“Come on,” I told Ellington.
I took his arm and pulled him along as Michael and I headed toward the bridge. Ellington made a soft sound of protest when the case lifted out of his hand and sailed into the air. A.J. settled it at the top of one of the weeping willow trees, where it would be safe until we dealt with Subject 6.
With Subject 6’s arrival, I had forgotten all about the case.
“Where are you taking me?” Ellington asked, the first hints of fear appearing in his eyes.
Guilt raced through me. I didn’t like that we were using this man, especially when we couldn’t guarantee his safety.
But he was our only means of finding Subject 6. Besides, Bri would make sure the Invisible was subdued before he could do anything more to the Alchemist’s mind.
“He’s on the bridge!” Michael said in an urgent voice. “He’s not coming for Ellington. Bri—he’s headed for you.”
I saw a flicker of motion. It was too faint to be a shadow, but the brush of awareness that came with it was unmistakable.
Bri stalked forward.
“No, he’s on your other side,” I said into my mike. “Bri, other—”
Bri slammed her fist…into A.J.
A.J. flew backward and struck the bridge’s metal railing. He crumpled on the concrete.
I screamed. Sounds filled my earpiece. My pulse was roaring.
A.J. rolled to his side. He was conscious, but I had no idea how badly he was injured.
I started forward, but Michael dragged me back.
“Something’s wrong,” he said. “Bri’s mind…she’s not—”
Sir Zachary growled and bit at Bri’s ankles. The dog gave a pathetic little whimper as Bri snatched hold of his collar. She lifted him up with none of the gentleness she would have used if she’d been in her right mind.
Bri’s eyes were unfocused. Her movements were jerky and stilted in a way they never were when she was her normal titanium ninja self.
A.J. was shouting, but Bri didn’t pay any attention to him. Sir Zachary cried out in pain as he tried to wriggle free. When his efforts to escape proved useless, he opened his mouth.
A gust of fire erupted from his muzzle and blasted Bri’s titanium face.
“Bri!” I shrieked.
Seeming more surprised than affected by the fire, Bri dropped Sir Zachary.
The dog fled to the end of the bridge and threw himself into a row of hedges. He burrowed under the branches and disappeared from sight.
Bri stalked after him.
“Bri, what the hell are you doing?” Yutika cried. She and Gray jumped out from behind their tree and intercepted Bri before she made it off the bridge.
Michael and I raced across the bridge toward them.
“Bri, don’t,” Graysen began.
I had to do something, but no one could take on Bri in a fight and win.
I had put all of my friends in danger by bringing them here, and now I was powerless to protect them.
Bri’s fist flew and connected with the side of Yutika’s jaw. Blood splattered through the air as Yutika’s head snapped back. Michael shouted.
No, please no.
My heart stuttered back to life when I saw Yutika twitch.
Michael threw himself at Bri. The two of them hit the cement floor of the bridge, hard.
“Gray, he’s on your left!” I shouted, just as I reached the center of the bridge.
Gray didn’t hesitate. He tackled air. I dove for the same spot, my hand catching on a sleeve I couldn’t see.
The Invisible was thin and wiry, and he almost slipped through our grasp. I clambered to regain my hold on him. At that moment, titanium flashed out of the corner of my eye.
There was a blank expression in Bri’s eyes as she pulled back her fist.
There was no way we could get past her and still hold onto Subject 6. And I wasn’t letting him go…not after everything we’d gone through to capture him. So, I did the only thing I could think of to keep hold of Subject 6 and get away from Bri.
I tangled my hands in the fabric of Subject 6’s shirt. And then I threw myself over the side of the bridge, bringing him with me.
Gray shouted my name. Then, I struck the water.
Subject 6 hit the bottom of the pond first, taking the brunt of the fall. The water was only a few feet deep, and I scrambled to my feet, dragging the smaller man up with me.
“Show yourself,” I gasped.
I saw a brief flash of color before it disappeared again. I braced myself for Subject 6 to struggle. Instead, he went utterly still.
Pain lashed through my skull.
I let go of the damp material I’d been holding and clutched my head. My brain was swelling…bleeding. I couldn’t breathe.
I collapsed back into the water, but the claws in my mind didn’t retract. I tried to scream, but my mouth filled with water. It didn’t matter; the burn in my throat and lungs was nothing compared to the agony in my head.
Please, I thought. Please.
The talons on my mind tightened.
Kill me, I begged whatever was doing this.
It was agony beyond anything I’d ever experienced. It was—
Gone. The pain was gone as quickly as it had come. My head struck the bottom of the pond, but I was too weak to lift it high enough to get air into my lungs. I was going to drown in three feet of water. All I felt was relief that whatever had been inside my head wouldn’t be able to come back for me if I was dead.
No sooner had that thought passed through my abused brain, then I was being wrenched out of the water. I heard Gray’s voice. I felt his arms around me, cradling me against his hard chest.
“Yutika,” I slurred.
“She’s fine,” Gray said. “Just stay with me, okay?”
I didn’t have the energy to formulate a response. I let my head fall back against Gray’s thundering heartbeat and closed my eyes.
“What am I going to do with you, Kai?” Gray muttered as he carried me out of the water.
“Love me,” I murmured.
“Always.” He held me tighter against him.
I gave into the exhaustion I’d been fighting and let the darkness pull me under.
CHAPTER 35
I’m so sorry.” Titanium tears plinked down onto the grass beside the pond. “Kaira, I’m so, so sorry.”
My vision cleared enough to reveal Bri, who was kneeling over me. We were still in the park, but there was no one else around. I assumed Michael was the reason for that. I sat up, groaning as a surge of nausea swept through me.
“Easy, babe.” Gray rubbed my back.
“Where’d you come from?” I asked Smith, gratefully accepting the bottle of water he handed me. My mouth felt like a desert.
“You were out for a while,” Smith replied.
Gray had to hold the bottle so I could drink, because my arms were too rubbery to manage anything except to spill it all over myself.
“What happened?” I asked.
“Subject 6,” Michael said. “I think he was doing to you what he did to the Mags on the Board to kill them.”
Now, it made sense why those Mags had died with expressions of agony on their faces. I had only endured a few seconds of that horror, and I’d wanted to die…anything to make the suffering stop.
I shivered.
“He broke their minds,” I whispered.
Michael gave me a short nod. His arms were around Yutika the same way Gray was holding me.
“I could sense what he was doing to you,” Michael said in a low voice. “I just couldn’t do anything to stop it.”
It was the same way it had been for me with Subject 6’s invisibility.
“Where’s Ellington?” I asked.
For several seconds, no one spoke. Gray was the one who finally answered.
“Dead,” he said.
Oh no.
I followed the direction of Gray’s gaze and gasped.
Morgan Ellington was floating at the edge of th
e pond no more than fifty feet from us. His head bumped against the bank with every gentle lap of the water. His mouth was open in an endless, silent scream.
“We underestimated Subject 6,” Smith said.
Gray tightened his hold on me. I sagged against him.
The only reason I’d used Ellington as bait was because I hadn’t expected us to fail. I’d been so fixated on what Subject 6 might to do Ellington’s mind that I hadn’t considered what he might do to ours.
Stupid, stupid, stupid.
I blinked away the last bits of haziness as I looked around at my friends. Yutika had a nasty gash on the side of her head. A.J.’s yellow shirt was streaked with blood at the collar. His nose was covered in dried blood, and one eye was swollen shut. Sir Zachary was lying at his feet, watching Bri with a betrayed expression in his puppy eyes. Gray and Michael were ashen-faced. And Bri looked tortured.
We were a mess.
“Bri,” I began.
My friend shook her head as more tears spilled down her cheeks.
“This is all my fault.” She was sobbing. “I couldn’t—I couldn’t control myself.”
I struggled out of Gray’s arms to go to her. Bri tried to shy away, but A.J. and I cornered her. We somehow managed a three-way hug—four-way, if I included Sir Zachary, who was squirming his way into the center.
“None of this was your fault, honey girl,” A.J. told Bri.
“Subject 6 was controlling your mind,” Yutika said. “It’s the only reason why I didn’t beat your titanium ass senseless.”
We all managed a shaky laugh at that. Our nerves were shredded, my head was pulsating, and we’d failed. After everything we’d risking…after what we’d almost sacrificed…we were in the exact same spot we’d been in before.
Except—
“The case,” I said, extricating myself from A.J. and Bri. “Is it—?”
In answer, A.J. wiggled his fingers. The case floated down from the tree where it had been.
“This better have been worth it,” Yutika said.
“There’s nothing that could be worth almost losing you,” Michael said quietly.
Yutika gave him a brilliant, gap-toothed smile. “Ha! Don’t you ever try to tell me you aren’t a romantic, buddy. I won’t believe you.”
Michael muttered something incomprehensible as he ducked his head.
My lips quirked into a small smile.
“Wait,” Smith ordered, pulling the case away from Bri before she muscled it open.
Smith pulled his poison scanner from his hoodie pocket.
“Does that work on anything besides ramen?” A.J. asked, clearly trying to lighten the mood.
Smith didn’t answer. He flipped the switch on the side of the scanner and hovered it above the case.
A horrible, earsplitting whine filled the air.
“Ah!” I covered my ears to try and dampen the sound.
The bulbous end of the sensor was flashing red at a spastic pace.
“Turn it off, turn it off, turn it off!” Yutika squealed.
Smith flipped the switch on the side of the sensor. Even once it was off, my ears continued to ring.
“So, I take it Agent S isn’t edible?” Graysen asked.
“That would be an understatement,” Smith replied. “I’ve never seen anything set my sensor off like that. Whatever Agent S is, it’s off the charts.”
“Which charts are those?” Gray asked.
“Every chart,” was Smith’s only reply.
“What do we do?” Bri asked.
“Open it,” Smith said. “Just don’t touch whatever’s inside. And don’t lose your titanium.”
The rest of us scooted back a respectable distance. We’d been through enough already; there was no need to add excruciating death by poison to the list.
Bypassing the lock mechanisms, Bri pried both halves of the case apart with one twist of her titanium hands. The case sprang open.
I didn’t know what I was expecting, but what we found was a single glass vial full of a luminous green liquid. It caught the sunlight and grew brighter until it sparkled.
“What is it?” A.J. asked, pulling Sir Zachary back before he could get too close.
Sir Zachary sniffed the air as he gave the vial a suspicious look. He sneezed several times and then curled himself up on A.J.’s lap.
“Something important,” Smith replied.
“And yet, Subject 6 let us have it,” I said.
Subject 6 could have easily mind-controlled A.J. to get the case down for him, but he didn’t. Why?
While my biggest concern was my friends’ safety, I didn’t think Subject 6 would have forgotten about the reason he made Ellington come to the park in the first place. Unless he’d had some other objective.
The vial began to rattle in the case. None of us had touched it, but the whole thing was vibrating. The liquid began to slosh around, foaming in agitation. As we watched, the liquid thrust itself against the side of the vial and stayed there, like it was straining to get out. It also remained poised in a way that was completely anti-gravity.
The vial clattered around. And then, without warning, the glass container shot out of its case.
“What the—” Bri gasped.
The glass vial latched onto her titanium arm, like it was some kind of magnet. The liquid congealed on the side of the glass that was closest to Bri’s skin. Little bubbles formed in the Agent S as it strained to get nearer to her.
“Aww, it likes you,” A.J. said.
“Yeah.” Bri pried the vial off herself. “Reminds me of Matty from middle school.”
“Careful,” Smith warned. “Whatever Agent S is, we do not want it getting out.”
“Or getting on normal people skin,” Yutika added.
“We should destroy it,” Michael pressed. “Think about what could happen if this made it into the wrong hands.”
“Michael’s right, but it might be useful to us at some point,” Graysen said. “I think we should hang onto it until we know more.”
Both of them looked to me for an opinion. I bit my lip, considering.
If the wrong people got ahold of this substance and figured out how to turn it into the Magical Reduction Potion, it would set off a new round of Slaughters.
On the other hand, we were just beginning to scratch the surface of this conspiracy. We had no idea what Agent S could really do, and there was a chance we might be able to use it to our advantage.
I turned to A.J. “Can you hide this stuff somewhere no one will find it?”
In answer, the vial detached from Bri’s arm and deposited itself back in the case. The case shut with a decisive click. The whole thing shot into the air, disappearing into the sunlight.
“That was weird.” Bri brushed her arm in the place where the vial had affixed itself.
“So, what do we do now?” Yutika asked.
I didn’t have an answer to that.
I’d never felt so helpless in my entire life. Any sympathy I’d felt for Subject 6 had been burned away. All I felt now was rage.
He had hurt the people I cared about most. He’d killed or mind-melded every member on the Board except Pruwist. If we didn’t do something, Subject 6 might hurt a whole lot more people before all this was over.
“We have to figure out a way to get Subject 6,” I said.
“Right now, we need to go back to Smith’s house,” Michael said in an unyielding voice. “We need to let Older Smith take a look at your wounds.” He gestured to Yutika, A.J., and me.
Aside from a fuzziness around the edges, my thoughts seemed like they were in working order. I knew Michael was right, though.
“Fine,” I said.
It felt like admitting defeat.
“I’m wondering why Subject 6 didn’t kill all of you,” Smith said as we got to our feet.
“Comforting thought,” Yutika said, leaning heavily against Michael.
“I mean, he could have ended Bri and Kaira like that.” Smith snapped hi
s fingers. “And if he wanted, he could have made Bri obliterate A.J. and Yutika with her punches.”
“Shut up, Smith,” Graysen growled.
“Are you sure Pruwist has no idea why this guy’s after the Board members?” Smith persisted, ignoring Gray’s death stare.
Michael shook his head. “He has no idea.”
“And are you sure you asked Pruwist about whether he had any connection to MagLab?”
“We asked,” Graysen said. “He doesn’t know anything.”
Our van was parked a few blocks away, and Yutika, A.J., and I weren’t in walking shape. Even Sir Zachary had a slight limp, which was upsetting A.J. more than anything else that had happened. So, Yutika drew us a new van. This one was a police vehicle, complete with a siren so we wouldn’t have to worry about getting pulled over on our way home.
All of Yutika’s vehicles had fake license plates, so the abandoned cars we left all over the city could never be traced back to us. I always wondered what the cops thought when they picked up a mostly-new van with untraceable plates and no key that would fit the ignition.
While Yutika finished up with the van, I made the anonymous call to the cops and told them where to find Ellington’s body.
Gray lifted me into the back of the van and belted me in, because even that small task was more than my body was up for. I stared out the window as Michael drove right out of the park, feeling like we’d lost our only chance of capturing Subject 6.
CHAPTER 36
You idiots just don’t quit,” Older Smith grumbled.
After I’d been shot, I had been too out of it to have any idea what Older Smith was doing to fix me. Now, as I watched him hover his hands over Yutika’s head, I marveled at the way her gash just disappeared. A.J.’s broken nose and swollen eye were the same. With the exception of some dried blood on their skin and clothes, I couldn’t even tell they’d been injured.
“And you.” Older Smith turned his glower on me. “Do you have a death wish, or something?”
“Tell me about it,” Graysen muttered.
Older Smith rested his fingertips on my brow. A warm, tingling feeling spread through my skull. The lingering fuzziness and ache disappeared. I felt better than new.
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