by Theresa Kay
I have to…
What am…
Huh?
Jastren’s directly in front of me, the side of his mouth twisted upward in an amused half smile. “Did you think I was weakened? Is that what your wayward twin told you? His last stand was impressive, but I was able to retrieve the child soon after, negating much of his effort.” He runs a finger down my nose and then uses it to point to Ethan. “Your little friend has come in handy. All that pesky confusion drawn away.” He turns to face Ethan. “Shame he won’t last long. The natural enhancement is no match for the new version of the shikiza I created. That’s why I’m planning to keep you around.” He tilts his chin up at Brin. “Restrain her.”
Brin, that weaselly little asshole, steps forward with a silver cuff—What happened to Stella?—and clamps it on my left wrist. He steps back with a contemplative look. “Are you certain it will be effective?”
“Let us find out.”
I stumble forward as the hold on my body releases. My head is fuzzy, filled with white noise. I blink. Once. Twice. I shake my head. There’s something…
Jastren shrugs. “Appears to be effective enough. Have a seat, Jasmine.” He gestures toward a chair against the wall opposite me and turns back to Brin. “Lock the others up. I do not wish to be distracted while I do this.”
Rym sends me a wordless plea with his eyes. Do something. Do something. Do something.
Do something? What can I do?
I watch helplessly as Brin drags first Rym, then Kai, and then Stu over to the wall of cages and shoves them inside.
I should—
I need to—
Jastren snaps my name. “Jasmine. Chair. Now.”
My right foot steps forward, then my left. I’m not frozen. He’s not controlling me, but… my eyes trail downward. The cuff. One of his creations? What does it do? Another step. Against my will.
My mind races. The cuff clearly has a physical effect on me somehow. A physical manifestation of Jastren’s ability? But… how? The skin under the cuff tingles as if… as if it’s adhering itself. Is it some sort of kitu?
I send a mental feeler down my arm and meet a strange sort of interference around my wrist. A block? What does it block? I push against the resistance and a sharp pain shoots up into my temples. I flinch.
Do not bother trying to remove it, Jasmine. It will not accept input of any kind except from me. Too bad those farther back in the Reva line had not thought to add a feature like that before. We could have ruled Rikonos. Now, I am forced to be content with ruling only what is left.
I recoil, both physically and mentally, from the sound of Jastren’s voice in my head.
A slick and slimy laugh reverberates through my mind. Cannot keep me out any longer.
No. No. No!
He chuckles. No use denying it. And do not think you can use any of your abilities against me. The cuff has been specifically designed to block every one of your enhancements except the one I need—liteka. Well, the stronger version of it I gave your mother, anyway.
I reach for the shikiza. If it can wash away Jastren’s new puppet strings, I’ll welcome that cold darkness. But there’s nothing there. How?
I didn’t actually mean for him to answer, but he does anyway, pride coloring his words. I do admit it was quite difficult at first for me to determine how the selective blocking could be done. In the end, I simply cataloged your enhancements and blocked each one individually.
But how did he know which enhancements I have? Even I don’t know all of them. He might have cataloged Jace’s, but still, we wouldn’t necessarily have the same ones—we’re fraternal, not identical twins, so I just need to figure out—
Come.
The command echoes through my entire body, wiping away my thoughts and forcing me to move. I can’t stop myself. I’m solely under Jastren’s control, and my leg muscles won’t listen to any commands from me.
I walk past Stu and Kai in the cages, feeling helpless as I curl my nails into my palms.
Curl my… My hands are still mine!
What else is mine? I twitch each finger and work my way up my arms and down my torso, experimentally tightening and releasing muscles as I go. Somewhere around my waist my body stops responding to my commands.
I send a glance at Jastren. His back is to me and he’s fiddling with something inside a cabinet. Is he not strong enough to control my entire body at once, or did he simply think as long as he controlled the part he needed, I wouldn’t figure it out? Does it matter?
This could be my only chance. There has to be something I can do…
Moving only my eyes, I scan the room. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing.
I take another involuntary step forward, and the feeling of the sheath in my left boot registers against my calf. I might not be able to control my legs, but I can feel them.
Brin is with Jastren by the cabinet. Neither is even looking at me. They must assume I’m helpless and not worth watching.
I twist my upper body until I can reach the knife and withdraw it. The heavy weight in my hand makes me hesitate, and I eye the back of Jastren’s neck. One throw could end this. But what if I missed? Should I risk it? Do I have a choice?
As I hesitate, a memory of Jace’s voice washes over me: I hurt myself instead and made it go away. He was talking about fighting off the shikiza, not Jastren himself, but it could work. I turn the knife in my hand, aiming for the outer edge of my right thigh. No. If I have to run…
I move the tip of the blade to my left bicep. Deep breath. Pull back. Plunge it in.
My tightly clenched teeth can’t contain my cry of pain. Jastren and Brin spin around. There’s only a second to aim, and—dammit!—Brin is in front of Jastren. I throw the knife anyway. It lands in Brin’s throat with a now familiar thunk, and he falls to the ground, green blood bubbling from his mouth.
With Brin down, I have a clear shot at Jastren. I’m reaching for the knife in my other boot when all my muscles freeze again. My left arm throbs, and blood drips from my fingertips onto the floor.
But Jastren’s control is not broken. It’s as strong as ever.
He moves closer to my frozen, hunched form, shaking his head. “How very resourceful you are.”
He backhands me across the face. My teeth cut into my cheek, and blood fills my mouth, but I still can’t move.
“This process would have gone much smoother for Jace,” he mutters. “He was more pliable, and his mind was already mostly gone. If I had only conceived the idea of using a kitu for this earlier, I could have saved myself the trouble of getting you here and finding a way to break you.” He commands my eyes to meet his. I had to promise that imbecile Brin that I would take out the Linauds and give him control of the askari before he would agree to contact Vitrad and convince him to come back here. I am exceptionally grateful to you for… taking care of him before I had to inform him he would not be getting what I promised.
Anger skims along my veins. You’re good at that—breaking promises. And lying. No matter what you do to me, I’ll find a way around it. You won’t cage me for long.
My dear granddaughter, I think I may miss your spirit once it is gone. I was hoping it would not be necessary to strip away everything but the pieces of your mind I need, but I cannot have you running off.
A smile slithers across his face, and he forces me toward the chair—and this time he maintains control of my upper body too. Involuntarily, I sit. He turns around and walks back to the cabinet. I can’t see what he retrieves from it, but from the way Kai’s face pales behind the bars of his cage, I know it isn’t good.
It isn’t until he’s right in front of me that he reveals what he’s holding: a kiun.
I almost breathe out in relief. It’ll hurt, and I’ll scream, but the kiun wasn’t able to break me before. I won’t let it do so now.
The circlet slides over my temples, cold metal against my skin. I grit my teeth in anticipation, but nothing happens. No bright white light. No pain. No—
Panic and pain flood my system, scratching and clawing at every nerve, every synapse. The world around me disappears, and I’m surrounded by nothing but pain and fear and bright white light. This isn’t like before. Jastren’s special little device is digging into the skin of my arm and creating a perfect circuit of agony. So this is what the kiun truly is.
This is what Lir went through for weeks?
Lir… Lir… Lir!
If I can… He can…
A calming presence skirts along the edges of the pain, but doesn’t alleviate it. It’s not Lir. It’s Rym. And he’s screaming my name. I can feel the panic lacing his words, but I can’t respond. Can’t do anything. Can’t… can’t…
He’s saying something. A word I don’t understand, but one I recognize.
Pull.
He’s telling me to pull, but pull what?
Not what. Who.
The shikiza is locked down, along with my other abilities. But I have one enhancement I’m pretty sure Jace didn’t, and I’m willing to bet Jastren doesn’t know about it. The shuvata. I can pull Jastren into my head. If I can hold him here while the kiun works its magic…
It could be the thing that finally shatters his already strained mind once and for all.
I grit my teeth and push past the agony, past the light, past my pain-wracked body, and reach for a connection. A red and yellow one. I know it’s there somewhere, but… but…
I can’t find it.
Another scream passes my lips, a mixture of agony and frustration. My concentration is gone, and finding that little thread in this blazing nothingness is impossible, not without something to guide me.
The kitu!
He created it. He’s controlling it. Which means there’s a tiny piece of him I can latch on to.
I focus on the metal around my wrist, the pain-bringer, the pain-amplifier, and I skim my mind over the surface looking for… there! I grab it and hold on tight.
There’s no need to travel to his mind, no need to sift through his insanity, I simply pull with everything I have.
The threads of the connection slip from my grasp, disconnect, and begin to flutter away.
No!
I reach, pushing my mind as far out as I can. It feels like I’m being torn apart, like every piece of me is stretched to its limit and maybe a little beyond, but damn if I don’t grab that connection, wrap it and knot it and do everything I can to keep a hold on it before I yank on it again.
This time it works. Jastren’s consciousness comes barreling into my head wrapped in confusion… and then terror. He didn’t know about this enhancement. He didn’t plan for it. And he knows it could be the end of him. He screams with my mouth as the agony of the kiun crashes through his mind.
He struggles against my hold, but I only pull him closer. I wrap every piece of my mind around his and keep it in place.
We scream.
Blood leaks from our nose, from our ears, from our eyes.
Another pulse of light.
The world around us is nothing but white-hot fire, rolling over us in wave after wave of heat and pain and absolute agony.
Again and again and again.
No more sound comes from our throat, only blood, coughed up as a silent scream.
My hold is weakening. I’m weakening. Jastren is slipping away.
No!
The kiun sends a flash of bright white light crashing into my head, and Jastren slides away from me, beyond the reach of my exhausted mind and body. I have nothing left.
He’s going to win.
Another flash, and everything goes blank. I’m no one. I’m nothing. I’m…
Jax!
A voice pulls me back. This time it belongs to Lir.
Use the bond. Use the energy.
The world is fading out, but his words are carried on a stream of warmth and hope. And they register. The bond. The energy transfer. I can…
I reach out, ignoring the pain and the harsh glare of the kiun, and find that glowing green thread. I wrap myself in the bond, and energy floods into me on a river of love and memories.
The first time I saw his scales.
Firelight reflected off his face.
That awful haircut.
Our first kiss.
The night we spent together wrapped in each other’s arms.
The ups. The downs.
The pieces of us that power the bond…
Pain screams through me, shattering my grip on the flow of energy and pulling me back into the real world.
The world where Jastren stands over me with a bloody scalpel in his hand—bloody from the new wound in my thigh, the source of the pain that pulled me back.
He slams it into my thigh for a second time just as the kiun hits me with another wave.
I’m drowning again. Floundering.
You belong to me! The Vestra heir will never have my creation.
Another searing pain, this time in my side. My eyes fly open to meet Jastren’s. They’re crazed and half-vacant. I succeeded in breaking his mind, and now he’s going to break my body.
He bares his teeth, nothing more than a feral animal, and raises the scalpel again.
No. I will not let him win. Not like this.
I close my eyes and grit my teeth, reaching for that connection again. The next crash of the kiun hardly registers as I grab hold and yank, pulling Jastren deeper and deeper, into the darkest parts of my head.
The kiun alone can’t kill him, but the shikiza can.
It’s blocked, but it’s still here. I can feel it crawling around in the back of my head, screaming to be set free. I brush against it, and the darkness pounces, burrowing its cold claws into Jastren’s psyche, deeper and deeper and deeper, with maniacal glee.
I wait until those icicles of anger and hate pierce Jastren’s mind from every angle.
And then I pull it apart.
The darkness.
Jastren.
Everything.
* * * * * * *
I float.
On a gentle current made of nothing.
Drifting through shattered pieces of glass.
Farther and farther and farther out.
Golden threads flutter around me, trying to hold me in place… and failing.
Until green and gold wrap around me, tugging me back to the world.
* * * * * * *
The world is pain. Bright and sharp.
I cough, and something warm and wet dribbles from my mouth. I can’t move to wipe it away. A soft touch does it for me.
My eyes slide closed.
Sound whirls around me, frantic and confusing. I struggle to make sense of it.
“I should have…” Rym.
“… what you could. You held her together until I got here.” Lir.
“But that thing—”
Agony lights up my wrist and blocks out any further words.
A murmur. Cannot take it off.
Another voice. “What do we do?”
Any answer is lost to the darkness behind my eyelids and the soothing expanse of unconsciousness.
* * * * * * *
Things are clearer the next time I wake.
Sounds turn into words and colors into images.
“Lir…” Saying just that single word creates a blazing inferno in my throat.
“Shhhh,” he whispers, stroking a hand down my cheek. I am here.
My head hurts too badly to send the word I need mentally, so I force it up my inflamed throat and past dry lips. “Jastren?”
Dead. You did it. He cannot hurt anyone ever again.
Relief sweeps my consciousness away again. I can rest now.
It’s over.
THREE MONTHS LATER…
HINTS OF GREEN ARE RETURNING to the woods after the long winter, but as lovely as the new spring life sprouting around me is, I can’t spare much atten
tion for it. I have to navigate a trail, and that is not one of my strengths. It seems as if I walk through a spider web or narrowly avoid a branch every ten steps or so. The wilderness outside the walls may never be one of my favorite places, but I do not mind living in Bridgelake now that is has… proper management.
I chuckle softly to myself. When we first arrived back at the human settlement it was a bit of a mess. The rapid shifts in power—from Dane to Gavin to Dane to Jastren and back to Gavin—left the residents confused and wary. But for all his faults, Gavin is a good leader who truly cares about the people here. The military used him mostly for his effectiveness as a killer rather than his ability as a manager. That was shortsighted of them.
Together, he and I have gotten things here running smoothly, and he has come to view me as a friend. He and I have spent many hours together going over plans for rebuilding—drafting supply lists, reviewing personnel, checking in with residents, and various other things. I mostly work in the background, as some of the humans are still getting used to me, an E’rikon but not, living alongside them. The majority of the humans do not know the full extent of my assistance to their new leader, but I believe at this point they at least realize I am useful.
And it does help to feel useful. For all my diplomatic training and being groomed to take my father’s place, my usefulness to the E’rikon as anything but an emissary to the humans has been non-existent. Some days… I miss it. The city. The E’rikon. The strong sense of purpose I had before. But without my kitu, without the link, I cannot effectively take my father’s place or be a leader in the city, and I did not care to stay there without my parents. Now, as emissary, I use the skills my father instilled in me, and that is enough for me.
Bridgelake gets an extra benefit from the arrangement, since Rym visits me often, and when he does he always brings some new gifts of E’rikon tech or medicines.
Much to Kai’s chagrin, every time my cousin has come out here, he has served as his own pilot. The new leader of the E’rikon is not supposed to just take off on a whim, but Rym is not one to allow himself to be constrained by expectations.
