Page 55 of Souls of Steel
“Don’t try to pretend with me, Brendan. There’s no point. I think we’ve all stopped pretending now, if we ever were.”
“I suppose that’s true. I’m just… unsettled. I can’t help but feel I’m missing something. My father has never acted impulsively before and he’s never been quite this aggressive, not even when I refused to marry Penelope. This is strange.”
It was. I hadn’t thought the king would turn Brendan’s relationship with Selene into such a big deal either. But anyone with eyes could see these events were crafted specifically with the purpose of thwarting or maybe even killing her. That just brought us back to my approach—watch Selene’s back and hunt down everyone who fucked with her.
“In any case,” Brendan continued, “you’re not wrong in saying I want to protect her. I’ll take the lead, all right? August and Pollux can flank her and you can watch her back.”
“Sounds good,” I replied. I didn’t really care about my ranking in the tournament, as long as all of us survived this unscathed. And this would work. It had to. My pack couldn’t be torn apart, not now, not ever.
Our five chimeras were currently standing side by side in the hangars. The Typhon was first, then the Sphinx, Cerberus, Scylla, and Charybdis. Once my fellow Chimera Warriors and I made all the arrangements, I turned off my com-link and focused on my connection with Cerberus.
It was strange, but I could’ve sworn the feral beast at the back of my mind was stronger. When I closed my eyes, I could see myself standing in front of the massive beast—the three-headed lupine monster, not the machine.
“There’s nothing strange about any of this, my pup,”one of the heads growled.
“Your mate just gave us a wonderful gift,”the second said.
“Be wary,”the third head finished.“They will try to take our bitch from us. You have to prevent it, at all costs.”
“Oh, I fully intend to,”I replied.
Cerberus opened his three snouts and a jet of flame erupted over me. In the cockpit of my mecha, I clutched my controls and launched myself into space.
One of the funniest things about being the tamer of the Cerberus was the fact that I was essentially flying a gigantic wolf through space. Cerberus’s original body hadn’t been able to fly, so even in this metal form, he didn’t have wings. He didn’t need them, of course, as the tachyon flares located in his paws compensated for the lack. But his shape was still not particularly conducive to racing.
In simpler terms, Cerberus didn’t fly. He ran and he hunted.
This didn’t make me slower than any of the other ships of course, but it did make my moves different and harder to predict. I took advantage of this to track down my first prey.
He was easy to spot. I’d grown weary of listening to all the pilots of the Harpy Squad insulting Selene. Jared was dead now, so I couldn’t teach him a lesson. His cousin would just have to do.
There were only a handful of Harpies left in the final stage of the tournament. It was difficult to distinguish Vincent’s Aello at first, since Harpies weren’t as distinctive as the Grand Chimeras. I followed Cerberus’s instincts and, as always, he led me in the right direction.
The powerful diamond core of the Cerberus vibrated as I chased my target. I blasted one of the other vessels with a shower of tachyons, making it swerve to the side to give me room. The Harpies managed to avoid me, but not for too long. In less than a minute, I’d caught up with Vincent. My claws ruthlessly sliced through the Aello’s wing. The smaller chimera screeched and tried to escape, but it was much too late. I delivered a second attack, blasting the Harpy in the chest and propelling it into one of the meteorites.
Satisfied, I continued on my way. The Aello would be out of commission, but eventually fine. I didn’t really care about Vincent, but the Harpies were sort of related to Cerberus, and I didn’t want to destroy any of them. Besides, my priority here wasn’t getting revenge. It was keeping an eye on Selene. I couldn’t afford to get distracted and lose sight of her.
The Sphinx was a little further ahead, but the Charybdis was gaining on her. Charybdis’s long body was doing an excellent job at keeping everyone away. To their right, Scylla’s tentacles and wolf heads snapped and blasted the others who might have tried to approach.
I couldn’t see Brendan. He must be a little further ahead, like he’d said. So far, so good. As long as we stuck to this formation, no one could touch us.
The race went on. To my right, a Fire Arrow Attack Flier tried to slide past my guard. It was an admirable effort, but one doomed to fail. I slapped him away with the chimera’s tail and saw the pilot eject seconds before the FAAF exploded.
“Oops. Brendan’s going to shout at me for that one.”
“No, he won’t,”Cerberus said.“Typhon is just as bloodthirsty as I am. He just hides it better. His tamer is similar, you know that.”
Yes, I did know, and I loved seeing Brendan lose control. I’d never told him, but his true self—that secret savagery—was the real reason why I’d originally decided to dedicate my life to his quest. I’d wanted to support him, no matter what his goals might have been. It was just luck that the goals in question had been noble, because otherwise, we would’ve been in an entirely different situation.
The threatening glow of a solar eruption startled me from my thoughts. It was much too close, and I reminded myself I needed to stay focused. Solar anomalies shouldn’t be able to reach us here, but stranger things had happened. We needed to get this race over with as soon as possible.
I sped up a bit, blasting through some smaller space debris and making sure no one got too close to Selene and the others. I had to keep just enough space between us to avoid clashing with the massive bodies of the other chimeras, but I was used to that. I flew a little higher and in the process, I also caught a glimpse of Brendan.
He wasn’t as far as I’d thought. A few other competitors were in front of him, but he wasn’t trying to pass them. It was odd. He’d warned me to not do anything reckless, but it was far riskier to ignore two opponents who could be easily taken out.
Did he know something I didn’t? Had he seen or figured out something else?
I reached for my coms, but I never got the chance to ask Brendan anything. I received an answer in a different, far more horrifying way.
