The Last Hero (Book 2): Rise of the Ultras

by Blake, Matt

We landed. I felt the ground smack into my side as Ellicia landed onto me. Her mouth was still covered by duct tape. Tears rolled down her cheeks.

  I looked around at our surroundings. Mountains. Trees. A little village in the distance, where people tended to their cattle. One of the islands I’d rescued when I’d destroyed Krakatoa. One of the places where I’d earned the trust and respect of the natives.

  Which is exactly where Ellicia needed to be right now.

  I put my hands on her arms. She flinched as I moved towards her, her eyes wide and confused. I knew then why. She knew who I was. She knew I was Glacies. And she was afraid.

  “It’s me, Ellicia,” I said, as if that was gonna do any good. “Please. It’s me, Kyle. Let me take the tape off.”

  She hesitated. Held herself back. But this time, as I moved my hand to the tape, she let me pull it away gently.

  “That’s it,” I said. “You’re okay now—”

  I felt a crack across my face. “Get away from me!”

  I watched Ellicia run away. I saw the fear in her eyes, and it made my heart sink. Here she was, the girl I loved, the girl I’d spent so much of my life trying to convince to love me back, treading through the tall grass in a place she didn’t know where she was to get as far away from me as she possibly could.

  “Wait,” I called.

  Ellicia fell. Her knees landed in the dirt. I caught up with her. Sat by her side. And as I did, she punched at me. Kicked at me. Spat at me and threw soil at me. And I let her. I let her do all this without repelling the pain because I deserved to feel this way. For keeping my true identity a secret for so long. For trying to live two lives.

  If I hadn’t lived two lives, Ellicia wouldn’t be in this kind of danger. She wouldn’t have had to go through what she’d just gone through.

  Eventually, she stopped kicking and punching. I held her arms. “Please,” I said. “Just hear me out. Just hear me out…”

  She wrapped her arms around me and cried before I could even speak. I put my hands on her warm back and I cried too. She was burning up, so I made my hands a little cooler as we stood there in the Asian sun, some of the villagers down below starting to take notice of us.

  She backed away. Looked at my Glacies bodysuit. Then back at my face. She stroked the suit, then moved her hand up to my face and stroked that, as if it was a mask. “You’re him,” she said. “You’re really him.”

  I shrugged. Forced a smile. “Sorry to disappoint!”

  I realized my attempt at humor was lame and well out of place. But it was something. It was an interaction between us.

  As much as I didn’t want to admit it, Ellicia and I weren’t going to be interacting much after today.

  “Why didn’t you…?”

  “Tell you? Because I was afraid. Partly, anyway. Another part… well, I didn’t want to accept that I had to be Glacies. Because believe me when I tell you that Glacies doesn’t want anything bad to fall upon the world. I don’t want anything bad to fall upon the world.”

  “You saved me,” Ellicia said. Her breathing was speeding up, and her cheeks were whitening. “From the party. The school party. And—and then from Daniel when he was in my house. You saved me.”

  I nodded. “I did what I had to do to keep you safe.”

  Ellicia shook her head. Staggered backward. “God. Oh, God.”

  “I’m sorry,” I said. “I’m sorry I was never honest with you. In all truth… it’s because of what being honest meant. For us.”

  She looked me in the eye again. “What does being honest mean for us?”

  I opened my mouth and felt my Adam’s apple quivering as I prepared to say the words I knew I had to. “We can’t see each other. Not for a long time. It’s… it’s not safe. For you. For you or Damon or Avi or Dad. All of you need to lay low. Until it’s over. Until I’ve dealt with Saint.”

  She stood there shaking her head, like she was taking it all in. “When you said goodbye. When you told me you and your dad were going away. You were saying goodbye then. I knew it. Weren’t you?”

  I looked at the grassy ground and nodded just the once.

  “Kyle I… I can’t just let you walk away. Not now.”

  “You have to,” I said.

  “I won’t let you.”

  “And I won’t let you follow me.”

  She looked at me like she didn’t recognize me. And that was the hardest thing to take at all.

  “There’s a village down there. Helpful people. They helped me get back to strength after my battle with Nycto. After I saved their village and their island from Krakatoa. They owe me a favor. I’ll get your family here. You’ll be safe here. And then when the world’s safe for you again, I’ll be back. I promise.”

  I turned around and wiped a tear from my face. I couldn’t have the conversation anymore.

  “And when will that be?” Ellicia asked.

  I opened my mouth. But I knew I couldn’t answer. Saint and Orion’s war had raged for three years and had been raging behind the scenes even longer as the pair planned their next moves, unbeknownst to the other. I wanted to lie to Ellicia. To tell her I wouldn’t be long. But I was done with dishonesty. “I really don’t know.”

  I stood there for a few seconds. Breathed in the warm air. If I cleared my mind enough, I could convince myself I was still just Kyle Peters. That I didn’t have ULTRA responsibilities.

  But I did. It was who I was. And I had to accept them.

  I felt a hand on my arm.

  I didn’t want to look into Ellicia’s eyes again because doing so was painful. But still, I turned around.

  She smiled at me now. I saw that look she’d given me when I’d seen her at the soccer stadium before all the madness happened with the gunmen. I saw the way she’d looked at me before we’d known each other properly, and I felt like we were learning to know each other all over again.

  “Let me come with you to wherever you’re going,” she said.

  I wanted to say yes. I was touched that she’d asked.

  But I knew it wasn’t possible.

  “I can’t do that, Ellicia.”

  She tightened her grip on my arm. “I want to. If I want to, you have to—”

  “The world’s not safe,” I said, sternly. “And it’s not going to be safe as long as Saint is out there. The world needs me. People need me. Even if they don’t think they do… they do.”

  She lowered her head. I knew right then that I’d broken her argument. She was usually so good at getting back at me. For the first time since we’d got together, I’d left Ellicia speechless.

  “You’re safe here. And as long as I’m alive, you’ll be safe. That’s a promise. But right now… I need to go, Ellicia. I need to fight. I’m so sorry.”

  She looked up at me. I expected her to argue back.

  Instead, she pulled me close and pressed her tear-tasting lips against mine.

  She backed off. I could smell the sweetness on her breath, and felt that icy sensation up the back of my neck when her eyes met mine. “Come back for me. Please.”

  I felt my teeth chattering and pretended it was the cold. “I will,” I said, holding eye contact with Ellicia, precious eye contact.

  “Promise?” she asked.

  I stepped away. Looked back over the mountains, at the island. “I’ll get your family here. You’ll be safe. And I’ll be… I’ll be back for you.”

  “Promise, Kyle?”

  I cleared my throat. “Promise.”

  I stood there for seconds, maybe minutes, not saying anything. Just waiting. Waiting for the right moment. Waiting for the moment to disappear.

  “Bye, Kyle,” Ellicia said.

  I turned back. Looked into her eyes. Her gorgeous blue eyes. Her chocolate brown hair. Her beautiful face.

  I felt another tear hit the top of my lip, and I knew, staring into Ellicia’s eyes, that right now was the time.

  “Goodbye,” I said.

  I held my breath. Embraced all the upset, all th
e pain, inside.

  And then I disappeared.

  Ellicia vanished in front of me.

  But she’d never vanish from my mind.

  Never.

  49

  I never thought I’d fly above the world as it ended beneath my feet.

  The morning sky was dark. It was always dark these days. Especially dark when Saint was on his way to a city, or when he’d just visited a city.

  It was just after Christmas, but there hadn’t really been a Christmas this year. People were too terrified. Too afraid. Some of them imprisoned, as Saint led his trail of chaos and destruction from city to city.

  He told the world that he was doing it for their own good. That the ULTRAbots would keep them safe, just as he’d told the world the very same thing when he’d masqueraded as Mr. Parsons. But I saw what this was. Everyone saw what this was.

  Saint was taking over the world. He was breaking city after city, country after country, away from civilization, imprisoning everyone in their own little cell.

  And he was moving fast.

  “Are you ready for the next move?”

  I heard Orion’s voice beside me. I turned to him. Looked at his dark, masked face.

  I looked back down at the swathes of ULTRAbots below as we floated high in the sky. It was like watching an army of ants move between nests. If I fell right now, I could walk on the backs of them.

  But there were too many to deal with. Way too many to deal with alone.

  I looked past Orion. Looked at Stone. At Vortex. At Roadrunner and Ember, and at the one hundred and something ULTRAs who’d stood by Nycto’s side just weeks ago. We were together now. We were the Resistance.

  Or at least what was left of it.

  “We have a war to fight,” Orion said. “We have to be in it together. Completely. All of us. For better or for worse.”

  The loss of Aqua and Slice left a bitter taste in my mouth. They’d been cast aside needlessly. Two pointless losses. Two good ULTRAs. Losses that would haunt us all forever.

  I knew there would be more losses. We all knew there would be more losses.

  But I was determined to keep those losses as low as I possibly could.

  I wasn’t going to give up. I wasn’t going to let their deaths be for nothing. I wasn’t pretending anymore.

  I was Kyle Peters. Not Glacies. Not some false identity.

  I was Kyle Peters, and I was an ULTRA.

  This was my life, whether I liked it or not.

  “Kyle?” Orion asked.

  I looked back at Orion again. Then at the rest of the ULTRA Resistance. I saw them all looking at me. Waiting for me to give the call. To say the word.

  Then I looked back down at the ULTRAbots below.

  “I’m ready,” I said.

  Want More From Matt Blake?

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  The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author. Any reference to real locations is only for atmospheric effect, and in no way truly represents those locations.

  Copyright © 2016 by Matt Blake

  Cover design by Damonza

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