He cracks a small grin and lifts his sword. But not high. Not really. He knows he’d lose in a second if I was being serious. He’s just waiting for me.
I have to decide. I can’t keep wasting time here play-attacking him when my friends are fighting for their lives all over the battlefield. I can’t keep putting this off forever. Come on, Al. Choose.
I point my halberd at him. His expression doesn’t change.
“I’m asking for your surrender,” I say loudly, so anyone around us who might be listening can hear. To my surprise, a few people do turn around—mostly rebels, but once the Order members fighting them realize what’s happening, they pause, too. “Put down your weapon and I’ll let you live.”
Gabriel watches me with something between amusement and confusion. But then his eyes flick around us and take in the people watching, and something must occur to him, because his expression suddenly sharpens. He looks at me again and straightens. His sword clatters to the ground as he raises his hands. “I surrender,” he says. “This isn’t a war I can stand behind any longer. Not after learning the truth about the Council and knowing of the riots on Nytes’ behalf. I can’t believe in this fight.”
The metallic clash of battle around us stops.
“Gabriel’s surrendered!”
“He … he doesn’t believe in this war?”
“If Gabriel stops using his gift, we’re—”
“They’re saying Cal’s surrendered, too—”
“If Cal and Gabriel both gave up, then—”
“Gabriel gave up?”
All of a sudden, the rebels around us start dropping their weapons. They lift their hands and announce their surrender. Some of them even kneel.
Ha. How’s that for buying time?
The Order members around us look to me, and I realize I need to take control of the situation—quickly.
I raise my halberd above me and shout as loud as I can, “Rebels who are surrendering, drop your weapons and gather around me. So long as you don’t try anything funny, I’ll guarantee your lives.”
As a bunch of rebels head toward me, their friends who haven’t stopped fighting watch and go pale. More and more drop their weapons to join their yielding friends.
I can’t believe how well this is working. I look to Gabriel, thinking he’ll be put out by the rebels’ loss here, but he just looks relieved. And then I get it.
“So this is your way of trying to protect them,” I say quietly. “Can’t say I disapprove.”
He cracks a tired grin. “Well, I’m glad to have your approval, Alary.”
“Al,” I say as word spreads through the fighting crowds that my brother and dozens of other rebels are surrendering. “I go by Al now.”
36
JAY
SOMETHING HAS HAPPENED. Some message is spreading through the rebels, and more and more of them are throwing down their weapons in surrender. Their presences ripple with defeat.
Pride swells within me as I hear that Cal and Gabriel have surrendered. Erik and Al did it. They managed to defeat their targets, and even without having to kill them—and it’s having exactly the effect we hoped it would: panic, confusion, and surrender are spreading throughout the rebels’ ranks. Of those on their knees, no one appears as though they’re about to get back up. Their spines are bent in defeat. Their weapons are too far from them to easily retrieve. They’ve truly given up.
But not all of them. The fighting continues, and as I risk taking my attention from what’s directly in front of me and our group, my eyes catch on Peter fighting, alone, some distance away. My heart races when I can’t find Lai anywhere near him. Weren’t they together? What happened? Where is she?
More immediate alarm presses in when I identify who it is Peter’s fighting. Devin. The murder-hungry rebel who killed Paul.
Time feels as though it slows. I don’t know where Lai is. I need to find her—but she told me to help Peter, to protect him. And I promised I would. Please, Jay. This means everything to me. There’s no one else I’d trust this to.
When I made that promise, I didn’t think it’d involve choosing between going to her side and staying by his. I thought we’d all be able to stick together. I thought I could protect them both. But I can’t. I don’t even know where Lai is right now, and the longer I hesitate, the farther Peter is pushed back.
Choose. You have to choose.
My grip tightens on my throwing knives.
Peter trips over a fallen rebel as he’s dodging Devin’s blows. He hits the ground, hard.
“I’ll be back!” I shout to the others around me, but I don’t have time to wait for their response.
I reach Peter and Devin just as Devin starts to bring his curved blade down on Peter.
I throw one of my knives at the dead center of Devin’s chest.
He swats my knife out of the air with his sword.
Peter takes the chance to gain a little distance. His breaths fall heavy. We share a look and nod. No going back now. I’ll have to hope we can finish this quickly and then find Lai.
I begin to circle Devin as Peter comes around his other side.
The rebel laughs, a sound that lives on the other side of sanity. “You think you can win against me if there’re two of you? Fine. Bring it on!” The glee in his eyes makes me sick.
I charge, a knife ready in each hand. I feint to his left, and when he dodges, I drop and aim a kick to his ankles. He easily dodges the blow, but Peter comes up behind him with his daggers.
Devin laughs as he alternately dodges each of our attacks with ease, even when we’re both going at him. “That’s all you’ve got?” he asks. “Weak.” He evades another hit. “Weak!” Another. “Let me show you how it’s done.”
As I dodge his strike, he grabs my upper arm with his free hand. Sudden pain shoots through my whole body. It’s so unexpected and sharp I can’t hold back my scream. Peter rushes in to try to help, slashing at Devin’s side, but the rebel merely whirls around and throws me into Peter. Peter quickly changes his attack into a motion to catch me, then backs up so we’re out of immediate range.
However, Devin doesn’t wait for either of us to recover. Pain continues to course through my body like electricity. I can barely stand, let alone help as Peter dives in to cover me. What happened? Is this his gift? It hurts. I can’t breathe. Make it stop.
And above it all, Devin keeps laughing.
Peter is too slow and sustains a long gash along the length of his arm. He shouts in pain and backs away, toward me, but Devin is right after him. I grit my teeth against the effects of Devin’s gift as I run in to cover Peter. My whole body still hums with electric hurt. But I can’t stand the thought of seeing Peter killed right in front of me, of watching another friend fall—and after I told Lai I’d do my best to protect him. I won’t fail either of them.
Peter’s ragged breaths ring in my ears as I match Devin blow for blow. But he’s faster than I am and quick to overpower me. I’m on the ground before I’m even fully aware of it. Pain burns through my leg—but it’s a different pain from before. A gash cuts across my calf, deep and burning. When I try to stand, I fall right back down.
Devin stands in front of me. I swing my knife at him, but he kicks it out of my hand with a laugh.
I clench my fists. I’m sorry, Lai. I couldn’t follow you to the end of this war after all.
With a fire in his eyes, Devin lifts his sword to deal the final blow, but Peter rushes in to block the rebel’s blade with his dagger. It looks like a toy in comparison.
“Peter, don’t!” I shout. He won’t be able to hold off Devin for long. He needs to get out of here, not try to protect me. If I can’t stand, I’m already dead. There’s no reason for both of us to die.
“No!” Peter shouts right back. His eyes burn more fiercely than Al’s as he pushes against Devin, even as the rebel’s blade gets closer and closer to Peter’s collarbone. “I’m not going to watch any more of the people I care about die right in front of
me!”
“Then I’ll just have to kill you first.” Devin laughs again, and I know his sword is about to toss Peter’s small blade aside.
But then he stops laughing. The sound turns into a gasp, then a choking cough as he looks down at the sword suddenly sprouting through his chest from behind. In an incredibly strange moment that seems to last a year, we all look behind him.
I expect to see one of the Order members, maybe even Lai herself, appearing to save her old friend. Instead, one of the rebels’ leaders stands there holding the blade piercing through Devin. The one with the gift over ice, Joan.
We all stare at her in shocked silence.
“The hell have you done?” Devin asks, but his voice comes out sputtering and wet.
“You have long been a disgrace to us,” Joan says. Her voice is tinged with disgust. “Your love of violence, of pain—you’ve never fought for peace for the gifted. Only for yourself and the chance to kill. You should have been judged a long time ago.”
Devin tries to twist around and slash at Joan, but the sword impaling him keeps him stuck in place.
Joan twists her sword and Devin screams. I think I’m going to be sick. “And that,” she says quietly, “was for killing Paul.”
Recognition flashes across Peter’s face at the same time I remember the rebels’ first ambush, back when we were still with the military. She was the rebel Paul had been head over heels for before everything fell apart.
As Joan rips her sword out of Devin and lets him fall to the ground, Peter snaps out of his shock and attempts to help me up. We back away as Joan watches Devin’s last breaths contemptuously. I think he spits what sounds like a threat or an insult at her, but whatever he says, it doesn’t matter. I see the moment the light leaves his eyes for good.
Peter and I watch Joan cautiously. Peter holds one of my arms over his shoulder—the sole reason I can stand right now as I leave any weight off my injured leg. Even if this rebel didn’t have a powerful gift, even if she wasn’t incredibly strong according to Erik, she’d have no problem killing both of us so long as Peter refuses to abandon me. I almost tell him he needs to leave me and run for it, but when I recall the look in his eyes as he attempted to hold back Devin, I know the words would fall on deaf ears. I say nothing.
“This isn’t how it was supposed to be,” Joan says quietly. She looks to the hilt of her sword, fingers gripped tight around it. Blood drips down them. “This isn’t the war I wanted to fight.”
She looks at us and I ready my knife, knowing it will be impossible to fend off any incoming attack but refusing to go down without a fight.
Joan tosses her sword on the ground between us. “I surrender.”
37
LAI
IT DOESN’T TAKE long for me and Ellis to find each other again. We separated when our two armies came together, but I knew we would have to face off eventually as the leaders of our groups. And because of our history. She had to know, too.
It’s not like the ambush, when she didn’t know it was me and I was too consumed by my emotions to face her properly. This time is different. This time is the last—and we both know it.
I swing my spear around the blade of her sword, but it doesn’t have the same force the move used to contain since I can only use one arm to maneuver it. The strength and precision of it is half what I intended. Ellis easily slides her blade out of the way.
She ducks under my spear and brings her sword around at my side, but I jump back. At least I didn’t lose a leg. My ability to move freely and dodge are still the same. And since I only need to stall until the military gets here, it doesn’t matter if my hits can’t connect. So long as I can keep this going, it’ll be our win in the end.
Ellis keeps coming and I keep dodging. Around us, though, things have started changing. The shouts of battle have shifted to ones of surrender and questions.
“Cal and Joan gave up?”
“Gabriel’s finished—his gift—are the effects gone?”
“Is it true Devin is dead?”
“Over half the east side has surrendered!”
I take these in as best I can while fighting Ellis. I can tell she’s listening, too.
“You should give up,” I say as I bring the shaft of my spear up to block her next hit. “You can’t win. Your allies are already surrendering.”
“I don’t give up.” True to her word, nothing about her has dimmed since news started spreading about her closest friends’ surrender. If anything, her hurt at their apparent betrayal has only made her fiercer. “Even if I have to fight alone, I will fight.”
I have to give way under the pressure of her sword and fall back. She follows.
I feel the gazes of the two captains I asked to back me up in this fight. But they won’t move unless I signal for them to, or it looks like I’m going to be killed. Ellis is too strong—I don’t want to put them in harm’s way if I don’t need to. There’s at least a chance she’ll hesitate before finishing me off. My friends? None. And I don’t want to lose anyone else if I can help it.
Her blade scrapes off the shaft of my spear as I deflect another attack, but it nearly makes me lose my grip. Fear lights my chest for a moment before I manage to get myself back under control.
I need to stall. If I can distract her, it could make an opening—or at least make her lose focus enough that she won’t find an opening against me.
“This brings me back,” I say as I thrust my spear at her chest. She easily sidesteps it and comes swinging at me, but I spin out of the way, to her side. “It’s just like when you taught me how to fight.”
“You’ve certainly improved since then.”
I catch her sword along my shaft. “I remember I originally wanted to learn how to use a sword—I thought it was the coolest weapon. You’re the one who convinced me the double-headed spear would suit me better. And you were right.”
“Obviously.” Almost despite herself, a half-smile twitches on Ellis’s lips. Good. Keep going, just like this. “I knew you’d be better with a versatile weapon. It’s just like you.”
I nearly falter. But I tilt my shaft so her blade slides away from me. I swing one of the spearheads at her neck, but she shifts her sword up to block it.
“Do you know why I thought the sword was the coolest weapon?” I’m only supposed to be stalling for time, but the words catch in my throat. “Because you use it.”
Now Ellis is the one who hesitates—but not enough for my strike to connect with her side. She skips back a few steps.
We assess each other, looking for a weakness. The calls of surrender are getting closer. The longer we go, the more of her side is realizing how pointless this fight is. The military’s main force should be here anytime now. Once they’re here, they can put an end to everything. Just a little longer. Just a little more. Yet my limbs are heavy. All I want to do is lie down. My vision blurs from the sweat dripping into my eyes, and I try to blink it away quickly. Not now. Not yet. I can do this.
“If you’re getting tired, Lai, you can always give up,” Ellis says. “I won’t hold it against you.”
“In your dreams.”
We come together again with a clash of metal on metal. We twist and turn back and forth, none of our blows managing to hit, every swing taking more and more effort. It feels like we go on forever. But finally, the thing I’ve been waiting for comes—cheers from the Order members as they shout that the military has arrived. Renewed shouts of battle fill the air as fresh soldiers pour in.
I skip back out of Ellis’s range. “Just give up,” I say. “The military is here—you can’t win anymore. But if you surrender right now, so will your friends. They don’t have to die meaninglessly here.”
“That’s naive, Lai.” She tries to smile but falters. “Where would they go? The sectors will never let us rejoin them. Not after this. And frankly, I don’t want to.”
“Things are changing. There are people fighting for us in the sector right now and people who are fig
hting for us right here. The sector doesn’t know the identities of most of the rebels. Your friends, the people you’re trying to protect, they can all just slip back in. The Order can help them.”
“You’re an idealist as ever, Lai.” Ellis’s eyes stay locked with mine. “And what about me? What about our other leaders? Should I just throw away all our lives? The sector knows us—and they will never forgive us for what we’ve done. I wouldn’t, either, if I were them.”
“You can either die here for no reason or let yourself be arrested and live to see another day,” I say. “Is it that hard of a choice?”
Ellis just stares at me. “You really think I won’t be killed for everything I’ve done once I’m taken in? The question isn’t whether to live or die, Lai. It’s whether I’m going to die fighting or lying down. And that is a very easy choice.”
I don’t know what to say. I can’t tell her she’s wrong—because she probably isn’t. But why can’t she see that giving herself up might mean saving more of her friends? What is she even fighting for at this point?
It doesn’t matter. I don’t care what she wants anymore. Dying is the easy way out. Dying means she doesn’t have to take responsibility for everything she’s done. Dying means everything will be more complicated once all this ends because there’s so much only she knows. That knowledge could make a huge difference in how everything plays out after this. If she was being smart, she could even try to use that knowledge to broker a deal and save her friends.
I swing my spear at her ankles. She jumps over it easily, but I use the momentum to keep swinging around in a circle and slam the other end of my shaft into her side. She blocks it with her blade, but she stumbles back.
I have to find a way to immobilize her. If I can hold her down until a soldier arrives and restrains her with starlight …
Restraints. That’s it.
Al, Erik, Jay? Where are you? I need your help.
Ellis and I keep at it for interminable moments. Even as the fighting stalls out around us with the military’s swing through the rebels’ decimated forces, that only seems to fuel Ellis’s strength. Her blows come harder, faster, but more haphazard, too.
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