Page 56 of Destinies of Diamond
“Listen, I don’t want to kill anyone,” I told the guards. “Just let me go. I’ll be on my way and you’ll never see me again. Easy. Simple. Everybody wins.”
“We can’t do that,” the guard who’d first shouted at me said. “We can’t just let a traitor go.”
As far as I was concerned, I was only protecting myself and my baby. But then again, that wasn’t exactly true. My relationship with Jared could be considered treason, and we had plotted the king’s murder. I hadn’t been too involved in the whole scheme, but I’d still known about it.
Did it really matter in the end? The king didn’t seem to know about Brendan’s plan at all, or if he did, he hadn’t mentioned it. I certainly wouldn’t say anything. Even if I did, it would make no difference to the end result. “I don’t care about your opinion of me,” I snapped at the guards. “You other let me go or he dies. I’m not kidding around.”
“Acting Pilot Renard—”
“Don’t call me that,” I cut the guard off. “I think we all know I lost my position the moment I was brought here like a criminal. I haven’t done anything wrong, but I won’t take this abuse, just because you all think I have. Put away the phasers, or I start burning off limbs completely.”
He was already badly burnt, but with the advances in technology, he could be restored to perfect health. That wouldn’t happen if I lost control of my power again and carbonized him completely. I was barely holding back now, knowing that if I lost control altogether, my fate was sealed. But still, the guards refused to get out of my way and I wasn’t sure how to leave while still making sure they wouldn’t jump me.
The tablet vibrated in my hold, still inaccessible by regular means. I couldn’t access it. I could try to destroy it, but Gaia only knew what effect that would have on me.“Please,”I thought to myself.“Please, someone. Anyone, help me!”
The device heated up. My restless tachyon manipulation skills flared, responding to the power inside the strange object. As the temperature increased even further, I was torn between the desire to drop it and the desperate hope that this was a good sign.
It was. The room started to shake and with it, so did the blocked bond at the back of my mind.“Wait for me, Selene. I’m coming.”
The wall exploded and the familiar form of my chimera rushed inside. I could have sobbed in relief when I saw her. She still wasn’t completely herself, her eyes flickering in a constant struggle. But she was there, once again emanating the same wisdom and familiar warmth that I’d come to rely on ever since I’d bonded with her.
This time, when she took me in her paw, I felt protected and had no desire to free myself. She held onto the king too, doubtlessly acknowledging that he was a useful prisoner.“You did very well, Selene,”she whispered through our connection.“Now let me handle this. Close your eyes.”
I did, too exhausted and scared to ask her what she planned. She swept forward, and the sound of screams, blasts, and nauseating squelching hit my ears, a symphony of death and destruction. The scent of burnt flesh and spilled blood assaulted my nostrils, even more powerful than before.
And then, Sphinx was opening her cockpit and sliding me inside. It was only when I was in my seat, secured by the belt, that I finally opened my eyes. “Where are the others?” I asked her.
“Still trapped, I’m afraid,”she offered. “I could only get free because I heard your call, and I don’t know how long I’ll be able to fight off the original command I was given.”
I didn’t like the sound of that at all. “Wait… What do you mean?”
“I think you know, Selene,”Sphinx answered. “We have to get you out of here before it’s too late.”
I didn’t want to leave her and the other chimeras behind. I didn’t care about what anyone else said. The chimeras weren’t tools. They were individual beings, and they were my family. But I didn’t have a choice. Unless I found a way to crack the tablet, I was useless here, and I had to prioritize the well-being of my baby.
“You can do it, Selene. Your lovers are already looking for you. You’re not alone. You never will be.”
That sounded an awful lot like a goodbye, and I didn’t know what to say to her. I tasted desperation in my mouth, and it wasn’t just mine. It was hers too.
We weren’t connected through the Sphinx’s systems, but even so, I sensed her anxiety and her terrible struggle. The damn device was still vibrating and I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to destroy it or try to access it again. “You can’t destroy it,”Sphinx told me, her voice thick with regret.“That thing holds a fragment of Chimera’s soul. You have to keep it safe, no matter what.”
A soul fragment? What the fuck? “How is that even possible? You can’t just… hack a soul to pieces.”
“It’s an inaccurate term. Tartarus diamond cores tap into our souls, which allows us to inhabit metallic shells at next to no strain. But Chimera was always different. She carried three distinctive souls—one of a snake, one of a goat, and one of a lion. That was why it was almost impossible for her to inhabit a regular chimera like us. Even Typhon, who is built similarly, has trouble, and he doesn’t use more than one soul.
“Each core went into one of these devices. One of them is with Brendan. The second is now with you. I’m not sure about the third. But if you destroy any of them, you’ll destroy Chimera, at a metaphysical level. So please… Don’t do it. She’s family.”
That, I could understand, and I clutched the tablet to my chest a little more tightly. “I wouldn’t have known how to do it even if I’d wanted to. But what other solution do we have?”
“You leave and find the others. Don’t worry about us. Just run and don’t look back.”
By the time she finished the phrase, we’d already emerged in the ship hangars. She hadn’t needed any input from me to get rid of the guards who’d tried to stop us. Through the displays, I could catch a few glimpses of the corridors tinged with blood.
In front of us, I saw the familiar, immobile chimeras. Several men were trying to enter the cockpits of the Harpies, but the mechanisms were stuck. “It’s no use,” someone shouted. “We can’t force them open.”
“Chimeras do whatever they want, you know that,” another soldier replied.
“Not this time. We’re supposed to have fixed that problem. Try again.”
