Unbroken Bonds: The Bonds that Tie #6, page 28
“What they really want is to be able to shift vessels. They want to live forever, and none of them give a shit about who they live within. They don't care about lifetimes or sleeping or any of that. All they care about is power—”
“But none of them have a Gift to manipulate souls within a vessel,”Atlas finishes off for me, a scowl on his face as he rubs a hand across his chin.
He's been surprisingly quiet about the entire mission, keeping to himself and taking Oleander at her word when she said that she trusted me and wanted to do this. He hasn't spoken to me or looked at me. He hasn't questioned me in any way, and he hasn't started a fight either, which is definitely a change.
I have no doubt that if anything happens to her, he will be the first person to kill me.
It won't matter if the Pain god comes looking, I will already be a corpse if he has anything to do with it. It really would be a test of whether or not the Cleaver can take on the shadow creatures, though I suppose that if Oleander and I are wrong and something does happen to her, I won't fight back.
I don't think even the guilt I've had on my brother's behalf will be enough to keep me around if something does truly happen to her. I’ve always felt an obligation to stay here for him, even in my darkest days after he’d found me and killed my mother for what she’d done to me.
“This is fucking stupid,” Gryphon says again, his eyes flashing to white as he lets his Gift kick in.
He scans the area, almost as though he’s developing new techniques to settle himself, and I choose not to say anything about it, not to him or to the rest of them. I keep my eyes on Oleander, and when the Pain god finally strikes, pushing everything it can at her until I know her bond is forced to take it all, I square my shoulders and prepare myself.
I glance over at my brother. “They're coming.”
North nods, a scowl on his face as he watches the same scene that I do, Oleander’s body slumping down to the ground as the Pain god and the Transporter take her once more, Transporting into the Wasteland before us.
“I want this over with,” he says, and I nod slowly, lifting a hand as the shadows fall away from my body and begin to fan out.
The TacTeam personnel all lined up behind us in neat rows stay calm as the shadows overtake the area. The original personnel have seen it all before, and the new recruits were warned about how tonight will go. There’s an air of trust that has never been there before, a preparedness that was hard won.
Tonight.
Everything will be finished tonight, their death or ours.
We feel the moment that the Pain god appears in the Wasteland, moving Oleander’s unconscious body into the impenetrable area they’ve built specifically to keep us out.
The walls of the Wasteland are strong, the strongest Shields that we have come across; which is exactly how I knew that this is where they would end up. Hundreds of Gifted have been brought here to work together to make the entire area impenetrable.
When the scouts came across it, we knew right away that it would be endgame for the Resistance. We spent a lot of time trying to infiltrate it but failed again and again.
Except that was part of our plan as well.
The god-bond doesn't realize the strength that we have taken from our Bonded, the unprecedented growth in our abilities, or the fact that the Draven family has taken in the powers of the gods over hundreds of generations. Instead of their manipulations of the Bonded Groups affecting us in a way that would weaken us, it has only made us stronger. It has only made the arsenal of weapons that we have at our disposal even more formidable.
It's given us a way in.
“We need to go now,” North says under his breath, and I nod, glancing over at each of them for a moment just to be sure that they're all as ready as I am.
Gryphon gives one last command to the Tac unit at our backs, and then each of them grabs my arm. The Shield can protect against Transporters that aren't welcome within the Wastelands, but they can't protect from something that's already in there.
The Transporter just let us in.
We'd been standing outside the Shield wall, unable to move or advance any further. We hadn't been trying to hide, and they hadn’t attempted to engage with us either. They’ve been so secure in their protections that they haven’t even attempted to mobilize against us. They just ignored us entirely.
One moment, we’re looking at that Shield wall, and the next moment, we’re stepping through the shadows. I'd spent a lot of time honing this skill, sharpening it, perfecting it, and making sure that it's not the slow process of the shadow growing anymore.
I made sure that we wouldn’t give them enough time to prepare themselves for the death that is coming their way. The moment we appear, the alarm goes off, but it’s too late for them.
We’re not here for anything but death.
The Crux takes over North's body before the Pain god even realizes that we have Shadow Shifted in.
It is so confident in its ability to keep us out, never dreaming that we’d find a loophole through its plan of Shielding us from our Bonded. It would have worked; it has worked a hundred times before.
Thanks to the breeding experiments that the Resistance had been conducting and the mixing of my mother's blood, my incidental Gift was something that the Corvus had never had before.
Shadow Shifting.
Simply by having Azrael tag along with Oleander meant there was nothing they could do to keep us apart, nothing they could do to stop me from arriving here. When we’d soul-bonded and forged an unbreakable connection, I knew that I’d never again let anything come between us, and that was all thanks to the Pain god.
I’m going to make sure it dies a horrific death, regretting that fact.
It used a lot of its power knocking Oleander out, more power than it should have been willing to, leaving it vulnerable to attack.
A vicious roar tears through the air as Gabe shifts, his body snapping and crunching as the Draconis takes over. The Crux moves towards Oleander, blind to everything else that is happening around us as it sees her unconscious form lying there, its devotion to her as blind as my brother’s. The Soothsayer takes control of Gryphon and moves with him, getting a hand over her throat as it pours power into her.
The Corvus pushes at my mind as it attempts to take over, but I push back, letting the streams of shadows fall away from my body and pushing them to devour their Transporter whole. I’m eager to remove any potential threats before the Pain god has the chance to get out of here.
I watch the way that its mouth twists scornfully, the hatred there a sickening thing as my shadows turn their heads towards her. How it ever managed to pass as a simple, non-Gifted woman is beyond me, because all I can see in those depthless void eyes is the sort of murderous madness that isn’t so easily disguised. A smirk stretches over my own lips as I see the realization set in, the tension filling its body as its power washes over me without breaking into my mind at all. It’s desperate, and it now knows it’s used its trump card too soon.
It knows that we don't want to simply kill it.
Doing such a stupid, rash thing would just send it back into the cycle; and I’m not spending the rest of my life waiting for this evil to return. If we cycle again, if this keeps on happening to us over and over, I’m not going to risk this coming after Oleander again. Not this version of her or the ones to come. Never again.
I watch as it scrambles away from us, throwing out its power as though it has a chance of getting through to any of us, but it can’t. The one and only time Gryphon used his Gift to knock Oli out, he told us it was like she pulled the power from him.
I’m sure the Pain god is hating every second of my poison girl’s power right now, every inch of it perfection.
The Draconis roars again, and this time, it takes off, leaving us behind as it senses something out there that none of the rest of us can see. A burst of fire lights up the night sky moments later as he wipes out the threat before it can even get close to Oleander. I push my shadow creatures even further, letting them free to start taking out the Resistance.
I watch as Atlas follows the line of the dragon’s body in the sky, torn between moving to Oleander and watching to see what is coming for us next. The Cleaver hasn’t taken over yet, it’s still the man in there making the choices, and as he glances back over in Oli’s direction, he curses under his breath.
I glance back to find a gun in the Pain god's hands.
Atlas shakes his head at it, pushing his power into the barrier around it, but it's not as simple as keeping us protected from the bullet.
It’s not aiming at us.
One of my shadows jumps up to grab it by the hand, another wrapping around its body to stop it from killing itself. It starts cursing and shouting as it squirms, fighting uselessly against the shadows, and I enjoy the sight of it all over again. I let one of the dark tendrils wrap around its mouth before I snap its arm, breaking the bone in a single movement.
The sound is like music to my ears.
The Draconis roars again, and Atlas curses under his breath.
“What the hell is going on up there?” he murmurs as he walks towards the opening to the tent, lifting it slightly and then jolting back.
“We have a lot more than the Pain god to deal with,” he says quietly, and the Soothsayer finishes healing Oli, standing up behind Atlas to glance out for a second.
“Tell me you've got her back, Crux. We can't stay in here for much longer,” Atlas says, his tongue only tripping over the god-bond’s name a little.
There's no answer, but the Crux stands smoothly, Oli looking so small and fragile in his arms. The Corvus pounds at the edges of my mind, demanding to be let out, but I hold onto control desperately. I need to see her wake up first. I need to know this wasn’t a mistake.
Her eyes stay closed, but her chest is moving steadily, her breathing even, as though she’s just enjoying a good night’s rest.
My eyes drift back to the Pain god, the loathing and disgust dripping from its gaze as it stares back at me.
I don't really care about what this god-bond thinks.
The Soothsayer steps over to where the Crux is now cradling Oli against its chest, rocking her gently as their skin glows. He’s letting her feed from his power, seeping it into her through touch to fill her inner well and revive her.
I’m ready to take over the moment she needs it.
The Crux is clearly unhappy with what is going on, the skin on his hands turning black as he taps into his own well of power. He’s on the edge of losing control and taking down the entire Wasteland with his own Gifted rampage.
The Resistance have no idea what they’ve unleashed.
I stare at the Pain god, watching the madness writhe underneath its skin. “You should’ve known when she brought me back that it was all over for you.”
It snarls at me, too rabid to play these mind games, and yet it keeps on trying. “You say that like she hasn't brought you back before. Always the same, always simpering after the rest of you like some pathetic little bitch in heat. You could be so much more.”
I shrug, the picture of calm even as dread pools in my gut due to Oleander’s unconscious state. “Why would I want to be more if I don't have her?”
It spits on the ground between us. “Disgusting.”
“And yet, one of us is going to die today and the other is going to walk out of here, perfectly safe and with a complete Bonded Group. A long life ahead of us all. Tell me again how weak we are,” I say with a taunting tone, and Bassinger shoots a grin over his shoulder at me before it slides off of his face again, almost as though he's just realized who he's in on the joke with.
I don't particularly care about that. I care about the details and how I can use them here to really extend the suffering of this god-bond.
I want it screaming.
“How many times have you killed your Bonded?” I say, lifting up a knife from the table in front of us.
It looks a little too much like the table on which Oleander had been subjected to torture for my liking, the echoes of her memories are as clear in my mind now as they have ever been. Her screams and the blood and the terror are waiting there for me the moment I shut my eyes.
I could hate this god for killing me, for being the one to spark the soul-bond that I share with my Bonded, but there's a part of me that will always be grateful for my death.
I wouldn't have found Oleander in the darkness of my mind without it.
No, I hate this god-bond for what it built. I hate it for the movement that it began purely to kill the rest of us. The Resistance has harmed so many, but ultimately, I will revel in this god-bond’s death because of what it did to Oleander. For Silas Davies, the death of her parents, the nightmares she still has lurking in the back of her mind, and for her years of loneliness and suffering.
For that, I will see this god-bond destroyed so permanently that it can never come back.
There's a gasp behind me, and for the first time, I take my eyes fully off of the god-bond as my entire body turns towards Oleander. It always has, even when I fought it off so desperately.
She is awake, she is mine, and she is hungry.
She devours the god-bond’s soul before her eyes even flutter open, tearing it out as though it’s nothing more than a small, fragile being, ridding our world once more of this vengeful god. Only this time, it's for good.
The Pain god is no more.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Oli
Everything is burning.
The smoke and ash in my nose burns all the way down my throat, and my skin is hot and tight like it’s melting straight off of my bones. My chest feels as though I've swallowed hot coals, and everything is burning.
Everything is burning.
“Open your eyes, Bonded. You're really starting to freak us out here,” Gryphon murmurs, and there are hands against my throat.
I want to open my eyes, but they feel sealed shut, as though maybe my skin really is melting and it's melted right off of my face. What if it slipped away so that I couldn't open my eyes even if I tried?
“Don't be so dramatic. I can see your face right now, and it's as beautiful as ever. Just open your eyes, Bonded. I need to see them, just to be sure.”
“If you can hear her, then she’s clearly fine,” Nox drawls, and though North snaps back at him, the hands slowly stroking my hair stay gentle and soft.
“Will you ever take anything seriously? How are you not fucking terrified?”
I hear footsteps, and then more hands are on me, these ones on my wrist as though Nox is taking my pulse. They already know that I'm alive, clearly.
“Just because devotion looks like two different things doesn't mean they're any different. You covet her power and want to protect her so much that she never has to use it. I enjoy watching her eat god-bonds alive.”
Gryphon scoffs at them both, leaning forward to press our foreheads together as we have on the battlefield before. His breath fans over my skin, and even with how much pain is coursing through my body, I can still feel the sensation and enjoy it.
It must not be so bad.
“Open your eyes, Bonded,” he murmurs again, and this time, I finally find the strength to let them flutter open.
Everything hurts.
I can't say it out loud; my mouth won't work. My throat is too dry to even consider speaking, but Gryphon nods, rubbing our noses together as he does.
“I know. I'll get you home, Bonded, the second the Draconis and the Cleaver are finished hacking everyone to pieces out there.”
My eyes flare open a little wider, the closest I can get to startling in my current state, and a lazy grin slides over Gryphon's face. “You dealt with the god-bond, and its grand plan of murdering us all and consuming our Gifts has thoroughly gone to shit. It had the last of the big Resistance camps here, bursting full of soldiers ready to back it up and start a new blood-soaked revolution. I don't think any of them were truly prepared to face the Draconis and the Cleaver. They’re both making a real mess.”
I blink again and swallow, wincing at the dryness of my mouth, but Gryphon only nods again, reading every last one of my questions and concerns about his words. “The Draconis went out there first, and the Cleaver eventually followed. We have the shadows out there helping as well, but we're getting ready to move you home. You did what you needed to do.”
I don’t remember doing it.
Not the ripping the soul out part, and certainly not the consuming it, which I guess is a blessing in disguise considering how much I hate it. I feel as though my entire body has been flayed open, so there's no doubt that I consumed the soul. Being knocked out never felt like this.
I feel as though there’s nothing good left inside of me.
There’s a screeching noise, and North curses under his breath, his hands soft as they stroke my hair one last time before he gets up and checks the flaps of the tent again.
Nox stays with me, but his eyes flash, so I know that he's checking in with his shadows as he keeps an eye on what's happening out there.
Gryphon helps me sit up, his fingers stroking over my neck as he checks in with me again. “We had to take out the Shields ourselves to let the rest of our personnel in, but I'm pretty sure Gabe just ate them. Quick, effective—”
“Disgusting,” Nox interrupts with a scrunch of his nose. “He's going to be a mess once we get him home after all of this.”
I want to shrug, because I'm also going to be a mess. No matter how much power I had saved for this moment, it had still come close to taking me out, I think. I can feel that they’re sharing power with me, but still… it’s not enough.
Gryphon scowls at me, pressing a hand on my forehead, and his eyes flash to black again. “Don't say stuff like that. You were nowhere near death's door. If you were, one of us would have chased after you by now to pull you back. Do you need Felix? I will go and pry him from Kieran’s side if you feel that it's necessary, or should I let the Soothsayer back out instead?”
