It was Lysander. He stumbled toward me. “She’s not worth it, stop.”
I let cool air into the bubble, and Bisbee collapsed.
The rest of the underground facility collapsed in on itself, dust flying out of the doorway. I knew Lysander could protect himself against her now. Whatever hold that evil place had on him was gone.
I turned and embraced him. “Lysander, I was so afraid!”
“I know, it’s okay now, I’m fine.”
I held him until I felt the same tickle I’d felt the few times I’d gone into Bisbee’s office. “Surely you’re not trying to meld with my mind.”
“Kaden, stop her!” Lysander yelled, but it was too late. Everything around me turned dark. Anger boiled through me, and I could feel my powers wrestling to be free of my control. It was like someone had turned on all the neurotransmitters in my head at once.
Power ripped through me, pain erupting in every atom in my body, then just like that, it was over. I knew my body was processing whatever Bisbee was doing to me, but I was no longer attached to the process. I was a spirit outside my body—an observer. No longer a participant.
I saw my body arch backward, beams of light racing out of my eyes, nose, mouth, and fingers.
Bisbee was laughing, at least for a moment, until my body rose up on its own, incinerating her the moment the beams touched her.
Lysander yelled. “No! Kaden, no! Come back to me. Come back.”
As I watched in horror, my body turned toward him. I knew then and there that I would have to watch as my own body destroyed the most precious thing to ever matter to me.
Chapter thirty-nine
Lysander
Bisbeedisappearedthemomentthe light touched her. But that was the least of my concerns. Kaden no longer had control of his powers. I watched as he became what I had to assume was some sort of supernova.
I had to stop this, or I had to try.
“You’re a battery, you’re a battery,” I told myself twice before screaming for Kaden to stop.
He turned slowly toward me, and I prepared myself to absorb whatever came next.
Hot searing pain surrounded me the moment Kaden’s light beams touched me. I focused down, willing the Earth to absorb the energy beginning to course through me. I knew if it didn’t accept the powers, I’d be incinerated instantly.
The Earth complied, and the searing pain subsided. Kaden was fully focused on me now, his powers flowing through me into the Earth. I had only moments of hope before it became clear the Earth wasn’t enough. Kaden was too much. I quickly reached out to the other elements. Water, Fire, and Air and began storing Kaden’s energy there as well.
To my surprise, Kaden’s form was no longer recognizable. He was an orb of light, like a mini sun. I realized then even all the elements of the Earth weren’t enough to hold Kaden’s power.
I was forced to thrust my consciousness out elsewhere, anything in our existence where I could funnel more of his energy. The orb was growing, and I had to react quickly, so I reached out to the sun, moon, or anything close to me in the solar system.
The light in the orb dimmed, but only fractionally. Fuck, what the hell is he? I wondered.
The light became brighter, and I knew I would not survive. Kaden was more than the Earth could handle. More than our solar system could handle.
I was beginning to panic. Then it was as if I could sense a different part of Kaden. His consciousness had somehow reached out to me.
That was enough for me. I could die if he was here with me. So, I allowed myself to be at peace. As soon as I stopped controlling where or what absorbed Kaden’s energy, I felt my consciousness flow out into the universe, then into the multiverse. Black holes, pulsars, stars beginning their lives with bright explosions, stars dying… destruction and life.
I looked at Kaden’s body, and the light had changed. He no longer glowed with light but darkness, just like his aura had when I first met him.
I stared at him in shock. I wasn’t particularly knowledgeable about the universe, but I had watched enough programs about space. As I faced the man I’d come to love more than any other person, I knew what he really was. With that realization came our salvation.
I turned away from the things within the universe and allowed Kaden’s energy to be stored in the other. The darkness that drove the universe itself. The dark matter.
Instantly, I was disembodied. My atoms and molecules exploded and dispersed into the ether. Somehow I was still connected to Kaden, but not physically or mentally, more sub-physical. Something I didn’t think humans would ever really understand.
