Page 64 of Destinies of Diamond
I remembered the first time I’d kissed Selene, when she hadn’t even been aware I was the one she was kissing. She had felt genuine grief over the death of Jared Glass, even if at the academy, I’d treated her like trash. She had always been so special, so determined, so beautiful and driven.
My life had been dedicated to my mission for so long that up to a point, I’d forgotten how to feel. Maybe that was why it had been so easy for me to hurt her, because I hadn’t realized that people experienced emotion differently.
I screamed again and the vials and machines in the room started to shatter. The guards retrieved their phasers. The doctors were attempting to evacuate. The drones lunged at me again, their lasers flashing.
At the back of my mind, I could now see my whole unit, supporting me in their own way. I could remember Teela’s stern eyes, Kallios’s sharp grin, Danadu and Viu’an’s bickering. I was Jar’yd again, standing in front of the Great Mother and receiving her blessing.
“You have such promise, my child,”she’d said to me once.“Never abandon hope.”
I wondered if she’d seen this coming, if she’d always known it would happen. If she had, I didn’t think I could consider myself a Heliad ever again. I loved my people, but I loved Selene more, and I could never forgive them for being the cause of her death, no matter how indirect. I couldn’t forgive myself either.
At last, the cuffs broke and I got up, clutching my middle to keep my insides from spilling out. I needn’t have bothered. The heat I was emanating instantly cauterized my injuries. It was a shame it couldn’t do the same with the terrible wound I’d received, all the way into my soul.
I half-expected the guards to try to kill me, but they didn’t. Their hands trembled on their phasers as they stared at me with wide eyes. “S-Stay back,” Vincent stammered. “I’m warning you. Stay back or I’ll shoot.”
“Oh, will you? And do you think I care about something like that? You just had your little toy vivisect me. Phasers won’t even tickle me.”
That might not have been completely accurate, but I couldn’t care less. Nothing could hurt more than the knowledge that I’d lost my family, what little hope for the future I’d had left.
I cared deeply about my fellow Heliads, but they couldn’t fill the hole that had just been carved inside me. They couldn’t change the fact that I’d failed to save the woman who was so special to me. And because of that, I didn’t care what happened to me from now on.
I’d die today, and I’d take these bastards with me.
I fully intended to find a way to blow myself up. Helios’s power wouldn’t obey me if I was self-destructive, but I was creative. I could have come up with something. Those phasers and drones had a lot of promise. I could use their tachyon diamond cores to create some kind of tool that would allow me to fulfill my goal.
Before I could go through with my tentative plan, something tugged at the back of my mind. It was unlike anything I’d felt before. I’d sensed such mental touches in the past, usually from Helios or the Great Mother, but none of it had been like that.
It reminded me of Selene and the mere memory of her paralyzed me, keeping me from attacking the guards. It was stupid to hope, but I reached back anyway.
A bright purplish light enveloped me. I’d have recognized it anywhere. It had the same feel and strength I could always read in Selene’s eyes, even when we’d been back at Nexus and she’d defied me with such determination in her attempt to escape.
Could she still be alive? Why not? She’d come very close to running away from me. A spaceship, even one owned by King Philip, was easier to handle than an alien planet located in a space-time anomaly. In fact, I would not be surprised if she’d had something to do with the explosion.
Her temper had been pretty short lately and her powers out of control. It would explain everything.
Ecstatic with my new realization, I shoved away my desire to die and pursued the power further. It wasn’t as effortless and painless as my regular traveling method, especially since I was still hurt. I didn’t care. I had hope again and as long as Selene was still alive, I had a future.
The next thing I knew, I was back on the main deck of the Venom, with Brendan, August and Archibald Chimera leaning over me. I stared up at them, dazed, my head still spinning with confusion and pain.
I must have looked pretty awful, because everyone gaped at me. “Tartarus help me,” August whispered. “What the fuck happened to you?”
“I got captured,” I replied. “But never mind me. Where’s Selene? Is she here?”
Brendan nodded, his lips twisting into a soft, but slightly pained smile. “Yes. She got away, although it came at a cost.”
The story he told me was so wild and crazy I almost couldn’t believe my ears. Selene had managed to escape King Philip on her own, but she’d been unable to save the chimeras. Left without another option, Sphinx had chosen to practically commit suicide and kill all the other mind-controlled chimeras in the process.
That must have been what I’d felt before I’d gotten caught. The confirmation of Zephyrus’s death hurt more than I expected. I’d already heard about it from my captors, but still, I had hoped to finally patch things up with her. It was too late for regrets and anyway, the only thing that had been destroyed was her metallic shell.
“We’ll get them back,” Brendan finished. “But to do that, we have to finish this. We have to face The Grand Judiciary, once and for all. And I have to finally make a stand.”
“And how are we supposed to do that?” August asked. “We don’t even have our chimeras anymore.”
I thought about New Washington and the sudden attack of the Centaurs on Gaia’s Temple. A sudden suspicion niggled at the back of my mind. “That might be true, but their power always stemmed from one source—from the gods. The Grand Judiciary can’t touch it either. We’ll find a solution. Because guess what? We’re not in a rush.”
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Wesley
