Shouts from the surrounding buildings thin out, until I’m aware of a keen silence across the observatory deck, and nothing but white noise beyond that.
I stare down at my chest.
A dark plume has spread across the front of my shirt. It seeps into the material like a deadly flower opening its petals.
I can feel something tunneling inside me—the tiny bullet—spiraling its way through tendon and muscle and fat, navigating past my organs and the blood rushing through my veins.
It feels like a sparkler has gone off inside me. No pain—only sharp crackles and pops as the bullet tears through my chest.
The shot exits my back, ripping a hole the size of a dime through my flesh, dinging off a piece of the metal fencing along the edge of the observation deck.
The sound wakes me up, returning life to a normal speed.
The middle of my back, where the bullet exited, begins to itch. My entire body is covered with a prickly sensation. The blood that has been seeping out of my chest slows to a trickle. The ravaged skin around the bullet hole simmers; the wound expels a loud hiss as the skin heals itself.
I run my finger over the wound, but it’s solid pink flesh. I feel my back: it’s as if I’ve never been shot.
Hunter grabs my shoulders. “You’re alive,” he whispers into my ear. “How?”
Kyle is clearly shocked as well. “Aria. You’re still … here.”
“Yes,” I say. “I am.”
His pistol still trained on me, Kyle gives me a tight-lipped smile. “Impressive,” he says.
Hunter steps out from behind me, extending an open hand to Kyle. “So, about Aria’s plan?”
Kyle glances nervously from me to Hunter and Turk, then to Thomas. To my side, Jarek has emerged from his hiding place; he strides toward us with confidence, which only makes Kyle more nervous—he aims the gun every which way, until finally, he sighs and shoves his free hand into his pocket. He leaves Hunter’s hand dangling and turns to me.
“I gave you plenty of chances to come around, Aria,” Kyle says. “And you talk a good game—I’ll give you that. But your view of the future isn’t my view. And it’s certainly not our father’s.” He removes something small and black from his pocket and clips it over the barrel of his pistol. “If you’re not with me, Aria, then you’re against me. And if you’re against me, then you leave me no choice.”
Kyle raises the gun in the air and fires off a shot. A burst of red billows in the sky, mixing with the smog and forming a layer of light pink clouds that hover over us.
“Is that your idea of a light show?” Turk asks sarcastically.
Kyle grimaces. “Guards!” he yells. “Attack!”
They come from everywhere.
Soldiers descend on us, dressed like Kyle, in black uniforms with my family crest sewn over their hearts.
They burst through the doorway, heavy rifles in their hands. They pull themselves over the fence along the edge of the observation deck. I look closely and see ropes knotted to various sections of the rail—how did I miss those before?—as soldiers climb up from the sides of the building and tumble onto the deck, spreading out to surround us, waiting for Kyle’s commands.
They plunge down from the sky, dropping out of open windows and off the bridges in the Aeries and triggering parachutes that balloon open into crimson canopies that carry them down, toward us.
One of the soldiers presses his gun into the small of Turk’s back.
Hunter raises his arms, about to blast him and start an all-out brawl, when Kyle makes a tsking noise. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you. Look around.” There must be nearly a hundred of my father’s soldiers on the deck.
“Ninety-five men,” Kyle says, as though he can tell what I’m thinking. “With two hundred more on backup.” He points his gun at Jarek. “Aria, you must have ingested a ton of Stic to heal that quickly. Should we play a game and see if your friend here can do the same?”
“No,” I say. “Don’t hurt him, Kyle.”
Kyle scratches his head with the tip of his pistol. “Oh, Aria. You love to play the patron saint of whininess. No more of that. Mom and Dad are on their way. They’re going to collect you and bring you home. We’ll deal with the fallout from all of this like rational human beings, instead of following your mystic everybody-is-equal mumbo-jumbo.” He lets out a sharp breath. “Everybody is not equal.”
“I’ll second that,” Thomas says. I’m surprised he hasn’t been more vocal. That he’s letting Kyle call the shots. No doubt he’s considering his options, biding his time. Knowing Thomas, he has something up his sleeve … I’m just not sure what.
“I’m serious, Aria.” Kyle sticks two fingers in his mouth and whistles—a piercing shriek. Every soldier on the deck steps forward menacingly, closing in. Kyle is actually grinning. I’m sure this is giving him quite the thrill.
The guard who has his gun in Turk’s back throws him to the ground, and drags him over to Kyle. Two other guards cover Jarek, yanking his arms behind his back and pushing him headfirst to the stone floor.
“Aria,” Hunter says. “What do you want to do?”
But I can barely hear him.
I feel even stronger now, like I could break an entire bridge in half with my bare hands.
My vision is sharper than ever. I can see every grain of dirt on the deck, every crevice and line, every thread in the Rose family crest on the uniforms. I can make out the faces of all the guards, the curve of their eyes and the slant of their noses, whether their lips are thin or thick, their pants wrinkled or crisp, their boots too tight.
I can see all the way down to the canals. I can even make out four men crowded into a gondola, hands cupped to their mouths, shouting, “Peace! Now!”
My arms and legs weigh nothing. I am made entirely of air, of energy.
Nothing inside me hurts. There is no longer a single bruise on my body. I could break a human skull with one fingertip. I could rip through a man’s chest with two.
I have so much strength inside me that I don’t know what to do with it.
I’ve got to let it out or I might explode.
“There’s no escape,” Hunter whispers into my ear. “I came alone—I didn’t bring any of the rebels because I didn’t think I’d be leaving here alive. But I didn’t know you’d show up, Aria. I won’t let your parents take you from me.” He glances toward the edge of the deck. “Maybe we should just throw ourselves over and hope we can figure something out on the way down.”
I stare at the wrinkled parachutes scattered across the roof like used candy wrappers. If they can bring soldiers from the Aeries down here, why can’t I go up there?
I meet Hunter’s eyes—eyes the color of pure water, the most beautiful blue. I take his hand in mine, intertwining our fingers.
I no longer get a jolt of energy when we touch.
But he does. “What—”
“Shh,” I say. “Let’s not jump off the building. I’ve got a better idea.”
I squeeze his hand and close my eyes. Up, I think.
The burning starts in my toes. It shoots up my feet, into my legs, twisting through my entire body and filling me with light. I am dead and alive—someone is poking me with fire and chilling me with ice.
My skin bristles with goose bumps.
My body smolders with heat.
My toes feel like they’re resting on a thousand burning coals.
I open my eyes and thrust my free arm into the sky. Jets of electric green energy blast from my fingertips.
Kyle’s gun clatters to the ground. “Holy …”
The soldiers stare at me. Out of the corner of my eye, I think I see my parents opening the metal door to the observatory deck.
Go, Turk mouths to me. I’ll be fine.
Hunter’s mouth is agape as I take his hand and together we rocket into the sky.
Fog twists itself around us like thick curls of smoke.
We fly up, past the Damascus steel beams that support the Aeries
, past the crowds of people waving their hands and hollering, lingering along the bridges and outside the light-rail stations, past the shiny glass wrapping around the skyscrapers that shoot toward the heavens like silver beanstalks.
It is not the first time I have soared through the Aeries. Before the battle that led to his mother’s death, Hunter and I walked through walls and dropped through ceilings. More recently, I have traveled on webs of light. I have jumped to the Depths and landed in the canals below. I have even been caught midair by a camouflaged motorcycle.
But I have never been the one in charge.
I am leading Hunter through the clouds. I am letting out energy like steam heat.
My hand is a burst of green light, shiny rays piercing the sky like laser beams. They are an extension of me; I control them completely.
“This is incredible,” I say, glancing back at Hunter. He’s holding my hand as we rise into the blue-gray sky. All around us the city sparkles, each building like a cut diamond, reflecting light every which way, showing us the splendor of Manhattan. Even ravaged, the city is awe-inspiring.
I can’t tell from Hunter’s expression whether he’s excited or terrified. He says something in reply, but the wind erases his words.
A few hundred feet away, I spot a sleek, tiered skyscraper that reminds me of my parents’ apartment building on the Upper West Side and the rooftop where Hunter and I used to meet. I head toward it and begin to slow down as I reach the top, pulling Hunter with me onto the rocky gravel.
Nearly half of the roof is encased in glass, a greenhouse full of leafy plants and multicolored flowers. The rest of the roof is covered with blue and white pebbles, which crunch beneath our feet as we land. I flex my fingers, and the green rays dissipate as if they were never there to begin with. I stare at my hand, but it looks the same as it always has. The burned skin has healed completely. I rip off my wig and its cap and toss them on the roof, letting my scalp breathe.
“What did you do?” Hunter says. He stares at me curiously. “Aria?”
“I—” How am I supposed to say this? Hunter and Davida were childhood friends. They were engaged, supposed to marry—until he met me. How will he feel about what I’ve done?
Best to come right out with it. “I ate Davida’s heart.”
Hunter steps back in shock. “You what?”
“We found her heart,” I say. “Turk, Jarek, and I. It was being sold on the black market. Kyle was after it.”
“So the smartest thing to do was eat it?” Hunter runs his eyes up and down my body. “All of it? Are you insane? We need to get you to a healer—”
“I’m fine,” I say, waving off his concern. “I’ve never felt better in my entire life. This is what Davida wanted.”
Hunter raises an eyebrow. “How could you possibly know that?
“She left me a note,” I say. “In her reliquary. She wanted this to happen. Don’t be angry with me.”
Hunter stands still for a moment, arms at his side. Then he shakes his head. “I’m not angry with you. I love you, Aria.”
He takes my hands in his, pulling them to his waist. I reach up, underneath his shirt, resting my palms on the smooth skin of his back. Hunter tugs me even closer to him so that our chests are pressing together, our two hearts beating as one.
This is the man I love, I think, but then I correct myself. This is the man I loved.
Hunter drags his fingertips up my arms, circling his hands behind my head. He kisses my neck, my chin. His breath is hot on my face. Our noses meet, and he rubs his forehead against mine.
Our lips touch.
“No.” The word comes out softly, like an afterthought, so quietly I wonder if he even heard me.
But I can tell by the look on his face that he did. “What’s wrong?” he asks.
“Everything,” I say, pulling away from him.
Hunter sighs. “Why don’t you start with one thing?”
“Landon’s dead,” I say. “It was my fault. Elissa Genevieve killed him, but I was the one who brought him there, to that warehouse—searching for Davida’s heart.”
“It’s not your fault,” Hunter says quickly. “You didn’t—”
“It doesn’t matter who did it,” I say. “He went there because of me.”
“I don’t understand.” Hunter looks genuinely bewildered. There’s a smudge of dirt on his cheek. I want to wipe it away, but I don’t. “You’re upset about Landon. So am I. But what does this have to do with us?”
I step away, feeling the pebbles beneath my feet, and stare out at the city. “I don’t know who you are anymore, Hunter.”
“Don’t say that,” he says. “I’m me. I just … lost my head. I was so pissed about my mom, and frustrated, and upset—all I wanted was to make things right. But I didn’t see what was right for the city. I wanted blood, the blood of all the Aeries monsters who stole my mother from me, and who stole so many other mystics from their families, too.”
I understand the fury in his voice, but it frightens me.
“I’m sorry that I let my mother’s death cloud my sense of what’s right and wrong,” Hunter goes on. “You didn’t know us together. When we met, I was already living underground. But she was still my mom—the woman who took care of me when I was little, my biggest supporter.” He starts to choke up. “She was the one person in the world who looked out for me. She wanted a better life for me than she’d had. That’s why she was running for office. So I wouldn’t have to hide. So I could keep my powers and live my life out in the open.” Hunter gulps for air. “She wanted that for me and for every mystic.”
I take in his words. There were times when my mother was my protector, but my memories of that part of my life have almost completely faded. The mother I remember is opportunistic and selfish, a woman who would rather live secluded with her riches in the Aeries than open her eyes and see what’s going on in the world around her. A woman who lied to me, who stole from me. Who nearly killed me.
Hunter’s mother is dead. I don’t envy him for that. But in a way, my mother is dead as well. And at least the memories he has are joyous ones.
He strokes the top of my head. “I’m better now, though,” he says.
“No one can get better in an instant, Hunter,” I say. “You betrayed me. I understand that you weren’t yourself, but that doesn’t make it all right.”
He stares out at the sky, then turns back to me. “So you’re just … what? What’s happening?” Hunter asks, gulping. “Is it over between us?”
This moment is so surreal that I almost laugh. Hunter is the best thing that has ever happened to me. The love of my life. My soul mate—I truly believe that. Only too much has happened. Too much has changed.
So I open my mouth and say the most difficult word I have ever had to say: “Yes.”
“I don’t believe this,” Hunter says, holding his head in his hands. “I just don’t. I thought we were forever.”
“I thought so, too.” I wipe tears from my eyes. “But I can’t be with you right now. As much as it breaks my heart.”
“This isn’t how our story is supposed to go,” he says. His voice quavers and I have to hold back my sobs. I don’t want to break down in front of him. “You’re just going to give up on us? After everything we’ve been through?”
“Maybe one day—”
“No maybes,” Hunter says. “Either you love me and we figure things out, or you never loved me at all and it’s over.”
I shake my head. “I have always loved you. I still love you.”
Hunter begins to smile.
“But it’s over.”
Hunter reaches down, grabs a handful of pebbles, and hurls them into the sky. “No!” he screams, and the sound echoes off buildings.
I blink away more tears. Maybe I wasn’t the perfect girlfriend. But Hunter lied to me. He locked me up and refused to listen to me—until the very end. I’m not ready to forgive him, and it wouldn’t be fair for me to focus all my time on rebuilding our re
lationship when so many more important things are going on in the city.
The summit was a failure.
Nothing has been resolved between the Depths and the Aeries.
“I don’t know who we are anymore,” I tell Hunter. “But I know what I have to do. It’s clear that the mystics won’t rule the city any better than the nonmystics. They need someone to bring everyone together.”
Hunter stares at me as though I’m already gone. As though I’m made of nothing but air. He takes a few breaths, trying to calm down. “And that someone is you?”
I nod. “I think so. Yes.”
“What are you going to do? How are you going to defeat your family?”
It’s a good question—one I don’t have the answer to.
Yet.
“I don’t know,” I say. “But I’m not going to stop until I find out.”
He gives me a sad smile. “I know you won’t. That’s one of the things I love most about you.”
For a moment, Hunter seems about to turn away and walk out of my life. But instead, slowly, he reaches one hand into the air and spreads his fingers.
I press the tips of my fingers to his.
A wisp of green light shoots out from our index fingers, looping together into one fine strand that wraps around our hands, binding us for a single moment.
Then Hunter breaks away. The light is gone.
“Goodbye, Aria.”
“Goodbye, Hunter.”
With a heavy heart, I leap off the roof and soar away.
I double back to the Empire State Building. Even though I’m flying, I don’t enjoy it. Not after leaving Hunter the way I did, not to mention leaving Turk on the observation deck to defend himself. I have to get back to him, make sure he’s all right.
The air has cooled off slightly, and I’m grateful that my long hair is gone—there’s nothing for the wind to toss around. Since the bomb threat is over, I expect to see that most of the people who were rallying around the building have gone home.
Toxic Heart Page 27
