like you think he will, darkness will be drained from this stone. If however he does not, the stone will turn completely black. At which point, you can come back to us fully or be killed. Up to you.”

  “He has feelings for me. I know it,” I vow.

  “We shall see.”

  He summons a Port to appear in front of me. I get on it, not once breaking eye contact with Malakaro.

  “What are your plans for the Noru?” I ask.

  He smiles and faces the Merge. Then a series of images, so horrifying I violently throw up, appear.

  I should have killed Silver in battle; no one deserves to go through what Malakaro has
in mind.

  He comes to me and hands me a glass of Coy. I gulp all of it down and hope he doesn’t call the panther to come over. He does not. Instead, he strokes my hair and speaks gently.

  “As I said before, I will not kill you, but you did disobey me. You did try and set my prisoner free and you did this in front of all the Kasters. Although I am allowing you a chance to live, you still need to be punished.”

  I look into his eyes and find that his thoughts are somehow invading my head. I try to fight it but my mind and body only answer to him. And as the Port disappears, I hear his one command in my head repeatedly.

  Ruin, rip your wings off.

  I do as I am told…

  BOOK II

  PRYOR REESE CANE

  “The feelings that hurt most, the emotions that sting most, are those that are absurd - The longing for impossible things, precisely because they are impossible; nostalgia for what never was; the desire for what could have been…”

  --- Fernando Pessoa

  CHAPTER FOUR: SECRETS

  I’m standing by the lockers with Key and Swoop when East heads towards us. He looks over at me reluctantly and shrugs his shoulders.

  “Again? Seriously?” I ask.

  “Yup, just saw him a few minutes ago,” East informs me.

  “Poor Randy, he’s having a hard time with this whole thing,” Key says.

  “Our favorite nerd is in need of love,” Swoop adds.

  “This is the third time this week he’s been in the principal’s office!” I reply.

  “You would think he’d handle the news that his best friend is going kill him with a little more grace,” East teases.

  “Guys, seriously, what do I do about Randy?” I push.

  “He just needs a little time to adjust to everything that’s going on. It’s been hard on everyone,” Key says.

  “Please, nothing’s been hard for you. Bex has been taking you out every night this week. In fact, I’m surprised you’re in school today,” Swoop says to her twin.

  “He really has been laying it on thick. Did he do something wrong and is trying to make up for it?” East asks.

  “Unlike you, when Bex does something nice for a girl, he has no ulterior motives,” Key corrects him.

  “I don’t know, Key, the kind of attention he’s been giving you…he might be hiding something,” East replies.

  “Like what?” Key asks.

  “Maybe he did something that would be an epic violation in your eyes. Maybe he didn’t fold his clothes, or didn’t color coordinate the vials of mixtures in the cabinets. Wait, his car might be parked slightly askew,” East says, mocking her.

  “There is nothing wrong with order. You might try it. Your room looks like a monkey cage,” she jokes.

  “It wouldn’t be that way if someone would let me move some of my stuff into Silver’s room,” East says, turning his attention to me.

  “No, you can’t just take over Silver’s space,” I reply.

  “He’s almost never there,” East insists.

  “He always comes by,” I remind him.

  “Yeah, for like three minutes to check in. Then he’s off again,” Bex says as he joins us.

  “What does he do when he’s not with us?” Key wonders as Bex leans in for a kiss.

  “I think you mean ‘who’ is he doing.” The group starts to laugh.

  I look away and try to push the image of Aaden with some girl out of my mind. I’m sure they’re right: Aaden is somewhere having a blast with some chick. He only comes around long enough for us to see he’s alive. Then he takes off again.

  “It’s not funny,” I snap at them.

  They all look back at me, surprised by my outburst.

  “We’re sorry, Pry. We know that you and Silver…” Key starts.

  “There is no ‘me and Sliver,’ okay? We had one stupid kiss like forever ago. And that’s it. So stop bringing it up like it matters. It doesn’t matter to me and it certainly doesn’t matter to him,” I say, trying to keep my voice even.

  They all look around at each other and silently agree to let the subject drop. Moments later, we spot Randy coming out of the principal’s office.

  “I’ll be right back,” I tell my team.

  I walk up to my best friend and take him aside. I ask him where he’s been. He rolls his eyes, leans on the lockers, and slides down on to the floor. I sit down next to him as he stares out the large window overlooking Manhattan.

  “Who told you where I was?” he asks.

  “East. He saw you headed this way,” I reply.

  “He didn’t have to tell you.”

  “He did it because he cares about you. The whole team does, you know that,” I remind him.

  “I guess,” he says, looking out the window.

  “Randy, you can’t keep doing this. You can’t end up in the principal’s office every other day.”

  “Why not? You used to,” he counters.

  “Yeah, well in case you haven’t picked up on it, I suck as a role model.”

  “You don’t say,” he says, only half joking.

  “Randy, what’s gotten into you?”

  “Are you kidding me, Pry? Your evil brother Malakaro is seeking out five vials that will make him all-powerful, and the only way to stop him is to destroy the one being he needs in order to make the mixture work. And who is that being you need to destroy? Me. Me!”

  “Randy, I don’t need the recap. Being told that I have to kill my best friend somehow stays with me.”

  “Screw it; let’s get it over with,” he says, standing up nervously.

  “Randy, you have to stop acting so crazy.”

  “Well, I’m sorry I’m not adjusting to my death sentence the way you want me to.”

  “How many times do I have to tell you that I won’t hurt you?”

  “Pryor—”

  “I told you the day I saw the rose marking on you that I wasn’t going to hurt you no matter what. I’ve been telling you the same thing for weeks now. Malakaro won’t find the five vials because Omnis hid them. So we won’t have to worry about what will happen when he gets his hands on them because that will never happen.”

  “And what if it does?” he asks.

  “Then I’ll have to kill him before he can get to you.”

  “Pry, you know how dangerous your brother is.”

  “He is not my brother,” I snap.

  “Sorry,” he whispers.

  “Look, Randy, I get that you’re freaked. But again, I’m here. I won’t let anything happen to you. Please believe that.”

  “Why am I the Blue Rose heir? What did I do to piss off Omnis?”

  “You didn’t do anything. Things just happen. My parents and countless other angels are still stuck in the light. My little brother is dead and we have no idea what Malakaro has planned. Things happen and we have to deal. You have to deal. But this is not the way to do it.”

  It’s been weeks but I still have a hard time saying my little brother is gone. I keep thinking it will get easier but so far, it hurts just as much as it did before. I start to flash back to the day I found his little body laying on the floor …

  “Pry…I’m scared,” he confesses, pulling me out of my thoughts.

  I reach over with arms out and embrace him. He holds on tightly to me. And I reassure him once again that I will not let anything happen to him. When we pull apart, he seems slightly better.

  “What did you do to get in trouble for anyway?” I ask.

  “I hacked into the school computer system so that every screen is now running a ‘Star Trek’ marathon.”

  “Nice.”

  As Randy and I head back to the group, we see Aaden coming towards us. He takes long, determined strides. His footsteps pound against the floor—hard. His wings flap violently against the air. The dark and murderous expression on his face leaves no room for interpretation he is livid.

  “Aaden, what’s going on?” I ask.

  He doesn’t reply. He do
esn’t stop walking. Instead he marches past me without saying a word. We all follow him down the hall, and Swoop calls out his name repeatedly but he doesn’t answer.