by K. A. Tucker
“We have lost the opportunity, regardless,” Lilly cut in sharply, disrupting Julian’s very clear threat. “The ballistics submarine was flagged as compromised and destroyed eight minutes after the release of the bomb. Isaac barely got off.”
“There are more submarines.” Mage said, brow arched. I knew what she was trying to communicate. “See? This is why you can’t have a democracy when impossible decisions need to be made. Too many emotions involved.” Little did she know that I was done making the impossible decisions on my own. The long night sitting at the kitchen table had allowed me time for silent reflection. It is where I realized that losing Evangeline was more than I could bear. Perhaps this silent vow makes me weak and selfish. Perhaps Terra should not have selected me as her player if she had any intention of winning. I would gladly wear those labels if it meant not losing Evangeline forever.
Lilly’s face settled on me. She wore the same unnerving mask that she wore through our first meeting in Paris, when I couldn’t tell if she was deciding to answer or attack. “I will not authorize any more missiles unless that is what Evangeline wants.”
“And I won’t want that,” Evangeline said, her piercing yellow eyes landing on me, as if evaluating my reaction.
“Then we will not be unleashing any more nuclear missiles,” I stated firmly. There was no missing the eye twitch, the grit of her teeth. Evangeline didn’t believe me. There was nothing I could do about that. I’d just have to prove it. If it took me a thousand life times, I would keep trying. I would never give up.
In a wide sweeping motion, I cleared the newspapers, the loose cutlery, a few random glasses—evidence that humans once lived here and participated in things that didn’t involve strategizing against the end of the world—off the table. Everything fell to the floor except a box of children’s cereal.
Dumping the colorful rings out, I dropped into a spare seat and began sorting the colors. I needed a visual plan. “Purple is Sentinel, green is sorceresses, yellow is army, orange are the wolves, and we,” I placed a pile of blue rings in the middle of the table, “are here.”
“We’re planning an attack with Froot Loops?” Bishop muttered, his natural wide smirk like a breath of air.
“No.” I locked eyes with Evangeline again. “We’re planning to end the war with Froot Loops. And we’re going to do it together.”
“How?” Caden slipped an arm around her waist. A reminder that they were a package deal, a warning that he wouldn’t let me hurt her again.
“Simple. We go in. We get rid of the fledglings buried within the subway tunnels. And then we kill every one of those sorceresses.”
And the Fates will never have a reach into our world again.
Chapter Twenty – The Fates
“She cannot do that!” A’ris released a screech that rippled the image pool, the player Sofie’s face shimmering before dissolving. “Can she?”
Incendia and Terra exchanged glances.
Terra’s player had provided them with years of entertainment, her volatile temper and wild emotions guiding her to act rashly, begging for their help time and time again. They gladly “helped,” giving her what she asked for while upping the excitement of the game. And, like the control-hungry creature that she was, she kept coming back to them.
But would she go so far as to kill their lifelines to this world by eliminating the many vessels remaining?
“It must not happen before the game has ended,” Terra confirmed with a clenched jaw. “Afterward … it does not matter. They will all be gone soon enough.” Without the sorceresses, the world was dead to them.
“They’ve been no use to us so far. They are afraid to ask for our help,” Incendia grumbled. All eyes shifted back to the faces in the image pool, congregated in a small, windowless room, discussing the possible whys for the bomb. They were the Fates most powerful conduits next to the player Sofie. “If they would just ask, we could perhaps stem this issue with my player before it becomes a real problem.”
Though the girl continued to advance with her abilities, she remained in the dark.
“And what if your player should win?” Terra began a casual stroll around the vessel containing the many worlds and universes within their realm. “Can we simply leave her to her own devices? Allow something like that to remain within our dominion?” Four sets of kaleidoscopic eyes returned to the image pool as the girl’s yellow eyes stared back at them.
No. They certainly could not. It disrupted their order of things.
The order that ensured the Fates remained on top.
Chapter Twenty-One – Evangeline
The enemy camp was just as Lilly had described it, right down to the wooden barricades and the never-ending row of heavy artillery surrounding the stadium.
Funny that I should think of it as an “enemy” camp. I hopped out of the back of the vehicle that we’d commandeered some miles back, my boots crunching against the compacted snow, flattened from countless tire treads. We were all working for a common goal—eradicate the last of the fledglings and save as many human lives as possible. But thanks to the witches and their Sentinel puppets, our strategy to achieve that skewed in different directions.
Namely, they wanted us all dead.
Another truck rolled in behind us, this one with three vampires and seven wolves in human form, dressed as military personnel. They would be our eyes and ears at the base.
We passed the processional of outbound emergency vehicles, the same endless line we’d passed on our way here, transporting thousands of injured people from the peripherals of the blast radius. I didn’t want to think about how many might not survive or what lay ahead for their recovery. Or demise.
The stadium was still intact, given its size and distance from the epicenter. Still, the charred signs and ash against the concrete walls proved that it had not escaped completely unscathed. Generators hummed, pumping electricity into the structure and to the giant emergency spotlights outside while crews worked on the transformers in the area.
Beyond the stadium, I saw the first hints of the true destruction to come. Burned-out residential areas, the houses now grimy hovels, empty of life, not one window remaining whole; charred trees, no longer recognizable for their type or true size; cars left sitting in the middle of the street.
Everything black and dismal. And dead.
I didn’t look any harder. If I did, I was sure I would find what I didn’t want to see.
The people who would not be climbing in trucks and whisked away.
We marched past the stadium where army and emergency workers waited for the go-ahead to proceed, countless languages mingling together. This catastrophe had drawn help from all over the world.
“Do you think anyone will notice that we don’t have the breathing apparatus hooked up?” Julian asked.
We could’ve fled through here and ran straight through to our end goal but this allowed us the opportunity to assess the threat—namely, the witches—and so we marched toward the front lines as any other human would. All except Max, who skulked within the shadows. He would come with us. I would never let him leave my side again.
“Dude, how would anyone notice?” Bishop asked.
Julian shrugged. “I don’t know. Always figured a person would sound like Darth Vader in one of these.”
Caden’s fist flew out to smack Bishop in the gut, cutting off his loud bark of laughter with a grunt. “They may not notice the lack of breathing but they’ll think laughing is a bit weird, so shut the hell up.”
“Shhh,” Mage warned as we passed a row of transport trucks. Unmarked silver trailers sat affixed to their backs. Each had a simple solid door on the side, reachable by a narrow flight of stairs. A man in full military fatigues ran up one of those sets, disappearing inside, a folder tucked under his arm.
“The command centers,” Lilly explained in a murmur. “The witches are in one of them. Now it’s a matter of figuring out which one.”
“That one, there.” I pointed
to the third on the end. The one with the faint pink glow radiating around it.
“They’re channeling,” Sofie confirmed. “They’re channeling an awful lot of magic.”
“Channeling for what?” My feet slowed as I focused intently. Inside those walls, a symphony of heartbeats raced, excited by something.
Sofie’s hand poked my back, prodding me forward. I peeked back and could almost see the fire in her green eyes, even behind the mask, as she glared at the long container. “For me. For magic being cast. That weave … it feels like a sensory spell.” I caught her silent curse. “It would be so easy to rid ourselves of them all right now.”
“It’s not the right time,” Mage warned. “There may be more here. We need Isaac and the others to locate them all. Fledglings first. Then we deal with the witches.”
“Amelie first,” Julian corrected.
Silence met his words, hanging between us like a thick fog. In all of our strategizing, the topic of Amelie had been glossed over. The building Amelie had most likely died in and the subway construction sites were only blocks apart. It would make sense that we confirmed survival—or otherwise—simultaneously.
Sofie shifted away from us, picking up her speed.
“Now this reminds me of Ratheus,” Caden murmured, reaching out to give my hand a squeeze before letting go. As desperate as I was to grasp his hand and refuse to let go, we’d agreed to specific rules of conduct while here. Along with Bishop’s boisterous laughter, affection did not make sense in this environment.
Mage had thought of everything.
*
The stadium sat far in the distance now. To the left and to the right as far as I could see, a wall of soldiers in hazmat suits and heavy-duty guns stood silent, their weapons trained on the mile or so of wreckage that lay between them and the Hudson River. Based on Lilly’s reconnaissance, the bridges had been destroyed and only the Holland Tunnel remained intact. Debris had been cleared off the road and now Humvees traveled toward it.
Right past crowds of fledglings.
Did they not see them?
And what were the fledglings doing? I studied the ones closest to us, their clothing tattered and dusty, as they clustered around tall, black barrels. There had to be a hundred or more such clusters, some crowded with fledglings, others with one or two.
“Blood traps,” Mage murmured as if answering my unspoken question. “Just watch.”
Scanning more closely, I spotted soldiers lying on top of the tanks, peering out through the scopes of guns that sat on metal stilts—too large to hold—sights trained on the clusters.
My ears caught the faint sound of a countdown. Three … two …
And then the darkness exploded with flashes of light as the snipers fired round after round of heavy artillery on the fledgling clusters. Bursts of flame erupted in the distance, the Sentinel-designed bullets proving their effectiveness.
In only seconds, the army had wiped out hundreds of fledglings.
“Not so helpless after all, are they?” Mage said, a hint of a smile in her tone. Such a rarity.
With these tactics, perhaps the army could take care of the majority of fledglings. Sure, some might get past but a few was nothing next to thousands. Maybe those who escaped would have a conscience. Our kind weren’t all vicious animals. Did we really need to go in at all?
Of course we did.
For closure.
“Ready?” Sofie called out.
Caden grasped my hand, giving me a tight squeeze as we all nodded, securing the guns strapped to our backs. It’d been smart thinking on Lilly’s part to confiscate them during her reconnaissance mission. We could use the weapons on any fledglings we might come across, making our job quick and easy.
“These soldiers heading in will be working from search grids. Stay clear of them. There will be Sentinel mixed in with them and they will have guns that can kill you. And keep your suits on. Otherwise you may be mistaken for a fledgling and shot. If anyone fires at us, we kill swiftly. No mercy. Do not stop for anything until we are past the tunnel. Follow me to …” Sofie’s instructions—a repeat of what we had already decided—faded into the background as an unnerving twinge caught my attention.
Like a sixth sense.
A warning, of someone watching us.
Without turning my head, my eyes searched faces and bodies in the vicinity through the tiny window of my mask. I saw no one that made me wary.
And yet I somehow knew in my gut that Viggo was near.
“Okay, let’s go!” Sofie’s voice kick-started my legs as we dashed out, moving too quickly for any human eye to capture.
I closed in on Caden as we ran through the Holland Tunnel and into destruction.
Chapter Twenty -Two – Sofie
I did this.
With each step, with each mile covered, I bore witness to the destruction caused by my order. The scene back at the military base was grim enough, but now we were facing a wasteland of toppled buildings, smoldering fires, and people who’d needed to find cover in order to survive.
And hadn’t.
Even at our speeds, even in utter darkness, I couldn’t put blinders on and ignore the corpses.
Still, I tried.
“Eve!” Caden bellowed behind me. I stopped and turned in time to see Evangeline veering off the street to a city bus parked on the side, pulling off her mask. She let it drop to the ground as she ripped open the doors and climbed in.
“What is she …” I muttered, turning back and cutting over, wary of the distant headlights. The military was cordoning off and sweeping across, section by section, and while they were one main street away and we were in obscurity, the last thing I wanted to do was attract attention.
It wasn’t until twenty feet away that I heard the small heartbeat and instantly knew.
“Oh, Evangeline.” I sighed. On the one hand, it was promising that she hadn’t lost her sense of compassion. On the other hand, there wasn’t much she could do for anyone here. If they survived the blast, they certainly wouldn’t survive the effects of radiation.
I was the last to reach the bus, Evangeline’s friends having made it perfectly clear that they were one unit that would not be separated. Max stood within the shadows, watching.
“Please convince her that we don’t have time for this, Caden!” I pleaded but he waved my protests away with a dismissive hand, his focus on her.
When Evangeline stepped out again, it was with a girl of about ten in her arms, her limbs and cheeks marred with burns, her hair matted with dried blood from numerous lacerations, likely from exploding glass. She was alive and alert, though clearly in shock.
“I found her hiding under the seat,” Evangeline explained, turning her attention to the girl. “What’s your name?”
“Susan.” The girl’s voice was scratchy, as if desperate for water.
Evangeline spied an unsightly wound on the girl’s forearm and my stomach tightened. Would this be the moment when the uncontrollable urges hit? Would that be the latest twist in the Fates’ sick game?
All around us, smoldering fires suddenly flared, flames sprouting from the ashes to dance and twirl in a mesmerizing dance. I glanced at Mage to see that the ancient vampiress had pulled off her mask. Her eyes were glued to Evangeline, wide like I’d never seen before. It wasn’t until the girl’s wounds began to pale and then fade that I clued in.
Evangeline had healed the girl.
Without the use of magic.
At least, without the use of my kind of magic.
“When I leave, you will not remember me,” Evangeline said in a commanding voice as she released Susan from her grip. The girl held her arms out, her mouth hanging open she took in her unblemished forearm. “You were in the basement of a building during the blast and just came out. Now, let’s get you to safety.” Scooping her up, Evangeline took off toward the very lights I wanted to avoid.
Dammit.
“That is not sorceress magic coursing through her,” Mag
e hissed as everyone took off after her. “There were no strands, no glow, no—”
“I know.”
“And if it is not sorceress magic, then …”
“What is it?” I finished for her.
“And how powerful is it?”
That was the question. What was Evangeline capable of?
Chapter Twenty-Three – Evangeline
We couldn’t just leave the poor girl to wander through the pitch-black streets, especially not when there was help so close by.
I heard Sofie’s shouts but I ignored her, knowing this wasn’t part of the plan. It was the right thing to do. Caden and the others tailed close behind, in case of trouble. I didn’t expect any. I’d drop the girl off with the next army vehicle and they could take over. That’s why the army was here.
To rescue survivors.
She weighed nothing and it took me all of ten seconds to track down a truck. I slowed before the headlights caught me, the Humvee coming to a squeaky stop. Beams of light suddenly hit us from atop the truck as several armed soldiers hopped off the back, their guns lowered but held as they ran around.
“I found her wandering the streets,” I hollered, a rash of butterflies suddenly stirring in my belly. There was no need to be nervous, given I was in full disguise and helping the girl—not killing her—and yet I knew that if there were any Sentinel in this group and they grew suspicious, this could set off alarms we didn’t need triggered. “She was hiding in a basement.”
“She’s covered in blood,” the soldier on the left said.
“Dried blood. Not hers, from the looks of it,” I was quick to point out.
Susan stood still, her hand gripping my arm as her eyes drifted to their guns, her heart racing.
“It’s okay. You’re okay now,” I soothed as Caden and the others stepped into the light. It drew the soldiers’ attention—and guns—in their direction. “They’re with me.” Only four figures in suits appeared. I assumed Mage, Sofie, and Lilly were hanging in the shadows with Max. That was fine. This would only take a minute.