22. Luke

TWENTY-TWO

Luke

I arrived at Ember’s place, drenched in fury.

“What the hell is going on?” I demanded. “Your?—”

She charged, closing the distance between us with long strides.

I didn’t dodge the attack in time. Her charcoal fist hit my left cheek, sending me spinning across the cavern.

Thankfully, in the opposite direction of the lava lake.

I hit the wall on my side, sliding to the floor. The jagged black rocks sliced my skin on the way down.

Oh, hell no.

“Why don’t you just give in?” she roared, her footsteps heavy.

I rolled, dodging her stomp, kicking her in the shin. She grunted, staggering back, leaving me enough time to get vertical again.

Panting, I watched her correct herself, the stink of patchouli fermenting my insides.

“I won’t allow you to keep slipping away,” she hissed, pointing a charred finger at me. “This time, you will come to me.”

My anger burned as hot as the lava, my face flushed with indignation. “What did you do?”

She scraped her right foot across the ground like a bull. “I want my key.”

“Never.”

She didn’t charge. “Soon, Luke. Soon I’ll break you.”

“Meaning your latest attempt is already doomed to fail?” I laughed. “Good to know.”

“I didn’t say that.”

“You didn’t need to.”

Still no charging. “There’s something I’m missing.” She hunched her shoulders, jutting her head out. “A secret to bring into the light. I feel it. I want it. It’s the key within the key.”

My fury wavered along with any confidence I possessed. “What?”

“Secrets, Luke. There are secrets within you.”

Holes in my memory. Things not quite right, things too blurry. The potion. The damn potion.

I took a step forward. “What is it?”

“A secret, obviously.”

“Can you…” Crap. Suddenly, the heat of his place enveloped me. “Can you…”

Finn. Crab Cove. Monsters. Blurring together, him becoming a terror, everything confused.

“Oh, God…” I held my head, pain pounding like the chimes of an enormous clock.

Ember stomped, kicking me between the legs. Wow. Definitely the best way to bring me down. I collapsed to my knees, the pain unbelievably cruel. For someone so crispy, there was plenty of force behind her attack.

“Fuck…” I wheezed, seeing stars within stars within stars.

Ouch.

“Show me!” she bellowed, grabbing my head, digging her fingers into my skull.

“No!” I cried, furious over this whole now-we-can-hurt-each-other twist.

Ember pressed harder, the cracks in her charred skin oozing clear liquid. I reached for one, about to peel a piece off. But she kicked me in the cock again.

Those stars became fireworks layered on top of sickening swirls.

Holy. Fuck. I’d have no joystick left at this rate.

“Show me the secret,” Ember murmured, the pressure on my head too much.

I clawed at her with one hand, the other holding my privates. My fingertips slid down her warm body, snaring in a crack. A piece of skin broke off, yielding zero reaction.

Where was the wail of pain?

Ugh.

“Yes…” she said with hints of gratification. “Oh, yes…”

“What—”

Searing pain shut me up, unpleasant heat rolling in my skull.

“Get off me!” I bit out, shoving my fingers into a wider crack in her leg.

“Yes…” she whispered. “This is golden.”

What the hell was she seeing?

A big chunk of barbequed flesh broke away, steaming blood pouring over my jeans. It burned through the denim, sizzling my skin. I yelped, smacking at it, blisters springing to life.

I struggled to escape, getting nowhere. She groaned in pleasure, her grip a vice. Any minute now, she’d pop my head like a watermelon.

This wasn’t fair. I wasn’t supposed to die here, our big showdown reserved for a later date outside of this mental battlefield.

She’s better than you, pessimistic voices said through my mind.

A blend of my parents’ voices. You’re so disappointing.

Their favorite saying, the barb they loved to stick to me. Always the son to shame them, to disappoint them, to bring them so much misery.

I fell into the past, standing in the living room of our family home in Bedford. I’d gone back there to speak with my parents after Finn’s accident, walking right into a maelstrom of drama.

Mum cursing me out, spittle flying from her mouth as Dad held her. Both faces purple with anger, emotions catastrophic. Blaming me for Finn.

“You took him away from me!” Mum bellowed. “You made him move to that town!”

Not true. Finn dreamed of a fresh start as much as me, desperate to cut the apron strings our mum wielded as chains to bind him to her. Dad, too. The pair of them wrapped him in cotton wool, wanting the best for him, often telling him not to be like his big brother. To make them proud, sucking the fun out of his life.

Suffocating him.

When he finally plucked up the courage, with my support, to fly the nest, of course I got accused of corrupting him. Yet they let him leave for Brinecrest with me because he’d stood his ground.

I didn’t need this stroll down memory lane, to witness their heartbreak and loathing once again.

“I hate you!” Mum wailed on. “I hate you so much!”

“How could you make him cry and let him leave?” Dad threw in.

Finn had stormed out over a silly disagreement. I’d gone after him, begging him to stop, to come back inside because we were better than this.

I saw him running down the peninsula, always faster than me. He turned left at the end, picking up his pace along the seafront until he reached Crab Cove.

“Why here?” I called breathlessly.

“Back off, Luke! Just fucking back off!”

“No! You need to listen! You never listen! You…”

He slipped on the slope leading to the crescent-shaped beach, but quickly righted himself. I almost caught up to him.

Almost.

“Are you okay?”

Off he went again, tearing across the sand until he reached the water.

“Finn! Learn to take criticism, for God’s sake.”

Yelling, screaming, the alcohol in our systems exacerbating the situation. We’d been testing some of our new chocolate cocktails, and I wasn’t keen on the white chocolate blend he’d come up with. That’s it. Well, the critique might have been a bit too blunt, but it didn’t warrant this.

And was it worth him giving up his protection?

He’d never do that…

The memory blurred, holes everywhere.

Water…

Crab Cove melted away, taking me back into my parents’ living room.

Mum wept on, Dad’s intimidating regard boring into me. He had that way about him, his aura of fear always making my throat close up.

“Go home, Luke.”

I hated how much he frightened me, although he’d never laid a hand on me. He didn’t need to. His vicious eyes were enough of an attack, his and Mum’s putdowns worse than any slaps.

I hated their disappointment, their rejection, their indifference. How they loved Finn so much, yet I just tagged along for the ride. A burden, a mistake which Finn’s birth corrected.

“Dad…”

“Leave.”

Mum couldn’t bring herself to look my way.

Did they love me at all? They kept me fed and clothed, sent me to university, confused love with money, blurring every damn line.

The memory changed, the living room giving way to a hired van with me in the driving seat.

Finn ate prawn crackers in the passenger seat, super excited as we reached the final ten miles of our journey, bopping away to some pop music, the mood so freeing, so joyful.

“I love you so much.” He caught me by surprise, my grip tightening on the steering wheel.

“Sorry?”

“Love ya, big brother. Ooo. That rhymes.”

The shock shifted into euphoria. Hearing him say those words was everything golden and good in this world. Whoever I met romantically in the future might win my heart, but Finn already had my soul.

He was my soulmate.

Tears leaked hot and fast. I reached over to ruffle his hair, the sun setting on our day of freedom. “I love you, too.”

From that moment on, until we arrived at the lighthouse, we sang every song on Finn’s playlist. Garland Brother Karaoke at its finest.

“I have enough,” Ember said, bringing me back to the cavern. She relinquished her grip, stepping away.

She’d unboxed memories she had no business playing with.

“Those are none of your business,” I seethed. “How dare you?”

I looked up at her, the pain in my groin giving way to emotional torment. I collapsed forward, hands scraping the ground, my throat on fire. Sorrow lashed me as a thousand whips. Strike after strike, taking chunks out of me.

Too much.

Too much.

Too much.

“Luke?” Ember’s voice dragged me over hot coals.

I curled my hands into fists, slamming them into the ground. The epicenter of every painful sensation breaking free, breaking free, breaking free.

Kinetic energy dragged me back to my feet, lifting me off the ground. I hovered above Ember, her eyes wide in the ruin of her face.

“Luke?”

My anger compressed into a sphere of determination. “Don’t ever touch me again.”

She tried to speak, getting a face full of water. The force lifted her off her feet, sending her flying toward the lava lake. Her arms pinwheeled, but she didn’t cry out, not even when she hit the surface. Even when she ignited, bobbing for twenty seconds before the lake swallowed her, she stayed quiet.

Oh, well. This didn’t count anyway. We might be able to attack and hurt each other here, but the damage wasn’t lasting. The air of this place told me so. Reality awaited a true fight later on—one with irreparable consequences.

I left the cavern, my memories back in their box, my powers active once again. The lingering pain of Ember’s cock kicks abated, cold air greeting me in a refreshing cuddle. The bubble of glittering magic popped, the gas mask humans scrambling to seize me.

I roasted them alive on the bridge, checking on the situation beyond.

There were monsters everywhere, including chimera. They unleashed their scarlet fires, making those creepy lizard babies. Gargoyles battled them, but they were seriously overwhelmed. In the distance, I saw more flying in to help.

Look at the size of that snake. Yikes! And it’d locked its greedy eyes on Asher.

I don’t think so.

Leaving the humans to smoke, I reached for the snake’s power, locking onto every single chimera at the same time. A new method to try, taking so many powers at once.

The snake’s attention moved to me. “What is this?”

Ooo. Such a scary voice.

Sweat beaded my brow, the intensity of this performance set to knock me out.

Fuck it.

“Luke!” Asher called.

Not now, lemon slice.

Lemon slice?

Slowly, I closed both my hands, the monsters resisting the pull. Piece by piece, their powers broke loose, coming to me. A smaller monster resembling a moth flew at my face. The gargoyle protection sent it packing. It exploded in green dust, gone for now.

Lucky escape.

“Unhand me!” the snake roared.

Dream on.

Streams of chimera fire came at me, but I rejected it, snuffing out each one. The monsters fell, crashing to the ground, taking their human riders with them.

I rejected every ability, including the snake venom. I could do that. My body wasn’t ready for too many abilities at once, so I focused on extermination.

These aren’t worthy of me, anyway.

Monsters melted, their powers broken. My body buzzed with great energy, colors pulsing behind my eyes.

Too much.

You’re doing too much.

Screw it. I pushed harder, snaring more monsters, launching fire and water at the gas mask humans, transforming into a vessel of destruction, rising higher and higher, saving the day.

Yes! Me! Saving the day. Check me out. Not so useless, not so disappointing. Better than anyone, stronger than every single creature beneath me.

How about this, Mum?

Shove it down your gullet, Dad.

What if I flew to Bedford and kicked the front door off its hinges? I would relish the fearful sounds of their shock, laugh at the panic on their faces as their disappointing son displayed utter greatness.

I can end you.

I can make you beg.

My hands were shaking. I panted like a dog in the height of summer. So much power, my body working overtime. Anger rising, memories clashing, images of my parents rioting inside my skull.

Pain and sorrow and rage shaped a vortex beyond my control. But it spurred me on, monster after monster finding itself in my web.

Is this what Ember wanted? Was this part of her game to break me? Use my memories against me?

I have enough…

Pfft. The joke was on her charred arse.

“Fuck you!” My voice crashed like thunder. “Fuck you!”

I heard Ember laugh inside my head, felt my dad’s hands on me, suffered the bite of my mum’s poisonous words. Endured rejection, the grief over my brother coming at me in a flurry of arrows.

This world. This life. This everything. I couldn’t… I couldn’t…

“I’ll kill you all!”

With one final surge, I destroyed every single monster and gas mask human. Their deaths hit me in a frenetic ricochet, shoving me into a hurtling spin.

“Luke!” Asher cried.