Read Darkening Chaos: Book Three of The Destroyer Trilogy for Free Online

play out. I’m the freaking Destroyer, for
crying out loud!”
    “Yeah,”
Milo says quietly, “but you’re still human. You aren’t perfect. You can still
make mistakes.” That last word flicks off his tongue angrily. “You don’t always
know what’s right. I’m not trying to take over—I know you have to make the big
choices—but I’m not going to let you get yourself killed over something
stupid.”
    Guilty
energy builds around me, streaks through my veins. I know we aren’t talking
about the Seeker anymore. He means Braden. Mistake. Stupid. Not worth dying
for. A dozen excuses flit to my lips for why I had to lie. I want to spit them
all out at him. I want to tell him right now that I’m going to save Braden no
matter what the cost is. But I can’t say any of it.
    As
much as I try to justify everything I did, I am the one who gave into Braden a
few too many times, who found reasons to be around him, who could have said no
and didn’t.  I tried. I tried so hard to hate Braden, to keep him at a distance
at first, but the more I was around him, the harder it was to see why I should,
and I fell. I don’t know if I’ll ever see him again, let alone whether I could
ever love him like I do Milo, but I won’t abandon Braden. And that’s not just
because I’ve fallen in love with him, I wouldn’t abandon any of my friends to
that. If I was the one taken and twisted, Milo would do the same for me,
wouldn’t he?
    “Libby?”
Milo asks.
    I
don’t respond right away. The pressure of my guilt mixed with my hope that I
will be able to save Braden won’t let me.
    “Libby,
I know you’re worried about … everyone, but you can’t make decisions purely on
emotion. You’ll get hurt that way,” he says. “Other people will get hurt, too, and
I don’t think you want anyone else getting hurt over this. I can’t stand the
thought of you getting hurt, either.”
    Then
he’s quiet. I don’t know what to say. I feel so horrible about how I’ve hurt
him, but I can’t say what he wants me to say. I love Milo. He was the only one
willing to stick by me after my Inquest even if his motives might not have been
completely unselfish. But I can’t abandon Braden. My head and heart have been
ground into pulp lately. I don’t know how to respond without hurting him even
more. What I do know is that I don’t want Milo to hate me. It crushes me to see
him look at me with anger in his stormy grey eyes. The line is silent for a
long time before I finally speak again.
    “I’m
sorry, Milo. You’re right. I don’t want to hurt anyone more than I already have.”
    Silence
plays over the line again. When it is broken, Milo changes the subject
slightly.
    “Would
you really have wanted me to go with you tonight?”
    My
whole body softens in response to his vulnerability. Lance shifting away from
me reminds me that he’s still there. Lance knows more about my Braden-Milo
dilemma than anyone else, but I also know he doesn’t like being stuck in the
middle of it. I turn away from him, giving him permission to leave me alone for
a few minutes. He can still feel my emotions through the Guardian Oath he gave
to protect me, but it’s easier to deal with just that than having to hear it as
well.
    “Yes,”
I say to Milo, “I would have liked to have had you here with me.”
    “But,
what about …” His voice trails off and he doesn’t finish. He doesn’t need to. I
know he’s thinking about Braden, how I went into a frenzy when I realized he’d
been taken and tried to power my way through my friends to find him, of how I
admitted that I had fallen in love with him. I remember how all three of them
had to tackle me and tie me to a chair-which I still don’t think was
necessary-to keep me from bolting.
    “Milo,
I…” My throat and mind seize up on me. I can’t think or speak. I don’t know
what to say. I can’t say anything. I can’t do this right now, not over the
phone, not an entire country away. “Can we