The last of my rage seeped away and I was left broken. I released the Chancellor from my hold and she stumbled forward several steps. The cold smile grew on her face as she realized my decision.
I drank in each of Markan’s features as he walked toward the laser weapon I’d pulled out of his hands earlier. His jaw had become more pronounced, his shoulders broader. He was becoming a man. I should have tried harder to get him out of the Community, should have done so many things differently. I felt the exhaustion of the past two days and every inch of pain from all my wounds. I was dizzy and lightheaded. This was it then. This was how it ended.
The Chancellor grinned wickedly. She’d won, and she knew it.
Markan was only a few steps away from the gun now. I didn’t stop him. I inhaled several quick breaths as I fought to hold on to consciousness. Death had always seemed far away even though I’d come close so many times. But it had never been so certain before. One moment alive and thinking and breathing, and the next, a cold slump of a body on the ground.
But no, I couldn’t think about that. It was life that I should be celebrating. Markan would live, and I believed the Chancellor would keep her promise to keep the others in my group alive. They had such valuable Gifts after all. It would be in her best interest to keep them safe.
Markan’s fingers closed around the gun.
But then suddenly a burning red light erupted from the center of the Chancellor’s chest. Laser fire. The Chancellor fell to her knees and looked down in disbelief as the red stream cut off. It had blasted a fist-sized hole through her chest.
“No!” I shouted, not understanding what was happening. I looked back at my brother, terrified I’d find a similar hole through his chest, but he was unharmed. He did not crumple to the ground. He didn’t even look like he was in pain.
The Chancellor had been lying after all. Their lives had never been linked.
My eyes flew back to her. She blinked and her body twitched a couple times. Blood gurgled up out of her mouth.
Then another burst of light came from beside me. Markan had fired his weapon, but not at me. At first I thought it had been him who’d killed the Chancellor somehow and now he was firing at her again, though I could have sworn he hadn’t even had his arm raised at the time.
But when I looked back at the Chancellor, suddenly it all became clear.
A body materialized behind her, covered in blood.
“Max!” I screamed.
My brother’s weapon had sliced Max across the lower part of his abdomen, completely severing the top half of his body from the bottom. It must have been the Chancellor’s last command to Markan before she died—to kill the person who had killed her.
I ran over and dropped down beside Max. He’d been invisible, but she must have still figured out that her attacker was right behind her. Markan dropped the laser weapon the next second, stepping back in confusion. “Zoe?” he asked in a small voice from behind me.
I ignored him and tried to use my telek to keep Max’s blood from pumping out of his body all over the floor. The laser had cauterized as it cut, which helped, but not enough to stop some of the largest blood vessels. Max gasped in shock, his eyes open wide.
“Max, hold on,” I said desperately. “Just hold on, we’ll get you fixed up.” But even as I said it, I wasn’t sure it was true. Blood spread in a pool where his body was sliced in half. I clamped as many arteries shut as I could, but he’d already lost so much blood in the few moments it had taken me to realize what was happening.
I just had to get him back together again. I tugged the bottom half of his body over with my telek and tried to line it up with the top half like a gruesome puzzle. Then I threw my mind forward until I was lost in the mass of tissue and vessels, trying to knit them back together with my power.
But I didn’t know how, and there was just so much. I was already pulling on vapors at the end of my power reserve to keep the Regs back. Maybe if I got the important vessels—
“Zoe,” Max rasped out.
I kept working, trying desperately to fix him. I bent over him as if proximity alone would help. My brother and I were alive, and Max was alive, and if I just fought a little harder … One of my tears splattered on his cheek. “Max, you stay with me—”
“Zoe…” He coughed and blood spurted from his mouth.
“Shh, Max, don’t try to talk!” I whispered. I lined up his spine and matched several large blood vessels, holding them flush together and trying to force blood through them.
Max looked up at me, his face pale and his eyes glassy. I’d barely studied human anatomy, I didn’t know what I was doing, but I kept trying to work my way through the material of his body.
“I told you … I could be…” he rasped out, pausing with another choking fit and then continuing, “… a better man. I came to kill her. Keep you safe. But couldn’t get inside till you came. Followed, but so many Regs…” He expelled a long breath. Talking was taking every last ounce of strength, I could see it.
“Stop talking. You can tell me all about it later. You’re going to be fine, Max,” I said, still working as fast as I could. But my control was slipping. Several arteries I’d clamped off had pulled back open again. There was so much blood on the ground already. Too much.
“I’m not,” he said, his eyelids fluttering weakly.
He was right, of course. I finally stopped trying to piece him back together and just held everything in place for as long as I could. Even with all my power, there was no way. The pool of blood I sat in grew larger every second. Sobs wracked my chest as I took his face in my hands.
“You are a good man,” I said. “I always knew you could be.”
His eyelids fluttered again, and I could tell he was fighting to hold on a few more moments.
“So you … forgive … me?” he gasped out, only a whisper.
“Yes.” I nodded my head furiously. “I forgive you.”
“I love you,” he said with his last breath, and then he stilled. The eyes that had been so full of life and always chasing after more were now horribly vacant.
I crumpled, sobbing into his unmoving chest. I’d been so angry with him for so long. I’d hated him for the things he’d done. But he’d been telling the truth the last few months. He, like me, had been searching for redemption.
And he’d come here. He hadn’t run away to save himself like we’d all assumed. He’d been practicing expanding his power so that he was totally and completely invisible to people with powers like mine … and the Chancellor’s. Her compulsion hinged on her ability to sense the minds of those near her. Max must have become so proficient that he could make himself invisible not only from sight, but also from mind.
But even he couldn’t sneak through locked doors. He must have followed me in, but had to hang back. It was his decision to come here that had been the hinge of Adrien’s vision.
I wiped my eyes, smearing Max’s blood on my cheek. He was my first friend, and I’d always felt he was part of my true family. That had never meant much to him; he’d always wanted more. But there were times when it had been everything to me.
I sat back against the wall, exhausted and dizzy. For a second my telek blinked out and I could feel my throat start to swell shut. My eyes shot open again. It took me a few gasping moments before I managed to eke out a little more power to keep my mast cells intact. But my hold was wavering. I’d taken out enough of the Regs that they piled up in the doorway and for about ten more feet beyond. I couldn’t even imagine how Max had managed to sneak his way through them.
I could feel other Regs pulling away the crumpled bodies, cutting their way through. I wouldn’t last much longer. I turned my eyes back toward my brother.
“Markan,” I said. He still stood frozen where he’d fired the weapon. He hadn’t moved the entire time, he’d just watched everything with his face contorted in confusion. I waved him over. Halting, almost hesitating, he made his way toward me.
“You don’t know how
good it is to see that you’re safe.” More tears ran down my cheeks. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to stand up, so I dragged myself across the ground away from Max’s body toward Markan. “I’ve thought about you so much all year, wondering if you were okay. I’m sorry I didn’t come back for you. I should have, no matter what.”
He stepped back and watched me like I was an animal about to bite him.
“I won’t hurt you,” I said. I stopped crawling and rested my back against the wall. I probably looked terrifying crawling across the floor, covered in Max’s blood. And who knew what lies the Chancellor had filled his head with? Or maybe she hadn’t even bothered. Maybe she’d compelled him constantly, giving him no room to think for himself at all. It was more her style.
After a few more seconds, he nodded and sat down beside me. I reached forward and hugged him hard with my good arm.
The second I touched his skin, though, I yelped in surprise. The dim buzzing of my telek became instantly as loud as a howling screech. I expanded beyond the room, beyond the compound, and then for miles and miles around until I was reeling from the flood of information. I could feel the long coast stretching on in both directions, and the miles of trees and hills behind me that eventually became mountains. Then there were the cities full of people. So many souls squirming in bodies like ants in an ant pile.
Markan pulled away abruptly and stood up. “You just want to use me like she did.”
My heart beat rapidly at the shock of being encapsulated back in my body again. He backed away from me.
“What was that?” I asked, astonished.
“You don’t know?” He sounded cautious.
I shook my head.
“It’s my power.” He nodded toward the Chancellor with an infuriated look. “She called me an Amplifier. She kept me with her all the time. Always with her cold hand locked around my wrist.” He shuddered.
I stared at him in astounded shock. So that was how she’d been able to compel my team from hundreds of miles away. And how she’d cracked so many Rez cells so quickly over the past few months.
“It’s okay,” I said. “She can’t use you anymore. I just wanted to hug you. It’s what I’ve wanted for so long.”
“Everything feels…” He looked around at the blood and the bodies on the floor before looking back at me with a face as bewildered as a child’s. “So much.”
My heart broke as I watched him. He hadn’t had time to sort through all the emotions that came with glitching, that was clear. He’d never had the chance. The Chancellor must have pounced on him almost as soon as he started showing anomalies.
The noises beyond the clogged-up door were louder now. The rest of the Regs would be here any moment. I was barely keeping my mast cells in check. I wouldn’t be able to stop them. My head drooped against my chest. Markan stood a few feet away from me, still looking disoriented.
“Move to the other side of the room,” I said, gesturing with my good arm. “Stand straight against the wall. Don’t panic when they come in. They won’t have kill orders for you. You’re gonna be just fine.”
“But—” he started. There was no chance for him to finish. Several Regs had pushed through the blockade. I tried to send my telek toward them, but I absolutely had nothing left now. I was only managing to pull on the tiniest thread to ward off an allergy attack, and that was all I could do.
They raised their forearms, weapons gleaming in the stark overhead lights.
“Shut your eyes!” I shouted to Markan. “Don’t watch!” I didn’t want him to have memories that turned to nightmares like I’d had of watching our older brother die in front of me.
Then I shut my own eyes and waited for the blasts to slice through me. If they aimed for my head, it would be a quick enough death.
One second passed. Then another.
Was I dead? Had it happened so quickly that I hadn’t even realized I’d shed my mortal body and now my soul was going wherever it was that souls went? But no, I still felt the pain in my back and thigh. I peeked one eye open.
The Regulators had stopped their assault. They stood halfway in the room, their eyes full of wonder, with strange awed smiles on their faces.
It was such an incongruous expression paired with their weapon-encrusted arms, for a second I could only stare.
Then I heard a voice. “Zoe! Are you down there?”
Adrien. It was Adrien’s voice.
“We’re here!” I shouted back, still staring at the Regs in confusion. Then it hit me. The team was here. And Amara was with them. She must have cast her web of bliss over the Regulators. I almost laughed at the absurdity of it. She’d overcome these programmed killing machines by giving them an overwhelming taste of joy.
“Zoe! Where are you?”
“Bottom floor,” I shouted back. I hauled my exhausted body off the ground and went over to my brother. My legs were weak, but knowing Adrien was close gave me one last burst of strength. Markan looked more confused than ever. I reached toward him and took his covered elbow so he would know I wasn’t trying to touch him for his power.
“Come on,” I said, laughing with relief and a sudden giddiness. The Chancellor was dead. Help was here. We’d won. I led Markan forward and together we moved through the smiling Regs, closer and closer to the stairwell door.
“Zoe?” Adrien called again, his voice closer now.
“Here!” I shouted back.
We finally got to the threshold of the door. Adrien hurried down the steps, elbowing his way past Regulators. I did the same and we met at the bottom of the stairs. He threw his arms around me and lifted me up off the ground in a giant hug.
“Ow,” I said, laughing even though it hurt. I couldn’t believe he was here. That I was here. That I’d survived.
He immediately put me back on the ground. “I’m so sorry I stabbed you. She took over and I couldn’t stop it.” He pulled back and finally got a good look at me. His eyes widened in fear as he took in my blood-soaked clothes. “Oh my god, Zoe, what happened?”
“It’s okay,” I said, lifting my hands to his face for a brief moment as if to make sure he was real. “It’s okay, I’m safe now. Most of it is Max’s blood. He didn’t make it.” A wave of grief swept over me again, but I tried to swallow it back. There would be time for grieving later. “And there’s someone I’d like you to meet.” I gestured behind me for Markan to come forward. “This is my brother.”
Adrien nodded a greeting to Markan. “And the Chancellor?”
“Dead.” Now that it was all over, the exhaustion was getting the better of me. My legs gave out, and Adrien only barely caught me before I hit the ground.
He spoke into his arm com. “Ginni, have you found Jilia yet?”
Ginni’s voice responded. “Yes, in one of the cells on sublevel four. Rand is melting the door open as we speak.”
“Get her to the top of the stairs. Zoe’s in bad shape. Xona, Juan, see if you can find an infirmary or anything that might have some epi so she can sleep safely.”
Adrien swept me up in his arms and started to head back up the stairs. I looked over his shoulder and waved at Markan to follow us. We threaded our way slowly through all the still blissed-out Regulators and continued up the stairs.
Pain radiated through my body with each jarring step. I could feel myself on the edge of consciousness.
“Adrien.” My voice must have radiated my fear, because he started going faster. And then, right when I was sure I couldn’t handle another step, sure I was going to pass out from exhaustion and pain, we stopped and came into the larger open space of the ground floor.
When we got there, Jilia was waiting. She immediately rushed forward. Adrien laid me on the ground, gently maneuvering me to my side and pulling away the bandage so Jilia could see my back wound. Then her calm, cool hands were on me.
I winced and let out a small yelp. Her touch stung at first, but then the pain lessened and lessened, until I could barely feel it at all. Adrien eased me onto my now-healed
back and rested my head in his lap. Jilia moved on to my burned thigh, then to my broken arm, knitting the bone back together, and finally to the wound on my forehead. I sagged back against Adrien once she was finished, the pain only a dull soreness.
He and Jilia stripped off my dirty, bloody clothes, and helped me into a clean tunic Jilia had brought from the prisoner’s quarters. I was too exhausted to be embarrassed. Once I was changed, Adrien cradled me against him.
I heard other footsteps come into the room, but couldn’t stop staring up at Adrien’s face. It all still felt surreal, like a dream. He looked at the others who’d come in. “Did you find any epi?”
I finally dragged my gaze over where he was looking.
“No,” Xona said, “but we found something better.” Rand, standing beside her, held up a silver box. “Tyryn was in the cell beside Jilia, and he said he thought the Regs had brought all the gear from their crashed pod back when they took them prisoner. We broke into storage and found it all. Including one med container in perfect condition.”
Adrien leapt up and within moments they’d set it up. Xona helped me stand up and get me situated in the box.
“There’s so much to tell you all,” I mumbled tiredly.
“It can wait,” Adrien said firmly.
“But—”
He took my face in both his hands and leaned down to plant the gentlest kiss on my lips. “You are worn-out and broken and battered, and I can see you’re about to pass out any second now. So do it someplace safe, here in the med container.” He planted another whisper-soft kiss before pulling back. “I love you, Zoe. Now go to sleep.”
He clicked the lid closed and, in spite of myself, I settled back onto the inflated pillow. I made sure to stay awake long enough for the vacuum process to finish clearing all the allergens out of the space and start pumping in fresh oxygen, but within a few breaths after the beep signaled the air was clear, I was fast asleep.
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