Darkness Awakened

by Stephanie Rowe

  She stared at the rise the Order had disappeared over, and heard the roar of men and then a clash of weapons. "Oh, God."

  Madison? Are you safe? Ajax's distracted voice floated in her mind, and she caught a flash of pain from him.

  Don't worry about me! Concentrate on the battle! She shut him out of her mind frantically as she got another hit of pain from him.

  Hugging her arms to her chest, she listened to the battle raging just over the hill, wincing at each scream of death, and praying it wasn't one of the warriors she knew. She burned with the need to contact Ajax, to make sure he was all right, but she knew she couldn't risk distracting him. "He's fine," she whispered to herself. "He's going to be okay—"

  Excruciating pain exploded in her belly. She gasped and doubled over, knowing it was Ajax's pain, so intense that it had blown through the shields she'd erected to keep her out of his mind while he was fighting. Ajax.

  There was no response.

  "Ajax!" She scrambled to her feet and ran.

  Chapter Forty-One

  Ajax jolted back to consciousness, and his instincts had him rolling to the left before he even got his eyes open. The earth shuddered as a weapon crashed into the earth where his head had just been.

  Ajax grinned.

  His instincts were back.

  Without even taking time to look for his assailant, he threw his sword, turning his head just in time to see it embed itself into the heart of his enemy. His instincts were back in full force! Thanks to Madison—

  Madison. He had to get back to her. The ambush had to have been designed to get to her. He had to keep her safe.

  He tried to leap up, and his knees instantly buckled. The world spun, and he retched from the dizziness from his injury. Summoning his strength, he staggered to his feet as his men battled. All of them were bloodied and damaged, fighting against the onslaught of warriors. The sight shocked him, and he realized he'd totally forgotten he was in the middle of a battle, thinking only about Madison.

  They were losing. For the first time in history, the Order was losing.

  A battle cry sounded behind him, and Ajax turned and saw a scythe hurtling toward his head. He blocked it with his sword, and he found himself face to face with Faulk.

  Faulk's eyes were glazed with hatred, his body vibrating with fury. Ajax knew instantly that Faulk was under an Illusion: no warrior of Faulk's discipline would carry personal emotions into battle. "Faulk!" Ajax slammed the butt of his sword into Faulk's stomach to stop him without killing him. "Get your shit together! What the hell are you doing?"

  Then something hit Ajax hard from behind, and all he could think of was surviving.

  Madison stumbled and fell, her hands scraping on the rock, as she rounded the corner and saw the carnage before her. She watched as Ajax was hit by a spiked flail in his back, knocking him to the earth. He rolled to the side, blood flowing from the wound in his back as another warrior charged him and thrust a blade into Ajax's stomach.

  "Ajax!" Her stomach recoiled in horror, and she felt the pressure of an Illusion, rising to protect Ajax the way it usually came to life to protect her. Despite her exhaustion, the Illusion roared to life to protect him.

  And this time, instead of fighting the Illusion, she embraced it completely. She threw all her energy into it and thrust it at the men fighting against the Order.

  The Illusion ripped out of her. She stood up and held out her arms, as the power streamed out of her body and into the world around her. A cold chill settled on her as icy darkness bolted up her spine, and she truly embraced it for the first time in her life. The wind began to rise, and her hair began to whip around her face, lashing her skin. Black clouds rolled in and thunder crashed, shaking the very earth she was standing on.

  Her eyes snapped open as the earth shook again, and she realized it wasn't a storm she'd unleashed.

  She whirled around just as Mt. St. Helens exploded in the distance. She flew backward from the force of the explosion and slammed into a cliff as fiery heat swept across the barren earth, as trees leapt into flames, as the earth exploded from the intense heat that was racing toward them.

  She gaped at the destruction from the mountain as the earth was incinerated by its fury, as the volcano's rage swept down toward them. Her face began to burn from the heat. The wind became even more fierce, and a glow rose in the distance...the molten rock, sweeping toward her, to wipe them out...

  Ajax turned toward the lava, and she realized it would kill him too.

  Madison stood up and stared at the approaching lava, focused all her attention on it, opening her mind the way she'd done inside Ajax to detect his Illusion...and then the lava became surrounded by a faint, red glow.

  A red glow that told her mind it was an Illusion.

  She then touched her mind to Ajax's, to bring him into her senses the way she'd done with his internal Illusion. She showed him the glow around the lava as she did, showing him it was an Illusion. She felt his surprise, and then his focus as he stared down the threat.

  It's not real, she told him. Share this with your team. Can you do that?

  Yep. He pulled his focus away from her a split second before the lava rose above them and buried the fighting Calydons beneath it.

  Madison gaped in shock as Ajax and the others disappeared beneath the lava. Dear God. Had she done enough to protect them? Had it been in time? Would they—

  The lava hit her with such force it flung her against the cliff...and then the world went black.

  Madison gradually became aware of the smell of death, of smoke, of burned hair. Pain crept down her arms, a hot burning that made her gasp.

  Slowly, she opened her eyes, saw the black carnage of smoke rising from the field. The remains of warriors littered the ground, piles of charred ash that were once men, incinerated under the molten rock, their ashes beginning to drift in the wind. "Ajax?" She struggled to her knees, her body burned and battered from the Illusion, but not destroyed.

  It was practically impossible for an Illusionist to kill herself with her own Illusion, but damage could still be done if the Illusion was bad enough.

  She looked down at her arms, saw her skin was raw and peeling. For her to have been hurt that badly by her own Illusion...she couldn't imagine how powerful it had been. Fifteen years pent up with an added dose of malachite, no doubt.

  She shuddered and wrenched herself to her feet.

  Not only had it been more powerful than anything she'd ever created before, but it had been an Illusion designed to murder, as all hers were now. Not just dark. Death.

  From now on, every Illusion she did would require a death.

  It was the way it would be for her, as she'd known ever since she'd done that one fifteen years ago. Once an Illusionist killed with an Illusion, every Illusion from then on would require a life.

  Ajax would know the truth now. Oh, he would know what she was after seeing the type of Illusion she'd done. But she'd had to do it. She couldn't have let the Order fall.

  The hate in his eyes didn’t matter. She'd had to save the warriors. She'd had to save Ashley. No matter what the cost. It would be worth it.

  It would have to be.

  She struggled to her feet, leaning on a rock as she searched the field for Ajax and his team. They had to have survived. "Ajax!" She pushed off the rock, stumbling through the field of incinerated remains, searching for Ajax and the Order.

  She finally saw a body up ahead that wasn't blackened and charred. Burned and battered, but not destroyed. And then she saw another. And another. She recognized Rajak's scarred body, and she nearly cried with relief. The Order had survived. All motionless, but she knew they'd survive. Calydons were tough.

  Then she saw Ajax. He was on his back, eyes closed, burned but not destroyed. "Ajax!" She began to run, so relieved that her plan had worked. That she'd been able to keep them all alive through her link with them. Maybe she wasn't so awful. Maybe she could control it. Maybe—

  As she got close
r, she saw that Ajax's burned arm was flung out to the side. It was ripped open. Raw and torn. His weapon had been harvested.

  But they could be harvested only at the moment of death...

  "Oh, God, no." She fell to her knees beside him, grabbed his blackened face...

  It was deathly cold.

  And he wasn't breathing.

  Ajax. She laid her hands on his burned chest, and opened her mind to him, reaching across their connection, searching for him.

  But there was nothing.

  Simply nothing.

  "Ajax!" Tears filled her eyes and she shook him frantically, pounding on his chest, grief swelling inside her. Dear God, she was the monster he'd thought she was. The beast she'd fought against her whole life. She was everything she'd feared, everything she'd fought against. "Ajax! I—" Her Illusion power crawled suddenly across her skin, and she jerked her head up.

  Charles was standing several feet from her. His stained T-shirt was intact, barely even singed, and his skin was untainted.

  In his hand was one of Ajax's swords.

  Fear clogged her throat. "You—"

  "Impressive. Very impressive." Charles pointed Ajax's sword at her throat. "Stand up."

  She held out her hand to call the sword from Charles's hand, but it didn't move.

  He raised his eyebrows. "It's not his sword anymore. It won't work for you. I severed the connection by taking it at his death."

  At his death. Grief swelled over her, consuming her, ripping apart her heart, her soul—

  "For hell's sake, get over it already." Charles grabbed her arm and hauled her to her feet.

  "No!" She fought his grip, dropping all her shields to summon an Illusion. It prickled weakly along her skin, drained from the massive one she'd created.

  "Nice try, but they don't work on me." Then the world began to shimmer, and she realized he was teleporting with her.

  "No!" She ripped out of his grasp and stumbled backward, frantically looking around. She saw Isaac begin to stir, and she shouted his name as she ran toward him.

  But Isaac was looking at Ajax, and his face grew dark with fury. He jerked his gaze toward her, and she stopped at the look of retribution on his face. "You killed him," he snarled.

  "But I didn't mean to—" She stumbled backward as he forced himself to his knees, his gaze fixed on her with such fury and deadly intent, she knew he would kill her. She held up her hands and backed up frantically as he tried to stand and then fell to the ground again. "Please believe me, Isaac. I swear—"

  She hit a hard body and an arm clamped around her neck. She knew from the mark on the arm that it was Charles, that he was going to take her the way he'd disappeared with Ashley and Viktor. And leave Ajax? No! She twisted in his arms and slammed her knee into his crotch.

  He groaned and bent over, and she started to run to Isaac, to Rajak, who was also beginning to stir. She met gazes with Isaac, and saw in them a hell she couldn't even comprehend.

  Isaac rolled onto his side to try to get in position to throw his weapon, and Charles's hand came down on her shoulder. She thought of Ashley, that there would be no one to go after her if both she and Ajax were dead.

  She looked at Ajax's body on the ground, and tears filled her eyes as the world began to fade. I love you, Ajax. I'm so sorry.

  And then he was gone, and she was alone with the man who had blood on his hands and in his heart.

  Just like her.

  Madison landed hard on the gravel as they reformed roughly. They were on a dirt road in the middle of the woods. There were no houses, no buildings, nothing but darkness and isolation.

  No one to hear her scream.

  Charles wrenched her arm and hauled her to her feet. "Where's the boy?”

  She winced, and tried to pull herself free. "What boy?"

  "Zion's son. Where is he?"

  Madison tensed. He didn't have Luke yet? It wasn't over.

  Charles grabbed her arm and hauled her closer, using Ajax's sword to press against her neck. "You know, don't you?"

  She looked up at him, frantically trying to think of how to handle it. "Yes, I do."

  "Where is he?"

  An idea formed in her mind. "If I take you to him, then you'll kill him and not have any need for me. I'll trade him for Ashley."

  "Bitch! You think you can negotiate!" He raked the sword over her left thigh, and she fell to the ground with a scream, clutching her leg. "Where is he?"

  She shook her head, unable to stop from groaning as she pressed her hand to her thigh, biting her lip against the agony. "No deal," she gasped.

  He shouted with fury and tackled her, knocking her to her back. Black light flashed and then he had his knife at her throat, the same one he'd held back in her house. The blade pressed deep, and she felt it slice her skin. A warm trickle slid down her neck, just like before.

  But it wasn't like before. Not anymore. Because she'd changed since the last time they'd met. She had become strong. And it felt amazing.

  "You will tell me now." His voice was lethal, unyielding.

  But as Madison looked up into his dark eyes, she thought only of her sister, of the fact that if she agreed, there would be no more chances. "You can kill me if you want, or you can let me go. I'll get Luke, and I'll meet you at Nightshade Tavern in eight hours. In back, where you killed Viktor. You bring Ashley and I'll bring Luke. We trade."

  "Stupid bitch. I'm not letting her go—"

  "You can have Luke and me." Her voice didn't shake, her resolution didn't waver. "But my sister goes free. I'm better than she is, and you know it." She thought of what Ajax had told her about Bezoar using Illusionists, and knew that Charles would want her. He couldn't afford not to accept her offer, and he couldn't afford to kill her right now.

  "Take me home and then leave me. I'll get Luke and meet you there. You try to follow me, and I'll kill him myself." She smiled at him, an empty smile of violence and hate, of a woman who had accepted her worst side and learned to embrace it. "You know I can do it."

  He narrowed his eyes. "If this is a trick, your sister will die."

  "I know."

  Charles shoved the knife deeper into her neck, and she struggled to keep her face impassive, to hold her gaze to his. "You don't understand," she whispered. "You can't scare me anymore." As she said it, she realized it was the truth. She'd faced the worst of who she was, of what the world had to offer. There was nothing left to be afraid of.

  He snarled at her, then there was a shimmer and the world disappeared.

  They reformed with Charles still on top of her, and then he was gone.

  For a moment, she didn't move, trying to catch her breath, to stall the trembling of her body. Then she slowly opened her eyes and turned her head.

  She was on the front lawn of her house.

  Home.

  Ashley's car was in the driveway, where it had been for two months.

  With a groan, Madison rolled onto her stomach and then shoved herself to her feet, letting her injured leg dangle. She began to hop toward the building that had been her refuge, where she'd spent so many hours huddled, hiding from herself. Her sanctuary.

  It held nothing for her anymore.

  It wasn't home.

  It wasn't peace.

  It was a building.

  Home was lying dead on a battlefield with forearms that had been ripped open.

  Peace?

  She found her spare key beneath the potted palm and unlocked the front door, stepping inside the dusty foyer.

  Peace was no longer about a quiet existence with no stimulation.

  She found the car keys in the dish in the front hall, then turned and hobbled right back out to the car, not even bothering to go upstairs to change or clean her leg.

  Peace would come when Charles was dead.

  She hobbled down the front walk, then felt a sudden prickle of her power over her skin. A creepy, jazzed energy that she shouldn't have had the power to generate so soon—

  The m
alachite.

  Madison paused, remembering that Ajax had said he'd tossed it. Out the window? Slowly, she turned toward her lawn, beneath her window, and began to walk, adjusting her path as the prickle on her skin strengthened and weakened.

  And then she saw it. A hunk of bright green attached to a thin metal chain. Her heart started to thump as she walked over to it. She hesitated for only a fraction of a second, then reached down, scooped it up and slung it over her neck.

  The malachite burned against her chest through her shirt. Her heart was already starting to pound, and her blood felt like it was on fire as it raced through her veins. Her muscles felt like they were throbbing, and she felt a macabre grimness grip the edges of her mind.

  She wanted to rip it off, throw it aside, and run like hell.

  But instead, she tucked it inside her shirt so it was pressed against her flesh. "Bring it on," she whispered.

  She climbed into Ashley's car and shoved the key into the ignition. The car roared to life.

  The moment Ashley was free, Madison would bring down Charles with an Illusion beyond anything anyone had ever seen. He might claim Illusions didn't work on him, but he had no idea what she was capable of. It was already festering inside her, a dark, bitter evil, a need for revenge and destruction, feeding off the malachite as well as the strength Ajax had given to her as part of the bond.

  She was truly a warrior now.

  Ajax's warrior.

  He wouldn't like that he'd created a monster. He'd rebel against the evil fermenting inside her. He'd know that she was the beast that the Order was born to stop.

  The Illusion mounting inside her would kill her. But it would kill Charles, too, and that was what mattered.

  When an intense feeling of satisfaction washed over her at the image of Charles's bleeding and broken body, she knew she'd finally crossed the line. She'd become the Illusionist of hell. She was evil, death, and murder, and nothing else.

  And right now, that was exactly who she wanted to be, because that was what it was going to take to save her sister and the Order.