by Nick James
There isn’t blood at first. It’s too quick for that. The noises alone are enough to send me into a dizzying shock. The agents freeze in horrific, unnatural positions before the blades retract into the dirt, leaving massive incisions.
Then comes the crimson. Blood spilling onto the dirt, quickly darkening the brown.
I watch in horror as all seven agents topple to the ground in lifeless heaps. Skandar stands in the middle, looking like he’s about to faint.
I can’t quite process it. My mind’s still stuck several seconds in the past. Seven agents, dead. Morse. Bergmann. Gone.
Skandar stumbles over to meet us, face drained of color.
Theo closes his fist. He wavers in place before letting out one last chuckle. I turn to see the red fade from his eyes. Before anyone can say a word, he sinks to his knees. His face plants into the dirt. I watch his shoulders rise and fall. He’s unconscious, but alive.
Everything’s quiet. Nothing but the swarm on the horizon.
We bunch together instinctively, staring at the bodies of the fallen Academy Agents, trying to understand it. Their eyes stretch open, staring at the sun. Soon they’ll be barbequed in this heat, cooked meat for whatever predator wants to swoop down and get them. I never liked Bergmann, and what little I knew of Morse I liked him even less, but they didn’t deserve to die. Not like this.
My bracelet buzzes. So does Cassius’s. They tremble like they’re applauding the scene around them, like they have minds of their own. Cassius and I look at each other.
Black. The daggers from the ground, the seamless bands wrapped around our wrists. I know he’s thinking it, too. It’s more than just the visual. It’s instinctive. It all fits together.
Ridium.
I grab my chest and feel the indentations of the symbols beneath my shirt. I am already here.
A blast of triple-digit heat throws my hair to the side. My bracelet settles, but I feel it in my heart, now. I don’t know if I’m making things better or worse. Have I set something terrible in motion just by coming back to the Fringes? Why didn’t Alkine tell me about this “fork” before? If the possible consequences are so horrible, I should have been the first to know.
I repeat Morse’s words over and over in my head. The troubled look on Skandar’s face lingers with me. And then I remember the red in Theo’s eyes, the same red that carved this warning into my skin.
I’m being followed. These aren’t just random events. It’s because of me.
I don’t know what step to take.
Legs shaking, I take a seat on the ground. The heat will consume me if I stay put much longer, but I can’t move. Maybe Alkine was right after all. Maybe I’m dangerous. To myself. To everyone.
I close my eyes. It could be better if I sat here and did nothing. Me and the wind. I can’t hurt anybody if I’m dead.
28
Cassius leapt into leader mode. It was the only thing he knew to do. He didn’t want to consider what had just happened, but they had to move before the heat of the Fringes got to them. The full horror of it all could be analyzed once they were safe.
“Rodriguez.” He turned to Eva. “Get us access to one of the Academy ships. Keep the radar operational. If we tamper with it, it’ll be a dead giveaway that these Agents are gone.”
Eva stared at him for a moment, lip shaking. Then, without a word, she grabbed Skandar’s arm and pulled him with her toward the line of ships.
“I can help.” Avery ran after them, eager to be away from the bodies.
Cassius yanked Fisher from the ground. “Come on.”
“That was Ridium,” he said. “It was … it was underground. How’s that even possible? Ryel said it only exists on Haven.”
“I don’t know.
“And Theo … his eyes. It was like he was possessed.”
Cassius frowned. “Madame warned me about him. Just like she used to tell me I was special. It’s the same with Theo. Special means dangerous to her.”
“He’s a Shifter,” Fisher continued, “isn’t he? Like Ryel was talking about.”
“Maybe.”
“He … they’re all dead. Except Skandar.”
“Skandar wasn’t armed.” He craned his neck to look back at the cruiser. No explosions or fire. Yet. “He wasn’t a threat to him.”
Without another word, Cassius stepped away, heading toward the cruiser.
Fisher tensed. “Where are you going?”
“Just wait.” He moved past Theo’s body, then Ryel’s, and climbed up the ramp until he was in the cruiser’s cabin once again. He bolted toward the weapons cabinet and grabbed the closest stunner. Tucking it in the waist of his trousers, he pulled another and gripped it in his hand.
Then he bounded down the ramp and approached Fisher. Stopping over Theo’s unconscious body, he fired two rounds of stun darts straight into the boy’s back. They stuck in his skin, steadily releasing tranquilizer.
“What are you doing?”
“We’re taking him with us,” he said. “Now that Ryel’s gone, we need someone on the inside. If Theo really is a Shifter, then that means he’s from Haven.”
“But Shifters—”
“Are part of the Authority,” Cassius interrupted. “I know.” He looked down at the kid. “Which makes this a hundred times worse. But if we leave him here, we’re not going to get any of the answers we need.”
“What if he makes those knives come back?”
Cassius lowered the stunner. “He won’t be waking up again for awhile, let alone attacking us.”
Fisher’s hands shook at his sides. “Do you believe what Morse said? Do you think the Drifters are really talking about me like that?”
“Does it matter? What’s done is done.” He looked at the ground, half expecting more blades of Ridium to pop up and skewer them. “You’re not a bad guy, if that’s what you’re worried about.”
Fisher shook his head, then moved to Ryel’s body and kneeled at the Drifter’s side.
Cassius turned to watch him. “It’s no use. That bullet shot right through his heart. Did you see the way he fell?”
“There was so much he could’ve told us.” He turned to meet Cassius’s eyes. “We didn’t have time.”
Cassius tapped his foot. “There’s not much we could’ve done. Considering Madame and everything else.”
“He wanted me to build an army. He was so disappointed.”
Cassius moved closer. “He’s gone. We need to move.”
“Just wait a second.” Fisher leaned in closer. “I want to check him. There might be something we missed.”
He watched Fisher scan the contours of Ryel’s legs with his eyes, settling on a single pocket stitched into the siding of his blood-stained clothing. Hand shaking, he reached down and unbuttoned it. As soon as he slipped his fingers into the pocket, he recoiled. “It’s like ice. There’s something in there, but it’s freezing.”
“Go on.”
Fisher clenched his fist and pulled out a metal box, no bigger than a die.
It was remarkably plain. No symbols or indentations or anything. Its silver exterior gleamed in the sunlight, yet seemed to repel it at the same time.
He looked up at Cassius. “This thing should be scalding out here. What do you think it is?”
Cassius shrugged.
“Feel it.” Fisher dropped it into his waiting hand. The moment it touched Cassius’s skin, he felt a pleasant jolt of iciness. Even the warmth of his hand didn’t seem to heat it. He held it up to the sun to get a better look. “It’s from Haven, surely.” He tossed it back to Fisher. “Keep an eye on it. Let’s get Theo into the ship.”
Fisher stood. “You sure this is a good idea?”
Cassius glanced back at the boy’s body. “Would you rather leave him to die?”
“Would I be a terrible person if I said yes?”
“No.” He sighed. “But I think I can handle him. If he can’t tell us anything, we’ll chuck him out. Right now, we need every lead we can get.�
��
Fisher nodded. “Okay.”
“Alright, then. Help me get him up. Too much longer out here and we’ll both get Surface Stroke.”
29
Even after all we’ve been through, it feels safe to be back in an Academy ship. I know I’ve lost all their trust, and vice versa, but at least it’s familiar.
Theo sits in the very back of the cabin, wrists and ankles cuffed to the seat. It’s a stronger hold than back in the cruiser, not that he’s awake to feel it.
Eva takes the pilot’s seat. Everybody else spreads around the cockpit. Cassius stands in the corner, shoulder against the wall. Skandar reclines in the co-pilot’s chair. I sit on the floor next to Avery.
“As far as I see it,” Eva starts, “we’ve got two options. Either we head back to the Academy and beg them to forgive us, or we keep flying around in circles.”
“Nope,” I say.
She scoffs. “What do you mean, ‘nope’?”
“We don’t do either. You heard what Ryel said. The invasion’s begun. We’re gathering an army. That’s all we can do.”
Skandar raises his head. “But Jesse, you didn’t see what Alkine—”
“I don’t care what Alkine showed you,” I reply. “It’s too late.”
Cassius taps his foot against the wall. “We can’t do anything if we’re too weak to fight.”
I wince. “I haven’t eaten since before Syracuse.”
“A few more hours and we’ll be exhausted,” he continues. “We need to refuel.”
Eva frowns. “And where are we supposed to do that? Skyships will have checkpoints. Chosen Cities are impenetrable. Even the Fringes … we’d waste all sorts of time trying to find a place with any food.”
The cockpit falls silent. Cassius’s foot taps echo along the walls.
Avery stands. “I know the place. It’s perfect!” She moves to the console and punches in a set of coordinates.
Eva glances over at the information. “What’s Lenbrg?”
“The Fringe Town Avery and I stayed in last spring.” I sit up. “Of course!”
Avery turns. “It’s peaceful, and it’s off the radar. They have food, and it’s on the way to Siberia. If Alkine contacts the shuttle, we’ll just switch off the volume. Play dumb. It’ll look like we’re heading back to Skyship. Then, when we land outside Lenbrg, we’ll dismantle the radar. Disappear. I can do it. By the time the Academy sends someone looking, we’ll be gone.”
Eva crosses her arms. “You can disable the radar?”
“I trained at the Lodge,” she counters. “I can do a lot of things with a shuttle.”
My shoulders slump. “The Fringers won’t be happy to see us coming back. Not after all the trouble we caused them.”
“We’ll have to deal,” Avery says. “I’ll take a bunch of peaceful Fringers over Madame or the swarm any day.”
I glance over to Cassius. “What do you think?”
He’s silent for a moment. I notice a twinkle at the end of his finger—a spark ready to ignite. “Go ahead. Wherever we go, we’re screwed. Just keep that in mind. We’ll recharge, but we won’t have long before we have to fight again.” He pivots and leaves the cockpit.
I turn back to Eva. With a great sigh she pulls on the steering and changes direction. “Setting a course for Lenbrg,” she mutters. “You better be right about this.”
––––
Every last bit of me wants to give in to sleep, but the fact is, I haven’t had a chance to talk properly with Avery since Syracuse. And there are things I need to know before I can let myself drift off peacefully.
We sit in the back of the cockpit. Her head leans on my shoulder, eyes half closed. Eva dimmed the lighting and programmed the console on auto-pilot. We’ll take turns keeping watch.
“How are you feeling?” I reach over and pull the hair from her eyes.
“Don’t worry about me.”
“What was it like, after Seattle?”
There’s a silence before she answers. I can’t see her face from this angle, but I’d imagine she’s troubled. “I don’t remember anything inside the city after Madame showed up. I woke up laying on my back in the cabin of a cruiser.”
“If I hadn’t passed out, I would’ve—”
“Shh.” She yawns. “They restrained me with some sort of fluid pumping into my arm. I don’t know … it made me sleepy, and in a way I was grateful for that because it meant I didn’t have to think. My brain was crammed—so many things swirling around at once. I thought about you, and all that happened since we’d left the Academy. I thought for sure Madame captured you. It was only when they brought me back to the Lodge and I realized that she was missing that I could even hope you might have escaped.”
I close my eyes. “Do you think she’s dead?”
“Now?”
“Yeah,” I whisper, “after what happened in Syracuse.”
“No. People like Madame don’t die.”
My heart sinks. She’s right. “You were at the Lodge all those months?”
“Mmm hmm.” She nods. “After they pulled Madame from the wreckage and nursed her back to health, I still asked about you. I was convinced they were hiding you somewhere. You wouldn’t believe how many secret rooms and passageways she’s got in that building. Even I don’t know them all.”
“When did you finally find out?”
“Madame told me when she was well enough to speak. She told me what Cassius had done and that you and the entire Academy split from the community. I didn’t completely believe her. I wanted to, but there was no way to know if she was telling the truth or not.” She raises her head and meets my eyes. “You wanna hear the sickest thing?”
“Sure.”
Avery smiles. “She kept my room.”
“What do you mean?”
“My room … the one I grew up in. She had it kept just the same as I remembered. I’d have thought that after all those years I’d spent at the Academy, all those months of estrangement, she’d have replaced it with something else. It was so weird going in there and seeing all my old things. I could barely stomach it knowing what I do now. She wanted everything to be like it was back then, like I was her make-believe daughter.” She pauses. “I didn’t know it then, but she’d been pumping medication into my system on that cruiser ride. And she’d been sneaking it into my food and seeping it through the vents in my room.” She runs her hand over her head. “And then one night, they put me under and installed the harnessing device.”
“Alkine said coming to look for you would be a mistake.”
She falls back to my shoulder. “Of course he did.”
“But I don’t trust anything he—”
“Listen,” she interrupts. “You’ve got so many more important things to worry about than little old me.”
“But—”
“Shh. You know, I can’t help but feel responsible.” “For what?”
She sighs. “If I’d never been in your life, you’d never have met Cassius or Theo and none of this would be happening. Pearls would still be Pearls and you’d be a happy Skyship kid getting closer to graduation.”
“I was never all that happy.” I shrug. “And we both know I was never gonna graduate. Besides, this was going to happen either way. At least with me around, we’ve got a chance of fighting back.”
“You believe that?”
I wince. “I’ve got to. It’s what’s keeping me going.”
“Good for you.” Her eyes close. “I feel stupid for ever thinking you were a wimp.”
“You’ve changed your mind?”
“Of course I have.” Her voice trails off. “You’re gonna be a hero.”
I swallow. Or die trying.
“Now go to sleep, Jesse. We both need it.”
I close my eyes. She’s right, at least about the sleep thing.
30
Cassius sat at the edge of the cabin. He’d tried to sleep. An hour had passed. Then he took over for Rodriguez at the pilot’s seat.
Now he was back, and wide awake.
He stared at Theo’s slumped-over body from across the room. He was dying to burst forth in flames. He didn’t want to attack, necessarily, but he needed to let off steam. Nothing had gone right, and he feared it was only the beginning.
He stood and moved to the boy, stopping inches in front of him. Theo’s face was covered in dirt. His ratty hair hung just over his closed eyes.
Cassius clenched his fist to control the fire longing to stream from his fingers. He knew he should leave the kid alone. As long as Theo was unconscious, he wouldn’t be a problem. But he wouldn’t be an asset, either. And he always had the stunners, if necessary.
Taking a deep breath, he reached out and slapped the boy across the face. The blow knocked Theo’s body to the side, but the cuffs kept him in place.
All at once, Theo shook to life. His head slammed back into the wall. His arms and legs tensed as his eyes opened.
Cassius took a step back. “What did you do to those men out there?”
Theo blinked, then closed his eyes like he was about to drift off again. When he finally spoke, his voice came out slurred and quiet. “Where am I?”
Cassius crouched so that he could see the boy’s face. “You’re chained to a chair, where you belong. What did you do out there?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Shifter. Ridium. These words mean anything to you?”
Theo spit, then coughed. “Is this how you do-gooders get your jollies? Torturing kids?”
Cassius scoffed. “You’re about as innocent as a serial killer. Seven men down there, dead.”
Theo looked up at him, chin tense, expression grim. “What do you mean?”
Cassius frowned. “The daggers.”
“You still got my knife? That’s the biggest mistake you’ve ever made taking it.”
“I’m not scared of you,” Cassius said. “So you can cut it with the intimidation.”
Theo smiled. “Madame’s probably looking for me right now. You’ve pissed her off.”
“Good. Now tell me what you did down there.”
Theo shrugged. “I’ve been tied up like this ever since Syracuse! Of course, it’s not gonna last much longer, but you should enjoy the peace while you’ve got it.”