Chapter 40 #2
“Cyra, I can’t sense his mind!” Bressen yelled as he held me fast.
I went still in his arms as all the blood seemed to empty from my body. His hold tightened on me as my legs went numb, and I sagged in his arms. I wanted to deny the words, but I felt in my own mind the void where Brix’s consciousness should be.
Brix hadn’t yet risen from where he sat. He didn’t come to greet me, to hug me, to explain what happened.
“No.” The word escaped my throat as a croak.
“I’m sorry, Cyra,” Bressen breathed against my ear as he held me against him. “I’m so sorry.”
I was only distantly aware Samhail, Talyn, and the twins had come up behind us as Brix finally lifted his eyes to meet mine.
“Brix,” I said, his name a sob.
“Cyra,” Brix said, and his voice was sad.
“Brix, what happened? Where’s Jaylan?” I asked.
Bressen still held me, and I was grateful now because my legs wouldn’t hold me.
“Jaylan’s gone,” he said. Then he clarified, “They took him. They took everyone in the village. The woman, Magdalene, I think she said her name was? She left me here and told me to tell you what happened.”
I let out another sob and lurched against Bressen’s hold, but he pulled me back. My hands shook violently where I gripped his forearms as he held me around the waist.
“W-what did happen?” I managed to ask, but I already knew. If anger and rage strengthened my powers, then abject terror and grief must numb them, because I felt nothing inside.
“Jaylan and I came into town to get supplies,” Brix explained. “We were only here a few minutes when they attacked. At least a hundred of those…those things you told us about. The sym…sym…”
“Symbionts,” I whispered. “Brix, did they…are you…?”
I couldn’t bring myself to ask the question as my insides twisted violently. Bile rose up my throat, but I swallowed it back down.
Cyra, we’ll figure something out. We’ll find a way to help them, Bressen said into my mind.
The unease in his voice rang as clearly as if he’d spoken aloud. Not unease at what Magdalene had done, but unease – fear – over my reaction to this latest blow. He was afraid of what I might do. Afraid of what he might have to do.
“They took everyone, including Jaylan,” Brix went on, still sitting on the steps, his elbows on his knees. “I tried to stop them, Cyra. I swear I tried, but I couldn’t do anything.”
I shook my head. “It’s not your fault,” I whispered. “There was nothing you could do.” My eyes filled with tears, and I pulled at Bressen’s hold, but he held me fast.
“Brix,” Bressen said softly. “Did…they turn you?”
We both knew they had. We couldn’t sense Brix’s mind, but Bressen wanted to be sure.
Brix’s gaze landed on Bressen for the first time, and the fear in his eyes nearly broke me.
“I feel it inside me,” Brix said, his voice shaking. “I feel it trying to control me. I can’t stop it.” The words were desperate now.
Brix stood finally and turned to us. He had something in his hand that had been facing away from us, and I looked down to see what it was.
“Dagger!” Serise shouted, recognizing the object just as I did.
I sensed movement behind me as the assassin and the three gargoyles all reacted to the weapon.
“No!” I yelled. “Don’t hurt him!”
Brix raised his eyes to meet mine, and there was apology in them.
“Magdalene,” he said. “She told me there was no way to kill the symbiont, this thing inside me, without killing its host. She said…she said you’d have to kill me.” He raised the dagger to look at it. “Or she said I could do it myself so you wouldn’t have to.”
My entire body trembled as the agonizing choice Magdalene had given Brix settled over me like a shroud.
Magdalene wanted to break me. Everything she’d done since I’d met her was designed to gut me, to rip away at my humanity until I became the agent of destruction she’d seen. The monster that would kill thousands for her.
She might’ve finally found the thing to push me over as I stood faced with the idea of having to either kill my brother or watch him kill himself.
Brix raised the dagger. “I’m…I’m sorry, Cyra.”
“No!” I screamed. I fought Bressen’s hold with everything I had then. I felt him in my mind doing…something. Trying to calm me? I didn’t know, and it didn’t matter. The only thing that mattered now was getting to Brix before he stabbed himself.
“Someone get the dagger away from him!” Bressen yelled as he struggled to hold me.
Talyn ported a few feet in front of Brix, but when she tried to move forward, something pushed her back.
“There’s a forcefield or some kind of warding!” she yelled as she turned to face us. “I can’t get through.”
Samhail surged forward, one of his swords in hand. He tried to slash the blade in front of Brix, but it glanced off something invisible. He tried punching forward, but he grunted in pain as his hand stopped dead a couple feet from Brix.
“I can’t get through either,” he said urgently.
Brix had looked momentarily hopeful, but resignation overtook him at the confirmation no one could get to him.
No, not no one. Instinctively, I knew I was the only one who’d be able to get through whatever warding Magdalene had put up around Brix.
I tried to push toward him again, but Bressen still held me fast.
“Let me go!” I yelled. “I can get to him. The warding will let me through. I know it!”
Bressen moved one arm higher so he held me across my shoulders.
“I know it will let you through,” he said, pulling me back so his lips were close to my ear.
“It’s what Magdalene wants, but you know he’ll turn as soon as you get close, and once you’re inside the warding, we won’t be able to get to you. ”
“I don’t care! I can help him! Let me go!”
“No,” Bressen said. “I can’t.”
Brix’s entire body seized then, and his eyes widened in terror. I watched, my own terror burning through me like wildfire, as the dark blue symbiont shell began to creep over his skin.
I’d seen the shells overtake their victims before, but the change was usually fast, often starting from the head or the back as the symbiont seeped quickly over the body.
Not so with Brix. The symbiont took its time now. It started at his feet and crawled slowly up his body as if savoring the look of horror on my face and the dread on Brix’s. As if it wanted to prolong our agony. As if it had been instructed to make this as appalling as possible.
Brix looked at the dagger in his hand and then at me. I saw the intent in his eyes.
“No!” I screamed as I fought fruitlessly against Bressen’s hold. “Brix, don’t you dare! We’ll find a way to save you! Please!”