WHEN HEROES FALL

by Abby J. Reed

  Luka tugged on the handles. “It won't open. Must be broke or locked with an override code.” He jammed the auto-rifle into the crack and heaved, his jaw muscles flaring. He tried again. A slight crack and he halted, lifting the auto-rifle for inspection. He scowled. “Bloody—it chipped. Don’t you have anything in that bag of yours?”

  “Nothing that could give more torque than you’re providing,” I said.

  Malani jammed her wings into the entrance crack, yanking. The door budged a little, but she stopped. “If we force it open like this, we might completely bust it.”

  Luka’s jaw flared with effort. “So what?”

  “It was closed for a reason.”

  I looked behind me toward the silent compound and tucked the tool bag tighter under my arm. The fog had coagulated to the east. Some of the buildings farther out already blended into the night. Did twilight always use to be this dark? My cap hadn’t made any recent movement, but the hairs on my arms rose. “Prolly a reason there’s no survivors above ground.”

  Luka looked between me and Malani. “Good point.” He stood, brushing off grime from his pants and gun. “There’s two more near here. I’ll check to see if they’re unlocked.” He jogged away.

  “Careful!” I shouted after him. He offered one of the new finger gestures he learned.

  I knelt, careful to keep Circuit from the mud, and banged again on the door. “Hey! Hello? Is anyone in there?” The silence hung thick and heavy. Before I could stop it, the thought fell out of my mouth like a bomb. “What if, what if there are no survivors? What if everyone's dead?”

  Malani shook her dreads. “Luka’s right. Someone had to move and bury the bodies. Someone survived.” She wrapped one wing around her and scrubbed a feather clean. She didn’t look at me but at where Houtiri would’ve been located had there been more light to see by when she asked, “What about the Elik and Herons?”

  My breath was slow.

  Leaving had shown me there were worse things in the galaxy than a blood feud. Any complicated feelings I had toward the Elik and Herons would have to wait to be sorted until everyone was off the planet and out of the Queen’s way.

  But what if Scarlatti’s only survivors were Elik and Heron? What if we opened the underground and it were filled with only blue- and green-bloods?

  To my surprise, my chest didn’t squeeze, my breath didn’t shorten. No panic attack on the horizon. I reached out my hand to Malani. “I don’t know, but it’ll be okay.”

  Her fingertips just brushed mine when footsteps echoed. I swiveled and my cap morphed into a razor-like whip.

  The footsteps grew louder and louder until Luka rounded the corner. His shoulders heaved from the effort and a thin trickle of sweat lined his temples. With the arsenal on him, he looked like a creature escaped from a bad dream. Good thing he was on our side. My cap morphed and the whip vanished. “Well?”

  “I need to start a running regimen again.”

  He could still run fifty times as far as anyone else I knew. “The entrances?”

  “The outsides were completely untouched. Unless the entire underground’s solasystem is down, the override lock is on. Somebody is definitely alive and hiding down there.”

  But who?

  Colors flashed inside my mind. Blue, green, or red?

  I licked my lips. “Bet you Hope they can hear us, then. We’re going to have to get creative. If somebody thinks we’re the enemy, what could we say that would make them believe otherwise?” I pounded on the entrance again, shouting at the top of my lungs. “Chief Malvyn is the best! We love Chief Malvyn! Chief Malvyn for life!”

  Malani rolled her eyes. “Now they definitely know we’re Human.”

  I spoke over my shoulder to Luka. “You gonna help?”

  Luka's lips curled inward, a clear no.

  “All right, then.” I kept banging and shouting.

  Malani joined. "It's us! Malani and Breaker! We've come back!”

  I sat up to find something to bang even louder with when my cap rippled. I glanced at Malani’s back to find her wings had balled. Without thinking, I dropped my bag and tackled her by the waist, throwing us both off the entrance.

  The entrance slit open and gunshots filled the air.

  I gagged into the dirt at the fresh wash of cinnamon. Luka hauled us both by the back of our tunics, dragging us behind a chunk of concrete. Circuit caught at a painful angle. Luka shoved us down, twisting on his toes in a crouch to peer around with his semi and a mini in hand.

  “You banging khaim-ass,” he yelled. “It’s me. Luka.” He slid the mini across the ground. It clanged against the lip, then slowly tipped as a hand grabbed at it.

  The shooting slowed.

  “Prove yourself! Prove you didn’t just kill Luka.” The voice echoed from inside the underground was high-pitched and taught.

  I sliced my palm on Malani’s wing and let the red blood pool. “RED BLOOD. We have red blood.” My stump ached, but I shoved past Luka on my knee, holding out my hand from behind the rubble. Blood dripped from my palm onto the ground.

  A whisper. Then, “Clear!” The voice filled with relief and dropped back to its normal rough and ragged and familiar level.

  I knew that voice. The voice that kept me sane during my cycle-long bed rest. The voice that called me out and encouraged me. The voice that chose to stay behind.

  Cal. Cal was alive.

  Chapter 5

  TAHNYA

  I gave up counting after 20 flanks.

  I knew the Leech was small, but small didn’t mean cramped until I was crammed inside with three other people for stars knew how long. With every galaxy and nebula that passed by the Leech’s window, we left the First Hope, Breaker, and Malani farther and farther behind.

  Now that I’d eaten and slept, the world seemed brighter. I brought my knees to my chest to stretch out my spine after sleeping against the cabinets. It popped. Jupe was on auto next to me, slumped, neither awake or asleep. At least he had eaten something. This close, his expression was still a tad blurred, but it was slack enough I could tell he really wasn’t seeing at all. A dead thing. Like his uncle.

  A tiny sting had lanced my chest. I knew his refusal of my hand wasn’t true rejection. After Momma died, I could barely look at Breaker for a septdia. This was the same. Even still, the sting hurt.

  My fists curled, crumpling my gov-bar wrapper, and I glanced at the blue blood lining my veins. I was Elik. I had the royal Elik gene to manipulate both dark matter and metal. I tore apart a group of Extrats all by myself. I know. Ridiculous. How could I, who couldn’t stand up to my own father back on Scarlatti, tear apart those Extrats?

  A fleck of black caught my eye. Extrat blood had splattered on my tunic. A shiver rolled across my spine as I picked at the spot. But the blood had already stained.

  This power was new. New and terrifying and where were the helpful pic diagrams Cal always drew for me and what if I hurt the very people I wanted to protect? My fists squeezed tighter and tighter until some of my tension eased.

  All I knew was that sitting here was like being locked in a room all over again. I wasn’t going to stay put like a good little girl again.

  What I wanted to say: Leader, you’re such a piece of ‘stroid. Release Brody at once or else I’ll throw you out the airlock with my Elik-ness.

  What I actually did: Cleared my throat.

  Leader didn’t look my way.

  I cleared my throat louder. “Can I use the bathroom?”

  Leader hesitated. I put on my most innocent mask, the big eyes and watery lashes that made my father believe I would never in a thousand cycles plan to sneak out in the middle of the night. Then she nodded. “We’re almost to Atina, so make it quick.”

  Brody scowled. Leader had made him pee in a bottle.


  I shook out my legs. They'd gone stiff from sitting cross-legged for so long. I maneuvered past Jupe to the hallway. The foldout bed was unavoidable. My breath caught as I looked at the figure on it. ShuShu, Jupe’s uncle, dead.

  You’ve already seen him. It’s fine. Just a body. Like Momma’s. Their souls aren’t in there anymore. They’ve already journeyed into the nearest star.

  I stepped inside the little bathroom. A shower stood on one side, a fold-out toilet and sink on the other with a mirror-like substance coating part of the wall. My stretched-out arms touched wall to wall. As soon as the door shut behind me my stomach clenched. I bent over, willing the sobs back inside my chest where they belonged. How could I take down Extrats and yet not be able to handle the sight of a corpse?

  I squatted over the toilet—who knew the last time it had been cleaned—peed then flushed. The auto sink ran and I splashed water on my face, smoothing away any sign of tears that might've escaped. I cracked open the door. Neither Brody or Jupe were in my direct line of sight, but Leader with the gun was.

  I paused. Come on, girl. You’ve killed Extrats. You have to try.

  My body wouldn’t move.

  It’s just magic Elik metal stuff. Just something that seems more like it belongs in a story. Nothing to be scared of, girl. It won’t hurt you.

  My body still refused to move.

  Come on! You’re being a khaim. Breaker trusted me with his brother. And, in the end, I think ShuShu would’ve trusted me with Jupe. How could I take care of either of them if I was too scared of my ability to even try?

  That thought did the trick. My joints finally unlocked. It took two tries to activate the water faucet again for cover noise. I gulped breaths, held my hands still as possible. A soft hum formed in the back of my throat. My veins tingled, and a tangible melody formed with the song. I pressed my fingers against the cracked door and aimed at Leader’s gun. If I could knock it aside for a sec, maybe Jupe . . . My hands shook harder now. Don’t be afraid, girl. Do it! The melody extended from my fingers.

  The Leech shuddered.

  An alarm erupted.

  I jumped, breaking off the song, and covered my ears. That skeletal grip of terror knuckled around my spine. The forest on Syktyv, bathed in red light. The echo of the base’s BWAP BWAP BWAP echoed in my ears. The Extrats, staring me down with hunger.

  Leader punched at the interface until she stopped the noise. Miraculous she could still keep the gun trained on Brody while working. “Jupe, is the Leech unstable?”

  Jupe’s head was raised, his eyes panicked. But his voice was hollow. “I don’t know what that was.”

  Leader stared at the interface for a long second, making sure the alarm didn’t come back on.

  The terror eased off and I went near boneless. What if the melody came out faster? I could’ve torn the entire ship apart and killed us. There was no possible way for me to fight back against Leader without risking all our lives. Nobody should have power like this. It was too dangerous.

  I worried my lip and came out of the bathroom. I’d just sat back down when Leader initiated the next flank. Finally, her arm sunk a couple centis. Her head tilted toward the window. “We’re here.”

  I looked past Brody’s cocked head to the view.

  My brain skipped over words and my lips parted. Oh.

  The planet was vibrant cobalt, like my blood had saturated its surface. Several times the size of Scarlatti, the cerulean swaths were broken up by little white spots, like tiny garden bugs lost in a vast lake of petals. We flew in closer and closer and the white patches solidified into mountains of ice floating on top of all that cerulean. Woven through and on top of the ice—cities. Living spaces carved into the ice itself, just like the Heron fortress. Tiny dots moved in a wriggling mass as people lived their lives. From ice shelves jutting out to create landing pads to a carved arch where massive ship bones were bared and built upon, each city was breathtaking.

  We entered a gauzy fog bank, skimming the surface of the water. Through the window, lights broke through like specks of starlight cutting through the night. The fog peeled away, revealing the largest ice city yet.

  My eyes widened. I had no memory of Houtiri, but from what Malani told me, the glass city was the most stunning place I could imagine. I was wrong. This city rose above the ocean, exploding into a myriad of curling spires glowing from within. The city pulsed with movement, like a heartbeat at the very center of its ice core. A temple topped with a statue of an angel and demon locked in a forever embrace slowly rotated like the hand of a clock. Holo signs rose above and gloated advertisements, bigger and flashier than those on the TriRing. It was a city filled with people and wealth and tech. The air shimmered with coming and going ships. Even the waters churned as though whatever lay far beneath its surface could not be tamed.

  Next to the city was a building on its own ice float, shaped as an upside-down triangle with jagged ice cliffs that defied gravity. No, not just another building—the palace. The sides glittered with ice and gems and perfect pristine beauty.

  A mesh-like gate covered both the city and the palace, the only dark shape marring the breathtaking sight. Jupe had described this before. An antiship net. Nobody could flank inside or break through without enduring enough current to cook a ship. It was a near-perfect protective shield.

  Leader lowered us closer to the net. The edges of a seam rippled along its mesh-like material to form a gate. Leader called to the city, a response, then the gate opened like a ripened flower, inviting us inside.

  “Welcome to Atina,” Jupe said as we descended straight for the palace. His voice was distant and tight.

  This time when I offered my hand, he took it.

  Chapter 6

  BREAKER

  Cal’s curls poked out of the underground. His face was lined with dirt and his eyes wide with shock. “Breaker?”

  I stepped out the rest of the way. I held my arms wide. “Guess who didn’t die in space?”

  Cal pressed a fist to his mouth. He doubled over, face instantly wet with tears.

  “Cal?” I took a step closer. “You all right?”

  He leapt out of the underground in a jerky motion and stumbled across the distance, as though he couldn’t see straight. His arms flung open and he crashed into me, a mad mess of happy tears. My ribs threatened to crack under his squeeze and my nose nearly shriveled. He smelled balls-awful. I clapped my arms around him as he completely lost control.

  “Stars, oh stars oh stars. You’re alive. You’re banging alive.” He openly sobbed in my shoulder. “I thought you were dead.”

  I had to peel him off of me just to be able to speak. “I’m not dead. I have so much to tell you, Cal. So much.” My cheeks hurt from grinning. “It’s so banging good to see you.” My throat choked up and I had to turn away.

  His gaze snagged on my wrist. “Your hand?”

  “Part of the story. Don’t worry, it was a worthy sacrifice.”

  He wiped away the wet from his cheeks. “You can’t keep losing limbs on me, man. You’re gonna end up as a human stump one dia at this rate. Do you need me to look at it?” Then he froze and glanced from side to side, wary. He seemed to settle back into his body. “We can’t be out here. Come on inside.” Then he spotted Malani and Luka. “Malani! You’re here too!” He flushed and stepped away from me, enfolding her in his arms.

  “Hello, Cal.” Malani returned the hug. “I’m glad you’re not dead.”

  A beat of silence. Cal grinned, but it wasn’t as bright as before. “Me too.”

  Luka cut in, his face pale. “Where are the survivors?” He grabbed Cal by the shoulders. “Where?”

  “Everyone is inside. It’s ration time, so they are prolly getting—”

  Luka pushed past him and dropped into the underground.

>   Cal looked back at me, then again at the surroundings, his eyes shifting and wary. He beckoned us toward the entrance. “Come on, man. We need to get everyone inside. I had to argue to unlock the overrides on the door for ya.” He looked beyond us, searching. “Where’s Tahnya? Brody? Are they with the ancestors? You brought them back to help, then?”

  A flush spread along my neck. I picked up the tool bag, wiping uselessly at the dirt. “No, everyone is here.”

  Cal’s head cocked, a leg raised halfway over the underground entrance. The moment hung heavy. “What do you mean? They’re dead?”

  “No, no. They’re alive.” I threw a hopeful glance at Malani.

  Malani only shook her head. She wasn’t gonna explain. My story to tell. My guilt to own.

  I worked my jaw. “What happened here? Did we win?” Did Cal hear my unspoken question: Who survived?

  The moment broke. “Hell, we’ve a lot to catch up on.” Cal lowered himself onto the ladder. “In short: No. We haven’t won. Nobody’s won. The war is still going on.” Only his head was visible. “It’s not safe out here. Come on down.”

  His curls disappeared.

  I followed, careful with Circuit. I hadn’t tested him on a ladder yet. My cap curled into a hook, letting me hold onto the rungs while I figured out the balance. “The Elik didn’t kill everyone?”

  Malani’s body tensed.

  Cal’s voice came from below. “Oh, no. They’re on our side now. There aren’t many left. So, don’t kill them.”

  “What?” I was almost to the bottom. “The Elik helped you kill the Herons?”

  “No. There’s some Elik soldiers and some families that survived here. Both the King and Queen died bringing reinforcements before the flood hit. In terms of the Herons, the vast majority are dead. The handful of survivors are here, too.” He paused. “Actually, just don’t kill anybody in the underground. I’m the head doctor now and we barely have enough supplies. You didn’t happen to stop by the hospital on your way in?” His voice was hopeful.