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“Broadcast this is Sayer from—”
It cuts off and my heart nearly stops. I wiggle it again.
“—trying to reach the Mayvina—”
Rekk!
I start twisting the two wires together, melding them as one.
“—this is Sayer from the Facility and we’re trying to reach—”
“Sayer!” I bark out.
“Hadrian?”
“It’s me!”
“Where are you?” he demands.
“It’s complicated.”
“Complicated how?”
“I’m on top of a mountain…” Cawing. Louder and louder.
“Did we lose connection?”
“No, it’s just that Big Bird is on its way and it’s not happy I tried to gut it.”
“You’re not making any sense, Hadrian. Listen, give me your coordinates and we can—”
“Hold that thought,” I grumble as I stand, grabbing my magknife.
Big Bird is angry and barreling straight for me. I spread my feet apart, readying my stance, and hold my magknife out.
Cawwww!
If I go to The Eternals, at least I do it with Lyric’s sweet taste still on my tongue. Oh, what a lovely way to go.
Big Bird’s teeth glint in the sun. Sharp. Huge.
Pow-pow-pow-pow-pow!
The giant yellow beast jolts and jerks before falling out of the air and slamming to the rocks below. It rolls and rolls and rolls until it falls off the ledge. I jerk my nog up to see a small masked figure with a smoking zonnoblaster in her grip as she hangs out the side of the Mayvina.
Lyric.
Brave, beautiful Lyric.
I flash her my rogstud horns and she nods before disappearing back inside the ship.
“I’m back,” I tell Sayer. “What’d I miss?”
“Rogshite,” he grunts.
“What?” I demand.
“You rekking did it!”
Before I can ask, I hear Willow’s voice.
“You have my mother?” Willow asks through the comms.
“I do,” Sayer rasps. “You look just like her. Incredible.”
“Willow?” I ask. “Can you hear me?”
“Loud and clear, alien dude,” she chokes out. “We have visual on…them. You did it.”
“I’ll grab Aria and Molly,” Sayer says excitedly.
“Say,” I rumble. “Get everyone. Avrell too. We have to talk. There’s been an incident…”
A beat of silence. “You sound serious,” Sayer mutters.
“Say, it’s…” I pause and let out a huff. “It’s The Rades. We’ve all been exposed here.”
Our victory is short-lived because the truth is staring us in the face. We may never see each other alive again.
“I’ll gather everyone.”
“I’m sorry,” I whisper.
To him. To Aria and Breccan. To everyone.
But especially to her.
Lyric.
I’ve given her Aria, only to tease and taunt. If The Rades attacks like it did my parents, she’ll never get to hug or touch her sister. It’s cruel and devastating.
I just hope Lyric will let me hold her through it all until the end.
I refuse to allow her to go to The Eternals alone.
No one should have to feel lonely at the end.
I’ll make sure we have each other.
11
Lyric
It’s okay.
It’s okay, it’s okay, it’s okay.
That’s what I keep telling myself as I isolate myself in the infirmary to let Theron and Hadrian chat through the comms line with the others at his facility. I can’t bring myself to watch the screens in the command center alongside Willow to await the resolution, so I bury myself in work with Zoe. I want to talk to Aria, but I don’t want our first conversation to be when I feel like I’m going to fall apart. I need to get ahold of myself, to find the strong woman who’s been leading the prison.
In the time while I’m there, three more people get sick. Two women and one of the old, horrible guards named Bruce. We put them in the isolation unit with the others and give them as much medicine as they can stand, but nothing seems to touch the fever that burns from the inside out.
“Ma’am?” Julie, one of the women who volunteered to help, asks. She’s a pretty little thing with big blue eyes and her sandy blond hair is in a cute pixie cut, accentuating her delicate nose and sharp chin. It’s longer on one side and shaved on the other. A combination of sweet and badass.
I lift my weary eyes to hers. All I want to do is sleep, but there will be no sleep until Hadrian gets back. Until we have answers. “How many times do I have to tell you not to call me ma’am? It’s Lyric.”
She smiles a little, but it doesn’t reach her eyes. “Sorry. You asked for us to do a headcount of all the prisoners and guards.”
Pressing my fingers into my eyes, I nod. “Right. Any news? Has anyone else reported symptoms?”
“No one.” She doesn’t have to say yet for me to hear it. “But…”
My heart stumbles. “What is it?”
“It’s Stella and Henry. They’re missing. No one has seen them since they left the door open. We’ve checked everywhere. Willow ordered the nonessential personnel to return to their rooms for the headcount. They aren’t in theirs. Or anywhere else.”
I think of Big Bird, the armworms, The Rades, and the countless other unknown dangers they could face outside the safety of these walls. Why did they run? Are they okay? I wish I knew.
