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

was, but he won’t be giving out any other
orders.”
    “What
do you mean? Is he dead?”
    I
let out a long, trembling breath. “Yes.”
    “You
killed him?” The surprise in Lance’s voice is clear.
    “No.
It was …”
    “Milo,”
Lance interrupts. “Of course it was. There weren’t supposed to be any
casualties on their side. They could pin us all down for that. What was he
thinking?”
    “I
don’t know,” I say quietly.
    Lance
growls into the phone. “How many times have I told you he’s dangerous? He’s
furious at you for trying to rush off after Braden on an emotional jet, but he
goes and does something like this!”
    I
close my eyes and let Lance rant. I don’t want the memory of Milo pulling the
trigger to replay in my head ever again. Finally, Lance calms back down, though
I doubt his frustration toward Milo has cooled.
    “Are
you all okay, though?” he finally asks.
    “Yes.”
I guess that’s one thing that went right. Nobody I brought with me was hurt.
    “No
sign of Braden?” Lance asks.
    “No,
they already got to him. I was too late.”
    I
don’t miss the muscles in Milo’s arms bunching up. He knows who I’m talking
about, and whether he knew it before we came or not, I just admitted that I was
planning on trying to rescue Braden today. Nothing will ever change Milo’s mind
about finding Braden. And not only because it would be a stupidly dangerous thing
to do, either. Milo would just as soon watch Braden fall off a cliff at this
point.
    “Libby,”
Lance says, “we’ll find him, okay?”
    Choosing
my words a little more carefully this time, I say, “I think it’s going to be
the other way around.”
    I
hear him groan. “He’s already been activated? Great. Okay, from this point on,
you’re not to be left alone. Do you understand me?”
    “How
are you going to manage that? Your parents are never going to agree to it.”
Braden used to be the one to watch over me at night, although Lance was the
only one who knew about that. Some of his stuff is still at my house.
    “Are
you forgetting that you have house guests?” Lance asks. “Our three new Canadian
friends have nowhere else to stay. I think serving as your body guards is an
even trade for free room and board.”
    A
deep scowl settles on my lips. I hadn’t even thought about where the Canadians
would stay. We flew in this morning and came to the compound right after that.
My mouth turns down into a scowl. I do not want sleepover buddies right now.
But what else can I say, no?
    “We’ll
discuss it when you get back to the house,” Lance says. “I’m already here. I
convinced the nurse I was still sick and she let me take off. We’ll figure
everything out.”
    I’m
about to say goodbye, thinking he’s done talking, when he speaks again.
    “Hey,
Libby? This isn’t your fault. You know that, right? Nothing you could have done
would have stopped this from happening. You did your best. We all did.”
    “I
could have come sooner, not gone to Canada. Maybe then they’d still be alive
and he wouldn’t have been hurt,” I argue.
    “No.
They killed the Ciphers the second they closed the video feed,” Lance says,
“and I bet they were working on Braden even before that. You couldn’t have
stopped them. We just have to move on from here. We have to pay them back for
what they’ve done and stop them from ever doing it again. We’re going to
destroy them.”
    I
hid under my bed and cried when I finally realized who I was going to become
one day. I have spent most of my life wishing I was anyone but Cassia the
Destroyer. Hurting people wasn’t something I thought I would do, let alone
crave. I want more than anything else at this moment to become the demon most
of the world thinks I am. I want to bleed Blackwood and all the other
disgusting Guardians like animals in a butcher shop. The anger racing through
my veins threatens to consume me until I see the three braided strands of
thread wrapped around my wrist,