by K. J. McPike
“What is it?” I asked, dreading the answer.
“I can show you,” she said. “Once we are out of this dream, I will show you the route.” Seeing all of our confused faces, she tapped the side of her head. “I can picture it here and make it visible to all of you.”
Oh, yeah. It had been so long since I’d seen Kala use her power that I’d forgotten she could project images.
“That would be awesome.” I smiled, hoping everyone else’s faith in our plan was growing along with mine.
“Well,” Truman said. “If you want me to hold all of you in another dream, we need to wrap it up here so I have some energy left.”
“Okay.” Just to be sure we were all on the same page, I sped through the recap. “So, when we get out of this dream, Kala’s going to show us the way to the glass room. Then Bianca will project the tracker remover out of the cabinet, and I’ll take everyone’s trackers out except the three youngest’s. Kai can take the remover over to the other room and take care of Salaxia, Caleb, and Amber-Ann’s trackers. Whichever one of them falls asleep first, we’ll take out that tracker after you guys are already in their dream so they won’t be able to wake up.”
“Elliot should probably project his thoughts to whoever is awake and explain,” Ulyxses interjected. “Then they’ll know to stay quiet while Kai removes their trackers.”
“Yeah, that’s a good idea,” I agreed, glancing at Elliot.
“On it,” he said.
“Then Truman will project everyone else into the dream of whoever falls asleep first,” I went on. “Kai and I will stay back with Macy, and she’ll project us all out of here.” I took a minute to think. We’d covered everything. Hadn’t we?
“Oh, you need the code to open the door to our room,” Dixon added.
Dang. Apparently, we hadn’t covered everything.
“It’s five-eight-six-one-two-six-three,” he said. “I went back and memorized it last night after our meeting.”
I repeated the numbers back until I had them memorized, too.
“Alright.” Truman rubbed his hands together. “Let’s do this. I’m ready to get the heck out of here.”
He pulled us out of the dream, and the next second, we all stood beside Caleb’s bed in astral form. Though the ten of us appeared to be in our physical bodies, I could see our real bodies holding hands on the other side of the glass. Our shadowy frames stood in a circle, as if performing some kind of standing séance.
Truman jerked his head toward the other room, and suddenly, I was back in my body. My heart was already racing as I opened my eyes.
Kala broke the circle first, waving her hands to get our attention. A hazy, miniature image of our room appeared in front of her, its glow cutting through the darkness. The doors in the room-replica opened, and Kala made the image shift so it looked like we were moving through a first-person perspective video game. Inching toward the illusion, I studied the path as the pictures moved through the steps to get to the glass room.
I counted each set of doors, noting every hallway we would have to pass and every turn we would have to make. Right, five doors, left, seven halls, left, fifteen doors on the left-hand side. Kala went through the route three times, and I repeated the sequence in my head until I was sure I had it.
Looking up, I saw that Kai had been studying the path, too. Good. That would take some of the pressure off my memory.
Once we both gave Kala a thumbs up, she let the image dissolve. We all turned to Bianca, and she let her head fall back, as if she wanted us to know that she still wasn’t okay with this plan. Thankfully, she held out a hand anyway. A moment later, the tracker inserter appeared in her palm, and she passed it to me without a word.
Swallowing hard, I clutched the device and held it over my forearm. I centered the tip over the green circle glowing beneath my skin, just like I’d seen Cora do. Then I pressed my lips together and pushed the second button.
I managed not to cry out as the pain sliced through me. The flash of heat told me I now had another brand on my arm that would always remind me of what had happened here. But after tonight, it would only be a bad memory.
At least, I hoped so.
Exhaling slowly, I hit the eject button. The expired tracker fell into my hand, no bigger than a pea. I stared at it for a moment, the exterior hot and sticky against my palm. It almost didn’t seem possible that something so small could be deadly. Its green light still blinked as I inched over to my bed and stuffed it under my pillow.
Good riddance.
I crept back over to the others, and despite my shaking hands, I managed to remove their trackers quickly. I slowed the process when I got to Kai, silently pointing out which buttons I used to remove his tracker and then to eject it. That way, he could do the same with the trio of kids on the opposite side of the glass.
Once I’d finished everyone in our room, I paused to listen for deep breathing. I doubted Caleb would be asleep again so quickly after we’d woken him up by projecting out of his dream, but hopefully one of the girls was asleep by now.
Sure enough, I heard someone’s rhythmic breaths.
Fighting to keep control of my own breathing, I passed the tracker remover to Kai. He squeezed my hand as he took it, and then projected to the other side of the glass. The rest of us waited silently as he went to work taking out trackers. This is going to work, I promised myself. If there’s any justice in the world, it has to work.
It felt like an eternity before Kai showed up in our room with Salaxia and Caleb. My insides knotted as I stayed back with Kai and Macy, watching Truman link hands with Kala, Bianca, Caleb, Elliot, and my siblings.
Good luck. Elliot projected the thought into my head just as they all closed their eyes. Soon their breathing deepened, and I knew they’d gone into Amber-Ann’s dream.
Kai glanced at Macy and me before appearing in the opposite room one last time. He moved toward Amber-Ann at a snail’s pace and held the tracker remover over her arm. From where I stood, I could see a flash of green. Kai hesitated, looking back at me. I knew he was afraid he might wake her, but she couldn’t wake up with the others in her dream.
Still, I held my breath as he centered the device and pressed the button. Amber-Ann’s foot twitched, but the rest of her stayed motionless. Macy and I exhaled at the same time, and I looped my arm around hers.
So far, so good.
Undoing Amber-Ann’s restraints, Kai scooped up her sleeping form and projected back to our room. He shifted her to the side, holding her with one arm so he could pass the tracker remover to me. I tucked the device into my jumpsuit pocket and took one of Macy’s hands while Kai took the other.
We crept toward the keypad together, and I recited the numbers in my head. Five-eight-six-one-two-six-three. Heart pounding, I used my free hand to punch in the code. The doors opened, and a gulp slid down my throat. This was it.
Jailbreak time.
My body went numb, and I knew Macy had switched us into astral form. All I could feel was pressure where her fingers were wrapped around mine as we drifted through the doors and into the hallway. We shifted right, the metal walls moving past me as though I were on some invisible train. Macy kept us centered between them, careful not to bump anything. One wrong move could knock her out of her projection and destroy our entire plan.
“Keep going past five doors, and then turn left down the next hallway,” I instructed.
“Got it.”
“How’re you feeling?” Kai asked as we shifted down another long corridor. “Projecting with the three of us?”
“Good so far,” Macy replied. I couldn’t see her, so it was hard to know if she was being truthful. But it was too late to turn back now.
Macy moved quickly, but I managed to count the halls as we passed. She followed my instructions until we reached the set of doors that Kala had promised would lead to the glass room.
“This should be it on the left,” I said, studying the shiny metal. As long as you didn’t mix up th
e directions. I pushed the doubt aside. This was it. Kai had seen the path in Kala’s projection too, and he hadn’t negated anything I said to get us here.
“What’s the code again?” Macy asked as we drifted up to the keypad.
“Six-one-seven-five-nine-five-one,” I recited.
“Got it.”
The next second, something hit me like a truck. My body crashed into the floor, the blow knocking the air from my lungs. I wheezed, pushing myself upright as Macy and Kai scrambled beside me. Amber-Ann lay unconscious on the floor next to them.
What the—
The block. It must have extended over the keypad, too. That had to be what jarred Macy out of her projection.
“Motion sensed in the hall.” The computerized voice sent a chill through my blood. “Activating Lockdown Mode.”
No!
Sirens blared. I rolled onto my side as the warning lights came on, the flashes of red reflecting off the barrier that had already started to descend over the door.
“We can still make it!” Kai yelled over the screaming alarm.
Gasping for breath, I clambered to my feet and yanked Macy up beside me. Kai scooped Amber-Ann into his arms, and we all raced toward the door. Kai reached it first, shifting Amber-Ann so he could punch in the code.
The barrier was already halfway over the doors when they pulled open. I ducked through the shrinking space with Macy right behind me. The transposer and the glass walls came into view, and my heart threatened to explode.
We made it!
I spun around just as Kai shoved Amber-Ann through the doors. Her body slammed into my chest, knocking me backward. I collided with Macy, and the three of us landed hard on the floor.
“Get them out of here!” Kai shouted as the sirens echoed around us. “I’ll distract—” The doors slid closed before he could finish.
“Kai!” I screamed. He could still make it. He just had to open the doors and roll under the barrier. Fighting my way through the tangle of limbs around me, I raced over and pounded on the metal. “Kai! Get out of there!”
But precious seconds passed, and he didn’t come out.
“Kai!” I banged again, the barrier sliding down to push my hands out of the way. “Come on!”
But it was too late.
The barrier clicked into place against the floor, locking Kai inside.
Chapter 28
Sacrifice
“Kai!” Tears blurred my vision as I pounded uselessly on the metal barrier between us. Why would he do that? Why would he sacrifice himself when we all could have made it out?
Red lights flashed overhead, the bulbs tucked into the corners where the glass walls met the lab’s exterior. I heard Kai’s shouts from inside, but I couldn’t understand him over the blaring sirens. I could hardly hear my own cries.
Macy grabbed my arm, tugging me away from the door. “Lali, we gotta get out of here.”
“We can’t leave Kai!”
“We have to. Everyone else’s bodies are still in there.” She spun me around to face where Amber-Ann lay in a heap on the floor, reminding me of the astral forms waiting inside her dream. They were all depending on us to get them to the transposer tunnel. But I couldn’t just let Kai give himself up. We had to come back for him.
Shouts came from the distance, and I knew we needed to move. I bent down to pick up Amber-Ann, her unconscious body like a lead weight.
“Can you get us out of here?” I asked Macy. “I’ll direct you to the portal.”
A silver form burst into view, and I screamed. “Macy, now!”
She grabbed my hand as I held onto Amber-Ann, and we switched into her invisible astral form. The Astralis blinked after us, and Macy sped for the glass. We shot through it, surging into the dark amber sky as I watched the lab shrink into the distance below us. The transposer glowed from the center of the glass room, a taunting reminder that we had to get to a different one so far away.
The forest of enormous white trees whizzed by as Macy wove through their trunks, and I told myself we would make it to the tunnel before any lab workers could jar Truman out of his projection—if they could jar him out of it. Now that we were on the other side of the block, I didn’t know if Truman’s astral form could return to his body.
But what if they kill him? The thought made me cry out. What would happen to everyone projecting with him?
“What?” Macy asked.
“N-nothing.” I forced the panic to the back of my mind. I had to believe Kai was going to distract the guards long enough for us to make it to the transposer. And once the rest of us made it to safety, we would go back for him. I’d make sure of that.
I directed Macy toward the portal, doing my best to make a plan for going back to get Kai. We’d need one of the guard’s necklaces, and as much as I didn’t want to, I was going to have to depend on Macy’s astral form again. She could navigate the lab without being detected, and she would be able to wear the purple stone that could penetrate the block.
But how were we going to get one of those stones? Maybe Macy could sneak up on an Astralis in her astral form and yank off the chain before anyone could spot her. But if they could see the necklace in her grasp, they’d be able to follow her.
Bianca! Maybe she could project one of the purple stones into her hand. My ability worked across realms—why wouldn’t hers? As long as she had seen a guard’s necklace, she’d be able to picture it.
“Lali,” Macy squeaked, pulling me out of my planning. “I’m starting to see black spots.”
Oh, no. My eyes shot toward the ground, but we were so high up I couldn’t see it. All the tree trunks just seemed to vanish into darkness.
“Okay. That’s okay.” I tried to sound calm despite the fact that we were hundreds of feet in the air. “Just get us to the ground so we won’t fall if you run out of energy. Then you can take a break.”
“What if someone catches us?” The panic in her voice only compounded my own.
“They won’t.” I searched the patch of sky showing through the canopy of leaves above us, hoping to convince myself as well as Macy. No one appeared to be out here. Maybe we could switch out of astral form without being seen while she rested. But how long would it be before lab workers came looking?
Fighting back a fresh wave of fear, I raced through our options in my mind. I could project us right to the transposer tunnel, but with Amber-Ann asleep, she wouldn’t be able to change into her physical body before me. I didn’t want to risk going through the transposer only to find she’d been left behind. But if we stayed here, we increased the chances of being spotted.
Maybe if I projected the three of us right to the center of the transposer, we’d all switch at once. We’d have to—right? As it was, it seemed like our best shot. If it didn’t work, I’d pull out of my projection instead of moving through the transposer, and we’d figure out another way. I had to believe that.
“I have an idea, Macy,” I said, trying to sound confident. “If you switch us into physical form, I’ll project us to the transposer. It’ll be quick, so no one can find us.”
I hope.
“Okay.” She didn’t sound sure, but we headed for the forest floor. Soon, I felt the hot air like a thick blanket, and I knew we were back in our physical bodies. Keeping Macy’s hand in mine, I tightened my hold on Amber-Ann as I scanned the dark patch of trees around us. I couldn’t see anyone, but once I projected, we would all be vulnerable to attack. I told myself it would only be for a moment. And I had no choice but to risk it. The longer we stayed here, the more likely it was we would be spotted.
My temples throbbed as I closed my eyes and pictured the transposer tunnel, focusing on the center of the glowing ring. Please work. With that thought, I projected.
The next thing I knew, I landed with a thud, the weight of Amber-Ann in my arms making my fall even harder. Macy gasped beside me, and I let out a relieved breath. We made it! Thank goodness we were safe.
At least for now.
&nb
sp; Amber-Ann still slept soundly, trapped in slumber by the astral forms in her dream. I wished I had some way of communicating with Truman to tell him that we’d made it. Until he and the others came out of Amber-Ann’s subconscious, we could only wait.
I fought to catch my breath as Macy and I sat on the cold tunnel floor. My ears strained to catch any sound, and I searched as far as I could see by the transposer’s light. If Arlo sent anyone looking for us, I was sure this would be the first stop, and we’d need as much of a heads up as we could get. We would just have to hope Macy had enough energy to get away.
Images of Kai suffering the consequences for our escape invaded my thoughts, and I said a silent prayer that he was okay, that he was somehow able to evade Arlo and his minions. He just had to hang on until we could go back and save him.
It felt like an eternity had passed before Amber-Ann’s eyes snapped open, and she sat bolt upright. Beside her, Truman and the others appeared in astral form.
I jumped to my feet. “Get to the transposer! Quick!”
“Wait,” Ulyxses called out. “Truman, stay back until we’re all through, just to make sure we don’t drop out of your projection.”
Oh, yeah. Thank goodness my brother had thought of that.
Everyone else started for the ring, all of them landing in a pile with Truman on top.
“It worked,” Oxanna cried as Elliot sought out Amber-Ann to pull her into a hug. But I knew we didn’t have time to celebrate. We needed to move out of the tunnel, and Kai was still trapped.
“Guys,” I said, helping Salaxia and Dixon to their feet as Macy reached for Caleb. “We have to get out of here.”
“Where’s Kai?” Kala asked, the first to realize his absence.
“He’s distracting the guards,” I answered, fighting to keep my voice even.
Bianca’s hands shot to her mouth.
“We’re going to go back for him,” I promised before she or anyone else could ask what had happened. “We just have to get to safety first.”