Page 60 of Torn Ivy
“Yeah, well, enjoy the scenery while you can,” Torin grumbles, his vampire senses clearly on high alert. “Those things will find us eventually. We need a plan.”
“Find us?” Cathy sneers. “Oh no, dear boy. We are not going to hide out here while they hunt us. We are going to annihilate them. Ivy?” she says, hoisting her laser gun higher. “Are you with me?”
28
TATE
I watchIvy carefully as she considers her aunt’s words. There’s a fire in her eyes, but there’s something else, too, a flicker of uncertainty.
“Cathy,” Ivy says slowly, “I get that you want to fight. But we can’t just charge in guns blazing. These aren’t normal enemies.”
“They seemed pretty vulnerable to my prototype,” Cathy argues, patting her weapon.
“For about five seconds,” I grit out, feeling a bit sweaty and unstable. “Then they started regenerating. We need a better plan.”
Ivy nods, her brow furrowed in thought. I can practically see the wheels turning in her mind, weighing options and possibilities. This is what makes her so unique in the ring. She truly does think outside the box.
“What if...” she starts, then pauses, chewing her lip. “What if we fall back on the original plan and use their own perfection against them?”
Bram raises an eyebrow. “That was all well and good in theory, but you got anything concrete?”
“They’re creatures of pure order, right? No chaos, no variation. Everything has to be just right.” Ivy’s eyes light up as the idea takes shape. “So what happens if we introduce a little disorder into their perfect system? Like Cathy’s weapon, but on a more severe scale.”
I catch on to where she’s going. “Overload them with chaos?”
“Exactly,” Ivy says, her eyes gleaming with that slightly unhinged look I’ve come to love and fear. “We don’t just introduce a little chaos. We flood their system with it.”
“And how exactly do we do that?” Torin asks sceptically.
Ivy’s grin widens. “We use me. Or, more specifically, my magick. Those beings are pure order. The antithesis of everything I represent. So, what if we turn that up to eleven?”
I feel a chill run down to my soul. “Ivy, your power is already incredibly volatile. Pushing it further could be dangerous.”
“For them or for me?” she challenges.
“Both,” I say firmly.
Bram nods in agreement. “He’s right, Ivy. We don’t know what channelling that much chaos could do to you.”
“I do,” Cathy interjects, her expression grim. “Or at least, I have an idea. The Resistance has been studying what we could of chaos magick for years. Trying to understand its potential and its limits.”
Ivy turns to her aunt, curiosity evident. “And?”
Cathy sighs. “We’ve been through this, Ivy, already. You will be torn apart. It will literally unmake you at a molecular level.”
I feel my heart clench at the thought. “Absolutely not,” I growl. “We’re not risking Ivy like that. There has to be another way.”
Ivy’s eyes flash with determination. “What if we combine approaches? Use Cathy’s weapon to destabilise them, then hit them with acontrolledburst of chaos magick?”
“Define ‘controlled,’” Torin asks, eyes narrowed.
“That’s where you guys come in,” Ivy explains. “Tate, you anchor me. Bram, your shadows can help contain the blast radius. Torin, your vampire nature gives you a unique perspective on the balance between life and death. You can help me fine-tune the chaos.”
I want to argue, to insist it’s too dangerous. But I see the resolve in Ivy’s eyes and know this is a battle I won’t win. Instead, I nod grimly. “Fine. But at the first sign of trouble, we pull the plug. Your life isn’t worth sacrificing.”
“Agreed,” Bram says firmly.
Cathy looks between us, her expression unreadable. Finally, she sighs. “It’s risky as fuck, but it might just work. Those beings rely on perfect order. A targeted burst of chaos could shatter their cohesion.”
