Libra Ascending: An Epic Urban Fantasy Romance (Zodiac Guardians Book 1) by Tamar Sloan (adult books to read .TXT) 📗

But it does nothing to stop the reality of what’s happened.

Zarius and Tess are dead. Killed by Chardis.

He turns to Tristan, one eye glittering with satisfaction, the other a black hole of evil. "I wanted you to see that before I finished you next."

The mist grows and multiplies, sucking any light from the room. The warehouse shrinks as it turns into night.

His whole body turns cold as Tristan realizes his vision has come to pass.

Cassandra's dead.

Everything's black.

Brielle will be next.

He doesn’t stop the cry that explodes from his throat as he feels his heart compress. It’s like a weight’s just been slammed on his chest. Agony detonates from the inside out, the sound of Chardis’s chuckle an unwanted poison in his mind.

As the pain has his legs giving out, Tristan wishes he 'd been strong enough. He couldn't protect Zarius or Tess. He couldn't save Brielle.

He’s failed.

28

Brielle

All Brielle can do is watch as Tristan crumples and screams. She’s never felt so useless. Zarius and Tess just died right in front of her, and the same thing is about to happen to Tristan.

“Chardis, please stop!” she begs, running forward and stopping just short of the black mist. “Take me instead. I’ll go without a fight. I’ll do whatever you want. Just spare him. Please!”

“No, Brielle!” Tristan groans, the words barely audible through his clenched teeth.

Chardis aims his black, soulless eye on her, and she suddenly feels heavier.

“Having a Zodiac Guardian as a pet is a tempting offer,” Chardis says like a panther purring, stalking slowly closer. “But what use do I have for Libra? Power of truth and justice, eh? Was it your justice to let Alden die for you? Was it your truth to befriend the girl plotting your demise just because she cast a smile in your direction? You can’t even save the boy you love.”

He waves his hand toward Tristan, who’s doubled over at his feet, barely breathing and clutching his chest.

Desperation fries Brielle’s nerve endings from fingertips to toes, threatening to burst through her chest. And yet all she can do is watch Tristan gasp to death. Hot tears stream down her cheeks, and she wishes she still had her suit, if only to hide her face.

Chardis is right. She’s of no use to anyone. Alden died trying to save her from Adalind. Cassandra died because of the connection Adalind saw between them. Brielle came here to help Tristan rescue Zarius and Tess, and because of her failure, they’re both now dead, too. She’s nothing but a walking disaster, a living disappointment.

“There is no truth other than what I say there is, no justice other than what I will there to be,” Chardis says, his chest puffing out. “I am the truth and justice in the Universe, and I will not be judged by the likes of you.”

Brielle’s body is all of a sudden so heavy that she can no longer stand. Her knees buckle and she lands on all fours. This is his doing. He’s manipulating gravity.

“I must say, I do love seeing a Zodiac Guardian on their knees,” he boasts, his thin lips curling in a wicked smile. “Bowing to the rightful power in the Universe, like a good girl.”

A force tightens around Brielle’s chest, cramping her lungs and making it impossible to fill them. Gasping, she looks over at Tristan, who’s now laying on the floor in the fetal position. His face is puffy and red, like the blood is trapped there.

She knows there are only seconds left until he dies. And her, too.

“I do wonder which of you I should kill first, which of you I should make the other watch as they die,” Chardis says as he paces around them.

Tristan’s bulging eyes find hers, and he reaches out. But his arms are too heavy and don’t make it more than a few inches. He nods, and she understands all the many layers of that small gesture even without him mouthing the words, “It’s okay.”

No, it’s not. None of this is okay. Tristan has spent his whole life looking for her, or at least other Guardians like her. Fate has to exist. Brielle refuses to believe that the Universe would set them up to meet only to kill them immediately after and doom itself in the process.

Cassandra and Alden, Zarius and Tess, they can’t die in vain. They just can’t! She is going to avenge them and save Tristan, or she’s going to die trying.

With every ounce of her strength, she pushes herself up enough to look at Chardis, her arm muscles shaking violently with the effort.

“If…not…me,” she says between broken breaths. “Then…who?”

Chardis stops his pacing and looks down at her. “What?” There’s a hike in his brow as if he’s impressed by her ability to speak through his gravity intensification.

“Who…will…judge…you…for…all…you’ve…killed?” The last word exhausts her air supply and barely makes it past her lips. The lack of oxygen makes her arms give out, and she falls flat on her chest.

Chardis gives a low chuckle. “You’re no match for me, girl.”

A familiar tingle in her gut signals through the white noise of pain and suffocation. She would know that tingle anywhere. She’s felt it her entire life. But it makes no sense. Not with him.

The tingle creeps up her belly, then her neck, and as she knew it would, the vision takes hold.

Brielle is suddenly spiraling through a whirlwind of faces meeting their death. Whole planets destroyed, massacres on levels too horrible to fathom. Blood and blackness staining every flashing image.

When the vision fades, she feels spent, both physically and emotionally. The weight of all those stolen lives and mass extinctions crushes her more than Chardis’s gravity.

Guilt. The most powerful guilt she’s ever felt.

And it belongs to the man standing in front of her.

Brielle doesn’t understand it, but she doesn’t have the time to question it. She embraces the foreign guilt no matter how much it