Is that why I can’t see inside him? Liza asked. Kerris didn’t answer, but now that they were connected, she felt the pain on his face. In her haste to give him spirit eyes, she’d ripped through too much of what held them in place. His ability to see the other realm wouldn’t last, and her recklessness might have destroyed his ability to see in this one, too.
“Do you want to walk?” Danny asked, pausing at the bottom of the ramp, adjusting his grip on her. Perhaps she’d been wriggling too much, but she nodded, feeling a sting on her bare feet as they touched the ground. Danny kept his arm around her as they walked out of the bell tower.
“Just wait until Tray finds out I’m bringing home another stray,” Danny laughed, giving her a squeeze, tapping the device on his ear and listening. “Sky’s with your brother. Do you think we can get an ambulance bot working for him?”
“I hear buzzing,” Liza said, leaning her head against his ribs. He was tall and she was not.
“It’s a drone. The drones are flying into the city,” Danny said, putting her behind him, drawing his gun. Liza conjured a pistol for herself, checking to make sure neither Danny nor Kraven noticed. She knew the drones didn’t want her leaving the city, but Danny and Tray had talked so often of shutting down the drones, she’d assumed it would be a part of the plan.
Her droids surrounded her again, and the drone positioned itself above her.
“New orders: hybrid movement is restricted,” one of the droids reported.
Kerris, what are you doing? Liza asked, her eyes filling with tears. If you don’t want me to go with you, I won’t. Kerris?
Liza! The drones are firing on us! Kerris responded. I’m shot!
Liza’s breath quickened. She looked at Danny, but read no ill will from him. If anything, he seemed ready to defend her from this drone.
But Kraven’s smirk of victory told her all she needed to know. “Dex, it seems to work. Nelka, bring the endemics to the bell tower. There is something we need to discuss.”
“You betrayed me,” Liza cried, dropping to one knee. The droids closed in, but the drone would not fire so long as she didn’t move.
“Kraven, what are you doing?” Danny asked. “Let her go.”
Kraven shot Danny with his energy weapon and Danny fell to the ground. Then he pointed his weapon at Liza.
35
Three drones took to the air, and Tray ducked behind the Nelka wagon, which was situated at the mouth of Oriana’s cargo bay. Madricka had a machine aimed at the gaping hole in the gate, trying to get a comm signal amplified enough to break through the droid’s jamming frequency. She reached for a weapon and tracked the drones, but they flew into the city.
“I would have had the drones deactivated by now,” Tray groused, crossing his arms. The paint on his skin itched, but wistfulness for the meaning of the words compelled him to scratch around rather than over the words.
“Me too,” Madricka smirked, squatting next to her machine, stroking the ribbon on her neck as she called for Kraven again. The olive green ribbon blended with her painted skin and attire, but had comm technology woven into it.
“You didn’t have to stay here and babysit us,” Tray smirked, motioning back to the bay where Amanda lay on a makeshift couch.
“I thought you were here to babysit me,” she smiled. “Kraven doesn’t want me in danger.”
“Overprotective? My brother’s that way,” Tray sighed. Danny was supposed to stay by the gate, keeping their exit clear, but he’d gone in and the droids had closed the gap. It had been almost half an hour since the breach, the drones were flying, the droids were standing sentinel, and they couldn’t get a message in.
“Don’t tell me you’re pregnant, too,” Madricka chuckled, leaning back on her hands, letting her tunic fall back to silhouette the barely noticeable baby bump.
Tray blushed and stammered a few incoherent words.
“They say it changes everything—having a kid,” she continued, crossing her ankles, looking longingly toward the battle that the others were fighting without her.
“That, it does,” Tray agreed. It had been a month and a half since he’d learned of the boy’s existence, he hadn’t even met his son yet, and Hero still occupied a disproportionately high ratio of Tray’s thoughts. Tray didn’t know if he’d be allowed to be part of his son’s life. At this point, Mikayla would have told Hero he was dead—if she’d told Hero about him at all. But the thought of going home to Quin, leaving Oriana behind and being a proper father to his son kept Tray going. “I was going to meet my son in port. Then everything went wrong.”
“Not everything went wrong,” she frowned. “You’re still alive. You’re in better shape than your friend there.”
Tray glanced at Amanda again. Her maroon trench coat was draped over her like a blanket. Her feet were bare, her body bruised where the restraints pressed across her shoulders and legs while she was in the midst of her psychotic episode. “If we could just get home, she’d have the medicine she needs, too. But then we never would have met Hawk and Sky, never found the Bobsled—”
“And never met me,” Madricka chimed in. “At least you have a safe place to leave your kid. My family, the tribe I planned to reunite with to raise my child, is gone. And my mate’s. Gone because of the destroyer.”
Tray felt sick inside, and he ached for her, but he couldn’t invite her to Quin. She would have to change too much of who she was—how she dressed, how she behaved, how she hunted food—to fit in.
The couch creaked, and Tray turned to the bay. The couch was little more than the frame of a couch, forged of metal, salvaged from Boone. Tray had put a cushion on it, and set a screen in front so they could relax and watch flickers. It wasn’t comfortable, but it got them off the floor. Amanda twitched and kicked, hacking on her own drool.
“Amanda? Are you all right?” Tray called, hurrying over.
“She’s not going to answer you, Tray,” Madricka called after him. “With the tranq Honor gave her, she’ll be out the rest of the week.”
“But she is awake!” Tray exclaimed. Amanda’s eyes opened, but her pupils were dilated. She rolled onto her side, nearly falling off the couch, and Tray caught her.
“Tray?” she gasped, her tongue lolling in her mouth.
“Volk,” Madricka swore. “How is that possible?”
“Do you need an Occ?” Tray asked, taking the small box that Honor had given him with the Nelka device. It looked similar to the Drava one, and likely came from a common design. Tray hoped the Nelka would come to Quin and trade the devices. Using his thumb, he tapped the device so that it adhered to his finger, then transferred it to Amanda’s brow.
“Hi,” she smiled, looking tired, but smitten. Her leer was out of character and disturbing.
“Hello,” Tray smiled back, finding a rag and cleaning the drool from her cheeks.
“Drones!” Madricka cried, pressing the button that closed the bay doors. One of the drones got inside anyway, and Madricka shot it down.
“Already? I thought I would have more time,” Amanda said, sitting up. “Tray, I need you to shut down the drones.”
“Saskia’s on that,” Tray assured. “Only one got in. It probably came to check us out because we were blasting through the jamming signal.”
“No, it came for me,” Amanda said, her bony fingers digging into his elbow. “Tray, it’s me. It’s Liza.”
Tray jerked his arm free. “Madricka, were there hallucinogens in those tranquilizers?”
“We gave her the tranqs because she was hallucinating,” Madricka reminded him, picking up the fallen drone, breaking off the flying parts.
“It was the only way I could think to get to you,” Amanda insisted, reaching out for him and tumbling from the couch. “I tried talking to her in her head, but she couldn’t wake up on her own.”
“No, you’re not Liza. It’s just another weird episode,” Tray said, his eyes welling with tears. He could feel his memories surging in turmoil—the memory of his fingers being sever
ed.
“Amanda doesn’t speak Lanvarian when she’s having a psychotic episode,” Amanda pointed out.
“Okay. Liza,” Tray allowed, feeling even more threatened by the combined destructive powers of the two women. “Saskia is in there trying to deactivate the drones already. What can I do?”
“I will part the droids for you. They will protect you,” Amanda said, her voice taking on Liza’s high-pitched panic. “I need you to turn off the drones so we can leave the city. They won’t let the hybrids leave!”
The hull clanged as the drones fired outside.
“Even in this body, they know I’m here,” Amanda—Liza—cried. She collapsed on the couch, unconscious, and a moment later, the noise outside stopped. The noise in Tray’s memories and the pain in his fingers also stopped. Liza was gone. Tray made sure that Amanda was comfortably arranged on the couch, then found the half-charged pulse rifle that Saskia had left for him.
“Don’t tell me you’re going to help the destroyer escape!” Madricka exclaimed, intercepting him as he ran for the door. “She’s a ticking time bomb.”
“Who doesn’t want to go off,” Tray pointed out. “I’m removing the threat so she can disarm. Hopefully that deescalates the situation enough to get our people out alive.”
Madricka huffed in frustration, crossed her arms, and blocked the door.
“Will you help me?” Tray asked.
Madricka frowned, considering her options. Tray had seen the look on Saskia’s face before—when she was deciding between fighting off an attack or getting him to safety. Madricka opened the door and peered out, then waved to Tray that it was clear.
36
Danny lay on the ground, painful shocks echoing through his body from the Nelka stunner’s blast. He couldn’t believe Kraven shot him. He knew they were tenuous allies with different goals, but the man shot him! His legs seized and burned when he tried to move them, his shoulders ached, and he felt blisters forming on his chest.
“You idiot,” Danny growled, realizing Kraven had bound his hands. “What have you done?”
“What I had to,” Kraven said. “My father could still be alive. If you take her to other endemics, she will never return. She believes she can bring them all back, and the time to try is now.”
“Liza?” Danny croaked, craning his neck. Kraven may have been the one with the stunner, but Liza was the true danger, and he needed her to believe that he hadn’t betrayed her.
“She disappeared,” Kraven sighed, kicking the dirt, pushing a droid out of the way. The droid didn’t appear active. “It’s strange, for as much as I knew it was possible, I wasn’t prepared to see it.”
“Kraven, I am not your enemy,” Danny said, gritting his teeth. Every breath brought pain to the blisters on his skin, and his left arm was numb from lying on it while unconscious.
“I couldn’t risk you helping the endemics before they helped us,” Kraven shrugged, tipping his head.
Danny rolled over, then pushed against his bonds, using his elbows to sit up. Sky and Saskia were in chains, attached to droids. Kerris lay on the extended gurney of an ambulance bot, and Hawk stood next to him, his body hunched over. Both men looked to be in bad shape, with their faces wrapped in gauze so that they were blinded. The way Honor tended to them made Danny worry that their injuries were severe.
“The drones have the endemics contained,” Kraven said, pointing to the six drones that flew above Kerris and Hawk. “They don’t recognize Flavia, or is it Sky, as one of them. She must be a different kind of Panoptica.”
“Kraven, we came for Hawk,” Sky glowered, glaring daggers at Kraven. “We have him. We haven’t lost any lives yet. It’s time to move out.”
“And let her obliterate some other tribe,” Kraven huffed.
“They’re not dead,” Kerris whispered, writhing on the gurney, his finger reaching into the air. Hawk caught his hand to calm him. “She says they’re not dead. Just moved.”
“What’s to stop her from ‘moving’ us, too?” Sky exclaimed. “We’ll all be dust!”
“She gave me eyes, but I didn’t understand,” Kerris croaked.
“I’m sure her intentions are good,” Danny interjected. “She doesn’t mean to deceive you. She was a little girl, and she didn’t mean to kill anyone, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t dead. I was teleported by a hybrid in Rocan. Humans can’t survive in the other realm. I was there for a few seconds and nearly suffocated. I’m sorry, Kraven, your father is dead. Kerris, your wife is dead.”
A wind stirred through the square, a small earthquake shaking them off their feet. Hawk yelped, but bent his body over Kerris, whispering until the shaking stopped.
“Then we return to the original plan,” Dex snarled. “The endemics will help us subdue the destroyer.”
“That was never the plan,” Sky retorted, her shoulders shaking as she struggled against her chains.
“I am her brother. I am responsible for her,” Kerris murmured. Danny could feel the man’s heart breaking from thirty feet away. He knew what it was like to feel responsible for a younger sibling. Danny was fortunate to be on the side of protecting his brother from a world that would hurt him. Kerris was protecting the world from his sister.
“Then make her come back,” Dex snarled, grabbing Kerris by the collar, ripping the gauze from his face. Kerris’ skin was raw pink and blistered, his eyes swollen and bloodshot.
“Dex, let him go!” Honor cried.
Before she could raise a hand, Dex flew back as though punched. He tripped over Danny and with his hands bound, Danny went face first into the ground, Dex’s knees impacting the back of his head.
“Telekinesis,” Kraven exclaimed, not sure where to aim his weapon. He knelt next to Dex, helping the other man up.
“Drones can detect me, but they cannot contain me,” Kerris cackled weakly. “All Liza has to do is possess your body and the drones will fire on you, thinking you’re her. She can make them turn on you, too.”
“Possessing a body?” Saskia repeated.
“Your people have been having flashbacks, right?” Kerris asked, gaining strength as he realized his power. “Bad memories rising to the surface. Traumas of the past. That’s her signature. She can drive a whole town to madness.”
“Amanda’s been having flashbacks nonstop,” Danny nodded. “And Tray the other day, remembering his fingers getting severed.”
“I remember getting shot,” Saskia said.
Kerris covered his eyes with shaking hands, his lips pursed in pain.
“Don’t touch,” Honor said. “You could infect the wound.”
“You see, hybrid,” Kraven crooned. “We’ll be kind to you if you help us.”
Kerris groaned, but seemed to pass out. But then, Danny felt his bonds begin to loosen. He exchanged a look with Saskia. She and Sky were cuffed and chained. Kerris couldn’t help them, but he was helping Danny.
“Kraven, Oriana being here isn’t going to change anything,” Sky argued. “I cannot subdue Liza. Neither can Hawk, no matter what those drones think he is.”
“Liza cares about him. She kidnapped him once already,” Kraven laughed.
“Forcing Liza to help you could kill all of us!” Sky cried.
“Kraven, she just wants to help her brother,” Danny added. “Treat his injuries or don’t. Just let her be with her brother.”
“If she wants to help him so much, where is she?” Dex groused, dabbing his bloody nose with his knuckles. It looked like Kerris had punched him in the face… without ever getting up from his gurney.
“Here,” Honor said, her expression going blank, her body stiff. Kraven and Dex follower her gaze, but Danny, finally free of his ropes, took advantage of the distraction, and went to free Saskia and Sky. Going into Sky’s satchel, he found the grav-gun. He knew there was some setting that would disintegrate the metal cuffs, but he didn’t know if it would crush their hands as well. He opted to fire at the chain instead, and the two links turned to dust.
<
br /> “Here,” Honor said again, stepping around the ambulance bot. Two of the droids followed her, but she held up a hand, her movements jerky. “I am contained. Not moving. There’s no need to kidnap my brother or threaten me.”
Kraven and Dex whipped around. Honor dropped to her knees submissively, running her fingers through the dirt. “Deactivate the drones. This is something I’ve wanted to do for a long time.”
“Honor, what is she doing to you?” Kraven said, horrified.
“We are not giving you the advantage, girl,” Dex added, pushing Kraven aside and confronting her.
“Then we wait,” Honor said, drawing wistful circles in the dirt.
“No. You let us leave,” Sky said, reclaiming her grav-gun and pointing it at Dex. “Give me the keys to these cuffs, now.”
“Hawk can’t leave until we deactivate the drones,” Saskia said, taking her chains in hand to use as a weapon. She moved to Hawk, putting her hands on his shoulders to guide him. “There’s an AI that runs drone control, but it listens to humans. All Dex had to say was ‘contain the hybrids.’”
“I stay with Kerris,” Hawk said, lifting the gauze from his eyes. His face wasn’t swollen, but looked like he’d been punched repeatedly in the face. He took half a step away from Saskia, but then leaned on her.
“I stay with my sister,” Kerris said.
“Honor, I’m so sorry,” Sky murmured, firing her grav-gun, felling Honor. Liza appeared beside Honor, falling to the ground as though she’d been hit as well.
“Liza!” Kerris screamed, his pain causing another earthquake.
Danny rushed for Liza, but Kraven and Dex held him back.
“Stay back, Captain. She’s ours,” Dex said.
Liza ran her fingers through the sand, sifting the dust grains through her knuckles. She felt for it the same apathy as any other cloud of dust that filled the marbles in the other realm. Even though she knew each sphere belonged to and contained the life force of a human, she didn’t see them that way. Humans, in her eyes, had as much substance as the sand. She didn’t want to be back in this realm, but she’d started this mess when she kidnapped Hawk and knocked Oriana off her plateau.
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