by Everly Frost
I whispered. “There’s no more hair for you to grab.”
“You will release her!” President Vale snatched a spear from the nearest warrior and dug it into Alexander’s side, deep enough to pierce his skin.
Alexander dropped me and it was all I could do not to hit my head on the way down. I landed on something softer than stone and looked up into the eyes of the warrior with the plait, realizing that she must have dropped with me so I’d fall onto her knees.
She righted me and cut the bands binding my wrists at the same time. Nobody protested.
“You’ll have what you’ve asked for, Ava,” President Vale declared. “Take her to her room.”
Most of the Seversandian warriors dispersed as the President strode ahead of me down the corridor. It looked like she was taking me back to the room I’d been in before.
The Evereachers stomped ahead of us, also disbanding once we reached our destination. A handful of Seversandians remained, all women, but they waited only long enough for the Evereachers to leave.
“I want to thank you,” President Vale said. “For trying to escape with Ember.”
“Where is she?”
“In a room like this. And for some reason, my son refuses to leave her side.”
“He knows you’re his mother.”
“Oh.” She chewed her lip. “We haven’t spoken since they brought him back, but I suspected he might know.”
“Did you send the drones?”
Her mouth took on a disapproving line. “No. I allowed the drones to join the line guarding the perimeter. They don’t carry any weaponry—no tranquilizers, no firing mechanism at all, in fact they have empty cavities where those components have been removed. My warriors scanned them on the beach before allowing them through. You’ve seen our scanning system?”
“I think so. There was one of those small devices that shot up when the first pod opened. That was before we boarded the monorail.”
“The drones were meant to be for aerial support only. Alexander deployed them to go after you before I could stop him. He will pay for what he did to Rift…”
Before she could say anything more, two women appeared, each carrying a golden chain. There were shackles at the end of each chain.
General Gaza loomed large behind the two women, filling the doorway. But he wasn’t alone.
“Michael!”
His hair fell across his face, but the look in his eyes between the dark strands froze me. “Why did you come back?”
Michael’s wrists and ankles were bound in chains similar to the ones the women had just brought into the room. General Gaza began unlocking them.
I couldn’t answer Michael’s question right then.
The women threaded one each of the long chains through the golden rings attached to the wall. I’d wondered what those rings were for and it seemed I was about to find out.
“Your hands please,” one of the women said to me.
I held them out, ready for a shackle to be attached to each wrist. The second long chain must have been meant for Michael, which was why Gaza was releasing him from the shorter ones.
He wasn’t about to let them chain him that easily. Before the shackles closed around his wrists, Michael lurched forward, slamming into the women with brute force.
It was the same kind of force he’d used when he fought me on the Starsgardian mountains. He was fierce and relentless. He’d caged his humanity. The golden chains clattered to the floor seconds before both women did. Neither woman was breathing.
I braced as General Gaza stepped over them. Oddly, his focus was on me. Scooping up one of the golden chains, he swung it over his head, ready to lash me with it.
President Vale cried out. “Don’t hurt her!”
The General released the chain directly at my face.
Michael lunged in front of me, taking the force of the heavy chain against the side of his head. He dropped with a cry and my heart stopped in case the golden chains were more than they appeared—I knew barely anything about the technology here in Seversand and what kind of threats it posed—but to my relief, Michael jumped back to his feet.
I cried. “Michael, stop! I can’t leave. I can’t escape.”
General Gaza towered over us. “Easy brother.”
“I’m not your brother.” Michael lunged forward, but the General’s palm moved straight at his face and Michael froze, staring at something within it.
It was a small, red leaf. It was lethal to mortals but for Michael it would be like a powerful tranquilizer.
“You’re no use to her if you’re asleep,” the General warned.
Behind me, the President’s anger bubbled over in a hiss. She launched herself at Gaza. “You tried to hit her with a chain! What were you thinking?”
General Gaza grinned. “I was thinking I’d never seen a boy so intent on protecting a girl. I wanted to know how far he’d go. It turns out he’d go a very long way.”
The women on the floor were recovering now. They rubbed their heads, but they didn’t look surprised or angry. Instead, they seemed pleased, throwing smiles at Michael, as they recovered the long, golden chains and carried them to the wall again. They clamped the shackles over our wrists. The chains were long enough to allow us to sit and move around the room, but not long enough that we could step through the door.
Each woman bowed to Michael and tapped their fists against their hearts before they left. “Son of the river.”
President Vale chewed her lip so hard that it bled and healed. “Before I take you to the garden tomorrow, Ava, you’ll be moved to the hall—the one where you first met me. Your loved ones will be allowed to say goodbye to you there.”
She swung away from us and within moments, she strode away down the corridor and was gone. The General followed her into the night.
Michael was frozen beside me, his chest rising and falling. “How could you come back? You were meant to escape.”
“Michael, I need to explain—”
“No, there’s no explaining. They’re going to kill you!” He pulled his chains taut, leveraging his feet against the wall, trying to wrench the hook from the wall. He still hadn’t looked at me. “Find me something sharp, Ava. I can cut my hands and get free.”
He meant it. He’d cut himself to pieces if he had to, in order to escape these chains. He’d tried it before, a long time ago at the Terminal.
As his chains clanked, I stared at the space where the President had stood, a space that seemed to swell and darken in her absence.
“Michael, no. I’m here by choice.”
“I don’t believe you. I won’t believe you.”
I bit down on the sob rising into my chest. He was hurting. I was hurting him. We’d been through so much together—survived so much. From the Terminal to Starsgard. I’d died once and part of him had died with me. Now I was risking my life again—willingly.
I wrapped my arms around him, resting my head against his back. “Please. Michael.”
For a moment I thought he’d push me away. His heart thundered in my ears, his muscles bunched as he strained to dislodge his chains.
He spun, his chest heaving. “I can’t let you die.”
“You won’t have to. I promise.”
His lips crashed down onto mine. My head tipped back as his arms pulled me close and our hearts beat together. As he drew back, his hands encircled my face. “Promise me.”
I tugged him over to the chairs beneath the wide window.
“I have to get to the tree. It’s the only way to beat Alexander.”
Michael studied the dark mound in the distance. “I don’t understand.”
“Alexander’s done a lot of damage. He tore your family apart. He orchestrated my brother’s death. He convinced people it was okay to bury children in the ground. He used Olander to whip the whole of Evereach into a frenzy about mortals. His cruelty will remain as long as he does. Which is going to be a really long time unless I stop him. But I won’t have a chance
unless he’s standing in the place where he stole his immortality.”
“Then I’ll do it. I’ll find a way to get him to the tree. I’ll kill him.”
“No, Michael, it’s not about killing him. I can’t be responsible for another death. And neither can you.”
“Then … what? How will you stop him?”
I skirted around the question, knowing that the truth would only make things worse. Scuffling at the door made me jump. Aaron Reid hovered there.
Michael lurched to his feet, the chains pulling tight as they extended as far as they would go. “What are you doing here?”
“I … uh…” Aaron’s hesitancy disappeared. He sauntered into the room, heading for the bed. The backpack Sarah had given me peeked out from under it.
He pulled it out and shoved it at me. “You’ll need as many medical supplies as you can get.”
I frowned at him. “Okay.”
I moved to put it down, but Aaron shoved it back at me.
Our stare-off continued for another minute. “Why do you think bandages will help me right now, at this very moment?”
He huffed. “Seriously, look inside it, will you?”
I unzipped the top, riffling through the contents. As I expected: bandages, plasters, tubes of things.
“You might find the purple medicine useful.”
I frowned, retrieving a plastic bag containing a small bottle wrapped entirely in a purple label. It had ‘antibiotic’ written on it with instructions about dosage. But beneath the writing was a…
Lion.
I pulled the bottle from the packet and pressed my fingernail into the wrapping, breaking and lifting it the barest amount to see beneath.
The contents were pearly black.
I angled the vial just enough for Michael to see too, keeping the whole thing inside the bag.
Michael jolted beside me. “How…?”
It had to be the vial from Mr. Bradley’s lab, the one my brother had drawn a lion onto. Sarah must have slipped it into the bag and Aaron had run interference for her.
But Aaron hated me. He blamed me for his brother’s death.
“Why are you doing this?”
He shuffled. “I stood by while Alexander forced Josh to give up all his nectar on the night of Implosion. I watched it happen and I did nothing to stop it. I let him die. I can’t be that person again.”
Michael gripped my arm. “Ava, you can use this right now to get us out of here.”
“No … my brothers can use this to get you all out of here.”
“But you have to come with us.”
“Michael, you have to hear me on this. I tried to kill Alexander before and I failed. No amount of nectar will work. I’m not leaving this place until he’s no longer a threat.”
My eyes filled with tears. The pictures of the women in the hall of history returned to me—one of them slumped over, another clutching her heart, all of them faced with darkness.
“I have to stand beneath that tree and be judged. And then I can fight him.”
Before Michael could protest, I swung to Aaron and shoved the bag back at him. “You have to get this to Rift.”
“But … you…”
“Get it to Rift. He’ll … No, wait. Is Mr. Bradley still free?”
Aaron nodded. “Why wouldn’t he be?”
I glanced at Michael. His dad must have talked his way out of the situation when he emerged from the tomb after we got away.
“Tell Mr. Bradley to convince the President that the mortals are getting sick because they aren’t used to the environment here. It’s been a long time since they lived in this heat. They’re all Seversandian by birth so she has jurisdiction over them. She’ll give him permission to treat them. That way, Mr. Bradley can give them all a dose, not just Rift.”
“What about Ember? That excuse won’t work for her.”
My thoughts were in turmoil. I had to face the thing that I’d been pushing into the back of my mind: tomorrow, they were going to kill Ember too.
Because I’d come back, they could carry out the execution. By surrendering myself, I’d put her in terrible danger.
“Rift is refusing to leave her so she’ll be with him when Mr. Bradley gets to him. I know Mr. Bradley will find a way. I trust him to do that.”
If anyone could figure out a way to get nectar to all of the mortals, it was Mr. Bradley. The irony didn’t escape me. For a long time, I’d distrusted him and I had good reason to. He was clever and his motivations were never clear. But I didn’t doubt what I’d seen in the secret level at the Terminal. Michael’s father had been real in that room—no games, only truth.
Suddenly, I had hope and my heart was lighter.
My brothers could survive this and so could Ember.
Michael begged me. “Please, Ava, won’t you reconsider? Take this now. Burn this place down.”
I shook my head. “Alexander will survive.”
The hurt and pain in Michael’s eyes was too much and I had to look away.
He said, “Then take some of it before they come for you. So you can heal. So you won’t die.”
“I have to face this as I am, Michael. I can’t go near that tree unless I’m completely vulnerable. Only honesty and truth can save me.”
Aaron gripped the bag. “I don’t understand you, Ava. Not at all. But then, I didn’t understand your brother either. Josh threw himself into everything he did with a conviction I never had.”
He exhaled. “But you’re right about the truth. It’s time to face it. Okay, I’ll get this to Mr. Bradley. But … you won’t see me tomorrow because there’s somewhere else I need to be.”
He spun on his heels and hurried away from the room with the backpack before I could ask him what he was talking about.
“Well, that was disconcerting.” Michael stared at the empty space in the door. “Do you really trust Aaron?”
“I’m all out options. I have to try.”
He took my face in his hands. “Ava. Please tell me you’ll still be alive tomorrow afternoon.”
His eyes searched mine but I couldn’t answer. There was still so much I couldn’t tell him: I couldn’t tell him about Josh and the secret level. I couldn’t tell him about the pictures of the women and the tree. I curled into him and we sank to the floor.
Eventually, the woman with the plait in her hair returned to the room. I noticed for the first time that she had gold flecks in her brown eyes. She paused in the doorway as she saw us huddled on the floor.
She cleared her throat and said, “I’ve come to ask you how you want to die.”
She held out her hands. In one was a dagger. In the other, an arrow.
I thought it through. “By the arrow.”
She paused. “I need to know why you chose me.”
“Because of the lions.”
She frowned. “What do you mean?”
“You were there, out on the dunes, when the lions arrived. You chose to retreat instead of harming them. That tells me you won’t risk hurting something innocent—even if it goes against your orders.”
She contemplated that and finally said, “My name is Rachel.”
“Thank you, Rachel.”
She asked, “Do you want your lights doused?”
Only a couple of weeks ago, I’d stood beneath a full moon on the mountains of Starsgard. The window nearby was wide enough that without the lights, I’d be able to see the moonlit sky. “Yes, please.”
Rachel said a word in Seversandian and the golden stones in each corner of the ceiling extinguished.
She spoke into the dark. “My sister will be the other archer tomorrow. The one for Ember. I want you to know that it will be a clean shot.”
Her words hung in the air long after she left.
“If only the world was made up of mortals,” Michael said. “If everyone was mortal, then nobody would be afraid of you.”
“People would find a reason to be afraid.”
As my eyes adjusted to the d
ark, the moonlit plane outside the glass corridor became visible and with it, so did the tree. There was no life within that space. No life at all. My resolve almost slipped. Just stepping foot into the ash would be a challenge.
Michael’s voice was desperate. “I won’t let this happen.”
“You will do amazing things with your life, Michael.”
After that, I had no more words.
The moon’s glow was cool around me. I moved closer to Michael and filled the silence with his heartbeat as we waited.
Chapter Twenty-Two
THE FOLLOWING MORNING, Rachel shackled me in the hall where I’d first met President Vale, looping my chain through the floor, but providing me with a bench to sit on. It had a plush cushion on top of it and sturdy wooden legs. It all seemed so civilized.
Michael was allowed to sit with me, but he was shackled, too.
“Your friends are here to say goodbye,” Rachel said before she left the hall.
I jumped to my feet, chains clanking, as my brothers entered from the far door. I ran to them as far as I could before the chains pulled taut and stopped me.
“You should have left already!”
Quake wrapped his big arms around me, lifting me off the floor as Blaze and Rift joined him.
“Rift. Quake. Blaze. Brothers.”
They were all crying. Tears ran down their cheeks onto my head, and I couldn’t stop the sobs bursting from my chest. I tried to gather myself together, my voice muffled inside the cocoon of their arms.
“Please tell me Mr. Bradley saw you?”
Quake’s reply was a rumble in his chest. “He did. And he’s way more clever than I ever thought.”
I lifted my head to check his expression, hoping he’d explain what he meant, but all he did was grin at me: a tearful, toothy grin. I quickly assessed them. Blaze wasn’t heating up the room. Rift wasn’t blurring at the edges. Quake was … well, as gentle as ever. If they’d taken nectar already, I couldn’t detect it.
I said, “You need to protect Ember.
“Don’t worry. She’s scared, but we’ll keep her safe.”