by Sarra Cannon
“I’m fine,” Zoe said. “Stop worrying about me so much.”
But there was a smile in her voice. Parrish couldn’t wait to throw her arms around that little girl. She would never let her go again.
They said goodnight and arranged a time to meet up again the next day.
They followed that same pattern for two more nights, with David doing reconnaissance for Crash during the day and reporting back everything he saw, and with the guardians practicing their abilities.
Sometimes, they practiced in a group, sparring and testing each other’s abilities, and other times, they each practiced on their own.
They’d fallen into a habit of meeting up by the pool each morning around sunrise to meditate and stretch. It had been Karmen’s idea, but it calmed Parrish’s nerves. She’d never tried yoga before the pandemic, but she’d always been drawn to the poses.
There was something about the group yoga that made them feel more connected, too. Like breathing together and joining in the same poses synced them up somehow.
She liked it.
Of course, it was funny to watch Crash try to do some of the more challenging poses.
“What?” he said, laughing. “I’m not as flexible as you guys are.”
Parrish saw him out there practicing and stretching a few times a day with Karmen, though, and he was getting better quickly.
As for their abilities, everyone was getting stronger by the hour, it seemed, and all of them were anxious to unlock more of their memories and powers before New York.
Parrish, for one, had been working on her fire magic. She’d first connected with the ice side of her abilities, and it was the part of her that seemed to come more easily.
But when she embraced her anger and focused on some ember of passion deep inside, she was able to draw up the flames and sparks of her fire side.
Karmen worked with her on this a little bit, and after a while, Crash joined them. By the second evening, all three of them could conjure flames in their palms. Parrish could create sparks of flame on the blade of her sword, too.
Crash was the only one who could create lightning, though. He was working on trying to light up the bullets in his gun with lightning or electricity of some kind, too, the way she did with her sword, but so far, all he’d been able to produce was a few tiny sparks here and there.
He’d found some extra ammo in the garage of the house next door, but he said he didn’t want to waste too much practicing it. Instead, he started spending time working on an ability he called lightning daggers.
“I dreamed about it a couple nights ago, so I’m pretty sure I can get it to work,” he said.
When Parrish wanted to work on her ice abilities, she worked with Noah.
Both of them could now draw up frost with a single thought and spread it to anything they touched.
They practiced with the sand on the beach, placing their icy palms deep into the sand and watching as each grain froze over. After a few hours of practice each morning, they’d both been able to stretch that frost about fifteen feet in front of them.
What was cool was that they also realized if they cast the spell while holding hands, they could make it spread wider and farther than before.
Once they realized their abilities could be amplified when they worked together, they started practicing combinations and patterns that might help them get through a large horde more quickly.
They explained this to David on the second night, and he surprised everyone when he gave them some tips on how to work as a group once they got into the city. He might have only been a kid in this lifetime, but there was no doubt he had some experience coming up with strategies for survival and battle.
The next day, the four of them spent most of the morning working on the formation they planned to use once they got to New York City. It was hard to imagine exactly how it would work once there were rotters surrounding them, but at least they had a general idea of what they planned to do.
Only time would tell if it actually worked, though.
In the evenings after the sun went down, they were all way too exhausted to keep training, even though Parrish wished she could. After all, their success or failure in New York held the fate of at least two worlds. They couldn’t afford to screw this up.
Noah convinced her that they were more likely to screw up if they were too tired to fight, though, and she had to admit that she’d been pushing a little too hard.
Each night, they’d all stayed up together for a while, playing in the heated pool and letting loose. Crash even pulled up a few movies on the big screen TV, treating them all to a rewatch of the entire Matrix Trilogy.
Karmen had popped some popcorn and passed out big heaping bowls to each of them, along with a few beers.
For a while, they’d all been able to forget the world had ended. They were just a normal group of friends hanging out at the beach.
Later, as Parrish stood on the balcony of her temporary bedroom overlooking the sea, tears involuntarily cascaded down her face. She attempted to wipe them away as Noah joined her.
“I thought you were sleeping, already,” she said, sniffing and putting on a smile as best she could.
“What are you doing out here so late?” he asked, draping a blanket over her shoulders. “What’s wrong?”
“It’s stupid,” she said, turning away to watch the lights of the cruise ships in the distance.
“How you’re feeling isn’t stupid,” he said softly, rubbing her back. “Just tell me.”
She took a deep breath.
“Is it crazy to say that the last few days have been some of the best of my life?” she asked, the tears falling again just from admitting it out loud. “I mean, I know it’s crazy. Everything about the world right now is horrifying, and I’m sad and scared, and I wish everything was different. But at the same time, there’s something nice about being here with you guys.”
Noah put his arm around her.
“It’s not crazy at all,” he said. “I know exactly what you’re feeling.”
“You do?” she asked, wiping the tears from her face again.
God, she hated to cry in front of anyone.
“Of course,” he said. “It’s like, yeah, I miss my dad like crazy. I miss playing baseball and hanging out with my friends. There are days I still can’t believe Aaron’s gone or that I’ll never see him again. But at the same time, being here with all of you feels like coming home again.”
She nodded, glancing up at him and feeling his words to her core.
“That’s exactly how I feel,” she said. “Except I never had an Aaron. Would you believe me if I said I’ve never once sat down with a group of friends, or even my own family, and watched a full movie before?”
He studied her and shook his head. “That can’t be true,” he said. “Your parents never sat down and watched a movie with you on a Saturday night?”
“Not once,” she said. “And I know it’s so trivial, like poor me in my fancy suburban neighborhood watching movies all alone in my room, but still. Tonight was nice. For the first time maybe ever, I really felt like I belonged somewhere.”
“We’ve always belonged together,” he said, placing his hand on her face. “I was just too chicken to ask you out, but I wish I had the very first time I thought about it, years ago. I wish I’d gotten up the nerve to walk next door with a bouquet of roses or something and just asked you to dinner. Or even to just come sit with me on the steps and talk about life, you know? I wish I’d taken you to a dozen movies.”
She laughed, moving closer to him.
“Me, too,” she said.
He leaned down, then, and kissed her.
Twenty-Eight
Noah
How long had he wanted to kiss Parrish Sorrows? Years, maybe.
Centuries.
She’d always been the one, even before he remembered anything about their past. His heart had always belonged to her. Why had he been so scared to ask her out for all these
years?
He’d wasted so much time worrying what his friends would think, scared she’d reject him anyway if he asked. All of that seemed so ridiculous now.
So pointless.
That was one thing the apocalypse had taught him.
When it came down to it, worrying about what other people thought of you was a waste of your life. Being true to yourself was all that really mattered.
And the one truth of his life was standing right in front of him.
In the moonlight, her beauty took his breath away. He loved her, and in a couple days, he could lose her forever.
Not just for this lifetime. For eternity.
It struck him so hard, he couldn’t stand to let another moment go by without making sure she knew just how he felt.
It didn’t matter if he’d told her in a thousand lifetimes. He wanted her to know now.
And always.
“Parrish, no matter what happens when we get to New York, I need you to know that I love you,” he said. “And not just in an end-of-the-world-panic kind of way. In a true, core of my heart, could-never-love-anyone-else, would-die-to-protect-you way. Even without our memories of who we were back in that other world or how we met or came to fall in love in the first place, I know without a shadow of a doubt that you are the only person I’ve ever loved. The only person I ever could love. You are my eternity.”
Her eyes filled with tears as her arms circled around him, pulling his lips to hers.
“I love you, too,” she whispered.
Noah never knew that kissing could feel like this. Like being set on fire, but also like coming home. Electricity and comfort at the same time. He felt her fingers dig into his back, pulling him closer.
He wanted her. Hungered for more. He wanted to lose himself in her softness and her warmth. Maybe they could make each other forget the horrors of losing their families and watching people feast on flesh.
They spent the entire night in each other’s arms, holding on as if their lives depended on it, and praying for an eternity of nights left together like this.
In the morning, they didn’t join the others by the pool. Instead, they stayed in bed until late afternoon, talking and making up for lost time. Noah felt a little bit guilty about taking time away from their practice to stay in bed all day, but later, when they finally emerged to attend their nightly meeting with David and Zoe, he let go all of his guilt.
“We go tomorrow, then,” Crash said. “We’ll get the boat ready tomorrow and plan to head to New York day after tomorrow, so long as we get the go-ahead from you.”
Noah’s stomach knotted, and he gripped Parrish’s hand a little tighter.
“I’ll contact you with the final plan before noon,” David said. “And hopefully, we’ll all be together in just two more days.”
“Good job, David,” Parrish said, but her voice wavered as she clutched Noah’s hand just as tightly. “Stay safe, and we’ll see you both at noon tomorrow.”
When they said goodbye, Noah and Parrish locked eyes for a long moment.
This was it.
Tomorrow they would put their final plan together, and the next day would decide the fate of everything.
But no matter what happened. Noah was glad they would always have this time together at the mansion on the beach.
Twenty-Nine
The Witch
It had taken the witch days to lock onto the fifth’s general location, but she was sure she at least had the right borough now.
At first, she’d only been searching in and around Manhattan, wrongfully assuming that he never would have been able to travel far with a small child like Zoe.
He’d been using his powers more and more over the past few days, though, and the witch had gradually tracked him over the bridge to the Bronx.
Since he was traveling over rooftops, instead of on the roads and sidewalks, it was trickier to follow his movements. He jumped around too much, and his trail was sporadic. He was testing her, she was sure of it.
But she would show him. It would only take another day or two before she found where he was hiding out with the girl.
What surprised her most, though, was that the guardians hadn’t come to the city to rescue the little girl. Parrish had seemed so obsessive about the child that the witch had felt certain they’d come to the city as soon as possible.
Was it possible it was really just taking them this long to get here?
Or were they up to something?
The witch couldn’t afford to mess up again, which meant that Zoe was not leaving this city. Not alive, anyway. She had to make sure of it.
So, while she had her rotters and trackers keeping an eye out for the fifth, she spent her time setting traps all over the city. She couldn’t be completely sure where the guardians would go once they got up here, but there were only so many options. Half this city was destroyed, so if they tried to come over on one of the bridges, they very well could be stuck somewhere, trying to find a way onto the island itself.
Her traps should keep them occupied, though. They’d barely survived the few pets she’d placed in that hospital back in Philly, and compared to some of the special ones she’d learned to create with her new, enhanced powers, those little things were nothing.
The Dark One would be proud of her work here.
A warm feeling spread through the witch’s chest. Yes, she would make her mistress proud, and when it was all over and the little girl was delivered to her, the witch would be rewarded with even more power than before.
She would be blessed beyond her own imagination.
She would finally get what she deserved. What she’d dreamed of her whole life.
Laughing, she grabbed another rotter by the throat, forcing her magic into his body through its open mouth.
She’d learned a while back how to turn these despicable creatures into her pets without ever having to touch them, but she liked the physical act of forcing them all into submission.
And before the day was done, she would do it a hundred times all over the city.
When her work was finished for the day, she stood on the rooftop of one of the tallest buildings in the city and looked out over her domain.
Yes, the Dark One would be so proud.
Thirty
Zoe
David was late.
He’d told her very clearly not to panic and that under no circumstances should she look out the window or try to come onto the roof to look for him.
For the past hour, it had taken all of Zoe’s willpower to follow those instructions. Something was definitely wrong, and she wasn’t sure what to do about it.
She nervously tugged on her sleeves and bit at the soft flesh around her thumb nail.
He’d left so early this morning, and he said he’d be back in just an hour or two. He wanted to head toward the river to take a look at the ships and debris to see if there was a clear path for Parrish and her friends to come through on their boat.
That shouldn’t have taken all morning. Not with the way he was able to fly around.
Most of his trips the past few days had taken an hour or two at most. He should have been back by now.
Being alone again was messing with her head. Panic kept swirling around inside her, and she’d bitten the inside of her lip so many times, she tasted blood.
She’d managed to be alone in that hotel room for who knows how long without losing her mind, but having someone else to talk to and hang out with for a few days had changed everything.
Not to mention the fact that now she knew for sure her sister was on her way and about to head to the city. She was so close to feeling safe again. So close to believing she could survive.
Was it really possible she could see her sister by tomorrow? Be hanging out with her and a whole group of people by then?
It didn’t seem real, and Zoe wanted it so badly, she was scared she would ruin it somehow.
It was like when she got nervous before a performance.
&
nbsp; When she was younger, she used to let those nerves get to her. Sometimes, she could play a piece perfectly a dozen times in practice, but she would still worry herself sick about messing it all up in performance.
Then, it was like she made it happen by worrying, because sure enough, she’d get up there on stage or in the audition and mess up the parts she’d never once messed up in rehearsal.
There was no sense behind it, except that she’d psyched herself out and sabotaged her own performance.
Or at least that’s what her teacher told her she was doing.
They’d had to work on that aspect of performance more than her actual technique sometimes.
Her mother would say, Perfect technique means nothing if you can only do it in practice. Performance is the only time it matters. Fail in performance, and you might as well always be a failure.
It had been a difficult lesson to learn as a five-year-old back in the day, but Zoe had put her whole heart into mastering her own worry and fear.
By the time she was eight, she had figured out the trick.
All she had to do was learn to trust herself.
When she worried, she wasn’t trusting her own talent or her joy. She wasn’t trusting her practice and the ability of her hands and body and fingers to remember the music. She was trusting her fear.
And fear always betrayed you.
It was in its very nature to betray.
Instead, she had learned to trust her joy. Her pure passion for playing and creating. Over time, her music had become an extension of herself, so when she stood on stage to play, there was no fear. Only trust.
The funny thing was, this was not a lesson she’d learned from her mom or dad. They were both amazing musicians, but neither one of them had ever reached the level of fame and notoriety they deserved.
Zoe’s mom had stopped performing professionally over the past few years, but it hadn’t taken much to understand why she’d never been chosen as the lead soprano at the Metropolitan for a show like La Traviata or Madame Butterfly the way she’d always dreamed.
