Page 295 of Interion

“Why didn't you tell me this whole story before?” he asked, his voice pained.

Serguei trembled, unable to meet his eyes. Sitting there, he seemed so small, his heart laid bare in his open chest.

“How could I?” A tear dripped onto the carpet. “You're the only thing I have left, Zion. How could I taint the only good part of my life? This mistake is mine. I thought I could fix it without involving you. Once again, I was wrong.”

The general paced the room. He stopped and opened his mouth to speak, then closed it and resumed pacing.

“I don’t understand.”

He stopped in front of the psychic. Once again, they stood face to face, and Zion was still the ten-year-old boy afraid of what his father might say.

“I didn’t want it to be like this.”

“Then what did you want?” the general asked, his voice anguished.

“I don’t know!” Serguei shouted, losing his composure. Zion flinched. “You were the only thing left of her, the only piece of her that remained. I wanted to make you a better man than I ever was, but I didn’t know how to handle it—didn’t know how to handle the past. I was afraid to tell you and have you pull away, afraid you’d leave me once you knew what happened. Afraid you’d abandon me, just like Ravena did. Hatred seemed like a better path than indifference, and I let us go on that way.”

Now the tears were flowing, and Serguei couldn’t contain the flood. Zion was speechless. He didn’t even know where to begin sorting through the mess of his feelings. This wasn’t the cold man who had taught him that feelings were weaknesses. He looked at the psychic and tried to fit this new perspective into all his childhood memories, but none of it made sense. He took a deep breath, ready to put his emotions into words. But a groan of pain echoed through the room, cutting off his train of thought.

The three men looked at Kyller, who was trembling under the blanket.

A tear of blood dripped onto the wooden floor as the Sonar announced:

“It’s begun.”

Chapter 73

The three men leapt to their feet, startled, and surrounded the bed where Kyller was grunting and writhing.

“What’s happening?” Zion asked.

“Angel has already taken over the entire subconscious. Now she’s begun attacking your partner’s consciousness,” Julius replied as tears of blood streamed down his face, faster and faster.

“What should we do?” Serguei asked, distressed.

“Listen to her heart.” The Sonar pointed to Kyller’s chest. The two men listened: the beats were frantic. “She’s fighting, but she doesn’t have the strength to keep herself safe. We’ll listen until her heart starts to fail, and then you act.”

“We should wait until she’s almost dead?” Zion asked, making sure he’d understood the absurdity of what the seer was saying.

“Yes. If you try to attack too soon, Angel will notice and raise her defenses even higher. Let her get distracted trying to destroy the girl, and when she’s focused on that, you surprise her. She’s a very powerful entity, even if she can only use a tiny fraction of her power for now. We need to be cautious.”

Lightning struck near the cabin, and the thunderclap echoed through every atom of the place.

“War is furious with me,” Julius whispered, his voice trembling with fear.

The three men continued monitoring each heartbeat. Zion grabbed Kyller’s pale hand and squeezed, feeling her determination even now. He knew his partner must be resisting Angel with everything she had and then some, but it wouldn’t be enough. The entity held the power of thousands of siblings. Even he didn’t know if he could face her.

As expected, the heart soon began to slow.

“Serguei, you must destroy the barrier with a single attack. Put everything you have into it, because that’s when Kyller’s barrier will be at its weakest. But when you bring it down, you cannot enter. This war is happening in the subconscious, and if you go in there, you’ll end up killing the girl when you leave.”

“Understood,” the psychic said with a nod.

“Zion, when the barrier falls, you go in. Because you’re partners, you’re an extension of Kyller’s soul, so you won’t cause problems for her mind.”

“And what should I do?” the general asked, his voice tight with worry.

“Keep your partner alive until the fusion completes. If that happens, Angel will be trapped inside her and won’t be able to cause any damage.”