Category: Science Fiction Books

This scene is from a bonus story found in Bringer of Chaos Bundle 1. In it, while Six has yet to claim a friendship with Pietas, he no longer sees the immortal king as an enemy. He might still face death at Pietas's hands once they're on the planet, but for now, he's merely accompanying the sealed lifepod inside which Pietas is trapped.

My whole life, I've tried to make my abuela proud. Would she believe what the church said? That I'd given up my soul when I became a ghost? I like to think my grandmother would tell me what she usually said when I asked for advice. "Is this the desire of your heart of hearts? Can you hold your head up and be proud doing it? If not, then don't do it. If you can, then why are you wasting time talking to me?"

When I joined the Corps I had two choices. One, I could stay dead. Or two, I could make my death count. Save humanity. But when I single-handedly accomplished the task of capturing humankind's greatest foe, what was my reward?

They locked me in a cell with him. Now he's suffering in that life pod, and I'm doomed to the same fate that awaits him at the other end. DnD, ghosts call it. Dead 'n' Done. What immortals refer to as perma-death. Put permanently out of everyone's misery.

We were days away from Sempervia, and it had been months since I'd picked up even a stray thought from Pietas. Without warning, I plunged into an endless black abyss, clawing my way through the dark, desperate for even a flicker of light. I dropped to the floor. Stayed there until my heart stopped thundering and my legs didn't shake.

The horror subsided, then ended as abruptly as it started. That's when I realized I had been one hundred percent awake. The nightmare I'd experienced was his.

My first thought: Pietas just perma-died. I'd endured his death throes.

I crawled over to my pack and fumbled through it for a wrapped morsel of candy I'd smuggled aboard. Normally, I'd take one tiny bite and chew slowly, savoring every bit on my tongue, knowing I'd never taste it again. Where I was going, no one made sweets. If they did, I'd be lucky to live long enough to find some.

This time, I crammed the whole thing in my mouth, chewed a couple of times and then chased it with ghost water. Anything to get a punch of energy so I could at least stand up.

The rest of the trip, I lived in dread of that nightmare happening again.

When we finally reached Sempervia, guards had taken me out of the cell to be processed. A tech gave me the quickest exam in history. He passed a scanner over me so fast I could have been perma-dead and it wouldn't have registered. Then he flashed a blinding light in my eyes and pronounced me "alive enough."

As I made my way back, arrival klaxons sounded and blue strobe lights flashed in every corridor. Over the din, Pietas screamed the name he'd given me. Six! The thought-word pierced my skull, ripe with panic. Right behind it, a punch of fear. Not for himself.

For me.

Pietas was bound, certain of a final death, yet he feared for me?