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"And I have to leave before they come looking. I don't want to take him back to them, but I can't let them kill him either." Wyatt looked up at me, then to Lain, before finally stopping on Ori. "I'll take him back and tell them Typhon is gone and Krenshaw is dead. I can't promise they won't cause problems for killing the others, but I can warn you if they come for you."

"You want to be our man on the inside?" Ori asked skeptically, arching one perfectly manicured brow. "Why would I trust you?"

"I know he doesn't remember it, but Seth… sorry." His voice caught on the name, and he shook his head once, swallowing hard before continuing. "Before all of this happened, Typhon was my closest friend. I realize that's easy for me to say when he can't vouch for me, but it's the truth." He paused, turning his attention to the man in my arms. As if he could sense the eyes on him, Typhon turned his head just enough to peer at Wyatt as the other man continued. "I couldn't protect you from Krenshaw, and I'll regret that for the rest of my life, but I'll do everything I can to keep you safe from the rest of them."

Typhon studied him in silence, then finally nodded. "Thank you," he said, voice low and rough, then closed his eyes and let his head fall back to my shoulder.

"I don't like this," Ori said sharply, crossing their arms over their chest. "We don't have a choice right now, but this isn't over."

"I hope not. If there's a way to take them down, I'm with you."

"We'll see." Ori narrowed their eyes, but nodded toward the woman still standing guard over Wyatt, and she backed off, giving him enough space to clamber to his feet. "Take the truck and go. We'll deal with the scene." The scene. Ori said it so casually, like we weren't standing in a field where several men had just died. They'd been trying to kill us, yes, but somehow that felt so distant when compared to the reality that they were dead. It was too much. This entire day had been too much. My adrenaline was crashing, exhaustion catching me in its claws now that the danger seemed to have passed. Ori had this under control, right?

"Once we get home, I'm taking at least three days off and we're going to sleep the whole time," I murmured to Typhon, closing my eyes. He hummed in agreement. He didn't move as the scene around us exploded in a flurry of movement, and neither did I. Ori walked around the truck and put a hand on the driver's side window. There was a beat of silence, then they opened the door and the woman dragged Krenshaw out, letting his unconscious body drop to the ground with a hard thud.

New voices joined Ori and Lain, sounding vaguely familiar, but I simply couldn't bring myself to care enough to see who they were. I caught snippets of conversation, the voices talking about another car coming to help, and heard them working together to load the other chimera into the back of the truck, letting it all wash over me in a wave of distant noise.

Typhon and I were the eye of the storm, the quiet center in a mass of chaos, and while I knew we'd have to face reality sooner or later, probably sooner, for right now we just sat together, holding each other. Against all odds, we'd survived and were safe. The rest of the world could wait a little longer.

Chapter 26

Typhon

"You're making the right choice, Ibarra. They'll get what's coming to them."

Bright lights. Strange faces. New voices. Then a pain like nothing that should exist. Like someone reaching inside with fiery, burning blades and sawing away something vital, something so intrinsic to who I am that losing it feels like dying.

"Did it work?" His is the only voice I recognize. He brought me into this, found me at my lowest, and said all the right words, made me believe he could help me.

"Holy shit." A stranger, a woman with a thin, scratchy voice. "He's stabilizing."

"No surges?"

"None. He's not rejecting it." The woman has the audacity to laugh, full of unearned pride. "I think we finally have it right."

"Keep monitoring him. I don't want any surprises. We're months behind, and they want results this time, not another body." A rough hand grabs my chin, turning my head to the side, but I can't open my eyes. My body feels strange, like I'm not the one controlling it.

"I'll need a few weeks to run all the diagnostics and tests to make sure he's working properly."

The hand tightens, but his voice stays cool and emotionless. "One week."

"One week?" she repeats. She can't hide her emotions like he can, and she's clearly upset. "That's not even enough time to let him heal."

"Regardless, that's the timeline. Unless you want to explain to the Enclave why we've had so many delays?"

He says it calmly, but it's a threat, and she knows it. "Fine. One week and I'll have him ready."

The man doesn't respond to her. When he does speak, it sounds like he's beside my head, keeping his words just between us.

"Soon, kid. We'll make them sorry they ever crossed us."

Then he's gone and I'm alone, despite the team of strangers poking and prodding at me, talking over and around me but never to me.

It's not the new beginning he promised, but an end to everything I am. Surrounded by magic and lights and strangers, Seth Ibarra disappears from the world.

"Typhon? Are you awake?"

Even lost in a miasma of strange dreams, that's a voice I recognized, one I yearned for, and I latched onto it, letting it pull me back to consciousness.