Chapter Forty-Nine
My mind is in battle, fighting with me, wanting so badly to release the hell that simmers under my skin. But they have Nala, dragging her into the room unconscious, her feet scraping against the polished marble floors. I will try to snuff out the flames for her.
Her limp body bumps against the door frame, a dull thud echoing in the otherwise silent space. Her arms and feet are bound by rope, and her head is lolled to the side, as her weight rests in the arms of Charlie.
“See, I took a little precaution,” Miss Worthington says, and my fists return to their clenched state. “Charlie here has been my eyes and ears for a while now.” Her words eat through the tension in the air with razor-sharp teeth.
“Charlie?” I call out in disbelief; this sense of betrayal cuts deep. “Nala loved you… How could you?” Sorrow dulls my words as I think back to the excitement Nala had felt when she met Charlie. All the fangirl moments and blushing… and it was all a lie.
“He’s a Deceiver, Asha; I can see his true face,” Ryder interrupts, and my blood boils again. The fire reignites in my palm, and I fantasise about watching him burn.
“Being with you two the past few months has been hell. But every touch, every kiss, every putrid show of affection let me get in there,” Charlie replies, pointing to Nala’s head. His lips move in time with his words, but it does not sound like Charlie.
I feel like I am staring back at a stranger. A stranger with resentment in his eyes. “Which ultimately led me to you.” He points at me with a sinister smile.
“You’ve done an excellent job, my son.” Miss Worthington smiles at Charlie, and a twisted piece of the puzzle slots into place. I don’t say anything for a moment, just stare back in shock.
“Son?” Anger seethes through my veins; this deceit somehow feels more personal now.
“You heard correctly,” Miss Worthington affirms. “The Suns took him from me when they found out he was a Moon. With our new army, we will claim the revenge we seek.”
She stands behind Charlie, proudly resting her palm against his back, and I feel sick.
“This is just the start… sorry you had to be collateral.”
I scoff at her pathetic apology and fight the urge to rip her throat out. Charlie smirks at me and turns back to a limp Nala. With stiff fingers, he lifts her head up into his hands, squeezing her cheeks tightly, then lets go like she means nothing to him, her head dropping violently again.
“DON’T YOU TOUCH HER!” I scream, readying myself to unleash the bullet of light in my hand.
Ryder tries to shake off the soldiers pinning him down, but they are relentless.
“See, if you don’t comply… Nala here will die, and so will all the other Moons you tried so hard to save.” Miss Worthington’s smug smile returns like she wasn’t just afraid for her life a minute ago.
The orb still waits in my palm like loaded ammunition. But the soldiers discard Nala to the floor as if she is just a bag of bones and draw back their arrows at her.
“NOOOO!” I cry out. “You can have my blood… just don’t hurt her.” I surrender, feeling defeated.
“Asha, no.” Ryder’s eyes glaze with worry as he tries to fight the firm grip of the soldiers.
“What fucking choice do I have?” I reply, looking around at the sea of destruction we are drowning in.
“But they want me to kill you.” His voice breaks and shatters into a million pieces, and I can see the desperation in his eyes, but if the serum works, Ryder will live, and so will Nala. It’s a no-brainer.
“At least you’ll both survive.” I freely retreat onto the chair I was once held prisoner in.
“There’s a good girl,” Darryn patronises me as the soldiers reclaim their places behind me.
“If I do this, you let them all go?” I ask, staring at Nala’s vulnerable body on the floor.
“Every single one of them… for you and your boyfriend.” Darryn smiles. This trade may be sadistic, but at least I am the only casualty.
“How do I know you’re telling the truth?” I ask before they start taking my blood.
“You don’t… but I could just blow her brains out right now.” He signals to the guards, and they aim their arrows at Nala again.
“NO! I’ll do it, just please leave her alone,” I admit defeat and surrender my veins to them.
“Take her out of here,” he orders, pointing at Nala as she lay unaware on the cold floor.
A handful of the soldiers drag Nala away and out of the room.
“Charlie, you can take over from here,” Darryn instructs, and he nods his head soldierly, as he and Miss Worthington follow Nala out of the room.
Probably to go and watch the show behind that window.
Two soldiers still stand arming the door, and Charlie leans against the wall, raising a tormenting brow my way.
The soldiers’ hands hold me still as they pierce my skin with the needle.
I wince as the stinging sensation eats away at my arm.
Its sharp point clings to my flesh, embedded deep in my vein.
A bag hangs high above me, filling quickly with my blood, Influenced by Miss Worthington before she left.
I stare at the crimson fluid as it travels through the tube, defeated. Nothing is coming to save me now.
They’re two bags down and I’m feeling woozy. My vision is becoming blurred, and everything within it is distorted. I look for Ryder and, in my state, see three of him.
“How much more are you going to take? You’re going to kill her.” Ryder’s voice rings in my ears, and my head drops in defeat.
“A few more bags should be enough to create our army, but don’t worry, we won’t take your kill from you.” Charlie chuckles at the last bit, and Ryder lunges for him even though the hold on him is too strong.
“It’s cute, really, how much you care for her… It’ll be a shame when you tear her limb from limb.”
Ryder lunges again, but this time strong enough to break from the soldiers’ hold.
Charlie stumbles back as Ryder pulls at the chains, snapping them in two and breaking free.
Shadows seep out from his being and disperse into hawks swarming around the soldiers and Charlie, pecking and scratching at them relentlessly.
Ryder emerges from the shadows, gripping chains in his hands, swinging them around like a weapon, so fast they make cutting noises through the air as they slice his opponents up.
More soldiers charge into the room, but every attack they make, Ryder counters until there is no one left, and blood drips from every part of him, clinging to his frame like glue.
He pants as he makes his way over to me, unclipping the blood bag and sliding the needle out from my arm.
“Come on, we’ve got to go!”
His words don’t register in my brain properly, but I try to make it to my feet as best as I can. He holds me up, and we make it to the door, stepping over the torn-up bodies and pools of blood on the floor before he turns to me.
“Why have we stopped?” I ask him, confused as a disturbing smile laces his bloodstained face.
An uneasy feeling twists my gut and turns me white.
“Because we never moved.” The voice came from Ryder, but it was Charlie’s. His face distorts, and a cruel laughter fills the room. Ryder morphs into Charlie. It was him the whole time.
“Asha, he is getting in your head,” Ryder says from the soldiers’ grasp across the room, which is now completely clean and no longer stained in a sickly red liquid.
“You make this so easy.” Charlie grips my cheeks and laughs maniacally again. “I’ll miss this when you become his chew toy.”
I am too tired to react and too weak. I don’t know how much blood they have taken now, but I am sure I won’t last another bag.
As my blood ebbs away, a chilling numbness creeps through my veins, each beat of my heart fading like an echo. My limbs feel impossibly heavy, as if they are weighed down by stones, my strength evaporating with each passing moment.
“That will be enough. Bring me the blood and unhand the girl.” Darryn’s voice bleeds into the room via some sort of speaker, but my vision is blurred, the world morphing into indistinct shapes and smudges as my eyes surrender to the emptiness.
“Asha, I know you are tired.”
My eyelids feel heavy like iron sheets, and I struggle to lift them.
An image of a woman springs to my mind. At first, I see her in glimpses — the dimple when she smiles, a curl of auburn hair, the sound of her joyous laughter bringing life to the darkness.
“My little girl, you have to find the strength within.”
Like a zap of lightning, her voice brings back memories I didn’t know I had. A life I have no recollection of living. Her voice is like a bed of soft silk soothing my aching body.
“Mum?” I mutter barely a whisper, the veil of black still dominating my view.
“Yes, my sweet Asha.” Her voice seeps through the cold cracks of my mind.
“Mum… I’m sorry. I know I’m not what you wanted me to be.” I sob, unable to move my limbs.
“Asha, you are more wonderful than I could’ve ever imagined.” She smiles, and I see her dimple again, my tears still rolling down my cheeks.
“But I failed you. I am everything you and Dad fought hard for… And I have no fight left in me.”
Each tear falls with the weight of my supposed destiny, my shoulders finally giving in to the strain of a hundred expectations.
“You have not failed me, Asha. My faith in you is everlasting.” I see her clear as day, like she is standing here with me. “They may have the power of sun or moon… but you have that and a million stars.”
Her words warm me, like my bones have been frozen for a hundred years and are finally thawing out. “For every star that burns out, another is born - you may be burnt out now, but a thousand flames lie dormant within you.”
I cling to my mother’s words as they echo throughout my mind, and I am transported to that place again. Where it all began. Oriah’s safe haven. The place of a thousand stars. My hands and feet are unburdened and light as a feather, defying gravity once again.
‘Come here, child.’
I hear Oriah’s voice, and my body is pulled towards it.
This is it. I must be dead. A sense of peace washes over me as I get lost in the serenity of the waves.
My body is guided like a puppet on strings towards a bright star that stands out amongst the rest. The whole world quietens, chaos nullified in the vast depths of this abyss.
Until it stands before me, staring back at me, so bright I’m sure my eyes will burn out.
But they don’t. The light conjures me closer until I am only an inch away.
A mere ant at the foot of a spectacular mountain.
Its fiery centre calls me to touch it, my eyes hypnotised by its beauty.
I surrender to its calling, reaching my finger out to let it consume me.
In one swift motion, I am propelled back into the ether, the light becoming smaller as I drift further away.
The stars that surround me move so slowly, like they are stuck in time.
My head tilts back as I let the sensation indulge me, my arms hanging freely by my side, not resisting.
The world quickens again, and I see my life flash before my eyes all at once.
My mum, the father who raised me. Luca. Nala.
Oriah. River and Ryder. And then… nothing.
Just darkness.
Until the stars blink back to life one by one, instilling a shiver down my spine. Not a cold one. A shiver that tickles my skin gently, a reassurance, like a passed loved one touching your shoulder. One that you always knew was there, watching over you, but you never realised until this moment.
The stars, like a kaleidoscope, shimmer and intertwine as they race towards me.
My heart is like a magnet, pulling them closer and closer until we collide.
A million sparks ignite a fire within me.
A supernatural ember that not even an ocean can put out.
An undying blaze. My limbs flare with a golden glow, a light brighter than any star that defeats the darkness like it was never there.
My bones rejoice and rejuvenate as the fire roars within me. Untamed. And hungry.
My eyes open fast, and I jump to my feet. I am back in the room that devoured me of all hope. Yet now I stand hopeful. My Gifts shine brightly in my hands like beacons in the night. The door swings open again.
“T-that’s impossible.” The cold voice of Darryn seeps through the speaker again, and my anger returns.
“Screw you,” I spit at him, hoping he walks through the door.
My body feels stronger than it ever has before, and I want him to suffer for what he has done, but he has Nala, and I can’t risk anything happening to her.
He doesn’t walk through the door. Ryder does.
Willingly. And the door is firmly shut behind him.
I race over to him, my heart thumping a thousand beats per minute.
My body aches for him, for his touch, to be held like he did before.
But his stare is different; a purple ring envelopes his irises.
“Get away from me, Asha.”
He steps back, panting uncontrollably and shying from my touch. Any softness in his features is lost, a series of sharp lines and tensed muscles. His jaw is wound tightly, and his veins in his forehead and neck bulge slightly under his skin.
“Ryder, what’s happening?” I ask, examining him with my eyes. “Did they get you?”
I take another step closer.
“GET AWAY FROM ME!” He snarls like an animal that should be caged up, and the fear I felt earlier creeps back into my bones. “They injected me… You have to kill me, Asha.” His words fight through gritted teeth, and his fists clench tightly.
“Don’t be silly. You can fight this.”
I step timidly towards him again and try to meet his gaze, but his eyes stay stuck on the floor.
“I can’t, Asha.” His face contorts at war with his thoughts, but I still tread carefully towards him. “I didn’t want to walk through this door, but they ordered me to, and I couldn’t stop myself.” His voice breaks, and his fists are closed so tightly his fingernails dig into the soft of his palm.
I don’t believe him; he can fight this.
“Well, I’m not giving up on you.” I straighten my spine and continue towards him.
“I SAID GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM ME, ASHA!” he screams, making me flinch as rage erupts out of him. “They’re gonna make me kill you… You have to kill me first.”
His eyes are full of sorrow. “Please… promise me you’ll kill me if you get the chance.” A tear rolls slowly down his cheek, and I nod my head to ease his sorrows. But there is no way in hell I am killing that boy.
“Enough of this!” Darryn’s voice seeps through the intercom, lingering in the air between us, trapped within these four walls, just as we are.
“Kill her!”