by Melissa West
Dad leads five of us to the base around the back of the airport and into the woods, while the rest handle the Ancients we left behind. I feel exposed here, surrounded by trees, wondering if any moment one of them—or a thousand of them—will emerge from the bark and attack. And then an idea occurs to me, and I reach out to stop Jackson.
“What if…what if we hide in the trees like they did when we get to Virginia? They won’t suspect it. We could ambush them.”
Jackson shakes his head. “It doesn’t work that way, Ari. I could hold myself here for a few minutes, but Mitch, Myers—you. I don’t know that you could. You could teleport somewhere else on accident, and I would have no way of finding you.”
“How are they doing it, then?”
“They aren’t waiting here, Ari. Zeus is sending them from wherever they are based. Plus, thanks to Kelvin, they’re trained for this exact fight. We aren’t.”
I stare at the ground as we crunch through the forest, wondering how I’ve spent my life training only to feel now as though I’m going in blind.
The base comes into view, visible only by the square opening in the forest bed where steps lead down into the earth. Beyond the steps, you would never know the base is there, but even they should have been hidden. Someone has been here. They could still be here.
Dad stops. “Let me go first. I don’t know if there are Operatives in there or not, but it’s safer if it’s just me.”
“No,” I say. “What if Ancients are down there? I can’t—no.” I can’t bring myself to say out loud that I can’t bear losing him, too.
“I wasn’t asking you, Ari. This isn’t up for discussion. I go in alone.”
I bite my tongue to keep from arguing. Dad has lost his other half. He deserves to handle that in any way he can—even if it means turning into his old, hard self.
“Fine. Five minutes. If you’re not back out in five minutes, we come in.”
I can see the argument in his eyes—we are so much alike—but then his jaw sets. “Fine.”
Dad descends the stairs into the base, and I want to rush up and hug him. Tell him that I love him, and I’m sorry, and so many other things that I never got to tell Mom, but then he’s gone, disappearing through the composite-steel doors, and I release a breath, fighting to keep from crying.
Jackson’s fingers thread through mine, and he grips my hand. “You okay?”
“No,” I say without looking at him.
He nods. “Good.”
My head jerks toward him. “Good?” I snap.
“Yes, good. You’ve always thrown yourself into things without worry over consequence. Without worry over whether you’ll make it back out. Losing someone you love can give you the restraint you need. It can help you pause and think instead of just acting.”
His words are a slap to the face. “You think I’m reckless?”
“No. I think you’re selfless. And I think it’s time you think a little more about yourself and your safety.” His eyes level on mine. “For me.”
I glance down at my watch. I can’t think about myself right now. Not when everyone I love is dying around me. I feel desperate to hold on to each of them, desperate to protect them—to protect myself from the pain of losing them. “He isn’t out yet.”
Myers glances over his shoulder at me. “Four minutes is long enough. Let’s go in.”
“I’ll take lead,” I say, knowing that if someone is in there, holding Dad, I want to be the one to shoot. After all, I trust my aim better than I trust anyone else’s.
We start down the steps in a straight line. Me, then Jackson, then Cybil and Mitch and Law, with Myers taking the tail. The door slides open as soon as I approach, another sign of trouble. I should have to enter an access code or allow the reader to check my fingerprints or irises, but no, it opens without any hesitation.
Like it’s been waiting for me.
I edge inside the door and onto an autowalk that goes in two directions—straight and then another one cutting through the first, creating a T-shape. There are no sounds beyond the hum of the autowalk. I hesitate before stepping onto it, listening, feeling, sensing everything around me, but there is nothing there—or there’s no one close enough to read. My eyes drift up and around, searching for cameras that I know are there, but they must be hidden within the walls.
I feel a hand reach around my forearm, and I instinctively jerk away just as Jackson thrusts Law back. “Touch her again, and I break your arm.”
Law holds up his hands and then cautiously points to the ceiling, to a tiny flashing red, then green dot in the far right corner. The camera.
I nod to him. “Do you know which way to go?”
“The command center is down another floor. The elevator is that way.” He points to the left.
“Would Dad have gone there?” I ask.
“You tell me.”
I glance away, thinking of what Dad would have done. Of what I would have done. “Is there another way to get there? Stairs?”
Law pauses in thought. “Emergency exit. Straight ahead.”
“That’s where he would have gone. Think they’re watching us?”
Law focuses on the tiny light. “The question isn’t if. It’s who.”
I nod slowly and start forward, wanting to run, to find Dad quickly, but that will only raise the chances of alerting someone. I press the panel to open the emergency exit door and immediately a wave of emotions hits me—anger, nervousness, excitement. Jackson and I leap into the stairwell at the same time to find three Ops waiting for us, their guns poised to shoot. I fire first, hitting one, two, while Jackson takes out the third. A siren sounds through the base, making it impossible to hear anything else. They must have been wearing sensors that triggered the alarms—no doubt a product of Kelvin’s thinking.
“We don’t have long. Law, we need you to lead.”
Jackson shakes his head. “What if—”
“We can’t worry about that now. We have to trust him. We have to find Dad.”
Law starts down a set of stairs and my memory flashes to the masquerade ball at his house, he, Jackson, and I sneaking down the secret stairwell to listen in on the Trinities’ meeting. It feels like so long ago now, and then I realize, with horror, that he doesn’t know about Gretchen.
“What?” he asks.
I hesitate and then see Jackson’s head shake just a touch. It isn’t the time to tell him. “Nothing.” When we’re out of here, safe, I’ll find a way to tell him. If we make it out of here…
I race down behind him, the others on my heels, and Law bursts through another door, but there is no one waiting for us there. He winds us through hall after hall, and I question my decision to let him lead. Maybe he’s steering us the wrong way. Maybe he’s leading us into trouble, but Emmy said we could trust him, and I trust her.
Finally, Law stops outside a wall with a large portrait of his mother hanging in the center like a gatekeeper. I stare at her face and wonder where she is now. “Law, where’s your mom?”
“She’s in Europe. She’s been there since her sickness first came on.”
“So, you don’t know…”
His eyes land on me. “I don’t know anything anymore.”
Law glances back at the photo, and I can see the pain in his face. He presses his palm into the panel beside the portrait, and we wait for authentication. A second passes, and the door starts open, and then we’re surrounded, Ops racing out from the open doorway, from other doorways behind us and beside us, too many to count. I draw a breath, prepared to freeze as many as I can, hoping Emmy and Vill will do the same, when Kelvin steps out from the hidden doorway, followed by an Op holding a gun to Dad’s head.
My stomach drops to my feet, my breath catches in my throat. “Dad…”
His eyes land on me. “You shoot without thinking. You understand me. Shoot.”
“Dad—”
“Shoot!”
And then everything happens at once. Emmy freezes the room, every
one there unable to move, their pulses loud, muffling my thoughts. There are too many feelings. Too much fear. Too much hate. I grit my teeth and spin around, aiming, and that’s when I realize the Op beside Dad isn’t human, isn’t an Op—he’s Ancient.
My eyes snap to Kelvin. “Law was right. You’re working with Zeus.”
“It is time for change here on Earth.”
“You’re such an idiot. Do you really think he’s going to let you live after the dust settles? Do you think he’ll allow any human to live?”
“Who says I’m human?”
I release a breath as I take in his appearance, his skin, his eyes. “Of course. You had someone heal you.” He must have done it after we left, knowing we’d recognize the change if he’d done it while we were in the Underground.
“Ari!”
And then before I can process the sound of the bullet zooming toward me, I fire, shooting the Op holding Dad, and then we’re all in motion, me dodging the bullet before it would have hit my stomach. Firing, praying I hit an enemy instead of a friend. I realize if they aren’t frozen then something has happened to Emmy and maybe Vill, too. But there is too much happening at once for me to stop and check. Dad joins the fight, and I toss him a weapon, grateful to have him back beside me. I tear away from the others, my eyes searching for the one person that can get us to Zeus, but Kelvin’s disappeared. I rush through the hidden doorway behind the portrait, the sounds of gunfire echoing behind me.
I try to sense for Kelvin, but there’s no hint of him, no sounds beyond the fight behind me. I turn down another corridor, then another, going deeper into the maze of the base. I stop at what appears to be a dead end and then hear the electrical charge of a laser gun behind me. I spin around just as it fires and barely jump out of the way. I remember the strange weapons we took from the Ancients out front, but I have no idea how to use it. What if I destroy the base, causing it to crumble down on us, trapping us down here?
I stand up, my own gun raised, and square off against Kelvin. “What? Too cowardly to face me without a laser?”
He grins. “I don’t need to face you. I just need to kill you.”
I shoot before he can respond, and he dips away, rushing back into the open hallway and through a door, but I can’t tell which one he went through. I edge to the first and hit the open panel, my gun out, ready, but it’s empty. I go to the next and the next, wondering if he ran farther into the base instead of into one of these doorways, when I open the next to last one and immediately receive a punch to the face. I stumble back, blood trickling down my face.
“Ari!” I hear Jackson call, but his voice is far away.
“Here!” I scream back. “Here!”
Kelvin charges me, but I’m fast to duck out of his attack. My dad trained me well, and I laugh. “Really? You think a Chemist is going to win in combat against an Op?”
I focus on his muscles, focusing on freezing each of them, but he continues to move. “Zeus warned me about your little trick. But I have tricks of my own.” He moves quickly, thrusting me against the wall. I leap back up and start for him, just as he thrusts again, tossing his weapon to the floor. “Your arrogance is unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. You assume that you cannot die. Well, watch me kill you.”
He charges again, and I block hit after hit after hit, on the defensive, unable to regain control. He’s been trained well. Too well. And I wonder how long he’s been in with Zeus. Maybe since the beginning. But he underestimates me. I flip forward, connecting with his stomach, throwing him across from me.
“Ari!” Jackson calls again, but I’m too out of breath to respond. He’s close. He could help.
Kelvin is back in motion quickly, pinning me to the wall. I kick against him, fumbling for the knife strapped against my right leg. If I can just reach it. Stars pierce my vision and my head becomes light. I draw all the strength I have, readying myself that this might be it, when I hear a shot and see Kelvin’s eyes round out, and then he’s slumping to the floor. I draw a quick breath, then another, my hands on my knees as I take in Jackson, my heart swelling. He races for me and pulls me against him. “What were you thinking, facing him alone?”
“I had it,” I say with a smile.
He presses his lips to my temple, then my lips. “Never do that again. Understand?”
I nod. “Promise.” Then I glance down at Kelvin’s dead body, and a new horror hits in my mind. “He was our only way to Zeus.”
Jackson curses. “Well, I guess now would be a bad time to tell you that the war is about to begin.”
I glance down at my watch just as the second hand reaches the twelve. “Not about. It just began.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
I take a step forward, and suddenly everything goes fuzzy. My hearing becomes muffled, my vision blurs. I try to move again, but my legs are heavy, the effort great. My eyes blink, and then I’m no longer in the base, but back in the blueroom on Loge, waiting for Lydian to torture me. But this time, it isn’t Lydian behind the glass—it’s Zeus. He points to the right, and I peer over to see roots sprouting up from the tiled floor, crawling toward me like fingers. There’s a flash, and then the right-hand wall is gone, replaced by a forest and in its center, the Unity tree.
I feel a jerk in my stomach, something pulling me to the tree, but then I hear my name floating in from far away. I’m torn between the call of the Unity tree, what it has to show me, and the voice calling my name.
“Ari, talk to me. Ari!”
Jackson.
I blink, and I’m on the ground outside the base, Jackson and the others all around me, the sky above so dark it looks as though it’s been painted black.
“Ari?” Jackson leans over me. “Are you hurt? Did something happen with Kelvin? We couldn’t find a wound. You passed out.”
I swallow and peer around, trying to bring myself back to center. To reality.
“What happened?” Dad asks, and I can hear the fear in his voice. He can’t handle losing me. I hear it in his tone, feel it in the thoughts he refuses to say.
I draw a shaky breath. “I think you’re right. I think Zeus is toying with my mind. He just…I don’t know. I was walking, and then suddenly I was back on Loge, staring at him, and then it was like he wanted to tell me how to find him. Like he wants us to find him.”
“What did he say?” Jackson asks.
My gaze falls on his. “He didn’t say anything. He showed me. He wants me to enter the Unity tree.”
Everyone starts talking at once—some asking about the tree, others trying to form a plan, but it’s Jackson who finally cuts through the chaos.
“You’re going to do it, aren’t you?”
I focus on his face, on his strong jaw, his full lips, before returning to the eyes that seem to penetrate my soul. “I have to. This will never end until he’s gone. You know that.”
His lips crush mine, everything around us disappearing for a moment as we breathe in each other, overwhelmed by the last free moment we have.
“Then I’m going with you.”
…
I wait until the light-headedness subsides to stand, though I know my nerves won’t settle until I see Zeus’s body on the ground. The realization that the others were right, that Zeus is sending me messages in my mind, is enough to make me wish I could get to him right now and end this thing. I don’t want him in my head another second.
I glance around, seeing we’ve obtained three new members—whether by force or not, I’m not sure.
“Who are they?”
“Recruits,” Myers says, nodding toward the Ops.
“And what about the other Ops inside?”
“Dead,” he replies.
My gaze cuts to Dad, worried the word will hurt after losing Mom, but he only focuses on the ground, refusing to meet my gaze. My heart aches for him, for myself, and I have to swallow hard to keep the sorrow from rising up and taking me under.
“All right then. Virginia?” Myers asks.
&n
bsp; “No, we have to go to the Unity tree,” I say, peering through the forest, wondering how far it is from here.
“Ari.” I turn to see Jackson staring at me, his expression thoughtful. “I don’t think the tree is going to be there. I think Zeus will show us how to find it from Virginia. He wants us to go there.”
“How do you know?”
Jackson straightens, a new determination in his face. “Because he trained me, and despite my efforts to not be a Castello, I am one. I know him. He wants us to go there. That’s where we’ll find him.”
Dad looks at me. “We’ll take a hovercraft.” He pauses, then turns to the group, the commander before us. “Be brave. Be strong. And remember, you’re fighting for our survival.”
Silence falls over the group as we settle into the hovercraft, and for the first time, I allow what we’re about to face to wash over me. The craft starts up and we fasten in, everyone tense, and then we’re in the air, en route to Virginia.
En route to the war.
Chapter Twenty-Five
The first thing I notice as we land is the sound. The quiet in the trees, the stillness of the air. Everything is far too quiet. I think for a moment that maybe the fighting has already ended. Maybe they’ve already won. Or maybe by some intergalactic miracle, we won.
Dad lands us in an open area hidden by the forest just outside what would have been Virginia’s state line, but even from here, we should have heard gunfire as soon as we landed. We should have heard fighting. But there’s nothing.
I eye Jackson as we step out onto the damp grass and leaves. When did it rain? And then I glance down to see that it isn’t water that’s dampened the forest bed.
It’s blood.
My insides recoil at the thought of what must have happened to spill this much blood. Jackson reaches out to stop me from continuing. “It’s a trail,” he says, pointing to the red stream through the forest. “The blood. It’s a trail.”
Sure enough, the blood leads from where we stand into the forest, then forks off to the left. Someone placed it here, like he knew exactly what we would do and when we would arrive. I know that this isn’t the work of just any someone.