Darkening Chaos: Book Three of The Destroyer Trilogy (2 page)

I
watch as he presses the first two fingers of his right hand against the emblem on
the Guardian blade strapped to his left wrist. My breath freezes in my chest. A
Guardian promise is unbreakable. Nobody really understands it, but something
physically binds you to a promise made on your Guardian emblem. But he has to
speak the words. Hope that I haven’t come here in vain makes me lightheaded as
I stare at him.

“I
promise that I will not kill even one of the captured Ciphers after I have
killed you, Libitina Sparks,” Blackwood says plainly. He waits for my sigh of
relief, but he doesn’t get it. Milo’s continual paranoia about the Guardians
has taught me better than that.

“What
about the rest of these goons?” I ask. “Do you promise none of them will kill
the Ciphers, either?”

Blackwood’s
jaw grinds against itself. I can actually hear the grating enamel. I hope his
teeth all break in half and fall out of his pretty little head. I give him a
full ten seconds to assure me that his promise actually means something.
Silence.

“That’s
what I thought,” I say. “I’m not as stupid as you think I am, Blackwood.”

“You
won’t let them die,” he says through his teeth.

“Why?
Because Braden told you I wouldn’t?” I’m still terrified, and angry as
anything, but my fight to not run away screaming lessens dramatically as
Blackwood’s facial expression starts to change. I push a little more.

“Braden
thought he was playing me, seducing me to win my trust.” Not at all true, but
I’m not going to tell Blackwood that. I smile and shift my stance from scared
and defensive to just a little bit seductive. “Didn’t you ever even consider that
I might have been playing him, too?”

His
dark eyes harden into the mahogany they resemble. Fear that he is about fail is
wrapped so tightly around him, I’m not sure how he can even breathe under the
pressure. Blackwood is ambitious and immoral. Killing me and claiming the glory
and prestige that will go along with it are all that matter to him. And I’m
putting all of that in jeopardy.

The
slow change in his demeanor from furious to smug sets me on edge. His emotions
are still boiling with rage, but there’s a steady stream of pleasure riding the
wave now. “Whether you were playing him or not, you’re already in my hands, on
my
turf. There’s no getting away from me now.”

I
don’t miss the subtle flick of his right hand, but even if I did, the host of
Guardians moving into a circle around me would have given away what he was
thinking just as clearly. I can’t help flinching back into a worried posture.
Blackwood steps closer. I don’t move a muscle, and neither does Blackwood. We
are locked in an infantile staring contest as his men cut off my escape.

Or
at least they think they have.

Blackwood
watches me, but his hungry expression doesn’t fall away until I rise from my
defensive crouch and smile my very best smile at him.

Chapter
2

Deadline

Two Days Earlier

The second we step into
the mansion, Ciphers surround me. Most of them are hugging me, thanking me for
freeing them from their prison. Even through their jubilant welcome, I can see
him standing at the back of the room, silent, grieving. I want to push my way
through the crowd and tell everyone else to back off. That would hardly be
helpful. So, I patiently endure my friends’ attention until the first wave of
excitement begins to wear off. Then I turn them over to Lance.

None
of them know Lance personally, since he has no Spiritualism that would let him
enter the spirit world with me over the past several months leading up to the
rescue, but every one of them knows who he is and that he is my friend and
someone I trust very much. Despite the fact he once tried to kill me. We’ve
both gotten over that, though. They also know Lance is a brilliant tactician.
It was his relentless work on the Guardian compound schematics that got them
out to safety in the first place. He didn’t do it alone. Braden, Milo, and Mr.
Walters helped him, but he was definitely the driving force.

I
leave Lance to explain the next stage of my plan for them, which is sketchy at
best. He manages to explain the simple act of beginning real talent training in
a way that makes it sound so much more exciting than what it really is. I sneak
away from the main group to the elderly man waiting for me in the corner.

As
soon as I come within reach of him, he takes my hands in his and asks, “What
happened to Braden, Libby?”

The
control I held all through the Ciphers’ reception threatens to buckle. “I don’t
know, Daniel, but I’m going to find out.”

“He’s
alive?”

I
press my hand to my chest where I can feel his presence and nod. He sighs in
relief and squeezes my hand a little more tightly. Daniel is Braden’s oldest
friend. Braden’s grandfather introduced them to each other. The death of his
parents and brother left Braden alone at an earlier age, except for his
grandfather, but even that could not last for very long. His grandfather’s
health problems caught up to him when Braden was only eleven years old. After
that, Daniel became his surrogate grandfather. I know he is hurting as much as
I am right now.

“Libby,”
he asks, “what are you going to do? You know Braden doesn’t want you going
after him. You know the Guardians will turn him against you. Are you really willing
to risk rescuing him?”

“Would
you let him stay there?”

He
shakes his head. “No, but he’s not going to try to kill me if I do rescue him,
either.”

No,
just me. When he first told me about the way the Guardians can turn an Oath of
protection into a twisted, forced command to kill, I tried to tell myself that
even if he was subjected to such torture, he wouldn’t be able to hurt me. I’ve
opened my eyes since then. The Guardians are willing to kill eighty-one people
just to get to me. And that’s not counting the dozens, maybe hundreds of
people, they’ve already killed in the hopes of stopping me from tearing down their
corrupt empire. Whatever they do to Braden, it will be effective. They don’t do
anything halfway.

“Daniel,
I won’t abandon him.”

“Neither
will I,” he says. “Just tell me what to do.”

I
knew I could count on him. That makes two. Lance, surprisingly enough, has
already offered to help me, and now I have Daniel. It won’t be much, but what
I’m planning is going to depend more on secrecy and careful stepping than brute
force or numbers.

“Okay,
then. You’ve already been filled in on what happened in Albuquerque, right? The
Ciphers there didn’t get out, and the Guardians are holding them as bait. They
want me to turn myself in to them.”

Daniel
nods. The news spread pretty quickly through my small army that some of their
friends did not make it at all, and some are still being held prisoner. When
there are barely more than two thousand of you in the entire world, and you’ve
spent years together, you become closer than most families. The anger behind
Daniel’s eye momentarily blacks out his worry for Braden. “You’re not even
considering giving yourself up, right?”

“Actually,
that’s exactly what I’m going to do.”

His
eyes and mouth pop open in disbelief. Before he can start spouting off about
what a stupid idea that is, and how Braden would never agree to it, and a dozen
other things, I start talking again.

“I
have a plan, and I think I’m going to need your help.”

“Does
this plan involve you coming back out of there alive?” he asks warily.

“It
wouldn’t be much of a plan if it didn’t,” I say with a smile.

The
tension in his aged body slides away visibly. “Alright, then, let’s hear it.”

“Well,
in addition to Mr. Walters telling me that I should not go after Braden or turn
myself into the Guardians,” I say with a rueful smile that Daniel returns, “he
also told me that there was more to Idris’s prophecy about me and that there is
something worse than a Sihir that the Guardians can make out of Ciphers.”

We
both shudder at the mere mention of a Sihir, a spirit loosed from its body by
death that returns to the regular world in a maddened search for its body. They
are the very real form of childhood nightmares, and our mutual friend, Saia,
the woman who used to lead the Ciphers, was turned into one of these and let
loose to try and kill me. It isn’t a memory I look back on fondly.

“Both
of those definitely sound like useful bits of information,” Daniel says, “but
what do they have to do with getting Braden back?”

“Nothing,
but they do have something in common with rescuing Braden. I need to find and
break a Seeker in order to get the information I want about the prophecy and
the worse-than-Sihirs thing just like I need to get a hold of a Seeker to find
out where all three groups of prisoners …”

“Wait,
three groups?” Daniel interrupts.

“Oh,”
I say, having forgotten that not everything we learned has filtered through the
ranks, yet. “Sorry, I meant the Ciphers, Braden, and Mr. Walters’ daughter,
Helen, and her family. The Guardians were holding them as collateral against
Mr. Walters, making sure he had every reason to follow through on his orders to
give me up to them. I seriously doubt Blackwood released them after he murdered
Mr. Walters, and I won’t leave them there to suffer.”

Daniel
frowns. “Adding more people to the rescue is going to make it even harder,
Libby.”

My
back stiffens and I glare at him. “Are the Ciphers lives worth more than
theirs?”

“No,”
he says defensively, “but Walters did betray you. That’s the whole reason we’re
talking about rescuing the other Ciphers.”

“He
betrayed us, yes, but he also died to protect them, Daniel. I won’t let his
death go to waste. We’re getting them out, too.”

“I’m
not saying we shouldn’t try to rescue them, but I think you need to prioritize.
The other Ciphers come before them.”

I
don’t like that idea at all. “And where does Braden fall?” I ask, my voice
tight.

He
doesn’t answer. I already know what he wants to say, squarely at the top. It’s
the answer I want to give, too. I care more about rescuing Braden than anyone
else. For most of the flight up here, it was practically all I could think
about. I was consumed with guilt for letting this happen and fear that I would
never see him again. So much was left unfinished between us. I can’t bear the
thought of never having the chance to sort out how I really feel about him and what
to do about it. I want him to hold me again and let me feel that spark of hope
only he can give me. Tears waiting for release burn behind my eyes, but I don’t
give them purchase. Not yet.

Sitting
on the plane with Lance, I was slowly able to admit that as much as I want to
tear every Guardian compound to the ground in order to find Braden, I can’t
abandon everything else. Braden gave up everything for me, out of love, and out
of belief that I am doing the right thing. Even if he sneaks into my room in
the middle of the night and paints the walls with my blood, I refuse to let him
down. I refuse to let down any of the people who have risked so much to help
me.

I’m
still too consumed with grief and loss to really understand what that means and
plan anything concrete, but I do know that I won’t let anyone else suffer under
Blackwood’s hands. We’re getting them all out. Daniel’s quiet, if reluctant,
agreement lets me go on.

“We
need information about where they’re all being held in the Guardian compound.
Since all compounds are the same, I thought I might as well make use of this
trip and try to grab a Seeker here in Canada rather than back in Albuquerque
where they’re waiting for me to show up.”

Daniel
just stares at me. “You want to kidnap a Seeker? I really don’t think I’m the
right person to help you. I’m not as young or strong as someone like Hammond.”

The
fact that Daniel is almost sixty years old didn’t escape me when I considered
who I would ask to help me. “All I need from you is to create a distraction. I
could choose anyone for that, but I’m asking you because I don’t want to waste
time arguing with anyone else about whether or not this is a good idea. This
will help me get Braden back, so I know you won’t try to stop me.”

Daniel
nods his head reluctantly. He doesn’t voice it, but I know he would do anything
I asked him to do if it meant rescuing Braden. “But Seekers have Vision. They
can see the future. You can’t capture one of them, it’s impossible.”

“They
caught Mr. Walters,” I remind him. Well, they didn’t actually catch Mr.
Walters, he turned himself in, but only after he failed to see them coming
after his wife in time. She was murdered, and to protect his daughter, the one
the Guardians now hold prisoner, he gave himself up. It was his choice, yes,
but it shows that Seekers aren’t infallible.

“Plus,”
I say, “Saia gave me an idea about how to catch a Seeker before she died. She
said none of you could see Ciphers when you were in the spirit world because
Ciphers have no talents to track. I don’t think Seekers can, either. That’s why
they have such a hard time finding renegade Ciphers.”