by E. J. Mellow
“See, then it can’t be that.” Dev quickly whips up his Arcus and shoots down a charging Metus. I push out a shield of Navitas to keep spewed lava from hitting us.
Tim shakes his head. “No, it has to still be—see there!” He points to a small grove of trees in the distance, an area directly between the tower and the wall. As if blinking into existence, a few orange masses leap up from their liquid forms close by. “There must be an entrance in there. I’m sure of it. They’ve been using their nonsolid forms to hide in the grass for as long as they can, so as not to give away where they’re coming from.”
“Collö.” Dev aggressively runs his hand over his short-cropped hair.
“Here.” Aveline throws him a small black bracelet.
Bringing it to his mouth, Dev rattles off instructions to someone on the other end, informing them of the security breach. Turning around, I take in the state of things. The Nocturna and few Vigil in our area have thinned, most moving to engage the new threat at the wall. There’s maybe a handful left guarding the tower, most of which are now distracted and looking at the small grove of trees where a tunnel entrance supposedly is. They stand ready to aim down any new monster that shows itself. My stomach drops, and my spine tingles with the feeling that we just got played.
Turning, I see that my fear has become a reality. “Um, guys.” No one acknowledges me. “Guys.” I blindly swat at the nearest form.
“What?” Aveline turns to me.
“I think we fell for the classic bait and switch.”
“What do you—” Aveline stumbles back as she follows my gaze and takes in the Metus gathering in front of us. I count twenty of them to the eight of us.
“Molly, get behind me.” Dev pushes me back.
“Dev, stop. I can—” There’s a tug around my feet. Oh no. “Dev!”
“Molly, stop. We need to pro—”
“No, I’m waking up!” He turns to me. “I can’t wake up now!”
“Shh, try and stay calm.” He places his hands on my shoulder while maintaining a visual on our threat. “It happens faster when you get too excited.”
“I need to stay! I need to help you. You’re outnumbered!”
“It’s going to be okay. We’ve been outnumbered before.”
That does nothing to reassure me given what happened the last… No no no. Glancing from him to what lies beyond, I let out a frustrated groan as another tug of consciousness fills my body. “You better be here when I get back.” I kiss him hard on the mouth and then, with my last breath, let out as much of my reserved Navitas as I can straight into the nearest group of Metus. When the final drop leaves my body, my mind is punched forward, and I’m gone.
— 40 —
THE MORNING IS too bright as I open my eyes, my jaw sore from clenching it in my sleep, my heart still pumping wildly. There’s a waking chirp from a bird and a chime from a bicycle riding by on the street below. I curse. This is ridiculous! How am I here right now, bathed in this cheery daylight, when my friends could be dying at this very moment?
This isn’t the first time I woke up in the middle of an attack, but it’s surely one of the most threatening. I scrub at my face with my hands and sit up. The tunnels. Why didn’t I ever think about the tunnels?! Because they weren’t supposed to be accessible anymore, that’s why. My alarm blares and I jump, a last reminding middle finger that my life, literally, couldn’t be any more night and day. Quickly reaching for my phone, I switch off the buzzer and dial the only person who can calm me at this moment.
It rings and rings and rings, and then Rae’s lame attempt at a funny voicemail comes on. Growling, I restrain myself from throwing my cell across the room. Now is not the time to be without communication. Please let this mean he’s back in Terra. I try Becca.
It rings twice, and then there’s a sound like whoever is on the other end is dragging her phone through sand. “Gullo?” asks a raspy voice.
“Becca! Are you awake?”
There’s a pause filled with heavy breathing. “Is this a joke?”
“Is Rae with you?”
The sound of shuffling again and then a muttered groan. “Molly, it’s seven in the morning. Do you know who you just called? Do you remember what event took place last night? Do you want to remain my friend? Then never make the mistake of doing this to me again.”
The line goes dead.
Shit.
I wring my hands and stare at nothing. What should I do? What can I do? I glance at my work clothes draped over my desk chair. My shoulders droop. Oh yeah, I guess there’s that.
—∞—
If there was ever a time to hate my job, it’s right now. Standing over our shoddy copier, I jam random buttons, hoping it will fix whatever is causing its malfunction. I’m supposed to be getting papers ready for a meeting in five minutes, but I couldn’t give two flying monkey butts about it. This whole day is a joke. Every minute of every hour a farce, the universe laughing at me, and I really don’t know what I did to deserve it. All I can think about is what’s happening at this very moment in a place very far away, and who will be left to greet me tonight. My teeth grind together, and I slam my hands down on the copier again.
“I don’t think breaking the printer will get it working.” Tony, a creative director here and one of Becca’s old crushes—seriously, thank God that’s over—walks up to grab some paper from a cabinet.
“No, but if it’s going to give me a splitting headache, then I’m going to return the favor.” I kick the machine to demonstrate my point.
The side of his mouth rises along with his eyebrows. “Wow, violent much? I didn’t realize you were such a fighter.” He chuckles before dipping out of the room.
I stare down at the flashing red Error button. It winks on and off, on and off. A taunt, a warning, a truth. This life isn’t right. This life is wrong. Error. Error. Error. Balling my hand into a fist, I land one last plastic-crunching punch to the screen. The light doesn’t come on again. A satisfying grin slips across my lips. “Tony, you have no idea.”
Tap. Tap. Tap. My legs bounce restlessly as I listen to my boss, Jim, go over our team’s next project, his voice sounding more and more like the teacher from the Peanuts cartoon as the minutes tick by. Under the desk, I spin my cell phone between my fingers, praying for it to buzz but terrified for the moment when it does.
I’ve called and left messages for Rae so many times that I’m surprised his phone provider hasn’t tried to block my number on its own. My continued hope for his silence is that he’s in a place that doesn’t get service. I need him to be able to tell me what’s going on in Terra, because I can’t shake the feeling that it’s something bad—more than the usual bad. It could be because the TVs pocketed around the office are playing nothing but the recent bombings that all simultaneously happened overnight—a few in Europe, one in Asia, and two in small towns in the United States. World leaders have been trying to figure out if it was any of the handfuls of new terrorist groups that have popped up, but I know the truth. I know the root of the problem isn’t anything they can see. Isn’t anything they can fix. That’s my job, my responsibility, and here I am listening to Q3 and Q4 client demands. I hiss as my bottom lip splits open from my incessant tic of biting it with worry.
“Molly, are you okay?” Jim’s question brings the entire room’s attention to me.
I stop, dabbing at my mouth. “Uh, yeah, sorry. Just bit my lip.”
His gaze stays on me an extra beat before continuing. I wonder how long it will be until I’m called into his office and fired. Would I even care at this point? Rae mentioned once about some kind of Swiss fund the Vigil have created for Dreamers. I could always tap into that. I frown, wondering if that’s also something that gets cut off after my twenty-fifth birthday. I try not counting how many months I have left until I need to make that decision. Nine. Goddammit, brain.
My hands falter when they feel a vibration. Glancing down, my heart stops, and I jump up from my seat. “Excuse me. I�
�ah, I have to take this.” Ignoring the alarmed faces of my colleagues and a pissed-off one from Jim, I quickly exit the conference room.
“What’s going on? Did they stop them? Is Dev okay?” My words fall all over themselves as I speed-walk to my desk, the echo of my heels on the tiled floor like the beat of a war drum.
“He’s fine. We’re holding them off for now, but…but it’s bad.” Rae sounds winded, as if he’s still in the middle of running. “Molly, I need you to get to the bookstore. Now. Meet me there as soon as you can.”
I don’t even have a chance to respond before he hangs up. The viselike grip on my chest eases, knowing Dev isn’t hurt, but the panic in Rae’s voice still sets my nerves on edge. Glancing around my desk and then to the open floor plan of my office, I take in the hum of clicking keyboards, colleagues’ voices, and the occasional laugh. No one here has the smidgen of awareness of what’s happening in another dimension to keep them all safe, oblivious. No one knows of the centuries of lives lost at their expense, ones that could be ending this very second. Without another moment of hesitation, I grab my purse and run.
— 41 —
EVEN THOUGH IT’S the middle of the day, the bookstore is closed when I get there, and for a moment I fear that Rae left without me. But then his form fills the doorframe from the other side, and there’s a chime as he lets me in. The pungent fragrance of recently lit incense is still strong, and if I weren’t burning to learn about Terra, I’d ask how he got them to close the shop so early.
“What’s going on? Is this it?” I follow tight on his heels as we make our way to the back room.
“No, but it’s still not good.” He opens one of the two closet doors and walks inside. “They were able to remove the threat from the Nursery when I was contacted, but it’s like we plugged one hole just for water to burst out of three more. There have been heavy losses on both sides.”
My mouth runs dry. “Tim, Aveline?”
“Both okay…at least when I left, they were.” Lifting back a switch panel on the far side of the room, he pushes a button, and we step back as a huff of air announces the decline of the wall. I never thought seeing the stark white room on the other side would be a relief, but as I take in the space, the tightness in my muscles loosen.
Rae moves around like a man on a mission, because that’s exactly what he is, and I feel useless waiting for him to set up. “Most of the units are gathering in the Armory on the southwest part of the city for deployment, so that’s where I’ll program us to arrive. A pack is attacking a Vigil town close by, and another two or three are concentrated on an area of Terra’s wall.” He types quickly over a hovering keyboard, arranging boxes and apparatuses to come out of the floor and walls, while my coffin floats and docks in the center. The blue-white circular portal in the corner glows on.
“Why that town? Why that part of the fortification?” My brain searches for any importance with those areas, but I’m so overstimulated that I feel as if I’m short-circuiting, my brain unable to logically sift through another’s borrowed memories.
“There’s a major underground Navitas line that runs from that section of Terra to the Vigil city.”
“Underground? But I thought Terra switched to free-range energy transferring.” I take off my shoes and place them into a walled compartment, along with my purse.
“We did, but we still rely on a few underground channels to send higher concentrated amounts of energy from area to area. Okay”—he steps up to the white bed—“we’re ready.”
Climbing nimbly into my coffin, I nestle into the material and allow it to hug my body like a security blanket. “So, what area am I needed?”
“I left to get you before that was decided. I’m sure they will inform us when we get to the Armory.”
I let out a deep breath, the white in the room suddenly blindingly bright. There’s not an ounce of me that’s able to fall asleep right now. “Rae, my mind’s all over the place. I think you’ll need to give me something. Like whatever that was you stuck me with the first time. That worked really well.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah, yeah.” I wave my hand impatiently.
Rae ducks out of view, and I try to steady my breathing as I clench and unclench my fists. My foot wants to tap to dispel my excess restless energy, but the material surrounding it holds it still.
“Extend your arm.” He’s back hovering above me, and I wince when the needle pricks my skin. Cool liquid swims in my veins, and almost instantaneously my body relaxes, limbs like paperweights. “How do you feel?”
“Better.” The word seems to come out in slo-mo. I blink, and it’s like lifting a rusted-shut window. Geez, is this really the same stuff?
“Okay, good, because I made the dosage higher,” Rae says, and I’d scowl at him, but I don’t think my facial nerves are capable. He presses his fingers to my pulse and stares at something out of my view. “You should fall asleep any minute n—”
Darkness. Like a bag being thrown over my head, there’s suddenly only darkness.
My mind tumbles through space, no body constraining or confining it to a shape. It stretches forward and back, reaches up and over, like a dancing liquid blob without gravity. And then slowly a hum grows out of the void, the sound becoming loud, chaotic, and my conscious wants to shrink away from it, return back to the comfort of silence. But something doesn’t allow this. Something gives me a forceful shove forward. The noise transforms into light, a bright-white light. And then…
My eyes open, and I gasp, my back stiffening on a hard, cool surface.
“I’ve got you.” Dev is suddenly beside me. “You’re in Terra. It’s all right.” His hand brushes back my hair.
My gaze finds his, and my heart skips. “Given what I’ve been told of the state of things here, that’s not very relieving.”
His smile brings crinkles to the corners of his eyes, eyes that—despite his grin—hold exhaustion. Slowly he helps me to sit up, and I glance around the empty room. The familiar noise that invaded my sleep comes from the open glass doors to my left. I look through the wall of windows and take in a giant military hangar on the other side. More white mixed with tall chrome support beams. Nocturna and Vigil briskly run about, from hover vehicles to the multiple weapons depots. My memories recall being here once before, but in another’s body—my grandfather’s.
I turn back to Dev and intertwine my fingers with his. “I’m so glad you’re okay. I was a crazy mess all day.”
He looks affronted. “I can’t believe you ever doubted I would be. I’m a legend on the battlefield, remember?”
I roll my eyes with a shake of my head. “Really?”
“Yes, really. Just ask anyone.” He glances over his shoulder and calls out to a passing Nocturna. “Hey, Bernard, can you please tell this young lady how much of a—”
I shove Dev in the shoulder. “No, Bernard, keep doing what you were doing.” I wave away the confused man. “You don’t have an off switch, do you?” Standing, I stretch out my limbs, making sure everything is working properly, and then change out of my crumpled work clothes to the usual black uniform. Walking to the glass partition, I take in the buzz of energy. “Now tell me what’s been happening.”
Rae meets up with Dev and I as we walk past row upon row of hover cars mixed with lines of sleek pointed airships. The ships are new to me, and I run my gaze from sharp-tipped end to sharp-tipped end, taking in the three-pointed dorsal fins that jut out from either of their sides and tops. I assume they help in guiding the aerodynamic forms. Their underbellies are covered in long strips of thrusters, rather than the circular ones I’m used to seeing in sci-fi films. While each is identical in appearance, the sizes range from a two-manned ship to what could possibly hold dozens. Walking under the nose of a larger one, I study the seamless material making up the body. It’s the same used on the hover cars, and I wonder if they have the same chameleon capability when flying through Terra’s surroundings.
“These are ne
w,” I say.
Dev turns from his conversation with Rae and glances to what I’m referencing. “Maybe a couple of decades new.”
I frown. Man, even with my predecessor’s memories, there’s still so much to learn.
An organized group of Nocturna men and women march past us, and we step aside, their identical austere expressions fluttering by. I glance to the array of handheld weapons, noting that the fighters are wearing the glowing lightning-bolt bands around their biceps. Curious, I reach out with my power and hit up against a shield surrounding them. I’m unable to affect these soldiers, and I recall a similar feeling when I tried to physically manipulate guards in City Hall, but failed, not realizing they were protected by the same Dreamer-resistant energy. The thought that anyone would need to be protected from me does weird things to my psyche.
Continuing on, we weave through the hangar’s energy of people all maneuvering to their assigned locales. The air is tense, but there’s a sense of order to the chaos. The military units of Terra run like a well-oiled machine, and it’s both sad and relieving how comfortable they are working under such constant threats.
I spot Alexander standing with Elena and Raymond, the Vigil engineer, by a circular command post in the center of the room. A few other military personnel linger close by as a map of Terra spins in the middle, coordinates and alerts flashing and popping up along the side.
“Molly.” Elena inclines her head in a bow of greeting as we approach. Her companions do the same, though Alex doesn’t seem thrilled at having to show me any sign of respect. I’m still not sure what about me bothers him so much.