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“ENOUGH!”
The needle-sharp tentacles stopped just in front of Kopano’s eye. Five froze.
Einar stood at the edge of the fray, pale as a ghost, his shirt soaked through with blood. Taylor and Isabela watched from a few steps behind him.
“Not that, Five,” Einar said, his voice hoarse, exhausted, like that yell had drained his last bit of energy. “Never that.”
Slowly, Five pulled back the oozing mass that was his arm. With an agonized groan, he changed his skin back to normal. Five looked as if he had to fight to do it, like his Legacy wasn’t working properly, like he needed to physically contract the dark patches back to their former size.
Einar focused on Five until his breathing slowed, until he unclenched his fists, until he fell to his knees.
“Calm . . . ,” Einar said. “You’re calm. It’s okay.”
“I’m sorry,” Five said, looking first at Kopano and then at Nigel. A tear streaked down his blood-crusted cheek. “I’m so sorry.”
Chapter Thirty-Seven
THE AFTERMATH
ENGELBERG, SWITZERLAND
“I DID THIS TO BRING US TOGETHER,” EINAR said. “I never wanted us to fight.”
“Jesus, Einar,” Taylor replied. “Do you ever shut up?”
The small field at the foot of the Alps suddenly felt so peaceful. The sun had just dipped below the horizon, tinting the mountains a deep purple. The abandoned town with all its warm kitchens and empty beds seemed so inviting. Taylor just wanted to pop into one of those houses for a quick nap.
But then she heard the moans. She smelled the acrid smoke of Sydal’s burning aircraft.
No time to rest.
Isabela pulled on her arm. “Caleb’s hurt bad,” she said. “Those Earth Garde girls, too.”
Taylor’s whole body ached. She didn’t know how much energy she had left in her. Healing Einar had taken a lot out of her. She looked at him now, pale and shaky, like a strong breeze would knock him over. He’d need time to recover from the blood loss. They could take him down now, if they wanted.
She looked around. It seemed the fight had gone out of everyone.
“Show me,” Taylor said to Isabela, turning her back on Einar.
“You know I’m right, though,” Einar rasped at her back, a note of desperation in his voice. “They don’t care about us. The Academy can’t protect you from what’s coming.”
“Take your people and go,” Taylor said over her shoulder. “But don’t even think about touching Bea Barnaby. She’s our prisoner.”
Bea looked down at her hands. There were black worms writhing beneath her skin, digging their way towards her veins. The same thing was happening to her face, where Five had smashed her with the vial. It was truly disgusting.
Strange, then, that she didn’t feel ill. In fact, she felt more vibrant and healthy than she had in ages, even with the broken nose and assorted bumps and bruises.
“Hello.”
Bea looked up to find Kopano standing over her.
“I wanted to introduce myself. My name is Kopano,” he said. “I’ve gathered that you’re a bad person and part of the Foundation. But I wanted to tell you that your son, Nigel, is one of the best people I know. No thanks to you.”
Bea snorted but had no response. She looked back down at her hands.
“Also,” Kopano continued with a puffed-out chest, “by the power vested in me as a future member of Earth Garde, I hereby place you under arrest. If you tell us everything you know about your Foundation allies, maybe we’ll go easy on you.”
“Hello, mabudachi,” Ran said, plopping down in the mud and snow next to Nigel.
He smiled faintly at her arrival, but didn’t take his eyes off his mother. Nigel felt disgust just looking at her. He watched her over there, Kopano standing guard on her, and waited for Bea to pull one last trick.
Bea’s shoulders were slumped. Kopano helped her to her feet and then walked her over to where Walker kept watch on the Blackstone mercenaries. She didn’t even glance over her shoulder to look for Nigel.
Bea was done. They’d gotten her.
Nigel let out a shaky sigh and rested his head on Ran’s shoulder.
“Getting bloody embarrassing,” Nigel said. “Needing you and Kopano to save me on every mission.”
She rubbed his back. “Your moment will come.”
Nigel hiccupped. He pressed his eyes against Ran’s arm so no one would see the tears. Especially not Bea.
“I always said I hated both of ’em, you know? But I didn’t hate them, not really,” Nigel said, the words pouring out of him after days, maybe weeks, maybe years of bottling it up. “I just wanted them to be better parents. I wanted them not to hate me. And now . . . now I find out they’re monsters. They’re the actual monsters I always pretended they were and I still . . . I still can’t hate her. What am I supposed to do with that, Ran?”
Ran wiped his cheeks. “We must be better than them,” she said. “That is all you can do.”
Nigel sniffed and looked up at her. “Anyway, that’s what’s new with me. The hell happened with you?”
She touched her temple. “Too much to say, but, Nigel . . .”
There was movement over at the road. Walker and Kopano having words. That ended with Kopano turning his back on Walker and jogging over to where Taylor was healing the Earth Garde members. As Ran watched, Walker waved in Ran’s direction, sending Rabiya over towards her and Nigel.
“Holy shit,” Nigel said, noticing the teleporter for the first time. “Where’d she come from?”
“Listen to me, Nigel,” Ran said hurriedly, ignoring his question. “You are my best friend. I care about you deeply. Please remember that.”
“Ran, what’re you on about?”
Before she could answer, Rabiya was in front of them. In her hijab and dress, without even the least bit of blood on her, the girl seemed too clean for this mess.
“Walker wants to talk to you,” Rabiya said dryly, clearly letting Ran know she was just the messenger.
Ran tossed her arm around Nigel’s neck and squeezed him in a hug. Then, she stood up.
“Right,” Nigel said, rubbing his hands across his face. “I’m just going to rest here a bit and contemplate my messed-up origin, if that’s bloody okay with everyone.”
Ran allowed herself a brief smile before narrowing her eyes at Rabiya. “Let’s go.”
Moments later, she stood in front of Walker. The agent nodded across the field, where Einar was walking slowly back towards the Skimmer, rubbing his neck like he could still feel the bullet hole. Five was at his side, carrying the unconscious but alive Duanphen.
“There goes our target,” Walker said.
“You expect me to go after him?” Ran asked. “Take on Number Five again?”
“I don’t want you to get yourself killed,” Walker replied. “But I w
as hoping you’d have an idea.”
“Kopano put his Inhibitor inside Five,” Ran said. “Why don’t you try shocking him? You’re fond of that.”
Walker took her cell phone out of her pocket and opened the program that controlled the Inhibitors. “The thing’s gone offline. They don’t exactly work right when you just jam them in someone’s head.”
Ran nodded, watching Walker closely. “What about mine?” she asked. “I felt something during the fight when that girl shocked me. It felt like an explosion in my head.”
Walker glanced down at her phone again. Ran saw it then—a shadow across the agent’s face, a flicker of fear. She made a point of looking Ran right in the eyes.
“Nothing has changed with yours,” Walker said. “It’s fine.”
She was lying. Ran could tell.
It was just like she thought. Duanphen had short-circuited her Inhibitor.
Ran turned to gaze across the battlefield, watching Einar and Five as they neared their ship.
“Perhaps,” Ran said, “we should live to fight another day.”
Taylor held Caleb’s face in her hands. She was pretty sure she’d fixed his broken jaw, but he was just staring up at her, giving no indication that she should take her hands away and stop pumping healing energy into him.
“Caleb?” she asked, finally. “Can you talk?”
“Oh,” he said, working his mouth around, testing. “Yeah, guess I can. You done?”
Taylor smirked. “Been done for like a minute.” She let her hands drop away and Caleb sat up. “I thought what you did was pretty brave, by the way.”
“You did?”
“You stood up to Einar and Five, tried to save lives,” Taylor replied. “I think that’s what we’re supposed to be all about.”
“I thought it was stupid,” Isabela put in, peering at Caleb over Taylor’s shoulder.
Taylor turned around to reply sharply, but instead her face split into a grin.
Kopano bounded towards her.
He scooped her up in a bear hug and spun her around, her legs flailing. Despite the chaos of the last hour and the exhaustion she felt, Taylor found herself laughing. She grabbed Kopano’s face and kissed him.
