Chapter 20 Liz #2
But then Hyperion’s opening a portal, and we’re flying through to the Warrior Way Gate.
At the Clear Creek Gate, Azar says. No signs of your mother or any blessed.
Liz?
Mom? Tell me where you are—what do you see?
I’m—I can’t tell. They’re trying to bring Azar here. I thought he’d died. If you come alone—they might not hurt you. They’ll definitely try and attack him.
They might not hurt me? Does she think I’m delusional? They think I’m public enemy number one. I’ve seen the videos.
Two more hops, still no luck.
But in our fifth location, I’m waiting for them to clear the main buildings when I notice something strange.
There’s some kind of movement at the nearby dog park.
We’ve been popping around for a while—more than enough time for everyone to hightail it with their canine friends.
They must have seen us. . . So why are there still people out there?
Or was it just a stray dog? I think about Fluff Dog and how scared he was when I found him.
I’m heading over to the dog park, I say, because that’s strange.
Thanks to some kind of man they caught hiding with a handgun, Hyperion and the others are obsessed with thoroughly checking the commissary. No idea why—it’s just a store. Hyperion glances that way, and seeing nothing, he shrugs.
As I draw closer, though, I feel it.
Mom’s here.
I’m not sure how I can tell—I’ve never been able to feel her before, but now I can.
Maybe I’m growing in skill, or maybe she was trying to let me know she’s here.
As I fly closer, I see her. There’s an enormous orange, cartoon-cutout dog decoration made of molded plastic, and there’s a green, plastic-coated wire picnic table next to it. She’s zip-tied to the picnic table.
I can’t help thinking of my mom before all this started.
She was—well, she was the ideal mother. She never cared if I ate too much candy, not that we ever had a lot.
She never cared whether I wore trashy outfits—she was more likely to borrow them.
And she always patted my head and kissed my forehead.
She and my dad fought a lot, but they also showed up for everything I did, my entire life.
She taught me to stand up for myself.
We made signs and protested the injustices of the world together.
In fact, she was probably the person I respected most in the world. She never compromised on what she thought, what she believed.
Which is why it hurt when she told me I was a monster.
When I realized my only real value was in protecting my siblings.
Watching her flinch every time I drew near. . . It didn’t hurt as much as losing Azar, but it was close. I’ll never forget the look on her face when she told me how I murdered that woman when I was kidnapped. It’s seared into my soul.
But she’s still my mom.
And she did help me escape. I just can’t reconcile in my mind which one is her. The one who helped and raised and watched over me? The one who worked with Gideon to betray me? The one who helped me escape? Who is she, really? Which one?
Saving me landed her an execution. She may be a lure for me, but I don’t doubt they mean to kill her.
Gideon might want to spare her, but he doesn’t have real power, not truly.
The old, white-haired men running the US military aren’t going to tolerate a young, up-and-coming MMA fighter among their ranks any longer than they’re forced.
His knowledge of the dragons would only have gotten him so far.
If he’s even in charge of his own post at this point, I’ll be surprised. I wonder whether he regrets it. More even than my mother, losing him hurt. I know that sounds strange—my own mother—and Gideon’s betrayal stung more.
But Mom was always all about causes.
I think I always sensed that I scared her on some level.
But not Gideon. He loved me. He helped me. He always would.
Until he didn’t.
No one else is around as I fly toward her. When I come into her view, her eyes widen in alarm. “It’s true.” She swallows.
I land on the edge of the picnic table, and I’m grateful it’s bolted down. My weight doesn’t cause it to tilt at all. I look her over carefully. Other than having her wrists and ankles restrained, zip ties running under the holes in the table and back around, she looks completely fine.
“You’re even wearing normal clothes.” She always looked good in her blousy, embroidered shirts and yoga pants. “And they’re feeding you, clearly.”
“Liz, I told you not to come.” She glances to the side, but no one’s there. Just the big orange dog.
I unsheathe a sword and slice the zip ties on her ankles.
Between one second and the next, I freeze, waiting for something bad to happen.
Liz? It’s Hyperion. Where did you go? We were just clearing the commissary, and you disappeared. Azar’s going to kill me.
I found my mom. Dog park. Releasing her now.
“Checking in?”
“Could you hear me?” I step forward, leaning down to slice her wrist ties.
“I know the look,” she says. “You rebonded him?”
“Actually,” I say, “that wasn’t Azar.”
“Who was it?”
“Hyperion,” I say.
Mom sits up, rubbing her wrists. “Did you bond him now? You just can’t help yourself.”
You’re okay? Hyperion sounds a little panicked. Phileas just found someone else—once we confirm he’s the only one, I’m coming. Stay put.
I’m fine. There’s no one here. I drop down next to her, sitting on the edge of the picnic table. Our distraction worked—no one’s here. “Mom, we need to get out of here.”
She nods. “Give me one minute to catch my breath. Lying like that—I lost the circulation in my wrists.”
“But you’ll come with us, right?”
Mom eyes my wings. “You’ve changed even more than before.”
“I have, yeah.” I grit my teeth. “Do you really hate them? Because you helped me escape with them before.”
Mom’s frown is deep. Even her brow furrows. “I owe you an apology, Liz. You know, I buried my guilt deep.”
“Your guilt?”
More soldiers here, Hyperion says. A lot more.
Here too, Azar says. Ice spears, bullets, ballista.
Hold tight, Liz. We’ll tell you when we’re clear. Hyperion doesn’t sound upset. He sounds. . .excited.
I can hear it all behind us—the bullets, and the roar of Hyperion’s fire.
“I—when I was pregnant with you, I went to the doctor.” She starts breathing faster. “That’s when I found out that you had died.”
“Excuse me?” I lean closer. “I must’ve misheard you.”
Mom touches the sword I’m holding in my hand, her fingertips tracing the lines of the hilt—almost pure gold. “You died. The ultrasound showed no heartbeat, but I couldn’t take it. They wanted to do something called a D&C. Do you know what that is?”
I have no idea what to say. “Clearly I wasn’t dead.”
“They told me you were. They wanted to do a dilation and curettage, where they scrape the inside of my uterus until I’ve expelled the incompatible fetus.” Her eyes are not focused. “That’s what they called you, the incompatible fetus.”
“Mom, I’m fine.”
Her head snaps toward mine. “You weren’t fine, but I had a friend.
” She narrows her eyes. “She said she had a way to fix it. She knew a woman—so I didn’t tell your dad what the doctor said.
I went to see this woman instead, and she promised she could fix it—she could restart your heart. You’d be fine.”
“This sounds insane, Mom.”
“She told me you’d be marked—bought and paid for, if I did this. I could have your childhood, but eventually, they’d come for you. One day, the woman who saved you would come to collect payment for what she’d done.” Mom’s crying now. “And she did.” She chokes. “She—um, she had a fake leg.”
I threw that woman into the same volcano Hyperion threw me into. Unlike me, she never flew back out.
“You were supposed to be a sacrifice. They came too early—far earlier than I was ready to accept—but even as a child, you didn’t make it easy.” She looks into my eyes. “It’s my fault you are this way. You should never have been born.”
Hyperion bursts through the building behind me, roaring. He’s coming for us, so nothing she says can scare me. She may be insane, or maybe she did let someone perform some kind of dark magic ritual on me, but I’m still me. I’m not some kind of creature.
I’m not the monster she accused me of being.
I’m just Liz.
“You can’t make me hate myself anymore,” I say. “But you know what? I shouldn’t have come.” At least she answered my question—she’s closer to the woman who called me a monster than the one who helped me escape.
She grabs the hilt of my sword. “Now,” she hisses, pulling the sword free.
From behind the orange dog, Gideon steps out. She throws the sword at him, and he snaps the hilt from the air. “We’re both trying to help you, Liz,” he says as he slams the sword into some kind of prepared slot on. . .I can’t quite tell what. “We’re always trying to help you.”
I jump toward him, but he presses a lever down, and the ice spear shoots.
I recall what he said before I escaped, that they planned to use my swords against the blessed.
The ice spears haven’t ever worked—they’re not strong enough to penetrate the flame blessed scales—but with the blade of my sword strapped to it, the spear slices right through the hide on Hyperion’s chest and disappears.
“What did you do?” I ask.
“Actually, I should be thanking you,” Gideon says.
“Without your sword, this would never have worked.” He’s smiling.
“I plan to tell them all that you voluntarily handed it over. That should get you the pardon you deserve, and if you die when the bond shatters this time, I’m ready to bring you back again. ”
“Gideon.”
He reaches for my face, his hand soft. “You’re a victim. I don’t blame you Liz—I’d never blame the victim.”
Hyperion’s body slams into the ground beside us, writhing. In the center of his belly, there’s a bright blue spear, pulsing with no way out.
He’s shaking now, and I think that, although I missed it when Azar died, I’m about to see, front and center, what it looks like when a flame blessed explodes, opening up a massive chasm in the ground like the one I saw with the red scales wedged into it.
Liz! A portal opens on the ground next to Hyperion. Get your mom! Let’s go. Azar’s talons curl around Hyperion and he yanks, dragging his brother’s massive, convulsing body through the portal. Now!
“I don’t have a mother,” I say. “As far as she’s concerned, I died in the womb.
” I slam Gideon’s hand away, and launch into the air.
But just before I pass through the portal, I turn back.
“You may not care about me, but you should care to hear that your son bonded Gordon Earth Blessed, and your daughter Jade bonded Asteria Strike Blessed. Your daughter Coral—she has even bigger plans. Looks like I’m not your only monster.
” I flap my wings intentionally hard, blowing wind in her face. “I guess we all take after our mother.”
Then I pivot and fly down through the portal to Selfoss, watching with a smile while Azar closes the hole on Mom and Gideon’s upset faces.