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34

AUSTIN

Our lives dependedon the outcome of the fight happening behind me, but all I could see were Rosi’s eyes rolling up inside her head, her skin so pale compared to her usual caramel complexion. So much blood coated her side and the surrounding floor that I didn’t know how much could still be inside her.

She had to survive. If she didn’t, then none of this mattered. Suddenly, I knew without a doubt that even the asteroid hike would feel flat and lifeless without the sparkle of her chocolate eyes and bubbly personality.

“Don’t you dare leave me,” I whispered in her ear as I felt for a pulse. “We’re a team, Rosi. I can’t do this without you.”

Faint and fragile, the flutter beneath my fingertips was real. But I had to do something soon because my luck wouldn’t hold out forever, and who knew how long it took for a supernatural wrestling match to finish? It could be too late if I waited.

I slid her belt off her waist and secured my shirt to her shoulder, pressing firmly against the worst of the wound. Then I stood, scooping her onto two of the disks I’d taken from Toklo and Cora. They were alive but unconscious so didn’t need the disks as much as we did in the moment. I stepped onto them and held Rosi’s good side so she wouldn’t slip away from me.

When I turned us toward the edge of the track, I found the way blocked by the battle between evil and…lesser evil? I couldn’t call it good when it had threatened us all and nearly drained the life force from two people.

The atshen gouged a chunk of flesh from the tupilaq’s arm, but where it should have looked like Rosi’s injury, instead it filled with blinding green light that seemed to burn the monster when it touched that spot. I wondered briefly if knocking them over the edge was feasible, but I couldn’t risk it with Rosi in tow.

“I need to get us by them, Rosi,” I said, smoothing back her hair.

Her head rolled to the side, and she blinked. Then she made a soft sound like she was trying to say something. I bent down and leaned over her to listen. Whatever it was must have been important enough to waste her energy.

“Pocket,” she rasped before her eyelids fluttered closed.

I wasted no time reaching into her pockets in search of whatever she meant to share with me but found nothing. I could have screamed then. I very nearly did. But then I set her gently down and reached into my own pockets to come back out with a fistful of black stones and a microchip—the one that had been in me. I’d nearly forgotten that Cora had given the obsidian to each of us, or that I’d grabbed the chip before discovering the doctor’s remains. Could these items be enough to help? I glanced at Rosi and was certain it was the stones she was trying to tell me to use. She’d said it was what saved me out in the tundra. Her gaze locked on the stones in my palm, and she slowly opened her mouth as wide as possible.

“You’re a genius. Hang in there, Rosi.”

Drawing a deep breath, I faced the battle and took stock of the situation. Time seemed to slow as I zeroed in on my target. It was more than just hitting the atshen because the stones were so small. Rosi had understood I had to find a way to make sure the crystals had time to do some damage, if such a thing was possible. She told me exactly what had to be done. Now I needed to find a way to execute her instructions.

Ripping the tiny magnet from the chip, I stuck it in my ear, figuring it was the closest thing to my brain.

In many of the sports I’d participated in, I’d had to work on my timing. Act too soon and I’d waste my only shot. Act too late and it was over before it began. So I waited and watched, miniature weapons clutched in my fist.

I focused as hard as I could on my feelings for Rosi. The love that burned inside me, the pain of the potential loss if I couldn’t save her somehow. The grief and guilt I felt about Sara. I let it all out, a sob bursting from my chest. The emergency lights brightened to the point I had to close my eyes, then seemed to explode all around me. When I opened my eyes again, the two struggling figures had stopped fighting to turn toward me. I’d gotten their attention. Now I needed Yuto to open up.

Glancing to my right, I spotted the spear I’d brought with me. That could work. I scooped it up and took aim, letting it sail through the air harmlessly past the mottled chest of the monster.

The atshen turned to grin at me.

“You missed,” he hissed and opened his jaw to laugh.

“Nope,” I said as I hurled the stones into his gaping mouth.

His chin snapped upward as he automatically swallowed. Then his eyes grew large. Fear shone in them as he stumbled backward. The tupilac lunged, stabbing him with a dagger made of green light.

A horrendous howl tore the space around us, and I fell to my knees, hands over my ears. The tupilaq nodded in my direction then wrapped his muscled arms around the monster and launched them both off the side.

Stumbling to my feet, I rushed to look over the edge in time to see the atshen spread-eagle on the rocks at the bottom, black oozing out in tiny rivers on the ground surrounding him.

But then his body began to vibrate and quiver, like he was doing some kind of strange dance on the ground. Smoke issued from beneath and around him as he appeared to deflate before my eyes.

I didn’t have time for this. I ran back to Rosi and, after resecuring the magnet so there’d be no more accidents, used the hover disks to lower us to the ground. By the time we touched down, all that remained of the monster was a puddle of what looked like sizzling tar and some sickly gray skin and bones.

The smell was so bad I worried it might be toxic, so I rushed Rosi down the hall to the medcenter. I quickly set her on a hovercot and put her in stasis to keep her alive until we could find a new doctor.

Not long after, Nicole marched in, flanked by a small army of robots with glowing red chests and rollers on their feet. I looked up from where I sat on the floor, head buried between my knees.

“She needs medical attention,” I croaked. “And you should check on Toklo and Cora, but last I saw them they were just unconscious. Their heart rates were steady, and I could find nothing obviously wrong with them. I had to help Rosi before she lost too much blood, and I didn’t want to move them in case there were broken bones.”