Chaos (Lanie Bross) - Lanie Bross Page 0,13

but Luc didn’t know what else to say. “Thank you for everything. I will never forget you, I promise.” He swallowed. His last words to Rhys were so thick they stuck in his throat. “Goodbye, Rhys.”

“Goodbye, my boy,” Rhys said, withdrawing his hand. He had a faint smile on his face, as if he could see something Luc couldn’t.

When Luc and the Figments reached the mouth of the cave, the suns’ light was brutal. He stood for a second, blinking, dazed, filled with grief that felt like an animal clawing in his chest. If he quit now and went home, back to Jasmine, there was a chance the Unseen Ones would leave him alone.

But he knew he couldn’t give up on Corinthe. Finding her was like coming home to warmth after a long, brutal night in the cold. Finding her was what he had been waiting for, without knowing he had been waiting for it. Without her, he was only half a person.

He would never give up.

Something his mom used to say, some AA quote, probably, came back to him as he stood there, hesitating.

You can’t go back, Luc, you just have to keep going forward. One step at a time.

The Figments had paused, too. They were waiting for him to decide.

“Take me to Tess,” Luc said.

The sand was halfway through the hourglass now. How long did Miranda have left?

The members of the Tribunal had long since vanished. She was alone in Vita, at least for the moment.

Could she find a way to free herself before they returned? If she could get out and find Ford, he would help her. Together they could take down the Tribunal. He must hate them as much as she did; he, too, had been imprisoned for treason.

A thrill raced through her. She remembered how young they had once been, how powerful. She remembered how they had once made a vast sun go dark; she remembered the sudden cold, and planets dying, shriveling to dust, until they looked like the ruined, puckered surface of Humana’s moon.

It had been intoxicating.

But she knew that it was hopeless. She was weak now—too weak even to cast off her human form, assumed so long ago, when she had first tried to ensnare Corinthe in her plot to ruin the Unseen Ones. There was no chance of escape. Her powers were diminished here, eaten up by Vita’s vast hunger. It was part of her punishment, she knew.

A fissure of steam began under her cell, and for a moment, Miranda wondered if the Tribunal had decided not to wait after all. If this was it, she would fight bitterly to the end. But it wasn’t a council member who appeared.

It was Tess.

“Come to gloat?” Miranda fought back the ache in her chest. She should have been beyond feelings now. Everyone had turned against her.

Still, Tess had once been hers. Born from a star Miranda and Rhys had created. A child of their power.

“I don’t have much time.” Tess gripped a small vial in her hand. Before Miranda could ask what she was doing, Tess opened it and overturned its contents.

Immediately, there was a horrible sound from the pulsing walls, from the very membrane of her cage—as if Vita were screaming. The potion hissed and steamed, and as Miranda watched, it began to eat through the floors, through the twisting strands that enclosed her, creating wisps of black smoke.

The air smelled like burning flesh, and the sound—the scream—continued to build.

“You gave life to me and I can’t let you die,” Tess said simply. “Now go, or the Tribunal will find you.”

Miranda fought another wave of feeling. This was the difficulty of all the time she had spent in Humana. She had become too sensitive. Too prone to emotion. “I meant what I said, Tess. I will try to find a way to destroy the Unseen Ones.”

“I know.” Tess took a step back. “I meant what I said as well. I will do everything in my power to stop you. I won’t have your blood on my hands. But we are still enemies.”

The potion, which could only be the blood of a Blood Nymph, burrowed through the living tissue, eating holes in Vita’s flesh, creating a tunnel in its wake. As Miranda slipped inside, the screaming crested, becoming a high, constant howl, the frantic wail of a dying animal.

The rib spires shook. The pulse of Vita quickened. This living world screamed in pain.

“Go!” Tess shouted at her, and then she wasn’t Tess anymore,