Stones: Experiment (Stones #3) (47 page)

All the beams intertwine and twist together into a massive braid of pure energy. It moves to the planet and touches at a single point where the individual beams break apart like lines of longitude and spread out across the planet’s surface, setting off massive thermonuclear explosions at every point of contact. A blanket of fire melts the outside skin of the world and ignites the atmosphere. As the beams come together at a point on the opposite side, they turn and burrow through the core and back out to the surface on the other side, opening a large hole a thousand kilometers wide. The energy continues to flow in a circuit over the surface of the planet and back through the core.

The effect is startling.

At one end of the opening, the outside of the planet is sucked into the core. At the other end, boiling magma pours out, like the entrails of a fiery beast, flooding the surface.

The entire planet is liquefied and turned inside out.

Jhata channels her hatred of Yarah and Matt through the Stones and into the beams of energy, allowing the process to continue until she reaches a point of saturation where raw hatred becomes a bore.

She needs a distraction.

Withdrawing the beams of energy, Jhata stares at the churning ball of magma. With a Stone in each palm, dark lines shoot out of her fingers down into the planet, creating a massive gravitational field at the center. The planet shrinks to the size of an asteroid, growing darker in color.

Time for the grand finale.

The shrunken sphere explodes in a burst of light, instantly transforming the remains of the planetary material into gas and blasting it outward in a spherical shockwave. It shoots up to her like a white typhoon. She reaches her hands out and, enveloped in the protective energy skin, runs her fingers through it as it rips past, the lifeless remains of what had once been a little girl’s dreams. Turning, she watches it diffuse out into the blackness of space.

Thus ends Yarah’s world.

If Jhata can find Matt’s world, there will be a repeat performance.

And then Earth.

M
att’s body tenses. He looks up at the green halo burning above his head.

Without thinking he ducks and jumps backwards, tumbling into the water and passing under the edge of green light just before it drops to the sand, enclosing Yarah in its grip.

Looking back at him, Matt sees Yarah close her eyes and try to jump away, but her Stone is useless and black in her hand.

“Move!” Matt shouts to Yarah.

She steps to the side.

Bending forward, Matt shoots purple darts from his Stone at the green globe.

But they break harmlessly against the sphere engulfing Yarah, turning into a purple gas that fills the air with the stench of burnt ozone.

Slamming his fist into his chest, Matt activates the skin armor. It flows over him, becoming one with his body. As an added measure, he lays a layer of blue energy over the armor. His body glows like a neon sign.

Taking a step forward, Ryzaard moves closer to Yarah. “You moved your world. Tried to hide it from me.” His eyes focus on Matt. “But you’re sloppy. Didn’t think about how easy it would be for me to drop a tracking device in the sand.” A small ball tumbles out of his open palm.

The hatred wells up in Matt’s chest.

Ryzaard grins. “You can take care of yourself, but what about her? She’s just a little girl. Do you want me to kill—”

Matt doesn’t wait to hear the rest of the sentence. He jumps, vanishes and appears next to Ryzaard, raising his Stone like a dagger and bringing it down with mad rage onto the old man’s neck.

But a shield of green clings to Ryzaard before Matt can make full contact. His Stone barely penetrates the shield and scrapes against Ryzaard’s shoulder, cutting through his tweed jacket and leaving a gouge that fills with blood.

Ryzaard shoots a bubble of energy outward from his body. It lifts Matt off his feet and throws him into the water. Then Ryzaard puts his hand up to his shoulder and touches the wound, causing the skin to rapidly close on it.

He looks at Yarah. “How shall we kill you? So many ways.” He takes a silver disk out of his pocket. “Considering that I’m a gentleman, I’ll spare you a gruesome death. Just clean and simple.” He brushes his finger on the disk.

Yarah brings her hands up to her throat. Dropping to her knees, she turns and reaches out to Matt, opening her mouth and trying to speak.

Matt surges forward again, appearing at Yarah’s side, a thick wall of energy separating them. Trying repeatedly to ram his fists through the barrier, Matt watches as Yarah’s face pales. She turns to him and opens her eyes and mouth wide, as if trying to say her final words. Then her eyes shut.

The fury inside Matt surges past the boiling point. Reaching out for the present moment, he relaxes and holds it. Time stops. A subtle phase shift causes the air to take on a golden tint and became almost tangible.

Yarah’s body freezes with her mouth open and her fingers still reaching for her throat.

“No matter.” Ryzaard’s face has an utter lack of concern. “You can’t hold it forever. She’ll be dead within seconds after you let go. As always, her death will be on your hands.”

The rage flows back into Matt. Dropping his head like a football player preparing to make a tackle, he jumps to his feet and thrusts his body forward, glowing arms splayed out. An arc of green energy bursts from his Stone. As it spreads out in front of him, Matt pours all his venom and hate into it.

The leading edge of the arc hits Ryzaard’s protective bubble and dissipates like foam hitting concrete. Matt slams into the energy barrier a split second later and tries to take it and Ryzaard down. At the instant of impact, the thin blue layer enveloping his body ignites in a burst of flames. A scream tears from his throat as he lets go and slumps at the feet of the old man.

“Have you ever wanted to have the power of six Stones surging through you? Now you can.”

Burying the toe of his shoe in Matt’s side, Ryzaard lifts Matt in an arc that sends him flying back into the water. It flashes to steam where he lands in the sea. Ripples of pain sweep over his skin. Fighting back the nausea, he barely manages to keep his hold on time.

Yarah is still frozen inside the bubble.

The pain in Matt’s side subsides only when he fights it back with a cooling flow of black plasma on his body that makes him nearly invisible against the dark night. He stands up in the ocean.

Ryzaard walks to the water’s edge. “When are you going to learn that you can’t stop me? You may be able to protect yourself, for a time. But everything and everyone you love will be destroyed.” He looks back at Yarah, unmoving, her suffering caught as if in an ancient snapshot.

Love
, Matt thinks
. It’s the only way I can fight him.

Remembering the battle with Jhata, Matt slows the blazing fire of anger burning in his belly. Deep breathing replaces quick, furtive sips of air. His heartbeat slows. The tempest calms. The rage withdraws, like poison venom slowly draining out of his body.

Yarah had been inside Ryzaard’s mind, had seen and felt his memories. Recalling his conversation with her, Matt focuses his mind on Ryzaard as a young boy, speaking his thoughts so the old man can hear.

“You grew up in Krakow, Poland.” Matt takes a step forward. “Your father was a diamond merchant in the Jewish quarter.”

Ryzaard cocks his head to the side. “I don’t know what you’re doing, but your babbling won’t help you or her.”

“Your father was a good man. You worshiped him. You and your sister had an idyllic life because of him. Servants. Travel all over Europe. Boarding School in England. A mother that loved you dearly.”

The old man clenches his jaw. “Leave my mother out of this.” He presses his knuckles together and takes another step forward.

“You were her pride and joy.” Matt sees a small boy, dark eyes and hair, coming home from school, bursting through the front door, finding his mother and giving her a hug.

“Stop!” A swirling ball of energy forms between Ryzaard’s hands. He opens his palms, and it rips away at Matt.

Matt steps out of the water. “You would have done anything for her.”

The energy ball hits Matt squarely in the chest, exploding against the layer of blue energy floating above his skin armor. This time, it only causes a twinge of pain.

The energy layer engulfing Matt changes to white.

Ryzaard shoots another blast of energy out of his hands and stumbles backwards.

“I had a mother, too.” Matt calmly walks forward and reaches out. Warmth, affection and confidence flow through him. His hands slide through the protective layer on the old man and grasp the lapels of his tweed jacket, lifting him off his feet. “But the world killed my mother, just like it killed yours.”

Glancing down in disbelief, Ryzaard sees one of Matt’s hands work its way up his chest until his fingers wrap snugly around his throat. Ryzaard closes his own hands into fists and draws upon the power of his six Stones. On the ground behind Matt, the green globe glows brightly. The old man’s fists take on the same green color as balls of energy form on them. He rams them against Matt’s chest.

For an instant, Matt’s protective bubble changes from white to willow green.

The agony of a thousand razor blades digs into his skin. He ignores it. “I understand your pain.” He stares into Ryzaard’s eyes.

“No! You can’t understand.” Ryzaard clenches his jaw. “No one can understand.”

The balls of energy explode out from Ryzaard’s hands, flinging his body back onto the sand.

Matt hears the shattering of glass behind him. Turning, he sees the broken globe beside Yarah. He stomps on the fragments and grinds them into the sand. The energy sphere vanishes, leaving Yarah free.

Matt relaxes his grip on time.

Six Stones lie scattered on the beach.

Matt walks five paces to Ryzaard and kneels beside him. Placing the tip of his Stone on Ryzaard’s chest, Matt grips it with both hands, pushing back the hatred that threatens to rise up.

“It ends here,” Matt says. “For the good of the world, I have to do this.”

J
hata feels the scream before she hears it.

As the final fragments of Yarah’s destroyed world stream past her fingertips, the little girl’s cry of agony hits Jhata’s mind like a tsunami.

In nanoseconds, Jhata turns and locks onto the location, seeing it on a 3-D map in her mind’s eye, multiple galaxies away. The message is loud and clear.

Yarah is with Matt. On his planet. About to die.

Gripping a Stone in each hand, she relaxes and makes the jump. Seconds later, she’s floating above the world.

The first thing she notices is the horizontal bands. Half as large as Yarah’s planet, but more dense, this world has a single thin chain of snowcapped mountains that springs out of its upper icecap and swirls around the planet like a python snake ten or fifteen times before diving back under at the ice cap on bottom. On either side of the mountain range, a thin fringe of lush green spreads out from the base and extends to the turquoise blue water that fills in the gaps.

It’s all mountains, jungle, beaches and ocean.

Matt’s playground.

A unique world that calls for a unique way of destruction.

Drawing her two Stones out in front, a thin red line proceeds out from each one and pulls identical threads of light out of the other Stones on her belt like spider’s silk.

Coming together in a beautiful weave, a braid of light shoots to the planet’s north pole where it breaks into two ribbons of energy, one on each side of the mountain range. The two red bands run in parallel along the base of the range, following its spiral around the planet until ending in a point at the southern pole.

As Jhata gazes at the red lines, she feeds the anger and contempt for Matt until her fists are clenched in fits of rage. All of it builds up to a crescendo that she funnels into the Stones.

Beginning at the southern pole and working north like a string of falling dominos, the red lines explode, opening wide gashes in the planet’s outer skin and sending shockwaves deep into its core. Magma pours out of open wounds onto the surface. Bedrock shatters under the mountains, and they are pulled into the fiery depths of the world’s interior. Moving with astonishing speed, kilometer after kilometer of the spiraling mountain range sinks below the surface, unleashing tidal waves of molten rock that flow over the delicate jungle and white sand beaches into the ocean. Massive columns of steam rise in the atmosphere.