Page 63 of Custodian

Squeezing her eyes closed, Max begged and prayed and pleaded not to see what she knew she would when she opened her eyes. She gave a second’s thought to just keeping her eyes closed. Perhaps if she didn’t open them, and she didn’t bear witness then it wouldn’t really happen? But she knew how foolhardy that thought was. There was no stopping fate. Swallowing down the bile in her throat, she opened her eyes just in time to see Ryker’s face almost get split in half by Emmanuel’s claw. Blood sprayed in an arc and a vicious curse left Ryker’s lips. He clutched at his ruined face, even as he brought his scythe down upon the offending hand, severing it at the wrist and turning it to dust.

But even as they watched, Emmanuel threw his head back laughed – his hand regenerated in the blink of an eye. “You fools! I am Life and I am Death. I carry a Creator within my body. Your pathetic blades are useless.”

Max knew what he said was true. As a life warden he could heal; as a chade he was a death dealer; and as a host to a custodian, he could create. But there was one thing he was forgetting; Max was all of those things too and more, because she held power over allsevenelements.

Ryker staggered, Emmanuel’s special kind of poison taking fast effect and no doubt causing him excruciating pain. But what does her man do? He looks for her. The very first thought in his head is about her. It’s not about his torn face, or the pain he’s in. Hell, it’s like he can’t even feel it. All he cares about, all he feels, is her. Just her.

Clutching the knowledge fiercely to her heart, Max smiled at him. She wasn’t sure what he saw in that smile but instead of seeing relief on his face, she saw terror as he started moving toward her. But he wouldn’t make it to her in time. She would make sure of it.

She felt the rest of her paladins begin to panic as if they knew something was about to happen. Max sent as much love through the link as she could, trying to convey everything they meant to her with a single jolt of emotion. It was pointless, she knew. How could one possibly express so much love and gratitude? But she tried nonetheless. Unfortunately, it only made her Order panic even more, and they all began to converge on her – even Beyden – who dragged himself along the ground, a bloody trail following in his wake.

“I’m sorry,”she said. And she was. So very sorry.“There’s no other way.”

“Max?!” Ryker’s frantic voice rose above all the others and she only had eyes for him in those final moments.

“I’ll find a way to come back – I promise.”

“What? Max, no!”

She ignored the pain knifing through her heart and instead, stepped forward to embrace Emmanuel. She placed her lips over his own and tightened her arms, creating a cage she knew he couldn’t break. She then focused on lighting a fuse within herself. It was ridiculously easy – finding and tapping into her buried potential. She felt it swell and swell and gasped into her enemy’s mouth as light and colours started streaking from her pores. It was going to work; she knew it was. She was going to save them all – including those poor trapped souls inside of Emmanuel. Unfortunately, it also meant literally blowing herself up. Looking at Ryker one last time, she held onto his chocolate eyes – and detonated.

Supernova sure had one hell of a kick.

***

Ryker was forced to shield his eyes as a brilliant starburst of colour exploded all around them. Chades were incinerated in the blink of an eye, unable to withstand the purity of the energy in their presence. Many wardens and paladins on the opposing side who carried black eyes suffered the same fate. But Ryker didn’t care about any of that. Because as he dropped to his knees and the final light melted into the horizon, he felt his link to Max snap. A series of cries around him alerted him to his fellow knights. He knew they must have been experiencing the same gut-wrenching loss as he was, but he couldn’t feel them. Not now and not ever again. Because the Order link was no more.

It was gone.

Broken.

Completely severed.

He had lived through such a loss in the past and knew what it meant. His liege, his life, his Max … was dead.

THIRTY-ONE

He sat alone in the dark. His whole world had stopped spinning on its axis the moment Max had disappeared from it. Ryker wasn’t sure how much time had passed. He only knew it felt like an eternity. Although the others were equally in pain, they were faring a little better. More because there was so much to be done and someone had to step up to calm the chaos that was now their society. If he still retained the ability to feel anything he would have been so very proud of the lot of them. But as it was, all he could feel was grief. The kind of grief that sucks at your soul and buries you alive under a mantle of razor-tipped pain. And under the grief? There was numbness.

The first few days after Max had disappeared, he had done nothing but rage until his voice was gone and his throat was raw. Then had come the wretched despair – his sorrow too intense even for tears. But now? All he had was this sense of nothingness. He idly wondered if this was how the chades must spend their days; alive on the outside but dead on the inside with no hope in sight.

Not that there were any chades anymore, he acknowledged, his dead eyes staring at the wall in front of him. Max’s little supernova routine had evaporated every chade simultaneously. And not just the chades on top of that cliff either. No, every single soulless chade in existence had been poofed out of it. Reports were coming in from all over the world. The scourge of their society was gone. And those chades still clinging to a piece of their soul? They were cured, wholly and completely, free to be men once more. Likewise, all over the world, chadens were revealing themselves. Many had made their way there, to Ryker’s log house by the sea, to give their thanks and offer their eternal loyalty to a deity that no longer existed.

How did Ryker know all this? His damnable Order – ex-Order now, he corrected. They were a constant blight to his already dreary existence. No matter how much he yelled, or punched, or threw things, they just kept coming back. He couldn’t make them understand that seeing them only made things worse. Or perhaps they didn’t care. Perhaps they only wanted to join him in his misery.

Mordecai had stayed and the man had been a true blessing. He had pulled everyone together and kept the house functioning. He never gave up on trying to get Ryker to leave his room, to eat, to drink, to sleep. The man was a real mother hen, nagging at him all the time. It didn’t even seem to faze him when Ryker punched him – something he did almost daily. Ryker knew the older warden had even tried to take his pain and his heartache. But even the most powerful Death Warden in the world, responsible for healing the sorrow, depression, and grief of millions, hadn’t been able to penetrate Ryker’s pain.

“Ryker.”

Speak of the devil, Ryker thought, his eyes automatically straying to the man.

Mordecai squatted down in front of him, cool green eyes holding both compassion and pity as they raked over his face. Once upon a time, such a look would have pissed Ryker off. Now? He was too far gone to even muster annoyance over the pity. Ryker didn’t bother to answer. He knew his silence wouldn’t deter the man – it never did. But Ryker didn’t care. Mordecai could hover over him and mutter all day. Ryker didn’t care.I. Don’t. Care, he thought.

“Ryker.” Mordecai called his name again. “Cali’s in labour.”

Ryker felt himself blink. Now that did catch his attention and he looked at Mordecai once again.

“She’s asking for you,” Mordecai said.

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