by Lauren Mansy
“Madame is planning to take over the Realms. If we don’t stop her, she’ll destroy all of this,” I say, motioning around us. “Bray thinks Porter is manipulating me to protect Madame, so the Shadows won’t fight alongside the Woodland army. Porter, Felix, and their soldiers are trying to cripple Madame in Craewick before she has time to gather all her Minders, but they’re only a distraction. They don’t have the numbers to defeat her. I always thought she was indestructible, but you can show her otherwise.”
Even in the midst of these odds, hope surges inside me.
The day I received the auction notice, I was broken and fragile. Alone. But standing here with Greer, I feel a strength more powerful than I’ve ever owned take hold of me. But it runs far deeper than me. Its roots are in my mother and Ryder, in Reid, Porter, Felix, Beau, and my father. And I want the people of the Realms to finally be given the chance to find this kind of strength too.
Greer looks past me at the others safe and protected in the Maze, his eyes hardening before he touches my face. “You’ve changed, Jules, in more ways than one.”
“My variation?” I ask quietly, and he nods. “Something happened to me on the day I betrayed you. I went to Blare to try to protect Mother . . . Penn followed me there. The Minders swarmed us, and Penn,” I take in a breath, “died in my arms. After that I was unreadable.”
His hand tenses on my cheek. “Was there a flash of light when Penn died?”
My knees buckle. “Yes. Why?”
Greer pauses. “When I see a person, I sense their energy as a single unit, which I’m able to gather and shift to another. When the Gift passes through me, it looks like a bright light, but I don’t keep it long enough that it becomes a part of me. Ever since you were little, your Gift was stronger than most, and I always suspected you might’ve inherited part of my variation. But yours works through touch.”
“Are you saying I took Penn’s Gift?” I ask, and he nods slowly. Wide-eyed, I glance at Reid, remembering he said he felt Penn’s closeness in some way. Was it because of me?
“Penn could duplicate memories, so it’s only logical that your energy is even greater than before. This unreadability,” Greer gently touches my forehead, “is your thoughts moving too rapidly for even a Sifter to latch onto. Protecting your mind is the combination of yours and Penn’s Gifts working together, two variations that formed something new.”
I lean against the balcony to keep myself upright. How is it, even in death, Penn is still watching out for me? “I think I can use his variation too,” I tell Greer, remembering how I accidentally gave Reid the memory of Penn’s death. “I can share memories without losing the original.”
“A powerful Gift,” he murmurs.
As I look up at him, his lips aren’t smiling but his eyes are. I’ve always loved Greer, but he’s never been sweet like my mother or kind like Porter and Felix. He was the leader of the Shadows, our unfailing protector. Even after all these years, he’s still embodying what Porter encouraged me to find, an emotion that still hasn’t left my father’s face—peace.
Tears sting my eyes as I think about all we’re about to do, exposing Greer as an adversary worthy of defeating Madame.
My father pulls me closer, whispering near my ear, “Madame already set out to destroy every piece of me and failed. This time will be no different.”
I wrap my arms around him.
“Oh, Jules, I love you,” he says quietly.
Bit by bit, I feel myself becoming whole once again. “And I love you, Father.”
CHAPTER
20
It’s Auction Day.
Greer, Reid, and I reach the fray of Craewick just after sunrise. Smoke burns my eyes as black clouds billow above us from the direction of the square—a sure sign Porter’s attack is underway. But what kind of evil has Madame unleashed to retaliate?
We have three goals: to subdue the Minders before their link to Madame is broken, to save my mother, and for Greer to steal Madame’s Gift. The Woodland army is tasked with the first. The closer we get to Craewick, I’m terrified for Porter and Felix. Will Madame fight alongside her Minders? Or has she gone into hiding, ensuring her safety while manipulating her puppet soldiers? They’ll do anything, kill anyone at her command. But where is she giving those orders from?
“Within eyesight,” Greer told us before we left the Maze last night. “Her connection will be strongest if she can see what her Minders are doing.”
“You think she’ll be out in the open?” I asked.
“Well-guarded but yes. She won’t leave the fate of her city to chance.”
A terrible thought had hit me. “The asylum is the highest point of Craewick. It overlooks the entire square.”
Greer met my eyes. “If your mother is still there, I’ll find a way to draw Madame away before I take her Gift.”
“We’ll find a way,” I told him.
“No, Jules, you’ll stay here with Beau. He’ll need help transporting the compound to Craewick after this battle is over.” His face hardened as I opened my mouth to argue. “I lost you once. Don’t make me go through that again.”
“Don’t make me either! This is just as much my fight as it is yours,” I said, but Greer’s expression didn’t change. “I still have Porter’s map. If you try to leave me here, I’ll find my own way to Craewick. If something happens to you, Father—” My voice broke. “My place is beside you.”
It was the first time I’d ever raised my voice to him. I braced myself for him to lock me up in one of the Maze’s prison cells to keep me far away from Craewick, but his eyes softened as he touched my face.
“You’ve grown up, Jules. You look just like your mother, especially in that cloak.”
I placed my hand on top of his. “So I’ve been told.”
Brushing the memories away, I follow close behind Greer as we pass through the fray of Craewick. It’s nearly deserted, save for a few elderly roaming about. Greer tells them to lock themselves in their homes. I’m hoping the reason my neighbors aren’t here is because they’ve sought shelter deep in the woods.
When I think of Madame’s hatred of the Ungifted, I have a terrible feeling that isn’t the case. She’s brainwashed countless Gifted soldiers. Manipulating the Ungifted would be almost too easy. What kind of twisted use could she come up with for them? And if we don’t stop Madame today, it’s not just those in the Realms who’ll suffer but the Ungifted Tribes too.
I glance over at Reid. Beau gave him more of the compound, but between Bray’s beating, hiking through Kripen, and crashing into the side of that cave, he’s still not his old self. But his eyes are clear and alert. He’s ready for this fight. I see it in the tenseness of his arms holding his bow, in the fearlessness I’ve sensed since the moment we met.
Closer to the square, the clash of metal and the screams are deafening. I don’t see any Minders, but masses of people pack the alleys surrounding the square. Most are Hollows, bloody and pale as they flee from their once well-guarded homes. Reid stays close behind me as I fight to keep up with Greer, pushing against them.
The shops around us are all in flames. Thick smoke swirls out of shattered windows and fallen roofs. My lungs burn as I struggle to catch a breath, the air dark with soot and ash. Embers singe our clothes as we press against an alley wall.
I look out over the square at hordes of battling soldiers. For every Woodland Minder, their arms banded in purple, there are dozens wearing Stone Realm black or Desert Realm red. No blue for the Coastal Realm. I frantically search every face for Ryder’s. Did something happen to her on the way, or has Sorien refused to help?
My father clutches my cloak and pulls me into his arms. “Whatever happens to me, get your mother out of Craewick,” he says.
I nod against his chest, not sure how I’ll ever be able to leave him. But I know my mother needs me more than Greer does.
He moves to the front of the alley, peering around the corner with his hand up to give us a signal to move.
Reid’s already staring at me when I meet his gaze. “You blame yourself for what happened with my brother, but I want you to know that I don’t. He loved you, Etta, and that never changed, right up until the moment he died.”
A tear slips down my cheek as I smile at him. My head fills with warmth as sparks of his memory, the one I accidentally stole outside the Maze, flutter across my mind. I still have this memory, but his feelings were powerful enough to create another.
I might not have the chance to tell her Penn’s death wasn’t her fault. That memory showed me she loved him as much as he loved her, and I understand why.
These past five days, I’ve seen a girl who owns the kind of strength that can never be bought. And if I never get to say it, I hope she knows I wish I did.
“This,” Reid points out of the alley, “is a fight that’ll honor Penn’s memory. And there’s nowhere I’d rather be than fighting beside you and your father.”
Taking his hand, I slip Penn’s bracelet off my wrist and slide it onto his. I’m terrified Reid is saying goodbye but in the midst of this, threads of hope appear. Hope for Craewick, hope for us, hope that all the bad that’s happened the past four years has somehow led to this moment—a chance for something better once the worst is over.
Reid closes his hand around mine and draws it close to his heart.
“Now!” Greer yells.
Bolting out of the alley, we veer toward the asylum.
Steel scrapes against steel, creating a sharp hiss that makes me want to cover my ears. But swords aren’t the only weapons. I leap over dozens of convulsing bodies on the ground, their muscles in spasms from their minds being read too quickly.
Someone throws a brick at the treasury.
I duck as the windows shatter, spraying glass onto the street.
Dozens of Collectors rush out. Gone are their smug expressions, their lavish clothes now wrinkled and bloody. One is sprawled out on the treasury steps, her limbs sticking out at odd angles. Blood flows from her nose. Her pupils are deathly white.
“Jules!” calls Greer, but I’ve lost sight of him and Reid in the swarm of Minders.
An arrow whizzes past, just missing my head. I stoop low as the archer—a Minder as young as Ryder—reloads. Swiping a thick shard of glass off the ground, I throw it at his thigh.
As he falls, I whip around, slamming into another Minder. I struggle against her as she clutches my arms. Blood blooms like a flower on her white shirt. Her cloudy eyes roll back into her head. We crash to the ground, the metals on her uniform rattling as she pins me on the blood-soaked street.
Gritting my teeth, I try to heave her off when I catch sight of her tattoo.
Ungifted and dressed like a commander?
I cry out when I see the dead man beside me, reaching out toward his fallen son. Both lived in the fray. His hands are calloused and rough, still covered in dirt like they always were when he returned from the fields. They were farmers and yet here they are, dressed like soldiers.
I let out a scream. I can almost hear Madame threatening the Ungifted, ordering them from the safety of the fray to the square. Once they’re in a Stone Realm uniform, how can the Woodland Minders tell the difference between an innocent or a foe? Fury gives me the strength to heave this poor woman off me, then Greer pulls me to my feet.
I call out Reid’s name as I look at the alleys winding around the square, packed with soldiers. Their faces are white with terror, many covered in blood. Panic rises up inside me. I see flashes of black and red, of Stone and Desert soldiers slicing through the Woodland army. They’re like bees rushing out from a hive, more and more billowing into the square as if their numbers are endless.
And if Greer dies here, there’ll be no one left to stop Madame.
I’m jerked off my feet when a Craewick Minder tries to wrench me away from Greer, but Father doesn’t let me go until the Minder collapses.
All around us, soldiers clutch their chests or their heads, falling to the ground before they get close to us.
Greer’s breathing hard, sweat trickling down his face, but I’ve never seen him look more alive. He’s stealing memories so quickly these Minders don’t stand a chance.
I swing my bow off my back as a commander with bright gold flecks in her eyes barrels toward him.
She plunges her knife into Greer’s arm.
In a flash, Greer pulls it out, but she jumps back before he can stab her.
I nock my last arrow and fire at her leg.
When the Sifter falls, Greer cracks his elbow down on her temple and knocks her out.
But there are still too many and we’re only two.
I spy Reid near the auction stage, fighting through a group of Minders to get to us. I scream as a soldier behind him lifts her sword. But before she can slam it across Reid’s skull, the tip of an arrow pokes out from her heart.
It isn’t until the Minder drops that I see who saved him.
Bray.
With his army of Shadows behind him.
CHAPTER
21
As Minders come between us, Bray takes them out one-by-one.
A woman with a bloodied knife crumbles to the ground as she charges him.
Pulling a knife from his boot, Bray slits a Minder’s kneecaps before knocking a sword from the soldier’s hands and driving it into his chest.
The area around his eyes is fiery red from the blinding powder and he’s bloody from this battle, but there’s a difference about Bray from when we last saw him in the Mines. Something familiar I recognize from a childhood spent together. There’s a crack in his hardness, a flicker of what I always admired about him—his loyalty to Greer, Cade, and the Shadows.
Reid rushes up beside me.
I clutch his arm, searching for any sign that he’s injured but find none. His eyes widen on my stained tunic before I tell him the blood isn’t mine.
Bray meets Reid’s stare, then mine. “For Cade, Joss, and Penn,” he shouts.
“For our family,” Reid yells back.
“For our family,” I repeat, looking around us. “Some of the Ungifted are dressed like commanders. Don’t kill them!”
With a nod, Bray glances at Reid. “Get her out of here.”
Reid wraps his arm around me, pulling me toward the outskirts of the square as more Shadows rush in.
“Greer,” I scream. “We can’t leave without Greer!”
“He’ll find us,” Reid says, tightening his grip.
Some of the Shadows are dragging the Hollows out of the alleys and knocking out the Ungifted dressed like Minders. The others are fighting with such strength that the soldiers are forced to retreat. It’s an awesome sight to see how confused these Minders are, thinking they’d won only to be blindsided by an army they didn’t know existed.
The troops are quickly realigning when I spot Greer approaching Bray. I let out a cry of relief when I see he isn’t hurt.
There’s proudness in Greer’s eyes as he looks at Bray, a respect deeper than a mentor and protégé but that of a father and a son. He puts his hand on Bray’s shoulder, drawing him closer before Bray is swallowed up by the fight.
Minutes later, Greer, Reid, and I push against the people scurrying in and out of the asylum.
The first floor is mayhem. Not a nurse in sight and no one keeping order. Soldiers swarm the patients like flies, ripping memories from their minds.
I watch a boy strangling a woman until Greer knocks him out. Still, her chest heaves up from the bed. Her eyes bulge as a terrifying laugh flies out of her throat.
Once up the stairs, we’re forced to slow down because of the bodies on the floor. It’s disgusting to see these patients crumpled like trash, abandoned by the nurses who pledged to protect them. I want to clean their bloodied lips and put them back in their beds, but most are already dead. Like poor Baldwin. His white, lifeless eyes are wide open, a look of anguish on his pale face.
A shadow moves behind the curtain near my mother’s bed.
Greer swipes the knife off his belt and nods at me.
I grasp the thin fabric and rip the curtain open.
Her back toward us, Madame stares out the window overlooking her burning city. The auction stage far below is up in flames. An explosion rocks the asylum’s foundation, but she doesn’t flinch.
What surprises me more than seeing Madame is that my mother is still in her bed. She looks unharmed, her face molded in the same expressionless position it’s held for four years. But today, her condition comforts me. She knows nothing of the turmoil around her. Not yet, anyway.
I want to run to her, but Reid puts his arm in front of me as Greer approaches Madame.
“I’ve been waiting for you,” Madame says in a cool, soft tone. She still has her back to us, but I have a feeling if we shot an arrow, she’d be quick enough to catch it. “Father, mother, and daughter, all reunited in this very room. How poetic.”
My entire body tenses. How did Madame discover that Greer is my father? The only people who knew the truth were far away from Craewick the whole time I’ve been gone, except for . . . I glance at my mother.
“Let Gwen go,” Greer says in a voice lower than I’ve ever heard from him.
“And why would I do that?” Madame slowly turns, the flecks in her eyes ablaze. Her head tips to one side as her gaze meets mine.
I clench my jaw at the slight raise of her eyebrows, at how she makes me feel as if she’s reading my every thought.
Madame angles toward Greer. “There’s more strength in my army than the Woodland soldiers and the Shadows combined. I own a power greater than you’ll ever know.” She has a knife at my mother’s throat before we have time to react. “But your Gwendolyn is the only thing I ever needed to defeat you.”
Greer steps forward, but when the knife draws a drop of blood on my mother’s neck, he stops.
“No, no. Not so close,” says Madame lightly. “I know all your secrets, Greer, but shall I tell you how I discovered them? I would’ve destroyed Gwendolyn’s mind long ago, but she’s proven to be rather useful to me.”
