Taras rushes forward, wielding white light.
Another light flashes from far to my right, but I know it’s not us—it’s them.
Esther’s shriek fills my ears, and I look around for her and Toivo. My heart pounds, and I see her as she backs up against a wall, her face pale as Zharat men fill the corridor. Toivo’s not with her. Her hands shake, her fingers curl into claw-like shapes.
I push forward, try to reach her—can’t see her. All I can see are angry faces and tattooed bodies, scarcely clad in scraps of leather, attacking my people.
No.
I sprint forward, throw white light at a Zharat man, feel everything inside me rise up, try to get out. My head thuds, too much energy. Someone screams something, and a blade flashes into my vision.
I duck, throw myself to the left. My hands catch the opposite wall. The wall where Esther was. But there are just men here now.
“How did they get in here?” someone yells.
“Time-jump!” I shout. “Has to be! We’ve lost time and—”
Toivo’s wails cut through the air. I turn, pain snaking through me. There. Esther, at the side. Corin’s with her, his arms wrapped around her. Bea’s right next to them, and she’s got Toivo. Her eyes are wide, and she indicates the way for Corin to lead Esther. Then they’re all moving backward, away from the men.
“Seven, help!”
Quinn’s plea unleashes my fury, and it pulls on my power. Several bolts of silver-white light shoot from my hands, zigzagging in unison.
The Zharat scream as they hit them, and then everyone else is screaming, moving, and I can’t see clearly enough, can’t concentrate. Because Quinn—she’s here, and that means…
I try to summon more power, try to send it forward, but there’s a deep thrumming in the base of my skull that throws fatigue over me in washes.
I surge forward, grab a Zharat man just as he tries to punch a girl from Melissa’s group. I haul him back, surprised at my own strength, and throw him down.
I catch sight of Viktoriya out of the corner of my eye, fighting Mart.
“There’s more of them!” Yani roars. “They’re everywhere!”
“Kill them all!”
“No!”
A flash of white light—from Elf maybe, I don’t know, can’t tell….
Something wet splatters over my back. My body jolts. A hand grabs my shoulders, fingers strong. I whirl around, nearly hit Corin. He’s back here?
“Get down!” He pushes me out of the way of another bolt of light—whose, I don’t know—and I taste blood at the back of my mouth. Then he moves away, reaching for Riley, Melissa’s grandson, who’s screaming and screaming and—
He doesn’t see the Zharat Seer to his left. He doesn’t see the light bulbing from the man’s hand. Deathly light. I know it in an instant. Corin’s not a Seer. He won’t survive it.
I scream at Corin, but my scream is absorbed by everything else going on, and I surge forward just as the beam of light shoots out toward Corin and—
I’m not going to get there in time. My hand lifts up, but my powers—I’m too late, should’ve sent it forward as soon as I saw and—
I blink.
Corin’s death and—
I close my eyes.
A shriek.
Not Corin’s.
Images flood me as I spring forward, and—
It’s Quinn. Quinn lying there. Corin behind her, his eyes wide, shocked.
“Quinn?” I touch her face, my power already transferring, and she’s breathing. She’s still breathing. Her own powers are on the surface of her soul—how she survived the attack and—
She saved him.
Saved herself? She knew that would happen? My head pounds, and the fight’s continuing, and then Quinn’s on her feet, panting, swaying as one of the reindeer herders moves her away.
“Seven!” Elf screams, and my gaze jolts toward him, and I see him and Taras are grouping together. Yani, Esther, Siora and Marina are behind them. Siora. Alive, still.
They’re making a wall, a Seer wall. But I can’t see Toivo… Where’s Toivo?
And Quinn, where is she now?
Nausea floods me as I surge forward—where, I don’t know—but I’m dragging Corin with me and—
A piercing shriek arrests me, and I turn, see Ru on the ground, a rapidly expanding pool of blood around him, and the Zharat man leaning over him, muscles bulging.
No.
I throw white light at the Zharat. Watch as he falls in slow motion, his breath stolen.
Crackling noises fill my ears, and I lunge forward, slipping in blood, try to grab Ru. But my fingers are slick with crimson life, and I can’t get a grip on him. I turn, and—
Melissa’s lying in blood, blond hair spiking out. The tattoo on her face is streaked with red. The bison, barely visible under it.
The bison.
The Zharat would think….
I’m moving, but I’m not. I can’t register it.
But then her blood’s on me, soaking my T-shirt and jeans.
Déjà vu fills me, like a bucket pouring into my soul. The same way I held my mother. The same….
No!
“Melissa?” I shake her, but her stomach’s cut in two, and the blood’s slick, and I think I can see her insides, and they’re moving like a wrongly beating heart.
“Melissa!”
She gurgles, fresh blood trickling out of her mouth. Behind me, there are more gunshots, more shouts.
Bea screams, and I hear Corin shouting. But their sounds are fuzzy, too far away.
A rasping sound escapes Melissa’s mouth. Then…nothing.
I press my hands over Melissa’s wound, don’t know if I’m supposed to do it, but I do. Because contact—I need contact.
White light flashes behind me, tries to distract me, but I won’t let it. Nothing can stop me, and I pour my magic into her. A river, a gush. Her bison tattoo watches me. I’m glad her face—her skull—is intact.
She doesn’t open her eyes.
She doesn’t look at me.
She doesn’t feed on my power.
She doesn’t take a breath.
She doesn’t, doesn’t, doesn’t.
No.
No.
No.
I refuse to believe I can’t save her. Because I should be able to. Something tells me I can.
Everything erupts inside me: one thousand lightning bolts that I pour into her. I can do it.
I will do it.
I’m screaming, because there are voices everywhere, and the world needs to hear me. I need all the power—need everything—and the faces filling the walls around me are shouting, and there’s more blood and death and—
“It’s her!” a woman shouts, and her voice is too loud, competing with mine.
Annoyance fills me, and I look up and—
A woman’s here. The woman with the loud voice. I both don’t know her and do know her.
Like the Zharat came here, so suddenly, but—
I turn my head.
The man with the shovel. Except he hasn’t got it now. But it’s him.
“You came to us from light and beauty and promised us a safe place,” a girl says, and I stare at her, everything stopping around me.
A safe place.
But this isn’t a safe place.
A hand grabs mine, tries to pull me away from Melissa.
But no! I can’t!
Can’t leave her!
“She’s gone.” Elf pants, wipes blood from his face, but it streaks, makes the purple scar there look darker. “You’ve got to leave her. We need you! We’ve got to fight these men. There are more female Seers, here, you’ve brought several. But they’re killing us. The Seers, and us who protect them. We have to stop them, else they’ll kill us all.”
All the Untamed. Here. Safe from the Enhanced. A place, just for us.
What we need. All we’ve ever wanted.
But not safe from each other.
Me
lissa.
I see her body as I run, and I’m not in control—I’m just running, following Elf. The world is a blur around me. All I can feel are my shoes slapping the floor, the stickiness of the blood on me, and the way everything pounds.
The main fight is ahead.
So many Zharat.
And not just the men.
Women, too, and children. So many survivors of the steam eruption. But they’re not fighting. Blue, green, and yellow dresses huddle together, whimpering, panic in their eyes. Their words twist past me.
A woman in orange shouts, tries to stop a Zharat man as he swings an axe around.
“Do we kill them all?” Elf’s eyes are on the group of women and children.
“No!” I yell. “The women aren’t….”
But my words get lost, and then the ground is shaking. A deep rumbling.
Panic fills me, and I turn, try to see, but everything is streaky. My ears pound a strange pressure, and I shout, but my words are stolen.
A spirit in front of me, fangs flashing.
So suddenly.
In here.
I look up, and they’re everywhere.
They’re inside. Not just the shell.
I scream, turn, catch a flash of blond hair and dark braids. Two Zharat children. Running, screaming.
I go for them, try to comfort them, but something booms behind me, and I lurch forward, my whole body flying. Flying through the air.
And the wall—
There’s a wall straight ahead. A stone wall.
No.
I lift my arms, brace myself for the impact—and it’s just like before.
I shut my eyes, heart pounding, and—
I go through the wall.
Through it?
What the hell?
I turn. I’m still flying, moving with the spirits. See faces looking at me. The other Untamed. Coldness wraps around me, whispers things to me, too many things, all too fast, and I can’t hear the words and—
Corin.
His face is in front of me.
I don’t understand what’s happening.
Then…then there’s nothing.
I see Raleigh. He’s in front of me.
I know it’s not real, because we’re nowhere. There’s darkness around us, and something’s providing a light source, because our faces are lit up, but I can’t work out what it is.
There is a silver thread linking the two of us, from our chests. One thread.
He smiles, changes the angle of his head enough so I see myself in his mirrors. I look different. So different. The power bank, the Sarrs inside me, has changed me.
I’m becoming all of us.
“I will find you, Shania,” Raleigh whispers. “I can find you.”
I wake with a jolt, cold, damp grass beneath me. A howling wind around me. Leaves whisper.
I will find you. I can find you.
Because he couldn’t before? Because we were hidden in a time-pocket. But now we’re not and—
The same timeline. It has to be. Confirmation? We’re in the present day—whatever day that is. My head pounds, I can’t think.
I turn and look—
I’m outside.
Outside of the settlement, outside of the spirit-dome. And the spirits are the walls again, only the walls.
I’m outside.
“Seven?”
I look up.
Corin’s here. Brushing grass and dirt from his clothes. He’s a few feet away, and the forest looks darker behind him, even though I know it’s the same plants that are inside the settlement. But out here, everything looks different…heavier…like the air’s dripping danger onto all it can touch.
Corin turns and looks at the dome. Color drains from his face, then he’s running.
“Esther? Esther!” he screams. “We’ve got to get her out of there! Shit, my gun! Where’s my gun?”
I jump to my feet. Through the spirit barrier, in glimpses, we see them. The fight rages on, and I see Esther’s face, her fear. Toivo’s in her arms now, and Yani’s right behind her. Bea’s there too, now holding Riley, Melissa’s grandson.
A Zharat points a gun at Siora.
No.
My heart thuds.
No.
I run at the spirits. Got to get back in. Have to get back in. We can’t leave them in a fight like this!
Corin and I, we should be in there. All the Untamed should.
The sky cracks. A flash of gold in front of me. A spirit, all angles and nothing else.
We keep the future safe, the spirit says.
The future? I gulp, look around, a strange pressure in my chest.
You are not in the future.
Me and Corin.
Because we’re in Death’s Realm? Both of us? We’re still on track, doing things right?
Corin shouts, and I turn to the right, see him. Spirits lick out toward him, and he’s running at them—at the barrier—yelling, his face red.
I lunge forward.
Too late.
A spirit wraps around him, enclosing him in a silver rope. Something sizzles. He screams.
You don’t belong in here!
I summon my powers, attack the spirit, take away its autonomy, command it to leave him alone, but more are coming. My heart pounds, there are too many. Far too many.
I glance back at the dome, try to see Siora inside, and Quinn—but I can’t.
No one else gets in! This is the future.
Corin screams Esther’s name, and I grab him, pull him back. A rope-spirit burns me too, and my flesh frizzles. The smell of burning wraps around us, pungent. I cough, feel fizzing sensations in my lungs as I drag him backward, put space between us and the spirits. To my right, the leaves of a banana tree move too fast for it to be the wind.
Corin breathes ruggedly, looks at me.
“We can’t get back in.” I shake my head, pain in my neck. “We’re not in the future anymore.”
“We can’t leave Esther! Not with them, we have to do something!”
He tries to fight me, break free of my grip, but I pull him back, put every ounce of strength into keeping him here.
“The others are there! Our daughters! And Elf, Bea, Yani, Taras—”
“But they don’t know what happened to her!”
“They’ll be there for her, regardless. We protect each other, we always do. And Bea noticed the way Esther reacted to the Zharat, didn’t she? Esther will tell her—or someone else—if she needs to. We can’t get back in there.” My voice breaks a little. “Corin, we can’t. I’m sorry.”
He clenches his fists, breathing hard. “No.” His face is red, and tears glisten in his eyes.
“We have to concentrate on what we can do.” I take his hand, turn him toward me more. “And all the Untamed are in there. The Zharat are outnumbered. It’ll be okay.” I swallow hard, hope that it’s true. “It will. She will be okay.”
He looks over his shoulder, back toward Esther and the others. “Is that… That’s everyone in there? All the Untamed?”
“Yes. But we’re out here. We’ve got to end this war now. The Enhanced can’t get to our people. The spirits won’t let them.” And, as long as neither of us kills an Enhanced, the Untamed will remain alive. “We have to act now.”
Corin straightens up, bares his teeth for a moment. Ragged anger radiates from him. “How do we do it? We’ve got no weapons—my Glock, but it…it’s stayed in there. And if we can’t kill the Enhanced, how do we get rid of them? You can’t take away all their addiction, Sev, that won’t work. There are billions of them.”
Three’s voice comes back to me. Use us.
It’s what I was always going to do.
“The spirits.” I’m breathless. “They’re our army. Raleigh has only cursed the Untamed—because I formed channels with them, and he used the connections. He hasn’t cursed the spirits. They can kill with no repercussions.”
I turn and look at the spirits around the settlement. Thousands
of them, with gold threads weaving around them, strengthening them, making an impenetrable wall, sealing them into place.
My eyes widen. They can’t leave.
If one leaves, the wall has a weak spot. A place the Enhanced can get in. Because the Enhanced are going to want to. Of course they are. They want all of us converted—or dead. Not Untamed. Not the enemy. Not a threat.
These spirits can’t be our army. Not without letting the Enhanced in.
Yet Three said….
I frown, then I look at the spirits. “These are all the degenerated ones, aren’t they?”
I peer closer, trying to see a human arm, a leg, a head. Anything that remotely resembles the human form.
Like Three.
He was humanoid still.
And then I’m running, ignoring Corin’s questions. I run far to the left, around the settlement, see the vague shapes of the Untamed inside.
But there are no humanoid spirits here.
“Sev!”
I look behind, see Corin panting, stopping, hands on his knees.
“What are you doing?”
“There are other spirits out there,” I shout, and my voice is gleeful. I’m gleeful. It feels wrong to feel like this. After everything. But I do. Because I know.
I know what to do.
“We have to find them.” My pulse is fast, too fast. “Find all the other spirits. And when we do, I’ll lead them. I’ll ask them to fight for us, like they did before. They’ll be our army, and I’ll control them. They’ll kill the Enhanced. All of them. And then we win.”
My smile grows wider.
“But where do we find them?” Corin frowns, glances back again. I know he’s trying to see Esther.
“The Noir Lands.” I step forward. “If there are spirits anywhere, they’ll be there.”
Corin’s face falls.
But I smile, continue smiling. There’s no danger there now—not from the Zharat.
I grab Corin’s hand and summon my Seer-travel.
It’s so soon—the end of the War of Humanity. It’s coming. I can taste it.
The land is bleeding, the air screaming.
But I’ve never felt more alive as I look around the jungle. Leaves swirl toward me, in swarms, like they’re alive, and rain pelts down. So much rain it sends red mud swirling over our feet, diving down the mountainside.
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