“Don’t, Marcus!” Ellison cries from the ground.
Theron picks her up by her hair, lifting her upper body from the ground like she’s nothing more than a rag doll. Blood trails from her fingertips to the ground. He drives a knee into her stomach and I cringe.
“Marcus!” Nova yells. “They’ll kill her!”
Marcus’s gaze stays locked onto Pax. He raises his voice so everyone can hear him.
“What do you gain if we walk out of here with Ellison’s body? Your people are starving to death and I’m offering enough grain, produce, and meat to keep you fed for months. You’ll have seeds for your own garden. Chickens and cows to breed.”
“I wantall of it.” Pax sneers at him. “And your weapons, and her.”
“No. I’m not giving you any of my people. Half our supplies and half our weapons. That’s my final offer.”
Pax feigns amazement, looking at Nova. “Damn. That’s gotta be a tit punch. He’ll kill me if I touchhisgirlfriend, but he’s okay with your girlfriend dying.”
Nova’s looking at Marcus with simmering rage that could boil over at any moment. She’s reacting exactly the way Pax wanted her to. He’s shrewder than we gave him credit for.
“It’s a fair offer,” Marcus says.
“Or”—Pax points at him—“we kill all of you now and go take everything.”
Marcus nods slightly, staying stone cold. “Do what you need to do.”
Nova swears, turning away. I regret bringing her; she’s too close to this situation.
It’s all I can do to keep my breathing steady. Controlling my emotions is the only way to keep the plants at bay. It wouldn’t help anything if they came to my rescue, and it could very well hurt us.
Vibrations rumble through the soles of my boots as the ground gives away Marcus’s irritation. His expression remains unbothered, but he’s telling Pax if they kill us, they’re going down, too.
“Okay,” Pax says, relenting. “We’ll end this battle because I’ve got a whole war planned, and I enjoy watching you guys squirm. Theron’s coming to your camp to make sure we get half of everything.”
“As long as he’s unarmed,” Marcus says. “And if he threatens my people in any way, don’t expect him back.”
Pax nods his agreement. I don’t love that Marcus agreed to let Theron into our camp. He’s proved himself capable of doing a lot of damage.
But I understand. Marcus was right—Theron doesn’t have aromium. That’s why he’s the only one Pax can send to our camp. His threat to kill us and take everything was a bluff, because only Theron can survive our shield, and he’d be slaughtered on arrival.
We can’t expect Pax to trust that we’re giving half of everything. We’re getting off easier than I expected.
They caught us off guard. Theron never should have been able to get into our camp and escape with Ellison like he did. Next time, we’ll be ready.
8
“Only three of us survived. We are evacuating back to the mainland. Everything on our island is contaminated. Maintain a safe zone of at least four miles from the shoreline.” —Isaiah Grove, leader of Island Four
Five Years Ago
Pax
As a kid, I didn’t know it was a luxury to spend one weekend watching Formula One races in Monaco and the next skiing in Switzerland.
Getting dropped off by one of our drivers on airport tarmacs to board my family’s plane was routine. Just another way we got from here to there.
Seeing the Gulfstream through Hannah’s eyes, though, is special. I held out my hand to help her out of the back of the SUV, and since she stepped out, she’s just been looking at the plane, her gaze awestruck.
“That’s the plane.” She pinches her brows together as she studies it in the amber light of early evening. “Your parents’airplane.”
I squeeze her hand. “Think of it like a really fast car, love. Are you afraid of flying?”
