32. Luke

THIRTY-TWO

Luke

B acon baps with hashbrowns and a fried egg.

Salted caramel lattes with whipped cream.

Three salmon bagels and an orange juice for Maren.

Wow. What a scrummy breakfast feast. Those baps were almost the size of my face, loaded generously.

The best way to start the day.

I leaned back in my chair. “So good.”

Tom patted his stomach. “The best.”

“Agreed, my human friends.” Maren dabbed her lips with a napkin.

Okay. Time to lightly grill Tom. “So, tell us about pizza with Dane.”

To my surprise, he didn’t blush. “We ate. We talked. He stayed over.”

Interesting. “Is this his first sleepover?”

He smirked. “I’m saying nothing.”

Maren and I looked at each other. She tittered, giving her scarlet hair a gentle flick.

“Not even a teensie bit?” I pressed.

“What’s to tell?”

I cocked a severe eyebrow at him. “Seriously?”

He shrugged. “He’s just a friend.”

“Friends are good. But I’m thinking there may be a few benefits sprinkled over this friendship.”

He chuckled. “Nice.”

Maren leaned over the table. “Friends also pick up on twitches in other friend’s faces.” She waggled a finger. “I see. I wonder.”

I honked a laugh. “God, that sounded super dramatic.”

“It’s a fact,” she countered.

Tom held his own, only a faint tinge of crimson blooming in those cheeks. “I’ll tell you more if there is more.”

“ When there’s more?” I added.

He sat back, folding his arms. A little smile tugged his lips. “I like him. He’s a nice guy. I’ll say that much.”

Pardon me while I melt from the sweetness. “We can tell.”

Tom summoned cupcakes to move us on. “We’re done. Eat these.”

Maren’s came with cute, sugary fish-shaped sprinkles. Mine was a repeat of the strawberry cream masterpiece of yesterday.

After loading up on sugar, we played some Mario Kart , the time for training almost upon me. My belly flipped every time I thought about, well, everything.

Me? Defender of gargoyles. It seemed so impossible, super ridiculous. Yet why would Anita throw it out there if it meant nothing?

“I remain king.” A triumphant Tom flexed his skinny arms, leaving me in the dust.

I scowled, my stomach rolling for a different reason. “Dammit. So close.”

“Yet no cigar.”

Ugh. Stupid King Tom. “Coffee time.”

“Sounds like a plan.” He performed a royal wave.

Maren found this hilarious.

“I’m going for another round against the game,” Tom declared. “For fun.”

“Careful of the cocky rise,” I said. “The fall is hard.”

He blew me a kiss and got racing.

I made a beeline for the kettle. “I deserve another cupcake.”

“For losing? You should be baking me a three-tier cake and cracking a bottle of bubbly.”

“For winning again? Yawn.”

He cackled. “Shite! She overtook me!”

“Go for it, Princess Peach!”

Maren joined me in the kitchen. “Have you heard about the candlelight vigil tonight?”

“Yes. Are you going?”

“Absolutely.”

“Me too,” Tom chimed in from the sofa.

The sooner I trained up, the better. I wanted to be at the top of my game when I snuffed her out. My ingrained hatred for her never let up, her charcoal body on a constant flash behind my eyes.

Where was she? What was her next move? She’d been quiet since her pathetic attack on my mind, the ring not heating up once.

Her silence certainly didn’t mean she’d given up. Not her.

I have enough…

“Yes! Hand me another crown!” Tom’s victory broke me back into the fun.

Fuck Ember.

Fuck her silence.

I made the drinks, Maren opting for a glass of water.

“Here you go.” I handed Tom his coffee.

“Thanks. How about?—”

His sentence collapsed, my body plucked from my living room, deposited in the lava chamber.

“Oh my God…” I wheezed, dizzy from the sudden yank.

“Hello, you.”

I rubbed my eyes, sweat already running down my face. It felt hotter in here than before.

Speak of the devil.

“What’s going on?” I demanded.

She stood before me, a wolfish grin on her face.

“Well?” I stepped forward, every muscle taut.

“Welcome back, Luke. Today is the day you learn the truth.”

“What truth? Yours?”

It seemed too easy.

She chortled. “Not mine. Yours.”

Here we go. Silly games. “You’ve already tried using my memories against me. And failed.”

She lifted her hand as if inspecting her fingernails. “Not those memories.”

Her voice churned my stomach. “What are you talking about?”

She charged, grabbing me by the head. I didn’t react in time, her hands like a horrible vice.

“Get off me!” I bellowed.

“See the truth, Luke Garland!”

A whistle like a steam train screamed in my head, my vision fracturing into a rainbow of tremendous colors. I cried out, taking a swing with my fists, kicking out to smash her charcoal legs.

“I’ll fucking kill you!” My rage boiled as the colors peeled back to reveal a nighttime scene.

I froze, his face coming in clear.

Finn. The sea his backdrop, the night I stole his protection.

“Ohmygod…” I ran for him, slipping on the sand. “Finn.”

He looked right at me, forcing my legs to stop. I stumbled, righting myself a few feet away from him.

“Finn?”

His pale eyes were bloodshot from crying, his lips quivering.

Waves crashed, the sky choked with gloomy dark clouds. This was the same memory, but different. The actual one where I stole from him? Is this what she wanted to use against me?

“I’ve got news for you?—”

The whistle screeched in my head, signaling our argument. It played out until the monster arrived, ready to summon a tidal wave. I took the monster’s power and almost summoned a wave myself.

Just like Seth said.

But when did I take Finn’s protection?

Another whistle, the scene resetting.

“Stop this now!” I cried. “You can’t break me.”

No response from Ember.

I watched myself grab Finn. Saw the green magic leave him and enter me.

No. Don’t make me watch this…

Finn gasped, falling onto his backside. “Luke?”

“I… What just happened?” Past Me said, his knees buckling.

A monster charged from the waves. Humanoid, male, covered in green fish scales. It hit me with a jet of water, sending me spiraling across the beach. I hit the sand on my front, rolling five times before I stopped.

“Finn!” Current Me bellowed.

The monster seized him by the face, placing its blue lips to his. My brother twitched as the monster sucked out his soul, any trace of his light diminishing.

“Finn!” Past Me scrambled to his feet, losing his footing, face-planting in the sand.

Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Why did I have to see this? It wrecked me inside and out, released a tsunami of grief and fury.

I guess I wasn’t so fortified against Ember’s games, my delusion exposed like a raw nerve.

“Finn!”

The monster’s muscular body withered into a husk, its life given to make an immortal creature of destruction.

My brother.

I did this to my brother.

The truth really fucking hurt.

“No!” Rings of water formed around Past Me’s wrist. “Not my brother!”

The stolen water power of the dead monster calling to the sea.

But wait.

But wait.

But wait.

I hadn’t taken anything from the monster. Yes, it’d possessed its own water jet attack, but so did Finn. I felt it in me, the puzzle pieces coming together.

What was Finn’s magical ability before this? Nothing. He made amazing chocolate without the aid of magic.

Incorrect. He was also of the water, able to summon waves, manipulate the seas and rivers and oceans—all of it. Made to fight the fire, to cool the terrible onslaught of the mote enchanter destined to destroy the gargoyles. A great weapon, spun from the threads of destiny to save the ones who’d saved us.

Oh. My. God.

Cold iron blades skewered me, the truth a wicked poison. With cruel irony, it healed the holes in my memories, showed me what only Finn and I knew.

My power to steal did more than take abilities. Its deadliest element, the one that’d been hiding in the shadows.

It stole destinies.

Finn’s destiny, making it mine.

My brother was made to fight Ember, and I stole it from him before he got the chance to face it. To be him.

With one touch, I sucked everything away, ruining his life.

Thief…

An onslaught of acidic bubbles popped in the back of my throat.

Dirty, dirty thief.

I wasn’t supposed to have Asher’s mark on my neck. It belonged to Finn. Asher belonged to Finn. What if… What if his heart belonged to him and I’d stolen their fated love?

Was Asher meant to love my brother instead of me?

Thief.

Dirty thief.

My limbs lost all sensation. I collapsed, retching, unable to comprehend this. Couldn’t stand it, couldn’t allow it to be true.

Face it, thief.

You are a thief.

A vile betrayer of my beautiful brother.

I took away his potential.

I took away his love.

Asher.

Asher.

Asher.

I rolled onto my back, my chest constricted by rusty chains. How could I face this? How could I go on living knowing this?

Monster. Thief. Disappointment.

My parents were right to hate me. Look at what I’d done.

I whimpered, sobbing on the beach of this memory.

“Finn…” I choked on my words.

How dare I cry my dirty eyes out? How dare I play the victim?

Fury burst to life like a ball of fire inside me, expanding like a dying star.

“Finn…”

I sat up, a supernova of sorrow dragging me to my feet. The threads of my sanity frayed, reason an alien concept. I couldn’t hold on any longer, I couldn’t be this version of myself.

I couldn’t face the truth.

My heartbeat crashed like a gong. Erratic, underserving of existence. Coal. A heart of coal. Dead. Cruel. Making a mockery of life when inside the chest of a monster.

Finn.

Finn.

Finn.

An explosion of light, of sorrow. The supernova tore through me, going beyond the cavern, shoving me back into the lighthouse.

“Luke!”

Tom’s and Maren’s voices sounded. I saw them, felt their terror. It threw fuel on my inferno, consuming me.

I threw my head back, releasing a grief-wrapped wail to wake the dead. My body thrummed with power. The emerald bracelet snapped, my pain dragging me into a frenzied pit of hell where only sorrow and rage existed.

The pleading of my friends must stop.

The pain must stop.

Everything must stop.

“Make it stop.” Ember’s voice echoed.

“Fuck you!”

I tore out of the lighthouse, taking to the sky, my mind breaking. The threads unwound, everything gone now apart from my wrath.

Yes. Wrath. My wrath. My wrath will cleanse. My wrath will set me free and wash everything.

I flew out to sea, hovering above the waves, calling them to me, pouring my cocktail of suffering into the salty churn.

Cocktail. Cocktails. A dream of a shared business dead. Our dream. A brotherly dream. The lighthouse right there was an empty shell without his laughter, his warmth, his love.

Stole his love.

Stole his destiny.

The sea receded from the beach, gathering into a wall of destruction by my command. Energized by grief, glowing with my rage, it grew, it waited, it would cleanse everything.

Tears streamed down my face as gargoyle knights approached, as alarms screamed. But it was too late. Everything was lost. Everything was broken.

Wash away the disease. Make the pain stop.

Wait! An inner voice broke through. Don’t do this. Don’t be this.

I wavered, confused.

“Give in to your power,” Ember’s voice roiled in my mind. “You can make everything better.”

Reason crept in. Better? By doing this?

No. I couldn’t… I couldn’t…

Laughter. Her laughter, showing me scenes of Asher with Finn. My brother in my place. Experiencing everything he was meant to.

The gargoyle’s touch, his affection, his sense of home.

Home. A home I wanted.

Not yours, thief.

“Give in, Luke,” Ember whispered. “Let it all go. Wash it all away.”

Wash away. Wash away. Wash away what? The town? The town didn’t do anything to suffer devastation.

No, no, no. This wasn’t right. I had to put this water back. Gently. Regain control and leave town. Run away and crawl under a rock in some dark, dank place.

Finn…

Ember dragged me into her cavern. “You’re stronger than I give you credit for, Ocean.”

I didn’t answer, too enveloped in this betrayal.

“But you’re also so easily distracted.” She clapped her hands, hot air whipping my face.

A rumble sounded from beneath me as I was sent back to Brinecrest again.

In those few moments with my enemy, I’d set the tsunami free.