Shattered (13 page)

In the moment his father left, Liam’s eyes lost their sense of confusion, and determination took its place.

My heart pounded. Would he real y capture Torrid? Could he do such a thing? Regardless of who was stronger, who was more experienced, I simply didn’t want to see them fight it out.

It would be like watching my childhood col ide with the adult I now was. “Liam, please let me talk to you before you do anything rash.”

He looked hurt, as though my request had greatly insulted him.

“I may be young, Kama.” He glanced briefly at Torrid. “And perhaps I lack the experience of… your friend, but I stil believe I’m above doing anything rash. I’ve known you al my life. Do you real y think I could turn on you nI lack theow?”

My heart swel ed as I final y saw the Liam I’d always known, emerge. Without his father at his side, he was a different man. “That’s not what I mean, Liam. So much has happened. Things have changed so fast. I hardly know which way to turn and I imagine it’s the same for you.”

He looked pointedly at Torrid. “You seem to have found someone to turn to al too easily.” The aching in my chest couldn’t have been more painful had he hit me with his fist.

“Catching him isn’t going to solve anything,” I said, looking for some way to deter the inevitable.

Casting his gaze to the ground, he shifted uneasily. My heart ached for him and the guilt I had felt earlier returned. I wanted to weep for the pain I was causing him. Suddenly I wished he’d announce his love for another… anything to minimize the pain I felt.

“Your Life’s Plan,” I said, knowing ful wel I was grasping at straws. “It’s Sarah.” He frowned and shrugged. “What does that mean?”

“Your Life’s Plan said you were to marry a girl you’d known al your life. From the moment you received it, we assumed that girl was me. It seemed to make such perfect sense. But it’s not me, Liam.

It’s Sarah. She’s the one you should ultimately marry. She’s the girl in your Life’s Plan.”

“That’s the stupidest thing I ever heard.” With a grimace, he shoved his hands into his pockets and gazed woeful y at me. “Is that how you explain al this? How you justify everything that has happened between us? You find Torrid and run off to… where?

To the Nethers? And I’m to stay here and marry Sarah?”

“Please

don’t

blame

me

for

what’s

happened. I’m not the one who plotted out our Life’s Plans. You know very wel I would have done anything to have things turn out differently.”

“I’m not blaming you, dear Kama. I just find that your rationalization is a little too convenient. I can’t deny I’m tempted to go through with my father’s orders and capture…him, if it’s only to set things right between us, to get even, but I realize that wouldn’t change anything, would it?”

I felt suddenly so old; so old and tired.

Adulthood had rushed up to me and slapped the easy-going girl I’d once been right out of me. I was too weary to make sense of it al .

“Do you real y think it makes me happy to learn that you should eventual y marry my best friend?”

“I don’t know. Does it? I mean, it clears you to do what you real y want.” He tienedwhalted his head arrogantly toward Torrid.

I furrowed my brow, too upset, too confused and too hurt to know what to say; what to think.

Torrid stepped up, but I wasn’t yet ready to have him interfere. I held out my hand, silently begging him to give us a little more time.

“You know very wel how heartbroken I was when I saw my Life’s Plan. You were there.

Everything that’s happened to me…” I glanced away. I hadn’t come out here, spent the day searching for him, only to pick a fight with him. “This isn’t what I expected to find as I searched for you, Liam.”

He gazed over my shoulder at Torrid. “Yeah, this isn’t real y what I expected either.” His eyes fil ed with anger and loss as he took a forceful step forward.

“Please, Liam,” I begged. “I couldn’t stand to watch you two fight.” I stepped to him.

watch you two fight.” I stepped to him.

Before I knew it, he pul ed me into his arms and held me in a tight embrace. For a moment I thought he’d carry me off, run away from everything that was happening here, then I feared he would cal ously toss me aside in order to fight Torrid without my interference. His hand pressed to the smal of my back, keeping me pressed to his chest.

Memories flooded me; al the times we’d held each other close, reassured each other in times of trouble, encouraged each other in the face of chal enges; loved each other as we cuddled up close on cool nights or walked hand in hand on warm afternoons. A lifetime of loving and planning, of envisioning our future, our lives together.

“I’ve always loved you,” he whispered, his voice hoarse, almost cracking under the strain of such emotions. “And I think I’l always love you, no matter what you do, no matter what life throws at us.”

“Liam…” Tears sprang to my eyes and my heart ached so much, I could barely stand.

He pressed his lips to mine, kissing me with such passion, yet with such finality. I didn’t want it to end. I wasn’t ready… not the kiss nor the relationship.

I wrapped my arms around him, struck once more by the massive size of him.

Just as suddenly as his kiss had come, it stopped and he gripped my shoulders and held me at arm’s length.

“I know Torrid wil do what’s best for you. He’l protect you and keep you safe.”

Frowning, I stared at him and tried to make sense of the words he spoke.

He gazed over my shoulder, his eyes locking onto Torridockiant ghts… the gaze of a man who concedes defeat to another. “Take good care of her,” he said. “She comes on like she’s strong and can go through anything. That strength might have been enough in the Arcadia we grew up in; the Arcadia that once was, but things have changed.

The world has gotten so much uglier now. This new world wil eat her up alive… and al too easily.” Too stunned to verbal y respond to his assessment of my abilities, I stared up at him, my mind stil trying to comprehend where al this was going, what he was leading to.

“I’l put my life on the line for her if I have to,” Torrid said.

Liam pressed his lips into a grim line.

With a guiding hand to my elbow, Torrid prepared to lead me away, but I wasn’t ready to leave just yet. There seemed too much to say, but no words to truly convey al I felt. There were so many questions, most of which I knew there wasn’t yet an answer to.

I looked at Liam, so tal and strong. There was barely a trace of the young boy he’d once been, but only the strong and resilient man he’d become.

“And what are you going to do? Where are you going to go? Arcadia is fal ing to pieces around us.”

To accentuate my point, a large chunk of glass fel atop one of the tal er buildings nearby and teetered precariously on the roof’s edge.

In unison and with the same line of thought, Liam and Torrid grabbed me by an arm and rushed me to a sheltered corner; a roofed entrance. Liam tried the heavy door, but it was locked and wouldn’t budge and the roof over our heads didn’t appear solid enough to resist the chunk of glass should it fal .

With awe and amazement we watched the large chunk settle safely on the roof only to teeter again when the wind shifted.

“We can’t stay here too long,” Liam said.

“That thing could come down any time now.” Smal er pieces crashed around us and in the distance screams of horror rang out as Arcadian citizens where showered in glass. The sky darkened as more of the Force Field shattered, taking on a blood red hue beyond the blue expanse the protective shield had created for so long.

“My father wants to try to restore Arcadia…

after al this.” Liam gestured towards the ruins, his voice strangely calm and solemn as he spoke. “It’s not only the sky that’s fal ing, not only the protective Force Field… the whole il usion is shattered.” His hand stil on my arm, he looked at me.

“You hear those screams?”

“Too wel ,” I said, my heart aching for n>

“They come from everywhere in Arcadia. Not one district has been spared… and through al this my father real y believes he’l be able to erase this horror from the minds of Arcadian citizens. He thinks these people, these lifelong citizens of Arcadia, wil be able to forget their destroyed Arcadia, wil be able to forget their destroyed homes.”

“Not to mention al those who’l have lost a loved one,” I added.

“Getting things back the way they once were wil be impossible. People wil simply refuse to ignore al this. There’s no way of candy coating it.”

“Don’t be so sure,” Torrid said.

We turned to him, aghast that he could suggest the people of Arcadia could be so cal ous as to forget this war and the devastation it’s caused.

“Pim Seer is capable of going to great lengths in order to get what he wants. Don’t underestimate that about him.” He gazed at Liam.

“No offense.”

Liam shrugged, seemingly resigned to the opinion Torrid held of his father.

“And don’t forget he has Dr. Sanz on his side. Once the battle is over, he’l take al his trapped genies and start the process of creating the il usion al over again, using the stolen power of each djin to create his vision. Chances are he’l even attempt to make it bigger, grander and more perfect than ever before.”

“We can’t let that happen,” I said. “The people of Arcadia won’t let it.”

“They probably won’t have a choice. Dr. Sanz wil have their col ective memories reorganized.

Much of this wil appear a distant dream to them… a childhood nightmare of which they’l only remember vague fragments. By the time Arcadia is physical y rebuilt, this wil al be a distant and unpleasant blur.” Another chunk of glass fel not too far away and the ground shook under our feet. We al gazed up at the teetering shard on the roof.

“Can we make a run for the building you were in?” I asked, sensing the increased urgency of the moment.

“The place is overrun by my father’s men,” Liam said with a shake of his head. “Going in there wil be suicide.”

“We need to find a way of getting inside this building.” Torrid tilted his head to the locked building beside us.

“There’s another entrance on the side.” Liam’s gaze fol owed the edge of the building just below the teetering shard. “I just can’t guarantee it’l be open.”

“When that thing comes down, it’l shatter into thousands of pieces and we’l be sitting ducks. We have to give it a try.”

“Okay,” Liam said as he prepared to run. He turned a concerned gaze to me. “You ready?” Taking a deep breath, I nodded.

“Let’s go.”

We darted out from our shelter and sprinted to the next entrance. Unable to resist the temptation, I looked up at the threatening shard and prayed we’d make it inside before it crashed down.

But the large shard wasn’t our only concern.

The smal er pieces that continued to rain down on us were enough to leave us nicked and cut by the time we reached the door. Liam pul ed on the handle and we al let out an audible sigh when it opened.

“You okay?” Liam asked, his hand quick to find the cuts on my forehead.

I could feel the warm line of blood streaking down the side of my face. “It’s not as bad as it looks, I’m sure.”

Finding Torrid to be unusual y silent, I turned to him and let out a loud gasp when I saw the large gash on his shoulder and a large shard of glass stil deeply imbedded in his skin. “Torrid! My God, sit down.”

He grinned and grimaced at the same time.

“Like you said, it’s not as bad as it looks.”

“Are you kidding me?” I said on the verge of panic as I guided him to the nearby steps. “The chunk of glass is stil in your shoulder.” Sitting, he seemed to derive a degree of pleasure from my attention, but was otherwise unfazed by his injury. “I heal remarkably wel ,” he said with a smile.

I knelt beside him and fingered the impressive chunk. “I’l need something to put over the wound when I pul this out. It’l bleed something awful.”

“I’l go look inside,” Liam said. “See if I can find anything to bandage it.”

With that sweet smile stil on his lips, Torrid looked at me. “I’l admit I’m very tempted to al ow you to take such good care of me, but a simple hand to my wound wil quickly take care of it.” He held my gaze and whispered. “Concentrate, Kama.” With careful fingers, I pul ed away the fabric of his shirt to better expose the wound and gasped his shirt to better expose the wound and gasped anew at the sight of his broken skin. “Torrid,” I muttered, unsure I’d be able to mend him.

“You can do it, Kama. I know you can.

Envision the skin, smooth, mended, like new.”

“It’s in deep, Torrid. The blood is going to gush out.”

“You’l have to hurry… between the time you pul it out and the time you mend the skin… you can’t waste a moment. This isn’t the time to get squeamish, Kama. You have to be strong. Don’t look at it like skin and blood.”

I cocked my brow. What was I supposed to see it as? Steak and potatoes?

“If that’s what it takes,” he said to my silent question. With a light chuckle, he put his hand over mine. “Take a deep breath, pul it out, put your hand over the wound and see it mend and close up in your mind. It doesn’t have to be perfect. I don’t mind a scar. Makes for better storytel ing later.”