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

hurts her soul, her heart. She gathers it into a tight little ball inside her, and in one last ditch effort, she throws her hand out at him, imagining herself hurling it right at his chest.

Just like with Marie and Suki, her spirit feels lighter as soon as the guilt is gone.

“What…what is this?” Chardis’s voice spikes with alarm.

Brielle cranes her head off the floor to look at him. His eyes are wide with panic as his hands roam his chest all over. The black veins climbing across his face stand out in stark relief.

“Urgh,” he groans, clutching his heart.

She suddenly realizes it’s not only her spirit that’s lighter. Her limbs move more freely, their weight receding by the second. When she has enough strength to turn her head to Tristan, she finds the bright flush slowly leaving his face, his cheeks and eyes deflating back to their normal size.

Chardis’s power is waning.

She turns back to him and wills the guilt to intensify. He cries out in pain and clutches his abdomen as if some creature is about to burst out of it. Is that a red glow beneath his hand? She doesn’t believe it until a wisp of smoke rises between his fingers.

Brielle’s weight is back to normal and she scrambles to Tristan, and both of them stare in amazement as the flesh of Chardis’s cheek, neck, hand, begin to char from the inside out.

“What’s happening?” Chardis shrieks, flicking a sneer at Brielle.

“Your judgement,” Brielle says, her shoulders rising and falling with each starving breath.

Chardis’s face twists into a hideous snarl. “This is far from over, Guardians!”

The space behind him ripples and warps into a strange sphere that distorts the images beyond it. Before Brielle can make a move, he steps into it and blinks out of sight, the ripple smoothing immediately after.

“What the—” Brielle jumps to her feet and runs to the space where he disappeared. “Where did he go?”

“I think it was a wormhole,” Tristan says, shakily climbing to his feet as well.

“Do you think the penance burn will kill him?” she asks, adrenaline still galloping through her veins as her lungs adjust to their full capacity.

“I really don’t know, but I doubt it.” He stumbles close, tripping and grasping her shoulder for support. “What happened? I thought you said your power didn’t work on the Skins.”

“It didn’t.” She shakes her head in confusion, looking around at the dead Skins that surround them. “They felt no guilt, so there was nothing to amplify. I think because they weren’t acting of their own volition. You said they are possessed or infected or something, right?”

He nods, catching his own breath as well. “So your power doesn’t work on the Skins because they aren’t in control of themselves and feel no remorse. But Chardis did?”

“It was subtle and buried deep, but the weight of it was atomizing,” she explains. “He’s done so many horrible things, and I saw all of it.” A shudder runs up her spine, and pressure builds behind her eyes of tears she’s not ready to shed. “He’s a monster.”

Tristan looks down at the lifeless shells of his parents. “Yes, he is.”

The tears she fights to keep inside push even harder to be set free. “I’m so sorry, Tristan.” There are a million things she wants to say, but she knows that none of them will ease his pain.

He continues to stare at them for a long moment, then turns away and sniffles. “We’ll take them back with us, give them a proper burial. They don’t deserve to be disposed of by the Skins.”

She nods, and her eyes find Cassandra. “Cassandra, too. She may have been a bit of a witch, but she didn’t deserve this.”

Brielle kneels over the body of her rival and brushes the matted blonde hair away from her bruised and cracked face. Why didn’t she try harder to make amends with Cassandra? If they had stayed friends, Adalind wouldn’t have been able to blindside them. Cassandra might still be alive. Brielle can’t forget all the nasty things Cassandra’s done since she got adopted, but things didn’t have to be that way. Maybe she should have told Cassandra about her powers long ago. The powers that are not a curse as she thought, but a gift, a true way to protect those she loves. She’s been so wrong, about so many things.

Cassandra’s chest rises ever so slightly.

Is she breathing?

Brielle moves her fingers around Cassandra’s neck to find her pulse, and sure enough the artery drums a weak beat.

“She’s alive!” she shouts, waving Tristan over. “Cassandra’s alive!”

Please don’t let it be too late to save her.

29

Tristan

Tristan reaches Cassandra’s side just as Brielle does. He ignores the ache that seems to have woven itself through his ribs. It flares hot and hard with each breath, but he doesn’t care.

Cassandra might be alive.

They both kneel beside her, their breath held as they wait to see whether Cassandra has any of her own.

Yes! There it is! The slightest rise of her chest.

Tristan falls back on his haunches. “She’s been paralyzed.”

Brielle gasps. “What? How?”

“Poison. The Skins have used it on me before.” Tristan looks around. “There’s an antidote. One of these guys will have it.”

Ready to use in case they wanted to interrogate Cassandra again.

Tristan stands, gritting his teeth as his head swims. “You stay with her, I’ll find it.”

He only has to go through the jacket pockets of two Skins before he finds it, relieved that it’s in a syringe. Obviously the Skins needed it to be ready.

Brielle’s holding Cassandra’s hand, watching her closely. “What she must’ve gone through…”

“If she’s lucky, she won’t remember.”

Uncapping the syringe, Tristan hesitates. All this first aid stuff was always Tess’s domain. He’s never injected anything into anyone.

But Cassandra’s breathing is barely there. He doesn’t have a choice.

Not when Zarius and Tess are…gone.

Tristan welcomes the stab of pain at his sharp intake of breath. It’s only a fraction of the agony that’s going to hit him when