by Sarra Cannon
“Uhh,” Crash said, running a hand through his hair. “Please tell me you haven’t been trying to listen to my thoughts, because that shit is private.”
“I haven’t,” she said, then narrowed her eyes at him. “Not yet, anyway.”
“Threat acknowledged,” he muttered.
“Could you hear the thoughts of the super zombies?” Noah asked.
“They had no thoughts,” she said, motioning for them to all take a seat in the living room. She was way too tired to be standing up if they didn’t have to. “Not of their own, anyway. It seemed like their only thoughts were the orders the Dark One had put into their heads. Basically, she’d told them to seek us out and kill us.”
“No surprise there,” Parrish said.
“Or maybe it was to seek us out and infect us, but what’s the difference,” Karmen muttered.
But Noah’s head snapped up.
“Wait, infect us?” he asked. “Which was it? Can you remember the exact thought in their heads?”
Karmen shrugged, not sure why it mattered. Noah appeared to think it did, though.
She thought back to the attack on the compound yesterday, trying to remember the exact orders she’d heard repeated in the rotters’ minds.
“Find and infect the guardians,” she said. “That was it. Why? Do you think there’s a difference?”
Noah sat down on the couch. “I don’t know, but it seems like nothing the Dark One does is random. Everything has a purpose. Besides…”
His voice trailed off and he looked at Parrish, then shook his head.
“It’s okay,” Parrish said. “You can say it out loud, because I’ve been thinking about it ever since the Dark One first trapped me there by the bus.”
“What?” Karmen asked, feeling frustrated. “I don’t have any clue what you guys are talking about.”
Noah sighed. “The Dark One could have killed Parrish yesterday. Easy.” He looked to Parrish and placed a hand on her leg. “No offense.”
“None taken. It’s true,” Parrish said. “I couldn’t even think to move or fight back. Just being in the presence of such power had me like a deer in headlights. She could have snapped my neck or set me on fire. Who knows. But she didn’t. She just threatened me. Said she wanted me to suffer.”
“Maybe it’s the truth,” Karmen said.
“Maybe,” Noah said. “But what about Lily? She was right there with us while we slept. She could have killed us any time she wanted, but she didn’t. Instead, she kept arranging these rotter attacks.”
Karmen nodded. This was something that had been on her mind a lot since the hospital, and she was glad he had finally brought it up.
“Yeah, why not just slit our throats in our sleep?” Karmen asked, her stomach turning at the thought of how vulnerable they’d all been while Lily had been traveling with them. She’d slept right next to the enemy and hadn’t even known it. “If the Dark One was so keen to see us dead, why didn’t she have Lily slit our throats? Or poison our food? There were so many opportunities in Crash’s apartment alone, but instead of killing us, she sent rats? Terrifying, sure, but not deadly.”
“Yeah, and it was Lily who killed those rats, anyway,” Crash said, shuddering at the memory. “I know that apartment wasn’t much, but it was home and I had a lot of good times there. I’ll never get that burned rat smell out of my mind.”
It wasn’t a fond memory for Karmen, either. She’d had one crawling in her hair, and it was the grossest feeling of her life.
“She summoned an army of zombie rats, and then killed them all. Why?” Karmen asked.
“To earn our trust,” Noah said.
“Okay, but why did she need it?” Karmen asked. “If the goal was really to kill us all, she didn’t need us to trust her. She just needed an opportunity to kill or infect us, which she had plenty of right there in that apartment.”
Everyone was quiet for a minute, and Karmen thought about that apartment and what Lily must have been thinking when she brought those rats there. She obviously hadn’t intended to kill them.
Sure, she wanted them to trust her, but they already did at that point. Or at least, she hadn’t given them any reason not to trust her.
So, why the rats?
Karmen felt she was on the verge of understanding something very important, but it wasn’t fully coming together in her mind just yet.
Crash brought over one of the backpacks and spread some food out on the coffee table, along with four fresh bottles of water.
“Thanks,” Karmen said, taking a long drink of water.
“So, you’re thinking there’s some reason the Dark One doesn’t want us dead?” Crash asked.
“I’m thinking she wants us dead in a very specific way, maybe,” Noah said. “Maybe infecting us gives her more power. What was it Lily said back at the hospital again? About how the Dark One’s power works?”
Parrish looked down at her hands for a moment, as if trying to recall the exact words.
“With each death, the Dark One grows stronger. That’s what Lily said.”
“So, when someone dies from the virus, the Dark One takes their life force,” Karmen said. “That’s why she wants us infected. She wants to take our powers away.”
“Maybe that’s the only way she can go free,” Parrish said.
“So, why not infect you yesterday?” Karmen asked. “If she had you right there, why not just bite you or whatever? Why would Lily kill the rats? It doesn’t fully make sense to me.”
Parrish shook her head. “I don’t know, but every day, we unravel a little more of this mystery. I feel like we’re so close to finally figuring it all out.”
“Karmen, tell us how your powers worked again. You were saying you could hear that guard’s thoughts, so then what? You turned that power onto the super zombies? What else?” Noah asked.
She took another long drink of water and continued explaining how her powers had progressed and how she’d been able to turn down the volume of the Dark One’s orders and replace them with her own, instead.
“That’s cool as hell,” Crash said, his mouth slightly open in awe.
“It’s also extremely powerful,” Noah said. “And you turned how many to our side in just ten minutes? Four?”
“Yeah,” she said. “There didn’t seem to be a limit to how many I could turn, and I could sense my connection to each of them once it was made. I think if they had been turned back to the Dark One’s orders, I would have known or sensed it.”
“Did you feel lightheaded at all when you were doing it?” Parrish asked. “Or any other indication that you were reaching the limit of your powers?”
She thought about it for a second and shrugged. “Not that I noticed.”
Parrish looked impressed, and for some strange reason, that sent a surge of pride through Karmen’s body. She’d always been popular, but she’d never really been someone people were impressed with.
Annoyed with was more normal for her.
Jealous of, maybe.
But never impressed or proud of.
She liked the idea of being unique and strong.
“What about everyone else?”
She sat down and chose a selection of snacks from the pile. Not exactly a gourmet meal, but with this view to enjoy, she didn’t care.
“We know Noah healed Stephen, but he also took on the illness. So, that’s good and bad, both.”
“He healed himself faster than expected, though, too,” Crash said. “When we first saw you, face down on the floor, I thought you were a dead man.”
“Thanks,” Noah said, shaking his head. “I’ve never felt worse in my life, to be honest. I sort of remember trying to stand up, but I don’t remember passing out. But once I got the IV meds flowing, I could feel what it was doing inside my body to heal me. I instinctively knew how to speed up my own recovery, so at least that was a bonus.”
“And an opportunity to learn,” Parrish said. “Because that’s the rub, right? We’re only p
rogressing in our powers when we’re pushed to the brink of death. Not exactly the most nurturing environment. Do or die, so to speak.”
Karmen hadn’t thought of it that way before, but Parrish was right. Other than Crash, most of them had only learned they had powers when they were pushed to the limit or threatened with death if they didn’t use them.
“So, basically, New York City should mean we’ll either realize our greatest potential, or we’ll all die trying,” she said, half joking, half terrified she was right.
“I wish we had more time,” Noah said, not laughing at her joke. “Maybe with some thought, we could have created some training or practice scenarios.”
“We don’t have that luxury, though,” Parrish said, turning the fatalis stone in her hand. “We still haven't heard from Zoe and the fifth, but at this point, we’re just an hour or so away from the city by boat. If we can figure out where they are and come up with a plan, we could be there before noon tomorrow.”
“Yeah, but if they’re safe where they are and the Dark One hasn’t found them, as long as they stay put and in hiding, we could take all the time we need,” Karmen said, already knowing as she said it that wouldn’t be a popular option.
“Every day we wait to get this stone to the island is a day the whole world suffers,” Parrish said.
Karmen was about to say something else about the trip into the city when Parrish’s eyes grew wide. She pulled the fatalis stone from beneath the collar of her shirt and placed it on the table.
“This is it,” Parrish said. “Take hands.”
Karmen’s heart raced as the four of them joined hands and the fifth—a young boy she knew in her soul was once one of her closest friends—appeared before them.
Twenty-Two
The Boy
It was time.
The boy could feel how close the others were. They must have been traveling all day to get to the coast. He’d been tracking their fear and anxiety. At this point, he was so connected to their energy, he could even feel when one of them was hurt.
Noah, the healer of their group, had somehow taken on an injury earlier in the day. Nothing life threatening, but it was bad enough to have caused him considerable pain.
But other than their fear, the traveling guardians had stayed out of any real danger all day.
Still, the boy had wanted to wait until they were settled and safe to contact them.
Zoe had been waiting nervously all day, too. She kept asking him if he could tell where Parrish was and whether she was coming to get her or not. She wanted to talk to her sister and make sure she had gotten out of the encounter with the Dark One.
No matter how many times he reassured her that Parrish was okay and was already making her way to the coast, Zoe didn’t seem to trust it.
He couldn’t blame her, really. They’d all been through so much, and Zoe had experienced the added torture of having to hear her own father turning into one of those things in the other room.
Late last night, when they’d been up talking about their lives and what they’d been through since the virus started, Zoe had told him that she’d spent the entire time in that hotel room worried that her father would break out of that room at any moment and kill her.
“I’ve been having nightmares about it again,” she’d confessed to him late last night, pulling her arms tight around her body. “As if it had really happened. As if my own father had killed me.”
She hid her head in her arms and shivered.
It was enough to make the boy cry.
How did a ten-year-old girl ever really recover from that kind of trauma?
Seeing her sister again was the only thing she cared about anymore, and he was determined to help make that happen.
Besides, the survival of this entire world depended on him reuniting with Parrish and the others and getting to that island.
Now that they had finally connected to each other and completed the circle between them all, the boy’s memories had been coming back more and more. His powers, too.
He hadn’t had a chance to really test it, but he had a feeling he could fly a lot further now, even without rooftops. He was pretty sure he could change the weather a great deal, too. He’d played around with it a little bit this afternoon, and it hadn’t taken much concentration to turn a relatively sunny, cloudless day into a stormy grey afternoon.
He had to be careful with that, though. The Dark One would be able to sense his magic the same way he could now sense the presence of his friends as they got closer.
Too much time using his powers would allow her to pinpoint their location, and that would ruin everything.
New York City was bad enough when you were just a normal human trying to survive.
Surviving when you were a specific, sought-after target of the Dark One was impossible. At least for now.
Once the five of them got together, things would be different.
Which is why he wanted to talk to them tonight, when they were calm and safe and able to really listen to what he had to say.
He wasn’t sure if they would listen to him, seeing how he was just a kid in their eyes, but he had to trust that some part of them understood he was the eldest of their group. And the most experienced.
He motioned for Zoe to join him on the floor of the small apartment.
Anxious, her knee bounced as she sat down across from him. She scratched her arm and bit her lip.
He took a deep breath and then nodded for her to do the same. If they were going to make a stable connection with the others, he needed their combined energy to be calm and stable, too.
They might not get many opportunities beyond tonight to have a conversation like this and make their plan, so he wanted to make sure everything was perfect.
Relax. It’s going to be okay.
He could tell that Zoe heard him in her head. She nodded and stopped her fidgeting, finally calming down enough for them to reach out to the others.
He held both hands out to her and she carefully placed her small hands in his.
Together, they both took deep breaths and closed their eyes.
With his mind and power, he reached out to the guardians. To Parrish specifically, at first, because he could feel that she held the stone. But then, to all of them as a connection was created, like threads being woven together.
And then, with a jolt, he was transported. His body was still sitting in the small New York apartment, but his spirit or essence was there with them in a house on the beach in Jersey, not far away.
“Hello, old friends,” he said, smiling. Coming into their presence again was like coming home after a long absence. It was like finding peace for the first time after centuries of war.
Like finding his voice for the first time in several lifetimes, its magic having been drained away from resetting the spell over and over again.
And then, as he studied the faces of his dear friends—the first ones he had ever come to love like family—he suddenly remembered his name.
Somehow, he’d forgotten it when all of this started, but now, it was here. It was a part of him.
“I am so glad to see you all again,” he said, his voice more like an ancient wise man than a ten-year-old boy. “You’ve been searching for me for a long time. The fifth. The boy. But my real name is David.”
Twenty-Three
Parrish
The boy—David—sat in the center of the circle. He was both there and not there. His image was transparent, but their connection to him was the best it had been yet.
Parrish had only gotten a glimpse of him the first time they had connected to his energy. He had been there with them only for a second.
When she’d connected with him and Zoe yesterday, she’d only heard their voices in her head.
Tonight, though, she could see him as if he were sitting there with them now.
The boy had black skin and short, black hair. His eyes were brown and bright, and in them, she could see both strength and wisdom fa
r beyond his years.
He smiled at them like he knew them.
She had a feeling he saw them as they had once been, rather than as they were now.
When she studied him, she could also see a little bit of the man who had been on the island with her in her dreams. He’d been much older then, with thick dreadlocks falling over his shoulders and creases near the corners of his eyes, but it was him.
“David,” she said, his name sounding right on her lips. “Is Zoe with you?”
He nodded. “She’s holding my hands right now,” he said. “She’s the only reason I could connect with you like this. She told me about your bone marrow transplant. I think she has some of your magic inside her.”
“That’s how you found her, isn’t it? Did you know there was a witch who was coming for her? To take her to the Dark One?” she asked.
She had no idea how much he could see or what he remembered about all of them. He’d been alone this whole time, and yet he’d known who they were.
David shook his head, the first sign of fear showing in his expression. It was the first time he’d looked like a child since he’d appeared to them.
“It’s hard to explain, but some part of me knew I had limited time. Who is she? Is she human? Or one of the Dark One’s zombies?”
“Her name is Lily,” Parrish said. “And she’s human, but she’s not from this world.”
She explained to him how they’d found the witch inside the closet, at first believing it was him.
The story seemed to put something into place for him, and he nodded, as if understanding something he’d questioned for a long time.
“I knew the Dark One was looking for her and that she was alone, but I didn’t realize it was your sister,” he said, smiling. “I thought it was you. I could feel your magic inside of her.”
“Thank you so much for getting her out of there,” Parrish said, choking a little on her words and trying not to cry.
She wanted to ask if Zoe could appear to her the way he was, but she didn’t know for sure how much time they might have together. Would the connection hold for as long as they wanted? Or would their ability to connect fade over time? Or drain their power?