Read Online Darkening Chaos: Book Three of The Destroyer Trilogy by DelSheree Gladden - Free Book Online Page A

keeping track of the time and the speed of
the Guardian reinforcements. Most of the trapped Guardians should be up to
their necks by now, and the dead Seeker buried.
    I
let go of my Naturalism.
    I
can almost hear the crack of the marble hardening so quickly. The rest will
live, but getting them out isn’t going to be easy. It’s going to be a very long
and painful rescue. That should give me some satisfaction, but really, it’s
still more than they deserve. This isn’t the last time we’ll meet. I feel no
pity for the dead Seeker, either, only shock that Milo took his life. I wanted
to very badly. Maybe I would have if Daniel hadn’t stopped me. What haunts me
is the look in Milo’s eye when he pulled the trigger. The coldness I felt in
that fraction of a second scared me. A warning from Lance, what feels like
forever ago, that Milo was dangerous, echoes in my mind as we drive.
    I
push thoughts like that away and focus on the one positive aspect of today. At
least we got Helen and her family out. Of course, that has its own set of
problems. She doesn’t know what happened to her dad, yet. I’m just glad Dean
pushed them into his Nissan Xterra, because I don’t think I can face them right
now. I don’t think I can face anyone.
    How
am I ever going to tell the others that we didn’t save the Ciphers? All my
brilliant planning and I failed. I wasn’t fast enough to save our friends. Dean
had to be the one to think about checking the other cells after I ran out. And
Braden, I was too late to keep them from hurting him. I have failed him in so
many ways. It all becomes too much. My shoulders start shaking first, and then
the tears start falling. Misery fills me until I am choking on it, crying and
struggling for breath. Every tear is another regret, another mistake that led
me here. I’m not going to save anyone. I can’t. I try, but every time, all I
end up doing is making things worse.
    “At
least we got Helen out,” Milo says. “Think of what the Guardians would have
done to them. We saved them from that, at least.”
    He
doesn’t say anything about the Seeker.
    Neither
do I.
    “Yeah,”
I say quietly as I try to dry my tears. I can’t offer him any more than that
right now. Defeat pulls my eyes down to my lap. My hands sit there shaking,
caked with blood around my knuckles. The deep red startles me. I can’t even
remember where it came from. Was it from hitting Blackwood or the nameless dead
Seeker? Did I even hit the Seeker? I wanted to, but I can’t seem to remember
right now. Does it matter? The blood on my hands goes deeper than a few drips
from a bloody nose.
    The
phone in my pocket buzzes again. I know it’s Lance. Has anyone else told him yet?
Milo and Dean are the only one who would even think to call him, but they’re
both driving. He has no clue what’s going on. Telling him in person, I’m not
sure whether that will be better or worse. I’m only thinking about me, though.
Lance has to be dying for information. I pull the phone out of my pocket
slowly. The dozen or more text messages begging me for details are all still
unopened. I don’t open them now. Instead, I call him. There’s no way I’m going
to tell him over text message. He picks up on the first ring.
    “I
have been freakin’ waiting here all morning for someone to tell me what the
hell’s going on!” he yells. “You knew I wanted updates! What have you been
doing? You should have had them all out by now. Just because you’re off playing
hero doesn’t mean you get to forget I’m still here.”
    I
let his tantrum taper off. It gives me time to try and compose myself. When the
line quiets, I say, “We got Helen and her family, and that’s it. The Ciphers
were already … they’re not …” My chest convulses as I try to hold in another
sob. “Lance, they already killed them. The Ciphers are dead.”
    Lance
doesn’t say anything for a while.
    “Who
ordered it? Blackwood?”
    “A
Seeker. I don’t know what his name