by S. S. Segran
“This is restaurant,” she reminded him. “Still have some food.”
A delighted grin unfolded across Victor’s face as she passed him a few of the flaky pastries. The muscles in cheeks and the sides of his head hurt at the strange tugging, and it occurred to him that it had been a long time since he’d smiled a proper smile.
The pair did their best to converse in broken English and even more broken Spanish as they devoured their snack, but mostly they enjoyed each other’s company. As dawn crept over the city, Paloma yawned and stretched. Had Victor not happened to glance her way, he would have missed her fingers sliding the cigarette pack into one of the many smaller pockets of his bag. He huffed a short laugh.
“Doña,” he reproached, digging the box out and passing it back to her. “I appreciate it, but I really shouldn’t.”
As he moved to rezip the pocket, something within caught his eye. His heart shot into his throat and disbelief momentarily swayed his vision.
Paloma scrunched her eyebrows at him. “Okay? You okay?”
Victor hoisted her up and planted exuberant kisses on her cheeks, thrice each. “Gracias, Doña Paloma. Un millón de gracias!”
She stood like a feral cat that had been surprised by too much affection, arms frozen. Victor scooped up his belongings and slipped through the hatch, descending into the restaurant.
Maybe there’s still some hope left, he thought as he reached the bottom. The smile that had surfaced with the arrival of the polvorones emerged once more as the image of a gray-eyed teenager with dark hair and a firm set to her expression appeared in his mind.
Sneaky girl. She was one step ahead of us all. And this could bring me one step closer to them.
Mariah crouched, head barely peeking past the glass to peer down at the cages in the darkened antechamber to the circus. “Are we sure this is a good idea? Kody’s in there by himself, and if something goes wrong, he’ll be trapped with Jag.”
Aari, hands hovering over the control panel beside her, licked his lips, Adam’s apple bobbing. “It’ll be fine. We just need to get Jag into one of the cages and we’ll be good to go.”
“I don’t like that Kody’s the bait.”
“Me neither,” Tegan said, propping herself against the wall on the other side of the controls, gaze fixed on the lone figure below. “But with him, Jag might let his guard drop.”
Mariah rubbed the gauze that had been taped on her upper arm. They had all gotten rid of their trackers with Mokun’s help and retrieved Kody’s to bring along. Mokun had guided them up a set of stairs leading to the island’s topside, leaving them to execute the plan while he held off the guards that were sure to follow Jag.
Below the elevated control room were rows of holes in the ground. At Aari’s command, cylindrical bars would rise almost twenty feet from within, locking into the concrete ceiling. The place was set up with ease of configuration in mind; sections could be lowered and raised depending on the need to form cages of various sizes. When the friends arrived, they found a number of cages already made. They’d slapped together a hasty plan that sounded simple enough—lead Jag through the maze as he focused on Kody, then trap him. The bars were a few inches in diameter, constructed of high-strength alloy that they hoped would hold him long enough for Mokun to arrive and neutralize him.
“Good luck, Kody,” Mariah said under her breath. “Fingers crossed Jag’s in a benevolent mood.”
Kody paced in small circles, his hearing tuned to the outside of the building. Frighteningly quick footfalls drew closer. He raised a hand to the others, signaling Jag’s approach, then faced the facility’s back exit. Seconds later, the metal doors flew open, a sound like the crack of thunder echoing off the walls. A silhouette stood in the moonlight. White teeth flashed. “Kode-man.”
The tone was friendly but Kody’s skin prickled. He took a few steps back, and Jag followed. “Let me go, Jag.”
“There’s nowhere to go. Haven’t you seen this place?”
“Jag—”
“Let’s get you back to the CUBE, brother.”
Kody started to move backward, winding around the sections of bars already erected, never taking his eyes off Jag. The other boy’s attention was locked on him, which was what the friends wanted, but Kody now had severe doubts about the whole plan. There was something off about the cordiality of it all. Jag was too calm, too friendly. It was different from the gentleness he’d experienced before.
He’s angry. Kody’s breath scraped for exit in his chest. His shoulder bumped one of the bars as he rounded a corner, and he backtracked faster. Jag kept pace, all the while speaking in tones that grew more rough—water about to boil over scorching heat. “Kody. If you make this hard, I won’t be responsible for what comes next.”
“You always have a choice what to do.”
“I’m being nice, but I don’t have to be to get what I want. We’ve known each other longer than we’ve known almost anyone else, so I’m offering you that courtesy just this once. Throw it away and I’ll put my fingers around your throat and drag you back to that chair before you can open your mouth to beg.”
“If you were still you,” Kody spat, “you’d never talk to me that way.”
“Friends are a luxury. Reyor made that clear from the beginning, which means she’s being incredibly gracious with us. I’d rather have you by my side than not at all, but if you want to be difficult, then I’ll do what I have to.” Jag paused, sweeping his hair back, and cast an eye around the place. “Where are the others, by the way? Their trackers were left in their room, but they’re nowhere to be found.” His gaze slid back to Kody, suspicious. “Are they here?”
Kody groaned inwardly. He’d lost Jag’s undivided attention. Gig’s up. Time to go.
He turned on his heel and ran.
Jag roared and took off after him, slamming into a few bars when Kody made another turn. It bought him two seconds at most, but that wouldn’t be enough. He wheeled into the next corner on his left but found the sides and his escape ahead blocked by bars. He spun around.
Jag was already there, watching him with an icy smile. He stepped into the enclosure. “What did you think you were gonna accomplish with that?”
Immediately the bars behind him shot up, trapping them both. Jag glanced back, then scanned around them as he approached Kody. He located the elevated control room in one corner of the darkened building and smirked. “I can’t see anyone,” he called, “but I’m betting I know who’s hiding up there.”
In response, another set of bars rose from the ground between the boys. Jag’s eyes widened in rage. He threw himself at the metal rods, shoving an arm through the gap.
Kody retreated, his back hitting the barrier behind him. “Aari! Get me out of here!”
The sound of struggling motors answered him, followed by a pitched whir and the clanking of metal—a universal sound indicating something was stuck.
Jag, realizing he would only hurt his body if he kept flinging himself against steel, grasped two bars and started to pull them apart. His lips twisted in a snarl so cruel Kody half-expected fangs to curl out of his mouth. The rods in Jag’s hands creaked, giving under his strength. Meanwhile, the bars against Kody’s back still weren’t budging. “Aari! Open the friggin’ cage!”
Aari’s voice flooded from the intercom system. “There’s something wrong with the motor! It won’t budge!”
Kody unslung his staff and extended the lethal tips, his sweaty grip already making it hard to hold. “I can’t fight him if he gets through!”
The gap between the bars widened enough for Jag’s head to snake between. His pupils devoured the amber of his irises. “Damn right you can’t.”
With one final pull, the bars snapped. Jag kicked the remnants loose and crossed into Kody’s cage, fingers flexing. Kody lashed out with his staff but Jag dodged with a duck and a spin. Fast as lightning, he made a grab for the weapon. Kody had anticipated the move and arced it just out of reach before bringing it down ac
ross Jag’s legs. The blade cut through his pants but didn’t rake the skin.
“Even now, you’re trying to not hurt me?” Jag sounded incredulous.
“You may be a lunatic, but you’re our lunatic.” Kody swung his staff around, trusting the blades would deter Jag from coming closer. The motors’ struggling reached a fever pitch. There was a clang, followed by the sound of something letting go. The bars started to descend with agonizing lack of haste.
“Can’t you make it go any faster?” Kody yelled, sidestepping toward the corner of the cage as Jag blocked off the rest of the enclosure.
“It’s at full speed!” Aari cried. “It’s the stupid motor underground; I can’t fix it from here!”
“Eyes on me, Tyler,” Jag said. “I’m you’re only way out of here. You get one last chance to take my offer, because it’s you, and I want to be generous.”
Kody whirled the staff toward Jag’s head. “Buddy, take your generosity and shove it up your—”
Jag caught the weapon in a two-handed grip, just below the blade. The taunt died on Kody’s tongue. With rising terror, he watched as Jag ripped the staff out of his hands and snapped it in half, letting the pieces fall to the concrete floor. He prowled up, boxing Kody against the bars.
Kody puckered his face. Oh, what the heck.
He struck Jag square on the left eyebrow. Jag’s head fell back before snapping upright. A thin trickle of blood trailed down. In the next second he had his hands around Kody’s neck. “Wrong move.”
Kody’s windpipe constricted, precious air escaping in a gasp. The others were screaming in the control room, Mariah at Jag to let Kody go, Tegan at Kody to fight back. Aari was cursing the controls with every name under the sun.
Kody struggled, uselessly digging his fingers into Jag’s hands. He’s supposed to take me alive. He won’t kill me. He won’t.
But as he looked into the face of his friend, he wasn’t so sure.
Then Jag was hauling him back toward the haphazard entrance he’d made, hands still locked in place as though Kody weighed nothing. As he neared the barrier, Jag suddenly lurched and staggered, off-balance. “What—”
“Let him go!” came a furious shriek. Jag turned, affording Kody a view of the scene behind him. Tegan and Mariah stood on the other side of the intact bars, faces flushed. Mariah had both arms raised and repeated her command. “Let. Him. Go.”
Jag gave her an unkind smile. “Are you trying to take over my body? You’re not strong enough. Even that trick took Saiyu decades to master.” His expression gorgonized and his gaze cut to Tegan, who was as silent as she was still. “What are you doing?”
Her eyes slitted.
“Get out.” His lips stretched further, this time a warning. “Get out of my head.”
“You’re a difficult one to find in the novasphere, Jag Sanchez,” she said. “Reyor taught you how to hide yourself?”
A flash of panic raced behind Jag’s smile. “How did you find me?”
“I didn’t. We’re trying something different.”
One by one, Jag’s fingers pulled away from Kody’s neck. Air, sweet air, seeped in. Kody scrabbled backward, closer to Tegan and Mariah. Jag was fighting his own body as the girls combined their abilities to take command of him, fear shattering his gruesome smile.
“This is my body!” he roared. “This is sacred! You can’t invade someone like this!”
“It isn’t what we wanted!” Mariah spat, trembling. “But you’re too dangerous and we can’t have that!”
Jag thrashed his head, the cords in his neck pulling as he fought to break free of the invisible restraints shackling him in place. Then, with one massive thrust, he threw his hands out. Doubling over and heaving for breath, he sneered at the group. “Nice . . . try. Maybe next . . . time . . . practice . . . a little more.”
The bars were halfway down—only ten feet left before they would be fully retracted.
“Again!” Tegan shouted.
Jag lunged toward Kody. He got within inches of him but was jerked to a halt, suspended in mid-air. He clawed at nothing until his arms, too, were pinioned. He stared right at Tegan and Mariah. “I hope you remember this,” he hissed. “I hope you remember how you betrayed, how you violated the body of someone you’ve known all your life, who protected you, looked out for you, who always had your back. I hope guilt eats you up from the inside and every night as you try to sleep, you remember my face and what you did to me. Made me a puppet, controlled my strings.”
Mariah looked pained, bordering chastised. Tegan took a step closer. “You’re already a puppet, and Reyor’s got your wires. You dance for her like all the other little monkeys. When we cut your strings—and we will if it’s the last thing we do—we’re going to smother you in so much love you’ll drown, because I know this is what will be eating you up in the nights to come.”
His mouth peeled back in a mockery of a grin. “I would never have pegged you as a softie, Tegan.”
“No. But I know kindness.”
The bars finally retracted all the way into the floor. Kody grabbed the two halves of his staff. “How long can you keep him in place like this?” His voice came out ragged, and it hurt to speak.
“I’m surprised we’re still holding out,” Mariah said. “Where’s Mokun? He said he’d be here as soon as he took care of the guards.”
Tegan wiped her nose. Her fingers came away red. “Something might have happened.”
Kody lifted her chin and brightened his vision to examine her in the low light. “You’re bleeding.”
“I know. ’Riah, too. Don’t know how long we can keep this up.”
Aari’s footsteps clanged down a set of metal stairs and he joined them a few moments later. “We can’t wait for Mokun. We need to move Jag to the main area while we can. Are you two able to do that?”
“I can’t move him,” Mariah replied through a grimace. “But we can keep him restrained. You’ll just need to drag him in.” She looked up at Kody. “Are you okay?”
“It’s been a rough few months, you guys,” he grumbled.
“We need a nice, long break. You especially.”
Jag laughed. It was unpleasant, a shadow of the real thing they were familiar with. “You can’t keep this up. I don’t think you’ve combined your powers like this before. Time is on my side. At some point you’ll need to let go, and I’ll be rounding you up to send you straight back to the CUBE.”
Mariah and Tegan lowered him to the ground. Kody wrapped his arms around Jag’s feet, acutely aware that if the girls’ concentration slipped, he would be flung back with a rib-cracking kick. Aari, at Jag’s head, grabbed him by the arms. Mariah threw out a hand and the wide double doors leading into the circus flung open.
“I guess this is the big ol’ post Mokun wanted us to tie him to,” Kody huffed as he and Aari rested Jag on the dirt in the center of the arena.
“There’s no way we can hold him down for another minute,” Mariah gasped, dropping to her knees. “This is too new to us. Jag’s right, we don’t have enough practice.”
Tegan crouched beside her, chin sinking to her chest, a hand on the other girl’s shoulder. “We’ve never practiced this, period. Up until a few minutes ago, I didn’t know it could be done.”
Aari pinched his bottom lip between two fingers, eyes darting to the entrance on the other side of the circus. “We never did figure out what to do if something happened to Mokun.”
“I’m not sure there’s anything we can do,” Kody said.
As if on cue, the old man appeared in the doorway, his clothes spattered with blood. The friends started. “What happened?” Aari exclaimed.
“Jag didn’t call too many guards to join him, thankfully,” Mokun answered as he approached. “But it’s only a matter of time before someone realizes they’re missing and comes looking.”
“But what happened?”
“The guards fought hard. So I fought them harder.”
It was a rude reminder that th
e man before them, tentative ally though he may be, was still ruthless. Mokun removed a few lengths of something black from his pockets, then stood beside Jag where he lay rooted to the ground. “Hello, Mr. Sanchez.”
“So you really are alive,” Jag said. “How?”
Mokun hoisted him up with ease and started fastening the straps around him, securing the teenager to the sturdy center post that held up the roof of the building. Jag observed him closely. “Was it your ability? The one you said could mend things but not people?”
Mokun’s eyebrows rose a hair’s breadth. “I hadn’t even thought of that.”
“Was it the black crystal?” When Mokun didn’t answer, Jag chuckled. “That’s good information. I’ll have to let Reyor know.”
“You always puff out your chest when you’re feeling over-confident. Or scared.”
It was the first time Kody had seen them interacting, and what a strange sight it was. Jag almost looked like a teasing mentee. Mokun bore no expression, but Kody got the sense that there was a guarded fondness for the boy hidden somewhere.
“Will those straps hold him?” Mariah asked.
“They’re graphene,” Mokun said. “So it should.”
The girls released their hold, groaning in respite.
“Graphene again?” Aari said. “Isn’t that what your new monsters are made of?”
“Indeed. It’s incredibly useful. We use it instead of cables for our construction work, and we infuse it into some of our structures to reinforce them. It can carry two hundred-ton beams, so it should definitely be able to hold Jag in place while we get to work.”
Jag’s look of self-assuredness wavered. “Get to work doing what?”
Tegan smiled thinly. “If you didn’t like us having control of your body earlier, you’re going to hate us for what’s coming next.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
She stepped back, joining the others as they stood in front of him. A strange expression rippled across Jag’s visage. “No.” He writhed violently. “No! How? You’re not supposed to be able to get into my mind!”
