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

talk about this when I get back?”
    When
Milo speaks again, the beautiful caress of his voice has stiffened back into
business mode, bringing a poignant sense of loss to my heart. “I went to Mr.
Walters’ house this afternoon. The box he left for you was easy enough to find.
His notes are all in code, but there were some other things that might be more
helpful right away, like his thoughts on what we should do next and pictures of
Helen and her family. His granddaughter looks like she’s about our age. I can
see her diktats in the picture.”
    I
don’t know why, but despite knowing the year Mr. Walter’s granddaughter was
born, I kept picturing her as a little child. Maybe thinking of her as
completely helpless makes it easier to think of dying to save her life. I shake
off that thought, telling myself it won’t come to that.
    “Did
you ask Casey about decoding Mr. Walters’ notes?” I ask. Casey is so patient
and steady. She’s the perfect one to handle it.
    “She’s
already working on it. I’ll let you know if she finds anything.”
    “Thank
you, Milo,” I say, “thank you for taking care of everything there. And thanks
for making me come here. I needed the time to think.”
    I
can almost feel the burning questions in his silence. He’s dying to know, to
ask about Braden and what I’m planning to do. There’s little chance he thinks
I’ve forgotten about him. I wonder if he realizes I plan to rescue Braden at
the same time I go for the Ciphers. The millions of questions I know must be
dancing around in his head don’t come tumbling out. He stows them away for
later and gets back to the task at hand. Milo has worked so hard for the
Ciphers. A few days ago he told me they were more important than us right now,
but that we would have our chance to be together with no other distractions. I
wonder now if he still hopes that day will come as much as I do.
    “Now,
let’s talk about this plan of yours. Lance wouldn’t explain it. He said I needed
to hear it from you, which sounds to me like I’m not going to like it very
much,” Milo says grumpily.
    Oh,
he’s going to like it. All it takes is one word to bring the smile back into
his voice.
    “Naturalism.”
     
    Chapter
5
    Invincible
     
    My grin spreads wide as I
stare back at Captain Blackwood. I allow myself half a second to enjoy him
realizing I’ve just played him for a fool. The yelling, the demands, the false
naiveté of the last few minutes, it was all a big act. I even kind of warned
him when I offered him the possibility that I was fooling Braden about me. I
was, and am, truly terrified of being here, but I never expected him to honor
our deal. So I came prepared.
    Panic
flickers in Blackwood’s eyes, but I’ve already tapped my Naturalism. The whole
group flinches when my balled up fists suddenly snap open. The gesture means
nothing. It does distract them enough to keep them from reacting, though. The
marble floor they’re standing on suddenly melts into goo. Screams bounce
through the room as they are sucked down. A couple of them manage to think
clearly enough to try laying themselves out flat to slow their sinking. The
quickest one only gets his knee back out of the mess before I reverse
everything.
    Marble
solidifies with a stunning crack.
    A
few broken bones may have contributed to the sound. That’s how I broke my ankle
last year, anyway. Anguish and fury call out at me from the circle of trapped
Guardians. Blackwood is by far the loudest, and most trapped. Somehow, he has
ended up with both hands stuck inside the marble as well as being buried up to
his hips. Being built like a linebacker tends to be a drawback when you’re
standing on virtual quicksand.
    I
walk across the only portion of the floor whose pattern isn’t completely
distorted by my trap. My heeled boots—which I wore particularly for the nice,
dramatic sound they would make—snap along with me. I stop right in front of
Blackwood. His heaving body is bent in