by Wendy Knight
There was no way they’d make it out alive.
Their saving grace was that it was a small ship, and there didn’t seem to be more than twenty to thirty Py, and most had been in the incubator below. Very few actually showed up to fight them, and when they did, they found it surprisingly hard to take the human hybrids down.
But there was a very real possibility that they wouldn’t have to. Because Phoenyx and Nima and Sienna were completely lost — not only could they not find the way out, but they couldn’t find the other seven.
“Phoenyx!”
Phoenyx didn’t recognize the voice, but her human half reacted to it. It wasn’t an alien calling her. Grabbing Nima’s and Sienna’s hands, they sprinted through the endless maze of metal and glowing blue markings, following the voice like a lifeline.
It was a lifeline.
Phoenyx rounded a corner too fast, slammed right into Andi, and tumbled over the side of the landing. She fell, fell, fell, for what seemed an eternity, and then heard someone — she was never sure who — screaming at her to use her wings.
It sounded like Selenia.
Phoenyx snapped out her wings, bargaining for her life with the alien half that sought to control her. Finally, she gave up.
And let it.
Her wings caught, spinning her upside down and around, and then she was soaring up, weaving over and under the endless walkways, until she landed hard next to Sienna and Nima, who both grabbed her as if she might throw herself over the edge again.
“We found a way!” Sienna didn’t let go of her hand, instead spun around and raced straight at the thick metal wall. Phoenyx opened her mouth to cry out, object, anything, but Sienna raised her hand, releasing the blood from her fingertips, and it weaved through the air, beautiful, sparkling, azure as their tattoos.
The wall opened.
“How—” Phoenyx started, but there was no time for questions.
The sun had set while they’d been lost, and night air welcomed them, lifting them from the ship, pulling them into the clouds.
They were free.
NYX FINALLY RAISED HER head. Her entire body shook, as if she’d just escaped. It was so real — so real because she had nightmares every time she closed her eyes.
Enika stared at her in horror, brown eyes wide and full of tears. Cole had her hand. Nyx hadn’t realized that she’d been clinging to him for all she was worth, like it was keeping her here and safe, instead of being lost in the past. She didn’t have the courage to let go.
“What happened to The Nine after that?” Keven asked.
“They wanted to explore and see how bad the devastation is throughout the world. I—I wanted to stay here.” To look for you, Cole.
But best that she not tell him that part. Her heart may be beating, but it was beating with shattered parts.
When she met his eyes, though, she realized she didn’t need to tell him. He already knew. Slowly, he raised her fingers to her lips and pressed a kiss against her knuckles.
“So you found them. Are they even all still—” Keven froze, realizing belatedly the pain those words might have caused.
“Alive?” Nyx asked softly.
“Together,” he said lamely.
“I know where they are. They’re all still together. And alive.”
“But they wouldn’t come back with you?”
Nyx sighed, tipping her head back to stare at the darkness. “They’re fighting evil. There are colonies like this one all over the world. They all need protection, and there are only nine like me. They’re doing the best they can.”
“All those women — everyone that left — they’re dead?” Enika finally whispered. She looked like she was going to be sick.
Nyx nodded.
“Why you?” RayAnna asked, coming back into the room. At once, Nyx felt violated — she’d shared her most painful, horrific memory with these three whom she loved and trusted. RayAnna had not been an intended recipient. “Why are you the only ones to escape?”
“Because she’s stronger than everyone else,” Enika said fiercely.
Nyx shook her head, smiling fondly at her best friend. “No. It has nothing to do with me. It was The Nine. We made it out together. If not for them, I would never have survived.”
“So you get to be gorgeous and heroic and everyone’s just supposed to worship at your feet? You abandoned us!” RayAnna cried. Nyx blinked at her, but could think of no words.
She had abandoned them.
“You threw a tantrum and you left us, and we almost all died. And now you’re back and we’re supposed to be grateful?”
“Yes.” Keven’s voice was hard with finality. “We are. She came back when we needed her. As she said she would. She doesn’t owe us anything, RayAnna. We don’t pay her to protect us. She’s free to leave whenever she wants, and that’s her choice. But she came back when we needed her.”
“My garden died! Where was she then?”
Suddenly, Nyx understood. This irrational, angry RayAnna was hurt — and it had nothing to do with Cole. “They took someone, didn’t they? While I was there, they took someone from you.”
RayAnna crumbled to the ground, anger instantly gone. “They took my mother.”
Nyx left Cole’s side, forcing herself to her wobbly feet, and crossed to kneel at RayAnna’s side. “It’s okay.” She nodded, stroking RayAnna’s hair. “It’s okay to hate me. If it heals your heart, if it brings you peace, hate me, RayAnna.” Because I escaped, and your mother didn’t.
I hate me too.
“I need to get out there.” Nyx watched RayAnna flee her room and rose stiffly to her feet. Her tattered wings still smoked a little when she waved them. Poor things. “We need to take back our territory. The Pys you ran into at Costco aren’t going to be the only ones, not with the word out that there’s a human colony and a truckload of Garce all in one neat little package.”
“You were just roasted alive. How about taking it easy for a few days?” Cole gently pushed her back down on the bed and pulled the comforter over her. “I’m not gonna watch you die right in front of me again,” he said quietly, so only she could hear.
His words sent shivers racing up her spine and through her wings.
“I’ve been taking it easy. It’s time to take back our city. Again.” With will she hadn’t known she possessed, she shoved the comforter off. The cold of her lair bit into her tender skin. If she could feel cold, it meant her blood hadn’t re-grown the flames yet. She growled a little under her breath and raised her chin.
Enika set aside the superhero costume and stood up, stretching. “All right then. Let’s get to it.”
“Let’s?” Nyx raised an eyebrow.
Enika glared, brown eyes sparking. “Yes.”
“Enika…”
Enika kicked the handle end of her ax up and caught it in one smooth motion. “Don’t. Start. With. Me.”
Nyx hid a smile. “What have you been feeding her?” she asked Cole. He rolled his eyes heavenward.
“Fear and self-loathing. I don’t like it. Let’s go.” Heaving her ax over her shoulder, Enika clomped up the stairs like a regular lumberjack.
Nyx turned on Cole, ready to ask him any number of questions, but he had his gun in his hands and was checking his ammo.
Frustrated, she turned to Keven.
He locked in a new magazine and grinned at her.
“I’m made to kill these things. I don’t need help!” she called helplessly as they all left her behind. “Seriously. I’m a big, tough half-breed alien,” she muttered, slouching after them.
She pushed her door aside and started into the tunnel. They’d changed things while she’d been gone. Expanded. These tunnels had all been widened by a good foot, and raised high enough that her wings didn’t scratch on the rough ceiling. Little rooms had been dug out along the sides. One was full of roughly-hewn shelves full of books. Another, ammo. The one after that had fruits and vegetables, although the shelves were more bare than the make-sh
ift library. Ahead of her, a small crowd was deep in discussion in the amphitheater. She tensed, waiting for them to scream and run or flinch away from her.
Blair saw her first. He was standing on the stage, seeming to be directing the conversation. Justin and Trigger stood next to him, along with several other people she didn’t recognize. Blair nodded in her direction, and the entire crowd turned toward her.
Nyx sucked in a breath and raised her head. Sticks and stones may break my bones… actually, they probably won’t, but words… words won’t hurt me. Right?
Blair started clapping. Slow, deliberate claps. Justin and Trigger joined him, and everyone in the audience turned toward her. Her breath froze in her throat as she searched the crowd for the hate and fear she’d come to expect from them.
It wasn’t there.
Instead, they joined Blair in the slow applause, gaining momentum as others from nearby joined them, flocking into the amphitheater. “Thank you!” Nyx heard called from several different directions at once. “Thank you!” Several people reached out, took her hands, patted her shoulder, petted her wings. She stared around her, wide-eyed and confused.
“Welcome back,” Blair said, jumping down from the amphitheater and wading through the crowd. “We kinda missed you.”
“Thanks,” she murmured, and for the first time in over a year, her cheeks felt warm.
Blair dropped down into the tunnel next to her. “Ready for your de-briefing?” he asked.
“My— What?”
“De-briefing. Keven said to wait until you came to before I tried to tell you what you missed.”
“I’m—You—what?”
Blair stopped, raising an eyebrow. “You’re the Guardian. You gotta know what’s going on, Nyx.”
Slowly, she nodded. “I do,” she said, trying to make it not sound like the question it was.
Blair pulled a notebook out of his back pocket. “Okay. So, we believe Garce to be in all of the surrounding buildings, here, here—” He pointed to Xs on his hand-drawn map. She could clearly see 25th street and the jail. “—and here. They made it into these buildings which, as you know, have doors into the tunnels, while Keven was on his recon mission, but Mike and I were able to fight them off with your blood tipped arrows.”
“Nice shooting, by the way. You saved us when we had our showdown in the streets.”
Blair winked. “Yep.” And then back to business. “So I figured you’d probably need to start cleaning them out in a circle, slowly sweeping outward. If we take this quadrant here first—” He drew a half-circle on his map.
Nyx reached out, snatching away his pen. “What is this ‘we’ stuff everyone keeps talking about? There is no we. There is me. I’m the one that doesn’t have a fragile hold on my mortality.”
Blair shrugged, completely unfazed by her words as he grabbed his pen back. “Shoulda thought about that before you left. Now, there’s ‘we’ stuff. So if we start here tonight, we can do this quadrant tomorrow, and this one the next day, and then work our way out. Sound good?”
Nyx stared at him, open-mouthed. “I—if I say no, would it matter?”
Blair shrugged, grinning. “Nope.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
“HAVE YOU SEEN NYX?” ENIKA ASKED, coming out of the darkness nearly as silently as their guardian did. But Cole was too exhausted to be startled. That would require him to jump, which took energy, and he had none.
He couldn’t remember the last time he’d slept.
After they’d brought Nyx back, he’d stayed at her side, watching in horrified fascination as her burnt, smoking skin had healed itself. But still, she didn’t wake up.
There was no precedence for this. They had nothing to compare it to. No one had any idea if she would survive, and the sizzling blood drowned out the sound of her heartbeat, so most of the time, they didn’t even know if she was alive.
He wondered if she knew she didn’t need to breathe.
When she’d finally come to, he’d left long enough to shower and take care of RayAnna. He’d returned to Nyx’s quarters, but she was gone, out hunting, chasing the Garce from the valley with a fearlessness that scared him. He and Enika had watched her from the top of the jail, tracking her by the bright blue tattoos and the winged shadows on the ground.
And the howling, dying Garce.
She’d returned just as the sun came up — the only thing that she seemed to fear now. Exhausted, she’d tumbled into her bed, wrapped herself in her wings, and was asleep before Enika had even closed the door behind her. He’d sat in the armchair and watched her sleep, wondering if the images he saw every time he closed his eyes haunted her as well. Images of her dying. Images of her being turned. Images of her fighting.
He wished he never had to close his eyes at all.
She’d slept through the day, but as soon as the sun set, she was gone again. It had been the same for a week. Now the sun was rising, and he still sat on the jail roof, watching for her to return. “No. Not yet.”
“She’ll be back.” Enika clambered out the window, material fisted in her hands. He’d hardly seen her lately. She’d been holed up in one of the fabric shops up top, despite the danger. “What do you think?”
She raised the fabric and shook it out. It was black, with black sparkles running in patterns down the arms and legs. It would cover everything — Nyx’s head, hands, feet. There were holes for eyes though.
“The sun will roast her eyes. And UV rays can get through material.”
“Not this material. It’s a neoprene/lycra/spandex mix. No UV rays will make it through. And—” she reached behind her, back in through the window, and pulled out what looked like sparkly, tinted goggles. “—these are for her eyes.” She grinned proudly. “They’re made from the same stuff welders helmets are.”
“That’s incredible, Enika. I can’t believe you did all this so quickly.”
“I’ve been thinking about it for a while.” Her face fell. “It only took nearly losing her to get me to act on those thoughts.”
“Hey.” He tipped up her chin. “But you did. And the Pys don’t have anything like this. This will make her invincible.”
“If it works. And if she’ll even wear it.”
Good point. Their mighty Nyx didn’t really seem to be the superhero costume-wearing type.
As if summoned by his thoughts, she dropped next to them, landing lightly on the cement ledge. “It’s not safe for you to hang out up here. What if you fall?”
“Oh, but darling, what if I fly?” Enika teased, brown eyes dancing.
Nyx pulled a face at her and settled next to Cole.
“The sun’s coming up,” he felt inclined to point out, since she didn’t seem to be in a hurry to go inside.
She groaned and leaned back against the shingles. “I know.” Sighing, she slid off the roof. As always, his heart stopped and panic gripped him until she fluttered back up, and then wriggled through the window, her wings sparking as they were forced to squeeze in after her.
Sometimes, he felt like they took on a life of their own.
Enika followed, and he brought up the rear, closing the window behind them and dropping the shade to keep the sun as far away as possible. They followed her sparking wings like a lantern down the many, many steps through the old jail, past the courtrooms, and finally, to the basement and home.
Funny, that home was underground. He sort of wondered when he’d turned into a mole.
No one even seemed to notice the beautiful hybrid walking through their midsts, except to move out of the way of her gigantic wings — it wasn’t with fear, but politeness. Because standing in the way of huge wings was just rude.
The world had completely turned on its head, and Cole loved it.
“So… I made you something.” Enika skipped up to walk next to Nyx, glancing uncertainly back at Cole as she did so. He nodded encouragingly, and she bit her lip.
“My super hero outfit? Is it finished?” Nyx stopped abruptly and turned, n
early knocking Cole over when her left wing whacked him sideways. “Can I see it?”
Enika nodded, handing it silently, gnawing on her lip.
“They’re pink! And sparkly!” Nyx squealed, squeezing the goggles on over her eyes. Her eyelashes were so long, they swept against them like windshield washers.
She didn’t seem to care.
Squealing, she grabbed the material and raced away.
“So… I’m not sure what to do with that information.” Enika leaned against the wall, looking from Cole to the direction Nyx had disappeared and back again.
“First and foremost, she’s a teenage girl, Enika. And apparently, teenage girls like sparkles.”
“Some of them do.” RayAnna appeared around the corner, her hand immediately sliding up Cole’s arm as she laid her head on his shoulder. “I don’t like sparkles. I think they’re childish. Nyx is an alien, Enika. Not a fairy.”
Enika’s face fell.
Cole shrugged RayAnna off. “When did you turn into such a witch, Ray?” he asked, glaring at her.
“When you ditched me for a half-breed alien with an overwhelming need for attention,” she shot back, planting her hands on her hips and glaring at him for all she was worth. When Enika did it, it was mildly alarming. She was a touch crazy, after all. When Nyx did it, it was terrifying, because it was usually accompanied by a rush of air and sparking wings. But when RayAnna did it…
It was obnoxious.
“Then take it out on me, not my sister.”
“She’s never liked me. Not ever,” RayAnna hissed.
“It’s true,” Enika said conversationally. “I didn’t.”
Cole rolled his eyes. Not helping, Enika. “RayAnna, if you can’t be civil, then find somewhere else to be.”
She opened her mouth, and Cole knew already what she would say — what she’d said thirty times since Nyx’s return.
She doesn’t want you, you know. She doesn’t even see you. She’s a goddess now, and you’re the stupid boy who broke her heart. She can have anybody.
He knew all that. He didn’t have to be told.