by Terina Adams
Staggering back, I couldn’t draw my eyes from what I saw. The vortex had grown, vacuuming up the debris from the floor and corkscrewing it up into a tornado that expanded up through the chasm I created in the ceiling. The noise was like a million hammers pounding on a tin roof, blowing out my already sensitive ears.
I kept pacing backward but felt helplessly held by the horror-tinged fascination of what I was witnessing. I knew what I was seeing. I knew what this was.
Chaos.
Chapter 33
He moved through the chaos of his making, waving his arms to gather more and more of the debris littering the floor. I stumbled over the lumps of wall and roof scattered around my feet as I staggered away, unable to turn and run, unable to do anything but focus on Archon and the majestic way he manipulated everything around him.
Chaos and deception, the two abilities involved manipulation, one physical and the other mental. And Archon was a master of both. I spun and ran. Knowing a storm was about to break, I wanted to be with the others, out in the open, ready to take Archon on. The cavern was just up ahead. The haze disappeared now that Archon had sucked everything up into his deadly tornado, which was this minute shearing through the spaces I created with my carnage. Up ahead, I saw havoc, silenced by the storm behind me. As I thought, the prisoners were playing their role. None had their factional natures, but they’d kept their spirit, and seeing a possibility, they were willing to risk the fight.
Dread rushed through me as fast as destruction on flicking a look over my shoulder. The tornado of debris expanded, coring out more of the walls and sawing through more of the ceiling, growing larger with every spin, eating and eating like a black hole does to light. Archon was building it to gigantic proportions with each forward step he took. Soon, it would be large enough to smash through into the cavern and fill it width to height until there was no space left free of its lethal bite.
I burst out into the open space, ducked, and spun away from a sweeper sent tumbling backward from a shattering blow of fire. He clipped me on my shoulder and sent me tumbling to the floor. Seconds I stayed before I scrambled to my feet, eyes darting for the others. There wasn’t just chaos behind me. It was everywhere. The inpouring of sweepers from other entrances other than behind me meant the space was filled. As sweepers lost their shields through the savage attack of Jax or one of the team, a prisoner was fast to scoop up their weapons, turning it on the next sweeper to come near. The fight was a frenzy of bodies and shouts, but nothing, nothing compared to what was brimming at the mouth of the large corridor.
Caught up in their own survival, few had seen what was eating up the walls and verging on busting through. I couldn’t let it happen. If Archon unleashed his spiraling doom, everyone would be scattered like poppy seeds, sliced and diced as they went.
The noise was so great it had now caught everyone’s attention. The sounds of fighting subsided, which meant all eyes were on Archon’s toy. I stood my ground and gathered destruction, pulled it from every recess in my body, wound and coiled the stream into one thick pulsating thread. Such was the depth of chaos, I could no longer see Archon on the other side.
Chaos burst through into the cavern, splintering the walls and sucking them up into its ferocious twist. But as quick as they’d disappeared into the deadly tornado, the whole wrapped rope of it began to unravel. The speed at which it happened seemed milliseconds-quick. Destruction moved as fast. The untangling mass shot forward, giant arms of debris haloing out toward us. Destruction rose up like a solid blast wall, sending the splintering debris upward toward the ceiling, careening miles over our heads. The force of Archon’s release, coupled with the force of destruction and the debris punched upward, cratered a massive hole.
“Everyone, get out!” Jax yelled. He moved closer to me. I could tell, because when he cried those words of escape, he sounded near.
The stampede began, a chorus of shouts and cries, the noise of pounding feet. Jax was right; the place had to be cleared, because at some point I would have to release this up-flow, and all it could do was come down, bringing the entire ceiling with it.
“We have to leave, Sable.” He was beside me.
“Archon’s on the other side of this mess,” I said, not removing my concentration or eyes from the stream of debris funneling its way through the ceiling.
“Come on!” Elva screamed from over the noise. I never thought hearing her voice would make me feel happy.
I allowed Jax to tug me across the open space, guiding me around strewn bodies. I didn’t have the heart to look down. But as I went, I saw there were more gray than black amongst them. So many had lost their lives. Who between them would’ve chosen to die rather than live suppressed? Probably not enough.
We managed halfway toward the exit, and the wall of debris was lessening. Through the haze, I saw Archon. As if sensing there was no use, he released the last of what he’d gathered in his chaotic spiral. I finished off the rest before it pelted us with lethal chunks by exploding it into fine pieces.
Archon and I stared at each other through the raining dust. Beside him stood Carter. I looked over my shoulder at Jax, but his eyes were already staring across the distance to his enemy. One look behind, everyone had cleared the open space and into the tunnel beyond; perhaps the surviving prisoners were making a break for the platform and freedom beyond. Hopefully, they were. At least we helped some of them.
“This is how it will end.” Carter had to raise his voice to be heard. I couldn’t see his eyes from this distance, but I was sure they’d be tinging red.
Would this be the Amex all over again? Only this time, Jax could not pull me to safety as I brought the place down.
“I never expected a woman to bring you this low,” Carter continued, advancing slowly into the cavernous space, Archon moving alongside him. “I had plans for you, Jax. You proved my best man, the one willing to make the sacrifices of your own free will. You could’ve been so much more.”
“I’m enough,” Jax breathed. Neither of the other two would’ve heard. They would not have understood the sentiment.
“How is this to play out?” Carter asked, splaying his hands wide.
Jax half turned his face to me. “Reinforcements will be on their way.”
How were we to move this along? I shifted my attention to Archon. Both were my enemy, but Archon had a special claim over my revenge right now. As always, he kept his eyes on me. When my gaze met his, he smiled, quirking an eyebrow at the same time, like a nonchalant fancy meeting you here. Always the arrogant asshole, even when facing the possible end. But whose end?
“I’m curious. At what point did your graft fail?” Carter said.
The question was directed at me. I’d been too busy staring hard at Archon to notice for a good few heartbeats.
“Or were you pretending all along?”
“You really think I’m going to tell you?”
Carter chuckled to himself. Like Archon, you couldn’t shake his arrogant belief in his own assured survival. Jax had to be right; reinforcements were likely heading this way as we wasted our time with these two.
“We need to end this,” Jax whispered again.
Was I ready to do this? The choice was in front of me. There would never be another time. It felt so much easier to allow revenge free rein when I was chasing Archon. It seemed his flight fanned the emotion. Once he was standing in front of me, he became less a nightmare and more a human.
I didn’t get to think another thought. Hell rained down around us through the devastation of a wall to our right. Jax crashed into me, dragging me to the ground as a shower of wall flew over our head. In no time, Archon funneled the loose chunks up into a spout and barreled them down toward us like a javelin. I lashed out with my hand and sent destruction through the middle of Archon’s weapon, fragmenting it into a fine cloud. But whatever had created the explosion drew my attention. A sweeper stood in the cavity he made. A Persal. Of course there had to be one of those around.
> We were still on the ground, Jax partially across me. The weapon in his hands pressed into my belly. He turned his head from the new arrival back to me. We didn’t need words.
He rolled from me, keeping the weapon tight to his chest. Before he was on his back, the weapon’s barrel was facing the sweeper, a shot of bluish light igniting from the end. Destruction met it halfway, but my own ability slipped through all the way, diving deep, deep down. A great wave of power, instantaneous and absolute. There was no time to allow judgment through or to juggle my emotions. It had to be now, hard and fast. The sweeper’s body went rigid. Rising up on his toes, his muscles seized, his eyes bulging. The eyes of Aris, shot through with blood.
I sucked destruction back, fueled with the sudden shock of what I’d seen. I recognized his face, the sweeper who’d given me an aching jaw on my arrival. What happened was not my imagination. He had funneled destruction into my head while wearing the bloodlust eyes of Aris. A man of mixed faction, ungrafted, free to work his twin abilities. Working for the senate.
Noise erupted around us, snapping me into the present. More sweepers arrived from different entrances to the side of the cavernous room, but so too the others. Elva, Patrick, Nuke. Even armed prisoners poured back through from the docking platform. Enough of them to make the fight even. Jax was already halfway up, the sounds of fighting already erupting. My eyes flittered through the jumble of bodies alive and dying. Light emitting from the side, behind, overhead. It was starting all over again. Still on my back.
One swift move, and I rolled to my feet as everything went dark, complete darkness. A collective utterance of horror swept through the cavern, its echo trailing long behind. From my left, a bluish blaze sizzled through the air and the sounds of a man dying. This tipped everyone else into panic. A Phonus sweeper who was not blinded by the dark, who could move around and pick off those who weren’t one of him.
Someone grabbed my hand, yanking me toward them as another sizzle firing of a weapon lit the cavern like a display of lightning. We were going to get picked off one by one.
“You get one chance.” It was Jax, his face close to mine.
Despite the blanket of cries and shouts of desperation, the sounds of stampeding feet as people tried to escape to somewhere in the inky dark, I heard Jax prepare his weapon for release. A bright bluish-white light surrounded us. Jax had aimed his weapon to the ceiling, releasing one laser blast that provided a shower of light spanning out from the stream of energy punching upward. This was my one chance. I scoured the side of the room where the sweeper had been firing. He was there, on the outer rim of the light thrown by Jax’s release while those around him bumped, stumbled, tripped, and scampered away as far as they could, clambering over each other, pushing others aside in their fear, only thinking of themselves. A natural, understandable instinct.
The sudden light drew his attention. He released one hand from his weapon. Lips pursed, face full of savagery, he reached out, snapped his hand into a fist, and wiped the light from my eyes. But he’d been too late. I’d already seen him, already sent destruction his way, in a single burst directed straight for his weapon.
The darkness was crowded with noise. It was so easy to lose your head, scatter like everyone else, but the one thing that kept me grounded and sane was the pulse of my factional nature. The Phonus sweeper was still alive, or else I’d have my vision back by now. I reached out my hand, thinking Jax was still nearby, but my frantic swipes found only air. I took a step, but arms wrapped around me, strapping my limbs to my waist.
“Shh.” A whisper close to my ear.
“Jax?”
“We need to get out.” Harsh whispers this time.
He dragged me along, forcing me backward, making me stumble. “Stop. I’m going to fall.”
“I have you.” His lips were close, breathing warm air, which fast turned cold across my ear.
“Wait. What about Archon and Carter?”
“It’s done.” His mouth still close, his voice kept to a whisper.
“What’s done?” As in neither of them survived. “When? How do you know? Can you see?”
“Yes.”
“Stop, Jax.” I attempted to wrenched myself out of his control.
He tightened his grip, pinning my arms to my side. This wasn’t right. I curled my legs up, at the same time kicking out behind with one. It entangled with his own, pitching us forward. I landed first on my stomach, him coming down on top, punching the air out of my lungs. Pinned, destruction riled, whipping up in a vortex of agitated fury.
Hands gripped my shoulders as his weight lessened, giving me the space to gasp in a much-needed breath. Those same hands flipped me like a sack onto my back. “Jax!” I shouted. A hand smacked down over my mouth.
“That won’t do.”
“How about this?” I was blind, but destruction didn’t need eyes to find a mind, especially when his breath was all over my face, filing my nose with acetous smells.
I’d expected his mind to be a convoluted mess of angles and mazes, something destruction would have to wind around and hurdle through in order to find purchase because of all his Set lies and fabrications he used to twist the truth. As always, it was frighteningly easy to pierce down into the very fabric of a person's mind.
His hands on my shoulders, I felt their sudden jerk. “You don’t want to do this, Sable.”
“It gives me great pleasure.”
“I always knew you had something special in you. It’s why I convinced Carter to give you a chance.”
What was he talking about? I faltered in delving deeper, stripping the inside of him open. “This is all Set—”
“Sable.” His voice rose. “Listen to me. Your mind is strong. Much stronger than Carter gave you credit for. But I protected you from his plans.”
Don’t listen. “Shut up.” This was what he did.
“Stop. Listen to me, please.” His words pierced me, loosened my control over destruction. “You never understood what I did for you, what I hoped to do for you.”
“Your words are poison.” I grappled for my hold on destruction, grappled to direct it to where I wanted it to go.
“My words are the truth. You have always known that. It is why you have hated me as much as you have. You fear the truth.”
It wasn’t the truth. Nothing that came from his mouth was the truth.
“I’m your ally.”
The word resonated around in my head. “That’s a lie.”
One hand released my shoulder; next, fingers feathered along my cheek. I jerked my head away.
“You didn’t need to fight me. I was always on your side.”
Was that true? Was that why he gave me more attention than the others? Jerome had noted the special treatment he was giving to me. “I don’t understand.” My voice was not my own. It sounded fogged and distant.
“You never wanted to believe what was there in front of you. Jax has made you fear so much. Everything you had to go through while in Dominus. It wasn’t necessary.”
At times, it had been terrifying. I argued against Jax at the start about forcing me and everyone through Dominus. And look what it turned us into.
“Dominus should never have been. There is a gentler way to learn your factional nature. What he did was brutal and cruel.”
“It was.” The words were a whisper.
“I can help you, Sable. You want that, don’t you? You want to be free. Your family free, all your family. Your dad too. I can save you all, reunite you.”
My throat thickened as the sting made its way into my sinuses. I wanted it so much. I was nodding, nodding fast, sweeping the floor with my hair.
“That’s my girl.” He patted my hair, brushed my forehead like my mum did to me when I was young, like I would do to Ajay for no other reason than because I wanted the connection.
It ended so fast. One minute, he was there, his hand comforting me with parental pats, and then he was gone. The warmth of his body over mine vanished so fast
I gasped with the sudden emptiness. And with the emptiness, reality crash-landed into my brain. I’d been bound tight in his evil lies. But he was gone, and now my awareness, corralled by his words, expanded to the distant sounds of fighting.
Rough hands pulled me to my feet, latched onto my shoulders, gently shook me. “Sable.”
“Nuke?”
“Any minute now.”
Was he talking to me? The black was wiped from my eyes so instantly my knees buckled as if I’d fallen from a height.
“Striker just took care of that pesky Phonus sweeper.”
I glanced around me. The cavernous room had cleared of the survivors, but the distant sounds meant we’d not won a solid victory.
“We need to get going.” He took my hand and led me along.
“Wait,” I said, jerking back, losing Nuke’s hold.
“Islia just informed us reinforcements are on the way. The others are holding the docking platform, but we’ve got to leave.”
“Archon.” I craned my head around. “I have to finish it with him.”
“He’s gone. And not looking too good as he went either.”
“What happened?” I’d been so lost to Archon’s words I’d forgotten where we were, what was unfolding around us, and that I was blinded because of a Phonus sweeper.
“The sweeper blanketed everything, but once Jax released a blaze of light from his weapon, everyone got the same idea. We hunted him out by copying Jax. He couldn’t maintain his control over us all while trying to protect himself, but of course he’d been specific with you two. He kept control over both your sight, because… I guess it felt personal. But you’re released now.”
