by Melissa West
“Zeus.”
Cybil and the others step around the blood. “But why use blood? And why lead us anywhere at all? Why not keep us in the dark?”
I study the bloody path. “Because it isn’t a win to Zeus if he simply kills us. He enjoys entertainment too much to just allow us to die. He wants to watch us walk the path he’s created, which means he’s somewhere close.”
Jackson scans the open area and then out into the woods. “Where is everyone, though? Our people? The other Ops? Surely, they knew to come here.”
“Kelvin could have redirected them,” Dad says, “which would mean—”
“It’s only us.” And then I notice movement in the trees, and I know that we’ve been baited. Kelvin at Zeus’s hand. All I can hope is that someone will answer our distress call. That maybe they’re late—instead of dead.
Law steps up beside me. “The forest is filled with Ancients, isn’t it?”
I swallow and stare forward, watching as they detach from the trees, too many to count. Too many to fight.
“Dad, does the hovercraft have missile capability?”
“Yes, but—”
I turned to look at him. “Do you know how to operate it?”
“Yes, but I’m not—”
“Dad, please.”
His mouth sets into a thin line, and I know he’s struggling with what he wants to do versus what he needs to do. He doesn’t want to leave me out here without him.
“We can hold them off, then at your mark, back away, and you can fire. That’s the only way we’ll beat them.”
“They’ll just send more,” Jackson says. “Their numbers are too great. We have to—”
“No.” I pull him toward me, forcing him to look at me and nothing else. “We won’t give up. Not now. Not ever. We won’t run.”
Jackson takes a step toward me, his eyes never leaving mine, and then, ignoring everything around us, he presses his lips to mine, the kiss urgent, saying everything we don’t have the time to say. Saying what we don’t have the nerve to breathe aloud.
“I love you,” he whispers.
“I love you.”
Dad pulls me into a hug after I separate from Jackson and brushes my hair from my face. “Promise me you’ll be smart. If it gets too intense, run away. Hide. There’s no honor in dying here today.”
“Don’t worry, Dad. I had a good teacher.”
His eyes fill with tears, and he blinks them away. “Okay. Ten minutes, then. At the two, you back away. Understand?”
I program my watch and nod. “At the two.”
Dad leaves, and instantly, I feel colder, as though I’m losing Mom all over again. I want to yell for him to come back, for us to stay together, but I can’t. This was never about survival for the people I love. It’s about survival of the masses, and that can’t happen if we run.
A part of me wants to surrender to my fear, to the shiver trying to crawl up my back, but if I give in to it, even for a second, how will I ever get through this day? How will I continue to fight?
I won’t.
I focus on the forest, on the Ancients that have yet to breach the clearing. They’re waiting for us to make the first move. Fine. Have it your way. Before anyone can stop me, I pull the new weapon we stole from the Ancients at the airport and start forward, firing before logic can give me pause.
“Ari!” I hear calls from behind me, but I’m no longer listening.
The first blast hits the Ancient directly in front of me, and he disappears into ash, cremated on the spot. A smile stretches across my face as his ashes fly away in the wind. Yes! And then I’m hitting another and another, before they grow smart to my tactic and disappear back into the trees, then emerge again in another spot, a sort of hide-and-seek.
Finally the weapon dies out, its power source used up, and I toss it to the ground. I pull another weapon from my boot, not realizing how close I’ve gotten to the forest edge, when one leaps out from an oak closest to me, grabbing me before I can respond, his thick hands encircling my neck, preventing me from breathing. I fight against him, just as he freezes, and I stumble back, gasping for breath. My gaze darts around to see Emmy to our right, her eyes trained on my attacker. And then the hands he used to choke me are around his own neck, his eyes wide, and then his body falls to the ground. Dead by his own hand, thanks to Emmy’s control.
I nod a thank-you to her, and then Jackson is beside me, securing me to him. “Don’t you dare do that again. We go together. You can’t sacrifice yourself, understand? I need you too much.” His voice is thick with emotion, and I start to apologize when the Ancients reemerge from the trees, a thick blanket of trained killers in front of us. I suck in a breath. There are ten of them to our one. My phone buzzes, alerting me that it’s been ten minutes, but the hovercraft is nowhere in sight. Worry courses through me. We were so stupid to send Dad alone, and now he’s…I can’t even think it.
The same call we heard before screams out into the night air, and I ready myself for what’s about to happen. I notice others stepping out into the clearing from behind us. My breath hitches as I take them in. More Ancients, but they aren’t dressed in all black like the Ancients in front of us. Myers smiles wide at the sight of them and calls over to me, “Our backup.”
I smile at the numbers, nowhere near that of the Ancients, but better than the eight of us alone. They start in, weapons already drawn, and I focus on the group in front of us, sure there are others right behind them. But that’s okay. We’ll take them one group at a time if we have to. I say a silent prayer that Dad’s still out there, just delayed, and then the Ancients are leaping from the trees, one after the other, and a switch flips inside of me and I’m no longer Ari Alexander, daughter, friend, lover. I’m Ari, the fighter, and I’m ready to kill.
“Stand together,” I call, and then all thought is replaced by the sound of gunfire.
I start forward, shooting at one Ancient then the next, firing again and again until my weapon is empty, then I pull back to reload just as an Ancient hits me from behind. I fall forward, flipping over and kicking even before I’ve figured out who hit me. I sense the body, the person’s mind—there’s something familiar about the Ancient. This is someone I know. I focus my eyes and gasp to see Kenzie in front of me, her expression lethal.
“I’ve been waiting a long time to do this.” And then she punches me in the face, the shock of seeing her throwing me off my game.
I flip backward, once then twice, needing distance, but she’s following me like a predator to prey. I can’t be on the defensive; I have to stay ahead of her. I try to freeze her moves with my mind, but she doesn’t waver.
“Oh, now, half-breed, that trick won’t work on me. Or any other Op that’s been taught against it. You’re not the only one with healers as allies.” I try to process this new piece of information, and then she says, “Zeus will never let you live. And he’ll never let Jackson go. He’s one of us. He will never be one of you.”
I grit my teeth and ready my body, focusing my energy on my wounds, helping xylem to heal me faster. “Well, you’ll never know, will you?”
She cocks her head in question. “And why is that?”
“Because I’m going to kill you.” And then I sprint forward, diving into her so fast all she can do is fall. I throw punch after punch, but Kenzie’s well trained, and she pushes back, elbowing me in the face. We scramble up at the same time, guns drawn, squaring off. She fires, but she’s too quick to the draw, forgetting that while I can’t freeze her, I can freeze that bullet. I focus on the flying bullet, slowing it down, but it isn’t enough. I have only enough time to fire before I have to duck to keep the bullet from hitting me square in the chest.
With a quick roll, I pop up, spinning around, and then my chest lifts as I see her body on the ground. I start for her, prepared to shoot again to be sure that she’s dead, when I reach her, and suddenly her face looks so young, her body so small. Kenzie, like me, is only eighteen. How have we been thrown
into this war so young? How have we been taught to hate for so long?
Blood and xylem bubble out through her mouth. I pull out my gun to fire again when her eyes meet mine, slow tears leaking out from the corners. “I’ve always loved him, you know? I only ever wanted him to love me back. Tell him that, okay? Tell him that I love him.” And then her eyes turn glassy and her head droops, and I know that she’s gone.
I wish I could take a moment to think about what just happened, what I just did, the life I took, but another Ancient is on me too quickly and I turn, raising my gun, leaving Kenzie dead after only eighteen short years. I wonder if my body will be lying somewhere soon, when I hear the sound of the hovercraft above us.
“No!” I shout, knowing Dad can’t hear. We’re all mixed into the forest, the fighting everywhere. If he shoots now, he’ll destroy them and us. I rush out to the clearing and wave my arms frantically, when I notice the craft pulling in closer, and then it fires—bang, bang, bang, bang, bang—a series of shots into the clearing. Another round goes off, and I wave again for Dad to stop, but then the hovercraft zeroes in on me and my eyes widen as I realize Dad isn’t the pilot. Where he is? Fear jolts through me, and then I’m darting for the forest edge as the hovercraft fires again, shooting randomly.
I spot Myers several yards away and rush for him. “Myers! Do you have the Ancients’ weapon?”
He shoots two Ancients rushing him and then starts for me. “Yeah, why?”
“Give it to me.”
He passes it over, and I dart back into the clearing. I take a shot at the craft but miss. Come on! Shooting again and again, I fire until the weapon is dead, then finally the craft bursts into flames. I fall to the ground, exhaustion taking over, and then I realize, too late, that the hovercraft has to crash somewhere.
“Run!” I shout, waving my hands frantically. “Run!”
The craft soars toward the clearing. Fire from its gas sends a blaze rippling through the crowd, and I watch in horror as Ancients and half-breeds alike erupt into flames so quickly their skin melts off even before they’ve had a chance to scream.
I start for the flames when someone pulls me back. “Ari, stop!” Law calls over my ear. And then my gaze lands on the figure just inside the flames, on her full profile. On her hands, reaching out, even as the fire chars away her life. I see her skin melt away, leaving only skeletal remains standing there surrounded by flames and then dropping away to the ground. And then all I can hear is the wind around us, the movement of the leaves, the feel of her gone, her spirit now released, and I can’t take it. Everything becomes distant, the memories pushed to the surface. Her hand in mine. Her smile. Her pushing her ability into me, giving me a piece of herself, a trust so intense I didn’t recognize it until that moment. No, please no…
“Emmy!” I break free from Law, pushing him roughly back, but then Jackson is in front of me, shaking his head.
“We can’t save her now,” he says, and I can hear the pain in his voice.
“But…she’s…we…” A sob erupts from my lips, and he lifts me up and walks us back into the forest’s edge, giving us a moment of safety. A moment to mourn her. He cradles my face. “Ari, I need you to put it away. Forget what you saw and put it away. We don’t have time to break down right now. Zeus is still out there, and I think he put that path in place for us. Me and you.”
“She can’t be gone. It’s too soon after Mom and Gretchen. I…can’t…do this anymore,” I say, tears rushing down my face.
He forces me to look at him, and I see tears in his eyes. First Mami, now Emmy. His entire family is gone. Only Vill remains, and who knows if he’s okay. Jackson blinks hard. “If I can, you can. You’re stronger than this, and she would want you to push on.”
I suck in a shallow breath, trying to calm my heart and mind. “Emmy…” She was like a grandmother to me and now she’s gone.
“I know. But we have to go.” Jackson releases my face. “It’s time, Ari. We have to go. We have to get to Zeus.”
I draw a breath, my mind racing. Where is Dad? Where is Vill? Does he know yet that Emmy’s gone? But then I see the fighting in front of me, and I know there isn’t time to find them. We have to get to Zeus. My only hope is that once Zeus is gone, the Ancients will listen to Jackson, their rightful leader, and the war will be over.
Chapter Twenty-Six
We creep through the woods, following the bloody path as it winds through the trees. The wind changes as we go farther and farther, the trees becoming still. I reach out for Jackson’s hand, and he laces his fingers with mine. I know we’re walking into a trap, that this is Zeus’s plan to bring us to him. But what choice do we have? Our only hope is that we can overpower him once face-to-face. Finally, the blood stops in an open clearing, trees surrounding us, and I start to raise my gun, as Jackson stops me.
“Look,” he says, his voice barely a whisper.
I follow his outstretched hand and my mouth falls open. There in front of us, a swirl of blood on its trunk, is the Unity tree.
Jackson starts forward, and I grip his arm tight to stop him. “We can’t go in there,” I say, my voice almost frantic. I can’t lose him, too. “It’s a trap. He’ll surround us. There has to be another way. Please, I…you…just…”
He turns to me, his expression resolute. “We don’t have a choice. This is Zeus telling us how to end this. He wants us. Don’t you see? It’s always been about this. This moment.”
I shake my head, words refusing to form. I think to my dreams from before, to Zeus calling me a queen, to Emmy telling me I’d been part of Zeus’s plan all along.
“But how will we get back?” I ask.
Jackson pulls me to him, kissing me easily, and I have my answer without him having to say a word. We may not make it back.
I close my eyes, overwhelmed by everything that’s happened and everything that’s to come. I’ve spent my life fighting for others, protecting those that couldn’t protect themselves, telling myself that I would at any point sacrifice myself for another, but now that it’s here in front of me, now that death is staring at me with one bloody eye, I’m afraid. I’m so, so afraid. Am I ready to die?
No.
“I won’t give myself over to him. We have to fight.”
Jackson stares down at me, his expression fierce. “And we will. But when the time comes to kill him, I do it. His life ends with me.”
I nod once, and then we start for the Unity tree, our hands linked tightly between us. I stare at the tree’s opening, at the dark, black slant in the center that frightened me when Jackson first showed it to me. It feels like ages ago now.
The tree stands even taller than I remember, clearing the rest of the trees in the forest by as much as double or triple the height of the tallest one around us. I feel a rush of memories move through me. Of Jackson and me kissing below it. Of Emmy and Mami explaining that their mother created it. Of Mami lying dead and Zeus’s screams for her to wake.
A shudder ripples down my back, and I take a step closer before I lose my nerve. A series of whispers hits my ears—words too quiet for me to make out, their sounds intoxicating, as though they’re calling to me and me alone, beckoning me closer. I swallow hard, and Jackson releases my hand, then cocks his gun. “Ready?”
“Ready.”
And then we slip through the slanted center into the darkness, and an icy breeze blows past us. My skin tingles, and I blink to help my eyes focus, but they never find their way. I take another step, then another, and then suddenly the ground disappears below my feet, and I scream out as air rushes past me, my stomach plummeting as I free-fall into nothingness.
The fall continues forever, and I wonder if I’ve gotten trapped in some black hole between Earth and Loge, when I slam into a hard surface, my head throbbing from the impact.
I jump up, despite my aching limbs, prepared for anything, to find I’m inside a tiny room—alone. Panic claws at my insides as I open my mind to whatever craziness Zeus has planned for Jackso
n and me.
I start forward, toward a door in front of me, and turn the knob, only to step into a narrow hallway that looks remarkably like the hallway in the Chemist labs where the Ancients were tortured to test the neurotoxin. The door slams shut behind me. Every sense inside me awakens. “Jackson!” I shout, knowing he won’t answer. Knowing he isn’t even in the same place I am, and then I realize with horror that maybe we are in the same place, yet not, suspended in some altered version of Zeus-land, some mental trick like the blueroom.
I draw a breath to try to calm my nerves and close my eyes, trying to sense things around me. I hear the heartbeat of someone close by, but I can’t make out anything else about the person. I edge closer and then stop. Where is my gun? I spin around. I must have dropped it during the fall. I reach around to pull another from the harness fixed to my back, but the harness is gone. A chill moves through me, and I force myself to stop, to think, to remember everything that Lydian told me. Control my mind. Remember that what I’m seeing isn’t real. But then I remember Zeus’s words the last time I was in the blueroom, how he hinted that if we felt we were dying, if our minds surrendered, then we would die. Instinctively, I reach down for the knife I keep tucked into my boot but pull back even before my hand reaches my thigh, knowing it won’t be there. Not here. Not wherever I am, either in body or mind. Something tells me my weapons wouldn’t help here anyway.
My pulse picks up as I start back down the hall, and then a series of doors appears on my right and left, no sounds from inside them, no lights shining out from under the doorway to clue me in to what’s inside.
I edge forward, knowing this is part of Zeus’s game, torn between screaming out that I refuse to play along and going through the motions so I can get to him faster. So I can find Jackson and see him with my eyes and feel him with my hands. My heart hurts without him beside me, my mind unsteady. Deciding that quicker is better, I push through the first door on my right, and the smell of honeysuckles fills my nose. A bright sun shines down on me, warming my skin, while the gentle hum of someone singing hits my ears. It takes me half a second to realize I’m outside my old house in Prospect, staring at the forest behind our house, which means the person singing is—