Page 209 of Villainous Rise

My vision blurred and I screamed as the pain threatened to pull me under.

“Please, stop.” Agony and terror ignited the energy trapped in my veins. I felt the sickening weight of Halcyon’s stolen power coat the words as they left my mouth.

Halcyon’s control slipped just enough, allowing Helios’s true self to surface.

“Annie,” he choked out, his voice broken and raw. He managed to loosen the hand squeezing my injured wrist, and though I could see him fighting to let go of me, he didn’t. “I’m so sorry. I can’t stop him.”

The torment in his expression was unbearable. This was Helios, the real Helios, forced to witness everything Halcyon made him do, powerless to prevent it.

“It’s not your fault,” I whispered. “William, this isn’t you.”

“I tried to fight him. For months. I was screaming inside, watching my hands...” A sob tore from his throat. “I couldn’t stop any of it.”

“It’s okay, William.”

Helios jerked suddenly as Halcyon fought to regain control. His eyes met mine, desperate and pleading.

“Your voice is so strong in my head,” he gasped, fighting for each word. “It’s cutting through his control, but it’s not enough.” His fingers twitched against my arm, his grip loosening fractionally. “I can feel him, Annie. He’s going to make me kill you.”

A deafening crack split the air as a wave of blue energy slammed through the far wall. Chunks of concrete and twisted metal exploded inward, suspended in Havoc’s chaos field before dropping harmlessly to the ground.

Havoc hovered in the opening he’d just torn into the wall with Cipher close behind him.

Helios flinched at the noise, his grip loosening just enough. This was my only chance.

I lunged upward, my fingers stretching toward his face. Everything seemed to slow down as my palm made contact with his jaw. I focused with everything I had, reaching for that oily darkness I’d sensed wrapped around Helios’s golden signature. I could feel it now, a parasitic presence twisting through Helios’s power like poison.

Helios’s body went rigid, then began to tremble violently. His eyes widened in shock as something flowed between us, hot and electric, making my nerves scream in protest.

My edges of my vision darkened as something foreign poured into me. Was this Helios’s power? Or was it Halcyon’s control? I couldn’t tell where one ended and the other began.

Helios’s knees buckled, and he collapsed to the ground, dragging me down with him. His grip had turned from restraining to desperate, clinging to me as if I were his lifeline.

I could hear voices. Cipher and Havoc both shouting my name, their words urgent and afraid.

But they sounded distant as my own heartbeat thundered in my ears, drowning out everything else, growing louder with each passing second.

The transfer continued, relentless and agonizing. Whatever I was absorbing from Helios felt wrong, twisted and corrupted. Halcyon had wrapped himself so thoroughly around Helios’s power that I couldn’t separate them.

“Annie!” Cipher’s voice broke through the roaring in my ears, closer now.

But I couldn’t respond. All I could do was hold on as the world dissolved into pulsing light and the deafening rhythm of my own heart.

CHAPTER 38

CIPHER

Annie’s screams cut through me as I clutched her against my chest, pushing my flight abilities to their limit. Her body radiated heat that shouldn’t have been humanly possible and my HUD flashed urgent warnings as internal suit temperatures climbed past safety thresholds.

“Hold on, Annie. Just hold on.” Whatever power she had absorbed from Helios was trying to consume her, trying to take what belonged to me. I tightened my grip despite the heat searing through my armor.

Her skin glowed with an unnatural light that pulsed beneath the surface, veins illuminated like molten gold, mixing with the chaotic blue of Havoc’s own energy. Her body arched in my arms, another scream tearing from her throat.

Systems critical. Thermal protection failing, my suit’s HUD warned.

The night air whipped past us as I pushed harder. Annie’s eyes flew open. They were wrong, all wrong, glowing with the same golden light that was burning through her skin.

“It hurts,” she gasped, her voice distorted. “Cipher!”