Darkening Chaos: Book Three of The Destroyer Trilogy

by DelSheree Gladden

  Drake breaks up my words with another shuddering sob.

  “… is what she thought she was accomplishing. You took the Cipher anyway.” I stop as my amazement at her sacrifice becomes too much. I have to fight to hold back tears. “But when you showed up next to me, it all made sense.”

  Drake stares at me through red streak eyes, not understanding.

  “She saw us meeting, Drake. She knew that one day you would have face to what you did to her, and you would be forced to admit you were wrong.”

  “No,” he cries, “no, that can’t be true.”

  “Why else would she let you take her life so easily? She was a Seeker. She could have fought you if she wanted to. Maybe she would have even won,” I say, “but she saw this moment. Audrey knew you would have to choose between continuing to fight me and following in her footsteps. You wouldn’t listen to her then, so she gave you the only thing she could, her life as a testament of how much she believed in what she was doing. She’s begging you one more time to help her, to make the right choice.”

  Drake’s whole body crumbles in on itself. He looks at his hands still tied to the chair. He stares at them as if he can still see the blood that stained them decades ago. Maybe he can. Tears splash down on his legs. He doesn’t look up when he speaks.

  “Audrey was right about me. I knew what I was doing was wrong, but I wanted the glory of being a Guardian too much. She was strong enough to escape. I wasn’t. I let her go,” he says, stifling his agony, “and then I killed her.”

  He can’t go on for several seconds. It gives me a moment to gather enough of my frayed mind to realize he’s actually able to talk about the memory. I actually did it. I destroyed his Guardian Promises completely. All that is left is the Oath I felt buried deep inside of him. My mind quiets at the realization, joining the silence of the room. When the stillness becomes too great, I ask, “If you knew she was right, why did you stay with the Guardians after that?”

  “Because I murdered her!” he screams. “What did I have left, then? I couldn’t go to her friends after that. I was the beast she was afraid I’d become. I didn’t think there was anything else I could do. I was too weak to just kill myself, so I took the only option left. I promised myself I would never think of that day again and threw myself into my work. I was already the worst kind of monster. There was no redemption for me.”

  His head falls again, and I know he is broken forever. That’s why he sent Braden after me. He knew personally what killing Braden would do to me. The cold and vicious man I met months ago in Braden’s front yard is dead. The boy I saw making promises to his first and last love has returned, but instead of being filled with ambition and purpose, he is consumed by regret. No wonder that memory was layered so thickly with resolve to never think of it again. He knew it would destroy him. I pulled him into it, made him relive it all over again. I have dug up the worst moment of his life and put it on display. I haven’t destroyed him completely, though.

  Lowering myself enough that he can see me eye to eye, I say, “What if you were offered redemption now? Would you take it?”

  “What do you mean?” he asks slowly.

  “Audrey is gone, but you can still become the man she wanted. Help me, Drake.” They are the same words she spoke to him. I chose them for exactly that reason and Drake knows it. His will to fight leaves him completely.

  “I can’t,” he whimpers.

  “Yes, you can.”

  “No, you don’t understand. My Oath … after I killed Audrey, I gave my Oath to the Guardians, to serve them for the rest of my life.”

  I interrupt him. “It doesn’t matter, Drake. Trust me. You can change. You can make Audrey’s death worth something. You can make her sacrifice worth the high price she paid.”

  One emotion I never thought I would see in Drake’s eyes is hope. Yet it shines back as me as he asks, “How?”

  Letting go of the chair and standing on my own power is more than challenging. My left hand is shaking as I push my sleeve back and give Drake his answer. He stares at the second row of diktats on my arm and his eyes grow huge. I’m sure he’ll say no. I prepare to leave and turn him over to the others. His eyes close, and I pause. Grief and sadness pour out of him, and I know he must be thinking of Audrey again. A tear slips down his cheek and the emotions slowly change to a tentative brand of happiness, maybe for the first time since losing her.

  “Do it,” he says suddenly, “do it for Audrey.”

  I slip my hands over his. We’re both shaking, but I gather my talents and say, “I’ll do it for both of you.”

  Everything I have left is released in a rush.

  Chapter 25

  From Truth

  I wake up groaning in pain. Uncomfortable heat throbs in my wrist and I curl my body around it. The moment without thought ends abruptly and everything I learned from Drake comes rushing back in. The prophecy, the creatures, Audrey. The last, Audrey, hurts the most. Flashes of red dart through my mind, morphing from her blood to Braden’s as I am caught in the panic of what might have happened. If I hadn’t found a third option at the last minute, his blood would have bathed me in the poison that consumed Drake. Imagining myself turning into a cold-hearted monster pushes me over my limit. I bury my face in the blankets and cry.

  The sound of a door opening and closing reaches my ears, but I can’t react to it. Too much has been drawn out of me. I think I will lie here forever, sobbing like a child, until a firm sense of peace wraps around me. “Libby, honey, are you okay?” Braden asks as he sits on the bed next to me.

  His voice pulls me out of my thoughts. I turn with lingering tears on my cheeks and reach for him. He doesn’t resist. Braden lies down next to me and cradles me in his arms. The questions he must have all wait patiently. I can’t answer any of them yet, and he understands that. Looking into Drake’s memories was hellish, a glimpse into how dark a person’s soul can turn. I feel tainted by his vileness. Love and kindness are what I need, and I soak it up hungrily as Braden holds me. As the pain begins to subside, my need for Braden’s love grows deeper.

  My hands slide up his body and stroke his cheek before my lips come up as well. I kiss him, but he pulls back. “Libby, are you okay?”

  I’m not, but I know how I can be. “Kiss me,” I ask him.

  “Libby,” he says, “stop. You’re still recovering. Just lie back down.”

  “No, Braden, please. I need this.”

  “You need to rest.” He tries to push me down but I won’t let him.

  I huddle against his chest, and say, “Braden, you don’t know what it was like in his head. He’s done so many horrible things, and I had to watch them all. I just … I need to be reminded that no matter how bad things get for me, I’ll never turn into him.”

  I’m crying again by the time I finish. Braden pulls me up and kisses me, but only lightly. “Libby, whatever you saw, you aren’t Drake. You never could be.”

  “You don’t know that. Drake killed the woman he loved and he tried to make me do the same thing when he sent you after me. What if I had done it? I couldn’t have lived with myself. I would have turned as black as he did. I still may. You don’t know. You don’t know.”

  “Yes, I do,” he says forcefully, interrupting my mounting hysteria.

  “How?” I ask.

  He smoothes the hair back from my face. His body heat spreads through me as he presses me closer to him. There is no doubt in his expression when he says, “I know you wouldn’t have turned into Drake, because you never would have killed me, Libby. As much as it would have tortured me, you would have let me kill you rather than taking my life. I know you. You seem to think that a cloud of pain and misery follow you wherever you go, but you’re wrong. You are so wrong. You see the bad things of this world and blame yourself for them. Look at all the good you’ve done.”

  “What good have I done? Hammond is dead, so many people I’ve cared about are dead because of me.” I touch the pendant Lance gave me and stare at the
two halves. I’m supposed to have both sides inside of me, but when is the good half going to show up?

  “You mean aside from freeing the Ciphers and unlocking their talents?” he asks. “Well, let me see. You’ve saved the lives of Dean and the other new Ciphers, saved Hope and her family, told people about what the Guardians are really doing and made them think, changed both Lance’s and my mind about you, and I don’t know how, but you stopped the most evil man I have ever met and made him actually want to help you. You’ve done things no one else in history has ever done before, too. And if you need another reason, the one I think is the most important is you made me fall in love with you.”

  Braden runs his hands through my hair slowly, his eyes never leaving mine. “Libby, I know bad things have happened, people have been hurt, but you’ve stopped even more pain. The bad doesn’t follow you, you follow it, because you care about other people and you want to stop it from happening if you can. That’s why I know you’ll never turn into Drake. Your heart is too filled with love and compassion to ever make room for selfishness and hate. Maybe the whole world doesn’t see that yet, but they will.”

  “Do you really believe that?” I ask.

  “Absolutely,” he says before kissing me.

  The fear I was holding onto dissolves as I kiss him back. The usual teasing and insinuating I would start up with Braden in this situation doesn’t surface. With my head straightened back out, the details of what I need to do come back to the front of my mind. I reluctantly pull myself out of his grip and start to sit up. I get lightheaded and sway right away. Braden pushes me back down.

  “Libby, stay put, please. What you did to Drake took a lot out of you. You may need a little more time to recover,” he says.

  “More time? How long have I been out?”

  Braden slips his arm under my neck and curls up next to me. “Two days. It’s Sunday night.”

  “Two days? What happened to Jen? I was going to talk to her.”

  “We couldn’t keep her here,” Braden says. “Lance tried talking to her, but he couldn’t get her to keep her mouth shut. She’s already told everyone what happened.”

  “Howe knows we broke the truce,” I say glumly.

  I knew the truce was never going to last until my eighteenth birthday, but if I could have kept the Guardians from finding out about this I would have. A room full of dead Seekers would have been blamed on me regardless, but without Jen blabbing it to everyone they wouldn’t have had any proof. President Howe is not going to be happy.

  “I can’t believe her. I’ve been sitting here doing nothing for two days and Jen is out telling the world what we just did.”

  “You haven’t been doing nothing. You been resting, which you need to keep doing. Besides, Jen didn’t exactly tell everything.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Lance was able to convince her to spin what happened in a slightly different light. She told everyone that you rescued Drake instead of kidnapping him.”

  I blink in confusion. “What? Why would anyone ever believe that?”

  “Jen is a better reporter than I gave her credit for. She already knew Drake had staged a coup and failed. She also knew that Howe was about to make a move on Drake,” Braden says. “Jen chose to interpret what she saw as Drake making a desperate move to dodge Howe by coming to us for help.”

  “Wow. And people are actually buying that?” I ask.

  Braden frowns. “Well, since Drake isn’t available to tell everyone we’re lying, people are starting to believe it.”

  I shake my head at the strange turn of events. Maybe Braden is right. Maybe there is some good to my life. If there wasn’t, I wouldn’t have gotten a break like this. I lean deeper into the pillows and press myself closer to Braden.

  When Braden shifts, I worry he’s going to leave so I can rest. I grab his hand and beg him not to leave. “I’m not leaving, Libby. I’ve been with you the whole time, and I’ll stay with you as long as you need me.”

  “Do I get to decide when I don’t need you anymore? Because that might never come.” I know I need to get busy, but I just couldn’t resist that. I smile and wait for him to tease me back. Instead, his kind expression crumbles.

  “After the last couple days, I don’t know that I want that day to come, either.”

  I’ve wanted to hear him say that for so long. Night after night of me in his arms sounds like heaven, but the way he said it makes me worry. I remember shoving the last of my power into Drake so I could steal his talents and free him from his Oath, but nothing after that. I should remember something of what I did, shouldn’t I? I pull my left hand up so I can see it and spot the four new diktats alongside the ones I took from Braden. It should be reassuring, but Braden lowers his eyes and looks away.

  “Braden, what happened?”

  He doesn’t answer me. Panic creeps into my voice quickly.

  “What happened? Braden, please tell me what happened. Where’s Drake?” I ask, my hands starting to shake again.

  Taking my hands in his, Braden says, “Libby, I meant what I said before. You’re changing the world for the better. You can’t forget that.”

  “Braden, please,” I beg.

  He sighs and looks down at our hands. “Drake didn’t make it. He was just too weak. You almost didn’t make it, either, Libby. I was so scared. I couldn’t wake you after you collapsed, no one could.”

  He was a horrible person who had done horrible things, but he made the right choice in the end. He wanted to help, to try and make amends for what he had done. Drake was going to help me fight the Guardians, tell me what they did to the Cipher. “I killed him?”

  “No, we all heard him ask you to do it, Libby. It wasn’t your fault. He just wasn’t strong enough. His talents weren’t strong enough,” he says. Braden grabs my shoulders when I try to sit back up, his push is gentle but firm. “Libby, he didn’t die right away. After you collapsed, he was still alive for a few minutes. He knew he was dying, though, and he asked us to tell you something.”

  “What?” I ask.

  “Thank you.”

  Braden’s jaw tightens for a moment, but curves into a shaky smile eventually. “I hate him for what he did to me. I’m glad he’s dead, to be honest, but he meant it, Libby. You did what I never could have done. You gave him peace. He died with Audrey’s name on his lips. I hate him, but I’m glad he had the chance to make the right choice. Maybe some people will say it doesn’t matter, because he died before he could make up for what he’s done. He didn’t know he would die when he made the choice, though. After the kind of life he’d lived, in the end he made the right choice. It gives me hope.”

  I’m quiet and still in his arms. When Drake manipulated him back at the Hacienda, those feelings were already there. His hatred for Drake was just waiting to be nudged. He wanted to kill him. I don’t know what he put Braden through. I feel the threat of tears every time I even think about it. Yet now, Braden can speak of Drake’s final hours in a completely different way. Hope. That was what Audrey felt right before Drake killed her. I believe she let her life slip away knowing her death would not only redeem the man she loved, but offer hope to the rest of the world.

  I promise myself that I won’t let her sacrifice be wasted. My mind begins speeding along pathways that will allow me to do that, to tell the world their story, but Braden interrupts me. “Libby, I know you’re not quite yourself yet, but everyone is wondering what you got from Drake. Kayla especially. She doesn’t blame anyone but Drake for Hammond’s death, but she’s desperate to know that he didn’t die in vain. Did you find what you were looking for?”

  That was the whole point of what I did, I remind myself. Finding Audrey’s story, it will be important to further our cause, but it’s going to have to take a back seat for the moment.

  “Yes,” I say, “well, most of it. I found the rest of the prophecy, but I didn’t understand much of what I saw of the Cipher creatures.”

  “Tell me about them, a
bout both. Maybe we can figure it out together.”

  Braden helps prop me up on a couple of pillows and sits up next to me. The room is still dark, aside from a bedside lamp. Braden slips his arm around my shoulders, letting me lean against his chest. I love that when he says together, he means together. I have known my fate for a long time. Dying has been on my mind almost constantly. Acceptance came at some point that I would die very young, but I never stopped wishing it could be different. Since meeting Braden, I have been more determined than ever to reach old age. Something in what I learned from Drake must be able to help me make that happen.

  Quickly, I bring the prophecy to the front of my mind, saving the mention of what they did to the Cipher for a little longer. I repeat the last three stanzas for Braden word for word.

  “We cannot stop her, not alone.

  “She will steal our brothers, take their power.

  “We must do the same.

  “One of her own will be her downfall.

  “Unrestricted, Cassia the Destroyer will be the end of our world.

  “She will unravel the purity of our work and turn society against us.

  “Our power will be lost forever unless we seize all control first,

  “Break the laws of Power and transform this world into one she can never save.

  “This is our mission,

  “Our legacy,

  “Our lives.

  “Kill the Destroyer, the anathema to our perfection.”

  The first version of the prophecy ended with the lines, “We cannot stop her. Cassia the Destroyer will be the end of our world.” Everything else of what I repeated is brand new. When I got the first version of the prophecy from Braden, I wasn’t able to get rid of the promise that kept him from talking about it. His eagerness to discuss it now shows one more plus side to me taking his talents and obliterating every promise and Oath he’d ever made.