The Bargaining Path

by T. Rudacille

  ***

  Our mission that day was simple, and it was simply interrupted. We were supposed to walk over the ash barrier, find the hive (because the trebestia don't come out in daylight, and because we were protected temporarily after breathing the untainted air in the village, so going over the ash circle to hunt them down was not dangerous) and destroy it. Now, the only reason why we left the village without fear of our loved ones being slaughtered while we were gone was because Adam was joining us on the mission. If he had kept all the guns, we all would have thought that we were going to be killed, but each of us picked up our weapon of choice at check-in that morning.

  There were many trebestia hives in the area, but the one that Brynna had unwittingly stumbled into was one of the worst. Several Pangaeans had joined Adam, who was carrying no gun or small bottles of fire-rain, which is a substance taken from the red cacti that grew deep within the Shadow Forest and could detonate if the bottles carrying it were dropped. On his belt hung just one long serrated dagger, which he made no gesture to grab even when noises sounded around us in the forest and forced all of us breathless men and women, Pangaean and Earthean both, to grasp our weapons in our shaking, sweating palms.

  “He's separated from Janna, you know.” James told me, and I grimaced at him as though he had just hurled a terrible insult in my direction for no reason.

  “James, Alice is a girl, in case you couldn't tell. I didn't think that she could be so easily mistaken for a guy, or that you thought I played for the other team and would be interested in Adam's marital...”

  “Shut up, smartass, and listen. Hang back a little bit.”

  In front of us, Elijah looked back over his shoulder, trying to hear what we were saying. Because he couldn't make it appear nonchalant, he had to keep walking forward after James and I slunk to the back of the group to talk.

  “Dan!” James hissed, and one of his best friends—who had not been present as Violet was being assaulted—hung back, too. “Tell Quinn what you told me.”

  “I like your shirt.” Dan, always one with a joke, said in a deadpan tone.

  “No!” James exclaimed, “But thanks, I bought it for five lemons...”

  We all stopped, needing a second to laugh at that. Only two years earlier, we had still been using paper money and coins. We had been buying and selling, not trading and bartering. We hadn't had a need to regress back to those old-time methods of shopping and purchasing, of keeping our families supplied with the basic necessities of life. It was funny, sometimes, how much things had changed. Funny and mind-boggling.

  “About Adam.”

  “Oh! You know who Janna is, obviously.”

  “The leader of the village we've been living in, for like, nine months, or the other Janna?”

  “I swear to God, he's been spending too much time around Brynna. Shut up and listen, man.” James told me, and he punched me in the shoulder for good measure. I tried not to wince.

  “Yeah, I know Janna.”

  “Don’t we all? She’s so freaking hot. Anyway, Greta heard from two of the other Pangaean girls who are apparently like, her servants, or something, that she and Adam are separated!”

  “What?” I dragged the word out, trying to feign being really surprised by this “bombshell” or at least to look as though I cared.

  “No, keep listening. That's not the best part.”

  “They’re separated, and these two servant girls got a little tipsy the other night and told Greta and Savannah something that Adam hasn't told anyone, not even Don or Brynna, before they got into their little tiff.” He didn't wait for me to question, he forged ahead. “There are too many people here. Adam and his missus have been arguing nonstop, you see, because he keeps a number in his head, and there are too many people here.”

  “So, what, are they going to pull an Old Spirit and send us out into the forest to fend for ourselves, and to fight the tree people? Because that’s kind of what we’ve wanted to do since this whole thing happened with him and Brynna.”

  “No. Adam knows that if there are too many people here, then the Crazies have people in our camp.”

  “We heard that when we were at the house, too, and nothing came of it.” I said, “It was just Don being Don. Paranoid and paranoid.”

  “No, but this time there are numbers to prove it. Remember how right after the city burned, we all got a number?”

  We had each been given a number to remember, and our names had been written down beside those numbers. It was how they kept track of the survivors at the time, but since then, it had been used as the Red Anarchy Population List.

  “Well, the numbers don't match anymore. These two servant girls are shaking in their boots, because they say that Adam said it's only a matter of time before they show themselves, and they play their card, if you know what I mean.”

  “Play their card as in, attack us?”

  “Exactly. And once that happens, he's going to snatch them all up and then, we're going to be taking another trip back north.” At that, he grinned. “Things might not be good right now, but they’ll blow over. Brynn will work it out with him, and we’ll be focused back on our real enemy. I been itchin' to get my hands on them sons of bitches. And this time, we'll be able to, without losing our houses or the lives we've built in the process. It would be such a shame if these nice people had to suffer for their hospitality. I'm from the South, and I know about hospitality. It's a duty, and it's got responsibilities, but not one of them responsibilities involves dying for the people you're looking out for. We brought this to their doorstep, and that ain't right.”

  “It's not.” James agreed, “Tell him the last part.”

  “The last part?” He sniffled, and wiped his nose on the back of his hand. “Well, shit, that's the doozy, ain't it? You're a smart boy, Quinn. Why don't you ask me the question that will lead me to the last part?”

  “Dan, don't play games with him. Just tell...”

  “No, I know what he's getting at. There's actually two questions that I should ask. One, if there are Crazies in our camp besides our crazies, then why didn't Adam tell Don and Brynna, and two, if there are Crazies in the camp besides our crazies, what the hell are we doing out here hunting down tree people?”

  “See? He's a bright one, this one.” Dan said, “Well, the reason why he hasn't told Brynna is because of the fight they’re havin’. And the reason why he hasn’t told Don is because Don actually took Brynn’s side.”

  “What?” I asked, and this time I really was shocked.

  “I know. Crazy, ain’t it? Either way, Adam don't trust either one of them, because he don't trust anyone except his people now. If he could send them both to the Lapsarian, he would. But James has told me all about his little obsession with Brynn, and I don't like it. None of us do. But that don't matter to him anymore. What matters to him is keeping his folk alive, and he's willing to suspect her and question her if that's what it takes to get the answers, because he thinks she and Don are hiding somethin'.”

  “Hiding what?” I exclaimed, “He thinks that we're working for the other side?”

  “He thinks that we want to take over. Something turned him off to our kind, and I don't know what. But something made him not trust us.”

  “And I do know what. I know exactly what.” James was seething now, and when he spoke, his voice trembled dangerously. “It’s not just the deal she made. Anyone would do what she did, and he knows that. The bigger part of it is that she rejected him. She chose me over him, and he was expecting her to leave me, and serve him in more ways than one. He's always wanted more than her power. Only he's already got a wife, so do you know what that tells me?”

  “I know what it tells you.” Dan said, “If he's got a wife, he's got to have a mistress, right? And I'm sure he's got plenty of those, too. She'd just be one of many.”

  “Yeah. That's what he wanted from her. Those two girls that serve Janna heard him say it. And I swear to God, I should take this gun, and I should shoot
him in the back, but I'm not a coward. I'm not going to do it when he's not expecting it. I'm going to look him in the eyes when I kill him for doing that to her. Everything he did for her, every moment when he led her to believe that he cared about her, it was all a lie. It was nothing but bullshit. It was supposed to make her drop her guard. And she's mine to protect, so I'm going to protect her. If he so much as looks at her, thinking that he's going to question her the way he's questioned other people that he’s suspected of being Bachum spies, he's wrong. If he thinks he’s going to hurt her for ‘betraying’ him, he better think again, because I'll kill him. You all know it’s true.”

  “No, wait, wait...” I said, not wanting to picture that epic battle; James would certainly put up a fight, but I didn't think that he could win. Adam was just too strong. He was too old. He was far too skilled a fighter with and without weapons. “That can't be it, James. It can't just be her rejecting him. You still haven’t told any of us exactly what deal she made, or whatever, but that is probably what pissed him off so much.”

  “Hang on.” Dan said, and he stood up taller so he could scan the crowd. He tapped Wes, who was sauntering about in front of us, talking to Courtney and Noor, two of the girls on our team he had always liked and who tolerated him with a begrudging affection most of the time and actual affection the rest of the time.

  “Court, tell Niko to get Seth and Kelly.”

  “Why?” Courtney asked, looking concerned. “Do you not feel good? I think Kelly only brought acid roots.”

  “I'm fine, I just need to talk to them. Don't shout, though. Just get them, and tell them to be quiet about it.”

  “Are you boys telling secrets?” Courtney asked with a slight grin. “Gossiping is usually reserved for us, but I'm all about breaking stereotypes, and I'm glad that you guys are so confident in your masculinity that you feel you can gossip freely without being called names. That's nice. It's a sign of progression. I like progress.”

  “You're so dumb.” I told her through my laughter.

  “Excuse you, Quinn, but that little ramble proved that she is not dumb. In fact, the opposite was proved.” Noor told me, and then she beamed brightly. “Isn't my English better?”

  “It's way better. Holy shit, you learned fast, girl! I've been practicing my Farsi. Wanna hear?” I asked, and I tried to say a few words that she and her sisters had tried to teach me a few days earlier when we had returned from a particularly grueling day of farm work. She giggled, and graciously said that I was doing well. By the time Seth and Kelly had gotten back to us, I had nearly forgotten what we were talking about, though I never lost that pull of anxiety in my chest that reminded me of the unpleasant topic we were going to address momentarily. I couldn't shake that bad feeling.

  “Is this about...” Kelly gestured with her eyes towards Adam. When we all nodded, she lowered her voice. “You want to hear the exact words, right?”

  “Yeah.” I replied.

  “Well, these girls overheard Janna and Adam arguing, and after we gave them some of that really strong wine, they told us that Janna was jealous of the attention he was giving Brynna, she didn't believe that he was sincerely 'against her' and that he had begun to 'sympathize too much' because of her. And he said that she was quote, 'nothing' to him and that he suspected she was sent by her father, and that she had only saved his life because they want both him and Janna up north. Tyre wants to kill them both himself. He says that Brynna staying with James proves that somehow. That's exactly what he said, if those two girls are to be believed, and they should be, because they were in the next room. And Paul, that guy Brynna and James dragged back here, says that Savannah and her children were sent by the Bachums, even though they were exiled.”

  “Wait, he says that they were outlawed, and that they were also sent by the Bachums? That doesn't make any goddamn sense.”

  “Exactly. He's lying about that, obviously. But that doesn't matter. Paul said that the spy wasn’t Savannah. He said Tyre sent in a spy that will get right up close to Adam, so she can kill him. That's what the man finally said to Adam. He said that she will be close to him, and she will be looking to make a trade for one of her own. And Adam didn't need to hear any more than that for him to suspect Brynna.”

  “What?” I wanted to join James and rip the man to pieces. He wasn't going to touch my friend, my family. “Who would Brynna be trading for?”

  “There's been a lot of talk recently in their meetings, according to Don, that Daniel wasn't the only black sheep to get a ticket here. And Adam also said that she was talking about something he—Daniel, I mean—said in the woods. And Adam said, 'I knew she was playing the game then. I sensed it in her. I read her feelings: traitorous and murderous.' And now he's gunning for her.”

  “But who is she trading for?”

  There was a long moment of silence, because they were all on the same page; they were all believing that it was the same person, and whoever it was would be someone we all would trade for. Still, I didn't know. I had to be told.

  “Her mama.” Dan answered solemnly, “It's her mama, Quinn.”

  The words hit me like a booted foot to the stomach. She never spoke of it, but I was perceptive to feelings; that was my power, in case that hasn't become evident to you yet. Violet, Alice, and I shared the same ability. Every time Violet spoke of their mother, be it with some old memory or with the sad realization spoken out loud that she couldn't picture her mom's face clearly anymore, Brynna's heart would concave. It was strange, but it was like the sturdy structure that kept all the unpleasant memories, thoughts, and emotions away crumpled in on itself and left her open and vulnerable to further damage. Her features would always drop slightly; her eyebrows fell along with the corners of her lips, her eyelids drooped, and I know that tears sometimes swam into her eyes. Even with her heart fallen in, she didn't cry, though.

  “And I'm supposed to look that son of a bitch in the face every day.”

  James's rage was a welcome distraction from those thoughts.

  “I'm supposed to live here, knowing that he's gunning for her now, all because she rejected him, all because she made some deal with Paul for her mother, and... You all would do it! You know you would.”

  “Of course we would.” Kelly agreed, and everyone at least nodded, but some people actually murmured their agreement out loud.

  “I’ll tell you guys that right now, Brynn is operating under the assumption that they’re playing her, though Paul hasn’t said that he was lying outright. But God, if she gets any more proof that it’s true, she’s going to go north and light that place up. You all know that, too.”

  “I do know.” Kelly replied, “Your girl is a ticking time bomb, and I love her for it. She goes off when it's time to go off. Now is that time. I hate to be prophetic about this, because that's her area, but I think that our time to part from Adam's people has come. Whatever shaky truce we had is broken.”

  “Irreparably.” I agreed, “We should've known that this alliance was too good to be true, anyway. He's playing us now. That's why we're out here, isn't it? He's smoking them out. The people that are hiding in our camp.”

  “That's exactly why.” Dan agreed, “Security's all out in the woods. Who you gonna call?”

  Violet

  The “secret” spread quicker than the panic that would surely accompany it. Gossip and rumor were not as formidable as fact, and everyone knew that the “traitors in our midst” meme was fact.

  “You seem tense.” Alice told Brynna, and from behind, she hugged her, a warm gesture that Brynna seemed to appreciate genuinely, when as early as a year before, she would have exclaimed in fury at it and promptly pushed Alice with all the force she could muster. “You okay, mama bird?”

  “Yes. I am fine. Everything is fine.” Brynna replied softly, but she rolled her head slowly in half circles, first to the front so that her chin was touching her chest, and then so that the back of her head was against her shoulders. “I get very tense when there is s
omething hanging in the air, but I believe that this is just leftover physical strain from me using my body as a makeshift gurney for my severely injured former comrade.”

  “He's our comrade? What is this, 1984?” I asked with a chuckle, and she smiled, too, despite her worry; she was quietly impressed by the fact that I had read Orwell, one of the authors she used to speak of a lot and with great passion.

  “Your heart's beating really fast.” Alice told her, “I can feel it. Brynn, what's going on? And don't say nothing, because we don't believe you! You only get like this when something bad is coming! Is Adam about to go on a rampage, or is it the boys?”

  “No. Ladies, I need you not to worry. However, I must ask that you go find Penny. There is something that I need to do.”

  “I'm not leaving you.” I told her, and immediately, I crossed my arms over my chest, my typical sign of stubbornness and unshakable determination.

  “You will do what I say.”

  “No, I won't. I'm technically eighteen now, even if you can't tell the slight difference in my appearance that might have come with aging a year! I'm eighteen, and I'm an adult...”

  “…Who is living under my roof, and I asked you politely to go get Penny.”

  “Not until you tell me what's going on.”

  “Violet Mae, do not anger me when I am facing a very precarious situation, and when a dark foreboding is hanging over our kind like a wind-whipping, pitch-black storm. That's how I see it in my mind. Like it is a tornado headed right towards us.

  “What kind of tornado? Like one of those ones you can jump through that we used to get in the cornfields back home? Or one of the big ones, like in that movie with the guy from Titanic? Or like the shark tornado?!”

  “Category five, like the movie with Bill Paxton, which was called Twister. Now, go!”

  By the time Alice and I had found Penny, the excrement had already been flung towards the spinning fan, but it hadn't hit just yet. Somehow, it hadn't hit.

  Janna and Brynna were standing right in the village square, arguing in hushed voices. Pangaeans and Eartheans were stopped, looking at the two of them over their shoulders or from behind books or around walls.

  “Keep Penny back.” I told Alice, who only nodded. I jogged over, and heard them hissing to one another.

  “You will not put your hands on me again, human. That is right; I called you human. That is what you are, after all. Your kind will never be like us. I do not care about your acquisition of powers. Or perhaps Tyre is right; perhaps it is not acquisition but rather, thievery!”

  “Is that supposed to insult me? You calling me a human, I mean. I was one, and though I am not anymore, I would not associate myself or my race with your kind, either. We are at a stalemate of offense there: calling me Pangaean insults me, and calling you Earthean does the same to you. No matter, because trading barbs is not why I am here.”

  “Why are you here, Ms. Olivier? Tell me, so that I may rip you to pieces myself! Adam will not have need to. I will handle my husband's business better than he can! Despite his attachment to you being merely a show meant to make you drop your guard, you did save his life, and the man will have a hard time taking yours because of that!”

  “What is going on?” I exclaimed, and they both looked over at me but did not startle upon finding me in their presence.

  “Please excuse us. This does not concern you.”

  I had expected Janna to speak kindly to me, even if she and Brynna were fighting over whatever had happened between Brynna and Adam. She had consoled me when I had been expelled from the medical program, and during the few times Caspar and I had run into her on our many adventures, we had exchanged kind words. Granted, I had not seen Caspar for weeks and strongly suspected that Adam had sent him to one of the war colonies, so I don’t know why I expected her kindness. When she looked at me, her steely blue eyes were tinged with both cool indifference and unmistakable disgust.

  “Brynna, what's going on?”

  “A witch hunt to rival the worst one in our history is about to take place here. Many of our number will die, including some who are close to me.” Her voice almost faltered, but she caught herself. She would not show weakness in front of Janna. “Adam has been fed lies by one of the prisoners I acquired. That man, known as Paul, is very important to the Bachums, Tyre, and our father, and he has said that I made a deal to trade Adam and Janna for...” She stopped, and her eyes diverted. “For someone else.”

  “Tell her.” Janna snarled, “Tell her who. Or are you incapable of honesty? Does your black heart forbid it?”

  “Who would you be trading for?” I asked, my heart punching against my chest in anticipation. I didn't know why I was suddenly so anxious, because I truly had no idea who she could be speaking of.

  “I opened my village to you despicable inferiors.” Janna snarled, “I allowed you to believe that we are one in the same. After you saved Adam, I believed that perhaps we have been wrong about you. Perhaps my husband and I have cruelly and swiftly judged your race; perhaps you are not vermin, in need of merciless, thoughtless extermination. Perhaps you can be of some use...”

  “We have been of much use to your husband.” She actually scowled upon using the word. “Don has given him every loyalty! He has believed in him! He has trusted him!”

  I noticed Don standing in the doorway for the first time.

  “And yet Adam suspects him, too!”

  “Paul’s heart told no lies, you yellow, barking dog! So yip, yip, yip all you want. Adam took all your best men and women so that you would show your colors, so that you would attack. And here you are!”

  “Do you feel attacked?” Brynna asked, and she actually laughed in cold, calculated prodding, and took a step towards Janna. “Silly girl...” She laughed even harder, “If you truly believe that this is me attacking, then you are as pitifully stupid as your husband.”

  Janna closed the space between them and put her face right in Brynna's. Her insult to my sister had sent sparks flying in me. Her threatening advance towards her added gasoline. Overhead, the sun was blocked by thick, swirling gray clouds. Thunder crashed, startling the onlookers. Only Janna, Brynna, and I remained calm. Or so I thought.

  When I looked at Don, he winked at me, and a smile spread across my lips. I wasn't the only one putting my emotion-harnessing powers to good use.

  “That word cuts you.” Janna was beaming in malicious triumph now. “Like a sharpened blade, it tears through you. You did not know. You believed all his talk. His sweet words, his gentle touch. Let me make this clear to you, silly girl, what Adam wants from you is the power you wield. Because he is diplomatic, he offered to let you cooperate. But you will not be the first that he has forced to come to his aid, and he will use you...” Her grin widened, “He will use every... last... part of you as he sees fit, until almost nothing remains. Then, he will toss you away, because you are nothing but Earthean trash, and trash must be disposed of before it begins to rot.”

  When I stormed forward, loud thunderclaps erupted over our heads, sending heated rain down onto us from the clouds like lava from the mouth of a spewing, spitting volcano. Brynna grasped my arm, and I calmed, but that rain did not cease.

  “That is all well and good to say.” Brynna told her, and somehow, her voice remained calm. But I could feel her body shaking with rage beside my own. “You say that Paul's heart told no lies, but have you read your husband's? No, of course you did not, because you cannot. Nor can I, but I could read his mind. Though some, if not all, of his feelings might have been falsified, you were noticeably absent from his consciousness. And when he touched me, Janna, he looked into my eyes. And when I touched him, he moaned my name. And do you know what he said?”

  “What did he say?”

  Brynna had done it again; she had found her mark, the sore spot that was her opponent's greatest weakness, and she was prodding into it slowly, with cruel calculation, until finally, she would apply the full force of a blow that would collapse
Janna’s knees and leave her defenseless.

  “He said, 'God...'” Her tone was purposefully breathless, and my grin widened as my eyes grew wider. “'I have never wanted anyone this way...' Anyone. My stars, Janna! Your husband wants a lowly human over his powerful wife. Well, I do believe that it is a case of 'out with the old, and in with the new,’ I am afraid.”

  And the excrement finally hit the fan blades. Janna lunged forward, but Brynna and I both dodged. After whipping around, we bore our fangs at her and roared. With a screech, she ran towards us, jumping through the air when she was close enough and raising her hands, ready to claw our faces as soon as she landed on her feet. But Brynna and I were too quick; we leaped with amazing power and agility into the air and met her halfway to tackle her back to the ground. With wild, aimless swings, she fought, and we dodged. Two on one wasn't fair, but Brynna was my sister, and we fought together. Apparently, Janna's people felt the same way, because they had stormed our own; they were fighting in their queen’s defense.

  “Fight them!” Don yelled, but everyone had heeded that advice long before he had shouted it aloud. All around us, fighting had broken out. Gleefully, it seemed, our people joined in. There had been tension that was almost brutal brewing since the day before, when Adam had essentially declared us slaves after stating that our race was inferior to his. Janna might have tried to welcome us when we first arrived in her village, but because instincts were so highly valued and because they were possessed by all of us, we were able to see through that facade into her disdain for us, into how very irritated she was about having to look after us. Adam had never made us feel that way when we were living in his house, but to hear his wife tell it, he felt the very same way.

  Fists pounded. Screams erupted from those being killed or those doing the killing. Gurgles, moans, and cries were intermixed with the rain that had turned to hail. Janna put up a good fight, kicking, punching and biting us several times, but her moves were rusty and predictable. Most of the time, Brynna and I countered her with ease and landed a hit that was far more damaging and better aimed than the one she had been throwing our way.

  “What is this? What is this?!” She shrieked in rage at one point. More than that, she was crying out in frustration and disbelief. How could we be beating her? She was older. She was “superior.” How were we winning in a fight against her, when she had so believed that she would rip us apart with her hands, when she had thought that sending whipping spirals of hail in our direction would knock us to the ground or puncture our bodies with holes? During those attempts to use the power she and I both possessed, I sent the flying hail back at her with a simple swipe of my arm.

  Though we were all impervious to the sounds of the fight, as we were all busy fighting, we did all freeze at the sound of a gunshot. Pangaeans and Eartheans froze in mid-punch, mid-kick, mid-final killing maneuver and looked all around for the shooter or the victim.

  “Brynna... Olivier.” The voice was low, rumbling dangerously with blind, white-hot, purely animal fury. I was surprised that he was not simply growling and snarling.

  “Brynna Olivier.”

  Beside me, she did not tense. Her face did not contort into an expression of surprise or fear. When everyone around us stared at her, either in rage to rival their leaders' or in fear that one of our own might be about to meet her end, she simply stared back.

  “BRYNNA OLIVIER!”

  “She is here, my love.” Janna gasped out breathlessly, and more heads turned. “Here.”

  “I will go to him, because I am not afraid, silly little girl. Weak little girl.” She added over her shoulder with a somewhat maniacal chuckle that I knew was the result of the adrenaline surging through her veins. I pulled Janna along with me simply so she couldn't jump up and attack us from behind. What I saw before me caused me to almost release my grip so I could cover my mouth in horror.

  All members of our security detail were on their knees, with their hands tied behind their backs. Adam was pacing slowly behind them, scowling with the same darkness that I had seen in his eyes when he had attacked us that very first time in the campsite. In his hand was a large rifle that had been brought there on our ship; I recognized the crest on the butt of it.

  “You have taken issue with me, so...” She started to say.

  A gunshot rang out, and Wes, the very first person in the line, fell forward, bleeding, eyes barely open. Dead. Courtney and Noor screamed.

  “Do you want to shut your disgusting, lying mouth now, or should I shoot the next one?”

  “Brynna, don’t you tell him anything!” James shouted at her, and Adam turned his cold, crazed stare to him.

  Brynna looked back at me, smelling deeply. I did the same and was immediately besieged by a sudden dizziness.

  “What is it?”

  “The circle… It’s broken. You have to go close it, Vi, you have to…”

  Another gunshot rang out, and Brynna whipped back around. I jumped, my mind screaming at me to follow her orders. Instinct told me that if I didn’t, something terrible would happen, but my eyes were firmly locked on Adam’s gun, and common sense told me not to tempt him to shoot me by trying to run off.

  “Let them go.” Brynna said softly, taking tentative steps towards him, “Adam, there is no need...”

  BANG. Courtney screamed because she had known that she was next, and she had been right. Her scream cut off after that terrible bang.

  “Adam, listen to me!” Brynna shouted, holding out her hand when he went to point the gun at the next person in the line, “The circle is broken! You’re not yourself! Everything is amplified, and you all were out there for too long, and the circle is broken, so coming back over it did not cure you. You are not yourself, and…”

  “I am King. The forest cannot affect me. I am King of this land, and so I fear nothing from it! It fears me!”

  “Okay, that is the trebestia venom talking, but…”

  “Do you know what Janna's power is? It's a very, very powerful version of the same power your sister and your sniveling leader wield. Parts of it resemble yours. Janna can read feelings. More specifically, she can read hearts. You can do the same, sometimes, I know, but as you and the truth have such a fickle, if not completely nonexistent, relationship, why should I ask you if what I say next is true?”

  She opened her mouth to speak, but Adam pointed the gun at Noor now. Her mouth closed again.

  “That’s it. Good girl, you are learning quickly, as I expected you to.”

  “Brynna…” Noor pleaded with tears streaming down her face. Her entire body was shaking, and James, who was beside her, was whispering to her softly what I am sure were promises that she was going to be alright. “Brynn, please stop him… Oh God… Oh God, James…”

  “My wife and I had an interesting conversation with Paul. You remember Paul? Your love over here...” He stopped in back of James and rammed the butt of the gun into his shoulder hard; James barely grunted, but I could see briefly on his scowling face that the pain was severe. “…remembers him, as I am sure you do.”

  “Yes.” She answered, and her voice was still steady, but her eyes were locked on Noor’s. I could read her expression clearly. She was trying to soothe her; Noor was only seventeen, my age. Somewhere in the crowd, I could hear her mother sobbing, and thought instantly that soon, both she and Noor’s father would take action if Brynna did not. Brynna knew for sure that they would take action, and that if they did, Adam would shoot all three of them.

  “You look at me, you lying bitch!”

  He aimed the gun at Noor again and put his finger on the trigger. Noor screamed and cried harder, and James leaned closer to her, nestling his head against hers.

  “Brynna… Brynna…” Noor was crying over and over again.

  “Aim it at me!” Brynna screamed, and for the first time, her eyes were wide, and her fear was evident. “It is me whom you are confronting! Now aim the gun at me, Adam.”

  She was walking forward slowly,
and he did turn the gun to her.

  “Brynna!” James shouted at her, “Violet, stay back!”

  And I did. My mind was shrieking in absolute terror to move, to stop her, and I tried but couldn’t. A lull had come over my mind, halting my body's ability to send the messages to my legs and arms that would be needed to move forward and grab her. She was doing that to me. Her power was getting stronger every day.

  “I don't know what she told you, but it is a lie, Adam.” I heard her whisper. We all heard her, because all of our ears were switched over to our superhuman hearing. “What has she told you?”

  “You know your lies. You do not need me to tell you.”

  “Adam, I never said I would do it. I never told Paul that I would trade you for her. I only said I would consider it…”

  “Several months ago,” Adam’s voice was raised so we all could hear, “Ms. Olivier and I traveled a great distance together. During that time, I was severely injured from a wound inflicted on me by none other than Tyre, leader of the Old Spirits. During our time in the woods, Ms. Olivier and I were captured by a group of those men, and during that time, Ms. Olivier was beaten, whipped, and nearly raped. Weren't you, my dear? Isn't this humiliating for you?” He snarled at her. I covered my mouth in horror, not knowing that what had happened to her out there had been so terrible. I had seen only some of the physical and mental repercussions of her time in the woods, but I had not known, because I could not possibly have known, how bad it had been.

  “Her father showed up to take her back with him. Her father... and Paul. The latter of those two led her away from me, and during their time together, a deal was struck. Brynna would not only save my life so that I would lead her to Janna, but then, she would gain Janna's trust while sustaining my own, all so she could capture us, no doubt with the help of her merry band, and turn us over. And why, my beauty?” He spat the word at her like a slur. “Why would you be so willing to help our most hated enemies? The ones who threaten your life here on Purissimus? The ones who have tried to kill us all more than once? What did Paul offer you?”

  She murmured something.

  “Speak up! I could not hear you, which guarantees that they could not!”

  “My mother.”

  My heart nearly stopped. When Adam shouted at her to repeat herself even louder, I was unprepared to hear that word again, to realize that profound possibility again.

  “My mother!”

  “Her mother!”

  There was a rumble of whispers in the crowd that seemed loud enough to shake the trees over our heads and the ground beneath our feet. I could not discern whether it was malicious or just an audible sign of their disbelief.

  “A woman who, according to many of you, was partially responsible for the destruction of your Earth. Now, I have been good to you. I have accepted you here. I have aided your fight against the other side. Janna has let all of you into her village, free of charge. She has supplied you with food, shelter, water, clean clothing, a safe community... My wife and I have done everything in our vast power to care for all of you. And this young lady has decided that we are just trinkets with which to be bartered. We are so easily spendable. Dispensable. All in exchange for a sick, heartless shrew whose willful ignorance and conniving debauchery brought excruciating deaths to most of your kind, and forced the rest of you from your homes. The atmosphere around your burning Earth reeked of chemicals and poison the last we checked. It was man-made, whatever destroyed your Orb. It was war, as you all have believed! But Brynna Olivier wants her mother. To hell with what I have done for her. To hell with what Janna has done. Brynna Olivier just wants her mummy back.”

  I was crying. I was trying to bite my lip to stifle the sound, but I was out and out sobbing. Janna was on her knees in the dirt beside me, immobile by Brynna's spell over us as well. My mother was alive. She was on Pangaea. I could see her again, have her face reprinted in my mind, where I would never allow myself to lose sight of it again...

  But my sister was in terrible danger. Adam was trying to whip up a mob that would lynch her for her betrayal. Around me, I felt fury, but it was weak. In my state, I could not pinpoint exactly who it was coming from or who it was directed towards—if people were angry at Brynna for what she had done and what she had caused to happen, or if they were angry at Adam for killing his own and causing such a violent stir.

  “Now, I want you to be a brave girl and admit it.” He told her in condescending sweetness. “Admit it out loud, and face the consequences.”

  “Just shoot me, Adam, because you are going to anyway.” Brynna told him.

  Adam laughed, and shook his head.

  “Oh, there is that stubbornness...”

  He fired the gun at the other end of the line, and Seth, a man who had lived a few doors down from us in the house, fell forward, sputtering and trembling. His boyfriend yelled out in rage and went to storm forward, but thankfully, our people held him back.

  “Brynna, don't you do it!” James bellowed at her. “Don't you say it, Brynna! Don't you dare lie!”

  “I already admitted it.” Brynna said, and somehow, I knew she wasn't lying. “I told you the truth, Adam, when I said that I had never promised Paul I would do it. I only said I…”

  Another gunshot. Markos, a man known for growing the largest vegetables and selling them for the best price, fell forward to the ground, and my heart fell in on itself at the sound of a child’s scream. His son. They had come there together. It was only the two of them.

  “PAPA! PAPA!” The voice shrieked over and over again, until it was muffled when someone, presumably his son’s babysitter, had scooped him up and held him to her chest.

  But Markos was still breathing. The bullet had grazed his neck, and he was bleeding enough that Adam would think he was dying, but he was not dead. He could be saved.

  “Goddamn it, Adam, I did it! I did it! Is that what you want me to say? You want me to lie and say that I swore I would hand you over to them?! I did it! I swore I would do it! Now stop it!”

  “Brynna!” James looked and sounded like he might have killed her himself if he could.

  “Do not preface your confession with saying that you are lying. Tell the truth! You swore it to him! You swore to Paul that you would betray me!”

  “Adam, this is not you. The ash-circle is broken, and your rage is amplified. Smell the air. You will smell them if you just smell the air, and you’ll know that they are coming!”

  The gun fired again, this time in her direction, this time twice. The bullets burrowed into the ground right in front of her feet. She jumped back, and James roared in rage, struggling against the vines keeping his wrists bound. When Adam pointed his gun at the back of James’s head, she began speaking quickly.

  “I did it. I made that deal for my mother's life. I was going to lead both of you out of here under false pretenses into an ambush in the woods, and I was going to do it tomorrow. They'll be waiting tomorrow, but I suppose now they will suffer grave disappointment. Isn't that right? Now stop this, Adam.” She closed the space between them, “It is me you want. Just let them go…”

  Adam reached out and grabbed her hair at the back of her head. In two abrupt turns, he twisted his fist in it, and then pulled her head back.

  “You have pained me.” He whispered. “You have pained me!” He shouted in her face. “You are nothing but a traitorous whore, and I should have known!”

  On the ground, James, Elijah, and Quinn were fighting the grasp of the three Pangaean men who had just taken hold of them.

  “So, just shoot me, Adam, and let them go.” She was speaking to him softly, but we all could hear. “Let them go.”

  “Janna would never lie to me. We are husband and wife; we do not lie to one another.”

  “Of course not, my love.” Janna crowed to him sickeningly. “A false word would never pass my lips to meet your ears. Never.”

  “She said that Paul's heart was true. There was no fear in his heart when he spoke those
words, no fear of discovery. He was not lying. You did make a deal with him.”

  “I just said that I did. I admitted it. I said it. Now you can shoot me here, Adam, or you can do whatever else to me you feel is necessary, and I'll accept it if you just let them go.” Her voice dropped to a whisper, and a shudder passed through it that broke my heart. The word itself split through me like an axe. “Please.”

  “You saved my life only so you could kill me yourself. The same way you killed Donovan and Rene! Yes, I watched her smother Donovan with a pillow! I watched her eyes glaze over as she felt the last of his life draining from him, as he kicked and fought for his life beneath her! Then more recently, instead of allowing our judicial system to sort out Rene for crimes she assumed he would one day commit against her sister, she brutally murdered him, ripping out his throat and snapping his jaw. This is a dark, evil, young woman.” Adam continued, “This is a lying, traitorous beast that must be put down!” He shouted the last part in her face.

  Because Janna and I were the closest to them, we heard her whisper to him.

  “Look at me.”

  It took him several seconds, but soon, his blazing red eyes were burning intensely and terrifyingly into her sedated blue ones.

  “You stupid man...” She actually laughed slightly, “I was going to tell you everything, and ask for your assistance. I was going to tell you right after we brought Paul in. I just...” Her voice dropped even lower. “I just needed to see if it was true, about my mother. I just needed to see her. To talk to her. I needed to see that she was alright. But it was never my intention to hand you over to them. I just needed to see that she was alive, Adam.”

  Adam stared at her, and his expression had softened. He wanted to believe her.

  “Let go of her!” James was shouting now. “She's not lying to you! Let her go!”

  “So, you knew, too? My surprise is unfathomable. Janna, my love?”

  “Yes?”

  “Has she told me the truth, or has she simply lied again? The latter does come so easily to her, it seems.”

  Silence all around us. I glared at Janna, who was still kneeling in the dirt. I was ready to send an earthquake or a wildfire in her direction, or to ignore her, all depending on her answer.

  “She lies, of course.”

  Adam tapped the business end of the rifle against Brynna’s lips, and James shouted even louder. Around me, people were protesting loudly. I could hear Penny screaming for Brynna somewhere. Adam kissed Brynna’s forehead, holding his lips there for a long time.

  “Of course.” He whispered.

  It was while the gun was down that Elijah broke free of the Pangaean man’s grasp. He ran forward just as Brynna lunged forward and grabbed the gun. It happened so quickly, but I saw her and Adam struggling for it wildly, and then the gunshot cracked deafeningly through the air, and they both froze. The crowd was silenced. My eyes took far too long to register the sight before me. My brain couldn't process it, because I was sure she had been shot. And when she crumpled to the ground, and Elijah grabbed her, exclaiming in horror, I knew that she had been.

  “Are you hit? Where did he hit you?!” Elijah was shouting, and she was nodding, her breaths quick, labored, choking back sobs. Rain was pouring from the heaven because of me; I was crying hysterically, and throwing myself in the mud beside her.

  “Near my shoulder.” She somehow managed to gasp, “In my chest.”

  James had broken free and was next to her now, and she was reaching back with her unwounded arm to find him. Several others had broken free of their restraints, but they were not attacking Adam. They were attacking each other, or just screaming and sobbing, grabbing their faces, their hair, or cowering on the ground in a ball, screaming and covering their ears.

  “Mom, I’m sorry. Mom, I’m so sorry.” A boy on the ground next to us was sobbing, even though he was alone. “I love you, and I’m sorry.”

  “James... James...” Brynna was breathing, “It broke apart. The bullet.” She cried out when she tried to move her arm, “James…”

  “The ash circle has been broken!” A Pangaean man yelled, “It is broken!”

  The chaos intensified. Adam began firing into the crowd at random, just as several other Pangaeans began to rip into each other or into our people, whomever they could reach. Quinn, Savannah, Nick, and Alice were beside us, Alice clutching Penny close and keeping her eyes covered.

  “Alright, my love.” James was saying in a shaking voice, “Come on, baby. Guys, we’re going to make for the infirmary, okay?”

  “What is that? Fuck, what is that?!” Eli shouted, and he fell to his knees.

  “You gotta fight it! Eli!” James actually backhanded him in the face, and it did seem to make Eli return to his senses a little bit, “You gotta fight it!” James bellowed at him as he threw Brynna’s uninjured arm around his neck and lifted her. She shrieked in pain when he slid his arm under her injured shoulder to adjust her. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry, baby. Guys, get him up! We gotta go!”

  Nick and Quinn scooped Elijah up, and we took off running for the infirmary. A man charged us, running on all fours, and when he lunged through the air, Alice, still holding Penny, dropped down to slide on her side through the mud, while I jumped up to push him back the way he had come. He crashed to the ground with me on top of him, and I jumped up, brought my foot back, and kicked him as hard as I could in the face. I might have killed him. I still don’t know, and given how desperate I was to help my sister, I don’t care.

  Once we were inside the infirmary, I started stripping out of my muddy clothes. I was down to my bra and underwear, pulling my muddy hair on top of my head and turning the hot water tap on the sink in less than a minute. Without even cringing at the burning water, I began to scrub the mud from my hands and body until everything was sterile enough to operate. Then, I threw a long white lab coat on and buttoned it.

  “We need bandages and alcohol and tweezers and a scalpel and iodine... We need Lulling Petals so I don't hurt her...” I was rambling, and the rain, sleet, and now snow began to pour from the sky. The wind whipped into a frenzy, and I knew that the “spell” the Pangaeans were shouting about was just one of our worries. Our powers were running awry, too.

  “James, lay her down. Get her shirt off. We have to get that mud out of the wound. Oh, God…” I gasped, “Oh, God, Brynn…” There was so much blood seeping from the wound. Mixed with the mud, it was almost black. “Alright. Don’t worry, Brynn.”

  James was ripping her shirt off, and I struggled not to cover my mouth in horror. She had lost so much blood. Her wound was smothered with mud. If I didn’t retrieve all the pieces of the bullet and get her cleaned up and sewn up, she would die not from blood loss but from infection.

  Nick threw his arms around me when I started to breathe heavily. He knew my anxiety was coming very close to rendering me completely useless to my sister.

  “Remember the first episode of Lost?” He asked, “When Jack talks about accidentally hurting that girl during surgery?”

  “Oh, God… He had cut into her dural sac at the bottom of her back. God, what if something like that happens?”

  “No. It won’t! But do you remember how he said he let the fear take over him for five seconds? Count to five.”

  “Nick, that wasn’t his sister! And…”

  “Count to five!”

  I closed my eyes, shutting out the image of my sister, my protector, my mother, for all intents and purposes, in so much pain and bleeding so quickly, I thought there was no way I could stop it. I closed my eyes, and I let all that fear for her and all that sadness at seeing her in such pain consume me until tears were running down my face, and I was sobbing audibly. Then, I counted, out loud.

  And you will think I am lying, but when I opened my eyes, I saw the situation with a clear head. All I knew was that I had been training for several months for an emergency such as this. I had worked under the Dr. Luciana Miletus, who told me I was the best out of all m
y classmates. I had worked with the other Pangaean and Earthean doctors in everything from stitching a deep cut to delivering a baby. I might not have had a medical degree. I might not have even considered the medical field on Earth. But I was qualified. I could help my patient. She was not my sister; she was my patient.

  “James, I need you to scrub yourself down and change your clothes. Then, I need you to get her up and over to the sink.”

  I grabbed a bucket from the sterile storage closet and turned on the hot water. The cold tap was not producing enough cold water to dilute the heat of what had already poured into the bucket. It was scolding, cloudy from the heat, and steaming copiously.

  “James, I can’t get it to cool down.”

  He had used another sink to get the mud off of him.

  “Just… do… it…” Brynna gasped out. “Do… it…”

  “Nick, I need Lulling petals. Quinn, I need a scalpel, tweezers, and the sutures. Allie, I need you to get Penny out of here!”

  They all took off.

  “Infirmary!” Brynna gasped out. “Infirmary!”

  “What, baby?”

  “Talking… to… Rachel… Savannah… Tony… Infirmary!” She looked at us, “Do it!”

  James had a bucket, and I had a bucket. With a hurried apology, I threw the steaming hot water onto her, and she screamed in pain and thrashed on the bed as the water ran from the top of her hair down to her feet. James threw his bucket onto her and then lifted her into his arms.

  “I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry, sweetheart.” He was carrying her over to dry, clean bed.

  “We don’t have any lulling petals!” Nick exclaimed, actually grabbing two handfuls of his hair in horror. “Holy fuck! What are we going to do?!”

  “We are just going to have to do without them You need to calm yourself down. Get into another room. You’re getting infected, Nick!”

  Quinn came in with the supplies I had asked for all clutched in one of his hands. His other hand was balled into a fist, and he was hitting himself in the head with it.

  “So stupid! How could you have thought to do it?! How could you have said you were going to leave them?! What were you thinking?! So stupid!”

  “Shit. Shit, it’s getting them both.” James said, “Allie! I need you to lock Quinn and Nick into separate rooms. Allie! ALICE!”

  Alice screamed up the hallway, and then Penny came running into the room, sobbing hysterically.

  “Allie is sick! She keeps screaming for her mommy and daddy! She says they’re stuck! They got taken by shadows! Brynn!”

  “No!” Savannah arrived just in the nick of time. She scooped Penny up and carried her out into the hallway. Then, she came back and pulled Nick and Quinn from the room.

  “Have to do it without… Violet… I’m bleeding… too much… Gotta get them out… soon… not much… longer…”

  “Don’t talk like that, baby.” James said, “We’re going to fix you up in no time. You’ll see. I promise.”

  “Love you so much…” She told him, and tears started to fall from her eyes rapidly. She took a shaky breath. “I remember it… First time I saw you… So… debonair…” She laughed softly, and then cringed in pain but continued speaking, “…so… handsome… Had such a crush on you…”

  “So that thing that your parents tell you when you’re young about the people who are being mean to you actually having a thing for you is true?” He asked, “You were so mean!”

  She laughed for a second, and he did, too. When the pain of her laugh registered, her face contorted into a look of shock at first, and then she was whimpering softly.

  “Keep talking, baby. Keep talking.”

  I tried to gently cut her with the scalpel. Obviously, being gently cut is no better than being harshly cut, and even though she was weak, she did manage to cry out.

  “Keep talking, Brynna. What did you think I thought of you when I first met you? Did you read my mind then?”

  After several seconds during which she breathed heavily through her hysterical, silent sobs, she shook her head.

  “James… James…” She cried.

  “Stay with me, baby. You’re doing so well. You’re so strong, sweetheart. I’ve never met someone so strong in my life, and I’ve been around a lot longer than you.”

  “Love you… so… much… James… Fell in love… with you… so fast. Made… me… so… happy… So… so… happy…”

  “James, don’t you start crying! I’m already not fighting it, but if you lose it, I’m going to lose it, too!” I hissed at him in a shaking voice, but tears began to pour from his eyes. I pushed the tweezers into her wound, and she seized up, but was only able to moan softly.

  “Don’t talk like that, baby. Like you’re saying goodbye. You’re not going anywhere. Vi is getting the bullet fragments out and then we’re going to stitch you up and let you rest for as long as you need, and you’ll be alright again. You’ve survived worse than this, baby. Right? Think of how much you’ve survived. Long before we came here, you were surviving all on your own, because you’re so strong. You’re a fighter. I never have to worry about you, because you’re so strong. You can do this, baby. Just hold on for me. For our little girl. For both of our girls. They need you, baby. We all need you.”

  But she was so pale. Her blood was pumping out of her each time her heart beat. I was picking around in the wound to get the bullet fragments out when I should have been trying to stop the bleeding. But I think in my heart, I knew that a miracle would be needed for her to be saved. As a grim knowing similar to what she experienced every day took over me, I realized that the bullet, when it broke apart, had sent several fragments very close to her heart. I could maneuver around carefully, but by the way the blood was flowing, I knew from my limited experience in medicine that an artery had been severed.

  “So handsome…” She whispered to him, and her hand came up to rest on his cheek. Very weakly, she stroked his stubble with her thumb. He kissed her palm, his silent tears streaming down her wrist, his jaw clenched as he tried to stop himself from shedding even more.

  “In your designer suit… Scuffed up shoes… so funny… and so… brave… so protective… Felt so safe… and so… happy… with…”

  “Brynna?” James shook her gently. “Sweetheart?” He shook her a little more roughly as I quickly felt for a pulse on her wrist. He looked at me, praying, I knew, that I would say her heart was still beating, even if it was only weakly.

  “James…” I whispered, my voice barely audible.

  For what felt like ages, we were both silent and still. Everything in the world was silent and still. Finally, with violently trembling arms, he scooped her up and held her to him. He buried his face in her chest, his body trembling with silent sobs that were steadily growing more hysterical; I had never seen him cry before, and now, I was seeing him cry like that, so intensely, so unabashedly, with everything…

  “It can’t be. It can’t be.” He whispered, “Not you. Not you, Brynna. Oh, God, please… please, please not her. Oh, God, please, I’ll do anything. Please don’t take her. Don’t take her from me. Please. Please.”

  Her fingers had locked around mine before her heart had stopped. I lowered my face down onto the back of her hand, and then I cried until every part of me ached when her chest expelled one last breath. I looked up, my widened eyes searching hers for any sign of life. They were half open, their usual electric, livewire blue dulled to almost black. Her skin that had always been so pale was even paler. Even her lips were white. Her long dark-brown hair was cascading over James’s arm, fallen completely from its usual bun, staining the white sheets with thick, rapidly falling droplets of her blood.

  “She’s everything. She changed everything. How can You take her away?!” James bellowed, slamming his fist down on the pillow where her head had laid.

  “James…” I cried.

  “She is twenty two years old!” He shouted, punching the pillowcase again. “Son of a bitch! Fucki
ng son of a bitch! Fucking bastard!”

  “Brynna… Brynna… Oh, Brynn… Brynna…” I cried, and once I started, I could not stop saying her name. The door opened, and Savannah walked in, slowly at first, but then she was running to us. She stammered over her words, trying to ask for an explanation that she didn’t need. She already knew what had happened.

  “Oh, no…” She said, dropping to her knees beside me, “Oh, God… Brynna.”

  “Baby, please… Please wake up… Oh, God, I’ll do anything. Anything. Just send her back.” James was whispering through his tears, his grip on her so tight that her ghostly skin was enflamed with red lines from his embrace. “Goddamn it! Oh, God, Brynna… Please come back, baby. Come back to me.”

  “James… you have to let her go.” Savannah whispered, “Just put her down. Try to breathe. You’ve got to calm down and tell Penny. You have to let Penny say her goodbyes.”

  “I can’t let her go.” He whispered. “I can never let her go… God, Brynna…”

  “LET ME IN! LET ME IN!” Penny was shrieking, and we watched Joe get thrown from the doorway, but I did not see Penny. She moved in a blur, leapt through the air to land on the bed, and with strength far beyond her years, yanked Brynna from James, and laid down upon her chest. Her chest pressed to Brynna’s, and after a moment, she seemed to rise slightly as Brynna took in a breath. James and I looked up, in shock, with such undiluted and unabashed happiness, our tears still falling.

  “Well, what are you waiting for? An open invitation? Vi, get the bullet out!”

  Penny turned her head away when I grasped the scalpel. James went to hold Brynna down, but he didn’t have to; when I cut into her with the scalpel, her mouth opened and she breathed in, but she didn’t scream. Her eyebrows wrinkled slightly and a very soft, almost imperceptible moan escaped her when I gently dug into the wound with the scalpel. Before my eyes, the artery that had been severed close to her heart by one of the sharp bullet fragments healed.

  “Remember when you took me to the aquarium?” Penny whispered to Brynna after a slightly louder cry escaped her. James had his arm over them both, and was lying with his head next to Brynna’s. “Remember how much we loved the dolphins? And how scared I was of the sharks? They were so big, and their teeth were so sharp. You had to carry me through that part, but after we went through, I wanted to go back through again, and you took me back down to see them, and I wasn’t scared anymore. Because you had told me we were safe, and that they couldn’t get me. So I knew I could go back and see them, and when we did, I wasn’t scared. Remember how much I loved them after that? We even bought our stuffed shark, and you said we’d watch that scary shark movie someday when I was older. We did such fun things when we were back there, Brynn. We always had so much fun. Especially when it was summer, and we’d go all over the place. And now James is with us, and the three of us are doing fun things together now. Like when we go to the lake, and you say you hate it, but James makes you laugh and smile the whole time.”

  She stopped talking just as I grasped another piece of the bullet inside of Brynna.

  “Keep talking, Penny. She likes your voice. See how calm she is? Your voice calms her down.” James told her.

  “James wants to marry you. He told me. He said he’d marry you whenever you wanted to. Plus, I can hear it in his mind.”

  My head snapped up to look at her, but she didn’t see. James’s eyes met mine, and he wore a similar look of shock.

  “He loves you, Brynna. He always thinks about it, how much he loves you.”

  “Alright, I am going to start stitching her.”

  James nodded, and kissed Brynna’s head, and then Penny’s.

  “Little turnip. Spilling my secrets.” He said teasingly, and she laughed. They were quiet as I stitched the wound, allowing me to concentrate completely.

  Brynna gave a start, and as quickly as she had slipped away, she came back. Her eyes opened slowly, and she blinked around at all of us, looking confused and then panic-stricken. Her hands flew up to grab the needle I was using to stitch her up, but Savannah and Penny held her hands to her stomach.

  “JAMES!” She screamed, and I laughed in relief, because her scream was loud and strong again.

  “Oh, my God.” He fell sideways so he was sitting and scooted up so he was next to her face. His forehead pressed to hers, and every second for at least two minutes, he kissed her lips. When he pulled away, he looked into her eyes in disbelief that they were open and full of life again. “I don’t even know what to say right now.”

  I laughed again, tears streaking down my face.

  “Penny, you did it!” I told her, “You healed her!”

  “Was it you, baby?” Brynna asked her softly, kissing her head twice.

  Penny nodded and nestled her head against Brynna’s.

  “Because I just love you so much.”

  “Is that how she was able to do it?” I asked Brynna, even though I knew she was not fully recovered and more than likely not in the mood to answer my questions.

  “I don’t know.” She replied, “I think it is just an additive. Some special defect that only some people have here.” She looked back at James. “Never cry like that again. I was gone, but I… I could hear you, and it broke my heart, and I knew I had to find my way back.”

  “Stop almost dying, or in this case, actually dying, and I won’t have to cry like a girl. You gotta stop giving me these scares, baby. I’ve told you, I’m old, and my heart ain’t what it used to be, and…”

  With force sufficient enough to startle him, she pulled his face to hers and kissed him.

  “Did you really say that to her?”

  “To who?” He asked.

  “To Penny.”

  “That she’s a little turnip? Yes. You started the nickname, and I have picked it up.”

  “You know what I mean.” She started to stroke his face again, “Did you say that?”

  “Yes.” Penny answered loudly from her chest, and they both laughed.

  “I won’t say that our darling Penny was lying. How’s that?”

  She looked at him and nodded.

  “How badly?”

  “Like I’ve always said, it’s not something I need. It’s not something I ever wanted to do again. But all of this, all these times when I’ve almost lost you, or we’ve broken up, which is basically the same thing, all of that has gotten me thinking that maybe we should just do it.”

  “Do it. Do it.” I chanted quietly as I held Brynna’s other hand in both of mine. She laughed softly and squeezed my hand.

  “I think we should do whatever feels right.” James told her, “And what feels right to me right now is putting it off, but I said that one day, I want to go down that road with you, even though I thought I had never wanted to go down that road again. But if you give me another one of these scares, like a gunshot wound, some trebestia scratches, or a three-day disappearance after the city burnt down, we are going to be talking a lot more seriously about this.”

  “Damn it, you two just won’t do it, will you?” I asked as I picked up Brynna’s arm and gently moved it in circles to see how easily she could rotate it.

  “Ow! Just because the wound is sealed shut and sterile does not mean that the residual pain has dissipated completely!”

  “She’s back! Ladies, she’s back! Ladies and gentlemen in the hallway, she’s back!” James shouted, and we were all laughing again, so relieved after being so terribly devastated. In my life, I cannot remember any time besides one when I was as sad as I was after Brynna was shot. For a second, as I grasped her hand, I thanked God that I had not lost her, and that I had not succumbed to the tree-beast venom before I could help her, and that I still had not.

  “A very fine point, Violet Mae. This room is sealed, but I am sure once we open the door, we will all be affected. Therefore, I will be leaving this room, because I am immune to airborne trebestia venom.”

  “Why do you think you’re immune?” Savannah ask
ed.

  “Because much of it is still coursing through me.”

  “God, if I never heard you talk in your weird way again…” James muttered, and after Brynna sat up again, she kissed him. “Wait, what? You’re not going out there by yourself! People are out of their minds!”

  “Brynna, you’ve just been shot. You need to rest. Even if Penny healed you, there is no way that it is medically sound for you to…”

  “Who is going to close the ash-circle? If you all keep breathing in the trebestia venom, you will become consumed by it, and if we are out there when you are consumed by it, I will have to drag you all back here to keep you safe. I do not know if you have heard, but I have had my fill of carting around people for whom I care deeply on my narrow shoulders, but as it would be a necessity in that instance, I would do it.”

  “I’ll take my chances.” James said, standing up. “Vi, Penny, stay right here. Stay away from Quinn, Nick, and Alice…

  “…whom I pray were locked up by Rachel and Joe, whom I pray then locked themselves in separate rooms.” Brynna added, “I need to go check. And you most certainly will not take your chances.”

  “Won’t I?” James asked, challenging her already. “After I just lost you and got you back completely by a crazy occurrence of Pangaean weirdness, you think I am going to let you go out there and face all of them on your own? When they are crying or being afraid, they’re not a threat to you, but what about when they switch to rage? You didn’t see yourself, Brynna. I saw you, and you were ready to kill any one of us because we weren’t us to you.”

  “And what about when you switch to rage, James? Or when you do, Savannah? What happens to me then?”

  “I’ve already said it. I’ll take my chances.”

  “As will I.” Savannah replied.

  “And as a matter of fact, I think I’ll take my chances, too.” I stood up, crossed my arms over my chest, and pursed my lips.

  “It never ceases to terrify me. This seeing-double.” James murmured.

  “Shut up, James.” She said, “Who will watch Penny if you go, Violet? Are we just to leave her here?”

  “No! I don’t want to be left here!” Penny exclaimed, shaking her head rapidly back and forth and running forward to grasp Brynna’s hand.

  “But Brynna! Why do you always side-line me!?”

  “’Side-line’ is not a verb, but for the purposes of this argument, we will pretend it is. I ‘side-line’ you because I need you to look after Penny while I do my sacred dharma to these people. I know this sounds like a power trip, but it seems that no one is impervious to the venom unless they have been bitten or scratched before. I am the only one who can stop this before they all kill each other. I cannot do that if you three are trying to kill each other, or are lying on the ground wailing in grief or screaming in fear. I might not be very in touch with my emotions, but seeing any of you in pain would completely erase my ability to effectively find and eliminate this threat.”

  “Soldier…” James barked at her in a very deep, very gruff voice, “…you are a brave one. But ain’t nobody wanna be a lone wolf. Ain’t nobody can survive bein’ a lone wolf.”

  I was covering my mouth, laughing hysterically, partially at his ridiculous act and how effectively it got his point across but also how simultaneously angry and amused she was. Savannah was turned away, laughing as hysterically as I was.

  “So you gotta keep your team. Your band of brothers is all you got! Now let’s get our heads in this, and move out!”

  “Move out!” Savannah and I yelled.

  “What about Penny?!” She exclaimed, gesturing abruptly in Penny’s direction.

  “Oh, Christ, I’ll stay with Penny.” I snapped, “But you better promise that next time, I get to go with you and fight the bad guys and save the world and all that. I was the one who read comic books. I should be the one who gets to act like a superhero.”

  “Next time, you got it.” James told me seriously, and Brynna scowled darkly at him. “She’s glaring at me, isn’t she?”

  “Yup.”

  “I can feel it. In the back of my head. It burns.”

  “I’ll bet it does. It’s a nasty one. Like, really, really murderous.”

  “Oh, I know.” He kissed my forehead, “Next time, kiddo.”

  Brynna hugged me tightly and then kissed Penny’s forehead.

  “I love you.”

  She patted my cheek and smiled slightly.

  “What?” I asked, forgetting my irritation.

  She looked at me for a long time, just smiling slightly. She shook her head and shrugged.

  “Nothing.”

  She turned and walked to James, who was standing in front of the door.

  “Plug up this door after we leave, Vi.” He told me, and then, the door was closed, and Penny and I were left alone.

  “And if next time it is the attack of Medusa-meets-Godzilla-meets-Jeffrey Dahmer, she should be allowed to fight?” I heard her ask him huffily after the door was opened and closed quickly to ensure that minimal air came in.

  “I better get to fight in that!” I shouted after her.

  “Not even in your dreams, Violet Mae!”