Page 51 of Destinies of Diamond
I dared to steal a look toward the infirmary door, in the direction of the source of the power surge. I half-expected it to be another chimera. The Grand Chimeras should have sensed we were in trouble and come to help us. But there was no giant robot there, neither friend nor foe. Instead, I found myself facing the glowing form of Jared Glass.
“You looked like you needed some help,” he offered, panting. His once fair skin had turned tanned, almost crimson, and his hair had grown white, but it was undoubtedly him.
The last time I’d seen Jared had been during the Mirror Trial at the tournament. To this day, I wasn’t sure what the king had been thinking when he’d organized the damn thing, but as an instructor, I’d mourned the passing of a promising student.
As a soldier, I’d asked myself some other questions. There had always been something about Jared that had unsettled me, although I’d never been able to identify what. This answered a lot and, considering what I knew about August, didn’t surprise me as much as it should have.
There would be time enough to address that later, though. The explosion, while powerful, wouldn’t incapacitate the chimeras for too long. Without a second of hesitation, I reached for August and draped him over my shoulder. Hoisting him up was awkward when I had only one arm, but I got by. The others followed my example, and within moments, we were all out of the med bay, running toward the hangars.
Hindered by injuries, we were moving too slowly for my liking. It didn’t help that most of us had to carry someone. Jared, who was the exception, had obviously been affected by whatever he’d done to fight off the Centaurs. His vital signs were all over the place and his breathing was uneven. I’d have liked to think it was just because of his unique ancestry, but I knew better.
In the end, we were forced to stop, but not just because of our fatigue. Halfway to the hangars, we ran into another, smaller group of Centaurs. They’d surrounded Knox and were currently trying to beat him into an unrecognizable lump of steaming flesh. But it didn’t really work. Knox Alexander hadn’t been picked as the pilot of the Cerberus for no reason. He’d fully unleashed his true, savage nature, and he was fighting them with everything he had. Parts of him didn’t even look human anymore, having turned lupine in a way that mimicked his chimera. His head looked just like that of a wolf and his limbs and spine had changed shape to accommodate a tail, claws, and a new fighting stance.
When he saw us approach, he howled, but didn’t acknowledge us in any other way. For a few seconds, I feared he’d lost all semblance of humanity. I should have known better.
The howl was a distracting technique and it kept the chimeras’ attention on him. It bought us just enough time to get closer. Jared took a deep breath, mumbled something I couldn’t understand, and once again, directed a blast of photons at the Centaurs.
Impossibly, it was even stronger and more focused than before. His knees went weak and he almost collapsed to the floor. But his efforts paid off and several of the Centaurs vanished. The others started to retreat, which unfortunately meant they picked the same direction we’d been headed in.
Before they could make their escape, Prince Archibald opened his eyes and fixed them with his trademark death gaze. He let out a choked gurgle of pain and shook in Brendan’s hold, but the attack worked anyway. The remaining chimeras dissipated, just like the ones in the infirmary had.
That bought us a little time, just enough to turn toward Knox and ask him the question that had been on my mind the moment I’d seen him. “Where’s Selene?”
“I told her to head toward the Venom. Something’s really wrong here. I can’t contact Cerberus at all.”
“I can’t reach Typhon either,” Brendan said, his voice tight with barely suppressed agony, “and it’s getting harder and harder to control my power. What is going on?”
“It’s your father, Brendan,” Prince Archibald said. “I’m afraid he’s made his move before we have and that leaves us trapped between Scylla and Charybdis.”
Technically, we had the tamers of the Scylla and the Charybdis here, so the prince’s words shouldn’t have alarmed me as much as they did. But at that moment, I knew he had picked them for a reason.
This wasn’t just about metallic shells anymore. It was about the souls encased in the cores of Tartarus diamond.
The time had come for humanity to finally pay the price for its choices, and we would be the first ones to face the inevitability of fate.
Fighting for Freedom
Knox
After having lived with Cerberus at the back of my mind for the better part of a decade, it was eerie to suddenly be unable to contact him. The bond was still there, but it felt distant, sealed shut, as if an unbreakable barrier was blocking our connection.
Logic stated that this should have helped me control my regular murderous urges, but logic had very little to do with the relationship between a chimera and his or her tamer. The madness I’d tried so hard to keep at bay throughout my years at the academy was emerging, twisting my body into unnatural shapes, threatening my humanity. I suspected the others weren’t doing any better. Brendan hadn’t grown a tail like I had, but the greenish tinge of his complexion, coupled with the distant chill in his eyes made it clear that he was drifting into dangerous territory.
But none of us were willing to let that deter us. Commander Trevor was still standing and fighting despite having lost a limb. We could do no less.
Taking a deep breath, I focused precisely on the part of me I feared most, the wolf. My senses became sharper once again, but this time, I wasn’t hindered by any pesky chimeras. My path was clear and I could track down Selene. Or so I hoped.
She’d headed toward the main hangars, just like I’d told her, but at one point, something had gone wrong, because I couldn’t feel her there. I couldn’t feel her at all. Oh, there were still signs of her sweet presence lingering in the air, but it wasn’t enough.
The others might not have had my skills, but they weren’t oblivious to the problem either. In fact, Jared knew even more about it than I did. “We have to hurry,” he said as we started to make our way through the corridor. “Selene might have run into the mind-controlled chimeras. She’s no match for them in her state.”
“Mind-controlled chimeras?” Pollux repeated. “What in Tartarus’s name are you talking about?”
It was a miracle he could even speak properly considering the fact that August was still out cold and so was Odette. Then again, maybe it was exactly his desperation that fueled him. Pollux had always been the calm one in our little group, but he had his limits, and if he reached them, we’d probably all have to start praying to Tartarus.
Jared had the answers Pollux was looking for, but it wasn’t anything we wanted to hear. “The king is here and he has some kind of device that allows him to control chimeras. He did it to the Lower Chimera Unit. I barely managed to get away with my life.”
“What kind of device?” Commander Trevor asked, scowling. “Your Highness, do you know anything about that?”
