Covers by TJ Wright

neechmonkey.carbonmade.com

BLOOM Copyright © 2012 by A.P. Kensey

FADE Copyright © 2013 by A.P. Kensey

NOVA © 2014 by A.P. Kensey

— CONTENTS —

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Book One

BLOOM

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Book Two

FADE

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Book Three

NOVA

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{AUTHOR NOTES}

DEDICATION

For every person who can tell the difference

between reality and imagination

and still prefers the latter.

Blood rushed to Haven’s face as she ran toward the cafeteria exit, pushing past schoolmates holding full lunch trays. She planned to keep running as soon as she was outside, driven by embarrassment and rage and the terrible memories of the night she lost everything. She wouldn’t stop until she was far away from that place—from those people. She wanted answers. No more waiting, no more uncertainty. She would make the police find out who was responsible for ruining her life.

Haven was halfway to the cafeteria door when a powerful heat blossomed on the back of her neck and ran down her spine. It spread outward, stretching to every part of her body. The blushing warmth in her face paled in comparison to the boiling heat that coursed beneath her skin. Arms, legs, torso, and head—every part of her felt like it was burning. She stopped walking and looked down at herself to make sure she was not actually on fire.

“Hey, what’s wrong with her?” someone said from a nearby table.

Haven tried to run, but her legs wouldn’t move. She tried to call for help but her voice caught in her throat.

She looked down in horror as a bright blue ball of light formed around her right hand.

Not here, she thought. Not now.

Another sphere of light grew from the palm of her other hand until it completely encompassed her wrist and fingers. It looked as if she had stuck her hands into two large balls of blue light. Haven tried to run again, then realized that her feet weren’t touching the ground. She floated into the air and hovered next to a table, still rising toward the ceiling.

The students in the cafeteria screamed and backed away. Several of them held up food trays for protection.

The blue light from Haven’s hands turned to flames and spread to cover her entire body, like fire crawling over gasoline-soaked wood. She felt a tingling sensation on each of her shoulder blades and looked behind her as two huge wings of blue energy unfolded from her back. The tips of the wings touched the ceiling and burned black holes into its smooth surface.

In the shiny plastic reflection on the bottom of the food trays that were being held up for protection, Haven saw a blue angel hovering above the tables of the cafeteria. Her hair floated around her head as if she were submerged in calm water.

Her vision filled with light and she reached up to feel the energy pulsing from her eyes. The flames covering her body cracked like lightning and whipped back and forth violently—a thousand dancing snakes made of blue fire.

Haven’s back arched and she screamed.

1

…Two weeks earlier.

Haven Kincaid won a spelling bee when she was seven, a math tournament when she was twelve, and nothing else until the day she turned sixteen. Her parents thought their daughter would be happy to learn she had “won” the right to stay out until ten o’clock on a school night. It was a sign of trust, they said, since they were both so knowledgeable about what teenagers did and they were certain their little Haven never got into anything that would make them blush in front of a crowd.

Now, just after turning seventeen, Haven spent most of her days wishing she had an apartment of her own so she could make the rules. Ever since her dad got his new job a year ago and moved the whole family from Flagstaff to Scottsdale, Arizona, she felt like she didn’t belong at home, at school, or anywhere else.

Haven left behind a handful of friends that she had known ever since grade school—girls she was planning on graduating with and rooming with at college. Moving across the state was bad enough, but to do it right before her last year in high school was the absolute worst.

Her family’s new home in Scottsdale was nice enough. It had two stories, which Haven always wanted, and was on a quiet street not too far from the downtown area. There was a small movie theater next to a smelly bowling alley not too far away, and she heard rumors that someone was building a miniature golf course.

Yippee.

Haven was at least thankful that she no longer had to share a room with her little brother, Noah, and that the new yard was a lot bigger than the old one—but she was still more than two hours away from her friends in Flagstaff. Those two hours could just as easily have been two weeks since Haven didn’t have a car and there was no way her friends were going to drive all the way down to Scottsdale just to hang out at a smelly bowling alley.

If she had more than one close friend at her new school, she probably would have been happy. But Kayla Robertson, her closest, could only stay out until eight-thirty. Haven wouldn’t have her own car until her eighteenth birthday (when she was expecting to inherit her mom’s old junker once her dad “surprised” her mom with a new luxury model on their twentieth wedding anniversary), so her curfew may as well have been eight-thirty, too. Haven suspected her parents knew all of those things already and that extending her curfew to ten o’clock had been more of an attempt to distract her than anything else.

Things hadn’t exactly been rosy around the Kincaid house for the past week. Haven was disrupting her classes at school out of boredom—nothing serious, but she had been sent to the principal’s office several times for making rude comments in the middle of lessons—and she was caught drawing a lopsided heart on the gymnasium wall with a permanent marker. She was trying to write a name inside of the heart before Coach Lawford saw what she was doing and took away the marker, but she only managed to spell out J-A-S.

Up until then, Principal Rivera had only given her warnings for disrupting class, but said Haven was on a “slippery slope” and called her parents after the incident in the gym. They scheduled a meeting for later in the week—a face-to-face meeting—that Haven would be forced to attend.

Haven’s room was small but had two windows since it was in a corner of the house. She and Noah had the two bedrooms on the second floor of their two-story home, and her parents had the largest bedroom—downstairs next to the den. The stairs were well-carpeted—enough so that when she was very careful, Haven could sneak up and down in the middle of the night without making a sound. She did that often to raid the fridge for ice cream whenever she couldn’t fall asleep. Opening the silverware drawer was another story. It squeaked loudly unless it was opened at a snail’s pace. Haven meant to stash a spoon away in her room for those sleepless nights, but she had forgotten yet again, and would be forced to use stealth to obtain her late-night snack.

She walked quietly down the stairs, her feet padding into the carpet with each step, then crept into the kitchen, pausing briefly by her parents’ closed bedroom door to make sure they weren’t moving around. Hearing nothing, Haven stepped softly to the silverware drawer next to the sink, her bare feet making slight sticking noises as they peeled off the hard linoleum floor.

She grabbed the metal handle on the drawer and started to pull it out as quietly as she could. When the drawer was halfway open, a small bubble of blue light formed just below the first knuckle of her index finger—it looked as if she was wearing one of her mother’s gaudy costume rings. The back of her hand glowed pale blue and small flames flickered across her skin.

Well that’s new, she thought.

It didn’t burn, whatever it was. There was no heat at all.

The bubble on her index finger expanded as the thin fire on the back of her hand fed into it. After the growing bubble had absorbed all of the flame, it moved slowly from her knuckle down to her fingernail. She let go of the silverware drawer handle and the small sphere of light exploded like a tiny firework. The drawer slammed back into place and the metal utensils inside jumped and clattered loudly in the plastic drawer organizer.

Haven covered her mouth with both hands to stifle a small scream.

She held her breath and listened for the all-too-familiar sound of her parents getting up to see what she was doing out of bed so late at night. In the absolute silence, she heard soft footsteps in the grass outside, moving quickly away from the kitchen window. A quick shadow darted across the kitchen window and Haven gasped.

Someone had been watching.

2

Colton Ross awoke late—the glowing red numbers on the cheap alarm clock next to his mattress read eleven o’clock. He lay there smiling, knowing that he felt better in that moment than he would feel for the rest of the week. He pulled aside his thin sheet and stood on the cold wooden floor.

The uncurtained window next to his mattress showed him a view of the busy street below his apartment building. Businessmen and women walked briskly down the sidewalks, bumping into each other and generally ignoring the world around them.

Colton rescued a dirty skillet from the bottom of a pile of filthy dishes and, after a thorough scrub, cooked three scrambled eggs for breakfast. He then took a quick shower and pulled on the cleanest t-shirt and pair of jeans he could find. Normally Colton rode his bike to the homeless shelter for lunch on his days off, but he decided to walk instead.

He liked New York City because it was big enough to get lost in yet personal enough when he needed it to be. His new job at the shipping depot kept him busy for fifty hours a week or more and his spare time was steadily shrinking as the weeks passed, so he tried to make the most out of his occasional day off.

After graduating high school six months ago, he had kicked around his hometown of Pittsburgh for a while before his friend Reece convinced him to move up to New York. After he settled in to the spare room in Reece’s apartment, Colton ditched his pickup truck for a bicycle and had barely thought about Pennsylvania since.

When he emerged from the front door of his apartment building, the street was even busier than it had been just thirty minutes earlier. No matter what day of the week it was, Colton always seemed to have to travel against the flow of foot-traffic. Pittsburgh had been moderately better, but Colton had lived in the suburbs instead of downtown.

His favorite produce stand in The Bronx was near the corners of Westchester and Castle Hill. The owner was busy topping off a heaping carton of bananas when Colton approached the stand.

“Morning, Mr. Laretti.”

“Mr. Ross! Good to see you, as always. Yet it is few and far between, yes? You must have the day off.” Antonio Laretti had bushy black eyebrows and a receding hairline. Standing on his toes, he was probably only five feet tall. He squinted up at Colton through thick reading glasses.

“My first in two weeks.” Colton picked up two apples and inspected them for bruises.

“Ah, yes, they work you too hard. I am also working too hard. But! People are needing their fruits and vegetables, yes? Where else they gonna get them if not from old Antonio!”

“Thanks a lot, Mr. Laretti.” Colton handed him a dollar and took the two apples.

“Of course, of course. Come back soon, I’ll have better apples.”

Colton turned to walk away when movement in the cart of bananas caught his eye. He stopped to watch as the entire bunch slowly turned from bright yellow to dull brown, as if they were being coated with some kind of acid that burnt their peels.

“Hey,” said Antonio, “what is this?”

The bananas curled in on themselves as they darkened and shrank. Colton took a step toward the produce stand and the crate of oranges next to the bananas began to change as well. The round fruit withered like they were being drained of all their moisture, shriveling into dried husks right before Colton’s eyes.

If it hadn’t been for a similar accident two months ago, Colton would have thought he was imagining the whole thing. It had only been a lizard back then, though—one small, barely-alive lizard he had been trying to carry from his bedroom to his backyard when it dried up in his hand and turned to dust.

“You!” said Antonio loudly. He pointed right at Colton, his mouth moving up and down as he tried to form words. “You!” was all he could say. He pointed at Colton’s hands.

The apples he purchased were rapidly shrinking, turning brown as if some invisible flame were cooking them in his palm. He dropped them like hot coals and quickly brushed his hands against his shirt.

Colton knew what came next. Warmth gathered around his spine between his shoulder blades as heat bloomed within his body. It first spread up to the base of his neck, then back down his spine before flowing out to his arms and legs. Finally, it settled in his hands. His palms radiated with heat.

“Mr. Laretti, I-I-I’m sorry,” he stuttered.

“Get out of here, whatever you are!” hissed Antonio. “You ruin my whole business so you don’t come back, you hear me?! I call the cops if you come back!”

Colton turned and hurried away as Antonio shouted curses at his back.

3

Haven went quickly to the kitchen window and looked outside. A harsh yellow glow from a nearby street lamp painted the wet grass in her backyard. A tall white fence bordered the yard, too high for someone to climb over (or so she thought), so if someone were back there, they would have had to walk all the way around from the front.

There was a crunching noise from a large bush at the base of the fence. Haven strained her eyes to look into the shadows. A black cat shot out from the bush and hissed as it clawed up the fence, its fur raised and its teeth bared. It ran across the top of the fence, its body casting a quick shadow over Haven’s kitchen window as it passed in front of the street lamp.

Haven watched a moment longer, still uneasy. Finally she sighed and tried to relax. She slowly pulled out the silverware drawer again, waiting for the blue light to burst from her hand. It didn’t. She grabbed a spoon, then pushed the drawer back in with her hip and got a bowl out of the cupboard. Haven filled it to the brim with strawberry ice cream.

“Couldn’t sleep?”

She jumped at her father’s voice and turned around quickly.

“Dad!”

“Hi,” he said, smiling. He wore his white robe and what remained of his greying hair stuck out in every direction.

“Hi.” She put the tub of ice cream back in the freezer and closed the door. “No, couldn’t sleep. Was I being too loud?”

“Nah, I couldn’t sleep, either. I heard a noise and figured you were on one of your late-night ice cream runs.”

“You know about that, huh?”

“Your mother used to do the same thing right after—”

“Dad, gross!”

“What? I was going to say ‘right after she finished working the late shift at the hospital’.”

“Uh-huh.”

“So, why the midnight snack? Something happen at school?”

He walked toward the kitchen and pulled out one of the tall stools below the bar. The counter that ran along the back of the kitchen turned out from the wall and separated it from the dining room. Haven’s mother liked to keep that surface clear so someone could sit on a stool and use it like a bar.

Haven’s father sat on his stool and smiled at her.

“Dad, it’s late.”

“So? You’re not going to sleep any time soon. Not with all that sugar, anyway. Come on, sit down. I’m a good listener.”

She sighed and reluctantly pulled out the stool next to him, then placed her bowl on the counter and sat down. She ran her spoon around the inside edge of the bowl, scooping up the softer ice cream on the sides.

“Is it boy trouble?” he asked.

She made a sour face. “I am not talking to you about that.”

He nodded. “I guess that’s your mother’s department, anyway.” He pretended to wipe sweat from his forehead in relief. Haven smiled and took a bite of ice cream. “To tell you the truth, kiddo,” he continued, “you have us a little confused. This is the first time we’ve ever heard anything other than high praise from your school. I know you’re still upset because of the move and I hated to take you away from your friends, but my new job is going to give this family a lot of freedom.”

“It’s just a little healthy rebellion, Dad. That’s all. Didn’t you and Mom ever start trouble for no good reason?”

“Of course not!” he said, feigning insult. “We were model students in every way. Why? What did you hear about us?”

She laughed and shook her head. “You’re so corny.”

“That wasn’t corn. And for the record, I’m a very cool dude.”

“Riiiight. You just said ‘cool dude’.”

“Yeah, well, I’m still learning.” He looked at her. “So, everything’s really okay? No drugs, no dropping out, nothing like that?”

“Everything’s fine, Dad. I promise. I don’t even know why I was acting up. It’s not really me.”

“Maybe you were testing your limits,” he said.

“Maybe…I guess.”

“Which is perfectly normal,” he said. “You need to know how much you can handle. But you also need to do it respectfully. You’re an extremely bright girl, Haven. You surprise me every day, but we can’t handle getting phone calls from the principal like that. Especially your mother. She’s a little scared.”

“I know. I’m sorry.”

He ruffled her hair until she pulled away, smiling.

“So,” he said. “Tell me about the boy you like so much that you wrote his name on the gym wall.”

“Ew, Dad!”

She hopped off her stool and hurried upstairs with her bowl of ice cream.

Haven stopped by the door to Noah’s room. He hugged his favorite blue blanket close to his chest while he slept. He was still young enough to need a night-light and the soft glow cast long shadows over the toys scattered across his cluttered floor.

Haven stood there watching her brother’s small chest rise up and down with his breathing. She wondered if he was going to have to suffer through all of the same things she was suffering through—confusion about the future, especially. All of the adults at school continuously stressed how important it was for her to know what she wanted to do for the rest of her life before she graduated high school—that she should have known even earlier if possible. How else would she decide what college she wanted to attend or the field of study she wanted to pursue? Haven knew she didn’t want to live in Arizona forever, but she also had no clue where she might want to go.

It made her head hurt to think of all those things at once. Haven closed her eyes when she felt pressure building behind her forehead and thought of a green meadow bathed in warm sunlight. It was an imaginary place she would envision whenever she felt a migraine fast approaching.

The meadow was surrounded by a ring of tall trees. Small lights floated around the branches; they moved in different directions and at varying speeds as if each one had a mind of its own. Haven was never able to figure out what the lights were, so after a while she stopped trying. They made her smile, which, in the meadow, was the only thing that mattered.

She imagined herself lying down in the soft grass and looking up at the blue sky, her reddish brown hair fanned out on the ground above her head. The clouds were light pink and formed funny shapes as they drifted high above. One of them shifted into the shape of a bird and floated gently down to the meadow. Haven smiled and the cloud dropped lower until it hovered right above her. She reached up and ran her hand through the pink fluff. It moved between her fingers and trailed after them when she pulled her hand back.

In the field, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

When she opened them again, she was standing in front of the door to Noah’s room, holding her bowl of melting ice cream. He still slept soundly in his bed. She had only asked once why her parents chose to have another child so long after having her, but they simply said it felt like the right thing to do at the time.

Haven closed her door as gently as she could and turned off the light before climbing into bed. She ate her strawberry ice cream while looking out of her window at the countless stars scattered across the night sky.

A feeling of exposure crept over her, stronger than what she had experienced in the kitchen when she saw the shadow outside. It was as if everyone in the world was suddenly aware of the strange blue light she had produced and had all turned to look at her at the exact same time. For a moment, she thought she saw dark figures standing in the shadows next to her house, watching through her bedroom window and waiting for her to fall asleep. She rubbed her eyes and the shadows melted away into the night—it was just her vision straining against the darkness. Yet the feeling that she was being watched grew stronger.

Haven shivered and turned away from the window. She set the empty bowl on her nightstand next to a clock that told her it was far too late to still be awake (as it often did), then pulled the bedcovers up under her chin and waited to fall asleep.

4

The afternoon that he accidentally killed the lizard had been a particularly hard one for Colton. His mother had abandoned him—and her husband—nine years earlier to the day. Neither of them had heard from her since. Most of the time Colton was able to push thoughts of her out of his mind, but for some reason, on the “anniversary” of her departure, he couldn’t help but dwell on how happy he used to be when she was around.

Colton shuddered as he walked the streets, remembering the day he discovered his unique ability.

His father came home drunk from work and continued drinking until he passed out on the couch, shouting insults to Colton and his long-absent, unfaithful mother the entire time. Shortly after his father’s final rant and subsequent blackout, Colton decided to go out onto the back porch to get some fresh air.

He found the lizard as he slid open the sliding glass door. It didn’t try to escape when Colton reached out and gently scooped it off the glass. It sat there in his palm, staring up at him sideways with one eye. Colton stepped out of the house and walked over to the nearest bush to set down the lizard, but before he got there, the reptile twitched and rolled over onto its back. He watched as the lizard’s skin shrank until it was nothing more than a thin brown layer stretched over a tiny skeleton. It looked as if it had been baking in the sun for weeks.

Colton shuddered with disgust and threw the dead lizard into the bushes before he went back inside to wash his hands.

It happened only two or three times over the following few months, and usually with something small, like a fresh vegetable or piece of fruit. Until the incident with Mr. Laretti’s produce stand, Colton had found that he was able to somewhat control the ability. It didn’t always work, but over the past weeks he had failed less and less often.

He only used fresh produce—no more lizards. The freshness of the object mattered, Colton had discovered. A can of sliced peaches was useless, but a fresh peach from Mr. Laretti worked just as well as the apple.

Colton didn’t understand the process, but he was getting used to it. The warmth he felt afterward calmed him down, even after the most stressful of days.

There was already a long line of homeless men and women wrapped around the edge of the shelter when Colton arrived. He squeezed inside and hurried over to the long row of tables at the back of the room.

A strong odor of cooked vegetables and unwashed clothes hung thick in the air. He grabbed an apron hanging off a hook on the wall and put it on. The latex gloves from the “large” box barely fit his hands, but every volunteer had to wear them. He struggled to pull them down over his fingers as he walked over to the end of the long line of tables.

The volunteers dipped big ladles into huge pots of steaming soup. On the other side of the table, the unceasing line of homeless shuffled past with bowls in hand. Every other volunteer would drop a chunk of stale bread into the soup.

Colton took his spot at the end of the line and started handing out bread. The volunteer next to him was Sue Wallace, who ran the kitchen.

“Nice to see you again, Mr. Ross. New haircut?”

“Yes. Thanks. Sorry I’m late.”

The elderly woman smiled and the skin at the outside corner of each eye bunched up into a hundred tiny lines. “Honey, the phrase ‘better late than never’ means more at this place than anywhere else I can think of.” She winked at him as she poured some soup into a bowl. “Your haircut looks good, by the way. A little short, but still. You get those nice, dark curls when it’s longer. You really need to let it grow.”

Colton felt as if he was being lectured by an aging family member. He smiled and added a chunk of bread to another outstretched soup bowl. He nodded politely at each person who came through the line. Most of them seemed surprisingly healthy—Colton had noticed that the men and women who frequented that kitchen were either healthy or sickly in cycles. After a short period of declining health, old faces would never return and new faces would appear in the crowd.

Maybe he wouldn’t have to use his talent that day, after all. He was starting to think he had destroyed the apple for nothing.

The front door to the building was closed a few minutes later, signifying the end of lunch. The people still in line within the building would be allowed to stay, but everyone outside had to start looking elsewhere for food.

“Sweetie,” said Sue. She tapped Colton’s arm and pointed to the old man standing on the other side of the table. He had dark circles under his eyes and his skin clung tightly to his bones.

“Oh, sorry,” said Colton. He placed a piece of bread into the man’s bowl, then watched as he walked away and sat at a table, alone. The man coughed loudly into his sleeve and had to catch his breath before he could start eating. His breath wheezed as if his throat had all but closed. He ate slowly, raising the soup spoon to his lips with a shaking hand and spilling most of its contents on the way to his mouth.

“That’s Henry,” whispered Sue. “I don’t think he’ll be around much longer.”

Colton waited until the last person in line received their bread, then he took off his apron and threw away his gloves. He walked over and sat at the table next to Henry.

“Hello,” said Colton.

Henry looked up at him over his empty soup spoon right before he put it in his mouth. He pulled it out slowly and returned it to the bowl, starting the pointless process all over again.

“My name’s Colton.” He extended his open hand. The homeless man looked at him suspiciously. “It’s okay, Henry. Shake my hand.”

Henry slowly set his spoon down in the soup bowl and reached out his shaking arm. Colton grasped his hand firmly.

Ever since he had first discovered what he could do with his ability, Colton had been searching for a way to put it to good use. His desire to make even the smallest difference in the world had originally led him to the homeless shelter, where he spent his time trying to help as many of the helpless as he could. The happiness he felt afterward briefly muted the sadness from his own past.

Colton felt the warmth in his own palm move to the tips of his fingers and flow outward, toward Henry. He let the energy he had taken from the fruit at the produce stand move into the homeless man—it felt like someone was pulling a strand of yarn from the tip of each finger. There was far more inside of him than Colton was used to transferring, and the results were immediate. The dark circles on Henry’s face lightened and his arm stopped shaking. His breathing cleared and deepened. A tear rolled down his cheek.

When Colton had no more to give, he stood up from the table.

“Very nice to meet you,” he said.

5

“She is an excellent student, Mrs. Kincaid. We just don’t understand why she continues to act out in such a manner. This is Scottsdale, after all—not Mesa or Casa Grande, for goodness sake! Children here just don’t act this way.”

Principal Rivera sat behind her desk, hands clasped together atop a manila folder that contained Haven’s school file. She looked at Haven’s mother as if she expected a simple, all-encompassing answer.

“I don’t understand it either, nor does my husband. Up until we received your call, we never knew that Haven was causing any kind of trouble whatsoever.”

“Well,” said Principal Rivera with a sigh, “her grades are still exemplary, and if there had been any kind of drop in her performance, I would think there was more to worry about…”

Haven let the voices drone away into the background. She turned in her chair and looked just past the office door to where her little brother Noah sat playing with a small toy car. He was pretending his legs were ramps and launching the car off one thigh and making it land with a screeching sound effect from his mouth on the other. Their mother had taken half a day off of work at the hospital to come to school for the meeting and picked up Noah from daycare on the way.

Haven turned back to Principal Rivera.

“…don’t think we have anything to worry about, really. Haven has indicated to me how bored she is in her current classes, which might be a reason for her recent impulsive behavior.”

“Well,” said her mother, “she does have a short attention span when it comes to things she isn’t interested in.”

No kidding, thought Haven.

Principal Rivera smiled. “Which is why I’ve starting looking into our Advanced Placement courses. I know we are already a few months into the school year and it goes against protocol to change a student’s schedule, but I’m sure the teachers would be more than willing to make an exception in Haven’s case. I think she would do quite well with the added challenge offered by college-level classes.”

“That sounds like just the thing!” said Haven’s mother. She turned and addressed Haven for the first time during the entire meeting. “I know we talked about this and you wanted to take it easy at your new school, but what do you say to a little extra challenge?”

Haven barely tried to hide her sarcasm. “Sounds like just the thing.”

“Excellent,” said Principal Rivera. “I’ll speak with the teachers and get the ball rolling. Unless you have any other questions, I say we let Haven get back to lunch so you can go enjoy the rest of your day.”

They shook hands and Haven followed her mother and Noah out of the office building.

“There, now,” said her mother, “that wasn’t so bad, was it?”

Haven had already started to pull away for fear one of her friends would see her talking to a strange lady. “Yeah, it was great, Mom. I’ll see you when I get home.”

“Bye, Haven!” said Noah. He waved his toy car in the air in farewell. Haven’s mother held his hand and steered him toward the parking lot.

“Bye, Noah,” said Haven quietly.

She smiled as he continued to wave his car in the air long after he said goodbye. Her smile quickly faded when she thought about the meeting and how it made her feel like everyone was talking about her as if she barely existed. A lot of times it seemed like her parents regarded her more as a way to gauge their own progress than as someone who might actually have a problem with the way everything was going in her life.

Haven walked around the corner of the administration building and headed toward the cafeteria.

George Walker High School in Scottsdale, Arizona, had no interior hallways. The buildings stood separated by plots of green grass and long concrete sidewalks. Students milled about the commons area; some eating, most simply socializing. They formed loose clusters in the bright midday sunshine, sitting or lying on the grass; laughing, kissing, playing.

Haven followed a sidewalk past the library and walked into the cafeteria. She smelled fried food and disinfectant. The room rumbled with the sound of a hundred students talking, laughing, shouting, and moving all at the same time.

Haven felt a tug on the back of her hair and spun around.

“How’d the meeting go, troublemaker?” Kayla put her hands on her hips and shook her head as if she were ashamed. Her short black hair bounced lightly against her cheeks.

“Shoot me now,” said Haven.

“That bad, huh?”

They each grabbed a food tray and walked over to the lunch line to see what was available.

“Probably. I sort of zoned out in the middle. They want me to take Advanced Placement classes.”

“Ew!” said Kayla. “You can’t switch now, we’re almost out of this dump! Besides, only nerds take college classes in high school.” She spooned a huge portion of white macaroni and cheese onto her tray.

“And people who want to actually succeed a little bit in life, maybe?” Haven dropped a much smaller helping onto her own tray. She took two pieces of cornbread from a plate at the next window.

“Well, you know my plan: marry quick and marry rich. I don’t even care what either of ‘em looks like!” Kayla slapped her thigh and fake-laughed at her own joke, which she had told more times than Haven could count.

The girls had met while working at an ice cream shop downtown during the summer right after Haven first moved to Scottsdale. Her parents told her that it was okay for her to focus on school and worry about getting a job later, but Haven enjoyed the small amount of money—and freedom—that working at the ice cream shop provided. The job also helped to take her mind off the fact that she would probably never see any of her friends again.

Having her choice of forty ice cream flavors didn’t hurt, either.

She and Kayla hit it off quickly and soon they were carpooling to work and hanging out whenever they had free time. They didn’t have any of the same classes at school but still saw each other during lunch.

Kayla plopped a piece of chocolate cake onto her tray as she moved down the line to the cashier.

“You sure you don’t want more mac and cheese?” asked Haven. “Right now you only have enough for your next three lunches.”

“Speak for yourself, Cornbread Queen. Tell your hips to watch out.”

“Your kid’s kids are gonna be fat if you finish everything on your tray,” said Haven.

“That’s where ‘marry rich’ comes in. Money fixes everything, don’t you know that?”

They paid the cashier and turned around to find a table.

“Oh my god!” said Kayla. She stopped walking and stared ahead.

“What’s wrong with you?”

“There’s your boyfriend!” She nodded to a table a few feet away.

Jason Turner sat at one of the round cafeteria tables, surrounded by a group of his friends. He smiled and laughed easily, and always seemed to be in a good mood whenever Haven saw him.

“Shut your mouth, Kayla!” she hissed between her teeth. Haven sidestepped around her friend and walked quickly to the other side of the room, looking away from Jason’s table as she passed. She took a seat at the first empty table and faced the wall.

“Geez, you’d think you’d never seen a hot guy before,” said Kayla. She placed her tray on the table and sat next to Haven.

“I just don’t appreciate you announcing it to everyone around, that’s all.”

“Nobody heard me, you nutcase,” said Kayla. “And besides, it wouldn’t be such a bad thing if somebody—oh my God!” She stopped talking and looked behind her.

“Would you stop saying that?”

“He’s coming over here!”

“What? Who?” Haven turned and saw Jason walking over toward their table. She spun back around and stared at her tray. “What’s he doing?!” she whispered.

“He’s still headed straight for us!” said Kayla.

“He’s not turning away?”

“Nope.”

“Is he looking at you?”

“Yep.”

Jason sat on the empty seat next to Haven. “Afternoon, ladies.”

“Hi!” said Kayla. “Oops! Forgot a napkin. Be right back.” She stood up to leave but Haven had a tight grip on her leg. Kayla lightly slapped her hand and smiled sweetly at Jason before walking away.

“So,” said Jason. “How’s it going?”

“Uh, fine,” said Haven. She mentally slapped her own forehead. Uh, fine. Uh, fine.

“Look, I’m not trying to embarrass you or anything, but I heard you wrote my name on the gym wall.”

Her face flushed with heat and her eyes felt like they grew to the size of saucers. He left out the part about the giant heart, so maybe he was trying to break it to her easy. “You sure have a funny way of not embarrassing someone,” she said. She kept staring at her food tray. “Who told you it was me, anyway?” Haven could tell she was getting defensive, even though she wanted nothing more than to be as casual toward Jason as he was being toward her.

“Yeah, hey, it could have been anybody, right? I didn’t mean to say that you would draw my name instead of another guy’s, it’s just that if it were my name, I think it would be, I dunno, kinda cool.”

Haven blinked. “Did you say ‘cool’?”

“Yep.”

“Don’t you mean creepy or pathetic or something?”

“Nope. We should hang out sometime. If it was me, I mean.”

“If what was you?”

“The name you were writing on the wall,” said Jason.

“Oh, right.”

“I’m not asking you to marry me or anything, I just thought it would be nice to get to know you.”

“Oh.” She thought for a moment. “It wasn’t you, but yeah, let’s hang out.” She looked at him. “It wasn’t you.”

He smiled. “Fair enough. Listen, I’m having a party at my house tonight. You and your friend—Kayla, is it?—you guys should go.”

Haven heard herself speak before she even thought about an answer. “Okay, sure. We’ll be there.”

“Great!” Jason stood up. “Everyone’s showing up around nine.” He walked away and Haven heard his friends teasing him about the visit.

“Oh my God!” said Kayla as she came back to the table and sat down next to Haven.

“Seriously, Kayla! Broken record!”

“What did he say?”

Haven shrugged in an attempt to hide her excitement. “He just wants us to go to some party tonight at his house.”

“Oh my G—I mean, wow, neat. So we’re going, right?”

“I said yes before I really thought it out. My curfew’s still ten, but what about you? You have to be home before the party even starts.”

“Haven’t you ever snuck out of the house before?” asked Kayla. “My parents go to bed early, so I can leave whenever I want as long as I’m quiet. Just tell your parents you’re not going out, then wait until they’re asleep and then boom, you’re at a party with the hottest guy that’s ever talked to you.”

Haven thought about it for a moment. “They usually go to bed around nine if I’m not out of the house.”

“So we’ll be a few minutes late. Big deal. It won’t really get started until we show up anyway.”

“Oh, yeah, we’re real party animals,” said Haven.

Kayla hugged her. “That’s the spirit.”

6

Colton started the long walk back to his apartment from the homeless shelter. The path he always took wasn’t the quickest, but he thought it was the most scenic. He passed three parks along the way, their wide, grassy fields providing a calm, momentary escape from the concrete jungle everywhere else in the city.

The apartment building where he was staying was just on the edge of Parkchester in an area that barely clung to the image of wealth and power that had been slowly receding for decades. Even with the steady decline in real estate value, apartments in the building where Colton lived still cost a small fortune to rent. He tried to convince Reece to move someplace more affordable, but Reece needed what he called “the flash”. He didn’t seem to care that they could be paying half of what they shelled out every month and still live in a decent part of town.

Reece’s family had money.

His father was a partner at a major law firm in Manhattan and his mother was a well-known news anchor in the city. It was impossible to walk downtown without turning a corner and seeing a bench or a billboard plastered with one of their smiling faces. His father’s picture was on the benches, and as such suffered the wrath of marker-wielding teenagers who never stopped inventing new ways to draw a mustache on his face.

Colton looked up at a huge banner hanging on the side of a tall building as he walked past. “Channel 8 News: Your Source For Truth”. Reece’s mother smiled down at him, beaming with confidence, sympathy, and wisdom all at once. If Colton actually watched the news, or any television for that matter, he would probably watch her show. Reece hated his parents’ success—even though it allowed him to live comfortably—and quickly changed the channel every time one of their advertisements aired.

“Lousy phonies,” he would say, shaking his head. “If people only knew!”

Colton had met them at a dinner party months ago when he first moved to New York. They seemed genuine enough to him, and as he watched their interactions with Reece over the course of the evening, he figured out that they were embarrassed by their son. Reece resented them for thinking they were better than everyone else—just not enough to stop taking the checks they sent him every month.

Eventually, the small divide between Reece and his parents turned into a chasm. His father told him that they would pay for him to go to any college or trade school, but Reece sneered at the offer and told his father outright that it would never happen. He continued to accept the sizable checks they sent him every month, but beyond that he had no contact with his parents whatsoever.

Reece’s biggest problem—as Colton saw it—was that he had never really had any true ambition. When he became old enough to realize that he could get away with not working a day in his entire life—thanks to the copious sums his parents raked in every year—he decided to become a “student of life”, casting aside all responsibility and doing his best to live every day as if it were his last. Usually, that meant throwing as many parties as possible and drinking himself into unconsciousness, but every once in a great while he did something really stupid just to mix things up.

Colton had barely been able to tolerate that crazy lifestyle before he got his new job at the shipping depot and was even less tolerant afterward. The long hours left him exhausted and the only thing he wanted to do when he got home from work was sleep. Reece had done his best to be respectful, which for him meant one or two halfhearted attempts to keep the noise level to a minimum, followed by willful ignorance that there was ever a problem in the first place.

It was getting to the point where Colton was seriously considering moving out and finding his own apartment. There was no way he would find a place anywhere remotely as nice as where they were staying now, but he could see himself in a mid-grade studio apartment with a decent view of the city sometime in the very near future.

He probably would have moved out a lot sooner, but he and Reece had been friends for almost five years and Colton felt like he owed him a little more time to get his act together. In high school, Reece had jumped on the back of a bully that was standing over Colton and kicking him repeatedly in the stomach. The bully—Kyle Hanoway, the biggest linebacker on the school football team—easily plucked Reece off his back and threw him to the ground. Reece shouted insults at Kyle the whole time the gorilla of a football player was kicking the two skinny kids lying on the ground. Eventually a teacher saw what was happening and ran over to separate the flailing mass of arms and legs.

Colton and Reece became quick friends and stayed close throughout high school. They had their fights, as all friends do, and when Reece moved to New York City right after graduation, he left an open invitation for Colton to come join him. After things with his own father had deteriorated past the point of repair, Colton took Reece up on his offer and moved to Parkchester, bearing witness to his slow but steady decline into alcoholism and self-loathing.

Colton was just opening the front door to his apartment building when Reece walked out of the lobby elevator. He was wearing tennis shoes—a rarity, since he almost always wore sandals—and runner’s shorts.

“Uh-oh,” said Colton as he walked into the building.

Reece smiled and spread out his arms so Colton could admire his new clothes. His blond, messy hair hung down over his eyes and stuck out in random clumps. “Uh-oh?” he said. “I don’t think that’s what you meant.”

“You don’t exercise.”

“It’s never too late to start.” He walked past Colton and slapped him on the back. “Come on, I need your help with something.”

“Man, I’m tired and I need to eat. I just want to go upstairs and relax.” He tried to keep walking toward the elevator but Reece grabbed his arm and steered him back to the front door.

“Plenty of time for that later, amigo. This is important. You only live once, right?”

“The last time you said that you went missing for three days,” said Colton.

“And I have one of the best stories in the world because of that experience. No regrets!” He pushed Colton through the doorway. “Come on, this way,” he said. He made a laughable attempt to stretch his arms and legs before walking away at a brisk pace.

Colton sighed and jogged to catch up. “I hope we’re going to get food,” he said.

“In a bit. First there’s a little project I’ve been working on.”

“Can you at least tell me what it is?”

“If I did, you wouldn’t help me.”

“Probably not,” said Colton. He sniffed the air. “Are you wearing cologne?”

“Half a bottle. Nice, right?”

“You smell like gasoline. And your hair looks ridiculous.”

“It’s called ‘bedhead’, genius. It’s a real thing and chicks love it.”

They turned onto Third Avenue toward Melrose. Colton had only been to that area once or twice, and he looked around at all the buildings as Reece hurried down the sidewalk.

“What’s the big rush?” asked Colton, jogging to keep up.

Reece looked at his watch. “It’s almost shift change and we might miss her.”

“This is about a girl?”

“Of course it’s about a girl! You think I would buy all of these crappy clothes for no good reason? Give me a little credit.”

“Gee, I just thought maybe you wanted to, you know, exercise?”

“We both know that’s not gonna happen. Wait! There it is.” He stopped and pointed to a building across the street. Independent Records sold used albums and the latest indie releases, and attracted a wide variety of clientele, from business executives who had never expected to grow up and become nine-to-five office workers to young, tattooed, pale-skinned teenagers who laughed at the thought of one day wearing a suit and conforming to an establishment.

“She works in there?” asked Colton.

“Maybe say it with a little less disgust next time.”

“Oh, give me a break. Can we just get this over with so I can go home? I’m starving.”

“Okay,” said Reece, turning to face him. “Her name’s Jenna. I have it on good authority that she likes guys who exercise, but also guys with a little bit of a bad streak.”

“‘Good authority’? You just described every girl, ever.”

“So you’re my wing-man. Whatever I say to her, just agree, even if it’s a huge lie. And try not to act like a nerd. And don’t hit on her. I got dibs.”

“What are you going to say?”

“I dunno yet, but I’ll think of something.” He waited for a break in traffic and jogged across the street.

Colton imagined Reece getting clipped by a passing car—not enough to seriously injure him, but enough to make him want to abandon his scheme. It didn’t happen, so Colton hurried over to the other side of the street and stood next to the front door of the record store.

He looked at Reece and gestured inside. “After you.”

Reece winked at him and held two fingers up to his neck, pretending to check his own pulse as he walked into the store. Colton shook his head and followed him.

7

Haven lay in her bed fully dressed, blankets pulled up under her chin. She stared at the glowing red numbers on her alarm clock: 9:17 p.m. Her parents were still awake; still walking around downstairs, opening and closing cabinet doors and turning the kitchen sink on and off. Haven groaned in frustration and sat up to look out the window. Kayla was sitting in her car—a rusty, twenty-year-old Volvo—in the shadows near the end of the street, waiting for Haven to sneak out of the house.

9:17.

The party of the century had already been raging for nearly twenty minutes. Haven tried not to think about all of the girls throwing themselves at Jason, begging him to pick them instead of some girl who didn’t care enough about him to show up on time.

She smiled when she remembered their conversation during lunch. The embarrassment of her blushing face and stupid comments (“Uh, fine”) dissolved into the background when she focused on the fact that he had asked her to go to the party.

Haven fell back onto her pillow and wriggled her head impatiently.

Then she heard it: the unmistakable sound of her parents’ bedroom door closing. The latch clacked into place loudly and was followed by nothing but sweet silence. She quickly threw off her covers and picked up a pile of dirty clothes.  She laid them on her bed in the shape of her own sleeping body. Haven covered the clothes with the sheets and fluffed up the shape to make it look a little more realistic. She looked at it and shrugged—good enough.

Three soft knocks sounded from her bedroom door.

Haven froze and was about to throw off the clothes on her bed and climb under the sheets before she realized that she hadn’t yet done anything wrong. She could always just say she was having trouble sleeping and was organizing her room.

She smoothed down the front of her shirt as she walked over and opened the door. Noah stood in the hallway rubbing his eyes sleepily. His dinosaur pajamas were twisted sideways on his small frame.

“I had a scary dream,” he said.

Haven knelt down next to him and placed her hands on his shoulders. “Aw, Noah,” she said. “I’m sorry. It’s over now.” She pulled him close and hugged him, then twisted his pajama shirt back into place. “Do you want me to sit with you for a little while?”

He nodded and walked back to his room. Haven quietly closed her door and followed him. Every once in a while he would get woken up by a nightmare, and the only way to calm him down was to stay by his side until he drifted off to sleep.

Haven said a mental apology to Kayla as she sat down on the edge of Noah’s bed and pulled his covers up to his chest. His chore that day had been to clean up the floor of his room by moving all of his toys into the dedicated toy chest sitting in the corner next to the closet. He had managed to get most of them into the container, but a few of his favorites were still scattered around the floor.

Small glow-in-the-dark stars were stuck to the ceiling directly over his bed. Noah looked up at them while Haven patted down his wild hair.

“I don’t think you’ll ever have to worry about going bald,” she said.

“You mean like Daddy?”

She laughed. “Right, like him.”

“His head’s shiny.”

“Like a cue ball.”

He chuckled. “Yeah!”

“Just don’t tell him that,” she said.

“No problemo.”

He held up his right pinky finger and waited. Whenever one of them asked the other to keep a secret, they made a solemn oath of silence by sealing the promise with a pinky swear.

Haven wrapped her own little finger around Noah’s and shook once, then bent down and kissed his forehead.

“You going to be okay, squirt?”

He nodded and turned away, yawning as he settled into the bed. Haven stood and walked to the door. She stepped into the hallway and left the door to Noah’s bedroom open a few inches so he would have a little light if he woke up again. Before she even reached the end of the hallway, she heard him quietly snoring.

She padded down the stairs quickly and tiptoed to the front door. Before her father got home from work earlier that day and while her mother was upstairs trying to get Noah to clean his room, Haven found a small can of WD-40 in the kitchen cupboard and sprayed the sliding deadbolt, thumb latch, and hinges on the front door. There was no sound as she slowly unlocked the deadbolt and pressed down on the thumb latch to open the door. She smiled as it swung open silently.

After she closed the door behind her, Haven carefully inserted her key into the lock and turned it until she felt the click of metal hitting metal. She stuffed the key in her jeans pocket and hurried across the lawn, looking back over her shoulder at her parents’ bedroom window to make sure they weren’t peeking out at her from behind the curtain.

“About friggin’ time,” said Kayla as Haven hopped into the passenger seat and gently closed the car door.

“Sorry! They stayed up late and then Noah had a nightmare.”

Kayla fired up the engine and winced at the loud, metallic squeal as it warmed up. “That’s why it pays to be an only child, like me.” She put the car into gear and turned around in the middle of the street.

“Because you turned out perfect.” Haven rolled her window down a couple inches and closed her eyes as the cool night air blew through her hair.

“That’s what you’re wearing?” said Kayla. Haven opened her eyes to see that her friend was sneering at her simple t-shirt and faded blue jeans.

“What’s the matter with this? It’s a classic combo.”

“If you don’t want to get laid, you mean.”

“Hey! Gimme a break. This is only our first date. And excuse me for not showing the whole world what my body looks like underneath my clothes.” She pointed at Kayla’s low-cut blouse. The hem around the bottom of the thin garment went down only as far as her belly button. Haven didn’t want to give her friend the satisfaction of knowing she looked great in what she was wearing.

“Maybe that’s why you’ve only had one real boyfriend,” said Kayla.

“Like that’s a bad thing.”

“Isn’t it?” She turned a corner sharply, tires squealing on the pavement.

Haven sighed and looked out the window. “I don’t know. Maybe.”

“Well, at least find out how many kids Jason wants before you give in. If it’s more than two, I say don’t do it. You should see what having three did to my Aunt Charlotte’s body. Whoo, man!” She puffed out her cheeks and crossed her eyes.

Haven laughed. “I just want to have a little fun tonight, you know? I just want to relax.”

“Hey, now! Miss Perfect Grades wants to have a little fun! Everybody watch out!”

It took another ten minutes before Kayla turned away from downtown Scottsdale and drove slowly through the wealthiest neighborhood in the city. Haven thought that her own house was nice, but it was a shack compared to the mansions lining both sides of the street.

They passed a sprawling two-story home on the left. Cars were parked on the perfect lawn at angles that would make them nearly impossible to move later.

Kayla drove by the house with her mouth open, staring through the huge glass windows at all of the people inside. “Oops,” she said. “We’re here.” She pulled her car into an empty spot on the side of the street a block away, then opened her door and started to get out.

“Wait!” said Haven. “What if my parents wake up and find out I’m not there? What if Noah has another nightmare?”

“Oh, come on. It’s a little late to be thinking about that now, isn’t it? You’re just nervous about Jason. Forget about it and relax.”

Kayla got out of the car, and before Haven could say anything else, she disappeared into the house.

8

“There she is,” said Reece, nodding to the counter.

Colton saw a petite young woman with short, dark hair and heavy eyeliner. She was reading a magazine that must have been extremely boring because she looked like she was about to fall asleep standing up.

“Not bad, actually,” said Colton.

“Not bad?!” said Reece. “What an insult! Like I’d do all this for anything less than ‘amazing’.”

“Okay, fine, she’s amazing. Now what do we do?”

Reece stretched his arms. “Follow my lead.”

He walked over to the counter and waited until the girl looked up from her magazine. “Yeah?” she said.

“Hey,” said Reece.

She waited for him to say something else.

“I just got done working out,” he said. “Now I’m gonna go work out some more.” He turned around and looked at Colton, who was hanging back out of embarrassment. “Right, Colton?”

“Hm? Oh yeah, he works out all the time.”

Reece seemed happy with his response and he turned back to the girl. “So, I was wondering if you have any music that’s good for that.”

“Good for what?” she said.

Reece scratched his neck nervously.

“You know, exercising,” he said. “Keeping the old heart rate up. My parents are rich, by the way.”

“Excuse me?”

“Nothing.” He turned around and whispered to Colton. “Plan A is a dud. Move to Plan B.”

“Plan B?” whispered Colton.

“I can still hear you guys,” said the girl.

“Grab and go!” said Reece. He snatched a handful of CDs from a stack next to the register and ran toward the exit.

“Hey!” said Colton.

“Hey!” said the girl.

“Be my wingmaaaaaan!” shouted Reece as he ran out of the building.

The girl dropped her magazine and picked up the phone next to the register. “I’m callin’ the cops,” she said, raising her eyebrows at Colton as if she were daring him to try and stop her.

“Aw, man,” said Colton. He ran out of the store and followed after Reece.

Riding his bike around the city every day gave Colton the endurance to catch up with him easily. Reece was huffing loudly as he ran down the street, CD cases in hand.

“What is the matter with you?!” shouted Colton.

“She likes bad boys, remember?” Reece smiled and held up the CDs. “Look what I got!”

They split apart to pass a slow-moving elderly man on the sidewalk.

“Are you insane? You can’t get arrested again!”

Reece had been arrested twice since turning eighteen; once for being drunk and disorderly underage (he drank half a bottle of whiskey and stumbled out onto the street in the middle of the night to scream the wrong lyrics of his favorite songs to the entire neighborhood) and once for grand theft auto (the Porsche belonged to Reece’s father, who didn’t think it was as funny as Reece assured him it was). The local police knew Reece’s father well, as he represented a lot of the city cops in civil defense cases. The boys in blue could only protect his delinquent son for so long, however, and threatened to let Reece sit it out in jail with a permanent mark on his record if he ever pulled something stupid again.

Stupid like stealing a bunch of CDs in a moronic attempt to impress a girl.

They ran past a street that would have taken them directly to their apartment building. Colton slowed down but Reece kept running.

“Where are you going?!”

Reece stopped and looked around the street. He was breathing heavily and people were staring at him. His eyes lit up and he smiled when he saw a police car turn a corner two blocks down and drive toward them.

“There!” he shouted, pointing at the car. He turned around and ran back toward the record store.

Colton looked down the road which led to their apartment and wished he was asleep in his bed, then watched in disbelief as Reece almost knocked over the old man they had passed earlier on the sidewalk. The police car’s lights flashed and a loud squawk echoed from their loudspeaker.

Colton sighed and ran after his friend.

He caught up a couple blocks down.

“Hey!” he said. He reached out and grabbed Reece’s shirt. “We need to get off the road!”

Reece shook off his grip and kept running. “We’re almost there!” he said. “She has to see them chasing me or it was all for nothing.”

“You’re going to end up in jail, Reece!”

“Not today!” he said.

He knocked on the big glass window on the front of the record store as he ran past. He waved at the girl inside and pointed to the police car. Colton was surprised and infuriated when she genuinely smiled and tried to hide a giggle.

“I don’t believe it,” he said.

“That’s why I always get the girl!” Reece called over his shoulder. “Come on, let’s ditch these creeps!”

He rounded the next corner and ran down an alley. Colton followed, looking back as the police cruiser screeched to a halt on the sidewalk. Two police officers scrambled out of the car.

“This way,” said Reece.

They turned left at the end of the alley and kept running. Colton didn’t recognize the area and had no idea how to get back to their apartment. Reece turned a sharp corner and ran across the next street.

“Are they gone?” he shouted.

Colton looked back. “One of them is.”

They ran into the narrow alley on the other side of the road. At the end, the missing cop reappeared, breathing hard.

“Uh-oh,” said Reece.

That’s what I said, thought Colton. He and Reece both stopped in the middle of the alley, fighting to catch their breath. The two cops were running toward them, one from each side.

“Now what, Einstein?” said Colton. He knew there was no way to get out of the alley. Not both of them, anyway. He thought about Reece’s police record and the time he would spend in jail if he got arrested. He thought about the time in eighth grade when Reece, who had barely known Colton, jumped on the back of a bully to try and stop him from breaking Colton’s ribs.

“Now…” said Reece, “…I dunno.”

“I do. Follow me and don’t stop.”

Colton quickly sized up the running policemen and picked the smaller of the two. He ran down the alley as fast as he could, gaining distance between himself and the police officer behind him. Reece was doing his best to keep up.

“You’re crazy!” he said with a smile.

The cop in front of them looked surprised that they weren’t giving up.

“Don’t move!” he yelled as he reached for the taser holstered to his belt.

Colton was too fast. He turned around at the last second and fell backwards into the officer. His momentum was strong enough to knock the cop to the ground. Colton fell with him and pushed his elbow into the cop’s stomach as they hit the asphalt.

“Keep going!” he shouted to Reece.

Colton tried to scramble away but the police officer wrapped one arm around his neck and kept him pinned down.

Reece looked down as he ran past, then turned the corner and disappeared. The second cop ran up and side-stepped around his partner, but Colton stuck his leg out and hooked his foot around the man’s ankle. The cop stumbled forward and fell against an aluminum trashcan face-first, crushing in the middle. He rolled away from the can, groaning and holding his head.

The cop who had the iron grip around Colton’s neck squeezed it even harder.

“This is gonna be the worst day of your life, pal,” he said.

Colton didn’t doubt it for a second.

9

Haven walked across the lawn, navigating around teenagers she recognized from school. Everyone had a red cup in hand and seemed to be having a great time.

She caught up with Kayla just inside the door, who had thankfully decided to wait.

“What are they drinking?” asked Haven as they walked farther into the house.

“Shh! Don’t be a dork! Did you think they’d be serving fruit punch?” Kayla looked up and spun around to take in the view. “Wow, this place is great!”

Haven saw a massive chandelier hanging down from the ceiling thirty feet above. A spiral staircase ascended around it and led to the second floor.

“That probably cost more than my whole house,” she said.

The place was packed. Haven saw a few people she knew from her classes, but there were just as many that she had never seen before. Most of them moved to the constant, steady thumping of loud music. Small spotlights swiveled and flashed from their mounts atop bookcases and cabinets to paint the crowd in a rainbow of bright colors.

“Come on, let’s get a drink.” Kayla grabbed Haven’s hand and pulled her through the mass of people.

“But we don’t drink!”

“Keep your voice down! Just soda or something.”

Kayla waved to friends she knew from school as she moved toward the kitchen. There was an opening at the drink table and Haven waited while Kayla filled two red cups with soda. She turned back and handed one of them over.

“There!” she said. “No one will know the difference.”

“I’ll know!” boomed a loud voice behind them.

Haven turned around. Jason stood on the other side of the table, smiling at her. He had a cup in his hand and his cheeks were flushed red.

“You made it!” he said. “I thought you were gonna stand me up!”

Haven leaned closer to shout over the music. “I just had to wait until my parents—”

Kayla reached out and quickly pulled her back. “We had to ditch another party!” she said loudly, squeezing Haven’s arm.

“Oh, right,” said Haven, finally getting the hint. “This one is way better!”

“Yeah it is!” said Jason. He walked around the table and stood between them, turning his back to Haven. The smell of alcohol filled the air around him as he took the cup out of Kayla’s hand and leaned toward her. “Let’s get you something a little more apopriate—perpropriate—a little more tasty!”

The group of teenagers around the table shouted their approval as Jason tipped a bottle of clear brown liquid over Kayla’s cup and filled it to the brim. He passed it back to her and took a long chug from his own cup. Kayla smelled her drink and wrinkled her nose.

“Drink it!” he said happily. “Drink it, drink it, drink it!” He started a chant and everyone standing by the table joined in.

Kayla shrugged and started to lift the cup to her lips.

“Kayla!” said Haven.

“Oh, come on,” said Kayla, leaning forward and speaking just loud enough to be heard. “I thought we were going to have fun?”

Haven crossed her arms. “You remember the car crash two months ago?”

Kayla sighed and her shoulders drooped. “Yeah,” she said.

“Haley Jones and the other kids? All five of them died because they were drunk.”

“Yeah, I know. You’re right.” She sighed again. “Alright, fine.” Kayla put down the cup and looked at Jason. “No thanks,” she said over the music. “We’re good without it.”

Jason shrugged. “Okay.” He put one arm around her shoulder and steered her away from the table.

“Hey!” said Haven.

Jason turned back, looking surprised. “Haven! How rude of me. Please, make a drink and mingle. There’s a ton of guys here, so don’t be shy.” He took a sip from his cup.

“He’s drunk,” said Kayla. She pushed his arm off her shoulder and stood next to Haven.

“So what?” said Jason. “It’s my party.”

The people around them fell silent but music continued to thump loudly from the den. Colored lights swooped over the still crowd.

“I thought you asked me to come here,” said Haven. “Me.”

“Psssh, what?” said Jason. “You drew my name on the wall so I knew you and your friend would show up if I asked you.” He burped and pointed at Kayla. “But she’s really hot.”

Haven opened her mouth to say something but the words caught in her throat. Everyone was staring at her. Blood rushed to her cheeks as she reached out and slapped Jason’s face.

“Whoa!” he said. He blinked and shook his head, then he laughed. “She’s feisty!”

Everyone standing near the table laughed and suddenly the party was back on.

Haven knew she would cry if she stayed in that room a moment longer, but her feet felt like they were frozen to the ground.

Jason shrugged and finished the rest of his drink while Kayla put her arm around Haven’s shoulders and turned her toward the front door. She looked back and made a face at all the people staring at Haven. “Yeah, real great party!” she shouted sarcastically, giving the crowd a crooked thumbs-up as she and Haven walked out of the house.

“Thank you,” said Haven softly as Kayla opened the passenger door to the car and guided her into the seat. She sat unmoving, staring straight ahead.

Kayla walked around the car and got into the driver’s seat. The engine squealed to life and she pulled out onto the street. “Forget him,” she said. “You can do way better.”

“Yeah, right!” said Haven. She sniffed and looked out the window. “Why did he have to do it like that? He should have just asked you during lunch, and I could have tagged along like the pathetic loser I am.”

“Don’t say that. He’s the loser, Haven. Not you.”

“Yeah, but I’m still single.”

“Not for long,” said Kayla. “Do you know how many sympathy dates you’re gonna get after what happened back there?”

Haven smiled and punched her in the leg.

“I’m serious! The boys will be lining up around the block to try and make you feel better. You’re beautiful, even if you don’t think you are. Maybe just put on a little lipstick every once in a while, you know? I’m kidding.”

Haven sighed. “We’ll see.”

It was just past ten o’clock and the streets were mostly empty. Kayla turned onto the road which led to Haven’s house and leaned forward over the steering wheel.

“What’s that?” she said, pointing toward the horizon.

A red glow lit the night sky a mile away. As they drove closer, the glow intensified and flickered like a giant, red candle.

“It looks like a fire,” said Kayla.

“Drive faster,” said Haven.

Kayla sped up and drove down the middle of the street. A black car with tinted windows and no headlights appeared under a streetlight, moving toward them fast. Kayla screamed and jerked the steering wheel to the side. The black car zoomed past, barely missing them.

“Did you see that?!” she said, breathing hard. “That guy almost killed us!”

Haven was barely listening. She stared at the fire ahead and swallowed hard as her throat slowly tightened.

Through the car’s windshield, Haven watched her house burn.

Bright red flames licked up the sides of her two-story home and crawled onto the roof. One of the front windows shattered into a thousand shards of glass as fire burst out of the family room. Wood groaned and popped as beams split from the heat. Neighbors walked out of their own houses in pajamas and bathrobes, squinting bleary-eyed at the bright light.

“No!” screamed Haven. She kicked open the car door and ran into the yard. Tears streamed down her face as she stared up into the dancing flames. Even standing thirty feet away, the heat made her sweat. Her eyes wanted to close against the smoke but Haven forced them to stay open as she watched the raging fire.

“Haven!” shouted Kayla. She got out of the car and ran over to her. Haven started toward the house but Kayla grabbed her arms and held her back. “You’ll die!”

A burning support beam snapped on one corner of the house and the roof sagged down with a slow crunch.

Haven tried to push Kayla away so she could run inside, but she wasn’t strong enough. She pulled as hard as she could but grew weaker as the flames spread across the entire surface of her home. Kayla guided Haven to the ground so she could sit down.

The front door to the house fell off its hinges and broke against the porch. Parts of the second story collapsed into the first, crashing down and sending a flurry of burning embers into the air. Haven screamed and sobbed as the roof caved in and half of the house crumbled to the ground.

“Noooo…” she said softly, her voice tapering to a whimper. She sat with her knees tucked up to her chest and her arms wrapped around her legs while she rocked back and forth. Her tears glinted with the refection of red flame.

Kayla sat next to her and placed a hand on her back. In the distance, the piercing wail of police sirens grew louder.

10

Colton stood in one corner of the holding cell and crossed his arms. He tried to look tougher than he felt in the company of the other men who had been tossed into jail that night. There was only one long bench lining the wall opposite the cell door, and it was fully occupied by a row of mean-looking, tattooed brutes. Smaller men sat around the edge of the large cell and leaned their heads back against the concrete walls.

After being pushed into the room a couple of hours earlier, Colton had taken the only open spot on the bench. A little while later, three more criminals arrived, each one bigger than the last. The largest of the three walked over and stood before the bench, looking down over his enormous gut. Colton needed no further motivation; he got up and walked over to the corner, where he could see everything going on in the cell.

Most of the men kept to themselves, but a couple of them seemed to know each other and talked at length about what was going on in their lives. Colton was surprised that they never mentioned the crimes for which they had just been arrested, and instead spoke of family life and other things he would not usually expect career criminals to discuss.

Colton had never been in as much trouble as he was at that moment. There was no need to worry about the police calling his father; even if they were lucky enough to catch him awake and not in one of his alcohol-induced stupors, he would probably laugh and say that his son was getting what he deserved.

Colton made a strong point of not thinking about his father as much as possible—there were too many emotions that flooded his mind. Love mixed with hate; regret at the happy childhood he was denied; sadness and loneliness rolled into one. It was easier just to push it all far away where the confusing mass of feelings became fuzzy and blended into the background of everyday life.

It was simple enough for him to blame his mother for abandoning the both of them, but as he grew older, he realized that as much, if not more, of the fault rested with his father—there was a lot he could have done to make their lives easier. Instead he chose alcohol and anger.

To Colton, the gulf between them seemed impossible to bridge.

An hour passed, then two. Half of the men in the holding cell were either asleep or passed out drunk. Colton shifted on his aching feet. He wanted to sit down but the floor was filthy and the benches were still full. Cigarette butts and clumps of wet paper were scattered everywhere, and discolored puddles of unidentified liquid pooled in several spots around the room.

He never expected them to hold him such a long time. Reece had been the one to steal the CDs—Colton merely helped him get away from the police. He supposed the police officer he “fell” against in the alley could have upgraded Colton’s criminal charge to assault, in which case he was utterly doomed. Still, Reece could have been locked up for a year or more if he had been caught.

As a first-time offender, Colton hoped the judge would go easy on him and give him a small amount of community service with no actual jail time. There was always the possibility that they would try to make an example of him to prevent other potential screw-ups from assaulting police officers.

The rattle of keys and the sharp clicking of hard shoe soles in the hallway outside the holding cell grew louder as someone approached. All of the men in the room sat up eagerly and watched the door, hoping one of their friends or loved ones had come to pay their bail.

The same officer Colton ran into in the alley looked at him through a small viewing window as he unlocked the door.

“Great,” said Colton quietly.

The officer stepped into the cell and pointed at Colton. “You,” he said. “Let’s go. Now.”

The other men in the room grumbled and sank back into their seats. A few of them stared at Colton with malice as he walked past them and out into the hallway. He wondered if Reece had called his lawyer father and talked him into getting Colton released from the police station. In the morning he would have been processed and likely transferred to an actual jail, where he would spend the next few weeks waiting to go to trial for striking a peace officer.

He didn’t know how much money it would have cost to avoid all of that unpleasantness, but he imagined it was a great deal more than Reece could afford on his own.

After he was out of the room, the officer—whose name tag read “Sanders”—shoved Colton in the back, pushing him toward the end of the hall.

“Spoiled little rich boys like you really get on my nerves,” he said, then shoved Colton again.

“Where are we going?”

“You ruin my day, then you’re out by midnight when you should be rotting in that cell.” He pushed him harder.

Colton fought the urge to turn around and punch the cop in the face. He realized that was exactly what the man wanted: an excuse to keep him in the cell even longer.

“And you must be someone extra special, because they don’t let anybody out if they hit a cop. Especially if that cop is me. I got pull around here, let me tell you.”

Another shove.

They reached the end of the hallway and Sanders knocked on the door. There was a loud buzz and an officer in the next room pulled open the door to let them through.

They were in the main lobby of the building. An officer sat behind the counter reading a magazine and looked up over his glasses.

Sanders pushed Colton toward the exit. “Next time you hit a cop,” he said, “you won’t even make it to the station.” He walked back into the hallway that led to the holding cell and slammed the door behind him.

Colton looked at the officer sitting behind the counter, who dropped his eyes to his magazine and whistled softly to himself.

The waiting area was empty. Colton looked outside through the large glass windows on the front of the building and out at the street beyond. The exterior of the police station was well-lit at night, but he still couldn’t see the person who supposedly paid his bail and got him out of the holding cell.

The street outside the station was empty except for a few pedestrians hurrying along the sidewalk. The air was cold and Colton still wore the dirty jeans and t-shirt he had been wearing all day. He waited for a few moments with his arms crossed against the cold night air, thinking someone was going to appear and explain what was going on. He eventually gave up and started the long walk back to his apartment.

Colton turned the corner at the end of the street and saw Reece ahead, leaning against the brick wall of a building with his hands in his pockets, staring across the street at a pair of scantily-clad women who were hanging out in front of an adult video store. He didn’t notice as Colton walked up next to him and slapped him on the back of the head.

“Hey!” said Reece, pushing off the wall. He clenched his fists as if he were about to start throwing punches, then relaxed when he saw that it was Colton. “You scared me half to death.”

“Making new friends?” said Colton, nodding at the women across the street. The women giggled and waved when Colton looked their way.

“They wish,” said Reece. “But I should remember this spot for later.” He fell into step next to Colton when he started walking again. “So, how did it go?”

Colton shrugged. “Just a bunch of waiting around, really.”

Reece nodded. “Look, I need to say thank you before my ego takes over and won’t let me.”

“You would have done the same for me if I was in your situation. I should say thank you as well for getting me out, even though it was your idiotic idea that landed me in jail in the first place.”

“I got her phone number,” said Reece, smiling.

“If you didn’t, they would be dragging me back to the police station right now for murdering my best friend.”

“Aw, come on. It’s not that bad, right? You’re out, at least.”

“Did you have to call your dad and ask for the money?”

“Yeah, about that. It’s funny, but I actually didn’t have anything to do with your release.”

Colton stopped. “What do you mean?”

Reece walked a couple steps ahead, then stopped and turned back hesitantly. “I meant to tell you a couple weeks ago, but it just never came up.” He scratched the back of his neck and looked away. “My dad kind of cut me off. He’s not gonna send any more rent checks until I ‘get my act together’, or so he says, anyway.”

“So who got me out of jail?” asked Colton.

“That’s the funny part. After the cops hauled you away and I went back to the apartment to change so I could go ask the record store girl out on a date—her name’s Chloe and not Jenna, by the way—this guy knocked on the door right as I was about to leave. Real creepy dude. Tall with black hair and a grey suit. I thought he was from the funeral home and he was gonna tell me you died in jail or something.”

“Reece…”

“Right, sorry. So this guy hands me this briefcase and tells me that if I give it to this other guy at the District Attorney’s Office, they would let you out! I can’t believe it worked!”

They started walking.

“Who was the guy you gave the briefcase to?”

“No idea. Never seen him before in my life. Looked very political, though,” said Reece.

“So you dropped off the briefcase, then went and got Chloe’s phone number?”

“Wellll…” said Reece.

“You went to the record store first.”

“I knew you would be okay, and look at you!” said Reece. He slapped Colton on the shoulder. “Like nothing ever happened.”

Colton shook his head and sighed. “So what’s the catch?”

“Catch?”

“This guy gave you a briefcase—probably full of money—and told you to use it to get me out of jail. So what’s the catch?”

“That’s the best part of the whole thing! He didn’t want anything except to meet you after you were released.”

Colton frowned. “What do you mean, ‘meet me’?”

“Exactly what I said. He wants to talk to you, in person. He said I could go, too. I think he might have some sort of business offer for us. Great timing, right?” Reece turned left at the next street but Colton kept walking toward the apartment building. “It’s this way,” said Reece.

“He wants to meet now?” said Colton.

“That’s what he said. I had to agree before he handed over the briefcase.”

Colton looked down the unfamiliar street.

“This doesn’t feel right,” he said. “How does he even know who I am, or who you are?” Colton shook his head. “How did he know I was in jail in the first place?”

Reece raised his eyebrows. “For a guy who just survived a few hours in the lion’s den with cutthroats and thieves, I would think you’d be a little less of a chicken.”

“It doesn’t seem weird to you?” asked Colton.

“It seems like this guy wants to talk to us, hopefully about how we can both make tons of money with minimal effort. Of course it doesn’t seem weird to me.” He pulled a wrinkled piece of paper out if his jeans pocket and squinted at a written address, then looked up at the street signs next to the road. “I was right. Not much farther,” he said, and started walking.

Colton thought about it for a moment, then followed Reece down the dark street.

“I’m not going to bail you out of trouble again,” said Colton. “That was a one-time thing.”

Reece held up his hands. “Totally understandable. And again—thank you.”

They walked the rest of the way in silence. Reece led them down quiet streets to a tall, unmarked building in University Heights. All of the windows were dark and the brick face was crumbling from age.

“This is it,” said Reece.

“He told you to come here?”

“Yeah. Spooky, right?”

They walked up the small set of stairs that led to the front door.

“I feel like I’m about to have my organs harvested,” said Colton.

“Look, if you want, you can just say ‘thank you’ and then we’ll leave. We owe the guy that much at least. But there’s still the matter of all that potential cash…”

Colton sighed. “Let’s just get it over with.”

“Atta boy,” said Reece with a grin. He pushed open the old, wooden door and walked inside.

11

Colton followed Reece into the old building. They stepped into a single large, dark room. The entire first floor of the building had been gutted except for a few structural pillars which propped up the ceiling. Debris from interior walls that had been torn down years ago was piled into small mounds throughout the room.

A single, naked light bulb shined in the middle of the huge, cavernous space, hanging from a wire that ran up to the ceiling and over to an outlet on the wall. A man stood beneath the light, alone. He waited with his arms at his sides, feet planted on the ground in a wide stance. The man wore a long, dark coat over black clothes. His face was hidden by the shadows cast from the overhead light, but Colton could tell he was staring at them.

“This guy really knows how to make an impression,” whispered Reece.

“Is that him?” asked Colton.

“Yeah. Come on.”

They walked over to the edge of the light, their footsteps crunching on small chunks of debris and echoing loudly across the concrete floor. The man tilted up his head slightly and looked at them. His face was long and thin, with sunken cheek bones and deep-set eyes. His black, slicked-back hair glistened wetly in the light.

Reece cleared his throat. “So, you already know me. This is Colton.”

Colton took a step forward and looked into the shadow covering the man’s face. “Thank you for your help.”

The man tilted his head down. “I am Alistair,” he said in a slight English accent. “You have a good friend here, to do such a thing without knowing who I am or what I really want.”

Colton looked over at Reece. “If you say so.”

Alistair squinted at him. “Perhaps you are wondering why it was done at all.”

“It crossed my mind.”

“I have been looking for you a long time, Colton Ross. You were not easy to find. But now…here you are.” He smiled to reveal a mouth full of perfectly white, straight teeth.

“Right,” said Colton. “Look, I just came to say thank you, so thank you. Reece, let’s go.”

They started to walk away.

“Colton,” said Alistair.

Colton turned just as Alistair threw a small, round object directly at his face. Colton ducked to the side and reached up his hand. It hit his palm with a loud SMACK. He turned it over—it was an apple.

“What is that supposed to be?” asked Reece. “He wants you to have a snack?”

Alistair smirked and walked toward them. “He knows what it means. Don’t you, Colton?”

Colton stared at the red piece of fruit. He had always been so careful after buying the apples from the produce stand. He made sure that no one was watching before the fruit withered and died in his palm.

“Like I said,” continued Alistair. “It took me a long time to find you. Searching for you in the world was like throwing a rock into a big pond to try and hit an invisible fish.” He frowned. “I threw many rocks. It took far too long, and for that I am truly sorry.”

“Who are you?” asked Colton.

“Me? I am just one small gear in a giant machine. But you are a big gear. Bigger than me, bigger than almost everyone I know. At least you will be, someday.” He laughed. “You are very important, Colton Ross.”

“What is this psycho talking about?” asked Reece. “Can we please leave now?”

He tried to pull Colton toward the front door, but Colton took a step closer to Alistair.

“What are you?” he asked.

Alistair smiled and wagged his index finger at him. “Now we are getting somewhere.” He walked back to the hanging light bulb and reached up to touch it. The light dimmed and Alistair’s skin seemed to glow ever so slightly in the darkness. He lowered his arm and light flooded back into the bulb.

Alistair nodded toward the apple. Colton held it up and concentrated on its red skin. He watched the apple slowly wither and die in his palm, shrinking into nothing more than a blackened core. He felt the warmth grow between his shoulder blades and spread down to his hands.

“Good,” said Alistair, laughing. “Good! You have discovered the first part. But do you know the second?”

Colton dropped the shrunken apple and set his hand on Reece’s shoulder.

“Colt, what are you—” said Reece, then stopped. “Hey, that’s really warm. How are you doing that?” He looked down at his shoulder in amazement.

Alistair clapped his hands and smiled. “Excellent. Almost a year with no training and you can do all of that on your own. I am very pleased.”

“What is it?” asked Colton. “The thing we do, I mean. What are we?”

Alistair looked at him. “I was born in England,” he said, “but I am not English. You were born in America, but you are not American. We are something different. Something very special.”

“Enough with the mystery, already!” said Reece. “My shoulder feels amazing, by the way.”

Colton waited eagerly for an answer.

“You need special teaching,” said Alistair. “This is a very powerful gift you have—one that has gone to waste until now. Someone must show you the true path. I will tell you everything, but not here. You must come with me.”

“I can’t leave. I have a job and an apartment…and a life,” said Colton.

“Your job will be waiting for you when you get back, if you still want it. Your apartment, well…your friend here has no more money, so maybe it’s time to find something else, yes? And he can come along as well. I insist that he does, actually. As for your old life, I can assure you it won’t be missed.”

“I’d listen to the guy, Colt. This could be really big.”

Colton crossed his arms and kicked at a small piece of broken concrete on the floor. “Where do we have to go?” he asked.

Alistair grinned and showed his perfect teeth. “Montana.”

“Wait, what?” said Reece. “That might sound good to you, being from overseas or whatever, but Montana? I thought you were going to say Egypt or Switzerland or someplace fun and, you know, exotic.”

“You don’t like Montana? I must admit, it wasn’t my first choice, either. But it grows on you after a time. We go where we’re needed, so to speak,” said Alistair. “And I am paying for everything.”

“Oh,” said Reece. “In that case, where’s the plane?”

Colton couldn’t force himself to completely let go of caution long enough to take the chance that the man was telling him the full truth.

“Colton, listen,” said Alistair. “You have a wonderful gift, and you have the potential to help a lot of people. I know you’ve been doing it already, haven’t you? At the homeless shelter. Don’t be modest! Your instincts led you there because those people needed help. I can show you how to do so much more.”

Colton stuffed his hands in his pockets and shrugged—the choice was made. “So, what’s in Montana?” he asked.

Alistair smiled. “More people who are just like you.”

12

Two weeks after her house had burned down into nothing more than a pile of charred wood and debris, Haven went back to try and find anything that had survived the flames. It took her a few minutes to work up the courage to step over the blackened wooden plank that was the only remaining piece of what used to be the front door.

As she walked through the grey and black ruin, her feet kicked up small clouds of fine powder, which floated into the air and clung to her clothes. She had barely taken ten steps and it looked as if she had been crawling around in dirty air vents all afternoon.

Yellow police tape still encircled the yard to keep out anyone with more than a passing curiosity about the unusual fire that had so quickly consumed the Kincaid home. She had been told that she was allowed to come back anytime she wanted, as long as she called the local police and informed them of her visit.

The fire was classified as “unusual” because the Fire Scene Investigator could not yet determine what started the blaze. The authorities suspected arson due to the strange red color of the flames, so they had been searching for an accelerant—some type of chemical that started and fed the powerful fire.

Haven’s parents had both been in bed at the time—presumably asleep—and had suffocated on the poisonous fumes.

The police could find no sign of Noah. Haven overheard one of the firemen explaining to a news reporter that the remains of those who died in a fire were usually very easy to identify. Sometimes only a bone was left, but it was enough to run a DNA test and identify the victim. Haven was still unclear as to whether or not the police intended to classify the fire as an accident—they told her they couldn’t be sure until they ran more tests. No one seemed to want to talk to her about the devastating incident. Whenever she managed to pull someone aside, they simply said that they were working on it and would have an answer for her soon.

Haven felt utterly helpless.

Noah’s room—which had collapsed down through the first floor and fallen into the kitchen—was covered with pieces of his burned bed. A few blackened toys lay scattered across the broken floor. The police had briefly mentioned that it could have been a kidnapping, but Haven could tell by the look on their faces that they thought it was only a matter of time before they found his remains in the ashes. They had no leads to follow besides the black car that Haven had seen driving away from her home when the fire started. Since she hadn’t seen the license plate or the driver, the chances of the police finding the car were practically zero.

Haven hugged herself and shivered as she walked through the ruins of her home. Most of the second floor had completely fallen through to the first, leaving the burnt, skeletal frame around the outside of the house open to the air. The sky above was grey with rain clouds. Thunder rumbled in the distance; it was supposed to rain later that afternoon.

She brushed the tears from her eyes and stopped at the threshold to her parents’ room, hesitant to go any farther. What was left of their bed mattress covered the broken pieces of the bed frame in the middle of the room. A huge hole was burned right through the center of the mattress in a long oval that was exactly where her parents had been sleeping when—

Haven quickly turned and walked away to search other parts of the house.

Her closest relatives were her Aunt and Uncle in San Diego. They couldn’t make it out for the funeral service and had wired her some money so she could stay in a hotel just down the street until she got her plans figured out. They said she could even stay with them if she wanted. Everyone kept telling her that the best thing she could do after something traumatic was to be around other people, but she didn’t care. Haven wanted to be alone so she didn’t have to listen to anyone telling her how sorry they were for her loss.

The service for her parents had been two days earlier at the funeral home across town. Extended family flew in from all over the country; people she hadn’t seen in years and barely remembered. They were all nice to her, mumbling their apologies and offering to do anything if they were able, just to let them know. She thanked them all and tried to be as sweet as possible but couldn’t say much more than that because she would start crying again. It took her at least half an hour to stop once the tears started.

Everything she did reminded her of her family. She needed a dress for the funeral, and that made her think of all the times she went shopping with her mother. The first time she ate a bowl of cereal after the fire, she couldn’t help but think about trying not to wake her parents whenever she crept downstairs at night to eat ice cream.

She felt absolutely awful about not being nicer to them in the weeks leading up to the fire.

Haven stopped next to the collapsed frame of the couch in the family room and kicked at a small pile of rubble. The tip of her shoe caught on something small and pushed it under the couch. She knelt down and pulled it from the ashes.

It was a glow-in-the-dark star from the ceiling in Noah’s room. One of the five points had burned off. She wiped a fresh tear from her cheek and rubbed her wet finger against the star to wash away the black soot covering the plastic.

Haven had been unable to get past the crippling guilt that consumed her in the first week after she lost her parents. She did little more than spend every day in her hotel room, yelling at herself and pounding the walls because she had gone to that party and hadn’t stayed home with her family.

The guilt gradually lessened after the first week, but she knew it would never fully go away.

Haven squeezed Noah’s star in her fist before putting it into her jeans pocket.

She walked over the debris in the family room and onto the front yard. The grass was burned twenty feet out from the house in all directions. The fire department had been able to stop the flames from spreading to the neighboring houses, but there was nothing they could do to save Haven’s home; it was already too far gone by the time they arrived.

The speed at which the house was consumed gave more credibility to the theory that an accelerant had been used, and meant that—if anyone had kidnapped her brother—they had also murdered her parents by purposely starting the fire to cover their tracks. As Haven walked toward the street and the waiting police car, she couldn’t help but feel hatred toward the officer inside along with every other person who was supposed to be helping to find her missing brother and the people who had killed her parents.

She didn’t say anything as she got into the passenger seat and closed the door. All she did was cross her arms and watch the ruins of her home drift away as the officer pulled the car out onto the street and drove toward her hotel.

13

Haven’s first day back at George Walker High School started terribly.

She was given a police escort a few days earlier when the “experts” were supposedly getting ready to declare Noah’s absence a kidnapping. A police officer trailed after her wherever she walked—which was hardly anywhere—and drove her to the few places she was forced to visit.

When her escort dropped her off in front of school that morning, reporters were already waiting for her, microphones in hand. They pushed forward as she got out of the car, leaning to the side so their cameramen could get that all-important close-up of a girl who had lost everything. The reporters shouted questions about how it made her feel to know that her parents’ killers were still on the loose, and could she please tell everyone how scared and worried she was about her kidnapped brother.

Even though the arson and kidnapping was still a solidifying theory, the local press picked up the story and ran with it. Haven had to change hotels twice because of the sea of reporters that waited outside her room after they found out where she was staying. The more days that passed without any sign of Noah in the ashes, the more certain everyone became that it was kidnapping and murder.

Haven kept her mouth shut as she shoved her way through the crowd and into the school. The reporters weren’t allowed past the front gates, and she was at least thankful for that much.

The day went downhill from there.

She didn’t understand why she even had to go back in the first place. There was no reason she couldn’t have done all of her work from her hotel room. The stay at the hotel was only temporary, though, since she found out the state wouldn’t allow her to live anywhere without an adult guardian for too much longer. She may have been able to get away with it if her life hadn’t turned into such a media circus.

Principal Rivera had dropped the idea of Haven switching to Advanced Placement courses in light of the tragedy, which suited Haven just fine. She doubted she would be completing her school work anyway.

What’s the point? she thought.

Life had turned into endless days of sitting at the police station, answering the same questions about her family over and over again. No, she didn’t know of anyone who may have wanted to hurt her parents and kidnap her brother. No, she was absolutely certain she loved them and never wanted anything bad to happen to them. The line of questioning that led to that last statement disturbed Haven more than anything else. The implication was that she had something to do with the horrible fire. The first time one of the policemen had even remotely hinted at that possibility, Haven screamed at him and ran out of the room.

Now that she was back at school, Haven hoped that some small degree of normalcy would creep back into her life and that she could put the events of the past several weeks behind her.

If only it were that easy.

Everywhere she went in the school, students looked at her suspiciously and whispered to each other, laughing or staring wide-eyed in potential fear. It wasn’t until she finally caught up with Kayla in between classes that she learned the reason why.

“Hey,” said Haven as she walked up to Kayla’s locker. Kayla put a book inside and pulled out a folder that she dropped into her backpack.

“Oh, hey!” She zipped up her backpack and slung it over her shoulder, then started walking down the hallway.

“I called you, like, a hundred times last week,” said Haven. “Why didn’t you ever pick up?”

Kayla wouldn’t make eye contact with her. “I thought you needed your space, you know? I didn’t want to bother you.”

“I needed someone to talk to, Kayla.” said Haven. She had to swallow to stop her throat from tightening. “You’re supposed to be my friend. I thought I could count on you.”

“Look, I’m sorry, alright? I don’t do well with…with situations like that.”

“Yeah, me either. But you could have answered your phone.”

They passed a group of students who stopped talking and stared at Haven.

“Why does everyone keep doing that?” she asked. “They stare at me like I’m some kind of freak.”

“You mean you don’t know?” said Kayla.

“Know what?”

Kayla stopped and sighed. “They all think you did it.”

“‘Did it’? What do you mean? Did what?”

Kayla still wouldn’t look at her. “You know…”

Haven’s eyes opened in shock. “They think I burned my own house down?!”

Every student within earshot stopped what they were doing and turned to look at her.

“Shhh!” said Kayla. “Keep your voice down.”

“But you were there! You saw it yourself!”

“I already told them,” said Kayla. “Over and over again, but they didn’t care. Ever since one of the reporters said they hadn’t ruled you out as a suspect, it’s the only thing they believe. You know how rumors work. The worst one is always the favorite.”

“Well, that’s just great!” said Haven, throwing up her hands in frustration. “Everyone at school thinks I’m some kind of psycho!”

“I don’t,” said Kayla. “You know the truth, and that’s all that matters. Look, my class is right over there. I gotta go.”

“Kayla, wait!”

Kayla walked away and ducked into her classroom. Haven stood on the sidewalk in front of the building, too stunned to move.

The bell rang. Students hurried past, trying to get to class before the teacher marked them tardy and sentenced them to detention. Haven watched them scurry inside, and she was both envious and furious that the biggest thing most of them had to worry about was punctuality.

She walked slowly to her next class—history, her least favorite. The teacher didn’t say anything when Haven walked in five minutes late, he just paused and waited. All the students stared at her as she walked to the back of the room and sat at her desk. The teacher cleared his throat to get the students’ attention, then resumed his lesson.

Haven wasn’t hungry at lunchtime, but she wanted to catch up with Kayla and reclaim a sense of what her life was like before the fire—even if it was only a fraction of what it used to be. She was still mad at her for not picking up her stupid phone when Haven needed her most, but they could talk about that later.

She walked into the cafeteria and looked for her friend. It was the very beginning of lunch, so most of the tables were full. Kayla sat on the other side of the room and Haven started to make her way across the cafeteria.

As she got closer, she noticed that Kayla was sitting with someone—a boy. The boy said something and Kayla laughed. She flipped her hair back playfully and touched the boy’s arm. Haven couldn’t see who it was since he had his back to her, but as far as she knew Kayla didn’t have a boyfriend. Maybe she had picked one up while Haven was away.

Haven smiled as she walked up to the table, happy to meet Kayla’s new guy. Kayla noticed her when she was still a couple steps away and stopped laughing immediately. She stared at Haven like a deer caught in headlights. Her mouth was slightly open as if she wanted to say something but couldn’t force out the words. She just sat there, dumbfounded, while Haven walked up, smiling.

The boy turned around in his seat. It was Jason. “Oh, man…” he said. He turned back to his food and stabbed at some french fries with his fork.

“Haven, I—I’m sorry,” said Kayla. “I know I should have told you…”

Haven walked past the table quickly.

“Wait!” said Kayla.

“Let her go,” said Jason. “If she can’t grow up, then that’s her problem.”

Haven felt blood rush to her face. She ran toward the exit and planned to keep running as soon as she was outside. She wouldn’t stop until she was far away from that place—from those people. She wanted answers. No more waiting, no more uncertainty; she would make the police find out who killed her parents and kidnapped Noah.

Haven was halfway to the cafeteria door when an unusual heat blossomed on the back of her neck and ran down her spine. It spread outward, stretching to every part of her body. The blushing warmth in her face paled in comparison to the boiling heat that coursed beneath her skin. Arms, legs, torso, and head—every part of her felt like it was burning. She stopped walking and looked down at herself to make sure she was not actually on fire.

“Hey, what’s wrong with her?” someone said from a nearby table.

Haven tried to run, but her legs wouldn’t move. She tried to call for help but her voice caught in her throat.

She looked down in horror as a bright blue ball of light formed around her right hand.

Not here, she thought. Not now.

Another sphere of light grew from the palm of her other hand until it completely encompassed her wrist and fingers. It looked as if she had stuck her hands into two large balls of blue light. Haven tried to run again, then realized that her feet weren’t touching the ground. She floated into the air and hovered next to a table, still rising toward the ceiling.

The students in the cafeteria screamed and backed away. Several of them held up food trays for protection.

The blue light from Haven’s hands turned to flames and spread to cover her entire body, like fire crawling over gasoline-soaked wood. She felt a tingling sensation on each of her shoulder blades and looked behind her as two huge wings of blue energy unfolded from her back. The tips of the wings touched the ceiling and burned black holes into its smooth surface.

In the shiny plastic reflection on the bottom of the food trays that were being held up for protection, Haven saw a blue angel hovering above the tables of the cafeteria. Her hair floated around her head as if she were submerged in calm water.

Her vision filled with light and she reached up to feel the energy pulsing from her eyes. The flames covering her body cracked like lightning and whipped back and forth violently—a thousand dancing snakes made of blue fire.

Haven’s back arched and she screamed. A flat circle of blue energy shot out from the middle of her body. Nearby students dove to the ground as the ring expanded and passed overhead. It shattered every window in the room and burned into the walls, leaving behind a black strip that ran completely around the inside walls of the cafeteria.

By that point the students no longer cared to see what happened next. They pushed each other out of the way in a mad scramble to leave the cafeteria.

The blue energy faded from Haven’s vision. Darkness clouded her sight and she felt weak. Her body dropped from the air and fell to the hard ground. She looked up at the ceiling until the world around her faded to black.

14

Colton sat with Reece in the back of a dark SUV and fidgeted nervously with the window controls.

“I still don’t get why they won’t let us roll the windows down,” he said.

“Who cares?” said Reece. He settled into his plush leather seat and leaned it as far back as it would go, then folded his arms behind his head and kicked off his shoes. “Stop worrying. I trust the man completely.”

Alistair was with the driver in the front of the SUV behind a partition of black glass that separated the cab from the rest of the vehicle. Colton hadn’t been introduced to the driver; he and Reece were ushered into the SUV as soon as they walked out of the abandoned building.

He had no clue where they were at that moment, and Alistair hadn’t spoken to them in over an hour. Colton flicked the window switch and sank back into his seat.

The rear section of the SUV had been made up to look more like a limousine than an off-road vehicle. A bench lined the very back and two swiveling leather recliners took up the remaining space. There were two LCD screens mounted into the paneling, one on each side of the driver’s glass partition, but neither Colton nor Reece had been able to figure out how to turn them on.

Reece fell asleep shortly after that, leaving Colton to wonder if he had made the right choice in leaving everything behind. He owned a dresser full of clothes and a few odds and ends, but nothing that he felt genuinely distressed about walking away from. He would have liked to tell his boss he was going away, but figured that he might be back in only a day or two if Alistair’s little adventure turned out to be a bust.

An hour later, the SUV slowed to a stop. Colton reached over and punched Reece in the shoulder until he woke up. The front passenger door opened, then closed. Footsteps crunched on loose gravel toward the back of the SUV, then one of the side doors opened and blinding morning sunlight poured into the vehicle.

Alistair smiled at them. “We’re here.”

Colton got out of the car with shaky legs. He stretched to loosen his muscles and cracked his back. They had parked in the middle of a huge empty lot that was paved with black concrete and painted with bright yellow lines.

Reece hopped down out of the SUV and whistled. “Is that yours?” he asked.

Colton turned around and shielded his eyes from the sun. A small two-engine jet was waiting a hundred feet away. Heat fog drifted out from its still-running engines, distorting the grassy field behind it that stretched away into the distance. The runway was in the middle of nowhere, from what Colton could tell. There were no buildings nor any other signs of civilization.

“Not mine,” said Alistair. “A little too flashy for my taste. But the owner would very much like to meet you, Mr. Ross, and he doesn’t like to be kept waiting.” He gestured them toward the plane.

“Listen,” said Colton as they walked across the pavement. “I’m gonna need some clothes, or something, and a shower. And sleep, eventually.”

“Understandable,” said Alistair, nodding sincerely. “Very soon, Mr. Ross. I promise. First you must meet the man behind the money which severed your chains and set you free.”

Colton looked at him hesitantly.

Alistair smiled. “A little dramatic, I know. Forgive me. Old habits, you know.” He gestured up the stairs that led into the plane. “Please.”

Reece hurried past and disappeared into the plane. Colton followed after him.

“Wow,” said Reece.

If the inside of the SUV was a limo, then the inside of the jet was a palace. White leather lined all of the walls, seats, inlays, and cup holders. White pinpoints of lights traced the aisle to the back of the plane, where they climbed up onto the back wall and were fashioned into a complex geometric pattern.

There was only one seat per row on either side of the aisle, and they were so luxuriant that they put the impressive chairs in the SUV to shame. A small black table with a sleek LCD screen set into its surface was bolted to the floor next to each chair.

Only one seat on the entire plane was occupied. Halfway down, a clean-cut man sat staring at them. Colton thought he was around fifty years old, but as Alistair ushered him closer, he saw that the man could not have been much more than thirty-five at the oldest. Colton couldn’t tell where he was from; the man’s face seemed to contain elements from three or four different ethnicities, depending on how the light was hitting him.

“Please, have a seat,” said the man. His voice also belied his origins; it flowed easily with the fused inflections of many different languages. The chair in front of him was already turned around to face backward, so Colton sat down.

Reece sat in the chair across the aisle.

The door closed and the engines whined powerfully as the jet coasted across the pavement.

“You must be thirsty,” said the man, turning to Reece. “Alistair, something to drink for Mr. Ross’s friend.”

“Thank you,” said Reece. “This is a great plane you have here.”

The man smiled. Alistair returned promptly and handed Reece a clear glass with clear liquid within. Ice cubes clinked against the glass as Reece raised it up.

“Cheers,” he said, and drank. “Hey, that’s pretty good. What is it? I’m not sure I—I—”

His eyes rolled back into his head and his body slumped down. Alistair took the drink from Reece’s hand before he could drop it and eased him into the chair. He pulled the seat belt across Reece’s lap and snapped it into the buckle on the other side, then spun the chair around to face away from Colton and the other man.

“Hey!” said Colton, standing up.

“It’s alright, Mr. Ross,” said the man in the chair. “He is simply resting. He will wake up in several hours, feeling much better than he was before. I promise.”

Colton looked down the plane toward the door. The ground outside was already moving too quickly for him to jump. He would also have to leave Reece behind, and that wasn’t going to happen.

The man in the chair cleared his throat. “I need to speak with you about some things that are best not discussed with…well, with those who might not fully understand.”

“You friend does talk an awful lot,” said Alistair.

“Thank you, Alistair,” said the man in the chair.

Alistair smiled and nodded at Colton, then walked to the front of the plane and closed a partition behind him.

“My name is Bernam,” said the man. “Alistair and the driver—even the pilot—work for me.”

“Where are we going?” asked Colton. He slowly sat down in his chair but did not fully relax.

Bernam smiled to show a row of perfect white teeth, just like Alistair’s. “Montana, as my associate told you earlier.”

“Why?”

The nose of the plane rose in the air and Colton leaned back into his seat to keep from falling forward. He looked outside through one of the round windows lining the cabin and watched the ground drop away quickly.

“We are persecuted for our abilities, Colton, just like everyone else who is branded as ‘different’ by conventional society.”

Colton looked at him. “So you have it, too?”

Bernam pressed a black button set into the panel next to his seat. “Charles, no need to panic.”

He released the button and a moment later the voice of the pilot spoke from speakers embedded in every headrest of each chair in the plane: “Yes, sir.”

Bernam placed his palm against a strip of lights running along the wall next to his seat. Colton looked around, but nothing happened. Bernam smiled.

A low hum built throughout the cabin, seeming to come from every surface in the plane. All of the lights dimmed and almost blinked out. The plane’s jet engines whined and struggled to operate. The cabin shook as the plane dropped a few feet in the air.

Bernam removed his hand from the wall and all of the lights instantly brightened. The engines powered up to full capacity and the plane leveled itself and continued on its way as if nothing had ever happened.

“What…” said Colton, staring dumbfounded. “I can’t do anything like that.”

Bernam chuckled. “Not yet, no. But we are the same, Colton. Our ‘gift’—for lack of a better word—is what makes us special, what sets us apart from the rest of the world. Would you like something to eat?”

“What?” Colton was thrown off by the sudden change in subject.

“Are you hungry?”

“No. I mean yes, but I’m fine.”

“Very well. I’ll keep going then, shall I?”

Colton nodded.

“You are a Conduit. A channeler, as I am. You take the energy around you and harness it to your whim, focusing it onto a target of your choosing.”

“Like the apple.”

“I’m sorry?”

“Nothing. It’s not important.”

“You can store this energy inside of you without unleashing it, but not for long. With training, the strongest of us can contain it for half a minute at the most.”

Colton didn’t want to tell Bernam that he could hold on to the energy from an apple for half an hour, if not longer.

“What happens if you don’t release it?”

“It has to go somewhere,” said Bernam. “It’s like lightning in that sense, you see. If the energy is not redistributed in time, it will take the easiest way out—through your nervous system, internal organs, and anything else blocking its way to freedom.”

Colton swallowed hard.

“But don’t worry about that,” said Bernam. “That’s what the training is for. Your limits will be tested and you will know exactly how much you can handle at one time.”

Colton nodded. “So, are you some kind of a leader?”

Bernam laughed. “Not at all. I am a businessman with a vested interest in your future. Yours and everyone who is like you.”

“How many are there? Like us, I mean,” said Colton.

“Not nearly enough. And with the constant fighting it’s a wonder there are any left at all.”

“Who are you fighting?”

“Ourselves. Every Conduit needs a Source—someone to supply the energy that will be used. A Source has the ability to create their own energy. The most powerful Source can harness something called Phoenix energy—a label whose meaning will be made obvious to you in time. There are far fewer Sources than there Conduits, making them somewhat of a rare breed among rare breeds. The main issue is that there are those who would rather keep their abilities to themselves and use them to hurt the innocent.”

“Is that why you’re fighting them?”

Bernam scoffed. “One of many reasons. They have joined together to kidnap unprotected Sources and Cons for cruel experimentation. You are lucky that I found you before they did.”

15

Haven opened her eyes and blinked against the harsh white light coming from the ceiling. It flooded her vision and stabbed into her brain like a dull knife. She tried to hold up her arm to block the light but was unable to lift it from the hard surface on which she lay.

She squinted down at her body as the room started to come into focus. She was on her back atop a hard metal table and her arms and legs were pinned down with thick plastic straps wrapped around her wrists and ankles. She wore a loose, blue cotton shirt and matching pants, much like the scrubs her mother would wear to work at the hospital. Thin wires ran out of a hole in the floor and up to the table. The multicolored wires burrowed into the backs of her hands and the skin of her arms all the way up to her shoulders.

Haven tried to scream for help, but a thick plastic strip ran over her mouth, sealing it closed. She struggled violently to break free from her bindings, thrashing back and forth on the table and pounding her arms and legs against the metal.

Her vision started to go black as the pain in her head worsened. She closed her eyes and stopped moving as she fought a wave of dizziness that swirled inside her head as if she were on a violent rollercoaster. Haven tilted her head to let her wild hair fall to the side, then slowly opened her eyes and looked around the room.

The glaring light in the ceiling emanated from a single, round fixture which hung down like some bizarre chandelier. It had a square outline but a domed top and the element was covered with a thin metal mesh, like a cage.

The table upon which Haven lay was the only piece of furniture in the room. It was a single metal slab supported by four square metal legs that were bolted into the hard polished floor. The walls were dull white—the same as the ceiling—with no decoration of any kind. The only window was a small square of tinted glass set into the tall metal door in the wall past her feet.

She waited for what seemed like hours, drifting in and out of consciousness between fits of struggling. Every time she tried to escape, her body became weaker and weaker, until eventually the only thing she could do was lay on the table, breathing in quick gasps like a caged, frightened animal.

Later that day—or that week, or month; she had no way of knowing—they came for her.

The door opened slowly, hissing loudly on pneumatic pistons. She strained against her bindings to raise her head and look. The wires in her arms pulled painfully at her skin when she tried to sit up. As the door swung farther on its hinges, she saw that it was incredibly thick—at least a foot of solid metal from front to back, with two massive, rectangular sliding bolts in the center.

The door hit the inside wall with a deep, ominous thoooommmm, and two men wearing full-body protective suits walked into the room. The suits were made of white, flimsy plastic and encased their bodies from head to toe. Tinted face shields kept Haven from seeing who they were.

One of the men walked over to the table and knelt down by the wires that ran up from the floor. The other stood next to Haven and pulled the wires out of her arms, one at a time. Each time he pulled one out, he left behind a tiny bead of rising blood. The man under the table was feeding the wires into the floor as his partner removed them from Haven’s skin.

When all the wires had been yanked from her arms and hands, the men left the room. The door remained open, and Haven would have tried once more to escape her bindings if only she weren’t so weak. She rested her head back on the table as tears ran from the outside corners of her eyes.

The sound of wheels rolling across the floor echoed through the open doorway. It grew louder until the men reappeared, pushing a cart that looked like a smaller version of the table in the room.

They worked quickly, unstrapping her left leg and securing it to the moveable table before unstrapping her right leg. They freed both of her arms and shifted her body onto the cart. She made muffled noises through the plastic strip covering her mouth as she tried to ask them what they were going to do to her. Her eyes blinked slowly as she fought to stay awake. The dizziness returned and her eyelids fluttered rapidly.

After they got her settled onto the cart, the men slipped her hands through the new plastic bindings and tightened them around her wrists. Haven lifted her head, but one of the men placed his hand on it and gently pushed it back down to the table.

They wheeled the cart out through the doorway and down a long, bright hallway. Tall metal doors—just like the one leading to her room—lined both sides of the hall. Haven couldn’t see past the tinted windows to find out what was inside.

The men pushed her cart through two large swinging doors at the end of the hallway and into a large, dark room. At the back of that room was a smaller door which led to an even smaller room; barely big enough for her cart and the two men to move around it.

They stopped the cart in the middle of the small room and clicked the wheels into four locking grips on the floor. One of the men wheeled over a small cart loaded with all kinds of monitoring equipment while the other swabbed her forearm with a wet cotton ball. He set aside the cotton and picked up a needle attached to a long, clear tube. The tube ran up to a bag of clear liquid hanging over Haven’s cart.

He held her arm down firmly while he inserted the needle into her arm. A burst of bright red blood shot up into the clear tube, then flowed back into her skin. She wanted to reach for the needle with her other arm as soon as the man let go but was too weak to do anything more than twitch her wrist.

The men stared down at her through their black face shields for a long time. Haven could hear them breathing through some kind of filtration system built into their suits.

Help, she wanted to say. Please help me.

The men turned and left the room. Next to her on a long table were all sorts of shiny, stainless steel tools: scissors, bone saws, pliers, a small hammer.

Haven found new energy and shouted into the thick plastic over her mouth.

The door burst open and another man in a protective suit hurried in. The suit looked as if it had been put on in a hurry; the helmet sat crookedly and the material on the man’s arms and legs was all bunched up and wrinkled.

It reminded Haven of Noah in his pajamas.

The man moved quickly to her cart and looked down at her. His head was moving and she could hear him trying to say something from inside his floppy face covering, but she couldn’t make out the words. After a few more syllables, he shook his head in frustration and lifted the face mask up over his head.

“I am Marius,” he said with a heavy Russian accent. He had a thick brow that stuck out over his dark eyes. “They kidnapped you from the hospital after what happened at school. You are safe now. Well, you will be. In a few minutes, probably.” He let the mask fall back over his eyes while he yanked the needle out of her arm. “Sorry,” he said loudly from behind his mask.

She lifted her restrained arms and he picked up a serrated blade from the table of tools. He cut through the thin strips of plastic that connected her bindings to the table but left the thick cuffs on her forearms with several inches of the straps attached. He pulled up his mask again when he saw her glaring at him.

“Best to leave them on, for now. In case they see us. Please, there is no time.”

He pulled the mask down over his face and continued cutting. Soon her legs were free from the table. She pointed to the plastic covering over her mouth but he shook his head, no. He bent down and unlocked each of the wheels, then pushed the cart out of the room, whistling softly inside his helmet.

They went out through the large room and back into the hallway, down to the other end and through another set of swinging doors. Marius nodded his bulky head ponderously at the few people he passed along the way. Not everyone wore a protective suit; most of them looked like normal doctors or nurses, roaming the halls of the vast complex and making notations on small electronic pads. Whenever someone looked at Marius and his strange cargo for more than a few seconds, he would pick up a clipboard from the cart and flip through a couple pages until the nosy observer was out of sight.

Marius stopped in the middle of a four-way intersection of hallways and pulled back the left sleeve of his white suit to reveal a crude drawing on his arm. Thick black lines drawn in permanent marker traced a map over his hairy skin. His finger followed a long line and stopped at the four-way intersection on the map. He mumbled to himself and pointed down each hallway in turn while checking the map on his arm. He finally settled on a direction and pushed Haven’s cart quickly down another long, bright corridor.

“Ah-ha!” he said. He stopped the cart next to a plain white door and looked down at the chunky metal keypad next to the handle. Marius pulled off his left glove and stuck his hand on the keypad. A ball of orange light burst from his palm and burned through the wall, completely melting the keypad and everything else in a five-inch radius.

Marius laughed and lightly tapped the door. It swung open easily.

He pulled off his mask and tossed it aside. “Okay,” he said. “Now for hard part.”

He lifted Haven from the cart. He set her down on the floor and draped one of her arms over the back of his neck to support her as they walked.

The lights in the hallway changed from bright white to a deep, flashing red. In the distance, an alarm blared.

“Well,” said Marius grimly, “now we are in real hurry. They are coming.”

16

The plane shuddered as it hit a small patch of turbulence.

Colton gripped the armrests of his seat. “How did you find me, anyway?” he asked.

Bernam grinned coldly. “Not all of my abilities will be revealed to you, Mr. Ross. As I was saying, long before these cruel individuals started their mad crusade, we fought for the same reason everyone fights: difference of opinion. But I digress from my main goal, which is to enlighten you about the state of the dangerous world in which you have been so mercilessly thrown.” His dark eyes glinted with devotion. “Each one of us is powerful on our own, Colton, even without a true counterpart. Some are stronger than others. Some can do no more than sap the energy from a fresh leaf and use it to keep their own fingernails from turning yellow. The strongest can drain the life from every person in a room and use that energy to add ten years to their own existence.

“We are made this way for a reason. Unfortunately, nature has only given each of us one half of a grand equation. It is only when we work together that we can achieve our full potential. This pairing of Source and Conduit is called Unity. Together we become something more powerful than we could ever hope to be on our own.”

“I’m not quite sure I understand.”

“Of course not!” Bernam chuckled. “You’re still thinking about your job, and your apartment, and all those other things you left behind. Eventually all of that will drift into the background, then disappear entirely. That’s perfectly normal. Consider this more of an introduction than anything else.”

Colton looked over at the back of Reece’s chair.

“Occasionally,” said Bernam, noticing Colton’s hesitation, “a Source is so powerful that they will literally burn themselves up from the inside out unless they have a Conduit capable of harnessing and redirecting the energy. It is like a wellspring inside of them, and without the proper outlet…boom. That is why it is so important to work together. It is the way things were meant to be. And that’s what I want to change. All of this fighting is pointless. It keeps us from finding true Unity with our counterparts. We need to weed out the bad elements and start over.”

Bernam sighed.

“But,” he continued, “things are never that easy, are they? It would be too convenient if any Source could pair with any Conduit. Not only does the Conduit have to have the proper capacity for storage and redistribution, but there seems to be another factor at work whose machinations I have as of yet been unable to pinpoint.”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“In short, Mr. Ross, it appears as if each Source has only one specific Conduit with which they can pair. A second half which, for all intents and purposes, they were destined to be with. These two individuals are always less than one year apart in age. Beyond that, it could be anyone.”

“And you haven’t found yours yet?” asked Colton.

Bernam stared at him coldly. “We deviate too far from our discussion, Mr. Ross. As I was going to say, there are those who would rather cut us into little pieces to try and figure out what makes us tick than help us make our own way in this vast and lonely world. I want to undo all the years of pain that our kind has endured, Colton. I want to make it safe for people like you and I to live in peace.”

“No offense,” said Colton, “but I was doing just fine until you guys found me.”

“Ah, but how long would it have lasted, I wonder? All it takes is one little mistake before someone sees you and the walls come crashing down. Trust me—no one can hide forever.”

“But what happens if I’m never matched with the right Source?”

Bernam held up his hands in mock defeat. “Then you will suffer the same fate as many of those who came before you,” he said. “Without true Unity, you will be stuck as you are now, relegated to a life of mediocre ability, never fully reaching your true potential.” He flashed a thin smile. “No offense, of course. Still—there is another path. You can let me to teach you how to better yourself.”

Colton crossed his arms and sat back in his seat. “That’s a lot to think about. To be honest, it sounds crazy.”

“Indeed it is.”

“You say there are others like us?”

“Correct.”

“And another group is out there, hunting them down and killing them.”

“Through experiments of a most vicious nature.”

Colton looked through the window and into the distance. The sun was just rising above the clouds. With half his heart he wished he were back in Pennsylvania as a boy nine years ago, before his mother left and his father became a man that no one would miss if he passed away. Life had seemed less like a chore and more like an adventure.

With the other half of his heart he grasped at the future, and at the possibility of finding new meaning on a new path; a beacon in the darkness.

Colton looked at Bernam. “What’s the next step?”

Bernam smiled and clapped his hands together. “Excellent! A choice you will not regret.” He leaned over in his chair to look through the window and down at the ground several miles below. “The next step is a little test of your abilities. Time is of the essence.” He stood and walked toward the front of the plane. “Please, follow me.”

Colton looked out the window but saw only clouds. He stood and walked toward the cockpit.

Bernam knocked on the sliding partition and Alistair appeared almost instantly.

“It’s time,” said Bernam.

Alistair nodded and beckoned for Colton.

“Good luck,” said Bernam, and patted Colton on the back before going to the other side of the partition and sliding it shut behind him.

“Why do I need luck?” asked Colton, looking around warily.

“You know what kinetic energy is?” asked Alistair. He started unscrewing four silver bolts on the corners of a plastic panel in the middle of the airplane door.

“Uh…it’s moving energy? The energy something has when it’s moving.”

“Exactly,” said Alistair. “And here I was thinking the American education system was bunk.” He pulled off the plastic panel to reveal a red handle. “I want you to imagine a small battery falling toward the ground.”

“Okay…”

“Now imagine that, as the battery drops, the kinetic energy increases. The battery charges itself with the energy that builds up during the fall.”

Colton nodded.

“So, if the battery hits the ground fully charged, what happens?” Alistair casually rested his hand on a handhold next to the door and gripped it tightly.

“It splats, just like anything else.”

“Precisely. Only, the more charge the battery has stored within itself at the point of impact—the longer it has been falling—the bigger the splat. But what would happen if, somehow, at the last second before impact, the battery could discharge all of its kinetic energy, thereby completely negating its momentum?”

Colton frowned. “I guess it would cancel out the fall and the battery would land safely on the ground.”

“Excellent!” said Alistair. “I want you to think really hard about that in the next few minutes.”

“Why?” asked Colton.

“Because you’re the battery.”

Alistair turned the handle on the door and flung it open. Wind ripped into the cabin and the jet shuddered violently. Colton was thrown off-balance and managed to get both feet back on the floor just as Alistair placed his hand firmly in the middle of Colton’s back and shoved him out of the plane.

He tumbled through the air, spinning rapidly as he dropped toward the Earth. His vision was a lightning-fast slide show—plane getting smaller, ground getting closer, plane getting smaller, ground getting closer.

The wind tore at his clothes, whipping his shirt up over his face every time he flipped in the air.

Colton closed his eyes and screamed.

17

Haven’s head swam with dizziness and pain, and she had a hard time focusing on her surroundings. She dedicated all of her energy on putting one foot in front of the other as Marius led the way out of the facility.

He rushed her through a door and into a tall stairwell. He climbed the steps two at a time, carrying Haven most of the way and counting the doors they passed along the way.

“…three…four…five! Here it is.”

He let Haven rest against the wall while he peered through the small rectangular window in the door. Haven leaned over to look and saw a receptionist’s area beyond, with several men and women seated behind a long desk next to a big glass door which led to the outside world.

“Oh!” said Marius. “I forgot, I’m so sorry.”

He reached behind her head with both hands and touched the face covering. There was a small flash of orange light and the straps loosened. He pulled it away gently and threw it aside.

“Thank you,” whispered Haven.

Marius smiled. “Thank me if we get out in one piece.”

He held up a finger to be quiet and cocked his head. Footsteps pounded up the hallway from below. Marius ran to the railing and looked down the stairwell.

“They move quickly. Many more than I was hoping.”

He walked back to the door and kicked it open. A woman on the other side screamed and jumped up from her chair. All of the receptionists reached for the nearest phone as Marius strolled into the room supporting Haven.

“Just making withdrawal!” he said, laughing.

He lifted Haven off the ground and ran to the door. The receptionists were shouting for them to stop, but Marius pushed open the large glass door and ran out into the bright sunlight.

“Almost there,” he told her. “Almost safe.”

A black four-door car with darkly tinted windows screeched to a halt in the parking lot in front of the building. Marius hurried over to it and set Haven in the back seat after the door popped open from the inside. He quickly shut her door and climbed into the passenger seat, shouting, “Go go go!”

The driver—a short woman with shock-white hair—slammed down on the gas pedal and peeled out of the parking lot.

Haven managed to sit up and look out through the back window. Only a small concrete dome with a single glass door and several windows sat in the middle of a vast desert—the entire complex must have been underground. A paved parking lot surrounded the dome but was mostly empty except for a few large, black pickup trucks with modified bodies and large tires. As Haven watched, the glass door opened and a group of men wielding large guns ran outside. They split up and got into two of the black trucks. Their tires kicked up dirt and gravel as they sped out of the parking lot and followed after the sedan.

“Well,” said Marius as he looked back, “I guess they wanted to keep you after all.”

Haven closed her eyes as a heavy wave of nausea passed through her body. She felt as if she were in an elevator that was dropping too quickly.

She took a deep breath and sat up in the back seat of the car to try and focus on what was happening around her.

Marius stood up in the passenger seat and faced backward, the top half of his body sticking out through the open sunroof of the car. He had some kind of machine gun and fired short bursts at the two trucks. Haven looked back and saw that all of the bullets were hitting the road near the tires of the pursuing vehicles, but none made contact with the spinning wheels.

Marius uttered foreign curses under his breath and tossed the gun into the back seat next to Haven. He dropped down into his seat, scowling.

“Time for big gun,” he said.

The white-haired woman behind the wheel nodded and pushed a button on the side of her seat. She slid back as far as she could go, then turned on the car’s cruise control. Marius reached over and held the wheel as the woman nimbly climbed over the center console and into the passenger’s seat. Marius grinned when she sat in his lap.

“Don’t get any ideas,” she said playfully.

“Ha!” said Marius. He clumsily made his way into the driver’s seat and sat down. “By the way,” he shouted into the back seat, “this is Corva.”

Haven brushed the hair out of her eyes and tried to smile, but all she could manage was a weak little smirk.

Corva stood up through the sunroof and straddled the center console, one foot in the middle of each seat.

“Careful!” said Marius as he looked down between his legs at the shiny black boot digging into the seat. “This real leather!”

Corva stuck her right arm down into the car impatiently and waved in front of Marius’s face. He grabbed her forearm just above the wrist and she held onto his arm tightly.

A pale orange glow wavered across Marius’s skin. It grew intensely until it became a sheath of flame that covered his entire body. Some of the flames licked out like snapping whips before being pulled back into his body. Haven reached toward him and felt heat, but nothing around him was melting. He looked at her in the rearview mirror and his eyes burst into orange flame. The fire moved quickly up to his hair and soon that, too, was ablaze, dancing wildly against the inside roof of the car. The cloth, the seat—everything touched by the flames remained unburned.

The orange flame danced up Marius’s arm and onto Corva’s skin. It flowed upward, spiraling around her arm and engulfing her torso. Haven looked up through the sunroof as Corva raised her other arm and held up a flat palm toward the pursuing trucks.

The orange flames that flowed from Marius traveled even faster over to Corva and pooled in a bright sphere around the hand of her outstretched arm. The light intensified and looked to Haven like a miniature version of the sun. It grew until it was the size of a basketball.

Corva glanced down to smile at Marius. He looked up at her with a goofy grin on his face, steering the car with one hand while he held firmly onto her arm with the other.

One of the trucks had almost caught up and was getting close enough to tap their bumper. Corva closed one eye and formed her hand into the shape of a gun.

“Pichow,” she said, and pulled her thumb-trigger. A brilliant stream of orange plasma shot out of the sphere of light surrounding her hand and hit the closest truck. It smacked into the windshield and shattered it instantly. Glass shards burst inward, raining down on the truck’s occupants like a hailstorm of tiny knives.

Flames continued to dance up Marius’s arm and flow across Corva’s skin to her outstretched hand. The flames melted into the ball of light and turned into a beam of energy that shot toward the nearest truck.

Corva swept the constant stream of orange plasma over the truck’s hood until the metal melted into the engine. The ball of light surrounding her hand slowly shrank as the stream of energy flowed away from her.

She moved the stream down to the front tires and melted them one at a time. Metal rims sparked against the hot pavement as rubber tread flew off in molten chunks. The truck veered off the road, hit an embankment, and launched into the air.

Marius whistled as the truck soared higher, spinning end over end until it landed on its roof with a violent crash.

The second truck accelerated toward the car as the light on Corva’s hand faded completely. She ducked back into the car and sat heavily in the passenger’s seat.

“That’s it,” she said. “I’m done for now.”

“It was beautiful,” said Marius.

“We’re not safe yet.” She turned and looked at Haven. “She’s pale. We need to get her to The Dome as soon as we can.”

Haven blinked slowly. Cold sweat clung to her skin. All of the sounds around her had a deep, resonating echo that made her feel like a fish in a fishbowl.

The car lurched forward as the truck behind them slammed into their rear bumper. Marius sped up to get away, but the truck quickly caught up and nudged them again.

“Nyet!” he said. “Enough! Take wheel.”

He set the cruise control and leaned back in his seat so Corva could steer. Marius stood quickly and pulled himself up out of the car through the sunroof. He slid down onto the trunk of the car and stood up, facing the black truck that was still trailing them.

When the truck sped forward to try and knock him off, Marius jumped into the air. The truck slammed into the back of the car just as Marius landed on the truck’s hood. He scrambled up to the windshield before the driver could shake him off.

“I saved a little something for you!” he shouted. The truck swerved on the road, trying to knock Marius from the hood, but he stood firm. He leaned down over the side of the truck as orange flames burst from his hands. It was a different kind of energy than when he had been connected with Corva. Less transparent somehow, and brighter. Haven thought it was more like the energy Marius had used to burn through the lock back at the facility where she had been held captive.

He bent down and held his hand an inch away from the spinning tread of the driver-side tire. A moment later, the rubber burst into flames. Marius scrambled back onto the hood as the tire exploded, sending strips of rubber flying into the air. The truck jerked to the side as the driver overcompensated for the flat tire. The vehicle spun sideways and flipped up into the air, still traveling toward the black sedan.

Marius was thrown to the side of the road as the truck slammed down into the asphalt and kept on spinning. Chunks of metal ripped off the body and spun away in all directions, peppering the embankments on both sides of the road and spitting up tiny bursts of sand.

The truck stopped spinning and slid on its side with a loud squeal of metal and a burst of sparks. It scraped to a stop on the side of the road.

In the sedan, Corva jumped into the driver’s seat, slammed on the brakes, and shifted the car into reverse. Haven looked back eagerly at where Marius had disappeared. Corva stopped the car next to the wrecked truck and waited.

Someone coughed loudly. Marius stumbled into view over a small rise just off the side of the road, brushing a layer of sand from his arms. His forehead was cut and bleeding, but other than the cut and a slight limp, he appeared to be okay.

Metal scraped against the road and Haven turned to see the crashed truck sway a little on its side. One of the men inside was trying to open the door that wasn’t pinned under the truck. He kicked against it loudly, wrenching it open a few more inches each time.

“Hurry up, Marius!” shouted Corva.

He grumbled to himself but hobbled over to the car and got inside. As soon as his door was closed, Corva slammed on the gas pedal and sped down the road.

“I think it went really well,” he said.

Corva punched him in the shoulder and he laughed loudly. He turned back and looked at Haven. “You doing okay, little one?”

She reached up weakly and pointed at his bleeding forehead. Marius touched the deep cut and frowned as he rubbed the blood between his fingers. “This?” he said. “Is nothing. It takes a lot more to hurt Marius. Don’t you worry.”

Her eyelids fluttered and her vision dimmed.

Marius’s voice drifted far away. “Hurry, Corva, she is not doing well.”

Haven’s head fell back onto the seat and the last thing she saw before passing out was the clear blue sky through the sunroof.

18

Colton stopped screaming when he realized it wasn’t going to save his life.

He had been falling through the sky for what seemed like an eternity. The ground below was quickly rushing up to meet him. He didn’t know if it was Montana or somewhere else. He saw mountains in the distance and the ground directly beneath him was brownish tan—maybe a desert. Colton could barely keep his eyes open against the wind. He flattened out and looked down at the ground, then spread out his arms and legs to try and slow his fall. It worked a little, but there was no way it was enough to make the difference between life and death.

He imagined the battery that Alistair described. It spun through the air, plummeting toward the Earth, just as he was. Only as the battery fell, the small meter on its side slowly filled to the top with kinetic energy—the energy of its own descent. Colton closed his eyes and forced himself to focus.

The wind was too powerful to ignore, but eventually he was able to push it into the background until it lessened to a dull but constant pressure. The fact that he was going to die soon was also too powerful, so he did his best to keep it from getting in the way of the battery.

The battery.

Colton imagined it inside of his own chest, filling up like a fuel cell. He felt warmth—the same warmth he had felt when he took life from the apple.

The warmth grew around his spine, between his shoulder blades. It spread much faster than ever before, traveling throughout his body and making him feel as if he was glowing from the inside. Heat radiated from his skin and Colton began to sweat, even with the frigid air surging past him. In his chest, the imaginary battery swelled to capacity with the collected energy from his fall.

Colton had forgotten to open his eyes.

When he did so, the ground was right in front of him. His mind screamed No! and every muscle in his body tightened. The built-up energy exploded from the center of his chest like a jet fighter breaking the sound barrier.

The sand beneath his body shot up into the air as if a meteor had struck the earth, leaving behind a deep crater that extended twenty feet in all directions. Colton hung in the air for less than a second and had time to register all of those things right before he fell ten feet to the bottom of the sand crater and landed on his stomach.

He rolled onto his back, coughing for air. The sand that had been thrown into the sky drifted down to the ground, sprinkling over him like gritty snow.

Colton heard footsteps approaching. A young woman’s face appeared over the edge of the crater above. A pair of dirty goggles hung loosely around her neck.

“Nice landing,” she said. She looked to be about the same age as Colton.

He spit to get some sand out of his mouth. “Who are you?”

“The girl evaluating your test.” She waved her hand in front of her face to clear away the falling sand. “Congratulations, you passed.”

Colton stood up slowly, testing his limbs for injury. His left wrist hurt to the touch from the impact, but he felt okay otherwise. His vision was a little blurry, and dark shapes swam around in front of him. “What happens if I would have failed?”

The girl held up a plastic bag and smiled.

“Ha,” said Colton. He scrambled up over the edge of the crater—the hole in the ground he was responsible for creating—and sat down. “How many people usually pass and how many, you know…” He made a squishing noise with his mouth.

“Everyone is tested differently.” She sat next to him and stuck her legs out toward the bottom of the crater. She wore tight cargo shorts and a dirty white tank-top. “Bernam must have thought you could do it or he would have tried something else.”

Colton laughed.

“What’s so funny?”

“Nothing,” he said, still smiling. “I feel really good for some reason. Hey,” he said, “there was a guy that got on the plane with me—”

“Your friend is perfectly safe.”

“Good. Why is my vision all fuzzy?”

“Residual energy takes a while to dissipate. A tiny bit of it is still floating around in there.”

She had bright green eyes and short auburn hair that bobbed over her neck when she talked. Colton stopped himself more than once from staring at her slim figure and tanned legs while she sat next to him. She looked into the crater and banged the heels of her bulky shoes. Sand fell out from the openings near her ankles. The shoes looked like men’s construction boots.

“So,” said Colton, “you’re a…a Conduit?”

“Ha! Bernam and his ridiculous labels. Call me Shelly.” She offered her hand, which Colton shook.

He felt warmth flow through her hand into his, then up his arm. It spread over his body and he instantly felt better. He flexed his wrist; the pain was completely gone.

Shelly winked at him. “It’s from the sun,” she said, glancing up into the sky. “We’re solar-powered. How cool is that?”

“So what now?” asked Colton.

“You ready for something that moves a little bit slower?” Shelly stood and brushed sand from the back of her shorts.

“Gladly.” He stood up next to her slowly since all of the blood in his body seemed to want to be in his head at the same time. “Where to?”

“My car is over there,” she said. She stuck her thumb over her shoulder toward a beat-up Jeep with big off-road tires.

“There’s no roof,” said Colton. “Or doors.”

“Hmm,” she said. “That’s pretty much the most obvious thing you could point out. Maybe the fall affected your brain.”

Colton started walking toward the Jeep. His feet sank down into the hot sand which poured over into his shoes. “So you’re the local comedian.”

“Somebody’s gotta be. It’s a grim bunch, for the most part. Sounds like you’ll be good for a little fun, though, once you get balanced out again.”

“No promises.” He grabbed the roll bar over his seat and lifted himself into the Jeep. Shelly hopped lightly into the driver’s seat and fired up the engine.

“Might want to buckle up,” she said. She grabbed the goggles hanging around her neck and pulled them up over her eyes, then shifted the Jeep into gear.

The car jerked to the left and Colton nearly fell out the side. He used both hands to hold onto the roll cage, then quickly buckled his seat belt as soon as the Jeep leveled out.

“Told you!” she said over the roar of the engine.

“I thought you said this was slower!” he shouted.

Shelly laughed as the Jeep crested a sandy hill and flew into the air. It bounced down hard and the back wheels slid across the ground, losing traction. She gently turned the steering wheel to compensate and after a few feet of skidding, the tires caught hold and spit up two streams of sand. Shelly jammed her foot down on the accelerator and picked up speed on a long stretch of flat ground.

Colton wanted to ask her more about where they were going and how she fit into the picture with Bernam, but he had a hard enough time staying in his seat as the Jeep bounced into small holes and veered around jutting boulders. Shelly was enjoying herself immensely, and Colton was soon laughing with her every time the Jeep went up onto two wheels as they took a sharp corner.

They drove over a large hill and a glimmering square structure appeared in the distance. Sunlight glinted off its black mirrored exterior and hurt Colton’s eyes. He squinted and turned to Shelly.

“What’s that?” he shouted.

“Home base! Hang on!”

“Hang on more?!”

As they rapidly approached the building, Colton saw that it was constructed in the shape of a giant black cube. Its outside walls were covered with hundreds of tinted black windows, from the ground floor to the roof.

The Jeep shot between two large, clay-colored boulders and bounced over a small rise in the sand.

Shelly reached forward and pressed a small button built into the dashboard. The ground instantly fell away beneath them, dropping down sharply to become a descending ramp. The Jeep shot underground, instantly passing from sunlight to darkness.

Colton yelled and Shelly squealed with laughter as she flicked on the headlights to illuminate a long, concrete tunnel leading straight toward the base of the black building.

“You should have seen your face!” she shouted. Her voice echoed in the narrow tunnel.

There was an opening ahead. A second later, the Jeep popped out of the tunnel and into a massive underground parking structure. Bright floodlights a hundred feet above illuminated the vast space. There were only a few other vehicles in the entire parking lot, most of them retrofitted with raised chassis and big tires to handle the rough terrain surrounding the building.

Cavernous tunnels lined the walls of the parking structure, cutting straight, concrete-lined tubes of empty space in all directions.

“Where do those go?” shouted Colton.

“Everywhere!”

Shelly screeched the Jeep to a stop across two parking spaces and cut the engine. She pulled her goggles down over her neck to reveal two white circles around her green eyes. The rest of her skin was covered with a fine layer of light brown dust.

“Welp,” she said, “we’re here.”

19

Haven awoke when bright sunlight crept over the bottom edge of her bedroom window and spilled onto her bed. She pulled off the sheets and saw that she was already fully dressed, but could not remember the reason. She walked out into the hallway and looked into Noah’s room, but he wasn’t there. His sheets were on the floor in a pile and his favorite toy car lay broken in pieces on the ground. She heard a noise like crinkling paper coming from the family room and walked to the stairwell that led to the first floor.

Blinding sunlight shot directly into the house through every window she passed, which should have been impossible since the windows were on all four sides of the home and there was no way the sun could be everywhere.

Haven realized she was dreaming.

She walked down the stairs to the family room and saw her parents huddled together on the couch. The crinkling noise Haven heard was fire burning all around the room. Flames crawled up to the ceiling and burned down toward the floor.

Her parents cried and screamed, and somehow Haven knew that Noah was gone. Someone had taken him far away. They were hurting him. For a brief moment, she saw him in a small, dark room. His shirt was covered in blood and he was crying—just like his parents. Long arms reached out of the shadows at the back of the room and pulled him away.

Haven was suddenly back in her home, watching helplessly as flames covered every surface. She walked forward and reached out for her mother and father, but fire burst from the ground near the couch and consumed their bodies. The couch sank into the floor and vanished into a black hole.

She turned to run away, but a dozen burning crossbeams inside the roof collapsed around her. Haven put up her arms to protect her head. She could not feel any pain, only the heavy pressure as one of the crossbeams hit her on the neck and pushed her to the ground.

Her vision filled with fire as she struggled to get out from under the burning piece of wood. She put both hands flat on the ground and was about to push up as hard as she could when the crossbeam was lifted away. Two strong hands grabbed her shoulders and pulled her to her feet.

Haven tried to see who it was, but the shape of the person standing next to her in the fire was a shadow. It grabbed her hand and pulled her through the collapsing house. The shadow jumped over mountains of embers and lifted her effortlessly off the ground with every leap.

The front door was right in front of them. Flames crawled over its surface. The black spots in the fire were eyes that watched her as she ran. The shadow that led her through the house picked her up and tossed her toward the door. She screamed as it rushed to meet her face.

Bright light exploded around her as she crashed through the door, splintering it into a thousand pieces. The splinters spun gently away as time slowed. Haven hung in the air, suspended. She thought her eyes were open, but all she could see was piercing white light.

“Can you hear me?” said a distant voice.

Haven floated in a vast white nothingness; an infinite space of uniform light. The voice echoed throughout the empty space.

“Is she breathing?” said another voice, a lot closer than the first.

“Ah, there she is. Good girl, open your eyes now.”

Haven’s eyelids slowly opened. She blinked against the blinding white light that burrowed painfully into her skull.

She was lying on a table in the middle of a room filled with huge, metal tanks. Thick pipes ran between the containers and into the floor. Four people loomed above her, silhouetted by the light in the ceiling.

She recognized Marius and Corva, her alleged rescuers from the medical facility where she had been held captive. An old woman stood near Haven’s head, looking down into her eyes. A boy who wore thick glasses stood back from the table nervously.

The old woman turned to him. “We can’t do it here. Go and fetch Dormer. Tell him to meet us at the Grove.”

The boy nodded eagerly and ran off.

Haven’s eyelids fluttered and closed.

“The drugs will kill her,” said the old woman. “Quickly. Take her before it’s too late.”

Haven was lifted off the table. She managed to open her eyes enough to see that she was being carried on a stretcher that was simply a half-inch thick plastic rectangle with holes cut along the sides for handles.

Marius held one side and Corva the other. They walked out of the room full of tanks and into a larger room with a dome-shaped ceiling. At the apex of the dome was a massive metal fan that spun slowly in its circular setting. Sunlight blinked between the blades as they turned. The light was caught and reflected by mirrors all around the top of the dome, which bounced the light down onto other mirrors that lined the curved walls.

Haven was carried past shelves full of machine parts; she saw things that looked like pieces of a car engine mixed in with countless other objects she didn’t recognize. Thin lamps were bolted to sturdy metal tables, illuminating architectural blueprints and a myriad of electronic equipment.

She tried to ask where they had brought her, but she couldn’t open her mouth to get out the words. Her lips parted slightly and she moaned.

“Almost there,” said Corva.

The stretcher rocked up and down as she and Marius pushed open two swinging doors and carried Haven into a bright room. She didn’t notice how stale the air had been in the last room until passing through the doors. She smelled trees and fresh dirt. It might have been her imagination, but Haven was sure she heard a bird singing from somewhere high above. For an instant she was in the meadow of her mind—the place she went to find peace when the world around her didn’t make sense.

She had forgotten about the meadow after the fire.

Haven lifted her head to try and look around but she immediately became dizzy and closed her eyes again. Her head bounced against the stretcher as Marius and Corva set her on the ground.

Haven opened her eyes. She was lying next to a tall tree. The sky above was white, but brighter in some places than in others. She realized it wasn’t the sky at all, but rather a series of intense lights hanging from the ceiling.

One of her hands slipped off the edge of the stretcher and fell onto soft grass. A dead leaf brushed against her pinky finger; she pressed down on its surface and heard the sharp crackle as it broke into smaller flakes. Small blue lights floated through the air, pulsing and swirling like tiny fairies. Occasionally one of them would land on a tree branch and flicker quickly before once again floating into the air.

The old woman appeared above Haven and looked down. She shook her head worriedly.

“Poor girl. Poor, poor girl,” she said. She looked up quickly as a man ran over to the stretcher. “Ah, Dormer. Good.”

The man called Dormer was tall and thin. He reminded Haven of her science teacher at school, on whom she had always had a little bit of a crush. Dormer’s movements were quick, almost bird-like. He sniffed once and looked down at Haven.

“Who’s this?” he asked.

“The girl that Marius and Corva saved from the facility.”

“Ah,” said Dormer. “So you found one worth saving. Was it hard to ignore the screams from the others, Marius, as you ran out with this one tucked under your arm?”

Marius scowled at Dormer.

“We haven’t much time,” said the old woman. “Please, Dormer. Save your judgments for later.”

He sighed and knelt down next to the stretcher. “Fine,” he said, “but we will talk.”

Dormer rested his hand on Haven’s neck, just beneath her throat. He pressed his other hand against the trunk of the tree next to her and closed his eyes. His head drooped down slowly and Haven thought he had fallen asleep.

She heard a rustling in the branches above. The leaves shook as if blown by a gentle breeze, except there was no movement in the air. The leaves shriveled and fell from the branches, spinning slowly down to the ground around the stretcher. Dark stains spread across the tree bark as if the tree were bleeding from the inside.

Warmth flowed into Haven’s body from Dormer’s hand.

The heat moved down through her chest as if she had just taken her first sip of hot tea after waking. It spread to her limbs and finally moved up to her head, bringing with it a wave of rejuvenating energy that took away all of her pain.

She watched as the trunk of the tree shrank in diameter until it was no more than half the width it had been. The bark cracked and peeled. All of the leaves fell from the branches, leaving behind a blackened skeleton that reached up toward the ceiling with bony fingers.

Dormer removed his hand from Haven and stood up. He pressed his palms against both sides of his skull and held his head as if it were about to roll off his neck.

“Thank you, Dormer,” said the old woman.

“I guess we’ll see if it makes any difference in the end,” he said, then walked away.

Haven sat up and was able to fully see her surroundings for the first time.

The tree next to her was only one of at least a hundred more. They were planted in a huge, square grid pattern. Haven was sitting somewhere in the very middle of the grid. On one side of the room, closer to the entrance, all of the trees were dead just like the one next to her. The trees on the other side of the room were still alive.

The old woman noticed where Haven was looking.

“This is the Grove,” she said. “And you are not the first person to be healed beneath the branches of these trees.”

Haven coughed. Her throat felt as if it were lined with sandpaper. She pushed herself up and tried to stand, but her vision flipped over and she felt like she was going to throw up. She dropped back down to the ground.

“Easy,” said the old woman.

Marius reached out and held Haven’s shoulders as she laid on the stretcher. As soon as her head touched the plastic, a small line of blue flames ran up Haven’s body, starting at her feet and skittering across her skin to her head before vanishing. Marius quickly pulled his hands away.

The old woman took a step closer and frowned. “Marius, who is this?”

“The one you told me to take from hospital,” he said.

The woman shook her head. “No,” she said. “The one I told you to take is too young to show any signs.”

“She is young,” insisted Marius, his thick accent heavier with his conviction. “Look! Maybe this is first time!”

Corva stood next to Marius and looked at the old woman. “Can’t you tell if it’s her? I thought you could sense the one you wanted. Isn’t that the whole reason you sent us to the facility in the first place?”

“Of course it is,” said the old woman. “But the presence faded away shortly after you left. I assumed they had drugged the young one and were suppressing the energy output.”

“I grabbed newest patient,” said Marius. “I read charts, I asked nurse.” He pointed at Haven. “She was newest! Only one day she was there before I saved her.”

Corva placed her hand on Marius’s shoulder and squeezed it gently.

“My brother,” said Haven weakly. “My brother was kidnapped two weeks before they took me…took me to that place.”

The old woman knelt down and laid her hand on Haven’s forehead. “Shhh. You need to rest, now. We wouldn’t want to undo all of Dormer’s hard work. Corva, would you and Marius please take our guest to the dormitories and give her a room? I’m sure she could use some sleep.”

Corva and Marius picked up the stretcher and carried it toward the swinging double doors. Haven looked up at the fake sky and dead trees until exhaustion took over and she passed out.

20

Colton followed Shelly to a large elevator on one side of the parking garage. She swiped a small black card over an electronic panel on the wall. A second later, there was a ding and the elevator doors slid open.

Colton stepped inside and cold air swept over him. He closed his eyes to savor the feeling; the parking garage had been a furnace in comparison. A row of buttons were set into the brushed metal next to the elevator doors, and Shelly pressed the one for the top floor—level twelve. The doors closed silently and the elevator began to ascend.

“What is this place?” asked Colton.

“Mr. Bernam’s main office,” said Shelly. “He runs most of his business from here.”

“What’s he do?”

“He manufactures all sorts of machines for private investors. He talks a lot about optics and generators but nobody really understands any of it. I don’t know how the machines work, but one time I got a quick look at the labs on the seventh level—no one’s supposed to go anywhere near that floor, by the way—and I saw some pretty neat stuff.”

“‘Neat’?” Colton teased. “People still use that word?”

Shelly crossed her arms. “I use it.”

Colton shrugged. “I guess that’s good enough, then.”

She dropped her arms to her side and winked at him. The elevator slowed to a stop and the doors opened. Shelly grabbed Colton’s hand and pulled him down a long hallway lined with several doors. The hall opened onto a large room. The walls were made up of large, black, tinted windows and dimmed the burning midday sun to a tolerable level.

Leather couches, plush recliners, and sleek tables were placed throughout the room. Shelly squeezed Colton’s hand and let go, then skipped over to a smaller room next to the hallway. It was a kitchen, fully equipped with a microwave, sink, oven, and refrigerator. Shelly grabbed two bottles of water from the fridge and tossed one to Colton, who didn’t realize she was throwing something at him until it hit him in the shoulder and rolled under the nearest couch.

Shelly laughed and jumped over the back of the couch, sinking down into the cushions before unscrewing her water bottle and taking a long drink. Colton knelt down and felt around under the couch. His fingers touched cold plastic and he pulled out the water bottle.

He stood up and walked over to one of the glass walls. Yellow sand and hard-packed dirt covered the ground as far as he could see. Colton drank the entire bottle of water, only just realizing how thirsty he had been. He walked over to Shelly and sat on a recliner next to her.

“We’re in Montana?” he asked.

“That’s what I’m told.” She pulled her goggles up and over her head, then tossed them onto the couch. She tapped her shoes together as she drank more water.

Colton looked around the huge room. A ping-pong table sat in one corner next to a large TV screen with a huge crack in the middle.

“Where is everyone?” he asked.

“Not sure. They’ll be back later.” She looked at him and lightly bit the top of her bottle.

“So…what do we do until they get back?”

One of the corners of Shelly’s mouth raised up in a small grin.

Colton stood up to move to the couch when the elevator doors opened. Reece jogged out of the hallway with a huge smile on his face.

“Colt!” he said. “There you are! I’ve been looking all over for you. Well, not really all over, since they won’t let me wander off.” He nodded over his shoulder as Alistair walked into the room. Alistair rolled his eyes and went into the kitchen.

Colton walked over to Reece. “How do you feel?”

“You mean physically? Pretty good, considering. Emotionally, though, I’m absolutely wrecked. They poisoned me, Colt!”

“Yeah, I saw that.”

“Well, did you at least try to stick up for me after I passed out?”

Colton smiled because he knew Reece was being overly dramatic to try and get the attention of the cute girl in the room. “I told them very sternly that if anything bad happened to you I would do everything in my power to crash the plane into a mountain.”

Reece slapped him on the shoulder. “A true friend.” He sidestepped around Colton and sat next to Shelly on the couch.

Colton sighed and sat back down on the recliner. “I’m so glad you’re back,” he said.

Reece ignored him. He crept closer to Shelly on the couch. “Reece Michael Frasier—the third, esquire, Ph.D., every fancy initial you can think of. And you are…?”

One of her eyebrows raised slightly. “Just Shelly.”

“‘Just’ Shelly? Just? I hardly think ‘just’ is any kind of word to use when describing a girl as beautiful as you.” He picked up her hand and bent forward to kiss it. Shelly pulled away and Reece’s lips landed on his own palm.

She stood up from the couch and walked toward the hallway. “I think I’ll go get cleaned up.” She winked at Colton right before she disappeared behind one of the hallway doors.

“She keeps doing that,” said Colton.

“Doing what?” said Reece.

“Hm? Oh, nothing. So what have you been doing since you got off the plane?”

Reece sank back into the couch and propped his legs up on the black polished coffee table in front of him. “Nothing, really. I only just woke up about twenty minutes ago. That Alistair guy was slapping my face and telling me we needed to get inside so the other dude could take off.”

“Bernam?”

“I guess so. Alistair said he never stays on the ground for very long. Sounds a little paranoid to me, but when you have as much money as he does I guess you can afford to be eccentric.” Reece looked around the room. “Man, how ‘bout this place, huh? What a chick magnet.”

“Reece, you don’t really know what’s going on, do you?” It was more of a statement than an actual question.

“Alistair gave me the short version in the elevator. Some bad people are doing bad things to people like you, and these guys want to stop it, blah blah blah. You can shrink apples and for some reason—I can’t figure out why—‘Just’ Shelly likes you more than she likes me. Does that about cover everything?”

Colton smiled. “That about does it, yeah. But you don’t have to stick around if you don’t want to. I’m sure one of these guys will take you home.”

“And leave all this?” said Reece, gesturing to the building around him. “I thought you knew me better than that. I wouldn’t miss it for the world, Colt.”

Alistair walked out of the kitchen and popped the last bite of a sandwich into his mouth. He sat in a recliner a few feet away from Colton and picked up a magazine from the coffee table. He flipped it open to the middle and scanned the page.

“Whatcha reading?” asked Reece.

Alistair held up the magazine to show the cover: Us Weekly.

“Really?” said Reece. “Really?”

Alistair sighed and stood up, then walked to the other side of the room and stretched out on a couch near the window.

“Give him a break,” said Colton.

“What did I say? You gotta admit it’s a little weird. That guy looks like he should be reading ‘Guns & Ammo’ or something.”

“It’s how I relax,” said Alistair from across the room.

“I’m not judging,” said Reece, holding up his hands. He shifted loudly on the leather couch. A few seconds later, he shifted again, the leather creaking as if he were rubbing his hands on the outside of a wet, inflated balloon. “Sorry about all the noise,” he said.

Alistair closed the magazine and slapped it against the couch. “You really don’t know how to shut up, do you?”

“My mother always told me I had such a beautiful voice, I should use it as much as possible.”

Colton smiled. Alistair rubbed his eyes with his hands.

“How about a tour, then? Will you promise to be quiet if I show you the building?”

“Definitely!” said Reece.

Alistair looked over. “How about you, Colton? Fancy a tour?”

“Yeah, of course.”

“Excellent,” said Alistair. He stood and walked past them toward the elevator. “Maybe afterward I’ll be able to hear myself think.”

As they waited for the elevator doors to open, Colton cleared his throat. “Alistair, there’s something I’ve been wondering.”

“Ask me anything.”

“I’m not saying I wish Reece weren’t here, but why did you bring him in the first place?”

“Hey!” said Reece.

“The way Mr. Bernam was talking,” Colton continued, “it sounds like things might get a little bumpy down the road.”

The elevator dinged and the doors slid open. They stepped inside and Alistair pressed a button near the bottom of the panel.

“An excellent question,” he said as the elevator doors closed and they descended. “Mr. Bernam discovered long ago that the revelation of so much knowledge—who we are and what we can do—was usually met with bewilderment or outright denial by the person he was trying to, ah, recruit. He found that inserting an element of familiarity into the equation greatly reduced the possibility that the potential candidate would deny his offer.”

“So I’m just here to make sure he feels comfortable?” said Reece, jabbing his finger into Colton’s shoulder.

“Precisely. Also, Mr. Bernam seems to like you. I can’t imagine why.”

“Because I have a great personality, that’s why.”

“Right,” said Alistair.

The elevator stopped and the doors opened.

“Holy geez!” said Reece.

“This is the fifth floor,” said Alistair. “The gymnasium.”

Colton followed Alistair out of the elevator and into a big room filled with nothing but exercise equipment. Weight benches, treadmills, bench presses, free weights—there was even a rock-climbing wall in the middle of the room and a one-lane swimming pool running next to the far wall. Thick flat panels that doubled as structural supports separated the various types of equipment, visually segmenting the entire floor into smaller rooms without physically crowding the space. The panels were placed far apart and each was about twenty feet long, giving the room an open quality that Colton found very inviting. He could see outside through the windows on all four sides of the building.

“No wonder Shelly’s in such good shape,” said Reece as he lifted a small dumbbell from a nearby bench and strained to curl it up to his chin.

“That’s mostly due to her genetics,” said Alistair. “I haven’t seen her in here once since she arrived. She spends most of her free time in the recreation room, playing games with whoever is interested.”

“I’m interested,” said Reece.

Colton shook his head.

“This room is open to you—to both of you—twenty-four hours a day. Exercise is heavily encouraged around here, and you will find that only a few of us do not make use of this facility regularly.”

Alistair led them back to the elevator and brought them to another room a few levels higher.

“A word of warning,” he said, stopping Colton and Reece before they stepped out of the elevator. “Consider any floor that I am not showing you to be strictly off-limits. Is that understood?”

“Absolutely,” said Colton.

“One-hundred percent,” said Reece.

Alistair nodded. “Very good. Reece, you probably won’t be too interested in this part of the building, but it is where you, Colton, will be spending most of your time. Welcome to level nine—the training room.”

There were no windows on that level. The walls of the room were gridded with steel bars which crossed over steel plates that had been secured in place with massive bolts.

Alistair pressed one of the many buttons in a black wall panel as soon as they stepped out of the elevator. With a soft mechanical hum, a large metal sphere lowered slowly from the ceiling and hung suspended over the floor in the middle of the room.

Colton stepped forward hesitantly.

Alistair waited behind him. “Think of it as breathing,” he said. “Except that you are the lung and the energy around you is air. The goal is to see how long you can hold it in before releasing it. Your ability is a muscle, in a sense, and exercise will only make it stronger.”

“Hey Colton, you’re a lung!” said Reece. He leaned against the wall near the elevator and crossed his arms. “How long are you guys going to be doing this stuff?”

“As long as it takes,” said Alistair.

Reece clapped his hands and rubbed them together. “In that case, you kids have fun. I’m gonna go find Shelly.” He gave Colton a thumbs-up as the elevator doors closed.

“Your friend is a little…different,” said Alistair.

Colton frowned thoughtfully. “I can’t really argue with that.”

He turned back to the sphere.

Alistair explained that the sphere he chose was one of many, each one designed to produce a different kind of energy. The one he lowered from the ceiling emitted what Alistair called one of the simpler energies: heat.

Colton wiped sweat from his forehead as he stepped closer to the sphere. It was about ten feet in diameter and the surface was brushed instead of polished. His reflection appeared as if he were looking at himself through a dirty window and was distorted from the heat fog being generated from within.

A large pipe made from the same material as the sphere ran out of its top and into the panel in the ceiling from which the sphere had lowered.

“Concentrate,” said Alistair. “Let’s keep it simple and try something you already know. When you feel like you can’t hold in the energy, release it as you did when you fell from the plane.”

“When I was pushed, you mean?”

Alistair smiled. “Exactly.”

Colton closed his eyes and imagined the battery inside his chest. It filled quickly, shaking with the energy he was absorbing. The warmth surged through his body until it filled him completely. He could feel it putting pressure on the inside of his skin, searching for a way to escape. He clenched his fists tightly and tried to force the energy back toward his core.

It was too much.

Colton released the energy as a pressure blast, just as he did right before he hit the ground in the desert. Alistair was pushed back a step from the force of the impact and the sphere rocked gently in the air.

“Not bad,” said Alistair. “A little shorter than I was expecting, but you’re still new.”

“Will I get better?” Colton was disappointed—he had been able to contain the life energy of an apple for half an hour.

“Oh, yes,” said Alistair. “You can already contain more energy than most of the other people here. If we can get you to hold that energy, you will be very powerful.”

“But I still need a Source, right? The other half of the equation.”

Alistair sighed. “Yes. But Colton, I wouldn’t get your hopes up. Most of us never find our Source.”

“Do you have one?” asked Colton.

Alistair nodded. “Long ago.” He looked over to the wall as he remembered. “The power we felt together…indescribable. This…” he said, waving at the sphere and the building, “…all of this pales in comparison.”

Colton saw regret and anger in his eyes.

The anger faded as Alistair looked at him and smiled. “If you are ever so lucky, Colton, don’t squander your time together. If your Source is anywhere near as strong as you, the two of you could flatten mountains and drain oceans.”

He turned around and walked toward the elevator.

“What now?” asked Colton.

“Practice!” said Alistair without looking back. He stepped into the elevator. “It makes perfect, after all.”

The doors closed and Colton turned back to the sphere.

“Alright,” he said. “Here we go.”

21

Haven awoke to the sound of a loud metal CLANG. Her eyelids snapped open and she sat up quickly. She was on an unfamiliar bed in an unfamiliar room.

CLANG.

The noise came from the other side of the only door in her small room. The bed she had been sleeping on was more of a flimsy cot; springs creaked loudly as Haven slowly stood from the stained, inch-thick mattress. As soon as she was on her feet, her stomach growled with hunger.

She looked down.

Her clothes were not her own, yet they fit just as well—if not better—than many of the pieces in her own wardrobe. She plucked at the soft fabric of her faded black t-shirt and brushed a piece of fuzz from her white-washed jeans. She looked down over her back and raised her eyebrows appreciatively at how she looked. Someone had even put socks and shoes on her feet—low-rise canvas kicks with white soles that barely made a noise when she tapped them against the floor. The image of a hospital flashed through her memory and she thought she had been wearing loose blue clothing, as if she were about to have an operation. The thought of someone changing her while she slept made her shudder.

Haven suddenly remembered the glow-in-the-dark star she had pulled from the ruins of her home. She checked both of her pockets—it was gone. She had carried that star with her every day since she found it in the ashes. It must have been left behind with her clothes at the medical facility. Deep sadness poured over her when she realized that all she had left of Noah was the hope that she would see him again.

From somewhere in the room came the sound of dripping water.

A bowl of dirty water and a folded cloth sat atop a small table next to the cot. On the floor near the table was a heavy woolen blanket. Haven picked up the blanket and held it for a moment as she tried to remember what had happened to her.

Another memory—she had been taken from a medical center by a man with a thick Russian accent. No, not taken—rescued. She remembered the row of vicious tools on a tray next to her at the center and the way the men in the masks seemed to regard her with a cruel sense of detachment, as if she were no more than an animal they were preparing to euthanize.

Wherever she was—wherever she had been taken after the medical center—she had the distinct feeling she was safe.

CLANG.

Haven dropped the blanket on the cot and walked to the closed door. The floor of the room was gritty concrete and several old water stains spread in moldy green half-circles from the base of the walls. The walls themselves were rusted red metal—Haven felt as if she were in a big metal lung.

Hanging on the wall next to the door was a cracked mirror. Haven knew she shouldn’t look but couldn’t help herself.

She shouldn’t have looked.

Her hair was frizzy in some places and stuck out wildly everywhere else, as if she had put her finger in a light socket. She grimaced and tried to pat down some of the more unruly clumps. Her skin was streaked with something that she hoped was dirt. Dark circles below her eyes made her look ten years older than her actual age.

Her eyes were clear, though, as was her mind.

With a little bit of makeup and a hair straightener, she would be as good as new. Well, almost as good.

CLANG.

Haven twisted the rusty metal handle and pulled open the heavy door. After she started it swinging, it moved smoothly on big hinges and bumped into the wall, sending a hollow metal GONG reverberating throughout the room.

She stepped over the small lip at the bottom of the doorway and walked down a narrow hallway. The hallway brought her out into a huge, domed room. The walls were grey concrete cut into curved sections that gently sloped inward as the ceiling rose higher to the apex far above. A fan turned slowly at the peak. There were no windows—just large, square mirrors attached to the walls of the dome. A series of metal rungs had been bolted to the concrete on one side of the curved wall and formed a ladder that led up to the fan. Haven shuddered to think about someone climbing up the inside of the wall. The room was dark except for several bright work lamps that were aimed at a black car nearby. The car was parked between two long tool benches lined with greasy equipment and dirty rags.

A tall, thin man in dirty clothes picked up a small fastener from one of the benches and held it to a thin metal plate that covered a small portion of a hole in the side paneling of the car. He swung a long hammer over his head and down onto the fastener.

CLANG.

He reached over to the bench and grabbed another fastener.

“I woke you,” he said to Haven without turning.

She took a few steps toward the car. “It’s alright,” she said. His face looked vaguely familiar.

“I wasn’t apologizing.”

She remembered that his name was Dormer. He swung the hammer down.

CLANG.

“Corva wants to talk to you,” he said with a slight nod of his head toward the other side of the room. He dropped the hammer on the nearest bench and brushed his hands against his dirty pants as he walked away.

Haven hugged herself, suddenly cold in the big, open room. She squinted into the shadows on the other side of the vast dome and saw the dim, green glow of a computer screen. The screen barely lit the face of a woman as she typed rapidly on a keyboard.

Haven walked past table after table full of mechanical parts and electrical components. Reams of paper sat piled haphazardly on the floor, some as tall as her. When Haven was still a good distance away, the woman at the computer turned and smiled. Haven walked closer and stood next to the computer. It was an old model—the screen was large and boxy, and the wire running out of the keyboard was thick and spiraled.

“Don’t mind him,” she said, nodding toward Dormer. “He’s always grumpy.”

“What’s wrong with him?”

“His brother was taken by Bernam’s thugs a few months ago. He was a Conduit as well.”

“A what?”

The woman smiled. She had shoulder-length, bright white hair and soft features. Even without makeup, Haven thought she was really pretty.

“All in good time,” said the woman. “My name’s Corva. Do you remember me?”

“Sort of,” said Haven. “Everything is still a little fuzzy.”

“That would be the narcotics you were given.”

“You drugged me?”

Corva laughed easily and Haven had a hard time not smiling as soon as she realized it was a stupid thing to say. “No, of course not. The doctors at the center were preparing to operate on you when Marius barged in.”

“I remember Marius.”

“Yeah, well, he’s kind of hard to forget.”

“Where was I? What is this place?”

“I know you have questions, Haven, but they’re not for me to answer. You’ll get them soon, I promise. For now we need to make sure that you’re doing okay.”

Haven was about to ask what Corva meant by “doing okay” when the events of the past few weeks flooded her mind and the knife that was the memory of her deceased parents slammed into her chest. She lost the strength in her legs and sat down heavily in an empty chair next to the computer.

“Easy there,” said Corva. She leaned over and put her hands on Haven’s shoulders to steady her in the chair.

“I’m sorry,” said Haven. “I just—my parents—”

She could feel the pressure of tears behind her eyes.

“It’s alright,” said Corva. “A lot has happened in the past few weeks.” She pushed aside a strand of frizzy hair from Haven’s face and smiled.

Haven took a deep breath and forced herself to calm down. “Where am I?” she said at last.

Corva clapped her hands together. “Well!” she said. “That’s a question I can answer. How about a tour? Might help you take your mind off things for a while.”

Haven brushed away the one tear she hadn’t been able to stop from rolling down her cheek and nodded. “That sounds great.”

She stood up and followed Corva toward the center of the room. Ambient light from the distant work lamps next to the car provided just enough illumination by which to navigate the cluttered space.

“We call this entire facility The Dome,” said Corva, “for obvious reasons. When it’s a little lighter you’ll be able to see that it’s sort of divided into sections. Dormer has his repair station, and there’s also a sorry excuse for a dining room, along with a meeting area where we can all get together and either relax or prepare for an excursion. You can’t tell right now because it’s almost midnight, but this whole complex is actually underground. Besides the exit and that vent up there,” she said, pointing up to the big fan at the top of the dome, “everything else is buried.”

“I remember trees,” said Haven.

“That would be the Grove. We’ll get to that in a bit. There are also some smaller rooms we use for living quarters—like the one you were resting in.”

“These aren’t my clothes,” said Haven, suddenly remembering that someone else must have changed her while she slept.

Corva smiled. “That was Elena, the elderly woman you may remember from before you slipped into your coma.”

Haven looked up. “Coma?”

“You were out for eight days. Stone cold unconscious.”

“From the drugs?”

“Nope. You fought those pretty well.”

“Then why?”

Corva shifted on her feet uncomfortably. “Has no one told you?”

“Told me what?” said Haven, a faint sound of fear creeping into her voice.

“Have you noticed anything recently? About yourself, I mean. Anything out of the ordinary?”

“I lit up my school cafeteria like a 4th of July celebration.”

Corva laughed—at ease once again. “You’re changing. It happens to all of us when we’re close to your age. Our bodies and minds undergo radical internal shifts so we can handle our new abilities. Most of the time it knocks us out for days or even weeks.”

Haven looked down at the palms of her hands. She remembered the blue fire that consumed her vision when she was in the cafeteria at her school.

“What am I?” she asked.

Corva opened her mouth to speak but another voice cut in from the shadows behind her.

“What indeed?”

The old woman—Elena—stepped out of the darkness and into the dim light surrounding Haven and Corva. Her long grey hair was pulled back tightly and secured in a bun on the back of her head. The tension elongated the weathered lines on her face. She smiled at Haven as she slowly approached—her back slightly bent and her legs wobbling.

“It’s a question we all ask,” said Elena, “at one time or another. Even when we think we know the answer, we never stop asking.”

A muffled scream echoed throughout the dome.

Haven turned to the source of the sound and saw a large door set deep into the concrete wall on one side of the huge room.

“So, what’s in there?” asked Haven warily.

Corva and Elena exchanged a quick look.

Another scream ripped through the complex, and Haven’s blood went cold.

22

Colton sat in a large conference room on the eleventh floor. Several rows of chairs faced a polished black podium, behind which stood Bernam. He wore a thin suit and sipped water from a faceted glass. His private jet had landed on the pavement outside the building earlier that morning and was being refueled during his long speech.

Shelly sat next to Colton, leaning in and resting her shoulder against his. Reece sat on the other side of Shelly with his arms crossed, leaning away from her.

Bernam set down his glass of water and repositioned the podium microphone directly in front of his mouth.

“As I was saying,” he said, “it doesn’t matter where you came from. It doesn’t matter what you were before you got here. What matters is the future. You’re all here, now, because you want something more—more from life, more from each other—”

Shelly reached over and quickly squeezed Colton’s leg. Reece saw her do it and leaned farther away from both of them.

“—more from yourselves.”

Colton looked around the room.

He, Shelly, and Reece sat in the last of three rows of chairs. Alistair sat in the front row, relaxing comfortably in his seat while he listened to Bernam’s speech. In the second row, two identical twins that Colton did not know sat side by side—young men with tan skin and short, spiky blond hair. They both wore identical jeans, t-shirts, and black leather jackets. They sat low in their seats and seemed bored with the speech.

“As you know,” continued Bernam, “this morning I returned from Japan. Dane and Lee—the only ones among us who have achieved Unity—were there for several weeks taking care of some personal business for me.” He gestured to the twins, who grinned broadly. One of them turned around and winked at Shelly. She stuck her tongue out.

“You’ve all been training very intensely during my absence,” said Bernam. “I’m very happy to hear that the newest member of our group is doing far better than we originally expected.” He smiled sharply at Colton. “No offense meant.”

“None taken,” said Colton.

The truth was that the past week had been unbelievable. He had spent several hours every day in the training room, testing out his capacity for containing different forms of energy. He could keep himself fully charged for just over two minutes before being forced to release, and that time was slowly climbing every day. According to Alistair, most Cons peaked between a minute-thirty and two minutes.

The time not spent in the training room was divided between the gymnasium and Shelly. She barely let him have a moment alone after his rigorous daily routine. Colton couldn’t find anything to complain about—she was beautiful, smart, and had a great sense of humor.

She was teaching him things that Alistair hadn’t bothered to mention, like how to use sunlight to nourish his skin and how to manipulate objects with small bursts of stored energy. Colton was especially fond of not making contact with doors when he closed them. With a wave of his hand he could push the door from several feet away. He was getting good enough so that he didn’t slam them shut as he always did when he first started.

The only thing bothering Colton about the entire experience was Reece. He had been growing quieter and more withdrawn over the past week, spending all of his time in his living quarters and rarely showing up when everyone got together to relax. During the last two days he had barely said a word, and every time he saw Shelly giving Colton the smallest form of affection, he scowled with disgust.

Bernam took a sip of water before continuing his speech.

“I think we can all agree that this is the strongest team we’ve ever had—”

Reece stood up quickly and pushed his chair back until it fell over. He stepped over it and stomped out of the room, slamming the door closed behind him.

Bernam looked after him for a moment, then tightened the knot in his tie. “Well, as I was saying: I’m very proud of your hard work. It looks like it’s finally going to pay off. Everything I have promised you is just over the horizon.”

Colton leaned over to Shelly. “What did he promise you?” he whispered.

“Shh,” she said gently. “Tell you later.”

Bernam walked around to the front of the podium.

“There is only one more step to complete. Before we can start our heavy recruiting phase, there is one last mission—a very important mission—to find the final piece of the equation.”

“What equation?” whispered Colton.

Shelly didn’t answer him.

Bernam smiled. “And I’m going to be with you every step of the way.”

Alistair sat up in his seat and the twins clapped loudly. Colton had only been with the group a short time, but from what he knew, Bernam never accompanied them when they went out into the world.

Bernam glanced at his expensive watch.

“The plane leaves in five hours, at nightfall. I’ll see you all on-board.” He walked past the chairs and left the room.

The twins turned around in their seats to face Shelly and Colton.

“I’m Lee,” said the one on the left.

“I’m Dane,” said the other.

They had matching Australian accents. Colton shook each of their hands in turn. “Colton.”

“We know,” said Lee.

“That’s Shelly,” said Dane, pointing at her and smiling.

“I think she likes you,” Lee said to Colton.

“Who wouldn’t?” said Dane. “Just look at how his skin glows.”

“Did she show you how to do that?” said Lee. “I bet she did. Shelly’s got a thing for all the new arrivals.”

“Grow up,” she said.

“Wish we could,” said Lee.

“But we’re stuck this way,” said Dane.

He snapped his fingers and a red flame sprouted from his fingertips. Lee quickly grabbed it as if he were snatching a fly from the air and brought his closed fist to his mouth, then pretended to swallow the flame. He wiggled his eyebrows and the flames shot from both of his ears.

“Ugh,” said Shelly. She stood and left the room.

Colton leaned in toward the twins. “What do you mean you’re stuck that way?”

“Perpetual youth,” said Lee.

“Ageless,” said Dane. He shrugged. “Twenty years old forever. It happens.”

“At least it wasn’t at sixty,” said Lee.

Colton looked between them, confused. “But how does that happen?”

Lee sighed. “Didn’t Alistair tell you all of this?”

Colton shook his head.

Lee sighed even harder. “Fine. Sometimes when a Source and Con are linked, it halts the aging process. It’s a side effect of the shared connection. It puts them in a sort of stasis. No one knows why.”

“But that hasn’t stopped them from trying to figure it out,” said Dane.

Lee nodded. “Billion-dollar question, that one.”

“So it doesn’t always happen?” asked Colton.

“Weren’t you listening? I already said it didn’t. It’s exceedingly rare.”

“We’re just lucky, I guess.”

“So how old are you guys?”

They both grinned mischievously.

“We’ll never tell, mate,” said Lee.

“Adds to our aura of mystery.”

“I hear it’s what girls go for these days, anyway,” said Lee.

“That and money.”

Dane looked at Colton. “Speaking of girls, how are you and Shelly getting along?”

“What’s it to you?” said Colton. He felt the hair on the back of his neck rising.

“Easy, mate,” said Lee. “We just want to make sure she’s happy, that’s all. Shelly’s a good girl.”

Colton relaxed. “I barely know her,” he said, realizing his words were true.

“Give it time,” said Lee. He stood and slapped Colton on the shoulder.

Dane stood and slapped the other one. “Yeah, give it time.”

After the twins left the room, Colton stood and walked to the window. Bernam’s plane was parked next to the building on the pavement below. Two men in blue coveralls stood on the wings, inspecting the jet engines on either side of the plane’s body.

The yellow-orange desert stretched out from the building in every direction. The landscape was dotted with dead cacti and small, branchy bushes. Ruddy mountains lined the horizon.

Colton thought about leaving.

He had considered it more and more as the days passed, and there were only two things keeping him around: Shelly, and the promise of doing something useful with his ability. Bernam had told him that they were going to help people who had been taken and held captive—people like Colton who, until recently, had just wanted to be left alone to lead a normal life.

As if it were a voice in his own head, someone spoke behind him.

“You’re hesitant about tonight.”

Colton turned to find Bernam standing next to the podium. He had entered and crossed the room silently and stood inspecting Colton with a steady gaze.

“I am, yes.”

Bernam studied him a moment longer and then walked to the window to look down at his plane. “That’s understandable. You have only just begun the process of defining yourself through your abilities. Ideally I would never ask anyone so—pardon the term—fresh to accompany me on such a dangerous mission. But I can see in your eyes that you want to be tested—that you long to know the true depths of your power.”

“I’m worried about Reece. He’s acting really strange.”

Bernam nodded. “Jealousy toward our kind is a very real problem. It is the reason we usually do not tolerate outsiders. They invariably feel confusion and eventually rage at their lack of abilities. They wonder why someone else was chosen instead of them. It is a futile line of thought that can sometimes have deadly consequences.”

“So why is he still here?”

“We all have a part to play, Colton. Even those without abilities can be useful.”

“What should I do about him?”

“I have already spoken to Reece. I assured him that he is welcome to stay even if you do not. He seemed much relieved.”

Colton frowned as he thought about the situation. He watched one of the workers on the plane jump down off the wing and walk into the building.

Bernam sighed. “You are still not convinced. Alright, then. I will give you another reason to go with us tonight.” He paused until Colton looked at him. “They have your mother.”

The world sank away around Colton and he was suddenly a small boy in his childhood home on the morning his mother abandoned him. His father stood in the kitchen, clutching her note in his hand until his chewed fingernails pierced his palm and blood dripped over the paper and splatted onto the tile floor.

His father had never let him read the note.

“Colton?” said Bernam.

Reality snapped back and Colton was standing in the conference room on the eleventh floor of a building in the middle of the Montana desert.

“My mother?” he said weakly.

“She was taken years ago, when you were a boy. They promised her a cure for her ability—an ability she was hoping that you did not inherit. They ran tests on her, Colton. Painful tests. She is still alive, but she is locked away deep within their secret facility under heavy guard.”

“Why won’t they let her go?”

“Because that’s what they do, Colton. They take what they want and hurt whoever stands in their way. We must draw them out into the open and follow them back to their headquarters. Only then can we save your mother and whoever else they are holding prisoner.”

Colton looked at Bernam. “Okay,” he said. “I’m in.”

23

Haven watched as the man named Dormer dropped a wrench he had been holding and ran to the large door as yet another scream echoed through the dome.

Next to the door was a metal box as big as a refrigerator. Dormer pushed down a handle on the front of the box and the side panels slid down to reveal a compact block of machinery. He flipped a switch on the box and it fired up like a car engine, shaking quickly on its base. Dormer put his hands into the machinery and grabbed onto a thick metal pipe. The machine’s loud rumbling turned to a slow, intermittent chugging until finally the engine died and the box went silent. Dormer let go of the pipe and walked over to the large door. He pressed a sequence of buttons on a black wall panel and the door unlocked with a loud, pneumatic phoomp and swung open.

“I’m going to check on them,” said Corva.

Elena nodded and rested her hand on Haven’s shoulder. She gently guided her toward the opposite side of the dome.

“Not all of us are lucky enough to have full control of our abilities,” she said.

Haven looked behind her as Corva went through the doorway.

Elena sighed. “Sometimes we have to take extra care of some of our own. It’s very sad.”

“Are we really underground?” asked Haven.

“Oh, yes. We built this facility decades ago as a safe-house for our kind. We saved a bundle by not renting any equipment to dig the hole. It helps when your friends work better than dynamite!” She giggled at her own joke and her clear eyes twinkled as she relived an old memory. “We have been safe here for a long time.”

She guided Haven around tables, chairs, piles of machine parts, and stacks of paper, and steadily toward a set of swinging double-doors that were cut into the wall of the dome. As they walked, Elena explained the existence of Sources and Conduits. She told Haven how one needs the other if they are to fully realize their own potential—Unity—and how rarely that synergy is achieved.

Elena pushed open the doors and led Haven into the Grove.

It was like stepping out of a warehouse and into a forest. Lush, green grass rolled over small hills to the distant corners of the room. Haven vaguely remembered it from when she had first arrived at the facility. A grid of trees had been planted in the middle of the vast space, half of them dead, half still blooming with green leaves and small, colorful flowers. Blue pinpoints of light floated lazily amongst the branches.

“Do you play football?” asked Elena.

“I’m an all-star quarterback,” said Haven, smiling weakly. Something about the trees and the grass made her feel lighter and happier than she had felt in a long time.

Elena laughed. “Very good. You still have a sense of humor. Sometimes we lose that.” She pointed to the far side of the room. “This space is roughly the size of a football field, give or take a few yards. We come here to relax, to think, and to heal.” She walked over to the nearest dead tree and rested her hand on the blackened trunk. “This was mine,” she said. “Not long after I first moved here, I was injured quite badly in a car accident. A car accident, of all things! I thought I was going to die—and I would have, if not for this tree.”

Haven stepped closer to the trunk and looked up at the bare branches above.

“A Conduit can take life from the tree and give it to someone else,” she said.

Elena nodded. “Not all Conduits—some are more gifted than others.”

“Like Dormer.”

“Yes.”

“Why trees?”

“There is an enormous amount of energy in living things,” said Elena. “This life essence can be tapped and redirected to heal injuries. A Conduit can absorb and redirect any kind of energy—but for healing, they must use something that is, or was very recently, alive. Ancient trees harbor vast amounts of this life energy, and it is why we use them to cure the most severe injuries.”

“But when you brought me here I wasn’t dying.”

“Oh, but you were. The men at the medical center don’t like to operate on living specimens. They keep a certain amount of prisoners alive for long-term studies, but they much prefer a subject that won’t wake up in the middle of the procedure and cause trouble. The drugs they injected into your system would have killed you shortly after you arrived here.”

“What did they want from me?”

“To find out what makes you the way you are. They believe that if they can uncover the root of our abilities, they can dig it out and alter it to fit their dark needs.”

Haven flipped over a fallen leaf with the toe of her shoe. “In that case, thank you.”

Elena smiled. “You are very welcome.” She walked past Haven and slowly sat in the grass at the top of a small hill. The bones in her knees popped loudly as she stretched out her legs in front of her. A small blue light floated to her, touched the top of her head, then floated away.

Haven walked over and sat in the grass beside her.

“Do you like the lights?” asked Elena. “I made them myself.”

A cluster of blue lights formed directly over Haven’s head. They swarmed together and spun in the air like a pinwheel before flying off in every direction. “They’re beautiful,” she said. “What are they?”

“Just a distraction. They make me happy.”

Elena raised her arm and extended her pointer finger toward the ceiling. A small ball of blue light formed between the first two knuckles of her finger—exactly like the blue light that Haven had seen on her own hand in her kitchen—and slowly moved to the tip of her fingernail.

Elena watched the light, turning her finger to the side as it hovered at the edge of her fingernail. With a gentle blow from her mouth, the light floated up into the air and joined the others in the trees.

“Is my brother still alive?” asked Haven.

Elena’s smile faded and her arm slowly lowered to her lap. “Yes. He is at the medical center where we found you.”

Haven felt the threat of tears well behind her eyes, but forced them back with anger. “Why didn’t you save him? Why did you take me?”

“We thought you were your brother. We lack the resources to save everyone that is taken by Bernam and his followers, so we must bide our time and strike when it is most important.” She sighed. “Our numbers have been decreasing over the past months. Some go out into the world and never return. I believe they were either killed or captured by Bernam and taken to his medical facility for testing. He’s searching for something—something that he thinks he can only find in us.”

“Why take Noah? He’s just a little boy.”

Elena hesitated for a moment. “Your brother—” she said, then stopped. She seemed to be searching for the right words. “I explained to you that there are Sources and Conduits, and that some are more powerful than others. On each side, there is one who is the most powerful. Others may be more capable than these two individuals in only one area, such as storage capacity for a Conduit or burst capabilities for a Source, but the most powerful individuals on both sides more than make up for these shortcomings by being masters of their remaining abilities. More than any other of his or her kind, this person wields a power so profoundly versatile, yet so completely dangerous, that it eclipses all others in existence. If this person is a Source, they are known as a Phoenix. The strongest Conduit is called a Void.”

“Which one is my brother?”

“Neither,” said Elena.

Haven looked up as a blue light floated over her head. It glowed brighter and split into two lights, which swirled around each other as they quickly rose higher in the air.

“You’re a Phoenix,” she said suddenly.

Elena nodded. She looked as if admitting it caused her great pain.

“I have never been able to sense the existence of any of our kind,” she said, “until very recently. It was an aspect of my ability that I was told would manifest itself when the time came. I must admit that I had my doubts. Now I know that those doubts were wrong.” She looked over at Haven hesitantly. “Your brother is a hybrid. He possesses—or rather, he will possess—the characteristics of both a Source and a Conduit. He will be able to create his own energy and also to unleash it without the need for a counterpart. This hybridization of our abilities has only happened once before, and that person died because they did not know how to control their unlimited potential. It is the holy grail for Bernam, and it is why he has taken your brother. If I, as a Phoenix, could sense the existence and location of your brother, then it stands to reason that Bernam, as a Void, could sense it as well. He wants to be a hybrid, and he will stop at nothing until he achieves his goal.”

“Oh, Noah,” whispered Haven. A warm tear rolled down her cheek.

Elena reached over and wiped away the tear. “There is still time,” she said. “Now that you are awake, you can come with us to the medical center and help us rescue your brother.”

Haven shook her head slowly in defeat. “I don’t even know what’s happening to me.”

“You will,” said Elena. “In time.”

“How much time is there?” said Haven hotly. “What if he’s already dead?”

“They still need him, Haven, and as long as they still need him, he is safe. You must hold on to that hope for as long as possible.”

Haven sniffed and rubbed her nose. “Were my parents like me?”

“You mean did they have their own abilities?”

“Yes.”

“I don’t know.”

Haven closed her eyes as the sharp pain of a migraine suddenly flared behind her eyes. It hit her much faster than it ever had before, driving deep into her skull.

“What’s wrong?” asked Elena.

“Just a headache,” she said with a groan. “I get them occasionally.” Haven rubbed her temples to try and dull the pain.

“Those will pass. They are quite common for Sources before they fully adjust to their new abilities.”

Haven opened her eyes as the pain slowly faded. She thought about everything Elena had said. “I thought everyone’s fire was supposed to be a different color. Every Source, I mean.”

“Their energy, yes.”

“But my fire is blue, like yours.”

“I noticed. Not quite the same, but close enough.”

“What does that mean?”

Elena smiled. “I’m not sure. But I bet we’re going to find out.”

24

The engines were already warming up when Colton stepped into the plane, their high-pitched whine slowly building to a loud roar. The twins were seated in the very back, their heads leaning in opposite directions as they slept.

Alistair sat in the chair closest to the door and nodded at Colton when he entered. He settled back into his seat and closed his eyes. Shelly was halfway down the plane, sitting in one of the oversized leather chairs that lined both sides of the cabin. She smiled at Colton and motioned for him to join her. He smiled back and walked down the aisle, then stopped when he passed Reece, who was slouched down in his seat with his face close to the window.

“Hey,” said Colton.

Reece shifted in his seat to twist farther away from the aisle.

“Come on, Reece.” Colton didn’t like the tension between the two of them and he wanted to clear the air so things could go back to the way they were before they left New York.

“Go sit with your girlfriend,” said Reece without looking over.

“Don’t be like this, man. What’s going on with you?”

“Pffff,” Reece sneered.

“Fine,” said Colton, shaking his head. He walked down the aisle and sat next to Shelly, sighing in frustration as the leather chair formed around his back.

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

“He’s being stupid, that’s what’s wrong.”

Shelly looked at Reece, who had propped one of his feet on the seat in front of him and still sat staring out the window.

“It’s a lot to get used to,” she said. “Especially if he feels like he isn’t, you know, one of us.”

“Why doesn’t he just leave, then? Bernam said he could stay, but why stick around if he’s miserable?”

“He’s your friend, Colton. Maybe he wants to stay here with you.”

Colton sighed again. “He should get over it. I’m doing just fine.”

“Well,” said Shelly with a smile, “you’re special, aren’t you?”

She leaned over and kissed him lightly on the cheek.

Colton blushed.

The door to the cabin closed loudly, sealing them inside. Bernam stepped from behind a partition at the front of the plane and looked around.

“Everyone here? Excellent. We should be at our destination in a little less than an hour. If you need to rest, I suggest you start now.” He paused when he saw Alistair and the twins. “Ah, good. I see some of you beat me to it. Very well, then.” He turned and went back through the partition.

The jet engines whirred to full power and the small plane rolled across the hot pavement next to the black-windowed building.

Shelly rested her hand on Colton’s leg as the plane picked up speed and the wheels lifted off the ground.

“You don’t like flying?” asked Colton.

“I love it, actually. Why do you ask?”

Colton looked down at her hand on his leg, then into her eyes. She looked back, her gaze steady and inviting.

“No reason,” he said. “Do you want to tell me now, or later?”

“Tell you what?”

“The thing you wouldn’t tell me in the meeting. What did Bernam promise everyone?”

“Oh, that,” she said. She pulled her hand off his leg and leaned back in her seat. “He said he could turn all of us into hybrids.”

“Hybrids,” repeated Colton. “Those exist?”

“One that we know about, but he died a long time ago. There’s a rumor that Bernam has found another one who is willing to help him figure out how to replicate the ability.”

“Why is it so hard to replicate?”

“Because someone born with only one ability—either Source or Con—can’t hold the opposite energy within their bodies for very long. A lot of people have tried. If they get the foreign energy out in time, they only go insane. If they hold on to it…well, let’s just say it isn’t pretty.”

“So Bernam thinks he can turn everyone into hybrids,” said Colton.

“Yeah,” said Shelly. “Pretty rad, huh?”

“But why? What’s the point?”

Shelly laughed and her short auburn hair bounced across her face. She tucked it back behind her ears and turned in her seat to face Colton. “Look what we can do now, with just one half of the equation. Imagine what it would be like if we didn’t spend our lives searching for the missing key—that one other person that holds the potential to unlock all of our power. Most of us never find that person. We spend our whole lives searching. I’m tired of waiting for it to happen on its own.”

“I don’t get why any Source isn’t compatible with just any Conduit.”

“I don’t get it either, but that’s just the way it is. A Source can burn themselves up trying to make it work, and they usually take the Con with them. It’s called feedback, and it’s a nasty thing to watch.”

“How do you know when you’ve found the right person?” asked Colton.

Shelly shrugged. “According to those that are lucky enough to find their counterpart, they just know.”

Colton sat silently for a long time, then said, “I thought we were going to be helping people.”

“We are! But just think how much more we can do once we’re hybrids! It’s the first step in the process.” She stuck her legs out and rested them across Colton’s lap. “After that,” she said, “we can save all the people you want, Mr. Boy Scout.” She raised her eyebrows and looked at him playfully. “You know, there’s a special term for a hybrid. If a person has both abilities, they don’t call them a Source or a Conduit any more. I always hated that term, ‘Conduit’. Bleh! Like a piece of tubing or something.”

“What do they call them?”

“A Nova. As in supernova. As in the power of an exploding star.” Shelly spun in her seat and looked up at the ceiling. Strands of her hair fell out from behind her ears and bobbed over her face as she turned. “Shelly isn’t my real name,” she said.

“What?”

“My full name is Michelle. My parents named me after my Aunt.”

“It’s very pretty,” said Colton.

Sadness filled her eyes as she looked at him.

“Do you know what they did when I told them about my ability?”

Colton shook his head.

“They kicked me out. They wouldn’t even let me take a suitcase. That’s the kind of ignorance that being different reveals in people. Nothing about me had changed. I was still their daughter—still the same little girl I had always been. They were scared of me.”

She turned in her seat to look out the window, lost in her own thoughts.

Colton wanted to say he was sorry but thought she had probably heard it too many times before.

He looked over her shoulder and out through the small, circular window. The sky gradated dark to light as it dropped toward the horizon. The first colors of evening streaked across the sky; deep orange mixed with faint purple. Soon the sun would dip below the mountains and the temperature would plummet.

The ground below was a brown desert that stretched out in all directions. As the plane banked slightly in the air, Colton saw the distant lights of a city. Small pinpoints of white, yellow, and red shined like small stars in the desert.

He thought of what Shelly had said about becoming a hybrid. Colton didn’t know if he wanted more power than he already had. After he found his mother, he wanted to take her as far away from the people that hurt her as he could. He didn’t care what happened after that. If Bernam was serious about helping people who couldn’t help themselves, then maybe Colton would stick around a little while longer. Shelly was enough of a reason to stay, but he needed to get his mother to safety before he started thinking about himself.

Colton remembered the daydreams he had as a child—fantasies where he was a superhero with incredible powers that saved children from burning buildings. He watched all the cartoons and read all the comic books. He played with stiff-armed action figures that wore brightly-colored costumes and promised justice with their square jaws and obscene muscles.

Is that what I am now? he wondered. Is this what being a hero feels like?

Colton hadn’t saved anybody. He was no hero. Maybe he could be, later, but right then he could not ignore the foolish hope to bring his mother back home to his father, to put her hand in his and say, “There. Everything’s all better. Now we’re a family again.”

25

Marius sat in front of Haven, squinting at her. They were in a large rectangular room that extended away from the dome like a big shoebox. The walls and floor were bare except for a few exercise mats and a wooden rack bolted to the wall that held a few broken broomsticks.

“Hmm,” said Marius. “Hmmmm.”

Haven’s shoulders dropped and she raised her eyebrows. “Well?!”

“I’m thinking,” he said. He scratched at the black and grey stubble on his chin, then his hand drifted up to the top of his head and he scratched his closely-shaven scalp. “Hmmmmm. You know martial arts?”

“No!” she said.

“Hand-to-hand? Disarming methods?

“Nope.”

“How to use gun?”

“Of course not.”

“Why ‘of course not’? In Russia I knew by age of seven.”

“We’re not in Russia.”

He chuckled. “Yes, I know this. Maybe we start with what you know, okay?” He looked at her, waiting. “So…what do you know?”

“About what?!”

He sighed, then stood. “Okay, we start small. I teach you defense, yes? Come.” He motioned for Haven to follow him as he stepped back from the door toward the center of the room. He glanced up at the ceiling twenty feet above their heads. “This will work,” he said.

“Work for what?” asked Haven. She stepped forward hesitantly, looking around as if she expected an attacker to materialize out of thin air.

Marius had been adamant about training her as much as possible before the group left for the medical center early the next morning. Haven said that she would have been useless if she tried to save her brother and Marius had immediately insisted that she follow him to what he called the “exercise room”.

“Okay,” he said, holding up his palms for her to stop walking. “Put hands up, like this.” He pulled his right hand close to his face and held it a few inches in front of his mouth, his palm open but his fingers firmly together as if he was about to slap someone. He moved his left arm away from him until his hand hovered about a foot in front of his face. Haven thought that if Marius closed his fists it would look like he was holding an invisible blowgun.

She imitated his motions as best she could.

“Good,” he said. “Now.” He stepped toward her and brought his left hand down to her face in slow motion. She stepped away and swatted his hand to the side. “Okay, good,” he said. “Except opponent moves much faster in real life, yes? You want to keep one arm close to your body, always, in case they get near you with knife or something else. Always push away from your body, like this…”

Marius swung at her again in slow motion, a wide swing that Haven easily deflected away from her body. She turned as his arm swept past her.

“Ah-ah,” he scolded.

She looked down to see the fingers of his other hand barely touching the side of her ribcage.

“Bye-bye lung,” he said, grinning.

Haven pushed his hand away and replanted her feet. Marius looked down at them and frowned.

“Wider stance,” he said.

She spread her feet farther apart.

“No pigeon-toe,” he said. “Line them up the same way. Good. Now move that one back a few inches. Very good. This way you don’t lose balance when I do this.”

He kicked out his leg and hooked his foot behind one of her ankles. He yanked back, taking her leg with him, but Haven hopped forward on her other foot and managed to stay standing.

Marius laughed. “Very good! Still much to learn, but I think you will be good student, yes? It will be many weeks before you are ready to fight a real opponent, but a few hours a day and you will be better than Marius, I think.”

She sighed and crossed her arms.

“Oh, don’t look so sad,” he said. “Tomorrow, we get back your brother and everything is okay again.”

“It won’t ever be okay again,” she said with more venom than she had intended. “My parents are dead. They’re not ever coming back!”

Haven turned and wiped away the tears running down her cheeks—tears that had fallen more often as the hours wore on.

“Oh, my,” said Marius. He walked over and rested a hand on her shoulder. “I did not mean that you should forget them. I did not mean that at all.”

She sniffed. “My home is gone. Burned to the ground. Even if I get Noah back, there’s nowhere to go.”

“You stay here!” he said quickly. “You both stay here. We have food, water, gymnasium.” He gestured grandly to the empty room in which they stood and Haven smiled. “All the things growing girl and boy need. Okay?”

Haven could think of a hundred other places she would rather stay than a damp underground shelter, but until she knew that Noah was one-hundred percent safe, she didn’t see any other option.

She nodded and Marius clapped his hands together loudly.

“Excellent!” he said. “But training not over yet. Best to teach you something you will definitely use tomorrow. Now is time for the fun stuff.”

He twirled his finger to indicate that she should turn to face him. She did so and moved one foot in front of the other as he had shown her.

“More of that later,” said Marius. “For now, relax. Hands by side. Good. Close your eyes.”

She raised one eyebrow and looked at him.

“Trust me,” he said.

She closed her eyes and waited for his instructions.

“Listen carefully,” he said. “There is a light inside of you. It burns brighter than anything else in this world.” He spoke softly and his voice circled around her. “It is your soul—it is everything you are and also much more. It is life, it is energy, and you feel it growing stronger within you.”

In her mind’s eye, Haven saw a vast nothingness. A dim blue light sparked to life in the distance and grew stronger as it approached.

“You can hold this energy inside of you,” said Marius, “but not forever. You must guide it as it grows. You must shape it for its true purpose. Otherwise it will fade, and you will lose it forever. Control it, keep it close. Once it is strong enough, release it slowly…carefully.”

The blue light in the darkness expanded until it was a small star in Haven’s imagination. It turned slowly and its surface shifted like blue lava—swirling and bubbling with immense power. Strands like solar flares arced from the expanding ball and snapped in half, sending strings of blue plasma spinning into the blackness.

Heat traveled down her spine and spread across her entire body. It pushed through her blood and muscle tissue until it ran along the surface of her skin as if she stood under a waterfall of boiling water. It didn’t hurt her—even when the heat intensified—but she could still feel its presence.

Haven heard Marius step away and she opened her eyes.

Electric blue light cascaded over her vision like the flicking flames of a violent fire. Marius stood twenty feet away, on the other side of the room.

“Close your eyes!” he shouted.

She did, but something was wrong. The energy that had been building within her shifted to the side like a heavy weight and slipped off her body. She opened her eyes as a blue stream of burning plasma shot from her left arm and hit the wall just above Marius’s head. He shouted and dove out of the way as the stream seared into the wall.

Haven screamed and stepped backward. She raised her left arm and the blue stream scraped up the wall to the ceiling, leaving behind a blackened streak on the metal.

“What do I do?!” she shouted.

The energy was already dissipating. The stream shooting out of her arm faded like a dying flashlight beam until it disappeared. Haven dropped to her knees, sweaty and exhausted. She gulped down air as if she had almost drowned.

Marius ran over and knelt beside her. He gripped her shoulders firmly and supported her when she started to shake all over.

“It’s okay,” he said. He lowered her to a sitting position and smoothed down her hair, which was sticking out in every direction. He looked up at the long strip of blackened metal on the wall and ceiling. “That was…that was good, for first time. Practice makes perfect, yes?”

“I lost it,” said Haven, still breathing heavily. “I felt it but then I lost it.”

“Happens to everyone,” said Marius. “Still happens to me if I am distracted. What did you see?”

She thought for a moment. “A blue light in the darkness, like a star. It grew brighter and brighter and came close enough that I could see every detail.”

Marius was nodding. “Yes, yes,” he said. “Good. For me, I imagine it building up in my hands until I can no longer keep it inside. It is different for everyone, but the important thing is that you find something that works. Eventually you will be able to skip the seeing and jump right to the zapping.” He looked back at the black scar on the wall, then down at his own hands. “Maybe next time I try your method. Maybe I get something a little stronger! But listen to me. The goal is to control the energy—to not let go all at once. This way it is not all gone in five seconds and then the bad guys get you.”

Haven sat up straighter and took a deep breath. “Why are you fighting?” she asked. “With Bernam and the others.”

Marius frowned. “There is always fighting. There is always someone who wants more power, and who will take it from others. And always there are people willing to help that person. It is a terrible truth, but one that we all must face.” He shook his head sadly.

Haven smiled and pushed his shoulder. “I think I need some water.”

He slapped his forehead. “Of course you do! How stupid of me.” He stood and helped her to her feet. “Very thirsty work. But don’t worry, is worth it. Everybody has limits, but with more training you will not believe what you can do.”

Haven followed Marius to the door. She looked down at her hands, then gently rubbed her forearms. Her skin was cool, and there was no sign that fire or any other kind of destructive energy had been flowing over her body. A shiver ran down her spine when she thought about the power that had been available to her a few moments earlier.

It felt like she had tapped into a nuclear generator and was pulling unlimited power from its core, weaving it together into a giant sphere of energy. Up until the moment she had lost control, Haven felt as if she could have blown up a building.

As she followed Marius out of the training room and into the dome, she had a hard time convincing herself that having that kind of power was a good thing.

26

Elena was waiting for them just outside the room.

“How did she do?” she asked Marius.

“Very good,” he said. “One day she will be stronger than you, I think.”

Marius’s praise made Haven blush.  “I lost control,” she admitted.

“We all do, from time to time,” said Elena. She glanced over at Marius, who was trying to make a motion with his hands without Haven seeing him. He pointed to his own shoulder-blades and then fanned out his fingers and traced the outline of invisible wings. Then he nodded at Haven and Elena looked at her, one eyebrow rising higher on her wrinkled forehead. “Is that right?” she said.

“What?” said Haven.

“You have wings.”

“No, I—” Haven stopped and thought for a moment. “Well, in the cafeteria, yeah…sort of. Not really wings, though, just shaped like wings.”

“Oh my,” said Elena softly.

“What are you talking about?” said Haven, hesitant accusation in her voice.

Marius coughed politely. “Time for food,” he said. “Marius is hungry.” He smiled at Haven and hurried away, disappearing down the hallway that led to the dormitories.

“Let’s sit down, Haven,” said Elena.

The older woman led her to the center of the massive domed room. A ring of short chairs surrounded a small, circular rock pit that Haven had not seen before. Softball-sized grey rocks were piled in a small mound in the center of the pit. Haven chose a seat. Elena sat next to her and waved an open palm in the direction of the rock pit. Blue flames ignited on the stones and danced brilliantly in the darkness. Light flickered across their faces and warmed Haven’s skin.

“It’s an issue of balance,” said Elena at last. She stared into the flames, unblinking.

“What kind of balance?” asked Haven.

“The Balance. Nature. The world. Everything. It is my belief that our kind came into existence to repair an imbalance in the fabric of reality. Something shifted too far in the wrong direction and we represent nature’s attempt to solve the problem.”

“The Sources and Conduits, you mean.”

Elena nodded. “You already know that I’m called a Phoenix. The man named Bernam is a Void—the strongest of his kind. We are here to balance the forces that have been given to us, to guide the others down the proper path so that the power does not shift too far to one side. However, one cannot exist without the other. Bernam and myself—we are linked in that way, but in that way alone.”

“He’s not your counterpart?”

Elena shook her head. “He lost his true partner long ago, as did I.” Her eyes glossed over as she remembered. She shook her head again and sighed.

“What happens if one of you dies?” asked Haven.

“That is what we need to talk about. My power is fading, Haven. It has been weakening gradually over the last several months. My guess would be that it started around the same time that you first noticed you were different.”

Haven looked into the blue flames that danced over the rocks. A long strand of fire flicked out from the pit and snapped in the air like a whip.

“You think I’m a Phoenix,” she said.

“I think so, yes. But nothing is certain. There could be others like you in the world—ones with other shades of blue fire that have the potential to become a Phoenix. You and I manifest our excess energy in a very specific way—a way that, until now, I thought was completely unique to myself.”

“The wings,” said Haven.

Elena nodded.

“What are they?”

“I can’t say for sure,” said Elena. “They don’t always appear when I am expending energy. I have only noticed their presence on rare occasions when I was attempting to channel more power than I should have—perhaps half-a-dozen times in my entire life. They are beautiful, but I think they might not serve much purpose beyond that.”

“Have you ever seen them on anyone else?”

Elena shook her head.

“So wait,” said Haven. “If you’re getting weaker, does that mean that I’m killing you?”

Elena laughed—an old, slow laugh full of humor and wisdom. “No, Haven. This would be happening with or without you. It is the way of things.”

Haven sat back in her seat. “How did it happen with you?” she asked.

“When I received my ability, you mean?”

Haven nodded.

“I never met the person who came before me. I like to think that they were able to live a quiet life, far from the worries that plague our kind these days. It was no slow process for me, as I am noticing with you. The energy was practically slapped into me not long after my seventeenth birthday. I always assumed that the one who came before me died suddenly, without the time for a gradual transference like the kind I believe I am experiencing. I was working in a shoe factory at the time, lacing work boots—just one of many girls on a long factory line.” She giggled. “Oh, you should have seen their faces! I lit that place up like a five-story Christmas tree. I had to leave town after that, of course.” She sighed happily. “Those days were just full of adventure.”

“If I’m getting my power from you,” said Haven, “then where do the others get their abilities?”

“You aren’t getting your power from me at all!” said Elena, laughing softly with amusement. “At least, not yet. Besides the few people who were given their powers by other Conduits, each one of us is born already possessing an ability. But those like me and Bernam—and every other Phoenix and Void that came before us—are given something extra.”

“What is it?”

Elena smiled. “There are many theories, and of course I have my own. I think it’s different for each of us. Only you can know for sure.” Her smile faded and a look of worry deepened the shadows on her face.

“What’s wrong?” asked Haven.

Elena shook her head. She smiled but it was a smile intended to hide a truth. “It’s nothing.”

“Tell her,” someone said behind Haven. She turned to see Dormer standing a few feet away, just at the edge of the blue firelight. “Tell her about the process—about what really happened to you in the shoe factory. Tell her there’s a chance she could burn up just like a—”

“Don’t!” shouted Elena. She stood and held up a warning finger at Dormer. “Don’t you say anything. She doesn’t need to worry about that for a long time.”

“Maybe not so long,” he said.

“Tell me what?” said Haven. She stood slowly, looking between the two of them.

“It’s nothing,” said Elena.

“You may as well,” said Dormer, clearly enjoying Elena’s frustration. “She needs to know.”

Elena sighed and sat down in her seat wearily.

“I didn’t want to add to your burden,” she said.

“Tell me,” said Haven. She stood next to the fire, her mind in a suspended state of expectation.

After a long minute, Elena spoke at last. “There is a chance that your body will be incapable of holding the Phoenix energy and that it will instead go to someone else.”

“So…what? I don’t even have it yet, from what you’re telling me. I’ll still keep what I already have, right? Nothing would change.”

Elena shook her head.

“This is the good part,” said Dormer.

“The energy does not simply pass over you like a disembodied spirit looking for a different body,” said Elena. “The process of change—the process that determines whether or not you are capable of wielding such power—could destroy you completely if you are not the right person.”

Haven stumbled over her words as her brain struggled to process the information. “Well—what if—how do I know if I’m the right person?”

“You don’t,” said Dormer. “Not until it’s too late.” He turned and walked away, toward the black sedan near the entrance to the dormitories.

“Well, screw that!” said Haven, shaking her head. “I pass. I forfeit. Whatever you do to make it go to the next person and not me, do that, because I don’t want it.”

“I wish it worked like that, Haven,” said Elena. “I really do. It is a cycle. There will be a brief time where you experience increased power, but afterward it will fade until the moment comes when it abandons you completely. Once that happens—if it happens at all—you will either receive the Phoenix energy or it will destroy you and go to another.”

“But how do you even know if that’s true?” said Haven quickly, getting defensive. “You don’t even know where you got your own ability!”

“There are others in this world who have shared such things with me,” said Elena. “I was going to wait to tell you until the pain from the loss of your parents had passed.”

“Thanks for reminding me,” said Haven, instantly regretting her words. Her sadness wasn’t Elena’s fault, but she was still angry at the world for letting her parents die. She turned to look at the fire. “When will it happen?”

“It is impossible to say. Maybe never.”

“Great,” said Haven flatly. “At least I have something to look forward to.”

Across the room, a metal cup hit the floor and bounced loudly on the concrete. A small boy wearing glasses stood on a chair next to Corva’s computer, waving his arms and bouncing up and down excitedly.

“Who’s that?” asked Haven. “I didn’t even know he was in here.”

“That’s Micah,” said Elena. She stood up and hurried toward the boy.

Haven followed her over to the dark area of the dome floor that was scattered with all sorts of electronic equipment. There were several work stations. The table next to Corva’s computer was topped with a bulky radio receiver and what looked to Haven like monitoring equipment. Large knobs and small switches covered the rectangular units stacked on both sides of the table.

Micah plopped down into his seat when Elena and Haven approached and pulled on an oversized set of earphones. A long, spiraled cable ran from the headset to one of the monitoring boxes on the table. When Dormer walked up, Micah pulled the cable plug out of the monitor and turned up a volume dial.

The monitor was tuned in to a police scanner. A conversation between an officer and his dispatcher was just wrapping up.

“Copy, four-one-seven,” said the dispatcher. “Fire department on the way. We’ll send some backup for you just in case. Confirmed two identical suspects, multiple red fires in the Four Corners area at Shepherd Trail. Unit on-scene unresponsive. Advise extreme caution. Over.”

“Copy that, dispatch. Unit four-one-seven out.”

The line went silent, replaced with soft, clicking static.

“Red fire?” said Haven. She couldn’t believe she heard those exact words.

“That’s just outside Bozeman,” said Dormer. “Less than thirty minutes away.”

Marius and Corva ran to the table, breathing heavily. Marius held a chunk of bread in one hand and chewed loudly. “What happened?” he said.

“The twins are out starting fires,” said Dormer. He turned and went back to his work station.

“Who are the twins?” asked Haven. She remembered her own house burning to the ground, consumed by rising, bright red flames. She swallowed thickly as her stomach tightened.

“Some of Bernam’s henchmen,” said Corva. She squeezed Micah’s shoulder and he smiled up at her.

Haven thought the boy could be no older than twelve or thirteen at the most. He had light brown skin and pale eyes that were comically large behind his thick glasses. His baggy clothes hung loosely on his thin frame, and his heavy shoes clomped loudly on the floor as his feet bounced up and down energetically.

“Good work, Micah,” said Elena.

“So what we do?” said Marius.

Elena didn’t answer him. She turned and looked up at the roof of the dome. Haven followed her eye-line, tracing an antenna wire that ran out of the back of the radio equipment and straight up the wall of the dome to the slow-spinning fan at the very top.

“We have to stop them,” said Corva.

“Don’t bother,” said Dormer loudly from across the room. “You know something isn’t right. Multiple fires in the same neighborhood? It’s too flashy, even for Bernam.”

“There could be families inside,” said Haven suddenly. Everyone turned to look at her, surprised at the conviction in her voice. “We have to go! What if they were the ones who killed my parents?”

Elena nodded. “We will go. Haven, it is too dangerous. You will remain here with Micah. Monitor the police scanner—”

“I’m going with you!” shouted Haven. “There’s no way I’m staying! Red fire, didn’t you hear? My parents…” Her voice trailed off until all she could do was stand there with her mouth half-open, ready to form another argument but unable to find the words.

“It’s not safe,” said Elena. “Marius, Corva, Dormer, and I will—”

“I’m staying,” said Dormer. His eyes met with Elena’s for a long moment, shining with defiance.

She looked away sadly. “Very well. Dormer will stay with Micah. Haven…” She sighed and shook her head.

“Elena, she needs answers,” said Corva.

Elena hesitated a moment longer, then said, “Haven, you come with us. But you are to remain by the vehicles as a lookout, do you understand?”

“I understand.” She would have agreed to anything if it meant knowing more about those who killed her parents.

“Everybody ready?” asked Elena. “Let’s go topside.”

27

Marius stood before a section of plain concrete wall. A few feet away was the entrance to the room full of metal tanks that Haven had been taken to when she first arrived at the dome—a miniature water recycling plant for the entire underground complex.

She waited as Marius ran his palm over the gritty concrete wall until the tip of his index finger dipped into a shallow depression. He pushed in lightly and the faint depression became a deep hole. There was a soft click and a small square of concrete next to Marius’s finger swung out to reveal a black LED panel. He tapped a series of hieroglyphic symbols on the screen and a long sequence of encrypted numbers rapidly cycled across the bottom until a small red light on the panel turned green.

The faint outline of a wide door appeared in the wall next to the panel and darkened as the large, thick piece of metal swung silently inward, sweeping in a wide arc to reveal a long hallway that stretched away from the dome. The heavy door was about as wide as a car and Haven realized that was how the black sedan had been brought into the facility.

She walked down the long hallway after Marius and Elena; Corva followed close behind. Caged light bulbs protruded from the ceiling every twenty feet, casting bright circles of light onto the dull grey floor and walls. Haven turned to look back and Corva gave a slight nod and a comforting smile.

The hallway led to a single, massive elevator with a heavy black door that Marius slid to the side with a grunt. After they were all inside, he pulled the door back into place and pressed the only button on the small panel set into the wall.

The elevator rattled softly as it ascended.

Haven looked down at her clothes and couldn’t help but feel that something was missing. Corva had tossed her a beige jacket that fit well enough, but could have gone down an inch farther at the waist. She felt naked somehow, and she realized it was because her hands were empty.

Corva held the same strange machine gun that Marius had used in the car during Haven’s rescue from the medical center. The body of the weapon was chromed metal; the two pistol-grips—one at the back of the gun and the other halfway down the sleek, elongated barrel—were covered with a black rubberized material. The gun hung from a worn green strap looped over Corva’s shoulder.

Neither Marius nor Elena carried any kind of weapon that Haven could see. She assumed that they didn’t need one since they could make their own energy, but from what Marius had told her in the training room, it sounded like even a Source could not maintain constant output. Any conflict would need to be resolved quickly or they would have to resort to regular weapons.

Haven opened and closed her hands, knowing that having some kind of weapon would have made her feel more confident. She was only supposed to stay by the car, but she forced herself to believe that if she got the chance to hurt the people who killed her parents, then—

Then what?

What would I do? thought Haven. She remembered the red flames that consumed her house and the cracking and crunching of wood as it exploded and collapsed. The fire danced in her eyes and she felt Kayla’s arms around her, holding her back from the fire.

Kayla.

A wave of sadness swept over Haven and she felt like a small child curled up in a ball in the corner of a massive, empty room. She longed to be back in school—a desire which surprised her more than she would have expected—and for things to be like they were before the night of the fire. She had felt betrayed by Kayla after her parents’ funeral. The truth was that thinking of Kayla and Jason being together hurt deeply, even though Haven knew he was a worthless jerk.

She tried to think what she would have done if their roles were reversed and she had been in Kayla’s position. Haven hoped she would have put their friendship before anything else and told Jason to take a hike.

As the elevator slowly ascended, Haven wondered how anything in her life could ever be like it was before the night of that stupid party.

Was going back to school still an option after all she had learned? Could she go back to math class and pretend that blue fire didn’t occasionally burst from her skin? After the event in the cafeteria, she definitely couldn’t go back to George Walker High School. She would have to move to a new state or even a new country to get away from the memory of that freak show.

There was also the dark thought that the people who took Noah wouldn’t let her live a normal life ever again. They would find her wherever she went, no matter how far away she ran and no matter how careful she was to cover her tracks.

None of it mattered if she couldn’t save Noah. She focused all of her thoughts on him and pushed everything else into the background.

The elevator stopped with a bounce and Marius pulled open the heavy door.

“Top floor,” he said. “Housewares, lady’s shoes, and dune buggies. Ha!” He slapped his belly and smiled at his own joke as he walked out of the elevator.

Two black dune buggies with fat black tires and welded roll cages sat parked in the middle of a wide garage. The ceiling was only a couple feet above Haven’s head and she reached up to touch it as she stepped out of the elevator. A wide, roll-up door was the only other exit to the room.

Marius hopped into the closest dune buggy and pulled on a dusty pair of goggles. Elena grabbed one of the roll cage bars on the passenger’s side and slowly climbed into the vehicle.

Corva touched Haven’s shoulder as she walked to the second buggy. “You’re with me,” she said.

Haven followed her to the other buggy and pulled herself up and over the fused passenger door. A thin cloud of dust plumed up from the cracked vinyl seat when she sat down. She coughed and waved a hand in front of her face.

Corva sat in the driver’s seat and handed Haven a pair of goggles. “Get used to it,” she said. “It only gets worse.”

Marius fired up his buggy’s engine and idled toward the roll-up door. Corva turned a rusted key in the ignition and the second buggy shook to life with an ear-piercing growl. Haven pulled on her goggles as Corva followed the other buggy across the garage.

The wide door rolled up slowly to reveal a rectangle of night. Haven saw nothing but a dark desert reaching far into the distance and a dusty, half-paved road curving off to the side.

Marius gained speed—Corva right behind—and drove out of the garage onto the sand, ignoring the road. Haven turned back as the buggies sped away from the garage—the door was a wide slit in the bottom of a small mountain. Bright moonlight from above revealed smooth, jutting rocks all the way to the mountain’s bald, jagged peak. The entire dome must have been under the mountain or just off to the side; Haven looked around on the ground for the opening at the top of the dome but saw nothing but small bushes and an occasional cactus.

The cold desert wind whipped her hair in all directions. She grabbed a fistful of locks and stuffed them down into the collar of her jacket. The buggies bounced and slid over small dunes as they moved quickly across the desert. In the distance, Haven saw a bright pinpoint of red fire glowing amidst a sea of yellow and white city lights.

“There it is!” she said over the noise of the buggy.

Corva nodded.

A small walkie-talkie clipped to the dashboard crackled loudly.

Marius’s voice squawked at them. “You see it?”

Corva picked up the walkie-talkie and depressed the transmit button. “We see it.”

The buggy drifted to the side to avoid a large rock. Haven kept one hand firmly on a bar of the roll cage above her head and the other on a handle next to her seat. “Why don’t you guys use cell phones?” she asked over the noise of the buggy.

“Too easy to track,” said Corva. “They’ve found us before.”

“Who, Bernam?”

Corva hesitated. “And others.”

“Why didn’t Dormer come with us?” asked Haven.

“He’s still mad at Elena.”

“For not saving his brother?”

Corva nodded. “She knew that we only had one chance to get inside the medical center. After that, security would be so tight that going back in would be a suicide mission. We needed to wait in case Bernam found your brother before we could. Elena knew there was a hybrid out there somewhere, and she also knew that we couldn’t afford to let Bernam…well, to let Bernam do what he does to our kind.”

“But Marius took me by mistake.”

The buggy in front of them crested a large dune and its wheels left the ground. Marius whooped loudly from the first buggy as the vehicle slammed down and regained traction. The small figure in the passenger’s seat bounced violently from the impact.

“I know Elena just loved that,” said Corva. She drove safely over the side of the dune and accelerated to catch up to the other buggy.

“How are we going to get Noah back?” said Haven. “If security is so tight, how are we going to get inside?”

Corva shook her head. “I don’t know. But we’ll figure it out. I promise.”

Ahead, the pinpoints of white and yellow light turned into street lamps and porch lights. The heart of the city of Bozeman, Montana, was still several miles away—a grid of bright lights in the middle of a wide expanse of moonlit desert. Outlying suburbs stretched away from the main hub to form a massive field of varied construction projects.

An unfinished road reached out from a new housing development and stopped at a lone street lamp. The steady, churning crunch of wheels on sand turned to a low-pitched drone as the buggies left the desert and drove onto pavement.

The housing development was laid out on a network of wide streets. The buggies passed several houses in different states of construction—from hollow skeletons with flapping insulation to unpainted shells with all of the doors and windows installed. More and more houses were placed closer and closer together until the buggies eventually drove past occupied homes. Dusty cars sat parked on dirty driveways next to unmowed lawns. Bikes rested on their sides in front of dark, open garages.

A large, two-story home sat on the corner of two intersecting streets. A police car had cut a black line of soil into the grass of the yard and flipped over. It lay upside-down, abandoned, the red and blue lights flashing across the yard onto the face of the large home.

Corva followed Marius closely as he took sharp corners and steadily approached the red fire.

“Keep eyes peeled,” he said over the walkie-talkie.

The dune buggies pulled to a slow stop in front of the first burning house. It had been a flat, one-story home with a tall wooden door which had blown outward during the fire. Huge chunks of roofing lay in smoldering piles in the yard. Haven sat mesmerized as brilliant red flames danced over the collapsed walls of the house. A few streets away, more fires lit the night sky.

“Where is everyone?” said Corva.

Haven finally looked away from the burning house. All of the houses that lined the street were dark and silent. “Maybe they left because of the fire,” she said.

Farther down the road, a fire truck had run into a concrete lamp post and sat empty, the front of the vehicle caved in from the impact. Behind it, two more police cars were parked with their doors open wide, the lights on top of their roofs flicking red, blue, red, blue.

Marius got out of his dune buggy and slowly approached the house. Elena stood up in her seat and leaned against the roll cage as she watched the flames.

“There’s no one here,” said Corva. “Marius, we should go.”

He looked at the red fire, studying it with a furrowed brow. “Yes,” he said. “This is not good.”

Haven got out of the buggy and stepped closer to the house, once more drawn in by the repulsive beauty of the flames.

“Let’s go, Haven!” said Corva.

“It’s the same color,” said Haven, talking to herself.

A supporting beam within the house popped loudly and the last remaining section of the roof collapsed. Half-burned, half-charred, the house looked exactly like her own home as it burned to the ground.

The red flames shone brightly in her falling tears.

“It’s the same color,” she whispered.

A distant scream tore through the night air.

“Over there,” said Elena. She pointed a bony finger at the glow of the next fire a few streets away.

“Haven, come on!” shouted Corva. “Marius!”

“Okay,” he said.

He turned from the house and walked over to Haven. As he reached for her, an electric streak of red energy shot through the air and hit the ground at his feet. Soil and burning grass erupted upward as if Marius had stepped on a landmine. The impact launched Haven into the air, spinning her away from Marius. She slammed into the ground and rolled to a stop in the yard, groaning.

Corva screamed, “Marius!” as Haven turned on her side. A smoking crater took up what used to be most of the front yard. Marius lay on the far side of the pit, face down and unmoving.

28

Elena got out of the buggy and hurried over to Haven. She knelt down and pulled her up by her shoulders.

“Come quickly,” she said.

Someone started whistling.

It was quiet at first—a melodic song that Haven found disturbingly peaceful—then became louder and was joined by another whistle playing harmony to the first.

The whistling stopped.

A pair of identical twins with spiky blond hair stepped out of the shadows next to the burning house, wild grins on their flame-lit faces.

Elena supported Haven as they hurried back to the buggies. Haven closed her eyes and tried to imagine the blue star in the vast nothingness that she had seen in the training room with Marius. In her mind, the light was a small spark that fluttered and died. She squeezed her eyes closed even harder and tried to force the light to appear—to grow into a powerful energy that she could harness and expel.

There was nothing.

She opened her eyes. On the other side of the pit, Corva hoisted Marius to his feet. He groaned in pain as he stared over at the twins menacingly.

They were young men, perhaps in their early twenties. One of them clapped his hands together and started rubbing them as if he were cold. He put them to his mouth and blew between his palms.

A beam of thin red light shot out from his hands and hit Corva in the shoulder. She yelled in pain as the impact spun her around and pushed her to the ground.

Marius bellowed and puffed out his chest. Orange spheres of light snapped out from each of his clenched fists and grew to the size of bowling balls. He slammed his fists together and the spheres merged and exploded toward the twins. They jumped apart as the ball of light tore between them and ripped off the back corner of the next house, sending splinters of wood and side paneling spinning into the air.

Elena leaned Haven against the side of the nearest dune buggy. Next to the crater, Marius knelt down to help Corva to her feet. She held one of her arms close to her body and a thick sheen of blood covered her shoulder.

There was movement in the shadows on the other side of the crater.

“Get inside,” said Elena, pushing Haven to climb into the dune buggy.

“Look!” said Haven after she sat in the passenger seat. She pointed over at the twins, who were back on their feet and standing side-by-side in front of the burning house. “Marius!” she shouted.

Marius looked up and saw the twins. With a single motion he scooped up Corva and carried her toward the dune buggies, his thick legs stomping heavily as he ran.

One of the twins—the Source—rested his hand on the other’s shoulder and closed his eyes. Red light covered his entire body and disappeared into the skin of the Conduit, his brother. The Conduit stood there without urgency and watched Marius run. His skin glowed with a shifting radiance that looked like sunlight reflecting into the surface of a red pond.

The Con held out one of his arms and opened his palm toward Marius, who had just made it back to the empty dune buggy and lowered Corva so she could stand up.

Red light formed around the Conduit’s hand and pooled over his palm. The energy seemed on the verge of releasing when a blue spear of light cut through his body and ripped him off his feet. He spun backward into the darkness behind the house and disappeared.

Elena lowered her arm and breathed out heavily. A thin layer of blue light shimmered across her skin.

“Lee!” shouted the remaining twin. His face twisted in rage and he raised his fists toward Elena. Red light sputtered weakly from his hands and he screamed in anger. He turned and ran behind the house.

“Time to go!” shouted Marius.

He hopped into the driver’s seat of his buggy and Corva lowered herself down next to him with a grimace. Marius cranked the wheel and sped out onto the road, back in the direction of The Dome.

Elena moved faster than Haven was expecting as she nimbly climbed into the second buggy and sat behind the wheel. She twisted the key in the ignition and slammed her foot down on the gas pedal, the back tires squealing as the buggy tore down the street.

Haven turned back to look at the burning house. The twins stepped out of the shadows next to the flames, one of them leaning heavily against the other. They watched the dune buggies drive away and Haven was certain that they were smiling.

She turned to face forward just as all of the street lamps on both sides of the long street dimmed and went out.

Marius’s buggy on the road ahead turned into a dim silhouette in the moonlight.

“Oh no,” said Elena.

There came the sound of a chest-compressing WHUMP and the first buggy launched sideways into the air, spinning side over side until it slammed upside-down onto the grass just off the street.

Elena stomped down on the brake pedal and the buggy screeched to a halt in the middle of the road.

“Get out get out get out!” she said quickly, scrambling to get over her door.

Haven grabbed onto the roll cage and pulled herself up, then jumped out of the buggy as another deep, muted noise blasted the street. The air around her was sucked away, pulling the breath from her chest. A pressure blast smacked her body as if she were a swatted fly and she was thrown into the air.

She had a split-second to see her dune buggy drop from the sky and disappear behind a house before she slammed into the grass next to the road. She crawled onto her hands and knees as she fought to breathe—it felt like her chest was in a vise and a plastic bag covered her mouth. Hair clung to the sides of her face and her vision was blurred. Across the dark street, a silhouetted figure stepped away from a lamp post and walked toward her. Behind the silhouette, two other figures appeared, shorter than the first.

Haven felt something lurch inside her when she looked at the two figures in the background. The sensation that consumed her body as she trembled on the grass and struggled to breathe was something much more intense than anything she had experienced. The sensation was complete in every way—symmetrical gravitation that pulled every thread of her soul in one direction.

The tall figure stood next to her, looking down. Haven looked up blearily. She was unable to see a face in the silhouette, but could tell it was a man. He turned his head to one side, then the other, as if inspecting her like a lab specimen. He walked over to Elena, who lay on her back on a small embankment next to the road, bleeding from deep cuts all over her body.

The figure knelt down in the grass next to her.

Elena breathed raggedly and a small line of blood trickled out from the corner of her mouth. She looked up into the face of the figure with unblinking eyes, totally unafraid.

“Hello, Elena,” said the figure. The dark corners of his mouth raised in a grin. “And goodbye.”

29

Colton waited in the shadows next to one of the houses on the long street. Shelly stood beside him, the sleeve of her jacket brushing his arm as she nervously shifted her weight from one foot to the other.

Reece leaned against the house a few feet away, hands in his pockets, watching with a small smile on his face as Bernam and Alistair flipped over the first dune buggy. It twisted through the air and smashed down into the grass alongside the road.

Reece whistled appreciatively. “Those boys sure know how to get things done,” he said.

The second buggy launched into the air just as the old woman and a young girl jumped to the ground. Both of them were caught in Alistair’s blast and were sent flying. The girl hit the grass and rolled to a stop. The old woman landed on her back with a loud crack of broken bones. Shelly squeezed her eyes shut and grabbed Colton’s arm.

Bernam’s dark silhouette knelt down next to the old woman and he said something to her. Blood trickled from the corner of her mouth.

Alistair appeared between two houses on the other side of the street and walked over to the first buggy. Within the overturned vehicle, a stocky man and a woman with white hair lay next to each other against the top of the roll cage.

Bernam stood and turned around. His eyes were not visible in the shadows that covered his face, yet Colton felt his piercing glare. “Shelly,” he said. “Go back and collect the twins. Prep the plane for departure.”

She looked at him, then at Colton.

“Now,” said Bernam.

She squeezed Colton’s arm and ran down the street, away from the wrecked buggies.

“Colton,” said Bernam. He raised his arm and beckoned Colton to him.

“That’s you,” whispered Reece.

He grabbed Colton’s sleeve and pulled him toward the street. Colton shrugged him off and walked slowly, unable to take his eyes from the girl on the grass. The street was dark and he couldn’t really see what she looked like, but something about her drew him in—it felt as if his vision had collapsed into a narrow tunnel between them both. A kaleidoscope blur surrounded everything but the small area around this girl he had never met before.

The stocky man in the overturned dune buggy groaned loudly and tried to stand.

“Alistair,” said Bernam quietly.

Alistair knelt down and smiled into the buggy.

“Now, now, Marius. You know better than that.”

Marius’s face twisted in rage and he spat a string of Russian words that Colton assumed were the darkest curses imaginable.

Alistair’s smile broadened as he stood and took a step back from the buggy. He rested his palms on the edge of the chassis and closed his eyes. The vehicle rattled slowly at first, and then faster until, from bumper to bumper, it vibrated like a plucked guitar string. Alistair walked away and the dune buggy exploded.

Chunks of debris shot in every direction. The roll cage flipped up into the air. The two people trapped inside bounced violently against the bars of the cage as it crashed through the roof of a nearby home. It landed with a loud crunch and a plume of dust clouded up from the hole in the roof.

Alistair brushed off his hands. “I’m done,” he said. “Need to charge.”

Bernam nodded and Alistair walked away, following after Shelly.

“Colton,” said Bernam. “It’s time.”

Colton stood in the middle of the street. He looked at the girl in the grass, who stared back at him in anger. The old woman lay before Bernam, broken and shaking.

“This doesn’t feel right,” said Colton.

Bernam tilted his head to the side as if to say how dare you?, then his shoulders relaxed with a sigh and he walked over to Colton. He nodded sympathetically and rested a hand on Colton’s shoulder.

“This is what we’ve been talking about ever since we first met,” said Bernam. “This is how you get to help countless others who are just like you. This woman holds the key to the future, Colton, and we need that key!”

His conviction was moving, but as Colton looked at the old woman lying helpless on the ground, he knew he could do nothing to harm her. “I wouldn’t be able to live with myself,” he said at last. “I mean, look at her—”

“I’ll do it,” interrupted Reece. He looked at the woman and swallowed hard, as if he was struggling to convince himself. “Yeah, sure. I’ll do it. Just like you said, Bernam. Give me the power.”

“What are you talking about?” asked Colton. “What power?”

Bernam shook his head. “This is Colton’s decision.”

“Why do I have to be the one?”

“Because you are the only one strong enough to contain her energy,” said Bernam. “Even I would only be able to hold it a few minutes, after which it would burn me from the inside-out. It must be you.”

Bernam’s hand slipped off his shoulder as Colton walked over and stood above the old woman. She looked up at him without anger or resentment; it almost seemed as if she was already forgiving Colton for what he was supposed to do.

“I won’t do it,” said Colton, shaking his head.

Bernam sighed. His head dropped and he nodded deeply. “Very well,” he said.

He moved so quickly that Colton was staring at empty space when something hit the middle of his ribcage. He looked down to see Bernam’s right hand on his chest. His fingers disappeared into five black holes in Colton’s ribcage. The edges of the holes flowed around Bernam’s fingers like liquid.

Colton tried to speak but he could not. He tried to breathe but his throat was clenched shut.

“Reece, if you would…” said Bernam calmly. He beckoned him over and Reece obeyed, a look of confused horror on his face.

“Don’t hurt him, man,” said Reece.

“It’s a little late for that.”

Bernam reached out and grabbed Reece’s shirt. He pulled him close and gripped him firmly by the throat. Reece struggled to take a breath but his flailing arms bounced harmlessly off Bernam’s skin. He was lifted into the air, his legs kicking uselessly against Bernam’s shins.

Colton felt warmth drain from his limbs. It gathered in his chest and flowed out through the holes made by Bernam’s fingers. His vision dimmed as if it were light fueled by a dying generator.

Bernam stared at Colton. His eyes were solid black, ringed with sparking black fire.

“Your power is wasted on you,” he said.

Colton grit his teeth, certain that they would shatter long before the pain ended. It felt like a hundred clawed fingers were scraping against the inside of his body, peeling away his insides and pulling them out through his chest.

Bernam looked at him with those black eyes, and Colton was more scared in that moment than he had ever been in his entire life. There was no reasoning with the person who had those eyes. They regarded everything with a cold distance, completely devoid of emotion. No amount of pleading and no logical argument could be made to save a person trapped in the stare of eyes so dead.

The last ounce of warmth left Colton’s body and Bernam threw him aside. He fell to the street and he heard his skull crack loudly against the asphalt, but there was no pain. Colton’s entire body was numb.

Paralyzed, he watched Bernam lower Reece to the ground and release his neck. Reece stood there, mouth slack, staring into the distance.

Bernam slapped his shoulder and Reece blinked.

“How do you feel?”

Reece looked down at his hands. “Weird,” he said.

Bernam guided him over to the old woman, who watched everything with wide eyes. She tried to speak but little more than a soft gurgle escaped her lips.

The young girl lying in the grass coughed. “Stop,” she said weakly. Her eyelids fluttered to stay open as she pulled herself toward the old woman. “Stop.”

Bernam held up his hand and flicked the air. The girl tumbled across the grass and rolled to a stop on her stomach twenty feet away. She remained there, unmoving.

“I will start,” said Bernam. “And you will finish.”

Reece looked at Colton as he lay on the ground. “I thought you said that Colton was the only one who could hold her power.”

“Don’t be afraid,” said Bernam, growling with impatience.

Reece opened his mouth to say something else but Bernam pulled him down to kneel in front of the old woman.

“Put your hand here,” said Bernam. He placed Reece’s open palm at the top of the woman’s ribcage. He rested his own hand on top of Reece’s. “You will feel it moving into your hand and into your body. Don’t fight it. As soon as you sense the movement, you will be able to control the flow.”

Blue light shimmered over the woman’s skin and her back arched up violently.

“Don’t let go,” said Bernam loudly.

The old woman twisted under their combined grip. The blue light pooled on her chest and flowed visibly over Reece’s skin. Bernam pulled his hand away and shook it as if he had just touched a hot stove.

“Good,” he said. The blue light flowed faster up Reece’s arm and sank down into his skin. “Very good.”

The woman screamed loudly and her body went limp. Her head rested back against the grass and she lay still.

Reece pulled his hand away and looked at it, rubbing his fingers together thoughtfully. “Wow,” he said.

Bernam smiled and stood. “Well done, Reece. You have secured your rightful place among us. We need to get you back to the center right away.”

A thin trail of blue light ran up Reece’s body from his feet to the top of his head, then exploded like a small firecracker in the air.

“What was that?!” he said.

Bernam put his hand on Reece’s back and guided him away from the old woman. “We’ll talk about it on the way,” he said.

Colton turned his head as they walked away. At an intersection two streets away, the plane idled to a stop and the door opened downward to become a set of stairs.

Reece turned back to look at Colton as he stepped into the plane, but Bernam firmly turned him around and ushered him inside.

Shelly appeared in the doorway. She hugged herself as she looked at Colton lying in the middle of the street. Even at that distance, Colton thought he saw tears on her cheeks. Alistair reached down and grabbed the railing on the stairs. With a smug grin in Colton’s direction, he pulled the door closed.

The plane rolled down the street and the engines whined loudly until the wheels lifted off the ground. Colton watched, still unable to move, as the plane banked in the air and flew back in the direction of the black building.

The deep emptiness inside of him was a constant pressure; a weight on every one of his bones that pressed down and stopped just short of snapping them in half. He was reminded of the weeks after his mother abandoned him and his father; it was a pain he had hoped to never feel again.

He reached out with his mind for the energy in the world around him. Shelly had taught him how to absorb ambient energy and he had gotten so proficient at it that he did it without thinking. He groped for anything—starlight or even the faint heat in the asphalt on which he lay—but he was powerless.

There was nothing.

Colton rolled onto his side, fighting to keep his eyes open as a wave of darkness covered his vision.

The old woman lay at the edge of the road, eyes closed. Her chest rose ever-so-slightly with the shallow breaths of one who was nearly dead. The young girl in the grass had not moved once since Bernam had pushed her there.

A loud crash came from the house with the hole in its roof. A man yelled from within as something heavy scraped against the floor. Wood creaked slowly just before another loud crash.

The front door exploded outward and chunks of wood peppered the grass in front of the house. The man Alistair had called Marius stood in the doorway supporting the white-haired woman. She was awake, but barely. Blood from a deep cut on her head ran down one side of her face and covered her shirt.

Colton rested his head against the street as his vision dimmed to black and he lost consciousness.

30

The biggest hill in the Grove was on the far side of the grid of trees. Haven hadn’t walked past the last line of trees when she first visited the large, grassy field and so she hadn’t noticed that the other side of the hill sloped down to a small pond.

The pond was shaped like a teardrop, with one end large and bulbous and the other tapering at an angle to a rounded point.

At the bottom of the teardrop, at the edge of the still water, rested a lone willow tree.

Its knurled roots twisted out from the base of its crooked trunk and dipped into the water. Whip-like branches sprouted from the top of the trunk like a sad crown, cascading outward and down to brush the ground like a hundred gentle fingertips. Light green leaves covered the branches and stood in pleasing contrast to the light brown of the bark.

The trunk angled out over the pond so that one-half of the branches lightly brushed the surface of the water. Small blue lights floated over the pond, perfectly reflected in its mirrored surface like brilliant fireflies.

Haven stood atop the hill, looking down at the tree.

Elena rested against its trunk, propped up by Marius after he carried her in from the dome. He sat next to her, head cast down, eyes closed, a heavy frown on his sooty face.

Behind Haven, in the grid of trees, Dormer took his hand from Corva’s shoulder and helped her to sit up. The tree from which he had been drawing energy shed a third of its leaves and a small dark spot spread over its bark.

Part of Corva’s face was still covered in blood. She rotated her arm and pressed down on her shoulder, grimacing as she moved. She nodded at Dormer and he helped her to stand. He looked over at Haven.

Marius had nearly killed Dormer when everyone had returned to The Dome. They had been standing down by the small pond and Dormer had said something—Haven couldn’t hear him because she had just walked to the top of the hill—and Marius had turned on him in a blind rage. Part of Dormer’s shirt was burned away from where Marius had lifted him from the ground and lit him on fire. Dormer had quickly reached his maximum storage limit and his body was shedding heat faster than he could absorb it after only a few seconds of contact.

If Elena’s soft voice had not stopped Marius, there would have been nothing left of Dormer but a smoking pile of ashes.

He dropped his gaze and turned to walk away, pushing through the swinging doors that led back to the dome and disappearing around the corner.

Corva walked slowly to the top of the hill and looked down at the pond.

“Are you okay?” asked Haven.

Corva nodded. “Been better. Been worse. Broke my collarbone and dislocated my shoulder. Dormer patched me up enough to get moving. What about you?”

“I’m alright,” said Haven.

Corva raised a skeptical eyebrow.

“Well, I’m a little dizzy and every other minute I feel like I have to puke.”

“How’s your head?”

Haven touched the bump behind her right ear where her head hit the ground. It stung but it would be fine. The biggest problem was the emptiness she felt inside. After the man called Bernam had dug into that one boy’s chest and then cast him aside, Haven felt numb all the way to her core. It was an alien feeling, as if her soul had been pulled out of her body.

She was still herself, but she felt distant—unattached.

“I guess Marius is really mad at Dormer,” said Haven.

“That’s an understatement.”

“Does he think Elena would be okay if Dormer had come with us?”

“Probably—but it wasn’t just any old Con out there, it was Bernam.”

“The Void.”

Corva nodded. “And Alistair is no slouch, either. Add the twins into the mix and I doubt having Dormer with us would have made any difference.”

The doors to the Grove swung open and the young boy, Micah, hurried inside. It was obvious he had been asleep—his short hair was matted on one side and his clothes were wrinkled and twisted. He pulled on a pair of reading glasses as he ran up the hill, passed Haven and Corva, and ran down the other side.

He fell to his knees at Elena’s side. She smiled at him weakly as he picked up one of her hands and held it between both of his.

“They seem very close,” said Haven.

“He’s an orphan. His adoptive parents were…” She paused as she struggled to find the right words. “They were not kind. Shortly after they remanded him back into state custody, another child in his orphanage started a fire and the building burned to the ground. Micah was the only survivor.”

“So he’s not a Source or a Con?”

“Not that we know. Elena was never able to have children of her own, so she took him in.”

“He’s very quiet,” said Haven. She watched as Micah held Elena’s hand to his cheek. He closed his eyes and his tears fell onto her skin.

“He was born mute,” said Corva.

Down by the pond, Micah gently laid Elena’s hand in her lap and walked away. He sat in the grass on the other side of the pond with his back to the tree and his shoulders shuddered as he cried. Elena closed her eyes and rested her head against the trunk of the tree.

“What did Bernam do to her?” asked Haven.

“He took her power,” said Corva.

“You can do that?”

“Voids can. They are strong enough to tap into the deepest recesses of one’s very existence, if they so desire. They can scrape out abilities and give them to others.”

“Why did he take Elena’s?”

Corva shook her head. “I don’t know. You can’t have more than one power inside you for long or else you go crazy.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean it drives you insane. Taking in another power does not make you stronger. The abilities are separate from each other—individual entities that cannot mix, like oil and water. You can store another’s essence—their ability—for a very short period of time, but you must quickly release the energy to avoid any lasting damage.”

“So, Bernam can’t become a hybrid just by taking a Source’s ability?”

“Exactly,” said Corva. “Even he must know that, which makes it harder to understand why he would drain her power in the first place.”

“But Elena will get better, right? Dormer can heal her.”

“No. We can’t live without our abilities. They are a part of us, and without them we wither. If you are young and strong, you might be able to last a short while, but if you are sick, or weak, or…”

“Or old,” said Haven.

Corva nodded. “Yes.” She gently squeezed Haven’s shoulder and smiled. “I think she would want to speak with you.”

Haven swallowed nervously and nodded. “Okay,” she whispered.

They walked down the hill to the tree. Haven pushed aside several ropey branches and sat on the grass next to Elena. Corva sat next to Marius and put her arm over his shoulders as he leaned against her and closed his eyes.

Haven looked into the pond. The smooth surface of the water reflected the distant lights on the ceiling and would have been as flat as a mirror if not for the protruding ends of several large, algae-covered stones that dotted the length of the pond. The water was uniformly shallow and crystal clear. Small, translucent fish darted between long blades of rooted grass. The green, bladed stalks stood suspended in the water as if they had been drifting back and forth in a strong current and had suddenly been frozen in mid-wave.

One of the small blue lights in the air drifted over to Haven and floated a few inches in front of her face. At first it moved in a slow circle, a thin line of wispy blue light trailing behind. The little light moved faster and faster until the trailing light became a glowing ring floating in the air. Suddenly the light stopped moving and, with a small pop, exploded like a tiny firework that shot little sparks into the middle of the fading ring.

Haven smiled and Elena opened her eyes.

“I thought you might like that,” she said weakly.

“It was beautiful,” said Haven.

“What do you think of our little pond?”

“It’s lovely.”

“This tree is over five hundred years old. It was moved here after the Old Home was destroyed. That’s where our kind lived long ago. That’s what we called it.” She closed her eyes and a faint smile crossed her lips. “Yes, I remember. There were so many of us! Hundreds and hundreds. So many…”

“What happened?”

“Most were killed.”

“Is that why there aren’t more of you—of us—here?”

Elena nodded. “They are afraid. Those we manage to find rarely agree to join. They want to live simple, happy lives, and I don’t blame them. I often wished to live such a life.” She smiled and the wrinkles on her face bunched up in the corners of her eyes. “But that was not my job. My job was to keep the others safe.” She took a quick breath and coughed sharply, her throat thick and raspy. “Haven,” she said quietly. “It’s you. You must do this after I am gone.”

“Do what?” asked Haven.

“You must find more, like us, and bring them here. Keep them safe. You and Marius and Corva—even Dormer—all of you must keep them safe.”

“But why? What’s going to happen?”

“I don’t know,” said Elena, shaking her head. “I don’t know. But if Bernam succeeds at becoming a hybrid, there is no hope for any of us.” She took a deep breath. “I understand if you want to leave. You can try to live a normal life—but I hope you will stay. You could make such a difference here.”

“I—I’ll do it.” Haven felt as if she were making a promise she didn’t know she could fulfill.

Elena smiled and leaned her head back against the trunk of the tree. She looked up through the branches and at the distant lights on the ceiling. The light filled her eyes and sparkled like tiny stars. She let out a deep sigh, her body relaxed, and she was still.

Haven reached out and gently squeezed Elena’s hand.

The blue lights floating over the pond drifted across the water and circled the trunk of the tree. They landed on Elena’s body, covering her in a shroud of light. The lights pulsed slowly, like a heartbeat, until one by one, they blinked out and disappeared.

31

Colton sat on the edge of a rickety old cot in a small room with rounded corners and poor ventilation. The walls were rusted red. He felt like he was in some sort of sewage tank that had been drained and furnished just for him.

He gently rested the heels of his palms against his temples and pushed until the sharp pain in his head lessened to a dull, continuous pressure. The high-pitched scream that had echoed in his ears ever since he awoke quieted to a distant but constant drone.

White lights danced across his vision—big white blobs chased smaller blobs, absorbed them, and split into a dozen tiny dots, only to join with bigger dots and begin the process all over again.

The headache, the noise, and the white lights were bad enough that Colton wished he were dead or asleep, but the worst part was the emptiness.

In the pit of his stomach, twisting up his spine, was the distinctive feeling of nothingness. Colton felt like he was missing a part of his soul, as if a deep hollow had been carved into his very being.

Even his bones were cold.

He pinched his forearm hard enough to leave a bright red mark but felt nothing. Colton bit the inside of his cheek and tasted blood, but there was no pain.

He pushed himself up from the squeaking cot and waited until the fireworks display of a thousand new white lights slowly drifted out of his vision.

A single light bulb was screwed into the short ceiling of the room and cast down a sad, yellow glow. Colton reached up and touched it, focusing every bit of himself into the tips of his fingers so that he could draw even a fraction of the light’s heat.

Nothing.

He lowered his hand and stood in the middle of the room, lost.

The last thing he remembered was watching Bernam and Reece kneeling next to the old woman—the woman that Bernam had asked Colton to hurt. The way she looked up—the life in her eyes—had made it impossible for Colton to go through with it. Bernam promised that it was the only way to help the others that were being persecuted, but that wasn’t enough for Colton to agree to take the old woman’s ability.

Does that make me weak? he wondered. Colton knew that some people believed that hard decisions had to be made in order to prevent great atrocities—that sometimes a few must be sacrificed in order to save many—but could he be the kind of person to make those decisions?

He had turned away from Bernam’s plan, and it seemed that his punishment was to be stripped of his powers—to be like he had been before he first realized he was different.

Colton hoped the old woman was okay.

The image of a girl lying in the grass next to a house flashed across his memory and Colton suddenly remembered that someone else had been with the old woman—someone that had made him feel stronger and more confident in every way, even if it the feeling had only lasted a brief moment.

He tried to picture the person in his mind, but all he could remember was brown hair and—

A sharp pain in his stomach made him double over. He dropped to his knees and clenched his teeth as an imaginary knife blade twisted deep into his torso, all the way to his spine.

The pain slowly faded but left behind a lingering ache. Colton’s breaths came quickly, as if he had just ran a mile uphill. His chest shuddered violently with the heavy pounding of his heart.

He stood slowly and walked to the only door in the room. The door had rounded corners and had been set into the wall a foot off the ground, furthering the feeling that Colton was stuck inside some sort of metal lung. He expected the door to be locked and to find himself a prisoner, but the rusted handle turned loudly and the heavy slab of metal swung open with a soft groan. Stepping over the foot-high doorjamb was like going through a submarine portal.

There were several doors along the dark hallway that led away from his room. Each looked exactly like his, and Colton assumed they were the entrances to equally dismal lodgings. The hallway turned a corner and a room opened on his left that had no door—a kitchen.

The cluttered room was packed with short stacks of cast-iron skillets, racks of utensils, and two refrigerators. Shelves loaded with jars of spices and boxes of cleaning supplies lined the walls. An old, wide stove rested on one side of the room, lines of ancient rust running down its broad door. The window in the door was foggy with grime. A forgotten microwave had been banished to the darkest corner of the kitchen; it sat crookedly atop a pile of dirty dishrags, its plug cut off halfway down its length, exposing the wires.

A pot of stew sat bubbling gently on one of the stove’s burners, steam slowly rising from the thick concoction. Colton sniffed deeply but could only smell the slight metallic tinge that had been present since he had first awoken.

He wanted to taste the stew—to find out if all of his senses were completely muted—but he was eager for answers and instead walked on, farther down the hallway.

He wanted to find his mother.

Bernam hadn’t told him the whole truth about what they were doing in that neighborhood—hadn’t mentioned that the twins were going to set all those houses on fire—so Colton was unsure if the man was lying when he said that another group of Sources and Cons were holding his mother captive.

He had to be sure.

The hallway led to a huge, domed room. Morning light poured in around a giant fan at the top of the ceiling and bounced off mirrors bolted all around the dome, illuminating the entire floor.

Many doors lined the bottom edge of the concrete dome, some larger than others. The entire space was littered with tables, machinery, books, papers, and other odds and ends. Colton was alone; the cluttered floor was silent.

A pair of swinging double doors nearby flew open and a small boy ran into the dome. He held a pair of glasses in one hand and wiped streaming tears from his face with another. The boy pushed Colton aside and disappeared down the hallway that led past the kitchen.

The double doors from which the boy had emerged swung slowly back and forth until they came to a rest.

Colton walked toward the doors, moving slower than he would have liked. Every time he walked too fast, the knife in his belly would return, twisting painfully as it burrowed toward his spine.

He passed tables full of obsolete electronic equipment—boxy computer screens and big circuit boards. Colton wondered if he had not only been taken to a different place, but also to a different time.

There was a small window in each of the swinging doors, but the glass was so dirty that Colton could only see a vast, bright smudge of white.

He pushed open one of the doors and stood in the entrance to a long, grassy field. Rows of trees had been planted in a grid pattern on the half of the field closest to the swinging doors. Some of the trees were rich with brilliant green leaves, but others were dead, their black trunks crooked and twisted.

Walking through the rows of trees fifty feet away, her head cast downward to watch her own feet kick through the grass, was a girl with brown hair. In the bright light cast down from the ceiling, Colton saw that her hair was shot through with light streaks of red.

He recognized her immediately and waited for the strong connection to return—the feeling that he was being drawn closer to her even though he was standing still. Colton felt nothing. When he had seen the girl lying in the grass near the old woman, the world around him had dimmed so that all he could see was her eyes, looking back at him. All of that was gone.

Colton looked down at the ground and realized that he couldn’t even smell the fresh grass beneath his feet.

I’m dead inside, he thought.

As if she heard him, the girl’s head snapped up and her eyes narrowed as she glared at him with cold malice.

Colton could tell she recognized him, and the anger on her face made him wish they were only seeing each other for the first time.

Blue light ignited in her eyes and they burned like tiny stars. Without a moment’s hesitation, she ran toward Colton. He stepped back in confusion, unable to decide if he should try and defend himself or turn and run.

Thinking about it made him feel even weaker, so he just stood there, frozen, until she jumped into the air and slammed into him with her shoulder, tackling him to the ground.

She grunted as she fell on him and pinned his arms down with her legs. She straddled his chest and pressed her open palms to his temples. The light in her eyes was too bright and Colton tried to turn his head to the side, but she forced him to remain still.

She was strong.

Concentrated blue energy trailed out from the corner of her eyes and drifted up into the air in long, wispy lines, dissipating above her head.

“What did you do to my brother?!” she said between clenched teeth.

Colton screamed as she pressed against his skull. He had thought he could not feel anything but the dull ache in his skull and the knife in his belly—that the rest of his senses were numb—but he was wrong. The pain coursing through his entire body was immeasurable. Every inch of his skin burned as if he were being showered with acid.

The girl’s hands exploded with blue light and Colton screamed louder.

“Is he alive?!” she shouted.

Colton writhed under her grip but she kept him firmly pinned down. He couldn’t help but look into her eyes and was blinded by the piercing blaze.

“I don’t know!” he said between screams.

“Haven!” someone shouted.

The girl kicked Colton’s stomach as she was pulled away by two silhouettes. Colton blinked his eyes until the blurriness cleared. A stocky man with stubble on his shiny head held one of the girl’s arms and a pretty woman with shock-white hair held the other.

Colton coughed and rolled onto his side, clenching his stomach.

“This is not a good idea,” said the man. His Russian accent was thick. “You said yourself that he did not hurt Elena.”

“But she’s dead!” said the girl—Haven—finding new strength and nearly breaking free.

“She’s dead,” agreed the woman with white hair. “And this helps nothing.”

Haven glared at Colton until the blue light in her eyes faded and blinked out. She relaxed and closed her eyes. The man and the woman that were holding her slowly let go but didn’t move away.

Colton pushed himself up to a sitting position. He looked at the skin on his arms and felt the back of his neck—the girl’s energy hadn’t physically burned him at all. A slight tingling sensation still danced over his entire body, just beneath his skin, as if a million tiny needles were jabbing down just hard enough to draw blood.

“I never saw your brother,” he said to Haven. “Or anyone else besides the people that attacked you near Bozeman.”

Haven looked down at him, her expression a mix of fear, rage, and sadness. Her eyes glassed over with tears and she hurried past Colton, through the swinging doors, and into the dome.

“I—I’m sorry,” said Colton.

The man and woman looked down at him carefully, as if deciding what should be done with their prisoner.

“The old woman was Elena?” asked Colton. “Is she here? Could I see her?”

“No,” said the woman with white hair. “No, you cannot ‘see her’.” She clenched her fists and followed after Haven into the dome.

The Russian man sighed and shook his head.

“They don’t like you very much,” he said.

“I can’t say that I blame them,” said Colton. “I made a mistake when I joined Bernam. He promised me that—” Colton stopped and sighed. “It doesn’t matter. I still should have known it was wrong.”

The Russian grunted. “Did you know about us, here in dome?”

Colton shook his head.

“Then don’t blame yourself. It was like winning the lottery ticket, yes? You didn’t know there was a choice, so you went with the bad man. He makes things look very nice. All new toys and cars. Sometimes Marius wishes he had those things.”

“Your name is Marius?”

The man nodded.

“I’m Colton.”

The stocky Russian hesitated a moment longer, then offered his hand. Colton gripped it and allowed himself to be pulled up to his feet.

“Look at me,” said Marius.

Colton looked. The man was tired. Dark circles drooped under his eyes, but it wasn’t just sleep that was weighing heavily on his serious face—there was also sadness, anger, and a small amount of fear.

“We are not friends,” continued Marius. “No one here is your friend, and they probably won’t be for long time—if you stick around. Elena had rule that we allow anyone like us to stay here, no questions asked. But that doesn’t mean we are always happy about it. You have to earn our trust, understand?”

“Look,” said Colton, “not that I don’t appreciate the offer—if that’s what it is—but I don’t want to stay here. Bernam told me that you guys were keeping my mother as a hostage, which I realize now was just a lie to get me to follow him. When I wouldn’t do what he wanted, he took away my ability. I’m empty. I’m not like you anymore. I don’t belong here.” He thought about his father in Pittsburgh. “I don’t belong anywhere.”

Marius frowned. “Young people,” he said. “So serious. Always jumping to wrong conclusions.” He gestured for Colton to follow him away from the entrance. “Come.”

They walked between the trees and ascended a large hill. At the base of the hill that sloped away from the trees was a small pond and an old willow tree, its branches tickling the surface of the water.

The old woman sat against the trunk of the tree, her eyes closed peacefully and a faint smile on her face, as if she were in the middle of a pleasant dream.

“Elena,” said Marius, nodding toward the woman.

“I’m sorry,” said Colton quietly.

“She was very nice woman. Strong and stubborn, but nice.”

“Did Bernam kill her?”

“He took her power. We cannot live without it. Yes, he killed her.”

Colton looked down at his body. His skin was ashen and his knees shook with the strain to keep him upright.

Marius must have seen the look of fear on his face.

“You are strong, too,” he said. “Don’t give up hope.”

“What are you going to with…with…” Colton swallowed thickly and tried to force himself to finish the sentence, but could not.

“We will bury her next to the tree, the way she would have wanted.”

“This place is beautiful,” said Colton.

“What does your mother look like?”

Colton turned to Marius, surprised by the abrupt question.

“She left when I was nine.” He tried to remember her face, but was ashamed to realize that the memory of her appearance was blurry—she existed in his mind as a grouping of emotions and sensations, the strongest of which was happiness that he felt when he spent time with her. “In the few pictures I kept that my father didn’t burn, she had light brown hair, shoulder-length, and light brown eyes. She was thin. There was a small mole on her left temple, like a beauty mark.”

Marius’s frown deepened.

“What is it?” asked Colton.

“Bernam was right and wrong about your mother,” said Marius.

“What do you mean?”

“She is here, with us, but she is not a prisoner. She stays with us because that is what she wants—because it is too dangerous for her to be anywhere else.”

Colton stood atop the hill, speechless, his mind a torrent of different thoughts. He took a deep breath and tried to think clearly.

“Do you want to see her?” asked Marius.

Colton expected to answer immediately, but instead the word yes caught in his throat. What if she’s different? he thought. What if she doesn’t remember me?

“You don’t have to if you don’t want.”

Marius turned and walked down the hill, toward the doors.

“Yes,” said Colton suddenly.

My power is gone, and I’m going to die, he thought. His body shuddered and he tried to force himself to accept that inevitable outcome. I’m going to die.

He took a deep breath. “Yes, I want to see her.”

“Very well,” said Marius. “But it’s too dangerous to go alone.”

32

Colton and Marius met a tall, thin man near a large metal box that looked like a sealed refrigerator. In the wall next to the box was a weathered steel door with heavy hinges and a chrome steering-wheel for a handle.

Marius scowled at the tall man and orange light flared briefly in his eyes, then faded. He sighed. “Okay,” he said, turning to Colton. “Dormer go inside with you. I’ll help Corva with the body—nyet!” He slapped his forehead. “I mean, I’ll help her with Elena.” He walked away, shaking his head and whispering curses at himself in Russian.

Dormer watched him go and blinked quickly. His movements were jerky and erratic, like a bird’s. He sniffed quickly and wiped his nose, and his hands shook slightly as he reached for the box. He twisted a handle on the front and the side panels slid down to reveal a compact cube of machinery. He flipped a small switch next to a thick pipe and the box shook to life like a car engine.

“What are you doing?” asked Colton.

Dormer reached into the machine and grabbed the pipe firmly with both hands. The machine’s quick, powerful chugging instantly slowed to a struggling wum…wum…wum as the motor fought to stay alive.

“Since your ability was taken,” said Dormer, “I have to go in with you.” His tense shoulders visibly relaxed as he let go of the pipe and switched off the machine.

“I want to see her alone.”

“That would be unwise.”

“I don’t care.”

Dormer smiled without humor and punched a sequence of numbers into an electronic wall panel next to the large door. With a loud, metal CLUNK, something in the wall released and the door swung inward on oversized hinges.

Dormer gestured dramatically at the doorway, offering a small bow as his hand swept through the air. “After you.”

The next room was shaped like a shoebox, its longer end stretching away from the dome.  The space was empty except for an old aluminum table and chair that were pushed to one side. A dim fluorescent light in the ceiling cast a sickly green glow over the room. It buzzed loudly and flickered as Colton entered the room.

There were no windows or any other kind of decoration in the room. On the far wall was a single, ordinary wooden door with a dull brass handle.

A pneumatic PHOOMP came from behind and Colton turned quickly. Dormer spun the polished handle on the closed door and tapped another sequence of numbers on the interior wall panel.

“Why did you do that?” asked Colton.

“House rules,” said Dormer. “Hope you’re not claustrophobic.”

Colton looked at the wooden door at the far end of the room and sensed it was moving farther away from him. His stomach lurched and his legs shook.

“Do you feel it?” asked Dormer.

Colton stumbled to the wall and leaned against it heavily. “What—what’s happening?” The small amount of energy he had in his body was slowly being drained away.

“It’s your mother. She no longer has control of her abilities. She is a living black hole, pulling in everything around her, unable to stop her body’s energy accumulation.”

“She’s a Conduit?” asked Colton. His chest tightened and his breaths were quick and shallow. “Is that why you keep her locked up?”

“She is here because she asked me to help,” said Dormer. “She came to us three years ago, after she—”

He stopped.

“After she what?” said Colton.

Dormer shook his head. “She will tell you, if that is what she wants.” He walked over to Colton and rested a hand on his shoulder.

Colton immediately felt warmth flow over his skin and sink down to his bones. His legs stopped shaking and his breathing slowly returned to normal. He stood up straight as Dormer removed his hand.

“That should last you a few minutes,” said Dormer. “I’ll be out here if something happens.”

Colton looked down at his hands. “Thank you,” he said.

Dormer gave a slight nod, then pulled the aluminum chair away from the table and sat down. He crossed his arms and closed his eyes.

Colton approached the wooden door hesitantly. He reached for the handle, and just before his palm touched the brass knob, Dormer spoke.

“If it gets to the point where you can’t shout for help,” he said, “try to pound on the door. I’ll assume that means things went poorly.”

Colton swallowed thickly and grabbed the doorknob. He pulled open the door and stepped into a small room.

His mother sat on a bed to one side, reading a book. She looked up at him and smiled. Her skin glowed with soft white light that lit the room evenly—there were no lamps or flashlights; no machines in the room of any kind.

Thick pipes ran along the ceiling and hummed softly. It was a cozy room, filled with books and quilts. A wooden writing desk stood next to the bed, piled high with loose, hand-scribbled pages.

Colton’s mother closed the book she was reading and set it next to her on the bed.

She looks too old, thought Colton. His father was forty-five years old, and Colton knew that his mother was a couple of years younger. The woman sitting on the bed looked to be at least sixty. Small wrinkles lined the skin of her once-pretty face. Her hair was grey and pulled back in a tight ponytail. Her body was smaller than Colton remembered—she looked to be no more than five feet tall, but in some of her older pictures she was nearly the same height as Colton’s father, who was almost six feet tall.

“Colton,” she said quietly, her eyes glowing brighter with soft white light.

“Mom?”

He walked farther into the room and the door closed behind him. She scooted to the edge of the bed, her feet dangling a foot off the floor, and patted the mattress next to her.

Colton walked over and sat, never once taking his eyes from her. Despite the changes, she was the same woman he remembered seeing for the last time nine years ago. He reached up to touch her cheek but she leaned away.

“No,” she said.

“Mom, what happened?” asked Colton, his eyes searching her face. “Why did you leave?”

“Oh, Colton,” she said, looking away.

“I missed you. Dad missed you!” Colton felt anger building within him—the desire to unload years of blame on the woman who was supposed to have loved him and raised him for his entire childhood and not just a small portion of it. “You don’t know what he’s like now—how he treated me after you left—how he treated himself…”

Tears formed in her eyes and floated into the air as tiny bubbles. They broke apart and dissolved like powder in water.

“I had to leave,” she said. “They would have killed all of us.”

“Who?”

She sighed. “Colton, can’t we talk about something else? I want to know about you—about your life.”

“No, Mom, we can’t! Who did this to you?”

“I did it to myself.”

“What do you mean?”

“Nine years ago, a man named Bernam came to our house and asked me to join him and his group. He was trying to get as many of our kind together as he could. I told him I wanted to live a normal life and that I didn’t want to be involved with anything other than you and your father. Bernam said there was a huge battle coming and that he needed all the soldiers he could get. That was the word that made up my mind. Soldiers. He meant to start a war. When I tried to force him to leave, he said he would kill everyone in my family unless I agreed to join him.”

“Dad thinks you left because you fell in love with someone else.”

“I knew he would think so,” she said, shaking her head, “but it isn’t true. I love your father, and I love you. I left so both of you could be safe.”

“It ruined his life,” said Colton. “And mine.”

“What should I have done, let them kill all of us?”

Colton stood and turned away from her. “No, just—I don’t know.” He looked around the small room and read the titles of some of the books piled high against the wall. “So you went with Bernam.”

“For a time. He only wanted to use me—and the rest of the men and women he had threatened into joining him—to help him wipe out his enemies. He was the bad guy. At that time, I had only just started to learn the true potential of my own ability after ignoring it for so long. He helped me to become stronger. But, in the end, I wasn’t strong enough to defeat him.”

Colton felt the warmth in his body draining quickly. He turned and looked at his mother. The soft light glowing from her skin shimmered and grew brighter.

“What happened?” asked Colton.

“I joined with a few others to try and take him down. I was the strongest Conduit, so one of the others offered me their ability in addition to my own. This was before most of us knew that two abilities were not compatible in one person. They are separate entities that cannot mix.”

“So you took your friend’s power.”

She shook her head. “Only a Void can take away, as well as help another to do it. But Cons can give their power to another, even if they were born without a power of their own.”

Colton thought of Reece.

“My friend gave me his ability,” she continued, “and I went to confront Bernam. I was already starting to feel it going wrong inside me, but I mistook it for new power.” She reached out and touched a pipe that ran down along the wall from the ceiling. The light emanating from her body grew brighter. “Bernam nearly killed me.”

“Why didn’t he?” asked Colton.

“Because he thought it would be more fun to watch me suffer. He didn’t know why I was in so much pain, but he could tell that something was very wrong. He thought it was something he had done to me on his own. I was helpless. By the time Bernam left and one of my friends arrived and told me how to get rid of my extra ability, it was too late. From that point on, I had no control over my power. I can’t turn it off, Colton. That is why I came here instead of going back home to you and your father. Dormer built this room for me,” she said. “Electricity runs through those pipes constantly. The only thing I have been able to do successfully is to give off excess energy in the form of light.”

She held up one of her hands and the light surrounding it intensified.

“But that’s not all,” she said quietly. “My mind isn’t the same. There are moments when I think I’m back home in Pittsburgh. I’ll see myself standing in your bedroom, looking down at you while you sleep. Then, suddenly, I am back in this room, screaming because I can’t do anything else. It gets worse every day.” She shook her head. “Soon there will be nothing left of me.”

Colton sat down next to her. “Come home with me, Mom,” he said. “I can make a room like this for you. You don’t have to stay here anymore.” A tear rolled down his cheek.

“My darling boy,” she said, smiling. “I’m afraid it’s too late. I’m so tired, Colton. I’ve only held on this long because I hoped against hope that I would be able to see you again. And here you are. Look how strong you are.”

“I’m not strong at all,” said Colton. He didn’t want to tell her his life was slowly fading.

“You can do something to help me,” she said, sitting up straight. “Dormer told me that Bernam took away your ability.”

Colton nodded. “What do you want me to do?”

“Don’t fight,” she said.

She reached for him and pulled him close, hugging him fiercely. Colton closed his eyes as the light on her skin grew painfully bright.

“I love you, Colton,” she whispered.

Like an explosion in a vacuum, energy flared within his chest and quickly disappeared. He felt it disperse throughout his body and settle in his bones as a light vibration.

The light in the room blinked out and his mother collapsed onto the bed.

“Mom!” he shouted. Colton lifted her up and held her in his arms.

The door burst open and Dormer stood silhouetted by the green light beyond. “What happened?!”

“I don’t know!” said Colton. “Help her!”

Dormer hurried to the bed and Colton leaned his mother slowly into Dormer’s arms. Her skin no longer glowed with soft white light. Dormer rested his palm on her forehead, then checked her pulse.

“No,” he said quietly.

“How do I give it back?” demanded Colton.

“What?”

“She gave me her ability! How do I give it back?”

“I—I don’t know how to explain it,” said Dormer. “It’s something you learn on your own.”

“There has to be a way,” said Colton. “She said someone told her how to get rid of it!”

Dormer shook his head, stunned into silence.

“I just got her back,” said Colton. He reached out and pulled her back to him, cradling her body gently.

Dormer stood and walked slowly from the room, one hand covering his mouth.

Colton rested his palm against his mother’s cheek and tried to force the power she had given him back into her body. He clenched his teeth and imagined the energy flowing from his hand and onto her skin. He felt it moving within him, tracing along his bones like crawling snakes, but he could not command it to leave.

He brushed a loose strand of white hair from her face and kissed her forehead. One of his tears fell onto her cheek and followed a shallow wrinkle.

“I just got you back,” he whispered.

Colton closed his eyes and wept.

33

Haven stood in the center of the training room and closed her eyes.

Her target was a crater the size of a dinner plate in the concrete wall at the other end of the long room. She pictured it in her mind and held it there, suspended in space. Slowly, the image of the blue ball of energy grew in the darkness. The plate faded as the ball of swirling plasma consumed it and continued to increase in size.

With great effort, Haven imagined herself reaching into the core of the ball, past the molten outer layers that parted around her arms as she moved closer to the smooth, spherical center. She rested her palms against the cool surface of the core and commanded the energy to flow into her body.

It swirled over her arms and around her shoulders, sinking into her skin and gathering along her spine. The energy nested there, moving up and down her body like water shifting in a moving container.

Haven opened her eyes and saw blue light.

Through the ropes of brilliant energy that crossed her vision, the crater in the far wall looked like a psychedelic spiderweb. She held both of her arms straight out in front of her, palms open toward the wall, and pushed.

A huge bubble of blue plasma swelled out from her palms and exploded with a fat BLIP. The room was temporarily illuminated as if by a high-powered camera flash. The bubble sent small glops of molten energy spinning into the air all around her. Most of it dissipated before it hit the floor but some of the pieces burned small, smoking holes into the concrete by her feet.

What good am I if I can’t control my ability? she thought. How can I save Noah? I’m useless.

Haven grit her teeth in anger and closed her eyes again.

“You’re trying too hard,” someone said behind her.

She opened her eyes and turned quickly. It was the boy they had brought back from the fight in Bozeman. His eyes were red and puffy—he’d been crying.

“How would you know, anyway?” asked Haven.

“I know it’s easier for me when I don’t try to force it.”

Haven tried hard to find something in his eyes to make her stay angry. She turned away, forcing the sympathy that suddenly rose within her back down into the dark part of her soul—the empty place where she tried to hide all of the thoughts and emotions that she believed would slow her down on the way to saving her little brother.

Regardless of what the others wanted to do, she needed to act. No matter how dangerous it would be, Haven knew she had to go after Noah.

“I have to try hard,” she said with irritation. “Otherwise I’m just a…” She paused, realizing that she had just identified something that had been bothering her since the moment she arrived at The Dome.

“Otherwise you’re just a kid playing a game for grown-ups,” said the boy.

She eyed him warily, unwilling to concede that he was right.

“Well, we’re not kids anymore,” he continued.

She shook her head. “You can say that all you want, but that doesn’t make it true. I was in high school a few weeks ago, living a normal life. I was happy.”

“And now you’re here,” said Colton.

He walked toward her slowly, his hands stuffed into the pockets of his dirty jeans. With each step, Haven felt a small tingle at the base of her spine—a much less powerful version of the sensation that she had felt while lying in the grass in Bozeman, but it carried with it the same feeling of connection that she experienced before.

“There’s no going back to the way things used to be,” he said. “Wherever you came from—school, work, wherever—this is it now.” He gestured to the room around them. “We have to fight back,” he said, more to himself than to Haven. “We have to fight back before they take everything away.”

“Corva told me about your mother,” said Haven, adopting a softer tone. “I’m very sorry.”

He stepped closer and stopped a few feet away, staring at the crater in the wall at the other end of the room.

“She gave me her ability,” he said. “It doesn’t feel the way it did before. It’s shifting inside of me, like it’s trying to find a comfortable place to settle down. Dormer says it will get better in a couple of weeks and I’ll be back to normal.” He laughed sharply, without humor. “‘Normal’,” he said. “Whatever that means.” He turned to her. “I’m Colton.”

Her hesitation faded more quickly than she wanted. “Haven,” she said.

“Look,” said Colton. “I know you don’t trust me, but there’s something you need to know. On the way to Bozeman—”

“Where your friends killed Elena,” interrupted Haven quickly.

“They’re not my friends! Well, Reece was my friend, but I just don’t know anymore. I don’t know what to think. Bernam lied to me and everyone else. He—” Colton stopped and took a quick breath. “I made a mistake. I believed in someone I shouldn’t have, and now more people are dead. I’m trying to tell you that on the way to Bozeman, I overheard Bernam and Alistair talking about a little boy they were holding at the medical center. Alistair asked Bernam what he wanted to do with the boy now that they had the machine working properly, and Bernam gave this little smile and waved his hand in the air as if he were swatting an annoying little bug. Alistair had this grin on his face like…like he had been given permission to do something terrible.”

“Noah,” Haven whispered. She looked at Colton. “What machine?”

He shook his head. “I don’t know. I never saw it. But Bernam talked a lot about becoming a hybrid, so my guess is that he figured out how to do it.”

Haven studied him carefully. “Why are you telling me this?” she asked.

“I need you to believe me when I say that I’m not like Bernam and the others. I didn’t hurt your brother. I wasn’t there when they took him.” Colton sighed. “My mother left my father and I because Bernam threatened to kill us if she didn’t join up with him. He tore my family apart. And now my mother is dead.”

“So you want revenge. You want to kill Bernam.”

His eyes flashed with anger. “I want to burn his world to the ground, like he did mine.”

Haven stared into his eyes for a long moment, and she could feel that connective pull growing stronger with each passing second.

She looked away when she heard the door to the training room close loudly behind her.

Micah stood just inside the entrance, sniffing and wiping away a tear. He looked alone and afraid. He shifted on his feet and looked at Haven with sad eyes. She didn’t realize how young he was until right then.

He walked to her with his head lowered and she wrapped her arms around him, hugging him close. He sniffed quietly into her shoulder and she rubbed his short hair.

“It will be okay,” said Haven. She couldn’t help but think of Noah and all the times she comforted him after he had a nightmare. Micah had to be at least twelve, but he looked so much younger. “He and Elena were very close,” she said to Colton.

At the mention of the old woman’s name, Micah closed his eyes and sobbed. Haven squeezed him harder. She looked at Colton and nodded. “Let’s burn it down,” she said. “All of it.”

34

The fire pit in the center of the dome room was cold and dark.

Marius and Corva sat next to each other, staring into the shadows between the grey stones. Dormer was not far off; he pretended to be deeply involved with repairing a small chunk of machinery and was ineffectively hiding his melancholy.

Haven stood just outside the ring of short chairs that encircled the pit with her hand on Micah’s shoulder. Colton stood farther away from the pit as if he was uncertain whether or not he was fully welcome.

“So, that’s the deal,” said Haven. She squeezed Micah’s shoulder as he stepped away to sit in one of the chairs nearby.

Marius sniffed loudly and wiped his nose. His eyes were red from crying but he had calmed down once Haven started to explain her desire to rescue her brother along with all the other prisoners at Bernam’s medical center. Dormer had noticeably stood a little straighter when she mentioned a rescue and had been inching closer to the conversation ever since.

“It’s too sad a time for nonsense,” said Marius. He stared at the rocks.

Corva put her hand on his back and rubbed it comfortingly. “Besides that,” she said, shaking her head, “you two are in no shape to fight anyone. Haven, you can barely focus your energy more than a few feet in front of you. And you,” she said, pointing at Colton, “you just had your ability swapped out. It will be weeks before you’re able to use it properly again.”

“You have guns,” said Colton. “Haven told me.”

Marius shook his head, his heavy brow drooping low over his eyes. “It is suicide. This is why we never go to this place before. Only one chance,” he said, raising his finger. “One chance to get inside before place is overrun with big men with bigger guns.”

Haven took a step forward. “Colton says that Bernam built a machine…”

“We know all about that,” said Corva.

“…and that he made it work using my brother—” She stopped to take a breath. “—using him as some sort of lab rat. He’ll die if we don’t do something.”

“What makes him so important?” said Dormer, no longer bothering to hide his interest. “My brother has been Bernam’s ‘guest’ for months, and this group never lifted a finger.”

“Then why did you stick around?” said Colton. “Why not try to save him on your own?”

Dormer glared at him but said nothing.

“Well,” said Haven, “we’re lifting a finger now. No one gets left behind.”

Dormer squinted at her suspiciously and went back to tinkering with the machinery in his hands.

“You,” said Corva, pointing at Colton again. “Why are you still here?”

“Marius said that Elena had a rule that anyone like you—like me—could stay, if they wanted.”

“Elena may have been the one to bring you back here even though we should have left you out in the cold, but now she’s dead,” said Corva. “She had a lot more faith in human nature than I do. Why are you so adamant about helping us?”

Colton looked at Haven, then quickly away. “Bernam has to be stopped before anyone else is hurt. If there’s even a chance that he can make himself stronger than he already is, we have to stop him before it’s too late.”

“We know about your mother. Revenge can be lethal for both sides,” said Corva. “It makes you reckless and puts everyone else in danger.”

“We’re going,” said Haven, looking around the circle. “With or without you.”

“I’m going, too,” said Dormer. He set down the chunk of machinery and crossed his arms. He looked from Marius to Corva, daring them to argue.

“No more waiting,” said Haven. “No more hiding.”

“Hiding is the only thing that has kept us alive for so long,” said Corva.

Marius squeezed her hand and stood up. “I will go. Otherwise you will all die, and Marius would be sadder than he is now.” He puffed out his chest and nodded.

Corva looked up at him, shocked. She sighed, then shook her head and stood up slowly. “I still say it’s a bad idea, but if my husband is going along to keep you alive, I have to go to keep him alive.”

“You two are married?!” said Colton.

“Why look so surprised?” asked Marius, genuinely hurt. “Marius not good enough for beautiful, athletic woman?” He looked Corva up and down, then glanced at his slightly-protruding gut and ran a hand over his receding hairline. He grinned. “Point taken. Marius is very lucky man!”

Despite his body losing the constant battle with age, Haven could tell that at one point—probably long ago, when he and Corva first met—Marius could have been considered handsome.

He stepped over to lift Corva from the ground but she held her hands up and stopped him.

“Listen to me, all of you,” she said. “There’s a right way and a wrong way to go about this. One little mistake and we’re all dead.”

Micah, who had been listening intently to the whole conversation, stood up next to Haven and gave Corva a thumb’s up. He smiled broadly and pushed his glasses higher on the bridge of his nose.

“Oh, no,” said Corva. “Absolutely not. You’re staying here. We need someone to get the rooms ready for visitors in case any of us make it back from this suicide mission alive.”

His shoulders sagged and he slumped back down into his chair. He crossed his arms and pouted.

“That police cruiser we drove back from Bozeman should get us there,” said Dormer. “And I finished repairing the sedan.”

“Okay, so we have transportation,” said Corva. “But that still doesn’t get us into the medical center. The entrance will be heavily guarded.”

Colton stepped forward.

“There’s another way,” he said. “When Shelly took me—I mean, when one of them took me to the black building, they pressed a button that had been installed in their car. A ramp dropped down from the ground and led to a huge underground parking structure. There were these tunnels that led off in every direction. I bet you anything that one of them goes to the medical center.”

“That’s great,” said Dormer, “but how do we get our hands on one of those buttons?”

“We draw them outside,” said Haven.

Marius snapped his fingers. “Last time they come swarming like bees for honey when we were there. They do same thing this time, only we try not to crash all of the trucks, yes?”

Haven nodded. “We save one to get us into the parking structure.”

“It makes sense that there will be fewer guards underground,” said Dormer.

Corva looked at Colton. “How long until Bernam uses his machine?”

Colton shrugged. “I’m not sure. I just know that it’s ready.”

“And it’s in the black building?”

“They just told me that most of the place was off-limits. I was only allowed on a few levels.”

Corva sighed. “It’s either there or at Bernam’s medical facility. My bet is on the black building. I hate to even think this, but we should split up after we’re in the parking structure.”

“I’m going for Bernam,” said Colton quickly.

Corva nodded. “Marius and I will go as well. Dormer, I know you want to find your brother. Can you watch out for Haven?”

“I can handle it, yes.”

“Good,” said Corva. “After we clear out the entrance to the medical facility and grab one of their trucks, I would be surprised if you had to deal with anything more dangerous than a scalpel—but don’t get lazy.”

“All those years in the police force made you bossy,” said Dormer. He walked away from the fire pit and opened the hood of the black sedan. Haven heard the oil cap pop free.

“Right,” said Marius with a grin. “Now we get the gun.”

35

Colton stood atop a small sand dune, the wind whipping grainy particles into his eyes. He blinked and rubbed at a piece of sand stuck under an eyelid for the tenth time.

“How long is this going to take?” he asked.

“Let Marius check,” said Marius. He shifted the bulky automatic rifle slung over his shoulder and looked at his wrist, pretending to read the time from a nonexistent watch. “No idea.”

Corva smiled. She stood next to Marius, anxiously watching the above-ground entrance to the medical facility. Four heavily-modified black pickup trucks with extended cabs were parked next to the small building.

Colton looked behind him. At the base of the dune, Haven sat in the parked sedan with Dormer. The empty police cruiser was a few feet away, pointed toward the faint dirt road that had led them to the facility.

“Let’s give another ‘hello’,” said Marius. He rested his open palm against the back of Corva’s neck.

“Just don’t waste it all before we get inside,” she said.

“Don’t worry. Marius has plenty.”

Orange light flamed up from his shoulder and cascaded down his arm like liquid. It flowed around Corva’s neck like a thick necklace and moved over her arms to her outstretched hands. The energy formed into a sphere the size of a softball on each hand, then rocketed away, toward the building.

Colton saw the two black streaks of charred concrete on the roof of the facility from where Corva had hit it the first time. Her second attempt hit the glass of the front door dead center, shattering the panel into thousands of tiny shards.

“Bullseye!” said Marius. He took his hand from Corva’s neck and the orange flames flickered and died. “Now they will swarm.”

A minute later, a dozen men in black military uniforms ran out of the building, each one carrying a rifle. They hurried to the trucks and climbed inside, some of them pushing the others out of the way for a chance to drive.

“It’s like watching dogs fight over the last chicken bone,” said Corva.

Marius barked laughter and Colton couldn’t help but smile.

He had been feeling sick ever since his mother had given him her ability. It still moved inside him like a foreign presence, never quite settling down into that comfortable spot he had known before Bernam had taken it from him in the first place.

His stomach growled loudly—in the excitement of leaving The Dome, he had also forgotten to eat.

Colton felt a slight pull in the direction of the police cruiser—it was like a giant, invisible hand that tugged him toward the car. He looked down at Haven and saw that she was staring up at him. She turned away quickly and the pulling sensation disappeared.

The feeling was nowhere near as strong as it had been in Bozeman, but there was no longer any denying who was causing it. Colton had first noticed its return in the training room at The Dome, then again when they were all getting into the cars to drive to the medical facility. He wanted to say something to Haven about it, but didn’t know how to begin without sounding ridiculous.

“Here we go,” said Marius.

The tires of the black trucks squealed as the vehicles shot out of the parking lot and veered onto the dirt road that led to the sand dune where Colton and the others stood.

“Back to the car,” said Corva.

Colton followed her and Marius down the side of the dune and stood next to the police cruiser—hopefully the car was out of sight of the approaching trucks.

Dormer had already pulled the sedan out from behind the dune and sped down the road, away from the medical facility.

“Get the last one,” said Marius as the first of the trucks passed the dune, chasing after the sedan. “And don’t miss.”

He put his hands on Corva’s shoulders and squeezed tightly. Orange flame—brighter than before—shot over her body from head to toe, then pooled at her hands. She held out a pointer finger and closed one eye to aim.

When the last of the four trucks sped past the dune, she tracked its movement with her arm. A thin orange laser shot from the tip of her finger and shattered the truck’s driver-side window. It burned straight through the cabin and exploded out the other side, ripping off the passenger-side door and sending it flying up into the air.

The truck veered off the road and decelerated quickly before stopping roughly against the base of a large sand dune.

“Nice shot!” said Colton.

Marius hurried to the truck and opened the driver’s door. The driver was dead—Corva’s energy beam had burned into his temple and come out the other side. Marius pulled him out of the truck and sat him against the dune. The passenger groaned and started to lift his head, but Marius knocked him out with a heavy right cross to the jaw and pulled him outside. The third security guard in the back seat of the extended cab hadn’t been wearing his seat belt and lay unconscious against one of the back doors, blood trickling down his forehead. Marius pulled him out and set him on the ground next the others.

“Would have been nice to have both doors,” said Marius as he sat in the driver’s seat. He looked at the empty space where the passenger door had been before Corva’s energy blast ripped it off the truck.

“Would it be nice to spend the rest of your life single?” said Corva.

She sat next to him as Colton climbed into the back.

“On second thought,” said Marius. “Is sort of like convertible now, only different. Marius changed his mind. He likes it.”

“I thought so,” said Corva. She winked at him.

Marius backed the truck away from the dune and drove onto the dirt road, a fog of dust pluming up from the tires.

“What about the other trucks?” asked Colton.

“Dormer can handle them,” said Corva.

“Are you sure?”

“Trust me. He’s tougher than he looks.”

Colton sat back in his seat and squinted against the air that blasted into the cabin from the missing door.

Marius gave his automatic rifle to Corva, who popped out the long ammunition clip, checked the rounds, and slapped the clip back into the gun.

“And if he can’t,” said Marius, “maybe we get to have a little more fun.”

“You know where the black building is?” shouted Colton from the back seat.

Corva nodded. “We found it last year. We knew about the medical facility long before—that’s the reason we set up camp so close.”

“Right next to the hornet’s nest,” said Colton.

“Best place to be if you need to act quickly. It makes sense that the two sites are linked. We were never able to figure out how they were moving around without being seen.”

The truck rode smoothly down the dirt road. The oversized, off-road tires had been specifically designed to absorb the heaviest bumps, and Colton barely felt anything when one of the wheels dipped down into a large pothole and bounced out the other side.

Marius skirted the base of a huge, rocky hill, and on the other side, in the distance, was the gleam of a black, glass-covered building.

“That’s it!” said Colton.

“Where’s the entrance?” asked Corva.

Colton looked around the huge, open space surrounding the building. He tried to remember a specific landmark that Shelly drove past right before the Jeep rolled down into the tunnel.

A few hundred yards to the right he saw the two large boulders that she had driven between right before she opened the ramp.

“There!” he shouted, pointing at the giant stones. “On the other side.”

Marius accelerated and drove toward the boulders. Just as he cleared the base of a mountain of jagged rocks, the black sedan careened around the other side and caught up with the truck.

Dormer sat behind the wheel of the black car, pointing back over his shoulder. He held up three fingers, then lowered two of them until only his index finger remained.

Marius nodded at Dormer and took his foot off the gas pedal.

One of the black trucks sped around the side of the mountain, kicking up rocks and dirt in its wake. It barreled toward Colton and the others.

“Don’t wait too long,” said Marius.

Corva leaned out the side of the truck and grabbed the edge of the roof. She stood up and faced backward. Marius reached over and grabbed her leather belt to keep her from falling out. She rested the stock of the rifle in the crook of her shoulder and aimed down the long barrel.

With a loud CRACK of gunfire, the hood on the pursuing truck exploded up into the air and flipped end over end until it smacked into the ground.

Two armed security guards leaned out of their truck and raised their guns.

“Corva…” said Marius, looking into the rearview mirror.

She pulled the trigger. The driver-side front tire on the pursuing truck burst like a popped balloon and the truck veered to one side. It crashed into a small boulder—its tail end rose up into the air slammed back down to the ground. Steam spouted from the exposed engine. Two spiderwebbed circles cracked the windshield where the guards’ heads hit the glass.

Marius pulled Corva back inside.

“That was fun,” she said, a faint smile on her lips.

“Lots more where that came from,” said Marius.

He sped up and drove next to Dormer in the sedan, pointing to the two boulders they were rapidly approaching.

“Find button,” he said.

Colton looked up at the ceiling of the truck but only saw an overhead light. The doors on either side of the back of the cabin only had window controls and handles.

“Here,” said Corva.

She flipped up a small plastic covering in the center console between the two front seats and pushed a round, red button. On the other side of the two boulders, a plume of sand rose into the air, shot upward by the descending ramp.

“Bingo,” said Marius.

He turned the truck slightly to align the wheels with the ramp. The vehicle dropped quickly, plunging from daylight to darkness and bouncing harshly against the bottom of the tunnel as the wheels hit concrete.

“Woo!” said Marius.

Colton turned back as the black sedan descended the ramp. The car’s headlights flicked on automatically as soon as it was out of the bright sunlight. The silhouettes of Dormer and Haven were briefly outlined by the light pouring down into the tunnel behind them.

“Where do we go?” said Marius. The constant whine from the large tread of the tires on concrete grew louder as he sped through the tunnel.

“This leads to a big parking garage,” shouted Colton. “There’s an elevator that will take us up into the black building.” He turned back again and looked at the sedan. “Are you sure they’ll be okay?”

“They’ll be fine,” said Corva.

The tunnel disappeared around the truck as they drove out into an enormous underground parking structure. The foundations of a large building were mixed with bedrock on the far end and dark tunnel entrances lined the rough concrete walls on all sides. Powerful halogen lights in the ceiling high above shined down on the parking lot, illuminating most of it but casting other parts into deep shadow.

Several more black trucks were parked by an elevator at the base of the building. There were a few other cars parked on the lot, the most impressive of which was a sleek black sports car that looked more like a spy vehicle than a practical automobile. Its windswept curves melded into the frame so that there were no sharp edges. The headlights were covered with black glass and the windows were tinted so dark that they practically blended in with the paint job, giving the impression that the entire car was shaped from a single piece of polished metal.

“That’s the elevator?” shouted Marius.

“That’s it.”

He steered toward the foundation of the building and came to a squealing halt next to the other parked trucks. Colton hopped down out of the back seat and dusted off his jeans—a thick layer of fine powder coated his clothing. The truck was also more orange than black from all the dirt and stood out conspicuously from the other vehicles, all of which had been perfectly washed and waxed.

Marius took a step back and shrugged.

“Too late to be sneaky anyway,” he said.

Corva tossed him the rifle as she walked to the elevator. Marius caught the gun easily and slipped the thick strap over one shoulder. He held it in both hands, ready to fire, while Corva inspected a small black panel in the wall.

“How do we get in?” she asked.

“There’s a key,” said Colton. His face turned red from embarrassment when he realized he had forgotten about the access cards.

“You’re just telling us now?” said Corva.

Marius looked around the parking structure with a scowl, seemingly expecting to be attacked at any moment.

Colton watched as the black sedan drove in a large loop around the edge of the parking structure. Dormer slowed down at the entrance to each tunnel, then sped up to get to the next one. When he had almost completed a full circle, he approached a tunnel close to the one they had first come from. The sedan’s headlights swept over a large red plus sign attached to the wall—he had found the way to the medical center.

Colton felt a tugging from within as the car disappeared down the shadowy corridor. The red tail lights blinked out and he felt alone once more.

“We’re going to have to force it open,” said Corva, taking a step back from the elevator.

A burst of gunfire erupted from somewhere nearby and bullets hit the rocky wall next to Colton.

36

“Down!” shouted Marius.

He grabbed Colton’s shirt collar and pushed him to the ground behind a truck as chunks of rocks fell around them. Bullets sank into the opposite side of the truck with a sharp metallic TINK-TINK-TINK.

Corva crouched near the rear of the truck. She peeked out and more gunfire thunked into the tailgate near her head. She quickly reeled back around and looked over at Marius.

“Six or seven,” she said.

Marius growled. He patted the top of his rifle and spoke to it softly in Russian as if it were a favorite pet, then kissed the cold steel of the barrel.

“Okay,” he said, looking at Corva. “How many bullets can you stop?”

Corva shook her head. “A concentrated burst, maybe. After that they’ll go right through me.”

Colton remembered Alistair telling him how the most powerful Conduits could absorb the kinetic energy of a hailstorm of bullets. The shells would essentially hit an invisible wall as the impacts were negated and the energy was transferred into the Con.

He ducked as another round of bullets hit the wall behind him. Metallic PINGs echoed throughout the parking structure as the rounds ricocheted off parked cars.

Marius nodded at Corva. “Do it fast, my little sparrow. I will handle the rest.”

She inched to the rear of the truck and waited until she heard the security guards reloading. With a quick push, she was up and running, sprinting across the open ground of the parking structure toward a cluster of cars a hundred yards away.

A couple of the guards had finished reloading and tracked her movement with gunfire. The bullets tore small chunks of asphalt out of the ground near her feet as she ran. One of the guards drew a bead on her head and took his time as he aimed. He pulled the trigger and the bullet hit a wall of air next to Corva’s head. It stopped an inch from her temple and fell harmlessly to the ground.

Marius turned to Colton. “You stay down.”

Colton nodded. He had been trying to summon an iota of his former ability by concentrating on the lights in the ceiling high above, willing his body to absorb some of their faint energy, but it was useless. He felt cold inside, and every time he thought he would be able to do something, the power shifted within him and lurched just out of reach.

With all of the guards’ attention on Corva, Marius carefully and quietly moved to the front of the truck, and then off into the nearby shadows.

Colton watched as if the whole event was playing in slow motion.

One of the guards breathed out slowly and tightened his grip on his rifle. His shoulders dropped ever-so-slightly as he closed one eye to aim down the barrel of his gun. Corva’s feet pounded the ground like dull, heavy drumbeats.

With a fluid click-BOOM, the guard pulled the trigger and a round erupted from the chamber. The bullet hit Corva in the shoulder and stuck halfway into her skin. She glanced down at it in surprise and ran faster—she was losing her ability to completely stop the bullets.

The other guards stood up and opened fire.

Colton saw several more rounds stop in mid-air a fraction of an inch away from Corva’s skin. She was nearly to the first car—and to safety—when one of the bullets clipped the back of her right leg and sent her spinning. A thin line of blood twirled through the air behind her.

She hit the ground hard and kept on rolling, coming to a stop next to a green car between her and the guards. They continued shooting until one side of the car was almost completely black from bullet holes. Shattered glass tinkled lightly to the ground as they ejected magazines and reloaded.

“Comrades!” shouted Marius from the shadows behind the guards.

They turned quickly, searching the darkness for the new threat. Marius stepped into the light, his rifle raised.

He winked and said, “Hello,” then opened fire.

He swept the barrel of his gun over the guards and half of them collapsed to the ground.

“Armor piercing!” shouted Marius over the noise. “Who knew?!”

With the guards distracted, Colton crouched low to the ground and ran over to Corva. She sat against the side of the green car, tightly gripping a bleeding wound on her right thigh. Her dark pants were soaked with blood.

“How is it?” asked Colton.

“Missed the artery,” said Corva. She gasped quickly as she tried to turn and look at Marius. “How’s he doing?”

“He’s fine,” said Colton.

The room was briefly illuminated by a brilliant orange burst and one of the guards screamed. Marius laughed loudly.

“Sounds like it,” said Corva.

“Can’t you fix it?” asked Colton.

Corva shook her head. Her white hair was messy and some of it was streaked with blood. “Dormer’s the healer. Besides, there’s nothing to draw from.”

“Use me,” said Colton.

“Don’t be ridiculous.”

“Don’t be stupid. You can’t wait down here while Marius and I go in alone.”

She grit her teeth and groaned as she sat up straighter. Colton took her hand and pressed it between both of his.

“Do it.”

She hesitated a moment longer, then closed her eyes.

Like thin strands of long rope being pulled from his skin, Colton felt what little warmth he had flow through the tips of his fingers. The bullet hole in Corva’s thigh sealed over with fresh skin, leaving behind a raw, ragged—but closed—patch of flesh.

“You did it,” he said.

She let go of his hand and her body relaxed completely. She stuck her finger through the hole in her pants and gently touched the wound.

“Not as good as Dormer, but it will get me there.” She looked into Colton’s eyes. “Thank you.”

Marius coughed loudly and appeared around the side of the car. “What are you two doing?” he said. “Secret meetings while Marius is taking care of all the problems?”

Corva smiled. “How did you do?”

Marius bent down and helped her to her feet.

“Look around,” he said. “Marius made speed bumps.”

The ground was littered with the bodies of the security guards. Marius smiled with pride.

“Let’s get moving,” said Corva.

Marius wrapped his arm around her for support and helped her limp to the wall next to the elevator.

“Check the guards,” she said. “There will be a badge or an access card.”

Colton knelt next to the nearest security guard and unclipped a black plastic card from one of his vest pockets. He waved it in front of the panel next to the elevator and the doors slid open silently.

“Which floor is the machine on?” asked Corva. She hopped into the elevator and studied the metal panel lined with buttons next to the door.

“I don’t know,” said Colton as he stood next to her. “First floor is offices, the gym is on five, training on nine—”

“Right,” interrupted Corva. She reached out and pressed the button for the second floor. “We’ll start at the bottom and work our way up.”

“This is usually my plan,” said Marius. “Especially with peanut butter and ice cream.”

“Stop, man,” said Colton. “I haven’t had anything to eat all day.”

“We find you something,” said Marius. “After we find Marius something.”

“You two knock it off,” said Corva. “Focus.”

As the elevator doors slid shut, Colton closed his eyes and tried once again to capture anything he could from the world around him—but he failed. He would be useless if the others needed to rely on him for help.

“Corva,” he said. “I don’t know if I can—”

“You’ll be fine,” she interrupted. She fixed him with a calm, confident stare. “Trust me.”

Colton nodded and took a deep breath.

The elevator slowed to a stop and the doors opened. A long hallway extended away from the elevator, each side lined with open doors. In every doorway stood a security guard, fully dressed in thick Kevlar body armor. Each guard carried a heavy rifle and had it trained on the elevator.

“Oh, goody,” said Marius. “More toys.” He reached out for Corva. “Take Marius’ hand, my love. And cover your eyes.”

She grabbed his hand tightly.

Colton closed his eyes as the world around him turned to orange flame. He crouched in the back of the elevator as the light grew so bright through his closed eyelids that it was like staring directly into the sun.

The elevator shook on its cable and the entire building seemed to quake. The sound of gunfire quickly faded into the background as a steady roar of churning energy filled the air.

Colton covered his face with his arms and waited.

37

Haven rode in silence as Dormer sped down the dark tunnel.

The black sedan’s headlights cast two bright circles of white light on the concrete walls. Every few hundred feet, they passed a hand-painted sign with a number—some kind of distance marker that started at ten and steadily counted down.

When they passed a sign with the number one on it, Dormer slowed the car and stopped. He turned in his seat to face Haven.

“Tell me the truth. How much control do you have over your abilities?”

Haven shifted in her seat uncomfortably.

“Look,” said Dormer. “It’s okay. You’re young and this is all new to you. I get that. It’s just better for me to know before we walk in there and I rely on you for something that you can’t do.”

“I can’t project it more than a few feet,” Haven conceded. “Or focus it to a beam, or whatever.” She looked away.

“Don’t be ashamed,” said Dormer. “Never be ashamed of your talents.”

“But the others are so much stronger.”

“Don’t compare yourself to them. You are different, and that is not a bad thing. We all have our strengths, Haven. Do you understand me?”

She looked at him and nodded slightly.

“Good,” he said. “We’ll play to those strengths, but we have to be smart about it. Do you know how to drive?”

“What?”

“Can you drive?”

“Yeah, but I’m not very good.”

“That’s fine, you can go slow. Take the car and go on ahead. If there are any guards, I don’t think they’ll realize who you are until you walk right up to them. Light them up if you can, then find some cover.”

“What about you?”

“I’ll be right behind you,” said Dormer.

He shifted the car into park, got out of the car, and walked down the tunnel toward the medical facility. Haven climbed over the center console and sat in the driver’s seat. She shifted the car into gear and rolled slowly behind him.

He motioned for her to go on ahead, so she pressed down on the accelerator and the rumble of the engine grew louder as she drove past him.

A short while later, the tunnel ended in a small, cavernous space that had been cut out of solid rock. Lights bolted to the jagged ceiling dimly lit the area. The glowing fluorescent lights inside the entrance to the medical center shone through glass windows off to one side of the parking lot. A few cars were parked in front of the entrance next to an ambulance with the words “Bozeman Regional Hospital” printed on the side.

Clever, thought Haven. A perfect way to transport abductees without being noticed.

On either side of the main door, two uniformed security guards stood up from their chairs and warily gripped their rifles as Haven pulled the sedan to a stop in one of the empty parking spaces.

She got out of the car and wiped her sweaty palms on her jeans as she walked toward the guards. She looked behind her at the entrance to the tunnel but could not see Dormer.

“Identify yourself,” said one of the guards. He stepped forward and raised his rifle a little higher. He wasn’t fully aiming at Haven yet, but she bet he could snap it up and pull the trigger faster than she could run for cover.

She swallowed nervously.

“Bernam said that he’s all done with the boy—the patient. He wants to see him personally.”

The guards exchanged a glance.

“We weren’t told about any transfer,” said one of the guards. He reached up to touch an earpiece. He opened his mouth to speak and all of the lights on the ceiling dimmed and went out.

The guards snapped up their rifles and spun in place, searching the room.

“It’s okay,” said Haven. She stepped forward and grabbed the closest guard by the shoulders. Blue light flooded her eyes. “You can take a break.”

Blue energy erupted from her hands and burst like a bubble of lava. The guard screamed and slammed backward into his partner. Both men tumbled across the parking lot like ragdolls until they crashed into the far wall and slumped to the ground, unconscious.

The lights in the ceiling slowly flickered back on. Dormer stepped out of the shadows and walked over to Haven.

“Not bad,” he said.

“It was sloppy,” she admitted.

“It did the job. Did you use it all up?”

Haven shook her head. “There’s still some left.”

She didn’t know why she hesitated to tell him the truth—that it felt like she had barely scratched the surface of the energy that was welling up inside of her. She wasn’t sure if it was sorrow from missing her parents or anger at the fact that Bernam had taken her little brother, but the blue sphere of molten energy that she pictured in her mind’s eye was growing larger with each passing moment. It was getting so strong that it felt as if it would burn her up from the inside if she didn’t release it soon.

Dormer nodded. “Good,” he said. “I’ll go first this time.”

He strode to the facility entrance and walked inside. A woman wearing nurse’s scrubs cowered behind a desk, her face lit with the soft green glow of a computer monitor.

“Excuse me,” said Dormer. “I’m here to visit my brother.”

The woman opened her mouth to speak but Dormer moved in quickly and squeezed her forehead. There was a slight concussive whumph sound and the woman’s eyes rolled up into the back of her head as she collapsed to the ground.

“Is she dead?” asked Haven.

“No, but she should be,” said Dormer. “Everyone here knows what they are doing—the harm they have caused. There are no selfless members of the medical profession in this building. These people don’t help anyone but themselves.”

He moved quickly past the unconscious woman and down a long hallway that led away from the receptionist’s area. The ceiling lights dimmed considerably as Dormer passed below them, then glowed to full brightness in his wake.

Haven checked the side rooms of the hallway. All of them were empty—examination rooms with shiny new monitoring equipment on rolling tables that rested next to reclining leather exam chairs. The whole place smelled like lemons.

Dormer held up a warning finger and pressed it to his lips, then nodded toward the end of the hallway.

Haven stepped forward as quietly as she could and stood next to him, peeking around his arm.

A large room was lined with metal tables. On each table lay a patient—some were very young, others extremely old. Thick plastic tubes ran into the unconscious patients’ arms and legs. The tubes were attached to clear bags of white liquid that fed slow drips into their pale bodies.

Haven started forward but Dormer pulled her back. She was about to argue with him when she heard laughter from the room.

One of the twins with short, spiky blond hair walked into view and clapped his hands happily. He spoke to someone out of sight as he pulled himself up and sat down on a long table that was lined with all sorts of medical instruments, from scalpels to bone saws. He picked up a malicious-looking silver tool and admired it with an impressed grin.

The other twin walked over and picked up a bone saw. He twirled it in the air and red flame danced over its chrome blade. The first twin laughed and grabbed up the flame, then blew it out of his open palm and into the air as if he were blowing away dust. Then he walked over to the nearest patient and rattled the bed violently, screaming into the patient’s face as the table screeched across the floor. He shrugged and walked back to his brother.

“Well,” said Dormer. “I’ve seen all I need to see.” He turned to Haven. “Get ready to act, because I’ll likely be finished after this one.”

He cleared his throat and stepped out of the hallway.

The twins laughed when they saw him and clapped their hands.

“Dane,” said Dormer, nodding to the Source twin. “Lee,” he said to the other.

“What are you doing here?” said Dane. The arrogance in his tone was unmistakable. “You gotta be the dumbest person alive.”

“Are you alone?” said Lee. He hopped down off the table and peered down the hallway.

Haven ducked farther from view.

“Of course I am,” said Dormer. “I’m here for my brother.”

“Oh yeah,” said Dane. “I heard about him. Pretty high up there on the scale, according to Bernam.”

“Stronger than me,” said Dormer.

“Not anymore,” said Lee. He stood next to Dane. “Bernam drained him just enough to keep him from dying. Pathetic to watch, really.”

“Disgusting,” said Dane. His face scrunched up as if he smelled a foul odor.

Haven was growing impatient. Her skin burned with heat and sweat dripped down her back. She shook with anger as she thought about the red flames licking up the sides of her home—of her parents lying in bed together as they died.

She was about to step out of the hallway when all of the lights in the room dimmed to half-brightness and Dormer spoke again.

“Enough.”

The twins backed up warily. Dane’s eyes glowed with red flame and he quickly put his hand on Lee’s shoulder.

“Don’t even try it, old man!” he shouted.

“Oh,” said Dormer, “I think I will.”

38

All of the lights went completely dark just as Lee raised his fists and a thick beam of red energy cut the air. Dormer held his arms out to the side and the beam hit him in the center of his chest. The energy swirled around him but he was untouched by the fire. Black smoke flowed out of his hands and mixed with the red flames. The smoke swirled quickly through the energy, consuming it and drawing it into Dormer’s body. His eyes flooded with black shadow; tiny sparks of red glowed like burning embers in his pupils.

The beam of energy from the twins died and they breathed out in unison, exhausted.

The last of the red flames spiraled around Dormer like a tornado and quickly disappeared into his chest. His entire body seemed to vibrate so quickly that his silhouette became a blur. He raised his arm toward Dane and opened his fist.

“No…” Lee whispered.

Black and red energy burst from Dormer’s palm—a giant tube of swirling, crackling plasma that melted everything around it in a five-foot radius.

Lee dove out of the path but Dane stood there with his mouth open as the tunnel of chaotic energy consumed him from head to toe. He didn’t have time to scream.

The energy faded and Dormer collapsed to the ground. All that remained of Dane were two black, charred marks where his feet had been.

Haven ran into the room and helped Dormer sit up.

A few feet away, Lee stared at the empty spot where his brother had been, his shock turning into rage.

He shook with anger and his face twisted into a scream as he ran at Dormer. Haven held up her hand and blue fire exploded from her palm. The bubble burst against Lee’s chest and sent him crashing backward into the table full of medical instruments. He lay on the ground, unconscious, a smoking hole in his shirt over a ring of sizzling flesh.

Dormer’s outburst had burned a tunnel straight across the room. A cylinder ringed with melted plastic and burnt wood extended down the hallway that continued away from the entrance.

“Are you okay?” asked Haven.

A thin sheen of sweat covered Dormer’s body. His eyes rolled in their sockets as he tried to focus.

“I’ll be—I’ll be fine,” he said weakly. “Need to lie down. You go on.”

Haven helped him down to the floor. She wondered how much more powerful he could be if he ever found his Source. Looking at the melted walls of the hallway, Haven found it hard to believe that he was capable of doing even more damage. She grabbed a pillow from a nearby table and placed it under his head.

“Thank you,” he whispered.

“How do I wake them up?” asked Haven.

Dormer tried to lift his arms but barely moved. “The white tubes,” he said. “Pull the tubes.”

Haven nodded and stood. She walked quickly around the room, pulling out all of the intravenous feeds that were running into the patients’ arms and legs. When she finished, she went back to Dormer.

“I’m going to find our brothers,” she said.

Dormer nodded weakly. “Don’t be alarmed,” he said, “but mine can be a royal pain.”

Haven smiled. “Why am I not surprised?”

She rested her palm on his forehead and he closed his eyes.

All of the rooms that lined the burnt hallway were empty. Haven jogged down the corridor, looking ahead to a set of large, steel doors that blocked her path. She pushed against them but they were firmly locked. A small black panel on the wall blinked with red numbers. Haven put her palm to the panel and melted it with blue plasma, but the doors did not open.

She had just turned to try and find another way deeper into the complex when the doors swung open with a pneumatic hiss and a security guard in a black uniform stepped through the doorway. He was just finishing a yawn when he saw Haven.

He stopped, looked behind him, then back at her.

“Hi,” said Haven.

“Umm, hello?” said the guard.

He reacted too slowly. Haven grabbed both sides of his head as he reached for a pistol holstered to his belt. Blue light sparked from her fingertips and scorched black lines over his face. His hair stood up on end as if he had been struck by lightning and he fell to the floor.

Haven kicked him to make sure he was unconscious. She ran past him, through the doorway, and immediately stopped.

The large room before her was empty except for a tall metal chair in the center. Strapped to the chair, every inch of his skin lined with small plastic tubes that fed down into the floor, was Noah. His head had been shaved and his scalp was punctured with a hundred thin wires that led into the floor at the base of the chair.

The walls of the rooms were lined with giant monitors, each displaying a different piece of information. Noah’s vital signs were on one, his brain functions on another—multicolored wire-thin lines traced paths on a scale, recording every impulse in his brain.

Haven ran to him and looked down at his small, frail body. He wore light blue scrubs; his hands and bare feet were filthy. She pulled aside a loose flap of fabric over his chest and recoiled in horror. Her eyes filled with tears when she saw the fresh, jagged scar that ran from the base of Noah’s throat down to the bottom of his ribcage.

He shifted in the chair and groaned softly.

“I’m going to get you out of here,” whispered Haven.

Her hands shook as she gently pulled the tubes from his skin. Small drops of blood beaded up from the tiny holes.

“I’m sorry, Noah,” she sobbed. “I’m so sorry.”

She pulled out the last of the tubes and lifted him from the chair. He moaned as she held him in her arms like she used to when he was a toddler, allowing his head to rest on her shoulder and draping his arms around her neck.

Haven hurried across the room and down the hallway.

Dormer was still lying in the spot where she left him. His eyes were open and he was staring at the ceiling.

He smiled when he saw Noah. “You found him.”

Haven looked around the room. All of the patients were still unconscious in their beds.

“Why aren’t they awake?” she asked. The sudden urge to get out after she found Noah was growing too strong to ignore.

“It will take time,” said Dormer.

“I didn’t see anyone else,” said Haven. “I’m sorry.”

Dormer smiled again. “He’s here. I can feel it. Leave him with me,” he said, gesturing to Noah. “You go and help the others. They will need it.”

“I can’t lose him again,” she said, hugging Noah close.

“You won’t. I promise.”

Dormer pushed himself to his feet and stood up straight. Haven reluctantly passed Noah into his arms.

“Better hurry,” said Dormer. “I think the black sports car would be a good choice.”

Haven rubbed her hand over Noah’s shaved scalp and shuddered when she felt the tiny bumps left behind by the wires that had dug into his skin.

The ball of light that had been slowly shrinking inside of her since she found Noah found new life and grew stronger. She allowed it to fill her body and her mind as she turned and ran down the hallway, toward the facility entrance.

39

Colton stood up slowly in the elevator.

Corva leaned against the wall as the last of the orange light faded from her skin. The air in the hallway was thick with smoke. Lights flickered in the ceiling and from the open doorways on either side of the hall. The security guards had been pushed back into the rooms from the initial blast; their black-booted feet stuck out into the hallway.

“A little overkill,” said Corva, “but effective.”

Someone down the hall coughed.

Marius frowned. “Missed one,” he said.

He walked out of the elevator and into the dark cloud of smoke. It parted for him and curled around behind his back as he disappeared down the hall.

A moment later, Colton heard him speaking. A voice answered him, then coughed. Marius said something in Russian and there was a crack of knuckles against bone, followed by a heavy thud. Marius appeared out of the smoke in front of the elevator, brushing off the sleeves of his thick jacket.

“Sixth floor,” he said. “A little farther.”

“Nice work,” said Corva. “Faster than going level by level.” She pushed the button for the sixth floor and the doors closed silently.

“Sometimes Marius has good ideas,” he said.

The elevator ascended smoothly. Colton tried to keep his anger fresh in his mind—his rage toward Bernam for what he allowed to happen to his mother—but felt it wane in the presence of fear. Marius and Corva both looked so sure of themselves—so confident. Colton was sure he would feel a lot more so if only he could access part of his ability.

He tried again, reaching out with his mind into the space around him.

Nothing.

Colton didn’t stand a chance against Bernam nor anyone else that had even the slightest bit of power.

He was opening his mouth to tell the others that he should wait downstairs or go and help Haven and Dormer when the elevator stopped and the doors slid open amidst a hail of gunfire.

Marius shoved Corva to the side of the elevator as bullets sparked off the metal walls. She hit Colton and pulled him with her to the small area of safety at the front of the elevator next to the open door.

A bullet shot clean through Marius’s chest and he made a small noise, as if someone had just pinched him a little too hard. Another bullet hit his right leg and he dropped to the floor of the elevator.

Corva reached out and pulled him to the side as more bullets thunked into the back of the elevator.

“No…” she said. She moved her shaking hands over his body, afraid to touch his wounds.

“I’ll take him,” said Colton.

Corva gently leaned Marius against Colton’s shoulder. He was breathing slowly and his eyes were closed. Blood soaked through his shirt and spread from a dark hole below his collarbone.

She stood up and hugged the wall. Bullets continued to spray into the elevator.

“What are you doing?” shouted Colton.

Corva didn’t answer. She clenched her fists and stepped out into the open doorway.

The bullets stopped for a fraction of a second, as if the gunmen were surprised that one of their targets had so easily presented herself. Corva took a step forward and the gunfire resumed.

Colton risked peeking out of the doorway and saw orange light flooding the room—Corva must have saved some energy from Marius. It quickly faded and the sound of the gunfire grew louder.

Colton knew he had to do something.

He leaned Marius against the side of the elevator and hit the button for it to descend to the parking structure. Hopefully somebody would find him before it was too late.

Colton stepped out of the elevator as the doors closed and ran for cover.

The sixth floor was a single, open room with no windows. Dim lights lined the ceiling, casting a dull, bluish glow on the polished black floor. Tall structural pillars were spaced out evenly from wall to wall, and Colton dove behind one as bullets sank into the floor at his feet.

Corva was standing behind another pillar, pressing hard on a fresh gunshot wound in her left shoulder. Colton looked around the side of his pillar and saw three gunmen crouching near a huge machine on the far side of the room. Each of the men wore the same heavy armor and carried the same black automatic rifles as the guards Colton had seen on the second floor.

The machine was attached to the floor and the ceiling. Bulbous tubes connected to blocky metal containers, all of which led to a small, raised platform in the middle of the machine.

Standing on the platform, suspended in mid-air by massive restraints that engulfed his hands and feet, was Reece. He was either dead or unconscious, hanging lifelessly from his bindings. A pulse of light flowed over the tubes in the machine and fed down through the restraints. The light coursed over Reece’s skin and for a brief moment his eyes opened and he screamed. His body went rigid as the light passed over his legs and dissipated into the platform below his feet.

A quick burst of gunfire sprayed against the other side of Colton’s pillar and he pulled his head back.

After that, silence.

Someone started clapping, slowly and steadily.

“Well done,” said a voice.

It was Bernam.

Reece screamed again and Colton looked at the machine. Blue light slowly brightened within his ribcage and grew strong enough to outline the bones in his chest. Colton saw a dark, pulsing spot in Reece’s ribcage—his heart.

The light was pulled out from his torso, down his arms and legs, and into the restraints that bound him. The machine hummed loudly as lights flashed across every tube and metal container.

Bernam stood next to the machine, surrounded by the three guards. He admired it with the glossy eyes of a man who was watching his child use a fork to eat food for the first time. He clasped his hands in front of his mouth and smiled.

Shelly stood next to one of the nearby pillars. She looked frightened when she glanced over her shoulder at Alistair, who was standing in the shadows next to the machine. His face was shrouded in darkness, but Colton could tell that he was staring directly at him.

“Well done indeed,” said Bernam. He smoothed down the front of his slim, black suit and turned to face the elevator. “You can come out now. I won’t hurt you.”

Corva shook her head when Colton looked over.

“Okay, fine,” said Bernam, sounding bored. “I will hurt you. No reason to lie about it.” He waved at the guards. “Go and get them.” He turned his back and approached the machine.

The guards fanned out and moved quickly across the room, the barrels of their rifles trained on the pillars near the elevator.

One guard hugged the wall on either side of the room and the third walked right down the middle, sweeping his gun barrel back and forth around each pillar he passed.

The one walking toward Corva stepped around her pillar just as she shoved the heel of her palm into his throat. He coughed out all of his air and dropped his rifle, stumbling backward as he choked to take a breath. She moved forward to finish him off.

The guard in the middle raised his gun.

“Look out!” shouted Colton.

Corva turned around just as the guard fired two rounds. The first bullet hit the pillar next to Corva’s arm and tore off a chunk of material that went flying up into the air. The second bullet hit her in the shoulder and spun her down to the ground. The guard she hit in the throat stood over her and smacked her across the cheek with the back of his hand.

“Alive, if you please,” Bernam called loudly from across the room.

Colton stepped out from behind his pillar just as the last guard approached. The guard had let his rifle hang around its strap and instead held up his fists in a defensive stance. Brass knuckles glinted over the fingers of his dark gloves.

Colton kicked out, aiming for the guard’s knee, but a brass-knuckled fist shot down and knocked the leg aside. The guard took a step back, waiting. Colton lunged again—sloppy, he could feel it—and the guard deftly moved to the side as Colton’s momentum carried him forward.

The guard grabbed Colton’s outstretched arm and punched him twice in the side of his ribcage. He kicked the back of Colton’s knees to send him to the ground, then grabbed him by the hair and dragged him toward the machine. Colton tried to twist the guard’s wrist as he slid across the floor but the man was too strong.

The guard pulled Colton to his feet by his hair and shoved him forward, then pushed him down to his knees.

The other two guards dragged Corva’s body next to Colton and dropped her on the ground.

Bernam looked down at her for a long moment.

“I said alive.”

“She’s still breathing,” said one of the guards.

Bernam’s gaze moved to Colton. He frowned.

“I thought you would be dead by now,” he said. “You must be remarkably strong to survive so long without your ability.” Realization dawned on his face and he smiled. “Unless someone else gave you theirs.” He stood looking down at Colton. “Pity it takes so long to get used to a transfusion, or else you may have been able to help your friends.”

He walked over to Corva and used the tip of his shoe to tilt her face to the side.

“Pretty,” he said. “Am I to understand that she has actually found her counterpart?” He looked over at Alistair, who nodded. “The Russian, correct?”

Colton clenched his teeth and looked over at Reece, who still hung suspended from the machine.

“Oh!” said Bernam, following Colton’s gaze. “I almost forgot. Alistair, help him down, would you?”

Alistair stepped up to the platform and unstrapped the heavy bindings. Reece slumped down to the ground and groaned softly as Alistair dragged him to the floor.

Shelly ran over and knelt next to Reece, resting his head in her lap. She looked at Colton helplessly.

“Some friend,” said Bernam thoughtfully. “It took hardly any convincing to betray you, Colton. Ask him about it if he ever wakes up. He still hates your guts. Jealousy is an ugly, ugly thing. I tried to warn you.”

“What did you do to him?” asked Colton.

“I did what I always do with fools,” said Bernam. “I let him take the risk so that I can take the reward. You were supposed to transport the Phoenix energy back to the machine, and I daresay you would have been able to do it without any of the long-term effects from which your friend Reece here will suffer. Yet you denied your ability and chose instead to side with the weak. That reminds me—did you get a chance to say hello to your dear mother during your time with the outcasts?”

Colton lunged forward but the guard standing behind him cracked him in the skull with the butt of his rifle. Colton fell to the floor on his stomach, his jaw bouncing off the hard tile. He sat up and spat blood at Bernam’s feet.

“Why did you take her away from me? Why couldn’t you just leave her alone?”

Bernam laughed. “The mouse does not ask the lion ‘why’—he either runs away or he is eaten. Stupid boy,” he said. “I’d like to kill you right now, but I need some guinea pigs on which to test my new abilities. Still, there’s no reason to deny others a little enjoyment. Shelly?”

He turned to Shelly and beckoned her forward.

40

She rested Reece’s head on the floor and stood up, wiping her palms nervously on the pockets of her jeans.

“Come now, girl,” said Bernam. “This is what you wanted, isn’t it?”

Shelly looked at Colton, then at Bernam, and shook her head, no.

Bernam sighed. “Young love,” he said. “You just can’t compete with it. Alistair…”

Alistair pushed Shelly to the floor next to Corva. Her hands slipped in a small pool of blood by Corva’s shoulder and she pushed herself back into one of the guards, who kicked her forward and pressed the barrel of his rifle to the back of her head.

“You—you promised,” she said.

“I did, promise, yes,” said Bernam. “And you believed me. You think I would let anyone else have this power? The strength of both a Source and a Conduit, without the need to rely on another to achieve it! Let it be a lesson to you, young lady. You can’t rely on anyone but yourself in this world.”

Bernam unbuttoned his suit jacket and slid it off, draping it neatly over a chrome rail next to the machine. He walked up onto the platform and turned back to face Colton. He smiled as he reached up and grabbed the outsides of the hanging restraints.

Alistair opened a small control panel on the side of the machine and flipped three small switches.

At first, nothing happened. Bernam stood with his eyes closed, waiting. A moment later, his body jerked forward as if he been kicked in the back.

Alistair stepped back from the machine as it pulled black energy out of Bernam’s body. Thin wisps of black smoke slithered out of his chest and spiraled up his arms and down his legs, into the platform. The machine chugged harder as the black matter moved across the tubes and disappeared into the metal boxes.

“What’s happening to him?” shouted Colton over the noise.

Alistair ignored him and watched Bernam intently. When the last of the black energy had been pulled from Bernam’s body, he sank down onto the small platform and breathed out heavily.

Alistair moved quickly to his side and helped him to his feet.

“It worked,” said Bernam weakly. “My ability is mixing with the Phoenix power in the machine.” His skin sagged loosely on his bones and for the first time Colton got an impression of how old he truly was. “Quickly,” he said. “Help me into the bindings so I may finish the process.”

Alistair put his hands on Bernam’s shoulders and smiled.

“Alistair, what are you doing?” said Bernam. He groaned in pain as Alistair squeezed his shoulders. “Guards!” he croaked. “Shoot him!”

The guards didn’t move.

Alistair sighed.

“I paid them off, Bernam. You should have watched the world around you, but instead all you could see was the machine. Tunnel vision,” he said, shaking his head. “Sad to watch. It’s time to step down, my old friend. You were right. You can’t rely on anyone but yourself.”

Bernam dropped to his knees and screamed. The skin on his face shriveled and clung tightly to his skull. Dark pockets sank into his cheeks and his hair fell out in chunks.

“What was that you said about the mouse and the lion?” asked Alistair. His eyes flashed brighter as Bernam withered in his grip.

“Alistair,” hissed Bernam softly as his entire body shook. His eyes rolled back into their sockets and he stopped breathing.

Alistair released Bernam and his wasted husk hit the floor like a light plank of wood.

“Now then,” said Alistair, brushing his hands together. “Same plan as before. Don’t you three go anywhere.” He pointed at Colton, Shelly, and Corva. “I want to have some fun once this is all over. You there,” he said to the nearest guard. “Come here.”

The guard lowered his rifle and obeyed.

“What’s your name? Never mind,” said Alistair holding up his hand to stop the guard from talking. “I don’t care. Just…stand still, would you?”

Alistair grabbed the guard by the throat and lifted him off his feet. The guard’s rifle clattered to the floor and his legs kicked helplessly in the air as he strained to breathe. The other two guards stepped back warily but still kept their rifles trained on Colton and the others.

Black smoke flowed over Alistair’s hand and into the guard’s neck. When the last bit of smoke disappeared, Alistair released the guard and collapsed to the ground, breathing heavily.

“Shoot him,” he said quietly.

The other two guards exchanged glances. The one who had just been given Alistair’s Conduit power took a step back and turned to run.

“I said shoot him!”

Colton closed his eyes as two shots rang out. Behind him, he heard a body hit the hard floor.

Alistair straightened his back and grinned at Colton when he opened his eyes. “If I can’t have it, no one can.” His skin was pale but he still looked a lot stronger than Bernam did after he gave up his ability.

He whistled softly as he walked to the machine, then stopped when he saw Bernam’s suit jacket hanging over the railing. Alistair picked it up as if it were a dead rat, inspected it, then tossed it on top of Bernam’s corpse and brushed off his hands once again as he stepped onto the platform.

He reached up and grabbed the restraints.

“To a new era,” he said, and waited. “Oh, right.” He snapped his fingers and hopped off the platform. He went to the small control panel and flipped three more switches, then pressed a series of buttons. “So hard to remember all of these things on your own,” he said. “There we are.” He closed the lid on the panel and walked back to the platform. “Right, then. Where were we?”

He grabbed the restraints as the machine’s hum grew louder. Blinding white light flowed along the tubes, into metal boxes, and then up to the top of the machine.

Alistair closed his eyes as the energy crawled down the bindings and glided over his skin.

On the floor next to Shelly, Reece coughed and opened his eyes. She bent down over him and brushed his hair back from his eyes.

“Reece?” said Colton.

Reece saw Colton and his jaw tightened. He closed his eyes and turned away.

Colton slowly looked at the remaining two security guards. They stood watching the machine as it fed energy into Alistair’s body. Colton shifted a little closer to the guard behind him, hoping he could grab the rifle while he was distracted.

The guard saw him and brought his fist down hard on Colton’s cheek.

“Don’t try it,” said the guard.

Colton spit blood onto the floor.

“How about this?” someone said from behind.

A bright blue ball of light exploded next to the guard’s head. His neck snapped back and he collapsed. The other guard turned and raised his rifle.

Colton jumped forward and shoved his shoulder into the guard’s stomach. He picked him up off the floor and slammed him onto his back. The rifle clattered out of reach and Colton brought his fists down on the guard’s face, over and over again. The guard grabbed a handful of Colton’s shirt and pulled him to the side, then stood and kicked him in the stomach.

Colton gasped for air and tried to crawl away.

The guard grabbed his ankle and pulled him back.

There was a flash of blue light and the guard screamed as he flew through the air. He smashed into the middle of a pillar, cracking it in half. His body stuck into the crooked pillar and hung there, suspended ten feet off the ground.

Haven appeared next to Colton and helped him to his feet.

“Was wondering where you were,” he said, coughing to catch his breath.

“We have to get out of here,” said Haven. “Right now.”

The white light in the machine intensified and Alistair screamed as if he were being burned alive. His body ignited with white flame and his skeleton was visible inside his skin.

Colton bent down and picked up Corva, draping her arm over his shoulder and holding her up by her belt. He started the long walk to the elevator at the far end of the room.

Behind him, Haven knelt down to help the others.

“Don’t touch me,” said Shelly.

Haven stepped back as Shelly helped Reece to his feet. He groaned in pain and clenched his chest. His breaths were wet and shallow. Shelly supported him as they hurried away from the machine, toward the elevator.

With a quick flash of light, the machine powered down.

Alistair fell forward onto his hands and knees. His black hair hung loosely over his face as he lifted his hands from the floor and looked at his palms.

“Let’s go!” shouted Colton.

Shelly and Reece were closest to the machine; Haven ran past them, moving quickly toward the elevator.

Alistair stood up and brushed his hair back. He held his right arm in front of him and turned his palm outward, studying it as if it were an unknown weapon.

A beam of white-hot light shot out of his hand and hit the elevator. The metal doors turned to molten liquid that sloshed out into the room and burned through the floor.

“Get down!” shouted Haven.

Colton turned around just as the elevator exploded.

Chunks of metal burst out in all directions amidst a huge fireball that consumed half the room. The impact from the explosion picked Colton off his feet and slammed him onto his back. He did his best to keep Corva close but she was ripped from his arms. A piece of burning metal smacked against his ankle and he kicked it away.

Fire licked over the ceiling, crawling like lava pouring from a volcano.

Behind him, Alistair was laughing.

“Children,” he said loudly. “Idiots. Do you know how easy it’s going to be to kill all of you? You’ll find out soon enough.”

Colton flipped onto his stomach.

Haven was crouched behind a nearby pillar, staring at him. She pointed to a section of wall on one side of the room and made an exploding motion with her hands.

Colton didn’t understand until she pointed to herself, then to Alistair.

He shook his head, no.

She nodded calmly, as if it was something she had been planning to do all along. Haven pointed to Corva, Reece, and Shelly, then firmly back at the wall.

Colton fought to find a way that they could all escape without someone staying behind. He sighed and looked back at Haven.

As soon as he nodded, she stood up and stepped away from the pillar.

“Over here,” she said.

Instantly, a ball of white light tore through the pillar, splitting it in half and ripping it out of the floor and the ceiling. Haven ran away from the falling pillar, toward the machine.

Alistair tracked her, firing thin beams of white energy as she moved. The beams cut black canyons in the walls. She paused in front of the section of wall that she had pointed out to Colton. She ducked as a thick tube of energy slammed into the wall above her head and shattered the black tile. Sunlight poured in from the cracks.

Haven quickly stood and placed her palms on the wall. Blue light burst from her hands and a large section of the wall crumbled down the outside of the building.

She turned and ran toward the machine.

Colton picked up Corva and looked over at Shelly. “Come on!” he said.

Reece leaned against her as they hurried to the hole in the side of the building.

Colton peered down over the edge—six stories straight down to the asphalt parking lot.

“This isn’t a good idea,” said Shelly.

“It’s all we have.”

“Just like jumping from the plane?” she asked. “I thought you were broken.”

“Maybe this will fix me,” said Colton.

He hugged Corva close and jumped.

Fear seized him as he fell through the air—the same fear that threatened to paralyze him when Alistair had thrown him from the plane over the desert. It was different, though, because the first time he truly believed he could rely on his ability.

He pressed Corva close to his body and turned slowly in the air so that his back was toward the rapidly-approaching ground—it was the only chance Corva had of surviving if he failed.

Colton focused on the air flowing around his body. He imagined the battery in his chest. He tried to imagine it filling up, even though he barely felt anything.

He screamed within his mind and reached out for energy—a light tingle at the small of his back; a brief flash of heat in his hands.

Colton closed his eyes and let it out.

He slammed into the concrete on a thin cushion of air that barely managed to keep his bones from shattering. The back of his head bounced off the ground and his vision went black.

Corva fell on top of him and one of his ribs snapped. He yelled in pain as he guided her onto the ground next to him.

Colton lay there panting, feeling the sun’s heat on his face but unable to see anything but a soft glow. He heard footsteps approaching and two figures dissolved out of the blackness, silhouetted by the faint light of the sun.

“Haven?” he said.

The closest figure stopped. Colton’s vision changed from dark to blurry and he could tell that it was Shelly who stood over him. She reached up and wiped a tear from her eye.

Reece stood next to her and guided her away.

“Let’s go,” he said. He cried out in pain and clutched at his chest. His breath came out in quick, ragged gasps as Shelly helped him to stay on his feet. “We don’t belong with them.”

“Wait,” said Colton weakly. “Don’t go.” He reached out but their blurry figures faded away into the brightening sunlight.

Colton closed his eyes and tried not to think about the pain that covered his entire body. Far above, through the hole in the side of the building, Haven screamed.

41

A section of the floor fell away beneath Haven’s feet as she jumped to the side. The edges of the hole glowed with white plasma.

Alistair cackled from across the room.

Haven was trying to keep the pillars between them as she moved closer to the machine. Her only hope was that Alistair would bring the whole place to the ground before he realized what was happening.

“You’re alone!” he shouted. “What a noble sacrifice you’ve made! Pointless, but noble. Even if your friends survived the fall, I’ll find them.”

Haven ran from one pillar to the next and caught a quick glimpse of Alistair. His eyes glowed solid white. Wavy, ghost-like strands of energy floated up from his body like the tentacles of an upside-down jellyfish.

“Your little brother was the key,” he said. “Did you know that?”

Haven pictured Noah in the chair at the medical center. She remembered the scar on his small chest.

“Very strong, your brother,” continued Alistair. “At least he will be some day. Normally Bernam couldn’t find anyone until they were at least your age, but little Noah was different. If only Bernam could have sensed you as well, we could’ve gotten two for one!”

He laughed and shot a beam of energy through the pillar behind Haven. It crumbled to the floor as she ran to the next one.

The ceiling above her head groaned and cracked. A small piece of black tile fell to the floor and shattered.

“Ah, I see,” said Alistair. “Very clever. It was Bernam’s stupid idea to leave these floors open like this. I much prefer a smaller, cozier place.”

Haven looked at the machine.

Most of the metal boxes that fed the tubes were similar—polished chrome with no decoration. There was one piece of equipment in the back that was different. Small wires ran out of the wall and connected to the outside of that particular piece. It was a lot less polished than the rest of the machine—more utilitarian in nature.

Haven made that her target and hoped she could project her energy more than a few feet.

She forced herself to picture the blue sphere of plasma in the vast field of nothing. She channeled the energy to her core and down to her hands. Warmth flowed over her entire body and silent blue flames skittered across her arms. Floating in the air on either side of her were the tips of her energy wings—they fanned out from her back and lit up the entire room.

Haven stepped out from behind the pillar and held up her hand toward the piece of machinery near the wall. Blue plasma spiraled from her hand and smacked into the wall, above her mark. She dropped her aim and hit the target, moving the stream of energy over the machine until the blue light faded from her vision and she breathed out, exhausted. Her energy wings slowly receded into her back and disappeared.

The machine groaned and one of the tubes burst, sending a steady stream of gas into the air.

Alistair looked at Haven and whistled in appreciation.

“Now that was impressive,” he said. “You don’t see wings like that every day.” He walked to the middle of the room and inspected the machine thoughtfully. Then he shrugged. “Well, you tried. Mind if I help?” Thick streams of white plasma shot from his palms and melted a piece machinery next to the one Haven had targeted. The tubes connecting that piece to the rest of the machine exploded in a chain reaction that consumed half the room. Fire licked up the walls and crawled across the ceiling. “There we are,” said Alistair. “Can’t have just anybody popping in to use it, now can we?” He walked forward slowly, with his hands slightly raised to show that he meant no harm. “I don’t suppose you’d be interested in joining me?” he asked. “I’m really going places.”

The blue energy flared up around her.

He cocked his head to the side and the ghost-like tendrils floating up from his body shot across the room and burrowed into Haven’s skin.

“No,” he said. “I thought not. Pity.”

The tendrils lifted her from the ground and spun her in the air slowly. She screamed as the burning strands moved over her skin.

Alistair walked in a wide circle around her, tapping on his chin thoughtfully. More strands of energy grew from his skin and extended toward Haven and burrowed into her body.

“You know,” he said, “I might be able to make you obey me. There’s really no way to know my limits until I test them. The brain is controlled by electrical impulses, after all. That’s what makes it so easy to shut off. Who knows? Maybe mind control isn’t so far-fetched. You can be my first test subject.” He grinned. “What do you say?”

The piece of equipment at the back of the machine squealed and split down the side. Blue and white light flowed over the tubes and crackled against the outsides of the metal boxes. One of the boxes exploded, sending jagged pieces of thin metal in all directions.

The explosion rocked the entire building and the tendrils of white energy coming out of Alistair quickly pulled back into his skin. Haven smacked into the floor and rolled behind a fallen pillar just as another box exploded.

A piece of metal shaped like a saw blade spun through the air and slammed into Alistair’s chest.

He looked down at the protruding blade in confusion and stumbled backward on his feet.

Haven ran for the big hole in the wall, and for the sunlight beyond.

Alistair screamed.

His body was consumed in white energy. It exploded outward like a series of pulsing underwater detonations—spheres of burning light shot out from his core and stopped, only to be overtaken by a larger, more powerful barrier of white plasma.

The roof collapsed behind Haven as she ran toward the wall. Chunks of concrete crashed all around her as she passed crumbling pillars.

She felt the heat on her back—felt it burning into her skin.

She looked behind her as she ran. Alistair stood in front of the machine, arms outstretched, head cast upward in a perpetual scream. His body was a black silhouette in a piercing center of white light.

The machine exploded.

Fire blossomed out from the base of the platform and swallowed Alistair’s body. Before he disappeared into the flames, he lowered his head and looked directly at Haven, his eyes burning pools of white light.

Haven reached the hole in the wall and jumped.

The barrier of white plasma slammed into her back and pushed her far out over the parking lot. She spun head over heels, catching glimpses of the orange sky, the black asphalt, and the collapsing building.

Soon all she saw was the desert rushing up to her face.

At the last second, someone dove to the ground beneath her.

It was Dormer.

She stopped falling an inch away from his body and hung in the air. He moved to the side and she fell lightly into his outstretched arms.

Dormer helped her up and dusted off her shoulders. He smiled.

“We were just coming up to get you,” he said. “You made it.”

“So did you.” She coughed again. Her throat was bone dry—it felt like she could drink a gallon of water.

An explosion of flame belched out of the building through the hole in the sixth floor. The fire crawled up toward the roof, shattering every window along its path.

“You found your brother?” asked Haven.

Dormer nodded. “He’ll be fine after a while. He’s with the other patients at the medical facility. Most of them are still asleep.”

“What will happen to them?”

“Hopefully Micah cleared some space at The Dome. They can stay with us as long as they’d like, but I expect most will want to get back to their lives. We can talk more about that later. Right now someone wants to see you.”

He led Haven to the parking lot, where a group of people were gathered. Colton stood a few feet away, watching the black building collapse on itself. He winced in pain and touched the side of his ribcage. Marius and Corva sat on the ground next to each other, smiling up at the setting sun. Their wounds were healed over but dark bruises still covered much of their arms and faces.

“I’ll get them fixed up properly back at the Grove,” said Dormer. “Ah, here we are.”

Haven turned as her little brother jumped into her arms.

“Noah!” she said. She closed her eyes and hugged him harder than she ever had before.

He leaned back and kissed her on the nose, then rested his head on her shoulder. Haven smiled as tears rolled down her cheeks.

“He’s strong,” said Dormer. “But it will take a while to fully heal.”

“Thank you,” whispered Haven. “Thank you for keeping him safe.”

Dormer smiled and walked away. He knelt down next to Marius and tried to inspect his healed wounds, but Marius half-heartedly swatted him away.

Haven stood next to Colton as a big piece of the roof collapsed down through the top few floors of the building. It slipped over the wall and fell onto the parking lot with a loud crunch. The ground shook as a huge explosion blew out every remaining window, sending a million shards of glass spinning into the air. Bright rays from the setting sun glinted off the glass, turning it into a falling sheet of glimmering light.

A bigger burst of orange flames erupted through the hole in the sixth floor and consumed the top half of the building.

“What happened to your friend?” asked Haven. She rubbed Noah’s back as the building burned.

“He’s gone,” said Colton.

“With the girl?”

He nodded. “He never really had a chance. He just…he just grabbed at the first thing that he thought would make him special.”

“We all do that in our own way.”

Colton shook his head. “We lost so much.”

Haven looked into his eyes and smiled. “We’ll get it back.”

She kissed Noah’s forehead and turned away from the building to join the others.

EPILOGUE

Night fell on the desert, bringing with it a sudden chill that cooled the hissing ruins of the black building. The structure had completely collapsed into itself and sunk partially into the ground. Smoke rose from a shallow crater lined with the protruding edges of blackened steel crossbeams.

The parking lot surrounding the building was charred all the way to its edges. The fire had burned so hot that the sand near the asphalt turned to glass.

With a loud scrape of steel on steel, one of the crossbeams jutting up from the ruins shifted to the side. The chunk of roofing it had been supporting fell deeper into the crater and cracked in half over a giant chrome sphere—one of many from the training room that dotted the remains of the building.

From a shadowed spot next to the base of the shifting crossbeam, a burnt hand reached up toward the sky. Cloth had melted into the skin of the arm and fused with crisp, red-black flesh.

Alistair’s hand gripped the crossbeam and he pulled himself up from the ruins.

He screamed to the night sky, his breath fogging out in a slow cloud. He reached up to touch his face—the skin over his cheeks felt like thin paper and sizzled under his fingertips.

His hair was gone—his scalp peeled away to reveal his blackened skull. He let out a small whimper as he stood next to the fallen building and looked down at his charred body.

Alistair’s whimper turned to quiet sobbing as he nurtured the violent thoughts in his mind—he turned them over and over again until they gave him strength. White light flickered in the cracks of his burnt skin and his eyes glowed brighter until they became two brilliant white stars in a sea of night.

His sobbing made the slow turn to insane laughter—it started as a weak cough, then became a mischievous chuckle that shook his body with every sound, and at last built to a deep, cackling rumble of laughter that echoed across the desert.

Alistair moved away into the night to become one more shadow in a world filled with darkness. His mind was consumed by a single desire.

Revenge.

DEDICATION

For the Teachers.

Thank you.

PROLOGUE

High above the churning waters on the coast of Greece were the ruins of a temple dedicated to the many gods of the old world. Its wide, flat foundation was carved into the rock—a flat slab chiseled out of the towering cliff overlooking the Aegean Sea. There was a time when countless priests and acolytes made the long journey from ancient Thessaly to visit the sacred temple and pay homage to their gods.

That time had long past, and now only crumbled pillars and a few weather-worn statues remained to remind the temple’s sole occupant how all things diminished with time.

The temple was at the tip of a sharp outcropping of rock—a knife that jutted out from the mainland toward the heart of the Aegean. Its roof was level with the grass shelf on top of the cliff and melded seamlessly with the field overlooking the sea. Centuries ago, marble stairs led from a sheltered path on the grassy cliff-top, down the sheer cliff wall, and to the front steps of the temple. Years of exposure to the harsh sea winds had eroded the steps into nothing more than crumbling ramps. The natural rock on either side of the temple had been left untouched, effectively shadowing the structure’s existence from all but the passing gulls.

Over the centuries, trees had crept in around the base of the temple and surrounded it in a cage of brown and green, wiping the monument from the memory of man.

Nathaniel only found it because he was immortal, and when one was immortal one had the time to search for such things.

Fallen statues littered the cracked floor of the temple. Aiolus, the keeper of wind, lay next to Poseidon, god of the sea, both of them brought low during the fall of the Greek Empire. Nathaniel stepped over the statues as he walked to the edge of the cliff, then leaned against a crooked pillar and looked out to sea.

The gulls cried loudly over the waves far below in their search for food. Nathaniel closed his eyes and breathed in the fresh salt air. The warm wind played over his face and shaved scalp, ruffling his collar and flapping the tail of his long coat. He felt nothing on the left side of his face, where a long scar—one of many that covered the dark skin of his entire body—ran from the top of his forehead, over the outside corner of his eye, and down to the bottom of his jaw.

The nerves had been severed with the cut of a knife after he stole a loaf of bread when he was eleven years old. Nathaniel wondered what a boy who didn’t even speak the language of his new country could possibly know of the difference between right and wrong when his mother lay dying, starved half to death for refusing to work in the fields one more day. The only thing he could think to do was to steal from the very man who fed him.

Nathaniel had been halfway back to the barn where he and his mother slept, carrying a loaf of warm, fresh-baked bread tucked under his shirt. The screen door to the kitchen slammed open behind him and the wife of his owner screamed at the top of her lungs. Her husband ran out of the house and came at him with a pearl-handled hunting knife to teach Nathaniel that little boys shouldn’t steal from their masters.

The iris of his left eye was permanently clouded white from the injury; the iris of his right was a deep, clear brown.

Nathaniel felt his time on Earth slipping away. He grew tired as the days wore on—exhausted in a way he’d never known. He was beginning to understand that his ability was guiding him away from this life, but he did not know where it was taking him. Dark thoughts had plagued his mind for months—thoughts of hopelessness and despair. The truth that nothing he had accomplished made any real difference was driving him slowly insane.

In his vain attempt to escape that truth, Nathaniel had searched everywhere for the smallest measure of relief. He went back to the village in Kenya where he was born, hoping it would somehow quiet his raging mind—but it was not the same as he remembered.

The whole world had changed.

The ancient Greek temple was the only place where he had found relative peace. It was his sole sanctuary from the chaos. As Nathaniel stood on the edge of the cliff between the crumbling pillars, he struggled to find that center of peace once more.

Instead he saw the Earth as if from space. Tiny pinpoints of lights glowed fiercely on the surface, each one representing the beating heart of one of his brothers or sisters. Most of them were spaced very far apart—a handful in Europe, one or two in Africa—but there were several minor clusters of lights, the largest in Australia, America, and Japan.

Nathaniel was connected to all of them, as if they were extensions of his own body and mind. He did not see details—he didn’t know their names or even what they looked like—but he knew their very essence of being. He knew that, in some way, they were just like him.

A light blinked out in western Australia and Nathaniel shed a tear for his dead sister.

The lights had been fading more quickly over the past year. The normal progression for such things was one or two a year. With such a small population to begin with, it was rare for a high volume of deaths in such a short timeframe.

Usually such casualties signaled the start of something terrible.

Nathaniel felt warmth between his shoulder blades and leaned away from the pillar. He looked up at the sagging boughs of a nearby olive tree and watched several of the leaves wither and fall. The wind picked them up and carried them out over the sea.

All things diminish, he thought, except me.

Nathaniel rested his palm on the trunk of the tree and allowed what he had accidentally taken to flow back through the bark. The boughs of the tree groaned as they lifted up and spread wide once more.

He patted the trunk and moved to the center of the temple.

There were several rows of broken benches to one side—white marble that had been meticulously carved with the faces of old gods. All but a faint bump of the statues’ noses had survived centuries of erosion. Nathaniel imagined a priest standing in the middle of the temple thousands of years ago, addressing a crowd of eager students. Teachers of science, mathematics, and philosophy—some of the most brilliant minds of the ancient world had lived and died under Greek rule. Their whole empire had been only a small fraction of the world, yet to them it was everything. It left them free to explore the mind and countless other subjects—to advance medicine and art to unparalleled heights.

The temple had been plundered during the Peloponnesian War, shortly before the fall of ancient Greece. Steel bars were ripped from the hearts of the pillars and most of the marble was carried off and integrated into other buildings. The Greeks had been helpless to stop their culture from dying.

Nathaniel wanted to believe that, for the first time in history, a society possessed the capability of defending itself from extinction. Perhaps with help, his brothers and sisters did not have to die. He would go to them one last time. Just once, he wanted his actions to have a positive and lasting impact on the future.

White flames licked up his arms and cascaded over his body. The air inside the temple bent around him as he used his energy to manipulate his surroundings. He closed his eyes and reached halfway around the world—reached out to his fallen sister and to all the others who were about to fall.

One last time, he thought.

In a single flash of blinding white light, Nathaniel was gone.

1

Haven lost track of the young man she was chasing, so instead she followed the screams of a child. A girl, no more than seven or eight, had been pulled from her mother’s arms while Haven ran after Lee through a grocery store in downtown Chicago. In his mad scramble for escape, Lee grabbed up the girl with the hope that Haven wouldn’t vaporize him if he held an innocent hostage.

Of course she wouldn’t—but now Haven not only had to catch Lee and find out why he had suddenly come out of hiding to commit murder, she also had to play it safe so the little girl didn’t get hurt in the inevitable crossfire.

Lee had run from the grocery store and into the heart of the downtown area, leading Haven on a frantic chase through the crowded streets. She stopped apologizing to everyone after Lee shoved aside the fifth person—after it became obvious things were going to get a whole lot worse before they got better. Instead, she focused on running him down. He was fast, even with a screaming little girl tucked firmly under his arm.

People turned at the commotion and some even shouted at Lee to stop, but none of them stuck out a foot to trip him. At one point he quickly looked back and the smirk of amusement on his face angered Haven beyond belief. It was all she could do to keep the boiling energy inside her from ripping Lee to shreds.

No public displays of her ability unless it was absolutely necessary—that had been the agreement she and everyone else living in the Dome had made once things settled down almost a year ago. Life or death necessary. They couldn’t risk being followed back to their sanctuary of the Dome, especially not while they still housed the sick and wounded patients from Bernam’s medical facility. And besides, it was thought that no less than two national governments were aware of the powers available to a small amount of the population. There were rumors that special units had been sanctioned to detain and question anyone who showed the slightest hints of an ability.

Haven cursed her promise to play it safe as she reached out for the tail of Lee’s coat and grasped at air. He spun to the side and ran down a narrow alley, then turned the corner at the end before Haven made it halfway. When she emerged at the other side he was already sprinting to the doors of a half-finished skyscraper on the far end of an empty parking lot. Plastic sheeting flapped in the wind all the way up the side of the building, covering gaping holes meant for walls and windows.

Lee ducked inside as Haven ran across the pavement.

Two-thirds of the way up the outside of the building, the firm grid-work of future offices gave way to a skeleton of steel beams that reached toward the sky like the spikes of a crown. Haven knew she needed to catch up with Lee before he climbed too high—otherwise, with one false step, he could kill himself and the little girl as well.

On the plus side, they would probably be alone in the building, so her promise not to use her ability quickly became obsolete—as long as she didn’t hurt the little girl. Haven ran up the set of stairs and through the doors to the building. She allowed the blooming heat within her chest to manifest into the dormant blue flames—the lighter, harmless waves of fire that preceded the more deadly focused blasts of energy. Dancing fire sheathed her body and flowed over her skin like liquid.

Her vision filled with electric blue light as she ran for the nearest set of stairs. Pieces of construction equipment lay scattered everywhere and the elevator shaft was open and empty—not even the cables had been installed.

The heat inside of her chest pulsed throughout her body, straining for release. The prolonged retention of the incredible power she wielded had been her main focus over the past year, when there was hardly anything else to do but train and hone her ability until she could perfectly manipulate her energy output.

There had been some time with Colton, as well.

Haven pushed him from her mind as she ran up the stairs, counting levels as she went. The railing disappeared after the fifth floor and the stairs dead-ended after the seventh—there was only an empty shaft above her leading all the way to the top of the building.

Haven kicked open the unfinished door that led to the seventh floor and almost fell to her death. She reached out for a support beam overhead as her forward momentum carried her off the ledge of the doorway and into empty space. She swung out over nothingness, the ground seven floors below, her fingertips barely grasping the support beam. Her legs swung back to the doorway and to the flat ledge near the stairwell, but she was too eager and kicked out too early. Her left hand slipped off the support beam and her feet missed the ledge. She swung back out, barely hanging on to the support beam with one hand. Haven focused on getting ready for the return swing. If she could aim it just right, she might be able to get enough momentum to launch herself back onto the seventh floor landing. Her momentum carried her back toward the ledge, and Haven twisted her body to face the landing. She extended her legs and kicked out for the ledge. Her toes touched the very edge of the concrete slab.

The fingertips of her right hand slipped off the support beam and Haven fell. She was already falling at an angle from the momentum of her swing and landed halfway on the sixth floor platform, right at the edge of the stairwell. She hit the platform on her elbows, her stomach scraping against the rough concrete floor and her legs kicking in the air below the ledge.

Lee laughed at her from above.

She craned her neck to look up—he was climbing the steel grid-work easily, even with the little girl draped over his shoulder. She was too exhausted or too scared to move. Haven wondered why Lee hadn’t used his Conduit power on the child. Perhaps he had, and that was the reason she no longer screamed—he had drained and transferred her life energy to the point where she could not fight back.

Images of Haven’s burning house flashed through her mind—nightmarish memories of red flame from the night Lee and his twin brother Dane had set fire to her home. The fire had consumed the house as well as her parents. Haven thought it had taken her little brother Noah as well, but he had been kidnapped. She almost lost everything on one terrible night.

Haven grit her teeth and slowly pulled herself up over the ledge. She swung one leg up and then the other, then rolled onto her back, panting. Lee balanced easily as he walked the length of a long steel beam several stories up and jumped onto a small platform. He peered down over the ledge, grinning, and winked at Haven.

She clenched her jaw as refreshing blue fire crawled over her skin, then continued her climb up the building, after Lee.

2

The arrival of the survivors from Bernam’s torturous medical facility had necessitated a number of changes to the interior of the Dome compound, turning it into a different place than the cold, underground warehouse Colton Ross remembered when he first stepped through the door a year ago.

A second-story tier had been added to half of the main dome room—a platform fifteen feet off the ground that ran a half-circle along the inner wall and acted as an additional floor for bunks and storage. The platform started above the door to the water processing room and ran clockwise around the dome, over the dormitory hallway and Grove doors. A barred railing had been securely bolted to the edge. The platform was only ten feet wide—anything more would have resulted in the need for too many supporting pillars. The curvature of the dome was not too severe that low to the floor, and there was only a slight inward curve to the walls next to the bunks.

The addition of the new platform was not all that had changed. The general feeling of the place had somewhat warmed over as well. There was more carpeting in the livable spaces instead of the ubiquitous concrete that coated everything else. Practical lighting had been installed all over the main dome room—standing lamps and wall sconces—to make it seem less like a cavern and more like a communal gathering room. The mirrors that bounced light to the floor from the peak of the ceiling had been replaced with long light panels—rectangular strips of soft tube lights set into the concrete so their surfaces were flush with the wall.

Most of the survivors from the medical facility had departed after they healed, setting out into the world with the hope of finding some small piece of their former lives. Some had been Bernam’s prisoners for years. Colton held out little hope that they would be able to adapt to their new world. The long-term residents of the Dome—Marius, Corva, and the others—had made it plain to those departing that they were welcome back any time. The rest they left unsaid—that it was likely there was nothing for them out there besides confusion and disappointment. They had no jobs, and most of the older survivors were without family, having been deprived of loved ones just like Haven and many more who had been unfortunate enough to meet Bernam and Alistair.

Colton stood in the training room off the main dome room, leaning back against the wall near the door, and watched with no small amount of amusement as the two youngest residents of the Dome, Noah and Micah, sparred with broomsticks. There was no set rhythm to the young boys’ movements—no defining pattern that Colton could pick out from the loud cracks of stick against stick.

The boys would stop and formulate a plan for the next few swings—you go this way, I’ll go this way—and then execute their movements with the concentration of incompetent yet serious stage actors.

Still, thought Colton, they’re having fun.

The two boys had become quick friends after Noah’s arrival at the Dome last year. Micah had already been living there for a time without the company of someone close to his age. When Noah was saved from the medical facility by his older sister, Haven, and taken to the Dome, the boys had barely needed to be introduced before they were off and running.

Haven.

Colton’s heart tightened at the thought of her. He had wanted to follow her to Chicago the morning she left the Dome to hunt for Lee, but Marius and Corva had persuaded him otherwise. They said the outcome of the encounter would be decided long before he got there, and it would be unwise to leave the Dome unguarded. Colton pointed out that everyone was going to leave anyway before Haven ducked out early. Their reply was that Haven could more than handle the situation on her own, having grown into her abilities nicely over the past few months. They had initially planned to go mostly for support, but if Haven didn’t think she needed any, then so be it. Since she had decided to pursue Lee on her own, the rest of them could stay at the Dome and look after the remaining survivors.

Haven had stolen Dormer’s black sedan from the garage to get her from the Dome to the airport. Colton had no idea how she afforded the ticket unless someone else paid for it—the cost of gas and airfare were the only things keeping him from following her. Money didn’t exactly grow on trees, even in the Dome.

Crack-CRACK! went the broomsticks in rapid succession.

“Ow!” shouted Noah. He dropped his stick and sucked on one of his knuckles, cradling his injured hand with the other. He looked at the red skin on the back of his fingers and smiled. “It’s okay.”

Micah smiled with relief. He picked up Noah’s broomstick and handed it back to him.

“You’re getting better,” said Colton as he walked over. It was only half-true. The boys were becoming more accurate with their swings and timing, but their improvisation and follow-through was lacking. Colton himself was no expert, but Marius had been teaching him a thing or two about close-quarters combat in the quiet year since the destruction of the medical facility.

“Micah,” said Colton, “you need to keep your feet farther apart. Slide your left foot closer to your opponent.” Colton knelt down and pushed Micah’s heel until his foot slid forward. “That way if you take a hit you won’t fall over. Noah, you need to move your body in response to your opponent’s swings. Don’t keep your back so rigid or else an impact will hurt much more. If he swings at your midsection, you need to be able to twist to the side to help absorb the blow if you can’t block it entirely.”

“When’s Haven coming back?” asked Noah. He scratched at the center of his chest. Colton knew there was a vicious scar running down the middle of his ribcage from where Bernam had operated during one of his cruel experiments.

“Soon,” said Colton.

“Do you think she’s okay?”

“I hope so.”

The swinging door to the training room opened quickly and Marius appeared. He pointed at Colton.

“You,” he said in his thick Russian accent. “Come.” He pointed at Noah and Micah. “You and you, keep practicing. Marius could hear your clumsy fighting all the way in Russia.”

“You weren’t in Russia, Marius,” said Noah. “You were standing right outside the door! We saw you!”

Colton smiled as he walked past Marius into the dome room.

“Maybe so,” said Marius to the boys. “But still you must practice. It makes perfect, after all.”

As the door swung closed, Noah said, “He always says that.”

Colton followed Marius to a cluttered section of the dome room floor. Tall racks of machine parts and tables topped with electronics were all crammed near one section of the wall. Corva, Marius’s wife, sat at the only computer terminal in the entire compound. There were no connections to the outside world from inside the Dome besides a single radio scanner. The risk of being discovered was too great to keep cell phones and other connective devices in the compound.

The glow from the computer screen flickered on Corva’s face and turned her neck-length white hair to a dull yellow. “Look at this,” she said as Colton and Marius walked over. She turned the screen toward them and punched a few keys on the keyboard.

A window popped up in the middle of the screen that showed a security camera view of the only entrance to the Dome. It was a wide roll-up door sunk into the base of a rocky mountain above the complex. The door led to a garage and then to an elevator. The elevator ran down a wide shaft and ended in a long hallway which fed directly into the Dome.

A group of men in black combat gear and face-masks slowly walked around the garage door and on the mountain above it. Each carried some type of heavy assault rifle.

“How did they find us?” asked Colton.

“We would have to ask them,” said Marius.

“I wonder why they don’t blast the door,” said Corva.

Marius frowned. “Maybe they are not trying to get inside.”

The group of men moved away from the garage door and walked out of the camera’s range.

“Can you follow them?” asked Colton.

Corva punched a few keys and the image on the screen cycled through several more angles, all pointed down at the front door.

“That’s all I have,” she said.

Colton slowly looked up the smooth, concrete walls of the dome room, past the bunks on the second tier, and at the large fan spinning slowly at the very peak. An unsettling thought occurred to him as he stared at its giant, rotating blades.

“Where’s Dormer?” he asked.

“Why?” asked Corva. “What do you—”

BOOOOM!

A loud explosion rocked the ceiling of the dome. The large fan broke out of its setting and hung by a thick bundle of cable a few feet below the ceiling.

Marius pointed up as the fan swung from its cables and said, “They definitely try to get inside!”

3

Haven climbed quickly, using the steel beams of the unfinished building like the rungs of a giant ladder.

The wind grew stronger as she climbed, ripping at her clothes and whipping her brown, red-streaked hair into her face. The beams became so scarce near the top of the building that soon she had to climb a vertical beam by using rough-cut holes in the center as hand-grips. The sharp edges of the holes cut into her palms as she climbed.

Lee had disappeared right after his brother was killed in the assault on Bernam’s medical facility last year. Haven and a group of people like her had gone to the facility to save Noah after she found out they were using him for experimentation. She found him along with other victims of Bernam’s mad plan to turn himself into a hybrid—a Nova. Haven assumed her friend Dormer had killed both Dane and his brother Lee during the attack—the severity of Lee’s wounds would have suggested no other outcome—but, like the cockroach he was, Lee had survived.

Now he was running loose in Chicago, and had already killed at least five people. The police were baffled at the way the victims were murdered—drained of life until their skin turned black and their eyes shriveled to the size of raisins. The crew back at the Dome had immediately recognized Lee’s pattern of chaos and murder.

They were to go after him as a group, but they wanted to wait another day to prepare. Haven felt guilty about letting Lee go in the first place, and so she decided to take the situation into her own hands.

She didn’t say goodbye to Colton, as much as she had wanted to. His dark, too-shaggy hair had been sticking out of the top of his sleeping bag when Haven snuck past his room and out of the complex. She paused briefly, debating whether or not to invite him to go with her, but she knew the best place for him was at the Dome. He had become an integral part of the group, as had she, so she thought it was best that one of them remain behind.

Besides, thought Haven as she pulled herself up onto a horizontal beam, this was supposed to be easy.

The beam reached out over the side of the building and extended a few feet into the air. A sudden drop of twenty-five stories was the only thing between the steel and the concrete parking lot far below.

Lee stood at the very edge of the beam, facing Haven. The little girl stood in front of him, her eyes open wide. He kept his hands firmly on her shoulders as Haven walked slowly toward him.

“I wouldn’t do that,” he said.

He squeezed the girl’s shoulders and her face turned pale. He was leeching her vitality—her very life force. His cheeks flushed red and his eyes sparkled with new life.

Haven was forced to stand ten feet away from them on the beam, helpless. She meant to find out the reason why he was suddenly back in the mix—why he had chosen now of all times to reappear—but with each passing moment, she held out less and less hope that he would talk.

Now that they were close, Haven could tell that something was wrong with him. As soon as the flush of fresh blood left his cheeks, an odd paleness sank into his skin. The whites of his eyes darkened and black veins crept up his neck from beneath the collar of his shirt.

Lee coughed and shook his head violently, then he laughed.

“This was supposed to be an even match,” he said. His Australian accent was thick with anger. “But look at me. Soon I’ll be useless.” He squeezed the little girl harshly. “Just like her and the rest of the sheep down there.” His eyes glazed over and for a moment Haven thought he fell asleep standing up. Haven took a step forward, then his eyes snapped open and she stopped. Lee glared at her suspiciously. “I thought the other guy was going to come after me. Dormer.”

Haven risked taking another small step forward.

“Is that why you killed those people?” she asked. “You wanted Dormer to come and find you?”

Lee shook his head. “That was just a bonus to pay him back for what he did to Dane. I needed to kill those people.”

As he spoke, the skin of his face turned grey. He gasped and pulled the little girl close. All color left her skin and her eyes rolled up as Lee drained more life from her small body.

“Stop it!” shouted Haven. The harsh blue flames that preceded a violent outburst flared from her skin and raced up and down her body.

“I needed to do it,” said Lee, but he was no longer talking to Haven. Whatever sickness affected him was rapidly accelerating. The little girl’s life energy was no longer enough to maintain his own health. “Look at me,” he said. “What a waste. I’m lucky my abilities lasted as long as they did. With most people they disappear right away. Go figure.”

“I’ll jump after you,” said Haven. “You’re not getting away.”

He tried to smile but could not. “I know.”

With a gentle push from Lee, the little girl fell off the steel beam.

“No!” screamed Haven. She lunged for the girl and caught her by the wrist. The weight of her body pulled Haven off the beam. She slipped over the side and wrapped her arm around the beam at the last possible moment. The combined weight of them both almost ripped Haven’s arm free as they dangled high above the city. She groaned as she fought to keep her shoulder from popping out of its socket.

“Nice catch,” said Lee.

He closed his eyes and fell backward off the beam.

Haven watched his body fall toward the ground. She turned away at the moment of impact and saw that the little girl was looking up at her calmly. A groan of exertion quickly turned to a scream of pain as Haven lifted the little girl up onto the beam. She clung to it and reached down to grab Haven’s collar with one hand, her small fingers—ineffective but comforting—clutching to save her rescuer. Haven pulled herself up, kicking at the air until she was able to swing her body onto the beam. The little girl hugged her close as Haven lay on her back, looking up at the clear blue sky above Chicago.

“You’re safe now,” said Haven as she gently rubbed the girl’s back. “You’re safe.”

4

BOOOM!

The large ceiling fan exploded into pieces.

“Look out!” shouted Marius. He grabbed Corva and pulled her to the side just as one of the massive fan blades pierced her chair and stabbed into the concrete floor. The metal hissed from the heat of the explosion.

BOOOM!

Fire belched down through the hole in the ceiling and licked into the dome. Huge chunks of dirt and concrete fell from above, crushing equipment and tables. Large cracks split the walls near the peak.

“What are they doing?!” shouted Corva.

Colton looked around the room. Dormer was on the second tier, crouched next to the bed of his injured brother, Adsen. He watched the ceiling anxiously. Micah and Noah ran out of the training room, their eyes wide.

Noah said something but the sound of his voice was lost in noise as the ceiling fan housing popped out and crashed to the middle of the dome floor. The stone fire pit in the center of the room shattered under the weight of the huge metal box.

“Get back!” shouted Colton, waving at the two boys.

They stared up at the widening hole in the ceiling until finally Micah grabbed Noah’s sleeve and pulled him back into the training room.

BOOOM!

All of the concrete surrounding the peak of the dome broke away. A few large chunks of dirt fell from the edges of the ragged hole, allowing sunlight to penetrate the dome. A bright shaft of yellow light shot down and illuminated a wide circle in the middle of the floor, highlighting the crushed fire pit and the broken fan housing.

A man’s head peered over the edge of the hole, silhouetted against the light. The outline of several more heads appeared next to the first.

Marius growled and raised a closed fist at the ceiling.

“I teach them to poke their heads in here.”

Corva pushed his arm down to his side. “Don’t! You’ll bring down the whole roof.”

“It’s already down!” he bellowed.

“I think they’re leaving,” said Colton.

The silhouetted heads slowly disappeared from the opening high above. A moment later, a distant booooom rocked the walls of the Dome.

“Sounds like they’re collapsing the garage,” said Corva.

“We will be trapped,” said Marius.

Colton heard huge chunks of rock crashing down on equipment in the garage, crunching metal and grinding against the smooth walls.

A long minute of silence followed and Colton stood slowly, brushing a layer of dust from his face and looking up at the gaping hole in the dome ceiling. A metal cube the size of a microwave fell through the hole. The shiny box spun down like a thrown die cube and hit the concrete floor on one flat side with a hollow thooooommmm.

Marius stood and walked toward the cube but Corva grabbed his arm and pulled him back. He yanked his arm away in protest but stopped when one side of the cube popped off with a loud hiss and clattered to the floor. White steam poured from the opening. Thin strips of glowing orange lights were barely visible within.

“What are those?” asked Colton.

The steam cleared and he saw that the cube was filled with small silver spheres, each one the size of a baseball and encircled with a thin strip of orange light. The orange lights pulsed slowly and the spheres started to hum.

“We must go,” said Marius.

He helped Corva to her feet just as one of the spheres flew out of the box and slapped against his back. Marius cursed in Russian and grabbed at the skin between his shoulder blades where the sphere was pressing against him, but he couldn’t reach it. Corva spun him around and grabbed the sphere. She pulled it away from his skin and Marius screamed—a three-inch needle protruded from the sphere and was covered with Marius’s blood.

Clear liquid dripped from the end of the needle.

“It injected something into him,” said Corva.

“Run!” shouted Colton.

The rest of the spheres hummed loudly. They hovered slowly in the air above the metal cube. The strip of orange light on the spheres pulsed so rapidly that it became a solid strip. Dust on the floor beneath some of the lower spheres moved outward from their built-in propulsion systems.

Colton pushed Marius and Corva toward the dormitory hallway next to the Grove entrance—they might be able to make it to one of the apartment rooms and seal the door behind them. He turned back to look at the training room. Two spheres hit the swinging door and pushed it open slowly, their orange strips of light glowing brightly as their tiny engines struggled with exertion. Colton wanted to stop and go back for Noah and Micah but Marius grabbed his shoulder.

“Something is wrong,” he said as they ran. “I try to make the flame, but cannot.”

He held up his hands and clenched his fists—usually covered in bright orange flame when there was trouble—but there was no fire, just a faint orange glow on his palms.

Colton stopped when they reached the dormitory hallway and turned to face several rapidly approaching spheres. He focused on the space directly in front of him and waited to detect the electrical fields of the spheres as they approached. If he was lucky, he could drain them of power before they got too close.

He wasn’t lucky.

The closest sphere shot toward him in a blur and smacked into his chest. Colton reached down to swat it away and the needle broke off in his skin. The orange light in the sphere dimmed as the lifeless ball of metal rolled away on the floor. Colton pinched the tiny edge of needle protruding from the center of his chest and slowly pulled out three inches of thin steel.

Another sphere flew past him before he could swat it down and turned the corner of the hallway. A moment later, Corva screamed.

Colton looked up at the second tier of the dome and saw that the spheres were circling over the cots that lined the inner wall. Dormer was crouched under one of the flimsy beds with his brother Adsen beside him.

One of the patients stood and tried to run but as soon as he moved a sphere shot toward him and slapped into his neck. The man screamed and fell to the ground.

Dormer stood and held out an open palm toward the rest of the floating spheres, trying to use his formidable Conduit power to drain them of energy, just as Colton had done—but they were too fast. The strip of orange light encircling their centers glowed intensely and streaked trails through the air as the spheres sought out and burrowed against the remaining inhabitants of the Dome.

Before he knew what hit him, Dormer lowered his arm and looked behind his left shoulder at one of the humming spheres. He pulled it slowly away from his skin and threw away the long needle that had stuck into his back.

Colton stepped to the side as Marius and Corva walked back from the dormitories.

“It takes your ability,” she said to Colton. “We’re useless.”

Colton reached out and grasped for any kind of energy he could find. He tried for the heat from the lights around the room and even for some electrical current coursing through the wires buried in the dome walls, but he could draw only a fraction of what was available.

A loud crackle of blue electricity echoed through the hole in the ceiling.

“Now what?” asked Marius.

Everyone in the cavernous room stood and looked up as thick strands of piercingly bright, blue lightning shot through the hole in the ceiling and probed the inner wall of the dome. The ends of the lightning strands burned jagged black streaks in the smooth concrete wall as they crawled down toward the floor.

Colton tried to ignore the beauty of the controlled chaos but was mesmerized at the way the lightning arced down through the hole and moved over the surface of the walls—almost like the searching, slow-moving tentacles of a huge octopus.

A young woman appeared at the hole in the ceiling. Her eyes burned with brilliant, dark blue energy. The lightning was coming from her. The strands emanated from a spot between her shoulder blades and arced out in all directions like the long legs of an electric spider. The lightning supported her weight as she lowered herself down to the dome room floor.

Colton immediately thought of Haven, but then he realized that Haven’s blue energy was lighter in color—more like the sky on a perfect day and less like a dark blue neon sign.

The young woman’s feet softly touched the floor and the arcs of lightning slowly retreated from the walls and disappeared into her back. She stood proudly in the center of the dome room, waiting.

Colton took a step forward and her head snapped around to face him. The blue energy faded from her eyes as she fixed him with a cold stare. Her straight, shiny black hair went down to the middle of her back. She was dressed in tight-fitting, black leather pants and a black leather jacket over a loose white shirt.

“You don’t belong here,” said Colton. He walked toward her, not really knowing how to make her leave without the use of his ability.

“That’s not a good idea,” said Dormer from the second floor.

Before Colton could stop, a long arc of lightning erupted from the woman’s back and slammed into his chest like a scorpion’s stinger, pinning him down to the ground. The energy burned into him as if someone were holding a taser to his chest. He convulsed and his fists clenched so tightly he thought the bones in his fingers would snap.

Colton tried to absorb some of the energy, but it was pointless—he either had no control over his ability or his ability had been completely taken from him, just as Corva said.

The blue light vanished from his vision and he lay on the floor, gasping for air. He slowly uncurled his hands and sat up, glaring with malice at the intruder. She returned his stare without emotion, then tilted up her head to address everyone in the Dome.

“My name is Kamiko Masura,” she said with a slight Japanese accent, “and you are all my prisoners.”

5

O’Hare International Airport in Chicago looked like a giant alien crab from above, with eight of the concourses laid out like legs from a fat body which housed all of the parking.

Haven tightened a strap on her backpack as she walked down one of the long legs—Concourse G—on the way to the terminal where her plane would take her back to Montana and back to Colton. She hadn’t realized how much she missed him until she had time to calm down after the incident in downtown Chicago. Seeing Lee brought back a flood of painful memories that she had tried hard to forget over the last few months.

The airport was busy. The long corridor of Concourse G that led to Haven’s terminal was packed with people of all shapes and sizes, wearing everything from tuxedos to pajamas. A woman bumped into Haven as she ran past, mumbling a quick apology but more worried about the row of five kids she was towing behind, each one shorter than the next and each one grasping their siblings’ hands as they hurried to keep up.

Haven moved to the side of the wide hallway and walked next to the wall. It seemed as if no one was paying attention to her unless they almost ran her over, but she still felt like a beacon of weirdness in a sea of normality. Her powerful ability wasn’t visible to anyone just by looking at her, yet she felt so different that it was hard to forget she looked just like everyone else—like the normal teenage girl who would be celebrating her eighteenth birthday tomorrow.

If the Dome had a telephone, she would have called Noah to see how he was doing. Haven felt guilty about leaving him even though she knew he was safer with Colton and the others than he would have been with her. There was also the gnawing guilt that she had broken the promise she made to Elena right before the old woman’s passing—the promise to watch over those with abilities and to keep them safe. The only way for Haven to allay the feelings of guilt was to convince herself that going after Lee had been the right thing to do in order to stop him from hurting anyone else.

Marius, Corva, and Dormer could look after the others, at least until she got back. Besides, Haven wasn’t nearly as strong as Elena told her she would become. She had said that the Phoenix energy would leave Elena and pass on to Haven if she was the next in line to receive it—and if she was “worthy”, whatever that meant.

Apparently, she was not.

There was no change in the year since Elena’s death. It wasn’t easy for Haven to live her life every day knowing that she could suddenly die without warning if the Phoenix power decided she was next. Elena had glossed over that aspect of the transformation—the fact that the next Phoenix had to die in order to receive its power. What terrified Haven the most was the idea that, even if it killed her, the Phoenix energy could pass her over if it found she was the wrong person for the job after all.

The only explanation Haven could think of was that there was someone else out in the world with blue fire like hers—another young woman who was somehow more worthy to receive the gift. It didn’t bother Haven as much as it seemed to bother Dormer. For her, nothing had changed. She never had the Phoenix energy in the first place, so it didn’t really matter if it never came to her at all. For some reason, the idea of the energy passing to someone besides Haven troubled Dormer deeply. He would occasionally ask her if she noticed anything different about her ability, and when she told him no, he would go off alone for hours, pacing and sulking in his workshop.

Haven had spent months digging up all the information she could on the Phoenix and Void energies—the two most powerful manifestations of Source and Conduit abilities. The lack of scientific explanation maddened her to no end. There were no books on the subject because no one wanted to risk the information falling into the wrong hands. Every bit of lore regarding Haven’s own kind was restricted to little more than campfire stories, passed verbally from one person to the next.

As far as she could tell from her limited investigations, most Sources and Cons believed that the Phoenix and Void energies resided firmly in either one of two categories: spiritual or natural.

Those who believed them to be spiritual imagined the Phoenix presence as a being of pure light, constantly shedding its energy into the world. The Void was a creature of absolute darkness, drawing life from others to sustain its own existence. Not everyone believed those descriptions were completely accurate, but Haven found they more or less summed up that school of thought.

The other side of the argument was maintained by those who believed the energies to be naturally occurring—byproducts of evolution or flukes in the system, manifested organically for any number of reasons. Corva had a particularly interesting theory. She believed the Phoenix and Void energies were natural events and only occurred if certain criteria were met, much like the formation of a hurricane. If just one necessary requirement for the energies was slightly off—just as if the opposing winds that formed a hurricane were not quite the right temperatures, elevation, or strength—they were absent completely. There were periods in history where neither Void nor Phoenix seemed to be present. Yet if the perfect host environment existed, one of the two energies would bloom.

Haven liked that idea the best, even though she could find no evidence to support it. There was no explanation about what kind of criteria must be present in order for the Phoenix or Void energy to take root. Also unexplained was the fact that the Void energy could be transferred and the Phoenix energy could not. Once Bernam had stripped Elena of her gift, he could not inherit her powerful ability, no matter how hard he tried. Whatever laws governed the Phoenix energy, it was clear they didn’t allow for any kind of forced manipulation.

Yet Alistair had successfully stolen the Void ability from Bernam. The energy had not abandoned him after it was forcefully taken. Haven thought it spoke to the dark nature of the Void energy that it could be taken by one stronger than its host.

She and Corva had talked about it for hours, discussing the possibilities as they stayed up late into the night, giggling like crazy after the conversation shifted to Colton and Marius.

Haven smiled as she remembered.

Concourse G ended in a cul-de-sac of boarding terminals. It was much quieter in that part of the airport. Haven used her last three dollars to buy a pathetically small bag of gummy bears and found an empty seat against the wall of her terminal. She put her backpack in the seat to her left and looked around. The digital screen over one of the kiosks said the plane had landed and would be ready for boarding soon. She crossed her legs and ate the gummy bears—first biting off the head of each, then eating the rest—one at a time while she waited for the attendant to announce the call for boarding.

It hit her that she didn’t like being out in the so-called real world. She missed the Grove with its perfect rows of ancient trees, both alive and dead. The dead ones were a sign they had once been used to give life to someone like her—someone on the verge of death. Haven missed the loud meals in the meeting area in the middle of the dome room around the fire pit. She missed chasing her brother Noah and his friend Micah around the training room. Around her, in real world, no one was connected, even though technology told them otherwise. They used their phones and their computers as an excuse to keep people at distance even though they pretended the devices brought everyone closer together.

Haven bit the head off another gummy bear and stopped. A man was staring at her from across the terminal. He had been looking her way for a while—which wasn’t too unheard of, even though she hadn’t been able to properly clean up after her little romp through the city chasing after Lee—but instead of the casual glances everyone gave each other at an airport, he stared directly at her.

He sat at the terminal to the left of hers, in front of the large windows that looked out over the tarmac. He looked to be in his mid-twenties, had short-cropped red hair, fair skin, a black trench-coat, and no luggage. The sharp points of what was probably a much larger tattoo showed above his coat collar all around his neck like some kind of spiked necklace. He smiled at Haven and she looked away.

Another man was staring at her from the terminal to the right. He was farther away but Haven could tell he was also young, with strong features and dark hair. He casually leaned back against the wall next to a row of seats with his arms crossed and one ankle resting on the other, looking right at Haven.

“Hi,” said a voice to her left.

Haven jumped and turned. The man with the red hair was sitting next to her with her backpack in his lap. His approach had been completely silent. She ripped her bag away and held on to it tightly but didn’t stand up. Instead she let a small flicker of blue flame show in her eyes.

The man smiled easily, revealing small lines in his skin near the outside corners of his eyes which showed it was something he did often. “Atta girl,” he said with a Scottish accent. “I heard you had some spirit. Don’t worry, I’m not here to hurt you. My name’s Bastian.” He wasn’t offended when Haven didn’t offer her own name.

“What about him?” she said, nodding toward the man standing against the wall.

“He won’t hurt you either. But you see that guy over there?”

Haven followed his pointing finger to a thin, older man wearing sunglasses, seated two rows away with his back to them.

“So?”

“You don’t recognize him?”

“Should I?”

Bastian smiled again. “This is fun, isn’t it? Question for question. You should know him, ay, considering he’s working for Alistair.”

Haven looked at Bastian. She studied his face, confused. “Alistair’s dead,” she said softly.

“No,” he said. “He most definitely is not.”

6

“But—but how is that possible?” asked Haven. “I brought a whole building down on his head!”

“You and your friends did a number on him last year, no doubt about that. But he’s not what he used to be, in the worst kind of way. My problem is that nobody knows where he is.”

“Are you here for me, or him?” asked Haven, nodding toward the thin man.

Bastian smiled. “We started out looking for him. You’re just a wee bonus.”

“You know what I am?”

“I think I can recognize my own kind,” he said. He winked and a small flicker of pale yellow flame flashed across his eyes. Movement from the thin man two rows over caught his attention and Bastian looked over. The man shifted in his seat, crossed his legs, and opened a newspaper to the business page.

“So you’re here for him,” said Haven. “Why is he here?”

“He’s here for you,” said Bastian.

“Why?”

He hesitated. “You probably don’t want to know. Let’s just say it wouldn’t be fun if he caught you. But you can help me since you’re here.”

Haven looked over at Bastian’s partner. He was standing away from the wall, eyes fixed on the thin man. “How?” she asked at last.

“I’m looking for the Dome.”

Blue flames danced in her eyes and her cheeks flushed red. “How do you know about that?” she demanded. Bastian held up his hands and leaned away.

“Easy,” he said. “Easy there. I meant nothing by it. My partner and I—his name’s Roku, by the way—straight from Japan, doesn’t speak a lick of English.” Bastian couldn’t stop himself from laughing and Haven had a hard time staying angry. “Anyway,” continued Bastian, “we’re looking for more people like us. Alistair’s building up his strength after his little run-in with someone powerful enough to put him down for a while and—”

“What do you mean?”

“You didn’t hear about that?”

“I guess I’m a little out of the loop,” she said.

“We don’t know what happened, but apparently Alistair battled with someone in western Australia last month. They pretty much wrecked thirty miles of coastline in the process. Supposedly it was a ‘gas leak’ from some nonexistent sulfur mine but the people in charge will say anything to stop a panic.”

“Who was it?”

“Like I said, no one knows. But the way I heard it from my folks, it takes a Nova to stop a Nova.”

Haven hung on that word: Nova. Hybrid. A person with the gift of both Source and Conduit—able to create their own energy and expend it freely, without worry of overloading their system. The need for a counterpart was eliminated, meaning that—unlike normal Sources and Cons—a Nova did not have to rely on another person to reach their full potential.

Haven’s little brother, Noah, was such a person, though still too young to utilize his ability.

She realized Bastian was staring at her.

“So, you know,” he said, “if you could maybe show us to the Dome so we could get some recruits, that would be great.”

“Recruits?”

“Och, weren’t you listening? You zoned out on me. Roku and I are going after Alistair. We’re going to take him down.”

“But you’re not a Nova.”

“Thanks fer noticin’. That’s why we need more help, right? I mean, Roku and I are tough guys, in case I haven’t mentioned it already, but not tough enough to handle Alistair on our own. He’s got his minions out in the world while he’s healing, wreaking all kinds of havoc in society. Mr. Skinny over there,” he said, wagging a finger at the thin man two rows away, “is just one of a dozen people running around, killing innocent bystanders and doing who-knows-what-else in Alistair’s name.”

“I can’t take you to the Dome,” said Haven. “As long as no one knows where it is, it’s safe.”

“Aw, you can’t leave me out in the cold like that,” said Bastian. “Why don’t you come with us, then?”

“With you?”

“Do ye have to sound so disgusted? Come with us. Help us put Alistair down for good.”

Haven shook her head. “I made a promise and I have to go back. Alone. I shouldn’t have left in the first place.”

Bastian sighed heavily and looked at her. “Alright,” he said in defeat. “I had to try. To our lonely deaths we go, to lay our bones before the mighty dragon.”

“Is that from a book?”

“Just something I say every time Roku and I go off to fight the bad guy.” He paused thoughtfully. “Maybe I’ll write a book someday. Well, nice to meet ye.” He held out his hand and after a moment of hesitation, Haven shook it.

Like a camera flash in a dark room, images popped into her mind. Scenes of graphic violence in distant lands, of people she had never before seen. Bastian firmly gripped her hand and a burst of images played out like some hyperspeed slide show. One man was recognizable through every evil image—the thin man seated in the airport two rows away.

Bastian released her hand and waited. Haven felt sick to her stomach. Her skin was pale and a thin sheen of sweat coated her body. She swallowed and her throat felt like it was coated with sandpaper.

“What was that?” she whispered.

“I’m sorry,” said Bastian, his voice genuine. “I piggybacked some of Roku’s memories when we touched. He’s a Conduit, see, and he’s figured how to send out basic images. He gave me some to hold on to in case you needed convincing. Pretty neat, right? Memories are energy, after all. Electrical impulses in the brain. I’m glad it worked—never really tried it before.”

Haven looked at the thin man. Over the intercom, an attendant announced that her plane was boarding. It took great effort to decide to go back to Montana instead of staying for a while longer to fight the thin man and find Alistair, but she had to keep her promise and she didn’t want innocent people in the airport to die on her account. “What are you going to do to him?” she asked.

“Stop him from hurting anyone else, any way we can.”

“Here?”

“No. When he leaves the terminal. Too many people around. Too much of a mess for Helix to clean up.”

“Who’s Helix?”

“You are out of the loop, aren’t you? It’s not a who, it’s a what. Helix Scientific is a watchdog organization disguised as a research think-tank. They keep an eye on people like us and clean up our messes to keep the news away from the public. They say it’s to keep us safe, ay, but there’s no way to really know. Roku and I used to work for them, but we quit. That doesn’t matter now. You have a plane to catch. Don’t worry, though. Mr. Skinny will have to deal with us before he tries for you.”

“Why protect me if I won’t help you? You don’t even know me.”

“All I have to know is that you’re good,” he said, then pointed to the thin man, “and he’s bad. It doesn’t get any easier than that. Not for me, anyway.”

Haven stood and shouldered her backpack. “I’m sorry,” she said. “Too many people are depending on me.”

Bastian’s smile was as genuine as his first. “You stay out of trouble, Haven Kincaid.”

She walked toward the plane, only barely pausing in mid-stride when she realized he had used her full name, and that she had never given it to him during the conversation. Just before the attendant took her ticket and she stepped onto the gangway leading to the plane, Haven looked back.

Bastian and Roku were both on their feet, walking in a slow circle around the seated thin man. He carefully folded his newspaper and set it aside, then took off his glasses and put them in his pocket. He stood and walked toward an exit on the other side of the terminal.

Someone bumped into Haven from behind and apologized. When Haven looked back again, Bastian, Roku, and the thin man were gone.

She waited in the long line on the gangway to board the plane. They always seemed to get everyone in line to wait standing up instead of staying comfortably in their seats until they could just walk on the plane. When she finally got on board, Haven took a right and headed away from First Class and into Coach, or “Regular Business Class” as the airline marketing gurus invented. The carefully-chosen phrase didn’t make her feel any more special when she had to sit in the middle seat between two bulky men who took up every inch of both armrests. Fortunately she didn’t take up much room herself, so Haven crossed her arms and settled back into her seat for the three hour flight to Montana.

The plane pushed back from the jetway and rolled out to the runway. The engines whined to full power and Haven was pressed back into her seat as the plane accelerated. It was just barely possible for her to look over the man’s huge belly next to her to see the ground drop away. The plane banked to the right and, at the last second, just before the runway disappeared, she saw the thin man standing alone on the tarmac.

He was looking right at her.

Haven’s breath caught in her throat and she shrank back into her seat. She closed her eyes and tried to convince herself that she hadn’t seen him, but it was not her imagination. Every passing moment beat slower as she looked around the cabin. Children, mothers, fathers, grandparents, infants—there were so many people on board.

The engine on her side of the plane stuttered once and slowed down, then spun back to full power. The passengers stopped talking and looked out the windows. The other engine whined as it lost power and the plane dipped to the left. People screamed as their loose belongings tumbled to that side of the plane. One woman who was walking to the bathroom fell across an aisle full of old men, who held her up while the plane continued its slow sideways roll.

The overhead speakers crackled to life. “Uh, ladies and gentlemen, this is your Captain speaking.” His voice was more calm than it had a right to be. “Uh, we’re having some slight technical problems up here in the cockpit and if you’ll just bear with us, hopefully we can—

His voice cut out when the second engine died.

7

There was a moment of brief silence as the plane hung in the air, both engines dead. The lights in the cabin blinked out and everyone screamed.

The plane groaned as it glided through the air without power. It rolled to the right and Haven saw the ground rapidly approaching. They crossed over other runways as they drifted closer to the ground, picking up speed as they fell.

Then they were back over solid tarmac as the tip of the right wing hit the ground. Haven saw it like it was happening in slow motion: the wing grinding into the tarmac inch by inch as the plane got closer to the ground. Then the tarmac vanished and a green blur of grass filled the tiny window. The right wing snapped off and the body of the plane hit the ground.

Haven’s screams were drowned out by a chorus of screeches just loud enough to fight the horrendous groan of metal as the plane buckled. The nose dug deep into the ground as the body turned sideways and the plane started to roll. The left wing swung up over the plane and smashed down into the ground, snapping like a twig. The plane rolled over the wing and across the grass, like a long tube pushed down a steep hill. Oxygen masks popped down from the ceiling and slapped around wildly. Haven’s seat belt was tight or else she would have been tumbling around the cabin with a dozen other people. The overhead compartments popped open and luggage slammed around the cabin like rocks in a dryer.

The body of the plane hit a large embankment and rolled up onto it—and stopped. There was a collective sigh of relief from the passengers who weren’t unconscious, and then another round of hopeless screams when the plane rolled slowly back down the embankment and came to a stop.

Haven unbuckled her seat belt with shaking hands. The two men on either side of her were unconscious. She tried to shake them awake but they were out cold.

The plane had finally come to a rest on its left side. Haven had to put her feet down toward the other aisle as she lowered herself over the man next to her and out of her seat. She held onto the armrests as she found her footing. A few aisles in front of her, a group of people were working to open the emergency exit overhead. The door popped inward and a woman in a torn business suit pushed it to the side.

One by one, survivors exited the plane. Haven waited until it was her turn to leave. Two men and the woman in the torn business suit stood around the doorway, helping people up onto the side of the plane. Haven looked around—there were no flight attendants in sight. The cockpit door was sealed tight.

The two men by the emergency exit gave Haven a boost out. She stood on the plane and looked back at the trail of destruction left in its wake. For about a half-mile back toward the airport, a deep scar had been gouged into the ground. The first part of the scar was cut into the tarmac and was littered with wreckage from one of the broken wings. Then the scar turned into a ragged trench carved deep in the soil once the body of the plane hit the grass. Smoke billowed from the broken engines in the distance.

A large yellow ramp had inflated from the emergency exit and connected with the ground next to the plane. Haven slid down and rolled off next to the other passengers. She brushed off her hands and tried to see if there was anything she could do to help. Most of the passengers stumbled a few feet away from the plane and sat heavily on the ground. Clothes were torn, skin was cut. Parents comforted children and children clung to their parents. Sirens wailed in the distance.

Haven saw one child pointing back toward the airport, and she turned to look. The thin man was walking toward the plane. He was injured and his clothes were slightly burnt. A slender trail of smoke rose from his coat as he walked. Haven wondered what had happened to Bastian and Roku. The thin man moved slowly but deliberately, as if he knew he had all the time in the world. Haven ran. She ran away from the plane because she knew he was coming for her, but she didn’t know what he would do to the other passengers. She ran because she knew without knowing that he was the person who crashed the plane, and if he was that strong—if he could use his Conduit ability to bring down an airplane—then no one was safe while she was nearby.

The thin man watched her run and changed course. He stopped and looked up at the sky as if he heard a distant noise, then turned back toward the airport. A luggage cart sped toward the wrecked airplane. Bastian drove and Roku rode on the bench next to him, both of them staring intently ahead. A moment later, a pale yellow streak of energy erupted from Bastian’s fist and slammed into the thin man’s chest. He screamed as he was launched into the air and flew back ten feet. The plasma dissipated and he fell to the ground in a sizzling heap.

Bastian stopped the luggage cart next to Haven and got out from behind the wheel. Roku hopped out of the passenger’s seat and went around back, toward the thin man.

“You alright?” asked Bastian, looking Haven over.

“Just a few scratches. What about you?”

He and Roku both looked as if they had been fighting hard. A long cut ran down one side of Bastian’s face and one sleeve of his jacket was ripped to shreds, revealing a bloody arm beneath.

“We’ll live,” he said. “You should get out of here. Take the buggy. We’ll look after these folks.” He nodded toward the passengers.

“They’ve seen what you can do,” said Haven.

“Ay, that they have. It’s gonna cost Helix a bundle to keep them quiet.” The idea seemed to make him genuinely happy.

“I’ll stay and fight,” said Haven. She tried to go to the other side of the luggage cart but Bastian grabbed her arm.

“He can’t get his hands on you, Haven. There’s no telling what Alistair will do if he has you. Roku and I will take care of this.”

There was a sudden shift in air pressure and the breath was instantly sucked out of Haven’s chest. Her vision blurred and she became dizzy. The same thing happened to Bastian. He blinked heavily and stumbled against the luggage cart.

“Go,” he whispered. “Now.”

He moved around to the other side of the cart and there was a brilliant flash of yellow light. The thin man rolled away from the luggage cart, yellow plasma trailing after him. Haven could breathe again. She quickly got into the cart and slammed down the gas pedal. The cart wouldn’t do more than fifteen miles an hour, but it was enough to get her back to the main section of the airport. She passed several emergency vehicles on the way, sirens blaring as they sped toward the plane.

Haven stopped the cart outside of the nearest terminal. An employee in a bright orange vest ran up to her to make sure she was alright, then helped her inside the airport and called for a doctor. Most of what happened after that was a blur. Someone told her that the other passengers would be looked after. Amid the noise, she overheard a flight attendant assuring a group of people that the airline would do everything it could to make sure the passengers of the plane made it back home safely.

Haven looked out through the window across the tarmac as people buzzed around her, giving her water, cleaning her cuts, asking her questions. She watched the small bursts of pale yellow light in the distance by the crashed airplane—she watched three small figures dance around as they fought for survival.

8

Colton awoke to the sound of screaming. He sat up quickly and almost vomited from the nausea that rolled through his stomach like a wave. He was in his own bed in his own room—alone. The metal door to the corridor which led to the main dome room was sealed. Colton swung his legs slowly over the edge of the mattress and stood, waiting a moment for his head to clear. His throat was dry and he felt as if he hadn’t eaten in days. The middle of his chest burned as he remembered the blue arc of lightning slamming him to the ground before he lost consciousness.

His room was a small compartment off the main dormitory hallway next to the Grove. It looked more like a room in a submarine than actual living quarters, with its rust-covered metal walls and a porthole-type door set two feet off the ground. A big metal wheel with a horizontal locking mechanism was bolted to the middle of the heavy door.

Colton grabbed the wheel and used what little strength was in him to try and open the door. It was useless—locked from the outside. When he let go of the wheel it felt like he had just sprinted ten miles. He sank to the ground, breathing heavily from what should have only been minor exertion. He held out his hands. Faint black lines ran beneath his skin. He pulled up the cuffs of his pant legs and looked at his shins and calves—the thin black veins were very dim beneath his skin, but they were there, creeping higher up his legs.

He sat on the floor, trying to catch his breath, when the wheel on the door clanked to one side. Colton quickly stood and backed away as the door swung open. He was careful to slow his breathing and hide his exhaustion.

A big man wearing a full set of black body armor stepped into the room. He wore a black, streamlined gas mask that hugged his face tightly, almost like an ultra-thin motorcycle helmet. Instead of a single visor as a face-shield, the mask had two faceted oval patches for eyes, like the eyes of a giant hornet.

The mouth of the mask protruded slightly from the sleek material around it and hissed menacingly as the soldier approached. Some kind of rebreather apparatus, thought Colton—protection from poisonous gas. A small black tube ran from the bottom of the mask to the soldier’s back, where a slender black box rested between his shoulders. The rest of his armor was Kevlar plating, separated into flexible chunks that shifted fluidly with his movements to offer maximum coverage at all times. He wore a bullet-proof vest over the armor for added protection.

The soldier carried a heavy automatic rifle with a high-capacity magazine in his thick hands, held casually at his waist as if he was completely sure Colton wouldn’t give him any trouble.

If he could have, he would have.

Colton’s ability was almost completely nullified. He had been trying to pull in some energy to try and offset his exhaustion, but it was impossible. He was able to draw in a small amount, but he could not store it for future use. The energy he absorbed from the air around him seeped out through his skin against his will—it was as if the imaginary battery in his chest would not hold a charge. Whatever they did to Colton, it stripped him of his Conduit ability and left him broken.

The guard stood perfectly still, staring at him with cold calmness. The multifaceted eye patches in his helmet reflected Colton’s face in a thousand tiny pieces. A moment later, the guard stepped aside to reveal someone else standing directly behind him—the young woman who had descended through the dome room ceiling with blue lightning.

Colton took a deep breath and straightened his back. He lifted his chin and stared straight into her eyes. She returned his stare with the same detached quality of the guard, then her eyes drifted around the room, inspecting the bed, the sink, the desk, the chair, and all of Colton’s personal effects. She touched the guard’s shoulder and he promptly turned and left the room. The door remained open. Colton looked at it for a moment, then back at the woman.

“What did you say your name was again?” he asked. He tried to inject his voice with as much confidence as he could muster, even though his knees felt like jelly. Colton had never been so tired in his life.

“Kamiko,” she answered quietly, still studying the room. “Masura.”

Her feet made no sound as she walked around his small apartment. She picked up a frame with a picture of Colton’s mother inside, inspected it for a moment, then set it down exactly where she found it. Next to the picture frame was a small jewelry box. She picked it up and Colton took a step forward.

“Leave it alone,” he said. He could feel his face getting hot.

She looked at him, then opened the box and held up the slender silver chain contained within. At the end of the chain was a small diamond star set in silver. It glinted in the dull glow of an overhead light as it spun slowly from her hand. Colton was going to give it to Haven for her eighteenth birthday. A light twinkle shone in Kamiko’s dark eyes as she watched the necklace spin.

“Girlfriend?” she asked with a mocking smile.

Colton was too weak to answer. He blinked heavily and sat on the bed, no longer able to stand.

“The weakness will pass,” said Kamiko. She set down the box and continued her slow circuit around the room. She lifted a stack of papers, inspected them, and returned them to their place. “You will soon find your strength returning, though it will be a false strength. There is no cure for your disease.”

“What did you do to us?” asked Colton. He rubbed the burning spot on his chest.

“I want to see if you can figure it out,” she said. Her face was emotionless but Colton thought he detected a hint of amusement. “The last group never did. Most of them died screaming.”

And then she smiled.

9

Haven stepped off the plane at sunset, three hours after the airline found her backpack in the wreckage and put her on a private flight home. The doctors at the airport in Chicago cleared her for travel and she had waited in a daze while planes were rerouted for the passengers of the crashed flight. No one else was going to Bozeman, so Haven had the whole plane to herself.

Gallatin Field Airport was only a short drive from the Dome. It was a connecting airport that was perfect for private jets and small propeller planes—she remembered with a twinge of sadness that her mother used to call them “puddlejumpers”. The airport was mostly used to connect passengers to a larger hub where they hopped on giant airbuses which took them across the country and beyond.

No one Haven knew was waiting for her when she got off the plane. She hadn’t been expecting anyone—of course they didn’t know when she was getting back or any other details about her impromptu trip—yet she still felt slightly disappointed. If the Dome had a phone she would have called. Strict security definitely had its downsides.

There was, however, one man waiting for her whom she did not know. He stood holding a sign with her name on it near baggage claim. He was short, with a small mustache and a large diamond earring in his left ear that seemed really out of place. He wore a dark suit and sunglasses, with a hat too small for his head. Haven shouldered her backpack and walked over to the driver.

“That’s me,” she said, smiling. The effort made her head hurt—she had bumped it inside the plane during the crash, although she couldn’t remember the exact circumstances of the injury. She hadn’t even noticed the goose egg behind her left temple until well after she got on the plane which took her to Gallatin. She had parted her hair in the bathroom mirror to see a swollen lump of purple flesh on her scalp. It still throbbed with her heartbeat.

The driver from the airline bobbed his head and led her out of the airport to a long limousine in the parking lot. Haven stopped for a moment before getting in. “How much did this thing cost?”

“Not a thing, Madame. It is complimentary. For your trouble.”

Madame, huh? thought Haven. I can get used to this.

“Still going to the parking garage downtown?” asked the driver.

“That’s the one.”

“Excellent, Madame. Excellent.”

Haven tossed her backpack into the limo and climbed in after it. Sweet, cool air pushed her hair back and she closed her eyes to relish the sensation. She reached up to tilt all of the air vents directly onto her aching head. The driver closed the door, sealing her inside the dark compartment. The windows of the stretch limo were so tinted that Haven couldn’t see him walk to the front of the car and get in. A moment later, the front door closed and the engine purred to life.

The passenger area of the limo was long, lined with bulging leather seats. Two mini-bars, one on each side, boasted an array of hard liquor and bottled waters. Haven grabbed a bottle of water and twisted off the top. The limo rolled slowly out of the parking lot and picked up speed on the highway as the driver headed toward downtown Bozeman. The Dome was outside of town, but—as much as she wanted to—Haven couldn’t very well tell the driver to drop her off at her own front door. Besides, she couldn’t return to the Dome without Dormer’s black sedan, which was in the parking garage. He was forgiving to a point, but never with the car.

A thick sheet of black glass separated the limo’s rear compartment from the driver’s. Haven pressed a small button in a console near her seat and the glass lowered.

“What’s your name?” she asked.

The driver looked at her in the rear-view mirror and smiled. “Augustus,” he said. “My friends call me Oggie.”

“What’s new, Oggie?”

“Nothing is new, Madame. The sun is hot, the ground is dry, and no one has figured out how to fix the world’s problems. It’s a real mess.”

“I know what you mean,” said Haven. “Hey Oggie, thanks for the lift.”

“Of course, Madame.”

Haven sank back into her seat. She could barely make out the setting sun through the tinted windows. It dropped beneath two distant mountains, sinking quickly, inch by inch, until the tip of it shone out with rapid brilliance before disappearing completely.

Haven sighed. Sudden comfort swept over her because she knew she was going home. It had taken her months to get used to the fact that she and Noah would be living at the Dome for the foreseeable future. She had resisted the idea at first, telling herself that it was temporary until—until what? Her parents weren’t coming back. They had been murdered by Bernam’s henchmen, leaving Haven and Noah alone in a world that would persecute them if it learned the truth about their abilities. As months in the Dome passed, that aching for her old life slowly faded. Haven came to realize she had a new home; a new family that needed her. She devoted her attention to Noah’s education and happiness, and saw to her own in the precious little free time she managed to steal amidst the chaos of her busy new life.

Haven opened her eyes and realized she had fallen asleep. Oggie had already pulled off the main highway and was entering a parking garage in Bozeman—she had slept almost the entire trip. She yawned and stretched her back as Oggie parked on the first level of the parking garage, cut the engine, and came back to open her door.

“Your destination, Madame. How are you feeling?”

“Much better, Oggie. Like I left all of my troubles behind.” She grabbed her backpack and stepped out of the limo. She looked around the parking structure, then up and down the dusky street outside. They were alone.

“Most excellent, Madame. Most excellent.”

“Thanks a lot, Oggie,” she said, and shook his hand.

“Will there be anything else, Madame?”

“Should there be?”

“Not usually, no.”

She snapped her fingers and swung her backpack around to her front, then unzipped it and rummaged through its contents. The airport may have been footing the bill for her trip to Bozeman, but that didn’t mean she shouldn’t tip the driver. She pulled out her half-eaten bag of gummy bears and handed them to Oggie. “Spent my last few bucks in the airport,” she said. The next best thing after money was food, and sometimes the other way around—or so her father always said. “They might be a little smooshed from the crash.”

“I assure you, Madame, it’s not necessary,” said Oggie. He smiled genuinely at her offer and held up his hand to resist.

“They’re really good,” she teased.

“Wellll…” he said, glancing at the candy from the corner of his eye. His diamond earring glinted as he looked around cautiously.

“It’ll be our secret,” she said, and handed him the bag. He took it and quickly tucked it away into his inner jacket pocket.

“Thank you, Madame.” Oggie nodded formally and gave a slight bow. “It has been my pleasure.”

“Drive safe,” she said. “Lotta crazies out there.” He seemed truly amused by that notion as he got back into the limo and drove away.

10

“You’ve injected others before this?” asked Colton.

Kamiko pushed some of her perfectly straight, black hair behind her ear. The motion lifted the hem of her white shirt an inch above her belt. Colton looked away when he found his eyes drifting down to her exposed midriff.

“You find me attractive,” she said.

“I find you repulsive,” he replied.

“You are not a good liar.” She finally got bored with her inspection of the room and turned to face him. She crossed her arms and tapped a slender finger against her elbow as she chewed on her bottom lip in deep thought. “Now we just need to wait and see if any of your friends are immune,” she said at last.

“I hope they all are,” said Colton. “I hope they mop the floor with you and your goons.”

“The prisoners know that if they lash out, I will kill everyone in this compound.”

Colton looked into her eyes, searching for a hint that she was bluffing. He could find none. She had the ruthless look of a girl detached from her own humanity—void of sympathy and love.

He looked past her into the hallway. A brief thought of running for it crossed his mind.

Kamiko smiled as if she were reading his thoughts. “If I find you missing, I will torture everyone you left behind until you return—or until they are dead.”

“You’re going to kill us anyway,” said Colton.

She shook her head and some of her hair fell in front of her face. “Not true. As long as I get what I want.”

“What do you want?”

“I want you all to behave while I finish my work so I can tell Alistair how you were all good little boys and girls. And I want you to tell me where I can find Haven Kincaid.”

Colton almost told her Alistair was dead, but didn’t think it was wise to correct her. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said.

Kamiko smiled without humor. “There’s another lie. I know she lives in this facility. I know she left recently, but I don’t know her destination. If you tell me, I promise that no one will die.”

“She went to visit her grandma in Egypt,” said Colton. A fraction of his strength returned and solidified into hard defiance.

Kamiko lifted her chin and looked down at him. The little amount of light in her eyes disappeared completely. She turned and walked to the door. “You will follow me now,” she said quietly. The soldier reappeared. He nodded his head in the direction of the hallway and pointed his rifle at Colton’s chest.

Colton stood slowly, fighting the dizziness that clouded his head. He left his room and followed after Kamiko. The soldier stayed right behind him, brushing Colton’s heels with his steel-toed boots. Kamiko led them down the hallway, her silhouette swaying from side to side with the fluid movements of a predatory cat on the prowl.

She led him out to the dome room. Soldiers just like the one from Colton’s room were stationed all around the massive, circular area. Two stood before the heavy door to the freight elevator which led up to the garage—the garage that was now presumably collapsed after the earlier assault. More men patrolled the balcony that half-encircled the room, their insectoid eye-shields looking robotically from person to person.

Dormer stood at the railing on the second-tier platform, looking down at Colton. He gripped the railing firmly with bone-white knuckles. His brother Adsen lay on a cot next to him. One of the soldiers stood over Adsen, probing his temples with some kind of medical instrument. Colton saw no sign of Marius or Corva.

Kamiko walked to the middle of the dome room and stopped near the crashed fan that used to spin far up in the ceiling, at the very apex of the dome. She beckoned to a soldier and he walked over quickly, pushing Noah Kincaid before him. Kamiko took Noah’s arm and pulled him to her, then let go as if disgusted by his presence.

“Haven’s brother,” she said, studying Colton’s face. He hoped he was giving no indication that she was right. “There’s something about him,” continued Kamiko. “Something we can’t quite figure out.”

“I’m not going to help you,” said Colton.

Kamiko went on as if he hadn’t spoken. “He’s not immune, but the disease isn’t working on him the same way.” She waited for Colton to take the bait.

“What disease?” he asked at last.

“The virus we injected into everyone here.”

“Virus?”

“Don’t look so stupid, Colton. You’re infected. Look at your arms.”

Colton didn’t need to. He clearly remembered the black veins beneath his skin.

“But this little guy,” said Kamiko, “this little guy is special. The virus is working much more slowly on his system. He’s a fighter.” She knelt down next to Noah and pinched his nose playfully, then winked at him. “Aren’t you, little fella?” She patted his cheek a little too hard and stood up. “I think he’s the Nova that escaped from Bernam’s lab.”

Colton had to look away to hide his surprise. No one outside of a few people at the Dome was supposed to know that. There was no way to know what someone might do to a boy like Noah if they learned he was a hybrid. Bernam had already cut him open to study his insides, and Haven and Colton both vowed they would never let anything like that happen to him again.

“That’s what I thought,” said Kamiko. A brief smile touched her lips and then disappeared just as quickly.

“I never told you anything!” said Colton loudly. He lunged for Kamiko but the soldier behind him grabbed Colton’s shoulder and clamped down on him like a vise.

“You didn’t have to,” said Kamiko. Dark blue flame ignited in her eyes as she studied Noah. “I would guess he is far too young to display any abilities.” She spun him around, as if she would find a switch that would activate his hybrid power. “Pity.”

“I want my sister,” said Noah quietly. He was trying his best to be brave, but he could only pretend for so long.

“She’s not coming for you, little Nova,” said Kamiko. Noah began to cry. “No one is coming for you.” She turned to Colton. “And if you don’t help me, none of you will leave this place alive.”

11

Haven found the black sedan waiting for her on the third floor of the parking structure. She unzipped her backpack again to hunt for the keys and her finger brushed against something cold—something she hadn’t noticed while hunting for the gummy bears. She pulled out a small black box. It was a perfectly sealed plastic cube. Haven frowned as she studied it, then she realized what it was.

She quickly threw the tracking device over the railing of the parking structure and watched it shatter to pieces on the ground below.

“It’s too late,” said a voice behind her. She reeled around, already reaching deep within for her energy. She breathed a sigh of relief when Bastian stepped out of the shadows with his hands raised calmly. Roku appeared behind him but stayed half in the darkness at the back of the parking structure. Bastian smiled. “Sorry, Haven, but we had to follow you.”

“You put it in my backpack at the airport,” she said. “You’re a real jerk.”

He looked genuinely hurt. “We have to find the Dome. If you won’t go with us, then getting help from your friends is the only way to stop Alistair.” He took a step toward Haven and she backed away.

She looked out of the parking garage at the city of Bozeman and thought it over. “A good friend once told me that the Dome was open to everyone like us,” said Haven. “They wouldn’t turn away anyone who needed help.”

“That’s right,” said Bastian.

“But not the kind of help you need. You want to ask my friends to follow you and die trying to kill a man who has turned himself into a monster—if he’s even still alive.”

“He’s alive,” said Bastian. “I’m certain about that, Haven.”

She stepped toward the railing at the edge of the third level, checking for ways to quickly escape if the situation went bad. “What happened in Chicago?” she asked. “How did you get away from the thin man?”

“I’m strong on my own,” said Bastian. He nodded toward Roku. “But we’re stronger together. That’s the whole idea in getting help to go after Alistair. The longer we wait, the more people will die.”

Haven looked at him warily. She had the distinct feeling he was holding something back. “Is Roku your counterpart?”

Bastian laughed. “You mean Mr. ‘Rock-You’ over there?”

Roku grit his teeth, keenly aware that Bastian was poking fun at his expense. “Row-koo,” he said, pronouncing his name phonetically.

Bastian rolled his eyes. “I know how to say it. I’ve said it a thousand times, right? It’s just a bit of fun, Rock. But to answer your question,” he said, turning back to Haven, “no. I haven’t had the pleasure of meeting my Conduit yet.” He winked at her. “Got any sisters?”

“Don’t make me lose my lunch. Has Roku met his Source?”

Bastian’s smile dropped slowly. “We’ll talk about that later, perhaps. Do you still not trust us after we saved you at the airport?”

“Trust is hard to come by these days with so many people wanting to cut you open like a lab rat. Can I go now?”

“We were never forcing you to stay.”

Haven kept her distance as she found her keys and got into the black sedan. Bastian put his hands in his pockets as she started the car and drove down the ramp to the second floor. She followed the ramp to the exit and had just pulled onto the street when Roku slammed onto the hood of the car from above. He landed on all fours like a cat, glaring at her through the windshield.

Bright blue flames burst from Haven’s skin, sizzling the fabric of her seat. The steering wheel beneath her grip softened from the excessive heat she funneled down her arms and into her palms. Roku jumped off the hood and quickly opened the driver’s door. Before Haven could release her energy, he reached in and grabbed her wrist. Blue flames licked up his arm from her body and he groaned in pain. She knew that a pairing of Conduit and Source who were not counterparts always ended badly for one of them, it just depended on who was stronger. Haven had untold amounts of pure energy deep within her, and it would be too much for Roku to effectively absorb and release—if he held on too long, the energy would build up within him and soon the feedback would melt his internal organs.

Still, he gripped her wrist. His eyes flashed blue and he screamed. Haven screamed, too, but not from pain. She screamed because Roku shared his memories.

She saw a small building on fire and knew it was Roku’s home. Bright red flames burst from the windows. A woman screamed for help from within. She spoke Japanese but Haven understood her words perfectly. The woman called for Roku to come and save her.

Haven saw her own hands, but they were masculine hands, Roku’s hands, shaking from exhaustion, covered in ash and blood. She ran past a broken window and saw Roku’s face in the shattered reflection. She had no control over her/his movements—she was simply reliving his old memories.

Roku ran into the house despite the pounding red flames that reached out for him. Haven felt heat on her own skin as Roku ran up the steps to the second floor of the house. His mother lay on her side by the window, a fallen beam across her burnt chest. The flames vanished from the beam when Roku knelt and lifted it from her body. Haven felt the energy flow through her skin as Roku tried to drain the room of flame. There was too much raw energy for him to capture; too much to redirect away from his mother.

He scooped her up and jumped out of the window. Just before he hit the ground, he released most of his stored energy downward with a quick burst that took the form of a shockwave, pushing ash away in all directions and negating the momentum of his fall. He landed easily on his feet and set his mother down on the ground. Haven watched his hands as if they were her own, reaching out to brush a strand of black hair away from his mother’s still face. Red flames danced in the reflection of her lifeless eyes.

More people were screaming.

Roku looked up and the entire neighborhood was on fire. Lee cackled with mad laughter and darted into the shadows. A moment later, his twin brother Dane appeared, gleefully firing a wide stream of red flame from his hands into a group of people running for safety. The flames consumed them and pushed them to the ground.

Roku stood to face the twins. Lee and Dane saw him instantly and turned away from their other helpless victims. Dane put his hands on Lee’s shoulders and his red flames engulfed them both. Roku ran at them but it was too late. A beam of focused red energy shot out from Lee’s chest and hit Roku in the stomach. The solid stream of plasma lifted him into the air and flung him through the second floor wall of his own home.

The house crumbled around him and the last thing Roku saw was a flaming beam of wood drop from the ceiling and hit his face.

Haven gasped when Roku finally released her. She was back in the parking garage in Bozeman, sitting in the black sedan, far from Japan and from the flames of the dead twins.

Roku crumpled to the ground next to the car. His skin smoked and blue fire flickered over his body like a dying candleflame. Haven looked down at him and noticed the burn scar on his neck for the first time. It was a thick patch of rough skin that covered the entire left side of his neck and disappeared beneath his shirt collar.

She knew the pain of losing her parents to insane men. She knew the desire for revenge and how it drove her to master her abilities so she could stop other families from suffering the same fate. Haven could tell from the emotions raging through Roku’s memories that he was still in the grips of his vengeance—it drove him forward, compelling him and guiding all of his decisions.

Haven reached down and rested her hand gently on his shoulder.

“The twins are dead,” she said. “Dane and Lee both.”

Roku’s face was slick with sweat and he shook from exhaustion. He searched her face, hesitant to believe her. Finally he nodded solemnly, then laid his head on the ground and closed his eyes.

Bastian ran down the spiral ramp of the parking garage and skidded to a stop next to Roku.

“Ach,” he said. “What’s he gone and done now?”

“He’s gone and found you two a ride. Get in.”

Bastian smiled. “Are you kidding me?”

“Hurry up before I change my mind.”

Bastian laughed and helped Roku to his feet. He shook him vigorously as they walked around to the other side of the car.

“You old dog, you,” said Bastian happily. “You old, brilliant, wonderful, dog!” He slapped Roku on the back as he climbed slowly into the back seat. Roku groaned and slumped down behind Haven. Bastian got in the passenger’s seat, still grinning.

Haven shook her head but couldn’t keep the amusement out of her own voice. “You don’t do much else besides smile, do you?” she asked.

“Only save the world now and again,” he said with a wink.

“You know I can’t promise that anyone will go with you.”

“Never hurts to ask.”

“And Roku is going to pay for that dent he left in the hood of the car.”

“We’ll get you a new car.”

“Yeah?”

“Sure. Just as soon as I strike it rich.”

“I won’t hold my breath.”

“Too bad. I was hoping for some peace and quiet.”

She glared at him quickly, then realized he was kidding. “You’re not funny,” she said.

“I’ve heard otherwise.”

Haven put the car into gear and drove out onto the street. She headed to the edge of town to find the hidden dirt road that wandered across the desert toward the Dome. She thought of Noah and of Colton. The knowledge that she would soon be with them filled her with a pleasant warmth, and she was happier than she had been in a long time.

12

There were seven survivors of Bernam’s med-lab still residing in the Dome. A total of twenty-eight had been pulled from the depths of his torturous hospital a year ago, each in a different state of mental and physical instability.

Most recovered quickly and left the Dome, vowing never to reveal its location to another soul. The seven who remained were too infirmed to leave. Two had slowly been showing signs of recovery over the past few months. Adsen, Dormer’s brother, was one of them. His body was weak but his mind was sharp as ever, eager to uncover the mysteries of recent events.

Colton saw the burning desire for information in Adsen’s eyes; he could see the deep wheels of thought turning as the man sat on the edge of his cot on the second-tier platform, looking down at the dome room floor. He plucked at a scraggy brown beard dotted with patches of grey. Adsen was tall, like his brother, but much thinner due to his long imprisonment. His clothes fit him like a poncho fits a broomstick.

Dormer sat nearby, watching his brother closely. Colton had first thought Adsen was older, mostly because of the deep, worried lines etched on his gaunt face from his time with Bernam and his machines. He was shocked to discover they were fraternal twins. Given Adsen’s emaciated appearance, the brothers seemed like two different generations of the same man, one in his early forties and the other pushing sixty.

“Did she say anything to you?” asked Adsen, his eyes constantly searching the floor below. “Anything at all about what they did to us?”

“Just that she infected us with a virus,” said Colton. “She wants us to figure out the rest on our own.”

Adsen grunted and thoughtfully chewed on the inside of his cheek while he looked at one of the other sick men nearby. “Virus,” said Adsen. “Hmm.” He scratched at his neck and laid on his cot. Tiny black veins appeared above the collar of his shirt, slowly creeping up toward his head. All of the other refugees were showing the same symptoms, just like most of the original inhabitants of the Dome. Yet neither Dormer nor Adsen were showing any signs of being infected with the virus. Colton thought it might work more quickly in certain hosts.

“Do you remember her from before?” asked Dormer.

“Never seen her,” said Adsen. “Never heard of her. Alistair must have picked her up after the medical facility was destroyed, or else she’s lying about working for him.”

“Why would she lie?” asked Dormer.

“Any number of reasons,” said Adsen. “What troubles me the most is that a Phoenix would work for a man like Alistair.”

“She wants to know how to find Haven,” said Colton, then paused. “Do you think she’s really the new Phoenix?”

Adsen gestured to the hole in the roof. “You saw the entrance she made. I don’t claim to know everything our kind is capable of, but that’s not on the list of ‘normal’. I have no idea why she wants to meet Haven so badly, but my guess would be that it’s not for anything good.” He looked at the cots near his own. Each one held a sleeping refugee from the med-lab. “How are the others doing?”

Dormer sighed. “Three won’t come out of their comas. Whatever Bernam did to them, it’s not getting any better. The two that were finally improving took a turn for the worse after our new friends showed up. Only two out of the total seven are showing any signs of improvement, including you.”

Adsen shuddered. He scratched at the spot on his arm where one of the spheres had pierced him with its long needle. “It should be obvious by now that one of the departed refugees told Alistair where to find the Dome.”

“It’s possible,” said Dormer. “If Alistair is really alive.”

“And why couldn’t he be?” asked Adsen. “You saw what he did firsthand. He killed Bernam and turned himself into a Nova. Who knows what it will take to stop him now?”

“It could be something else,” said Colton suddenly. “Remember Elena said that sometimes a Phoenix can sense the presence of others like us. Sometimes they can only sense other Nova, or their counterpart, or really strong Sources and Conduits. Let’s say Kamiko is the new Phoenix—say that Elena really did unwillingly pass her power to her instead of to Haven. Elena had the ability to detect a Nova anywhere on the planet as long as their signal wasn’t blocked. Kamiko might be able to find others like her—other potential Phoenix.”

“That’s not it,” said Dormer, “or else she wouldn’t be asking you to help her find Haven. Maybe she can sense all of us together in one spot, like a huge beacon, and that’s how she found the Dome.”

Adsen shook his head sadly. “If that’s the case, none of us will ever be safe until we eliminate her.”

A loud voice broke through the conversation. “Did someone say, ‘eliminate her’?” Marius walked over to the cots near the balcony railing with a big smile on his face. “You are speaking Marius’s language.”

“Keep your voice down,” said Dormer. “We’re conspiring.”

“Sorry,” said Marius quickly. The big Russian sat on the edge of the cot next to Colton and rubbed a calloused hand over the stubble on his balding head. Small black veins ran over his scalp and down over his temples. He coughed loudly and cleared his throat. “What is the plan?”

“No plan,” said Colton. “Not yet, anyway.”

“Marius has one,” he said. “Bullet in each of them.” He aimed an invisible gun down at the dome room floor and pulled his thumb-trigger at the guards stationed throughout the wide space. He searched for Kamiko with one eye squinted closed, then sighed and holstered his imaginary weapon when he couldn’t find her below. He scratched at his unshaven neck where small black veins criss-crossed like netting.

“How’s Corva?” asked Dormer.

Marius didn’t answer right away. “Not so good. She is strong, but this thing they did to her…” He trailed off and left his thought unfinished.

Colton had been to visit Corva earlier in her room. She lay on the bed, eyes wide open, staring up at the ceiling. Her short, stark-white hair was wet and a layer of sweat clung to her entire body. She shook as if she had a terrible fever. Colton was able to speak with her for a few minutes before Marius interrupted and said she needed rest. As Colton left the room, he saw Marius kneel down next her and take her hand. He pressed it to his forehead and muttered to her in Russian as tears fell from his tightly-closed eyes.

The poison they had all been infected with was hitting some harder than others. Little Micah was in bed with symptoms of a terrible flu. His body shuddered with coughs as he lay shaking on his cot, unable to drink anything but the smallest sips of water.

Colton had peeled off his own shirt earlier and looked at himself in the mirror. The thin black veins that had appeared on his neck and forearms were spreading and getting thicker. They crawled from his arms up to his shoulders and down his back. The black veins on his neck reached up around the back of his jaw and onto his scalp beneath his hair. He touched the skin over one of the veins. It did not hurt. He pressed harder, then released. His skin flushed white, then slowly the black veins crept back. Whatever they injected into him was changing his blood.

Changing into what? he wondered.

13

The others on the balcony were deep in conversation when Colton said quietly, “What happens when Haven comes back?” They stopped and looked at him. It was obvious from the looks on their faces that they hadn’t thought about it yet. “Because she’s going to come back,” he said. “And when she does, she’s going to be royally pissed off.”

Marius frowned thoughtfully. “Haven is strong, but not strong like her,” he said, jabbing a thick thumb downstairs. “She must not come back. There is nothing for her here but infected people and a bad woman who wants to kill her.”

“Then we have to warn her,” said Colton. He looked up to the peak of the dome room and out through the jagged hole where the massive swirling fan used to be. If the garage was collapsed, that hole was the only way out of the Dome—and the only way to get up to the hole was by a long series of ladder rungs—old, rusty hand-holds that ran up the inside wall of the dome from the floor to the peak of the ceiling. Colton looked at the rungs of the long ladder and his stomach dropped from vertigo—halfway up the curved dome wall, whoever was climbing the ladder would have a hard time not keeping their legs from dangling in the open air beneath them. It was a long fall down to hard concrete if they lost their grip.

“You’re not getting topside without someone noticing,” said Dormer. “Not without a—”

He stopped talking at the sound of rapidly-approaching footsteps. Kamiko led a group of four soldiers up the metal stairs to the second-tier balcony.

“There must be a cure,” whispered Adsen as Kamiko and the soldiers approached.

“What are you talking about?” asked Dormer.

“They wouldn’t have made the disease without the cure. Find it and come back. It’s the only way.”

Colton leaned forward. “Where?”

Adsen said nothing. He just shook his head and backed away from the approaching soldiers.

Dormer growled. “For God’s sake, Adsen—”

Kamiko was already next to their cots, looking down at Dormer. The soldiers stood behind her, full of silent threat. She looked from Dormer to the rest of the group with a flat expression devoid of any emotion except cold indifference. Her gaze froze on Adsen.

“You,” she said, then snapped her fingers at the soldiers. “Bring him.”

They grabbed his arms and hauled him roughly to his feet as if they were expecting some kind of resistance. Adsen offered none. He groaned weakly as the soldiers carried him away, held so high that his feet didn’t even touch the ground.

Dormer stood slowly, facing Kamiko. She returned his icy glare and smirked when she saw his fists opening and closing in anger. Normally that would have been the time for whoever was on the receiving end of Dormer’s anger to get out of the way, but Colton knew his ability had been muted just like the others in the Dome, and so all he had for Kamiko was a murderous stare.

She glanced at Colton, then turned and followed after the soldiers. Instead of taking the stairs, she hopped easily over the balcony railing and fell toward the floor. At the last moment, brilliant blue arcs of lightning shot out from her back like spider legs and dug into the concrete floor. Her descent slowed to the speed of a falling feather, and she stepped down to the floor gracefully, as if she had just been helped out of a carriage. The bolts of lightning receded into her back and, after one more glance up at Colton, she followed the soldiers into the holding cell between the training room and the Grove.

“That’s my room,” said Dormer, and sat down in a huff.

“Looks like you sleep on the couch tonight,” said Marius with a grin.

“Will you help me get out?” asked Colton, eager to get moving. He remembered Kamiko’s threat of what would happen to his friends if he escaped.

“As I was saying,” said Dormer. “You won’t get topside without a distraction.”

“Now is as good a time as any,” said Colton.

Marius clapped and rubbed his hands together. “Marius does distractions very well,” he said.

A thought burst into Colton’s mind and formed into a plan. There was no way he could disappear and leave his friends to torture, but he still had to go out and warn Haven before she stumbled headlong into a disaster. He had to at least see her again, but if he could send someone else with her in his place, then she would have more of a chance. He looked at Marius. “You should come with me,” said Colton.

“What?!” roared Marius. He looked at the thin metal rungs bolted to the wall of the dome leading all the way up to the ragged hole. “Marius does not climb,” he said with a scowl.

“Haven’s out there on her own,” said Dormer. “Some of us need to stay here because not all of us can leave. Don’t worry, I’ll stay and look after everyone.”

“What about Kamiko?” asked Marius.

“It seems she’s more interested in my brother than anything else at the moment. I’ll distract the guards so you and Colton can escape.”

Colton shook his head. “They’ll spot us climbing out. We won’t be able to move fast enough.”

“Leave that to me,” said Dormer. He stood and walked toward the stairs. “Give me five minutes. You’ll know when to move.” He descended the stairs and disappeared into the maze of shelves and machinery that made up his workshop on the first floor of the dome room. One of the soldiers stood nearby, gun held tightly, watching Dormer closely.

Marius frowned. “Marius does not climb,” he repeated. He sat there pouting like a child who didn’t want to take a bath.

“Adsen says there has to be a cure,” said Colton. “Think of Corva and everyone else in the Dome.”

“Of course Marius will go! But that doesn’t mean he must be happy about it.” He looked up hopefully. “Perhaps you go up the ladder first and drop rope?”

“No,” said Colton as he stood. “We go together.” He walked to the railing and looked down into the workshop.

Dormer moved quickly, darting back and forth between his equipment, constructing something inside a small metal box that he carried under one arm. Marius walked over to the railing, still grumbling, and stood next to Colton.

“What’s he doing?”

“I have no idea.”

“Between you and me, I think both brothers are a little loopy.”

Dormer fit a metal lid over the exposed side of the small box and looked up at Colton. He nodded quickly. The soldier next to him readjusted his grip on his rifle and took a step forward, as if he sensed that something was about to happen.

“Here we go,” said Colton. He eased away from the railing and toward the stairs as Dormer let out a loud yell and threw the box as hard as he could. It soared through the air in a high arc toward the middle of the room. Every soldier turned and pointed their rifles at the moving object, leading it with their sights along its trajectory.

Kamiko and two more soldiers burst out of the holding cell door just as the box cracked onto the floor in the middle of the room. It sat there a moment doing nothing. Dormer looked at it in confusion. He turned to Colton and shrugged right before the soldier closest to him tackled him to the ground. More soldiers swarmed nearby, moving up and down the cluttered aisles of his workshop with their rifles ready to fire. Kamiko walked to the box, tapped it lightly with the tip of her shoe, and it exploded.

14

Haven slowed the car when a flashlight beam cut across the desert ahead. She held up her hand for Bastian and Roku to be quiet, even though no one had spoken for the last ten minutes. Haven could see the dim outline of a mountain in the distance—the mountain that sat over the garage entrance to the Dome. She quickly cut off her headlights and killed the engine. She waited, breathing in the darkness, her heart pounding in her chest. Bastian stirred in the passenger’s seat, watching intently.

The flashlight beam shined in their direction but wasn’t strong enough to reach them. The sky was a deep purple and there was no moon yet, so the ground lacked its usual ghostly glow. If there had been even a sliver of moon, Haven doubted the car would have gone unnoticed by whoever was near the Dome. Faint stars twinkled far away, their dim light doing nothing to pierce the curtain of night that lay over the desert.

Sound carried well over the flat, hard-packed ground between the car and the Dome. She slowly cranked down her window an inch and listened. A light breeze was all she heard. Haven wasn’t too worried until the person holding the flashlight shined it on a dark figure—a tall soldier in body armor with a big rifle—then another soldier before it finally clicked off and the base of the mountain returned to complete shadow.

“Three total,” she whispered. “We’ll have to walk.”

“I take it that’s not normal, then,” said Bastian, nodding toward the area where the flashlight had been.

She shook her head and slowly opened her door.

“What about scorpions?” asked Bastian quickly.

She looked at him. “You’re not serious.”

“No,” he said, trying to cover up the fact that he was. “No, of course not. Let’s get moving.” He popped open his door as quietly as he could, then looked at Haven. “After you,” he whispered.

She rolled her eyes and eased out of the car. The thin layer of loose sand covering the hard ground beneath her shoes was comforting—it meant she was close to home. Bastian got out quickly and never kept his feet in one spot for more than a millisecond until he did a thorough scan of the ground and found that it was clear. Roku stood next to the car, silent as the desert around him.

After another moment of waiting, Haven set out from the car toward the mountain. Bastian walked a few paces to her right and Roku a few to her left. They hung back a little and she was reminded of a video she had once seen of coyotes stalking an elk in one of the National Parks. The three lead animals formed an arrow aimed straight at their prey. It wasn’t until the elk became aware of the three beasts that the other pack coyotes appeared from the trees on either side, cutting off every possible escape.

Haven wished some of her friends were with her. Instead, it seemed they were stuck in the Dome, held prisoner by whoever was in charge of the soldiers outside.

Bastian stubbed his foot on something and he leapt sideways. “A rock,” he whispered with relief. “Just a tiny little rock. There’s no stinger or anything.”

“Shhh,” warned Haven as they got closer to the mountain. She could now clearly see the soldiers moving around in the gloom. There was some sort of makeshift tent or guard shack a good distance from the garage. Next to the small structure was a large black helicopter outfitted with massive machine guns on both sides. Light glowed from a spot on the ground nearby, as if a big lamp was shining out of a hole in the ground. The light illuminated the sleek features of the nearby attack chopper. It took Haven a moment to realize that the light was coming from a hole where the large fan in the ceiling of the dome room should have been.

Static crackled from a walkie-talkie and one of the soldiers lifted it to his masked face.

“All clear topside,” he said, and clicked the radio off.

Haven led Bastian and Roku behind a boulder that jutted up from the sand a hundred feet from the hole. The rock was large enough to shield all three of them.

“Now would be a good time to hit them,” whispered Bastian.

Haven held up her hand for silence while she squinted into the darkness. One of the soldiers was cleaning an automatic rifle. He clacked metal against metal as he worked to disassemble the gun.

“They just called to check in,” whispered Bastian. He crouched behind the boulder next to Roku. “That means they won’t check in again for a long while. We should move.”

Haven put her back to the rock and slid down to face him. “I’m not rushing in until I know what’s going on,” she whispered. “What if my friends are inside at gunpoint and they die if anyone attempts a rescue? You don’t know who’s in there with them. It could be anyone.”

“The longer we stay out here, the less chance they have,” said Bastian.

Haven looked around the boulder and studied the movements of the three soldiers. One was inside the makeshift tent, seemingly napping in his chair; one sat on a small boulder, cleaning his gun; one walked slowly around the hole in the ground that dropped down into the main dome room.

“Can you see a door at the base of that mountain?” she asked quietly, pointing toward the garage.

Roku scooted forward, staying low. He looked into the darkness for a long time. Finally he spoke quickly in Japanese and looked at Haven, expecting her to understand.

“What did he say?” she asked.

“I’ve no idea,” whispered Bastian. “I don’t speak Japanese.”

Roku sighed. “It looks like it’s been damaged.”

“I thought Bastian said you couldn’t speak English!” whispered Haven.

“He says a lot of things,” said Roku. “You should learn to tell the truth from lies more easily.”

Bastian punched him hard in the arm. “Enough of that,” he whispered.

“Quiet!” said Haven. “We’ll have to go in through the hole.”

“What’s your plan?” asked Bastian.

“I’m working on it.”

“Old Roku and I usually prefer the head-on approach,” said Bastian.

“Big surprise,” said Haven. She sighed. “Fine. Let’s swing around to the back and approach the tent from the other side. Hopefully we can catch them before they use the radio.”

“I’ll just fry the radio,” said Bastian with a smile.

“Actually, that’s a good idea,” said Haven reluctantly. “Ready?”

Bastian’s answer was drowned out by a loud explosion. White light burst out of the hole in the ground. Inside the dome room, people screamed. The white light disappeared, leaving only darkness. Soldiers shouted to each other down below, and above all the racket came the shrill voice of a young woman speaking rapidly and confidently.

Roku and Bastian shared a knowing look when they heard the woman speaking, but Haven didn’t recognize her voice.

“Now’s our chance,” said Bastian.

Haven nodded and the three of them ran out from behind the boulder. The soldiers were standing over the hole, aiming down into the black abyss. Haven, Bastian, and Roku were only a few feet behind them when the nearest soldier whirled around and aimed his rifle directly at Haven’s face.

“Awrite there, boys,” said Bastian with a grin. “You’re not much for security if you let us sneak up like that, yeah?”

“Identify yourselves!” said the soldier closest to Bastian. He moved forward aggressively and Haven took a step back.

“We’re selling life insurance,” said Bastian. Haven and Roku shared a wary glance. “Interested?”

The soldier pressed the muzzle of his rifle against Bastian’s cheek. “Call it in,” he said. The soldier next to him reached for the small walkie-talkie clipped to his bullet-proof vest.

“Tsk, tsk, tsk,” said Bastian, wagging a scolding finger at the soldiers. “I think ye should have bought that insurance.” Pale yellow fire crawled up his finger, and Bastian grinned.

15

Colton reached for the next rusted metal rung. The handholds were bolted to the inside wall of the dome like wide, square horseshoes with their tips stuck into concrete. As the rungs took him higher and higher from the floor, gravity pulled his body down with increasing force. The dome wall expanded around him in all directions like a wide field—he had to crane his neck all the way back to see the dim floor a hundred feet below. In the sullen blackness of the massive room, he was a tiny ant crawling up the wall of an upside-down bowl. A few rungs below Colton, Marius hung rigidly from a handhold, his arm looped around the thin metal handle. He closed his eyes and whispered softly to himself in Russian.

Each rung was about a foot away from the last, leaving a hundred rungs below them and another hundred ahead. At the halfway point, the roof slanted quickly inward on its long curve toward the ragged hole in the peak. Soon they would be moving from rung to rung along a nearly horizontal surface, their feet dangling beneath their bodies, far above the hard concrete floor. Even now, halfway up the rungs bolted into the wall, Colton had to lift his legs back up to the ceiling to hook his heels in place to stop them from swinging.

It didn’t help that every light in the room had gone out when Dormer’s bomb exploded. He must have rigged a short-range EMP burst along with some sort of disorienting flash bang—all of the soldiers that had been looking directly at the bomb when it exploded now stumbled around blindly, bumping into walls and each other as they scrambled madly about the room.

The Electro-Magnetic Pulse may have been enough to knock out all of the lights, but it wasn’t enough to hide the dim outline of the floor a hundred feet below. Colton swallowed hard and turned back to the metal rungs in front of him. He reached for the next and pulled himself up. His right foot slipped off and he dangled in the air like a kid on playground monkey bars, swinging gently forward and backward. Marius watched him intently—he would be unable to help if Colton slipped. If either of them grabbed the other in mid-fall, their combined weight would be more than enough to rip a ladder rung from its mooring and send both men plummeting to their deaths.

Colton hoisted his legs up to the ceiling and pushed down on a rung with the bottom of his feet. He took a deep breath and continued up toward the hole. There was more shouting below. Kamiko looked like a bright blue glowworm moving through the darkness, illuminating her immediate surroundings and leaving a trail of dark blue light behind her wherever she went. She barked terse orders and shoved aside any soldier she thought wasn’t doing his job.

She was calling out all of the residents of the Dome and lining them up in the middle of the room. A soldier with a clipboard moved down the line, checking off names. Colton climbed faster. He could hear Marius breathing heavily a few rungs down. If Corva hadn’t been so ill, he wouldn’t have been able to force himself to attempt the climb.

Colton counted rungs as they ascended. When he reached one-fifty, there was no way to keep his feet on the rungs. He hung in space, reaching forward and moving to the next rung with just his hands as fast as he could. Forward momentum was essential, and one slip would mean his death.

Bright red light ignited below as the soldiers produced flares from their vest pockets and cracked them open. Red sparks shot violently out into the darkness, casting long shadows on the kneeling residents of the Dome. Colton saw Noah and Micah sitting close to each other beside Corva. She swayed upright as if she was having a hard time staying conscious.

The rungs never seemed to end. One-sixty, one-seventy, one-eighty—Colton’s arms burned. His hands shook uncontrollably as he released one metal rung and reached for the next. The tendons in his forearms felt like they were slipping toward his elbows, tightening painfully and making it difficult for him to keep his fingers clenched around the rusted metal.

One-ninety.

He wasn’t going to make it. Colton stopped with both hands gripping the same rung. He hung there stupidly, swaying back and forth like a dangling piñata. Marius grunted behind him but Colton couldn’t even turn around to see what he wanted.

“Go,” said Marius quietly. He stuck out his leg and pushed Colton in the middle of his back.

Colton grit his teeth, swung forward, and reached for the next rung. His fingertips touched the rusted metal and slipped off. The momentum of the swing carried him backward. He bumped into Marius, who let go with one hand to grab Colton’s wrist and lift it back to a rung. Colton gripped the metal in relief, breathing heavily.

“Pssst.”

Colton and Marius looked around, confused. Neither of them had spoken.

“Pssssssst!”

The noise was coming from the hole. Colton strained to see. The tiny amount of ambient light from the night sky filtered down through the jagged hole in the dome room and pushed against the darkness within. In the gloom, the silhouette of a head popped down into the hole. Long hair dangled from the head as it turned to face Colton and Marius.

It was Haven.

She held out her hand for Colton. With new resolve, he swung his legs back, then forward. The movement allowed him to reach for the next rung, then the next, ignoring the fact that he couldn’t feel his arms, or his wrists, or his hands. He also ignored the acid sensation burning through the tendons in his forearms.

The next rung he grasped was softer than the others, and he realized it was Haven’s arm. She reached down with her other hand and grabbed him by the collar. He was hoisted out of the hole and onto cool desert sand. He closed his eyes against the chill night breeze, welcoming its touch against his burning face.

16

He opened his eyes and saw two other men sitting on the ground behind Haven as she lay in the sand, each holding one of her legs to keep her from falling into the hole. On the ground nearby were the unconscious bodies of three armed soldiers. Colton got out of the way as the two men holding Haven’s legs lowered her back into the hole to retrieve Marius. He popped above ground, sputtering and gasping for air, then rolled over to lay on his back in the sand, his belly quickly rising and falling as he laughed softly to himself.

The lights in the dome room switched on. Bright light beamed up through the jagged hole. Colton backed away cautiously, knowing that the soldiers would be trying to catch a glimpse of the men stationed above.

“We don’t have much time,” he said, still trying to catch his breath. A man with short red hair and a freckled face helped him to his feet and brushed sand from his shoulders, smiling the whole time. “Who are these guys?” Colton asked Haven.

“Friends. This is Bastian,” she said, pointing to the smiling man, “and Roku.” Roku nodded and went back to watching the dark desert all around. Haven pulled Colton to the side and went through the same motions as Bastian, brushing sand from his shoulders and arms, but much more gently.

“Are you okay?” she asked. “How’s Noah? What happened?”

“I’m fine, Noah’s fine,” he said. The relief on her face was obvious. “There are a lot of armed men down there and some woman who says she’s looking for you.”

“Me?”

“Yeah. Kamiko Masura. You know her?”

The two men with Haven shared a quick glance, then looked away. Haven shook her head. “No, never heard of her. What does she want?”

“Whatever it is, it’s not good. She injected everyone with some kind of virus.”

“Fade,” said Bastian. He wasn’t smiling anymore.

“What’s Fade?” asked Haven.

“Marius will tell you all about it,” said Colton quickly. “I have to get back inside before they notice I’m gone and you need to get out of here.”

Haven looked at him like he was crazy. “No!” she said. “We have to get them out. We can’t just leave everyone behind. Not you, not Noah, not anyone.”

“You can’t do any good by making yourself a prisoner,” said Colton. “Kamiko is the new Phoenix. You can’t go up against her, Haven. Not without help.”

“I brought help.”

“It’s not enough. You haven’t seen anything like her before.”

“I don’t care. I made a promise to Elena and I’m not going to abandon everyone to die.”

“Like you abandoned us to go chasing after Lee in Chicago?” he said hotly, instantly regretting his words.

Haven looked away, into the desert. “Yes,” she said. “Like that.”

She suddenly reached out for him and drew him close. Her mouth found his and they kissed, softly and deeply, and Colton felt warmth bloom in his chest. His lips burned and he stepped away. Haven put her fingers to her lips and moved them through the light blue flame that wavered back and forth. The skin of her entire body was alight with a layer of flames unlike any Colton had ever seen. They shimmered back and forth in beautiful harmony, like a field of tall grass in a strong, shifting wind.

He touched his own lips and felt a small burn mark. “They took my ability,” he said. “They took everyone’s.” Physical contact had not been an issue between them until that moment, even though it had been confined to long hugs and holding hands. Once, while they hugged, Colton had brushed Haven’s cheek with his own and held it there, pressed against her soft skin until the blue flames ignited and flowed out from her and onto him. But it hadn’t burned—not like the kiss had burned. He had been able to absorb the flames and not feel a thing. Without his Conduit ability, his skin would burn with every kiss.

“We were just getting started,” whispered Haven. Her eyes filled with tears as the calmness in her face was replaced with anger. She took a step toward the jagged hole. Shouts echoed up from the floor below.

Bastian reached out and grabbed her arm. “There’s a cure,” he said. “Alistair designed the virus, and he made sure there was a cure in case he accidentally got infected.”

Marius, who had sat forgotten in the background, grunted loudly and got to his feet. “We will get it,” he said, as if it were that simple. “Then we come back to save the day.” He brushed sand from his pants and looked at the others with his eyebrows raised. “Well?”

Colton looked at Haven expectantly.

“I made a promise,” she said, more to herself than to Colton.

“You promised Elena you would try to keep everyone in the Dome safe. The best way for you to do that is to find the cure. We’re powerless without it.”

She reached up to touch his cheek but blue flame sprouted from her palm. She clenched her fist in anger and turned away from him. “We’ll return as soon as we can,” she said. Without looking back, she walked off into the darkness.

Bastian slapped Colton’s shoulder. “We’ll sort it out, mate. Say, you don’t get many scorpions around here, do ye?”

Colton looked at him and blinked.

“Thought not,” said Bastian. He smiled with relief and patted Colton on the back, then followed after Haven.

Roku walked past Colton and stopped. He looked down into the jagged hole of the dome room, the muscles in his jaw working. With reluctance, he followed the others.

Marius stood next to Colton. “Why you didn’t tell me you were staying?”

“I thought you wouldn’t climb the ladder if you knew the truth.”

“Maybe so.” He sighed. “Don’t worry, I look out for Haven.”

“And I’ll look out for Corva.”

Marius smiled sadly. He hitched his belt a little higher around his protruding belly and set off across the sand. The four silhouettes receded into the shadows until their outlines disappeared. A moment later, Colton heard the low whine of a helicopter motor and the slow spin of its blades cutting the air.

He went back to the hole and sat on the edge. He waited until the helicopter lifted off the ground and flew away into the night. The small blinking lights on the tail grew dimmer and dimmer, and Colton felt Haven drifting farther and farther away.

When he could no longer feel her presence, he leaned over the lip of the hole and banged loudly against the metal edge with his fist.

“Hey!” he shouted. The soldiers’ heads snapped up and they looked right at him. “Missing somebody?”

Kamiko glared up at him from the dome room balcony, blue lightning shooting out like whips to lick at his feet. Colton smiled and rolled onto his back in the dirt. There was no way he was climbing back down the ladder. Let them come and get him, if they could. He put his hands behind his head and spent his last few moments of precious freedom looking up at the distant stars.

17

The helicopter thumped low and quiet across the night desert. There was a silencing system built into the craft that muffled the loud whup-whup-whup of the blades, presumably to allow for stealth approaches and deployment.

The moon had finally risen and peeked just over the horizon, shining bright and full and painting long shadows over the small rocky hills and hard-packed dirt. It did not reflect against the exterior of the chopper, which had been painted flat black with no identifying marks. The paint seemed to absorb the moonlight and created the illusion that a black hole was floating over the desert. The chopper flew so low that swirls of sand puffed out on the ground below as Marius piloted the craft away from the Dome.

It looked like a giant wasp flying toward its prey. The body of the chopper was segmented near the back and gave the craft an insectoid appearance. Two long, heavy guns protruded from the front of chopper below bulbous black windows that looked like giant eyes. The overall impression was that of intimidation and malice.

Marius mumbled to himself from the pilot’s seat and reached up to flip a red switch that blinked quickly. As soon as he flipped it, the chopper shuddered and dropped a few feet in the air. The twin landing rails attached to the belly of the chopper momentarily scraped the desert floor.

Bastian let out a scared yelp and everyone in the chopper scrambled for a handhold. Haven wrapped her hands around a thick strap of nylon that was bolted to the wall next to the door.

“Are you sure you know how to fly this thing?!” shouted Bastian toward the front of the chopper. He sat in one of the six black seats lining the back section of the craft, right before the body segmented and dipped down toward the tail rotor. Even with the silencing system, the cabin of the chopper was obnoxiously loud.

“Pah!” said Marius from the pilot’s seat. “Put wings on a cow and Marius could fly it.” He reached over his head and flipped another switch. The aircraft smoothed out and ascended to its original cruising altitude. Marius looked back at Haven and winked right before another shudder ran through the chopper. He gripped the steering column firmly with both hands and turned away to focus on flying.

He had explained that staying low to the ground was a good way to avoid being detected by enemy radar; a trick he had learned during his military time in Russia. Haven was less worried about enemy radar and more worried about enemy tracking devices. They had all performed a cursory check as soon as the chopper lifted off the ground, but of course had found nothing. Haven wasn’t surprised. If there was a tracking device on board, it would be buried deep within the craft’s circuitry and nearly impossible to disable without ripping the instrument panels to pieces.

Marius banked the chopper to the left and Haven looked back in the direction of the Dome. She saw a tiny light on the desert floor—the hole that led down into the dome room. There were no headlights between the chopper and the Dome—no pursuing vehicles that she could see.

“So where we go, anyway?” asked Marius.

Bastian released the death grip he had on his seat and walked to the front of the chopper. The electronics on the instrument panel glowed bright green and painted his face a sickly color as he shakily sat down in the copilot’s chair. He spoke to Marius in hushed tones, and a moment later Marius changed course and headed east.

Roku sat across from Haven quietly, studying her. She returned his stare and he looked away slowly.

“Where are we going?” asked Haven.

Bastian turned around in the copilot’s chair. “There’s a facility two hundred miles east of here. We think it’s a manufacturing plant for the Fade virus.”

“How do you know it’s there?”

He grinned. “Mr. Skinny told us at the airport after some…hmm…convincing. He’s actually quite nice when he’s not trying to murder you.”

“Is Alistair there?”

Bastian shook his head. “I doubt it, unless we get really lucky. Hopefully someone at the facility will know more.” He turned back around and Marius handed him a set of headphones. Bastian pulled them over his head and tapped the small microphone next to his mouth. Marius had on a matching pair and spoke to Bastian quickly. He pointed to an instrument panel in front of the copilot’s chair and Bastian flipped a couple of switches and turned a dial. Marius nodded and settled back into his seat.

Haven looked at Roku. His face was sternly set, as if he were forever struggling to make the hardest decision of his life. He didn’t notice when Haven got up and sat in the seat next to him.

“What’s wrong?” she asked. He flinched in surprise and his trance was broken. “I’m sorry,” she said quickly. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“You didn’t scare me,” he said. “I was thinking.”

Bastian turned in his copilot’s seat. He watched the two of them for a moment. Haven thought she saw either jealousy or caution in his eyes. He turned away and spoke to Marius.

“The memory you shared with me,” said Haven to Roku, “was it from your home town?”

His frown deepened and he shifted uncomfortably in his chair. Finally, he nodded. “I didn’t want to show you, but there was no other way for you to see.”

“I’m sorry you had to share something so personal,” said Haven.

He looked at her briefly, and he looked surprised that she understood his pain.

“My family was taken from me as well,” she continued. “I only have my brother, Noah.”

“Did you get revenge?”

Haven thought for a moment. The image of Lee jumping to his death from a building in Chicago flashed across her mind. “In a way.”

“No, you didn’t,” said Roku. “I can read it on your face.”

“The ones who burned our homes are dead.”

“But not the one who told them to do it,” said Roku. “Alistair.” His teeth clenched and his hand balled into hard fists when he spoke the name.

“That’s the main reason you’re here, isn’t it?” asked Haven. “It’s not really about finding a cure for the virus or anything else so noble.”

“There are many reasons I am here.”

Haven chose her next words carefully. “You and Bastian knew Alistair was looking for the Dome. You knew he wanted to infect everyone inside.”

“We suspected. He has been using the virus against our kind for months. The Dome seemed like a logical target, but we didn’t know where it was. Then we saw you at the airport and knew it was our chance to catch up with Alistair. We failed to convince you of the real danger.”

Haven looked away. There was no way she could have known whether Roku and Bastian were really trying to help. Her one thought at the time was keeping the Dome safe along with everyone inside.

“We hoped we could get there first,” said Roku. “To stop Kamiko from releasing the virus. I am truly sorry we could not.”

She turned away, unable to stop tears from welling in her eyes. “It’s fatal, isn’t it?” she asked. “The virus.”

“Everyone who has been infected has died.”

“Is it contagious?”

“We don’t think so. The virus must be directly injected into your bloodstream.”

“How long before it kills you?”

“It varies. We’ve seen anything from one week to several months. It always strips your abilities before it moves on to attack the rest of your body. Sometimes that only takes hours, and other times, days. It attacks your immune system, slowly at first. After your abilities are completely wiped out, it works faster. Eventually your organs shut down, and—”

“I get the picture,” interrupted Haven. “How do you know there’s a cure?”

Roku said nothing.

“It’s okay,” shouted Bastian from the front seat. “Tell her.”

Roku looked at him and Bastian nodded.

“Tell me what?” asked Haven.

“Bastian worked for Alistair,” said Roku.

“I thought he said he worked with you at Helix.”

“I worked for Helix alone. Bastian is still ashamed to admit the truth, even though it is obvious his heart was never with Alistair’s cause.”

“I know something about that,” said Haven, thinking of Colton and his temporary, manipulated allegiance to Alistair and Bernam. “When did Bastian work for Alistair?”

“Up until a year ago when he was injected with Fade. The first round of tests were just getting started, and Bastian was ‘volunteered’ to be in the first batch of test subjects. Alistair used his virus on his own people before hunting down others with abilities. He wanted to see how it worked, to be sure he wasn’t wasting his time. Bastian was one of the lucky ones who got the cure. Alistair had to be sure there was a way to undo his damage in case he ever became infected with his own weapon. He didn’t just want a cure, but also an inoculation to ensure that someone who was cured could never be infected again. Most of the test subjects were left to die, but Bastian and a handful of others were successfully cured.” He paused for a moment. “Bastian told me about someone else who works for Alistair, someone else who was infected and then cured.”

“Who?” asked Haven.

“A boy named Reece. And there was a girl, too.”

“Shelly,” said Haven quietly. She remembered the bitter parting between Colton and Reece after the destruction of Bernam’s medical facility.

“Yes,” said Roku. “Shelly.”

“They’re still alive?”

“The last time Bastian saw them, they were with Alistair, a part of his inner circle. Very high up in the ranks of his new army.”

“So, we find this production facility,” said Haven, “where they’re manufacturing Fade. And that will lead us to the cure?”

“Yes.”

“You’re sure?”

Roku was silent.

“That’s what I was afraid of.” Haven leaned back in her seat and watched the desert below. Dark sand blurred past, occasionally pocked by quick flashes of shrub and rock. Time passed slowly and she drifted off to sleep. Her superficial dreams were filled with images of red flame and death, and when she awoke, her body was covered in a thin sheen of sweat despite the cold interior of the helicopter. “How long till we get there?” she asked.

Marius looked down at the instrument panel. “Not long. Fifteen miles ahead.” He reached out to adjust a dial and the entire panel went blank.

“What’s wrong?!” shouted Haven.

“Is not good,” said Marius. He frantically moved the steering column, but it was loose in his hands. The instrument panels in the cockpit were blacked out. Marius flipped switches and twisted dials, then banged his fists against the panel in frustration. He had no control over the chopper.

With slow dread, Haven realized the rotor was slowing down. The rapid whup-whup-whup of the blades became a dragging whoooosh, whoooosh, and it was only getting slower. A red light popped on in the ceiling and a loud alarm blared as the helicopter drifted closer and closer to the ground.

“We will hit,” said Marius. He tightened the straps on his chest and seat belts and braced for impact. Bastian and Roku strapped themselves into their chairs. Haven buckled her seat belt. She slipped her arms through the chest straps on either side of the chair, almost like the straps of a backpack, and worked quickly to buckle the clasp over her chest. Her hands shook and she dropped both pieces.

The alarm beeped louder as the ground outside rushed up to meet the chopper. Haven could no longer hear the spin of the blades. They were in free fall. She fumbled with both pieces of the buckle and brought them together over her chest. There was a firm click as they locked, and she yanked on the loose strap dangling from the buckle until the chest belt was nearly restricting her breathing.

She looked out the side window and everything moved in slow motion. Sound disappeared. Her hair floated in front of her face as if she were underwater. Across from her, Roku squeezed his eyes tightly together and gripped the sides of his chair with white knuckles.

Through the window, Haven saw the horizon rise up and disappear as the helicopter rolled onto its side. She was looking straight down at the ground, and even in slow motion, it rushed past the window with sickening speed. Haven opened her mouth to scream when the helicopter hit the ground.

Roku’s side of the chopper hit first. There was a scraping sound that drowned out the screams. The noises of the world around her came back to Haven’s ears louder than ever as the blades of the chopper bent against the hard ground and snapped off the rotor.

Metal groaned as the body of the chopper twisted in two different directions at once. With an ear-piercing explosion, the back segment of the body ripped off and tumbled away behind the craft. Cold wind tore at Haven’s body as she watched the back third of the chopper disintegrate across the sand.

“Hang on!” shouted Marius, right before the nose of the chopper hit a huge rock.

The broken tail rose up into the air and the helicopter flipped end over end. Haven saw dark sand, then night sky—sand, sky, sand, sky, in rapid progression as the chopper tumbled through the air. The last thing she saw was the ground as it rushed up and slammed into the open tail of the helicopter.

18

It took them a long time to get Colton down from the gaping hole at the top of the dome room. He lay up there for hours, staring up at the stars in the night sky. One of Kamiko’s soldiers had to scale the ladder on the inside of the dome wall, just as Colton and Marius had done to get out. The soldier made better time than they had originally, but he also had the benefit of a fully illuminated dome room to help ease his journey.

When the soldier finally got to the top of the ladder and swung one of his legs up unto the sand, there was a moment when Colton could have easily nudged him back over the edge. With both of his hands groping for a handhold on the ground next to the hole, the soldier would have fallen all the way down to the concrete floor of the dome room. Splat.

Instead, Colton grabbed the soldier’s armored vest and helped pull him all the way up. He didn’t know what his previous insubordination would cost him or the others in the Dome and he didn’t want to add any more punishment to the long list.

The soldier got quickly to his feet and unslung the rifle that had been strapped tightly to his back. His face was covered by one of the tight-fitting black masks. The sensor patches over his eyes were iridescent and honeycombed, like the eyes of an insect. Now that Colton was getting a closer look, he thought they might let the soldier see in several different wavelengths of light. If so, it was a miracle none of them had looked up while he and Marius were making their escape.

The soldier was a beast—easily over six feet tall with shoulders broad enough to get stuck in a doorway. Every soldier that Kamiko brought along had the same physical build and the same gear. Colton’s optimism at somehow getting the upper hand through brute force wavered and died. Without his ability, he was nothing.

The soldier growled at Colton to stand up. He did, and the soldier quickly shouldered his rifle and produced a black belt from a pocket of his armored vest. The soldier slung the belt around Colton’s waist and clasped a chrome buckle in the front. Then the soldier knelt down and felt around under the lip of the hole in the dome. He grunted and unclipped a large carabiner from the last ladder rung, then snapped the clip over the chrome buckle on Colton’s new belt. A long black rope trail from the carabiner down into the dome.

“Hey, wait a second,” said Colton, but it was too late.

The soldier gave a quick tug at the belt to make sure it was secure, then gave a small salute right before he pushed Colton over the edge of the big hole.

Colton fell, waving his arms wildly, hoping to grab the edge of the hole on his way down. It slipped past his vision before he could touch it and he looked down to see the floor of the dome room rushing toward him. He let out a yell just as the rope attached to his belt snapped taught. His body jerked downward with a jarring stop and one of his ribs snapped.

Colton screamed as the rope swung him sideways. His body hit the wall of the dome and he groaned from the electric pain in his ribcage. He tried to grab a rung of the ladder halfway down the wall but his feeble fingers slipped easily off the rung and he swung back out over the center of the floor like a giant pendulum. Above him, the rope was secured a few rungs down from the hole. The soldier looked down on him and waved. If he didn’t have the mask on, Colton was sure he would have been smiling.

Suddenly he was moving again, but much more slowly. The other end of the rope ran through a pulley attached near the hole and down the back side of the ladder rungs. Another soldier at the base of the ladder was slowly feeding out more line to lower Colton to the floor.

He hung limply from the rope, spinning freely as he dropped inch by inch. Most of the dome room floor was empty of people except for a few soldiers rummaging through Dormer’s work area. They were picking up equipment from the shelves and throwing it to the ground if it held no interest. There were three people watching the soldiers from the second tier balcony: Dormer, his brother Adsen, and little Noah. They looked up at Colton and he tried to smile to let them know he was okay, but the rope jerked to a quick stop and his smile turned into a grimace.

He was hanging a few feet above the floor when the soldier tied the line off and walked away.

“Hey!” shouted Colton.

The soldier ignored him and kept on walking. He climbed the steps to the second floor balcony and drew his rifle on Dormer and the others. He ordered them downstairs and herded them across the big dome room and into the Grove.

After they had gone, Colton hung there, spinning in the middle of the room like the forgotten meal of  a giant spider.

Across the room from the Grove entrance was the door leading to the garage elevator. Next to that was the small water processing room. The door swung open and Kamiko emerged, her head held high in some sort of victory pose. She didn’t walk across the floor to Colton. Instead, she hovered a few inches above it, propelled forward by some unseen power. No blue lightning crackled from her back like the long legs of a nightmare insect. Instead, only a faint, dark blue glow illuminated her dark eyes from deep within.

As she approached Colton, the hair on the back of his neck stood up, as if she were overcharged with static electricity. He felt his shirt move toward her as she drew near and encircled him, studying his body as if he were a rat in a laboratory. She reached out a slender hand and poked his shoulder, stopping his slow spin. Even that slight touch sent electric streaks of pain through his broken rib, but Colton forced himself to remain silent. Instead, he grit his teeth and glared at her with as much hatred as he could summon. The belt dug painfully into his waist. He grabbed onto the rope above his head to keep from hanging like a broken puppet.

“Where did you take them?” asked Colton.

“They’re in the Grove,” said Kamiko. “It is a beautiful place. I understand it carries a great deal of meaning for your people.”

She looked at him as if waiting for an answer. Colton made up his mind not to tell her any more than was absolutely necessary.

“Are your soldiers in there as well?” he asked.

“Most of them. Right now every one of your friends is staring down the barrel of a gun.”

Colton lunged for her despite the stabbing pain in his torso. His broken rib-bones grinded together as he wrapped his hands around her throat. It was like grabbing an electrified fence. His fingers contracted painfully as electricity coursed through his muscles, forcing him to squeeze even harder. Kamiko was unaffected. Her eyes were sheathed in solid blue glass, and she watched Colton indifferently as he struggled to let go. He shook on the end of the rope as if he were having a seizure. Every muscle in his body tightened until he thought they would tear in half.

Finally, the current of electricity stopped. Kamiko’s eyes cleared and Colton’s hands dropped loosely from her throat. His eyes rolled back in his head as he hung loosely from the rope.

“As I was saying,” continued Kamiko. She paced around him, tapping her chin thoughtfully. “The fate of your friends is up to you. Either you choose to cooperate and we can all work together, or you can attempt another escape.”

Colton tried to force a weak smile, but failed. “We’re all dead, anyway. You poisoned everyone in here. We’re just disposable lab rats, isn’t that right?”

Kamiko looked at him for a moment. “Not all of you,” she said at last. “If you cooperate with me, I promise to take good care of your people.”

“And if I don’t?”

She took a step closer. “I won’t hesitate to kill every single one of you, as I’ve said.”

Colton’s first thought was of Noah and Micah. They were just little boys and had done nothing to deserve such a cruel fate.

“What do you want from me?” asked Colton. “What can I give you that you can’t take by force?”

She smiled and her eyes sparkled. “I want the cooperation of everyone in the Dome. You can assure them that they will be well-cared for if they follow the rules. If any of them try to escape—if any more of them try to escape—then I will hold you personally responsible.” Her voice carried a malicious edge, and Colton knew he never wanted to find out what she had in mind as a punishment if anyone disobeyed. “The Russian is gone,” she said. “I am willing to let it go—just this once—if you do as I say without question.”

“You can’t expect us to just lay down and die.”

“I can and I do. But it doesn’t have to be as bad as you think. The sooner I get what I want, the sooner I will leave.”

“What is it you want, exactly?” asked Colton.

“I need to know why Fade infects some of our kind and not others. I need to know how to improve its mortality rate to one-hundred percent.”

“Liar,” said Colton. “Whoever’s pulling your strings cares about all of that. You just want Haven.”

Kamiko bared her teeth in an animalistic snarl and Colton knew he hit a nerve. Sparks of lightning shot from her back and her hair slowly stood on end. Dark blue flames licked up from her eyes like two dancing candles. She floated over the ground and stood inches away from Colton. The hairs on his arms reached out for her, crackling with static electricity.

“Will you force me to hurt the children?” she asked.

The sparks of lightning on her back became a solid tube of blue fire that extended into the air above her, like a fire snake ready to strike. It slammed down into Colton’s body and moved over his skin. His resolution to not show pain was broken and he screamed in agony. Kamiko spoke and somehow her voice pierced through his deafening scream, as if she were speaking directly in his mind.

“I will hurt them, Colton. All of them. It would be nothing to me. You are brave, and that is a noble thing. But do not let your bravery be the death of your friends. Will you help me? Make your decision.”

Suddenly the pain was gone. The blue fire vanished and Colton was left hanging numbly from the rope, swinging slowly back and forth. At first he couldn’t force his mouth to speak the word, but finally his muscles loosened and he whispered, “Yes.”

Kamiko reached toward the rope over his head and a spark of lightning shot out from her palm. The rope snapped and Colton fell the last few feet to the ground. He landed against his broken rib but was too exhausted to utter a sound. Instead, he lay there, mouth open in a silent scream. He rolled over onto his back to get the pressure off his broken bone, but the pain followed him.

He stared at Kamiko as she walked away. As if in warning, she looked back over her shoulder and dark blue light flared up in her eyes. She disappeared through the doors that led to the Grove and Colton lost his fight with consciousness.

19

Haven floated in a great void, as if she were in the deepest heart of space. Every star had been extinguished, leaving only darkness. She knew she was dreaming, yet she was unable to force herself to wake.

In the blackness, something skittered onto her left hand. She wanted to shake it off but couldn’t move. For a split second Haven was back in her old home in the comfort of her own bed—before the fire, before her parents had been murdered. A huge spider slowly crawled over the back of her hand, its hairy legs probing her skin as if it were searching for the softest bit of tissue. The tips of Haven’s fingers twitched, but the rest of her was frozen stiff.

The two foremost legs of the spider rose up into the air and its glistening fangs spread impossibly wide. For a long moment the spider waited, ready to strike. Then, with lightning speed, it sank its fangs into Haven’s skin.

She screamed and sat up. Her head smashed into a panel and her vision went white. She fell back against the inside wall of the helicopter, groaning. Whatever had been on her hand skittered away. Haven opened her eyes and, with blurred vision, saw the raised tail of a scorpion disappear outside through a massive hole in the helicopter.

She held up her arm, ignoring for a moment the long streak of blood that ran from her elbow to her wrist. A tiny, red welt formed on the back of her left hand. The sting was spreading across her skin rapidly and the pain was getting worse.

“Northern scorpion,” said Bastian from somewhere nearby. “I knew it.” Haven looked over and saw him. He was still in the copilot’s chair, but the instrument panel had been pushed so far into the cabin that his lower body was pinned beneath a massive chunk of metal and electronics. A small trickle of blood ran freely from a cut near one of his temples.

“Are they deadly?” she asked.

“Not that one. Too big. It’s the little guys you have to watch out for.” He groaned loudly and tried to push himself out from between the instrument panel and his seat, but neither would budge.

The pilot’s chair next to him was empty.

“Where’s Marius?” asked Haven. She was suddenly aware of how afraid she was at his absence. He was the one visual anchor that held her securely to the world of the Dome and to the people within. It was easier to remember their faces if she was with someone familiar.

“Right here,” came a gruff voice from outside the helicopter. The thick Russian accent was unmistakable. Marius leaned down and looked into the chopper through the ragged hole in its side. A large cut ran across the top of his forehead, but otherwise he seemed unharmed. He frowned when he looked at Haven.

“You let yourself get stung,” he said with disappointment.

“You weren’t there to watch out for me,” she shot back.

“Marius will not always be there,” he said. He stepped over debris inside the helicopter and knelt down beside her. “Probably best to get that through your head sooner rather than later.”

He picked up her swelling hand and pressed it between his palms. A soft glow of orange light filtered through his fingers, and a pleasant warmth engulfed Haven’s hand. When he let go, the red welt was gone, as was the pain from the sting. Marius then found the deep cut on Haven’s elbow and pressed his thumb into it. She clenched her teeth and hissed sharply as the orange light flowed from his skin and disappeared into the cut. When he removed his thumb, the skin had healed over and left behind a pink splotch, like an old burn mark.

“I thought Fade took your abilities,” said Haven.

Marius grunted. “It did. This is the new limit of the power. Marius has almost nothing left. He is a walking Band-Aid.”

Haven patted his bald head and he pushed her arm away gently.

“It will scar,” he said, pointing at the healed cut on her arm. “Sorry.” He stood up slowly and stretched his back. “Where is the other guy?”

“Roku?” asked Haven. “I don’t know.”

“Well,” said Marius. “Best we all stay together, yes?” He turned and left the chopper.

“Hey!” shouted Bastian. “What about me?!”

Marius ignored him and followed a set of footprints leading away from the helicopter.

Inside, Haven unbuckled both of her belts and stood up. One side of the chopper was now the floor, and the other the ceiling. She stepped over debris on her way to the cockpit. Behind her, the entire back third of the helicopter had been ripped off. She looked back and saw a small silhouette of crumpled metal in the distance where the chopper had first hit the ground. A long trench had been carved into the hard earth as the body of the chopper scraped over the desert floor.

Haven leaned against the pilot’s chair and watched Bastian struggle to free his legs.

“How’s it going?” she asked.

“Oh, you know, just hanging out, crushed by a bloody helicopter. This is probably the worst day of my life. Wait—no, let me think. Yep. Yeah, this is it. This is the worst.”

“How do you think I feel?” asked Haven. “First the plane crash and now this.”

He smiled. “Guess you need new friends.”

“Tell me about it.” She poked the bent piece of hull below the instrument panel that pinned Bastian’s lower body to his chair. “I could try to melt you out,” she said.

“Are ye daft?” His Scottish accent was thick with agitation. “Ye’ll melt me own legs off! Go and find Roku, he can help.”

“You’re kind of bossy when you’re in a jam,” said Haven with a smile.

Bastian opened his mouth to say something else but Haven was already out of the chopper. She could dimly see Marius standing a short distance away, looking toward the dark horizon. Next to him was Roku, still as a statue. He seemed unharmed by the crash. Haven wondered if he had somehow managed to use his Conduit power to absorb and deflect the force of the impact.

“What is it?” she asked as she stood on the other side of Marius.

“The facility,” he said. “Roku says it is not far now.”

Haven squinted into the darkness and saw nothing but the faint outlines of several small mountains. “Bastian is still stuck,” she said.

Roku sighed and walked back to the chopper with Haven close behind.

“Finally!” said Bastian. “What have you been doing out there, anyway?”

“We are close,” said Roku.

“Well, let’s get moving!” said Bastian. He looked at Haven and nodded toward Roku. “Hit him with it.”

“With what?” asked Haven.

“Give him your best shot, let’s go. Light him up. He’ll take it in and push this mess right off.”

Haven looked at Roku warily. He nodded. “You’re sure?” she asked.

Bastian slapped his palms on the instrument panel. “Well, I don’t want to sit here for the rest of my life, now do I?!”

Haven took a step back. Roku planted his feet firmly on the floor of the chopper, right next to Bastian.

Haven closed her eyes and waited. Her mind went blank and she imagined a giant sphere of blue flame—a star that was her own source of energy. It appeared in the distance as it always did, only now, after a year of practice, she was able to bring it closer much faster than she once could.

The ball of blue fire shot toward her, growing rapidly in her mind. It stopped and hovered close, slowly turning on its axis, the blue plasma swirling over its surface like flowing lava. Haven drew on its energy. She forced the power into her veins and felt it growing between her shoulder blades. Warmth cascaded throughout her body, heating her cool skin. It moved quickly out to her shoulders and down her arms. It pooled in her clenched fists, and her palms grew hot with raw energy. She felt her wings spreading from her back, unfolding and stretching wide.

Somewhere, as if from a great distance away, she heard Bastian say, “Roku, I hope you’re ready for this, mate.”

Haven opened her eyes and the world was painted blue. The fire consumed her vision and everything she saw danced behind the blue flames that covered her entire body. The very tips of her energy wings burned through the hull of the chopper as she stood in its center.

With a final nod from Roku, she let loose.

A brilliant stream of searing hot plasma erupted from her outstretched hands. The energy hit Roku square in the chest and sent him flying through the cockpit window. He soared twenty feet away and hit the ground at a tumble.

“Woooo-hoooo!” shouted Bastian.

The blue fire dissipated instantly. Haven ran outside and knelt down next to Roku.

“I’m so sorry!” she said quickly. “I didn’t mean to let that much go! I guess I—I didn’t have as much control as I thought.”

She helped him roll onto his back. He coughed out a mouthful of sand and groaned as if he had been hit by a cement truck. Smoke billowed up from his clothes and Haven wafted it away. “Well,” he said weakly, “you’ve had a lot on your mind recently. Quick, help me back to the helicopter. I can’t hold this much energy for long.”

Blue flame erupted on Roku’s hands and slowly crawled over his body. He kept his fists clenched tightly as Haven helped him to the chopper. She guided him to stand next to Bastian, then took a few steps back.

“I’m ready,” said Bastian.

Roku took a deep breath and the blue flames covering his skin vanished. He yelled once, a sharp cry of concentration, and struck the instrument panel with an open palm. It was like a sledgehammer hitting a wall with full force. A visible wave of air pushed in front of Roku’s fist as it slammed into the panel. The wave transferred into the chopper and ran over the surface of the panel like ripples through water. It cracked in a hundred places, exposing the dented hull that was pinning Bastian’s legs. The helicopter groaned with the force of the impact.

Bastian twisted in his seat and was able to move slightly, but he was still trapped.

“Almost got it,” he said.

Roku brought his fist back again, and with another sharp yell, struck the exposed metal hull. It crumpled at the point of impact. His fist sank deep into the middle, crunching it as if he were punching a cardboard box.

Bastian scrambled away from the instrument panel and fell to the floor, panting heavily. Roku sat next to him, eyes closed, sweat dripping from his face. Bastian laughed and slapped him on the shoulder, but Roku did not respond.

“Is he okay?” asked Haven.

“He will be,” said Bastian. He ran his hands over his own legs, checking for injuries. “Takes a while to recover from something like that, especially if you two weren’t ‘meant for each other’, as I like to say. And from the looks of the dose you gave him, I wouldn’t be surprised if he was a bit dazed for another month!” He stood up and gave her a quick hug. “Thank you,” he said, and left the chopper.

Haven knelt down next to Roku and rested her hand on his shoulder. He barely opened his eyes and looked at her. She smiled at him and he blinked heavily. Haven followed Bastian outside. He stood next to Marius, looking into the distance.

“You’re lucky you are not more injured,” Marius said to Bastian. “Marius can only do cuts now. Easy to cauterize. But severed limbs is not so good.”

“Nice to have a someone around who can handle a patch job, anyway,” said Bastian. He slapped Marius on the back and stood next to him, grinning.

“Why so happy?” asked Marius.

“Just glad to be alive. Not sure how much longer it will last, but it’s good for now, at least.”

“Where are we?” asked Haven.

“Two hundred miles east of Dome,” said Marius. “North of Billings, if Marius read his map correctly.”

“That’s right,” said Bastian. “Middle of blessed nowhere. Ever notice that’s where all the bad guys like to do business? Why couldn’t they own a factory in Paris or Fiji, you know? It had to be a desert in Montana.”

“We should get moving,” said Haven. “If there was a tracking device in the chopper, they’ll know where we crashed.”

“I bet they know anyway,” said Marius. “It was remote control that shut down the chopper. There was nothing Marius could do.”

“They cut the engine from way back at the Dome?” asked Haven.

“Is the only possibility,” said Marius. “We had plenty of fuel. Equipment in the chopper was good.”

“I’ll get Roku,” said Haven, and turned to walk back to the helicopter.

“Give him another minute,” said Bastian. “He’ll need his strength for what’s ahead.”

Haven looked at the horizon. A cold wind blew across the desert and chilled her skin. A light haze of steam rose from her body as the warmth from her fire evaporated. “What’s ahead?” she asked.

“Nothing good. Nothing good at all.”

20

Colton awoke on the floor of Marius and Corva’s dormitory cell. The room was shaped like a giant pill, with rusty metal walls and a submarine door. His cheek peeled off the cold metal floor as he sat up and looked around. Corva slept on her own bed next to the extra cots that had been shoved into the room after Kamiko’s occupation. The medical center refugees were all unconscious on the extra cots, twitching feverishly. Privacy was a thing of the past in the Dome. Soldiers were stationed everywhere, even outside the bathrooms. None of the inhabitants could ever really be alone.

Colton stood hesitantly, with a hand hovering over his broken rib, waiting for the pain to return. It never did. He stood up and stretched his back, then swung his arms back and forth. He took a deep breath—no pain. Someone must have healed him while he slept. Colton lifted his shirt and looked at the skin over his ribs. A large purple bruise covered his entire right side, but it didn’t hurt when he pushed it hard. He felt along his ribs beneath his skin—perfectly intact.

Corva sniffed and shifted on her cot. Her short, stark-white hair fell over her eyes and she mumbled in her sleep. Colton walked to the cot and sat on the edge. He pulled the thin blanket a little higher to cover her shoulders and noticed the layer of sweat that covered her skin. She was shivering.

He searched the room and came back with two more thin blankets, then unfolded both and draped them over Corva. She sighed weakly and her eyelids fluttered open. Her pupils were dilated wide, and did not adjust to the light. She squinted as if it hurt her to keep them open, then turned away to face the wall.

“Where is everyone?” she whispered. Her voice was scratched and weak, as if she had been screaming for hours. Colton knew that wasn’t the case. He knew she had been sleeping most of the time since being injected with Fade. It worked its dark poison on Corva faster than it had on the others. Black veins crawled up from the base of her neck, reaching up toward her jaw like the dead branches of a naked tree.

“They’re probably getting something to eat,” said Colton. The dormitory rooms had been ideal for housing the Dome’s inhabitants. Kamiko and her soldiers could lock the doors from the outside and keep up to six people in each room. There was only one exit between the dormitories and the rest of the Dome: a long hallway that led past the kitchen. It was guarded at all times by three heavily-armed soldiers.

“I was having a very nice talk with Micah and Noah earlier,” said Corva. She coughed and closed her eyes.

“How are they holding up?” asked Colton. He had been concerned for the boys ever since Kamiko and her soldiers arrived. It took a little getting used to, but Micah and Noah seemed to be adjusting well to the new circumstances after their initial sickness wore off—better than most of the adults, in fact.

“They are boys,” said Corva. “To Micah, it is still not very different from a game. But Noah understands. He misses his sister.” Suddenly her back arched and she cried out in pain. Her knuckles turned bone-white as she grabbed at the covers and twisted them until she ripped out a small patch of cloth. She brought the patch to her mouth and bit down on it to muffle a scream.

Colton put his hand on her shoulder and she relaxed a little, breathing heavily. Strands of white hair clung to her sweaty forehead. She shivered constantly.

“I miss Marius,” she said distantly. A moment later, her breathing slowed and she fell asleep. Colton readjusted the blankets and brushed her hair back from her forehead.

It was rare for a Source and a Conduit who were meant for each other—true counterparts—to end up together. Corva and Marius were lucky in that regard. It saddened Colton to know that only a tiny fraction of those like him would ever find the person who could unlock the full potential of their ability. Those Colton knew who had yet to find their counterparts were not weak at all, so Colton supposed fulfillment was all a matter of perspective. Dormer had gone his whole life without finding his Source and he was the strongest Conduit Colton had ever met, aside from Bernam. But Bernam had been a Void—the strongest of his kind.

Now the Void power resided in Alistair, who murdered Bernam so he could turn himself into a Nova. Colton stood from Corva’s cot and looked at the survivors from Bernam’s medical facility. They lay curled up and shivering, black veins crawling over their skin.

How do you fight back against such a ruthless enemy? thought Colton. The voice in his head that answered was his mother’s: Any way you can.

He tried to remember what was in his own dorm cell. It had been cleared of everything he might use to cause a problem for Kamiko and her lackeys. All he had left was a stack of wrinkled clothes and some pictures of his mother he had retrieved from his old house long ago. He had an urge to go back to his room and flip through them but decided it wasn’t the time for sadness and regret.

Now he needed to focus.

He went to the door and stood before it, studying the large, rusted wheel in its center. The wheel was connected to metal bars that went out to both sides of the door, sealing it closed. If he spun the wheel, the metal bars would shift inward a few inches, clearing the welded braces on both sides of the door.

Colton spun the wheel and was completely surprised when the door swung inward without any sort of resistance. He poked his head out into the dark hallway, expecting one of Kamiko’s soldiers to come running at any second, waving his rifle at Colton and yelling at him to get back inside.

No one appeared. The hallway was empty. Colton stepped out of his room and shut the door behind him. To his right was the end of the hallway and the sealed door to another dorm cell. To his left, the hallway continued, eventually passing the kitchen. Directly across the hall from Colton was the door to another room, and he stepped quietly over to it and rapped lightly on its metal surface. There was no answer from within, so he spun the outer wheel and pushed in the door. It made a soft squeak as it opened. Dormer and Adsen turned quickly to look at him. The two men visibly relaxed when they saw who it was.

The dorm cell was laid out exactly as Marius and Corva’s, with several cots pushed closely together around the walls. The place had been sanitized: anything that could be mildly considered as a weapon had been hauled away.

Dormer and Adsen sat in the middle of the room, hovering conspiratorially over a small wooden table that was covered with loose papers. At a quick glance, Colton saw building blueprints and what looked like molecular diagrams.

“The doors are unlocked,” said Colton, unsure of what else to say.

Dormer nodded. “They’re watching the end of the hall. They don’t seem to mind if we wander around this area by ourselves. For now.” He looked awkward sitting in such a short chair next to the table. He was a tall, thin man with slicked-back hair and a thick Adam’s apple that bobbed up and down when he spoke. Colton was often reminded of a bird; Dormer blinked often and moved his head in quick jerks when he was excited.

Adsen was similar, yet much different. He sat across the table from his brother and carried the weight of a man who had endured much pain. Colton knew they were fraternal twins, yet Adsen looked decades older. His hair was thinning and the dark circles under his eyes bespoke the months of torture he endured at Bernam’s medical facility. Still, his eyes were keen and bright, and Colton saw a deep intelligence when the man turned to look his way.

“Please, won’t you join us?” he asked. His voice had a slight British tone, very proper, and one that Colton had never before detected in Dormer. He wondered how much time the brothers had spent apart from each other as children. Colton found a wooden box crate next to one of the cots and pulled it over to the table. He sat between the two men and looked at the papers.

One was a top-down layout of the entire Dome facility. Little black X marks had been scratched in various locations, and next to each was a duration of time written out in minutes, such as “:15” and “:40”.

“What are those?” asked Colton.

“Shift times,” said Dormer. “The duration a soldier stays in one location.”

“You’re keeping track of their movements,” said Colton. Faint pencil lines followed one X to the other, and he realized that the lines were the exact paths the soldiers took throughout the Dome. Adsen and Dormer had meticulously tracked their schedules and movements down to the precise minute. His hopes sank when he realized the pattern in their timing. “Some of them only stay in one spot for five minutes,” he said.

Dormer nodded. “They are infuriatingly efficient. Probably ex-military.”

“What are you going to do?”

Adsen sighed. “We don’t know. Yet. But we’ve identified the perfect window of five minutes where we could do something.”

“There are twelve soldiers,” said Dormer, “plus the evil Queen Bee. Without our abilities, a proper coup is impossible.”

Adsen smiled. “A little optimism goes a long way, brother.”

“You’re one to talk. They had you locked up in that medical facility for months, draining the life out of you.”

“And I never gave up hope that you would get me out.”

Dormer clenched his teeth and looked down at the papers. Colton remembered how angry Dormer had been when Elena and the others in the Dome would only go to the medical facility after Haven’s brother had been kidnapped. Adsen had rotted there for months, and Dormer had to endure that knowledge until he was finally able to go to his rescue.

“What’s the rest of this stuff?” asked Colton. He lifted the edge of a sheet of paper and saw images taken through a microscope that showed bacteria of some kind. Calculations and long strings of chemical sequences were scribbled under the images in an unsteady hand.

Adsen quickly plucked the sheet of paper away and tucked it into his pants pocket. “Something I have been working on for quite some time, and something I am not quite ready to share with the world.”

“Kamiko wants me to make sure everyone cooperates,” said Colton. “She said she wants to leave here as soon as possible.”

“Why?”

Colton spoke in a near-whisper. “I think she wants to kill Haven.”

21

Adsen and Dormer were silent for a long time, lost in their own thoughts. Colton let them think, waiting impatiently. Eventually, Dormer looked up, clear understanding in his eyes.

“Haven and Kamiko both share the blue flame.”

“Yes…” said Colton, unsure about where he was heading.

“Extraordinarily rare,” said Adsen, “for two Sources of the same color to find each other, let alone exist at the same time.”

“Well, the colors aren’t exactly the same,” said Colton.

“And for one to be hunting the other…” said Dormer. He trailed off, mumbling to himself.

Colton suddenly understood. “Kamiko wants to make sure there is no one else who could inherit the Phoenix energy if she dies.”

Adsen nodded gravely. “That hypothesis would seem to fit the facts.”

“Would it go back into her if she died and there was no one else with blue flame? She would be immortal!”

“We can’t know for sure.”

“How many more are there?” asked Colton. “Other people with blue flame?”

“Your guess is as good as mine,” said Dormer. “Phoenix are always female, just as the Void is always male. We have no direct idea how many others like us are out there in the world, and for even two to have the same color flame—”

“Three hundred,” said Adsen.

“Three hundred what?”

“That’s how many of us there are in the world. Give or take a few.”

“How could you possibly know that?” asked Dormer. He stared at his brother in disbelief.

“Although it shames me to admit it,” said Adsen, “population measurement of our own kind was one of my directives while I was a captive at the medical facility. It was tricky at first, nearly impossible, but then the patterns began to reveal themselves.”

“What patterns?” asked Colton. He sat on the edge of his wooden crate, leaning forward eagerly.

“Old patterns. Population booms in specific areas where…where terrible things would later happen.”

“Not this again,” said Dormer dismissively. He stood up from his chair and crossed his arms. He paced around the room, shaking his head.

“I didn’t believe it at first, either,” said Adsen. His face flushed with embarrassment. “But then the patterns grew too clear to ignore. Something terrible is going to happen, which is why there are so many of us in the world.”

“Three hundred doesn’t seem like a lot,” said Colton.

“Normally, you would be right. But three hundred of our kind? Just imagine all the laws of nature that were shattered to bring us into existence! It’s quite remarkable when you—”

Dormer cleared his throat.

Adsen’s face flushed and he swallowed hard. “Right, sorry. As I was saying, I wouldn’t be surprised to learn there were less than fifty of us during peaceful times, but now, with something dreadful on the horizon…” His voice broke off and he shuffled through his papers. He muttered numbers and fragmented thoughts until he finally fell silent and looked as if he forgot what he was saying.

“How did you find them?” asked Colton, trying to bring Adsen back from his own mind. The tall, lanky man shook his head and turned away. Tears welled in his eyes.

Dormer took notice and recognized something in his brother’s face that Colton could not. He knelt down next to Adsen and rested a hand on his brother’s shoulder.

“How did you find them, Addy?”

Adsen closed his eyes and tears squeezed out. He clutched anxiously at his scraggy beard and his words tumbled out in half-sobs. “It was the boy. Bernam cut him open and he—he told me to figure out how a Nova could locate every Source and Conduit around the globe.”

“You mean Noah?” asked Colton, “Haven’s brother?”

Adsen shook his head gravely. “The one before him. The other boy. He was a Nova as well.”

Dormer pulled his hand away from Adsen’s shoulder. The look he had recognized on his brother’s face, the look that Colton was just beginning to recognize, was shame.

Adsen sobbed loudly but was determined to continue, to confess his dark sin. “With Noah, Bernam wanted to know how our kind worked, how we are able to do the things we do. He wanted a scientific reason for our existence. But with the boy he took before Noah, Bernam had a very specific method. The boy needed to be alive for me to tap into his ability to locate everyone like us. Every Source, every Conduit. Some Phoenix have that ability, but every Nova does. Every pure Nova, anyway. And Alistair is no pure Nova. That’s why it took him so long to find this place, especially after I stopped my work.” He took a deep breath and his body shook from his sobs. “When they brought Noah in, I refused to be a part of it. I was treated with vile cruelty, until finally I could no longer walk and they strapped me to a table and sedated me until near-death. That is where you found me, brother.”

Dormer’s voice was low and full of disgust. “Well, now we know how they found us, don’t we? You could have warned us when you woke up. Instead you lied, and now look what’s happened. I can’t believe you did that, Addy.”

Adsen lowered his head and closed his eyes. “Neither can I.”

“What happened to him?” asked Dormer. “The other boy.”

Adsen could not answer. He covered his face with his hands and wept. Dormer’s eyes filled with inky blackness, and the single light in the ceiling dimmed. Colton stood up, knocking back his wooden crate.

Dormer still had his ability. Colton was about to ask how that was possible when the door quickly opened and a soldier stepped into the room. He aimed his rifle at Adsen’s head. The darkness faded instantly from Dormer’s eyes as he looked at Colton. He brought his finger to his mouth and made a shushing motion.

Brightness returned to the overhead light as two more soldiers entered the room and aimed their guns at Dormer and Colton. The first soldier stepped forward and lifted Adsen from his chair by his shirt-collar.

“Time to get to work, Doctor,” said the soldier. His voice came out as a garbled, mechanical growl—some kind of voice-masking apparatus was built into his rebreather.

Dormer took a step forward and the soldier closest to him swung the butt of his rifle. It hit Dormer’s temple with a sharp CRACK and sent him sprawling to the ground. Adsen was pushed from the room and the soldiers retreated. The door closed behind them, leaving Colton and Dormer in silence.

22

Sand crunched under Haven’s shoes as she followed Bastian and Roku. They walked side by side, silent, heads down except for the occasional glance forward. The dim, black outline of a building had appeared in the distance, growing larger with every step. The compound must have been massive, for Haven could tell they were still a couple of miles away and the building occupied a sizable chunk of the horizon.

Marius walked next to her, frowning in deep thought. He scratched at his unshaven neck; at the faint black veins that were slowly creeping over his throat. His balding head shone softly in the moonlight.

“I wouldn’t worry about Corva,” said Haven, guessing at the thoughts that occupied his mind. When he looked over at her quickly, she saw she had guessed correctly. “She’s very strong, and she will wait for you.”

Marius shook his head and looked down at his own feet as he walked. “Maybe not strong enough for this,” he said softly. “Marius is beginning to think he should have stayed with her.”

“You can do the most good here,” said Haven. “With me.”

He smiled weakly, but there was no feeling behind it. Ahead, Bastian squealed and there was a soft whumph of air from Roku’s fist. A circular patch of sand sank down into the ground, as if it had been suddenly pressed down by the foot of an invisible elephant.

“Thanks,” said Bastian. He shuddered and continued walking. Haven passed the round depression and saw a flattened scorpion in the middle.

“Where are you getting your energy?” Haven asked Roku.

“Moonlight,” he said, and pointed up into the night sky. “Takes a while.”

Bastian grinned. “Full moons are just perfect for that steady flow.” He looked around at each member of the group. “Strange for there to be just one Con in a crowd full of Sources. Bloody rare, is what it is.”

“Why are there so many more Conduits in the first place?” asked Haven.

“I was hoping you knew,” said Bastian.

“Don’t you have a theory?”

He grinned again. Haven wondered why his face hadn’t yet permanently frozen in that expression. “Who doesn’t?” he said. “I think it has something to do with balance. Sources actually create the energy out of nowhere, which violates the natural order to begin with.” He jabbed a thumb toward Roku. “All the Cons do is move that energy around. They just pick it right up and set it down someplace else. They’re not actually affecting much in the grand order of things. I think it takes a lot more for a Source to come into existence, so it doesn’t happen very often. It’s almost like a miracle.”

“You believe in miracles?” asked Haven.

“I’m hoping to see a few tonight,” he said. She thought he was joking until she saw the look of worry on his face.

Before she could ask him what was wrong, Roku stopped and held up his arm for them to wait. Ahead in the darkness, a large truck drove on a dirt road next to the sprawling building. Its headlights flashed over them as it turned. They quickly ducked to the ground. The truck paused for a moment and the driver got out. He took a few steps toward them, squinting into the night. He unclipped a flashlight from his vest and shone it directly at them, but they were too far away and its beam was so weak that it died well before it reached their position.

The guard lingered for a moment until another passenger in the truck spoke to him. The driver laughed and got back into the truck, then drove farther down the dirt road until all Haven could see was a pair of dim red taillights growing fainter until they finally disappeared.

Bastian breathed out a heavy sigh of relief. “Close one,” he said.

Haven eased forward and saw that they were sitting at the rounded peak of a long, low dune that ran all the way down to the dirt road next to the building. The structure itself was enormous, a collection of warehouses that had been roofed together to create a single Frankenstein compound. Black smoke belched from exhaust towers that stuck up from the uneven roof in all four corners of the palatial fortress.

Armed guards stood watch at each entrance point. Bright halogen lamps illuminated every square inch of the compound, turning night into day. More trucks lumbered around the side of the building, some carrying large crates spray-painted with words like DANGER and POISON. Others carried huge tanks filled with sloshing liquid. Doors opened and closed all over the complex, admitting trucks and armed guards.

From where Haven was sitting, the whole operation looked like a living, breathing organism.

“Hmm,” said Bastian thoughtfully. “Might be a bit harder than I originally thought.”

Marius looked at him with a scowl.

“Alistair is in there somewhere?” asked Haven.

“Him, or someone who knows where he is,” said Bastian.

“What if he isn’t? You said this place could lead us to the cure.”

Roku turned around. “Are we going to sit here all night talking?”

Bastian smiled. “I’d like to hear how you plan on getting inside the building. If you think we’re wasting our time—” Roku stood up and walked toward the complex before Bastian could finish. “Hey!” Bastian whispered sharply. “Hey!”

But Roku ignored him. He crouched low as he walked quickly down the dune toward the building.

“What do we do?!” asked Haven.

“We go,” said Marius. He stood and followed after Roku.

“Guess that settles it,” said Bastian. He left Haven alone at the top of the dune and went after Marius.

She sat there for a moment, sputtering to form a sentence that would bring them all back. Eventually she could only mumble, “A plan would have been nice,” and ran quickly after the others.

There were no guards on top of the building, and no alarms were raised as they approached the dirt road. Roku picked a large boulder some yards away and moved toward it with surprising speed. He crouched low behind it and gestured for the others to follow.

The section of wall closest to them was not quite as busy as the rest of the perimeter, but there were still a fair amount of trucks entering and leaving the doors nearby. The two armed guards at each entrance checked the trucks before they drove into the building.

“Well?!” said Bastian, turning to Roku. “What’s your big plan, genius?”

Roku did not answer. The group sat waiting, still as stones, as truck after truck passed by on the other side of the boulder. Haven saw one coming that carried six large, square plastic containers on the back bed. The bright lights from the building on the other side of the opaque containers would have silhouetted their contents, but the containers were empty. The driver was alone in the cab.

“That one,” she said in a whisper, pointing at the truck.

Roku nodded. When the truck slowly drove past the boulder, he stepped right up to the driver’s door, shielded from the warehouse guards’ view by the truck itself. He quickly opened the door as the truck lurched to a stop and put his hand over the driver’s throat before he could call for help.

“You know what I am,” said Roku.

The driver nodded, fighting for breath as Roku squeezed harder on his throat. He wore a beige jacket and a small green hat that lay tilted haphazardly from his struggle against Roku’s grip. The driver’s eyes blackened.

“Then you know what I can do. You will help us, or you will die.”

The driver did not need to be convinced. He nodded vigorously and when Roku released him, he choked out the words, “The tanks. Get into the tanks.”

“They will check them,” said Marius, who stood next to Roku.

“Only the manifest,” said the driver, pointing to a book on his dashboard. “No physical inspections of unused containers.”

Each container was shaped like a squat, square jar with a single screw cap on top. Bastian and Marius went to the first three behind the driver’s side and carefully turned them over so the screw caps faced outward. Haven stood close to Roku, watching the guards next to the building. The two standing by the nearest door were shouting with one of the drivers about the contents of his truck and had yet to notice the stalled vehicle out by the big boulder.

“What about you?” asked the driver.

Roku smiled at him. “I ride with you,” he said. “Give me your hat.”

The driver pulled off his small green cap and handed it over.

“Your jacket, too.”

Roku forced the driver to stand outside while he crawled into the cab. The whole ordeal would have been a lot easier if he could have walked around to the other side of the truck and use the passenger door, but that side was fully exposed to the warehouse guards.

Roku grunted as he scooted over the center console and sat low in the passenger’s seat. The driver plopped down next to him, sweating profusely.

“It will never work,” he said. “There are too many guards.”

“It’s working so far,” said Haven. She smiled at Roku, hoping it would give him courage, if he needed any. She closed the driver’s door and walked to the back of the truck. Marius was wiggling through the hole of one of the containers, his thick legs kicking wildly as he struggled to pull himself all the way in.

“He’s stuck on his belly,” said Bastian, not bothering to hide his amusement.

Marius’s protruding stomach had in fact proven to be something of a stopper as he entered the container. He spoke violent Russian from within the tank and sounded like he was inside a fishbowl. Haven guessed he was cursing Bastian for the slap on the rear he had just given Marius as he squirmed.

“Grab a leg,” said Bastian. He took hold of Marius’s right leg and Haven grabbed the left. They did a silent count of three and then pushed as hard as they could. With a hollow phonk, Marius popped into the tank and landed on the bottom. He groaned and rolled over onto his back.

Bastian picked up the screw cap lid and twisted it into place. “Have to hurry,” he said. “Our air won’t last long.”

He laced his fingers together and boosted Haven up into the next container. She slid in far more gracefully than Marius, easily clearing the sides of the hole. Bastian’s face appeared at the opening.

“All set?” he asked. Haven nodded and he threaded the cap and gave it a light slap to let her know he was done.

The empty tank next to hers shifted slightly, and she heard Bastian drop down inside. Somehow he had managed to keep one hand out of the tank and hold on to the lid, because a second later she heard it spinning into place.

The truck lurched into gear and they were moving.

The only thing Haven could see was the occasional passing light. It was like looking at the sun through a thick white blanket. She kept waiting for the truck to stop but it didn’t. They had been driving for too long, far too long, when it suddenly halted and she slid to the front of the container and bumped lightly against the plastic wall. She lay as flat as possible, knowing that if any bright lights were shone directly onto her tank, anyone standing on the other side would easily see her silhouette.

Men were talking. One was the driver, speaking quickly in clipped sentences. Haven thought he sounded too nervous and for a moment she was afraid it would be enough to tip off the guards. Maybe that was just the way he spoke, though, when he didn’t have a hand on his throat. Another man asked him questions. His voice was muffled and Haven couldn’t make out the words.

Suddenly there was a knock on her tank and she almost screamed. She saw a dark blur walk past her container and hit the next one down the line.

The driver spoke calmly, pleadingly, and his tone suggested he just wanted to finish his shift so he could go home and relax. The dark blur came back to stand in front of Haven’s container and slapped it roughly three more times. The driver asked if everything was okay and Haven held her breath, waiting for a reply. When it finally came, she heard the guard very clearly: “Someone’s in here.”

23

Dormer picked up the papers from the rickety wooden table in the center of the room and rolled them together. He slipped the roll into an inside coat pocket and smiled at Colton.

“Hungry?” he asked.

Colton’s stomach growled at the prospect of a hot meal. It felt like he hadn’t eaten in days, yet food had been the last thing on his mind at that moment. All he could think about was Adsen’s unceremonious departure and the door clanging shut behind him.

“There’s nothing to be done at the moment,” said Dormer. “So we might as well keep our strength up.”

“You still have your ability,” said Colton suddenly.

“That’s right, and I’d like to keep it a secret. For now.”

“Does Adsen still have his?”

“Why should he?”

“Because he’s your brother.”

“Even if he was not infected with Fade, he wouldn’t be able to do much, if anything. They completely fried him at the medical facility. I doubt Adsen could harm anyone at this point.” He opened the door. “Coming?”

Colton didn’t move. He was dumbfounded. “Why don’t you fight back? You’re probably the only one here who still has his ability.” His voice was rising but he couldn’t stop it. “Why is everyone suffering if you could—”

“Colton,” said Dormer, interrupting his growing hysteria. “The soldiers are never gathered together at the same time, and neither are we. I could take out a few, or even most, but the rest would have plenty of chances to react and start shooting. And then there’s Kamiko. In a straight-up fight, she would kill me.”

“You don’t know that for sure.”

“I do. I feel it. I’m more sure of that fact than anything else in the world. Which is why we need to wait a little while longer for the perfect moment to strike.”

“You’re afraid?”

“I’m clever. If it made sense to throw my life away for the rest of you, the choice would be easy. But it serves no purpose in our current situation.”

“When do we strike?” asked Colton.

“We’ll recognize the opportunity when we see it.” He gestured to the door and Colton reluctantly stepped out into the hallway.

The kitchen was just down the hall. Colton’s stomach growled again as he approached the doorway. Delicious aromas wafted out into the hallway: spiced meat and vegetables, and something sweet in the mix. Cake? Was someone making cake? The very idea of baked pastries in a hostage situation struck Colton as strange.

Micah was standing on his tiptoes in front of the stove across the room when Colton entered, stirring the contents of a large pot with a wooden spoon. The boy wore an apron that was much too large for his small frame. The bottom of it lay piled over his sneakers like a dropped tablecloth, and the top half hung so low around his neck that it only protected his pants. His shirt was covered with splotches of food. He turned and smiled at Colton.

On a long countertop immediately to the doorway’s right, Noah stood with a big kitchen knife in hand, sloppily chopping up a giant head of lettuce. He smiled, too, when he looked up and saw Colton and Dormer.

“Hi,” he said brightly.

“Hello,” said Colton. Noah seemed to think it was a great reply and went back to chopping.

A timer beeped off to his left and Colton turned as a slender black woman opened an oven door, only to be greeted by a billowing cloud of smoke. It roiled out and engulfed her faster than she could get a hand up to waft it away. She coughed and reached into the oven with a mitted hand and retrieved a large, circular tray atop which sat something that Colton assumed was supposed to be cake.

He hurried over and closed the oven door as she turned away to set down the tray.

“Oh, thank you!” she said, still waving away the cloud of smoke. Her voice was laced with a very faint French accent. “I guess I set the timer too long.”

“It’s calibrated wrong,” said Colton. “Best to set it ten minutes under and check it manually until it’s done.”

The woman set down the tray and pulled the oven mitt off her hand. She stood with one hand on her hip and blew a strand of loose hair away from her eyes. “Wish I would have known that before making dessert,” she said without a hint of frustration. She was perhaps thirty-five, although her time spent at the medical facility had apparently added a few years to her dark, pretty features. Her brown, curly hair was pulled back in a tight ponytail and she reached up to tuck an errant strand back in place, then offered Colton her hand.

“I’m June,” she said.

They shook hands. “I’m Colton. We met when you first arrived from the medical facility.”

Her good humor faded slightly. She dropped his hand and picked up the cake tray. “I don’t remember much about those days, I’m afraid. To tell you the truth, I’m just now starting to figure out where I am. When I first got here, was I—” She paused, searching for the words. “Was I in bad shape?”

“About the same as the others,” said Colton. “A little more awake, I think.”

“You’ve probably told me this before, but how many of us were there?”

“Twenty-eight originally. Most of them left when they recovered enough to remember who they were and where they came from.” He looked over at Dormer, who had joined Micah at the stove and was talking the boy into letting him sample what was in the pot. “Now there’s just you and a few others.”

She walked the cake tray over to the island in the middle of the room and set it down next to a container of homemade icing.

“I imagine one of them told Alistair where to find this place.”

“I think that’s what happened, too.”

She unscrewed the lid of the container and stuck a butter knife into the icing, then glopped some out onto the slab of cake.

“Shouldn’t you wait until that cools?” asked Colton.

She spread the icing around. “It burns me up that you nice folks did what you did and one of the survivors went and tattled.” She was spreading the icing too roughly and small chunks of the cake broke off and crumbled. “It burns me right up, and I can’t do a thing about it.” June suddenly dropped the knife next to the cake and turned away with her wrist to her nose, stifling a cry. Colton noticed faint black veins covering her forearms. “It was just out of the frying pan and into the fryer for me and the other survivors, wasn’t it?” She wiped her nose and stared at the wall. “I was a chef—well, I am a chef, I guess. Owned my own place on Bourbon Street. That’s all gone now. They set fire to it when they took me.” She shook her head, remembering. “The other ones who came with me from the medical facility, they just want to stay in their rooms and keep their heads down. They think it will all blow over.” June wiped some of the tears from her cheek and looked at her hands, then down at the cake. “I just felt like being normal again, is all. I haven’t cooked since before I was taken.”

Colton tried to find the right words to say, and then he realized there were none.

June turned to him, smiling through teary eyes, and wiped her hands on her shirt. “But we’re going to make the most of it, aren’t we, Colton? Cake for everyone.” She picked up the loose crumbles and pushed them back into the cake, then gently coated them with icing so they would stick.

“Cake for everyone,” he agreed.

Micah trotted over from the stove, carefully keeping his wooden spoon and its contents from spilling. He stood next to June and offered it up to her timidly. She sipped from the ladled end and chewed on it for a minute, Micah watching her the whole time as if his life depended on it.

“C’est magnifique,” she said finally. “Micah, it’s perfect. You have made the best soup in the entire world.”

His face lit up as he hurried back to the stove and turned off the burners. He hoisted the pot aside—with a little help from Dormer—and fanned the soup with an oven mitt, still smiling at his accomplishment.

June sighed. “So what’s next?”

“What do you mean?” asked Colton.

“You know what I mean. Don’t you go planning anything without me, you hear? I’m awake now, and I won’t sit around while those soldiers and that woman march all over the people that saved me from that horrible place.”

Colton thought about telling June that they were never going to plan anything. Maybe then she could stay out of harm’s way. Yet he knew the look in her eyes—it was the same look in Haven’s when she was determined to do something, and good luck to anyone who tried to stop her.

“You’ll be the first one to know,” he said. “I promise.”

June nodded and went back to icing the cake. Colton watched her, admiring her calm beauty. The black, poisoned veins on her forearms faded away as they passed her elbows, but Colton knew they would soon reach all the way up to her shoulders and onto her back.

He had looked at himself in the mirror that morning, peeling off his shirt and gently touching the skin over his ribs. It looked as if someone had taken a pen and sketched out the veins under his skin in dark, bold strokes. They spread like spiderwebs over his back, and soon the veins would cover his entire torso.

The sound of marching boots snapped Colton back to reality. Micah and Noah went to June and she pushed them behind her as five soldiers stomped to a halt in the hallway. Kamiko walked through the middle of them, forcing them aside without a touch. Her eyes were lit up and raged like burning wildfire. She seemed angrier than Colton had ever seen her.

She looked right at him.

“Come with me,” she said. “Now.”

Colton thought about resisting, then looked around the kitchen. Micah and Noah huddled behind June, who stood with her head up and glared directly at Kamiko. Dormer stood by the stove, watching the soldiers, his fists slowly pumping open and closed. Each soldier had a rifle aimed at someone in the kitchen. June and the others would be slaughtered easily if Colton or Dormer put up any kind of a fight.

Colton slowly walked toward Kamiko with his hands up. “I’ll go,” he said.

She grabbed his hair and yanked him out into the hallway. The sudden violence startled him. He yelled and tried to pull her hand away. Lightning crackled from her other palm as she slapped Colton’s face and pushed him to the ground.

“Hey!” shouted Dormer from the kitchen. The rapid clak-CHIK of five rounds feeding into five separate rifle chambers silenced the room.

Colton stood up, rubbing his stung cheek. Kamiko brushed past him and barked an order at the soldiers, who were suddenly on either side of Colton, dragging him out to the main dome room.

24

The truck was moving again, but something was wrong. Haven lay flat as she could on her back in one of the large plastic containers. The dark shapes of men with guns blurred past her outside the truck. Marius and Bastian, each in their own container to either side of her, remained silent.

The driver downshifted and the truck slowed. For a terrifying moment, Haven thought he was driving away from the building. At any second she expected a hail of bullets to rip through the sides of her plastic container, turning her into Swiss cheese. The constant bright light outside her container suddenly dimmed as if a giant curtain had been lowered over the world.

The truck was going into the building. Had the driver somehow managed to talk the guard into letting them pass? Even as the truck came to a stop, Haven knew her hope was foolish. She could hear the guard outside, yelling at the driver. Several more dark shapes approached the truck.

Then she heard Roku speaking, loudly, as if he were standing right outside the containers. He berated the guards for their carelessness and pretended he was doing an inspection of the security around the facility. He had found a particular lack of due diligence in this sector and he held the guards in front of him personally responsible.

There was a hushed murmur as the guards spoke amongst themselves, and then a gun went off.

Haven saw a bright orange crack of muzzle-flash through the opaque plastic wall and her vision turned blue. A guard was stupid enough to spin the cap off her container at that exact moment and got a face full of flame. He screamed and dropped his gun, then stumbled backward and fell motionless to the ground.

Haven let another blast of blue fire turret through the container opening. It shot out through the hole like the fire from a rocket booster, and when it dissipated, she was standing there, fists clenched, wings outstretched behind her back like a burning angel.

The truck driver opened his door and ran out of the building without looking back. Haven and the others were in a small storage room that was sealed off from the rest of the complex. Crates and empty plastic containers were stacked all around the room. There were six guards in a semi-circle around the truck, and three of them dropped their guns when they saw Haven. Roku lay on the ground next to the truck, holding his bleeding side and breathing shallowly. Behind Haven, the caps of two more containers spun off and fell to the ground. Bastian hopped lightly from the opening and in an instant his entire body was alight with pale yellow flame.

The three guards who had managed to keep their guns in hand raised them and fired. Three loud cracks rang out but were silenced by blue and yellow fire. The searing flames from Bastian and Haven consumed the bullets in midair and turned them to ash. A faint smell of gunpowder wafted over Haven as she stood with her feet in a wide stance and let her fire out into the world.

It was a terrible thing.

The deep well of emotion inside of her had finally found an outlet, and the flames gushed forth from her clenched fists, overtaking and extinguishing Bastian’s yellow fire. He stood back as her skin erupted again and again with the blue flame, each small explosion expanding and pushing the enveloping flame farther and farther from her body.

She couldn’t hear her own screams, and was aware that the fire also streamed from her eyes and her open mouth, joining a few feet in front of her to form a solid beam of plasma. Someone grabbed her ankle, and deep inside her mind, amidst the chaos that came from the memories of two murdered parents and the destruction of everything she once thought of as “normal”, Haven heard a voice calling to her. It was the voice of a woman she had never heard, but it was comforting in its earnest plea.

“It’s okay to be angry,” said the soft voice, so full of understanding…and something else. Pain? Regret? “Be still, my child. Be still, and the deep waters of your torment will calm. Find your peace, and save your fight for another day…”

The voice trailed off within Haven’s mind, and with it the blue energy that enveloped her body. The fire died from her eyes and mouth, her wings receded into her back, and she collapsed to the ground, fighting for breath. Sweat beaded from her entire body; her shirt was soaked. The concrete floor smoked beneath her and part of it had melted to form two depressions where her feet had been planted.

Roku let go of her ankle and rested his head on the ground. He pressed his other hand to the gunshot wound in his side. His face was grey from the loss of blood.

“Thank you,” whispered Haven. In that instant she knew that Roku had pushed one of his memories into her mind, just as he had done when he and Bastian were trying to convince her to join them in the hunt for Alistair. She had a brief glimpse of flames, of a house consumed by fire, and of a woman kneeling before Roku, trying to comfort him in his rage.

Bastian stood looking down at Haven, frowning. He helped her to her feet, then knelt down next to Roku.

Marius appeared at Haven’s side and put one hand gently on her shoulder. “Are you alright?” he asked. He sounded like she had just been in a huge accident and he didn’t quite know what to say.

“I’m fine.” She avoided his eye contact and stared down at her feet.

“Marius feels terrible, not being able to help. Maybe without the Fade, you would not have to do so much on your own. Look at me, Haven. Look.”

She turned and looked.

“Marius has never seen a stronger girl—er, woman, than he sees with you. You are capable of so much more, but you have to be careful. It is hard. Marius knows it is hard. But this thing is not just about you. It is about Corva, and Colton, and Noah and Micah and all the others still stuck in the Dome with that Kamikaze woman.”

“Kamiko,” said Haven, and smiled despite her anger.

“Yes, that one. What a name,” said Marius, shaking his head. “The other thing is, if you burn yourself out too quickly, we don’t stand a chance.”

“I understand,” she said. And she did. Haven knew what was at stake and how much everyone in the Dome was depending on her and the others to come back with a cure. The anger that had seeped from her during her rampage had been unknown to her until the moment it flared up and exploded into the world.

She looked at where the guards had been standing and for the first time noticed that all six of them were gone.

“Where’d they go?” she asked.

Bastian ignored her. He took a bottle out of an inner coat pocket and popped the cap, then poured clear liquid over the bullet hole in Roku’s side. The liquid fizzed when it hit his blood and Roku winced in pain.

Haven looked at Marius, but he said nothing. Then she noticed the burn marks on the floor: six pairs of two oval black marks, each one just long enough to match the soles of six pairs of boots. But the boots and the soldiers that had been wearing them were gone.

She put her hands to her mouth, unable to utter a word. Her fingers fluttered over her lips and she smelled fire. She shoved her hands into her pockets with disgust and turned away.

Bastian leaned Roku against a wheel of the truck and inspected his wound.

“Can he heal himself?” asked Marius.

“No,” said Bastian. “We need another Conduit, or some good old-fashioned surgeon’s tools. The bullet is still in there.”

“Here,” said Marius. He produced a butterfly knife from a hidden pocket and tossed it to Bastian. “We don’t have much time.”

Bastian opened the knife with ease and a second later was sterilizing it with yellow flame on the tip of his index finger. Roku grit his teeth in anticipation but lifted his shirt to reveal his wound. Bastian knelt down and, after a nod from Roku, stuck the red-hot blade into the bullet hole. Roku choked back a scream and his skin sizzled as the blade worked its way to the bullet. With a quick flick of the knife, the bullet was out and on the ground in a small pool of Roku’s blood.

Roku collapsed and closed his eyes, breathing deeply.

Bastian stood and tossed the knife back to Marius. “Thanks. He’ll have to work out the rest on his own.” He looked at Haven and the malice in his gaze was clear.

“It’s not my fault he got shot,” she said, far more defensively than she meant. “What’s wrong with you, Bastian?”

Marius grunted. “He is jealous of your ability. His fire was nothing once you really got going.”

“I’m not jealous,” said Bastian. He sounded like he was telling the truth. “I’m angry that it took us so long to cross paths. We could have avoided most of the pain and misery and death that we’ve endured over the years if only you had been there to help us. I’ve never seen anything like it.” He shook his head. “I just don’t understand. What took you long to join the fight? So many people would have been saved.”

“She only found her ability last year,” said Marius. “You remember what that was like? How difficult it was to find where you truly belonged?”

Haven thought about it for a long time, wanting to hate Bastian for blaming her for things she could not control. She didn’t feel as if she had put off any responsibility. She felt like she had done her duty during her time at the Dome, just as she had promised Elena: to watch over her people and keep them safe, not venture out into the world to hunt down a madman that no one could find and that Haven thought was dead to begin with.

Another part of her, however, knew that she could have been doing more. She had heard stories of others in suffering; people like her who did not quite know where to turn. Yet she had been content—no, she had been happy—to live quietly at the Dome with Noah and Colton, and wait for the evil to find her.

Well, it found her, and it hadn’t just been taking it easy while it searched. It had been about its business, murdering others and causing the kind of pain from which a person never recovered. It tore apart homes and families and left its victims bleeding in the streets.

But Haven had been safe; she had managed to stay outside all of that.

Until now.

“I guess I had to save myself first,” she admitted at last, repulsed and relieved at her confession. “I had to make sure that Noah would have as normal a life as I could offer. It wasn’t just me who lost everything when our house burned down. It was him, too.”

“I just wish we would have had you sooner,” said Bastian. He turned back to Roku and helped him to his feet. Color was already returning to his face and he had stopped sweating. Roku gave his arm a test-swivel in its socket and winced at the pain in his side, but then he nodded to let them know he was ready.

“Right, then,” said Bastian, rubbing his hands together. His good humor had returned almost instantly. “Now that we’ve kissed and made up, any suggestions on what we do next?”

Haven looked at him blankly. “I thought you guys had a plan.”

Bastian and Roku exchanged glances.

“Well,” he said, scratching the back of his neck, “to tell you the truth, we never really thought we’d get past the doors.” He laughed, but clammed up when he saw no one else thought it was funny. He cleared his throat. “Right. We think they manufacture Fade somewhere in here, and we know that Alistair spends a great deal of his time overseeing the operations. If we can find a head office or an info kiosk that we could access—”

“Info kiosk?!” bellowed Marius. “This is not downtown mall! We find guard, we squeeze guard, guard talks. Good enough for Marius, good enough for you. Let’s go!” He walked off toward the back of the room before anyone could stop him. “Help look for door!” he shouted, his voice already far away.

“I don’t think he likes me,” said Bastian.

“I think you have other things to worry about right now,” said Haven, then walked away to find a path into the vast complex.

25

Colton thought they were dragging him out to be executed. Two soldiers had death-grips on his arms and were carrying him backward out of the hallway that led away from the dormitories and into the dome room. His heels scraped lightly on the floor and his arms burned where the soldiers crushed his biceps. Three more soldiers walked behind him, rifles held ready for any trouble. Kamiko walked farther back, eyes smoldering with intense blue plasma, like small stars set into her skull.

The soldiers turned right out of the hallway entrance and followed the dome room wall until they reached the door to the water processing room. Without a word, they dumped Colton on the floor, then stood back, leaving a clear path for Kamiko.

The ground crackled with electricity as she floated over to him, her feet hovering inches above the concrete. The ends of her black hair lifted away from her body and swayed like drunken snakes around her head.

“The Doctor is not cooperating,” hissed Kamiko. She reached down and grabbed Colton’s jaw, then drew him close. “For every hour he wastes, I will kill a hostage.” She watched his face to gauge his reaction. It took everything he had to show none. “Starting with the boys.”

Colton could barely control the twitch in his arms, the impulse to reach out for her and clap his palms to her temples—to drain the life from her so no one else would ever be hurt again. But he had no ability. His power was gone.

Kamiko saw the look of hopelessness in his eyes and smirked. She pushed his face away and he fell against the door.

“Convince him it is in everyone’s best interest for him to proceed with his work.”

“You don’t have to do this,” said Colton suddenly.

Kamiko hissed again, an animal sound that was a vicious complement to her bared teeth. The dark blue flames in her eyes dimmed momentarily, just long enough for Colton to see the eyes of a human—a real person. He thought he caught a flash of doubt.

Then the flames returned, more intense than ever, and the human was gone. “You have ten hours,” she said. “Get me what I want, or everyone dies.”

She walked away without looking back. Three of the soldiers followed her across the dome room toward the Grove. Two stayed behind to guard the door to the water processing room. Colton waited to see if they would try to hurt him, but they simply stood like statues on either side of the door, looking out into the middle of the room.

Colton touched his jaw where Kamiko had grabbed him and felt the warmth from her palm, still glowing on his skin as if he had stood too close to a heat lamp. After she disappeared into the Grove with the three soldiers, Colton pushed open the door to the water processing room.

Adsen was off to one side, eyes closed, sitting on a wooden barstool with his head leaned against one of the metal water tanks. The tanks stood vertically around the room, lining the walls like pillars, connected by pipes and humming equipment that purified the drinking water and fed it out to the Dome.

The center of the room had been turned into a science lab, with all kinds of brand new equipment set up on shiny aluminum tables. The only piece of equipment Colton halfway recognized was something that looked like a chemistry set he used in one of his high school classes. Empty beakers and vials sat glistening in wireframe holders over new Bunsen burners. Sealed gallon jugs of various chemicals were lined up beneath the tables, most of them labeled with large skull-and-crossbones.

It looked like a mad-scientist’s play-set.

“I heard everything,” said Adsen, his voice croaking. He opened his eyes to look at Colton. “She’s an evil woman, isn’t she?”

“She’ll do it,” said Colton. “She will kill everyone in here.”

“Don’t I know it,” said Adsen. “If she runs with Alistair, she would have to constantly prove she wasn’t too weak for the job.”

Colton picked up an empty vial and held it to the light. “What does she want you to do?”

Adsen sighed. “She wants me to perfect death.”

“By increasing the lethality of Fade?”

“Precisely.” Adsen scratched at his beard. With his receding hairline and sharp widow’s peak, he looked like a version of his brother that had been shipwrecked on a deserted island for ten years and finally rescued, just without the suntan. Adsen’s skin was sickly pale, as if he were suffering from a bad case of the flu.

“Why do they want to make it deadlier? I would think it’s bad enough already.”

Adsen smiled weakly. “It’s never bad enough for someone like Alistair. Tell me, if you were planning on taking over the world, wouldn’t it be easier to eliminate your adversaries before they knew you were a threat? I imagine it bothers him that a small percentage of our population is immune to the current version of Fade. He wants to rule out any margin for error.”

Colton set down the vial. “What do you mean, ‘take over the world’? There’s no way Alistair is powerful enough for that.”

“He is if there are no more people like us. If he wipes out all of us quietly, in a way that would never alert anyone, all he has to do is simply step out of the shadows and declare himself King.”

“People would fight back. Regular people, I mean.”

Adsen shook his head. “Alistair could burn entire cities to the ground if he wished. The only threat to his power is his own kind.”

“And he’s going to kill all of us.” Colton couldn’t believe it. The diabolical, world-ending schemes of madmen belonged in comic books and the Saturday night made-for-TV movies that Colton used to watch with his father. He remembered shouting gleefully at every idiotic move the characters made.

This was the real world—a world where one man was not supposed to be able to take absolute power.

“It would be better for all of us to die in here,” said Adsen, “than for Alistair to finish Fade. It’s a hard reality to face, Colton, but it is the only one that assures the survival of the human race. And ours.”

Colton sat heavily on a nearby chair, his face slack with disbelief. “There must be someone who can stop him.”

Adsen shook his head. “There was a Nova, once, long ago. The strongest of our people. He disappeared, gone to the place where beings of pure energy go when their time on this planet is finished. If anyone could have stopped Alistair, it was he. Now we are alone. Now we are finished.”

Colton slammed his fist down on the table next to him and glass rattled loudly. “We are not finished.” He stood and walked over to Adsen, who backed away slightly as if Colton might strike him. Colton spoke quietly so the soldiers outside couldn’t hear. “You and Dormer tracked the soldiers’ movements. You know where they will be and when. If I can somehow get all of the survivors into one place during that window, we might be able to thin their numbers. You could buy us some time until we’re ready.” He waited for Adsen to reply, but only a small groan escaped his lips. Colton reached out and shook him. “Think! Is it possible?”

“Y—yes,” said Adsen, pushing Colton away. “Yes, it’s possible. But I would still have to give Kamiko real data in order to stall her. She would know if I was lying. They always know. It wouldn’t do any good.”

“You sitting here doesn’t do any good.” Colton lowered his voice even more and took a step closer to Adsen. “They’re going to start shooting my friends in less than an hour unless you get to work.”

“I don’t want anyone else to die because of me. Do you understand what I’m saying, Colton? I would have to truly work on Fade for your plan to succeed. That means I would have to increase its lethality to one-hundred percent. No one would be safe. I—I can’t do it.”

Colton’s fists shook with rage. He wanted to strangle Adsen, but instead he smacked a beaker from the table. It flew across the room and shattered against the wall. Shards of glass tinkled to the floor.

Colton stood next to the table and tried to slow his breathing. Adsen looked at the spot on the wall where the beaker had shattered. Suddenly his eyes cleared and he sat up straight. A blanket had been lifted from his sour face and he smiled with an obvious glint of mischief.

“I could do that,” he said.

“Do what?”

“I could give them progress. I’ll keep them jumping through hoops like dogs, all the way until the very end, just long enough for your plan to work. No one from the Dome will die, Colton, I promise you that.” He was on his feet, one clenched fist held victoriously over his head. “I will atone for my dark work!” His wild eyes searched the room, seeing the lab equipment as if for the first time. He went to it eagerly and picked up jugs of chemicals, reading the labels and muttering rapidly to himself.

Colton took a hesitant step toward the table. “Adsen, what do you mean, ‘dark work’?”

Adsen ignored him. He filled two beakers with green liquid and set them atop Bunsen burners.

Something clicked in Colton’s head, and the answer was right there, waiting for him to reach out and grab it. “You created Fade,” he said.

Adsen stopped suddenly. He breathed in quick, rapid gasps, as if he were a rabbit frozen stiff by a hunter’s flashlight. “I had to,” he whispered. “The things they did to me…the things they did to the others…”

He turned to Colton for sympathy, but found none.

“You have to understand what it was like,” said Adsen, pleading for understanding. “Endless hours of torture. It would only stop if I agreed to help them. They already had the base form of the virus, but they couldn’t make it infect our clear cells. It withered and died in the bloodstream before it became lethal.”

“And you helped them right along, didn’t you?” said Colton. The disgust and accusation in his voice was crystal clear. “You went ahead and showed them where they went wrong, was that it?”

“It wasn’t like that at all,” said Adsen. His hands were shaking at his sides. “I just wanted the pain to stop. It was the only way.”

“Was that before or after you killed the first boy? The first Nova they brought to the lab?”

“I didn’t kill anyone,” whispered Adsen. He turned away and heavy tears rolled down his cheeks. “I never killed anyone. You tell yourself things—things about the type of person you hope you really are. I always told myself I was a man who would die before he let anything bad happen to other people.” His jaw quivered as he fought back a sob. “I was wrong. I would have done anything to stop the pain. So I helped them. Yes, I helped them progress to what I thought was the final stage. But then I stopped before the end. I realized the virus was not quite complete and I refused to go forward. That has to count for something, doesn’t it?” He looked at Colton hopefully, then his expression dropped. “No. No, I suppose not.”

Colton’s throat was dry as a desert. He looked away from Adsen and wanted to be anywhere else in the world but in that room.

“But now I will atone,” said Adsen. “I will go forward with my work, this time so others can be saved. You will stop me before I finish, won’t you, Colton? You will save all of us.”

Colton looked at him. Adsen stared into his eyes with a mix of hope and madness, and Colton’s rage was replaced with pity. He saw a broken man who had been forced to make terrible decisions—the same kind Colton may have made if their roles were reversed.

“Just stop me before the end,” said Adsen. “I’ll let you know when the time comes.”

Colton sat on the stool and leaned back against one of the water tanks. Adsen soon forgot he was there and puttered about the room, humming to himself and working quickly. Colton closed his eyes and thought of Haven. He tried to feel her presence in the world—tried to call out and tell her everything was going to be alright in the end.

Perhaps if he had truly believed it himself, it would have worked.

26

Haven picked her way through the storage room, stepping around discarded plastic containers and piles of equipment covered in sheets of green canvas. The truck driver had taken them to some lesser-used section of the huge complex, a place where unused junk was discarded and forgotten. She wasn’t having any luck finding a door that led to the adjacent rooms.

“Pssst!” whispered Bastian loudly. “Over here, all of ye!”

He pointed to a door set into the back wall, hidden behind a stack of heavy wooden crates. A foggy light sticking out from the wall dimly illuminated the doorframe.

Bastian pointed to it triumphantly as Marius and Roku gathered around.

“Who wants to go first?” he asked. “Draw straws?”

Haven pushed past him and twisted the doorknob. It turned easily in her hand and she opened the door an inch so she could peek into the next room. There were no guards in sight, but there was a man a few yards away in a long, white lab coat standing with a clipboard, leaning back and looking up at the ceiling. He pointed up repeatedly, as if he were counting items on the ceiling high above. The man in the lab coat shook his head in disapproval and made a note on his clipboard, then walked out of sight.

Haven inched the door open and stepped into the shadows against the wall of the next room.

The space was enormous. Packaging machines lined both sides of a long corridor that ran for several hundred yards through the middle of the room. Thick pipes descended from the ceiling far above and connected with the machines. Haven couldn’t see the wall on the other side of the massive warehouse through the maze of pipes and machinery.

She realized this room was the heart of the complex. When she had stood on the dune outside, looking down at the massive building, this giant room took up the majority of the compound, right at its center. Other rooms like the storage unit her ragtag group had stumbled into were smaller satellite rooms, connected to the main warehouse around its edges.

Roku, Bastian, and Marius shuffled into the room behind her and the door closed. Marius reached back and tried the handle—locked. They crept along the wall and found shelter behind a large piece of machinery. Haven squeezed into the space between the machine and the wall and kept going until she had a clear view of the room between a gap in the machine parts. The others followed her in. Marius had to suck in his gut and scoot in sideways in order to fit.

The machine was warm. Large tubes ran through it and up to the ceiling, where they joined a dozen other pipelines that burrowed into the wall and out of sight. Liquid sloshed from somewhere within the machine, as if a giant spoon were pushing water in a giant bowl back and forth.

The floor of the entire room was a maze of machinery. Huge tubs of empty syringes sat next to bottling machines, but instead of pumping soda into empty glass containers, the machines pumped Fade into metal syringe canisters.

Another machine spat out small flying drones—little metal spheres with an orange light strip and a hole in the side, just the right size for a syringe filled with Fade. In the background of all that, Haven saw racks and racks of filled syringes, their needles glinting brightly in the strong light from the halogen lamps on the ceiling high above.

Around all of those machines flowed the tubes. They plunged into the room from the ceiling and ran straight down to the floor, as if they were supports for the building itself. The tubes fed into the machines that filled the syringes—a mass-murder delivery system, direct from the manufacturer. Wherever those tubes ended after they left the room, Haven bet she would find the holding tanks that contained the main supply of Fade.

Haven ducked when she heard approaching footsteps, expecting to see the man in the white lab coat—but it wasn’t him. It was a woman wearing the same kind of coat, with the same kind of clipboard. Marius looked at her and frowned.

“Not her,” he said.

Bastian was just opening his mouth in protest when the first man returned to talk to the woman. Bastian relaxed and pointed. “How about him?”

Marius nodded. “They have info kiosk after all.”

“Are you sure?” whispered Haven.

“He will talk. Marius knows.”

The man in the white lab coat was showing the woman exactly what he had seen on the ceiling that made him shake his head in disappointment, and she joined him in his disapproval. After a few more words, she hurried quickly away, and the man watched her rear as she went, smiling faintly to himself.

“Hey,” said Haven from the shadows, just loud enough for him to hear.

He looked around, confused, squinting into the darkness behind the machine. Haven walked to the far edge and stood against the wall. “Help me!” she said urgently. She did her best to look terrified, shooting quick glances all around like she didn’t know where she was.

The sly grin returned to the man’s face and he walked toward her slowly, first checking to make sure no one else was watching.

“What are you doing back there?” he asked.

As he came closer, Haven noticed several deep scars on his face. She thought it may have been a car crash or some kind of industrial accident. One of his ears was lower than the other and the skin of one cheek was pulled back toward it. For a moment Haven felt guilty about taking advantage of him, because she saw the loneliness in his eyes when he spoke to her. Then he reached out his hand and she remembered where he worked and what he did for a living, and her sympathy drifted away.

“Please,” she said. “I don’t know where I am.”

“It’s alright,” said the man in the lab coat. “I’ll take care of you.”

A shadow moved behind him and grabbed his throat before he could cry out. His eyes bulged in their sockets as Roku dragged him over to the wall with one hand and slammed him against a machine. The man gurgled loudly and clawed at Roku’s hand, to no effect.

“Where’s Alistair?” asked Haven, standing close enough to see the sweat begin to bead on the man’s forehead. He opened his mouth and choked out a garbled word. “I didn’t quite catch that,” she said.

Roku loosened his grip slightly and the man spat out, “He’s not here. He left yesterday.” Roku’s eyes searched the man’s face for a moment, then his fingers tightened around his throat and squeezed. The man’s eyes turned black and the color drained from his face.

“Please,” he managed to spit out. “Please…”

Roku released him and the man slumped to the ground. He choked in a breath and started to scream, “HEL—” but Marius kicked him in the ribcage, right over a lung. The man grabbed his chest and dragged in a long breath as if he were sucking air through a pillow.

“Don’t do that,” said Marius. “Is very bad idea.” He knelt down in front of the man and slapped his face to bring him back to the present. The man blinked at him stupidly. “Okay, then?” said Marius. “We ask you some questions now. You answer and you walk out of here. Otherwise we stuff you into the machines, see how you fit. Understand?”

The man’s eyes cleared a little and he nodded weakly.

“Good. First, what’s your name?”

The man took a deep breath. “Walter,” he said at last.

“No it’s not,” said Marius. “Is Dead Meat. That is your name, isn’t it?”

The man looked at him, confused, then nodded slowly. “Y—yes. I guess it is.”

“You learn fast!” said Marius. “This will be over in no time. Tell me, where is Alistair?”

“He’s not here—”

Marius slapped the man’s face back and forth. “Don’t lie to me, Dead Meat.”

“I’m not lying,” he gasped after Marius pulled his hand away.

“Where did he go?”

“He doesn’t tell us those things. We only know when he’ll be here at the facility. He just came in yesterday for an inspection, wanted us to ramp up production.”

“Why?”

Dead Meat hesitated. Marius raised his hand to slap him again but the words tumbled out quickly after that. “Okay okay! He just finished testing the new variant and we have to make some slight modifications to the delivery system before we start rolling out the new drones.”

“What new variant?” asked Haven.

He looked at her, then down to the floor. “Human.”

27

Marius grabbed the collar of the lab coat and drew the man closer to his face. “They make Fade for everyone?”

The man nodded, trying hard to keep away from Marius’s snarling mouth. “Not just—not just for your kind anymore,” said Dead Meat. “Now anyone can be infected, abilities or not.”

“Well, that’s just great,” said Bastian. He threw his hands up in defeat and walked away, shaking his head.

“How long until he starts using it?” asked Haven.

“Distribution starts as soon as we make our adjustments.”

“How long will that take?”

Dead Meat didn’t answer right away. Marius shook him roughly by the collar.

“Two days,” he said finally. “Three at the most.”

Haven stood there, trying to wrap her brain around the concept of a global virus that could wipe out all of humanity. Dead Meat was just starting to relax when Marius got in his face again.

“Why you do this?”

“Wha…what do you mean?”

“Why you work here? Why you make the virus that will kill everybody? Is it because of your face, huh?” Dead Meat tried to turn away as Marius slapped the deep scars on his cheeks. “They were mean to you, so now you get them back, is that it? Marius wants to know how so many people could work here and do such a thing.”

Marius relaxed but Dead Meat continued to guard his face.

“Most of them don’t even know we’re making a virus,” he said. “They think we’re shipping placebos for a major pharmaceutical contractor.”

Marius laughed loudly. “You lie to them! Of course! You tell them it is safe to come to work, to have a normal job. Do you know what you have done?”

Dead Meat shook his head and cried.

“Yes, I think you do.” Marius sighed and grabbed Dead Meat’s chin so he could look right into his eyes. “Where is the cure?”

The man seemed genuinely confused. “What cure?”

Marius’s face turned bright red as he shouted, “Don’t you lie to me! Where is the cure?!”

Dead Meat looked from Marius to Roku, then to Haven. “There is no cure,” he said, almost sadly. “Once you’re infected, that’s it.”

Marius yelled and hauled his foot back to kick Dead Meat in the chest.

“Waitwaitwait!” pleaded Dead Meat, holding up his hands in defense. Marius paused with his leg swung back. Dead Meat spoke quickly as he stared warily at Marius’s black boot. “There was a rumor that Alistair had a cure made for himself. After he was inoculated, he could never be infected again. And then he had the cure destroyed so no one else could ever be saved.”

“Almost no one,” said Haven, looking at Bastian. He swallowed hard and wouldn’t meet her eyes.

“But-but-but it’s just a rumor!” said Dead Meat. “There was never really any cure.”

Marius dragged him to his feet and pushed him up against the machine. “Is it in this one?” he said. Before Dead Meat could answer, Marius dragged him across the floor and slammed him into another machine. “How about this one, huh? I know it’s here somewhere. You would not make a virus without the cure. No one is that stupid.” He dragged Dead Meat over to a large bin and threw him over the top. The man screamed when he landed on top of a pile of exposed needles. They stuck into his skin at all angles like he was a giant pincushion. Marius jumped up over the side of the cart and stood on the man’s chest, pushing him deeper into the pile of syringes.

Dead Meat groaned in agony, his voice quivering with pain.

“What I say to you about lying?” asked Marius gravely. There was a blank look in his eyes that Haven had never seen before.

“Marius, take it easy,” she said.

Dead Meat twitched beneath Marius’s feet. “Please,” he whispered. “Mercy.”

“Why take it easy?!” shouted Marius. “You are trying to kill seven billion people and I should take it easy? Explain that one to me.”

But Dead Meat couldn’t explain. His eyelids fluttered until they closed. His body went limp and he passed out, stuck half to death with needles.

Haven turned around and saw Bastian walking toward her with his hands up. “Let me explain,” he said.

“You lied to me,” said Haven. Blue light flashed across her vision.

“I know I did,” said Bastian. He stopped when he saw the flames in her eyes. “There was a perfectly good reason—”

“No,” said Haven. She didn’t recognize her own voice, so deep and full of anger. Bastian’s promise of a cure had taken her away from Colton and Noah and the others in the Dome. She realized then how much she cared about Colton, about how much she would miss him if he were gone. There was a pain inside of her that equaled the pain of loss she felt when her parents died. At the same time she hated herself for even thinking the loss of another person could come close to the pain of her parents’ murder.

Still, it burned inside her. Hot flames engulfed her body—flames which she meant to use against Bastian for lying to her about the cure and for ripping her away from everything she loved.

“You knew he destroyed it,” she said. Her voice was not her own. “You knew it the whole time, and you let me believe it.” She stalked toward Bastian, her feet burning against the concrete floor.

Suddenly Roku was there, standing between them.

“You did not come here just for the cure,” he said. “You came here because I showed you the pain of others, not just your own. It is happening everywhere, Haven. You are not alone in your loss. Neither am I.”

“You!” she hissed. “You lied, too.”

“Yes,” said Roku, holding up his hands. “Because I have hope that it can be remade. Alistair will know how to recreate the cure and—”

“It will be too late for them!” shouted Haven.

“Remember what I showed you,” said Roku. “They are not the only ones who suffer.”

Sadness overwhelmed Haven. The blue flame covering her body flickered but did not disappear. She remembered the dream Roku shared with her—remembered how he lost his family, as she had lost most of hers. She wanted to be back with Colton and Noah and the others more than anything. Her soul reached out across the desert, crying out for her home.

The last blue flame flickered against her palms and she closed her fists to snuff it out. She looked up at Bastian.

“Tell me why you did it.”

He walked toward her cautiously, watching her hands. “We needed your help,” he said. “You could have stayed back there at the Dome and maybe had a fighting chance against Kamiko, but she was never the bigger threat. That’s obvious now, after seeing all of this.” He gestured to the nearby machinery. “If there was never a cure to begin with, than you staying back at the Dome was pointless. You would have gotten a lot of them killed or even yourself. This way,” he said, putting a hand to his chest, “this way we have a chance to stop Alistair before it’s too late. I lied to you. I feel terrible about that but it had to be done. It needed to be done. People don’t think practically when they’re too preoccupied with—”

“With what?” interrupted Haven.

“With love.”

She looked away as her cheeks flushed.

“We have to be practical if we want to succeed,” continued Bastian. “I don’t expect you to forgive me, but I also don’t expect you to quit. If you do—well, look around you. This is not just the end of our kind we’re talking about anymore. Alistair is going to wipe out the entire planet.”

She wanted to lash out at him, to hurt him worse than she had been hurt herself. The urge passed like a wave over her, and then was gone, leaving only a deep, empty sadness in its wake.

Love.

She had thought about the word before, but had never said it aloud. She was elated and terrified to find that the word was inextricably linked to the thought of Colton. The past year with him had been better than any other time in her life, but in a different way, as if she was a new person when he was around.

“What do you say?” asked Bastian. “Will you stick with us?”

Before she could answer, the door to the storage room banged open and guards poured into the main warehouse, each one carrying a heavy automatic rifle. A man in a long coat walked among them, staying out of the way as the guards advanced across the room toward Haven and the others. It was the thin man from the airport, the one who had brought down Haven’s plane.

“I thought you took care of him!” she said.

“So did I,” said Bastian.

“Get down!” shouted Marius. He grabbed Haven’s shoulders and pushed her roughly behind a machine. She tripped over a protruding pipe and hit the ground hard on her shoulder, then crawled next to the machine for cover.

Gunfire lit up the room.

28

A soldier came into the water processing room an hour after Adsen began his work. He demanded proof that there was progress and stood with his rifle in hand, finger on the trigger. Adsen handed the soldier a thin manila folder and pushed him back out the door. The folder contained scanned microscopic images of petri dishes, in which Adsen had been experimenting with bacterial cultures. He had explained each step of the process in detail as he went along, but Colton was lost between his own anger and thoughts of escape.

After the soldier left, Colton went to the door and looked out at the dome room through the grimy glass window. Kamiko stood in the center of the room atop the rubble from the collapsed ceiling fan. She stared down into the heart of the shattered fire pit as if the embers were ablaze. Colton thought she could be considered beautiful, if only she hadn’t tried to destroy everything he loved. She turned and looked right at him.

He walked away from the window and joined Adsen in front of his colorful chemical set. Liquids gurgled and boiled in beakers over open flames, and a thick substance oozed down through a plastic tube and glopped noisily into a collection tray on the table. A thermometer protruded from the mixture and the temperature read two-hundred degrees Fahrenheit.

“You’re really going to do it, then,” said Colton. “Finish Fade.”

“I said I was, didn’t I?”

“I thought you were going to stall for time so Dormer and I could work out some kind of escape plan.”

“The only way back is forward,” said Adsen cryptically. He picked up a vial filled with black liquid and flicked the bottom. The liquid shimmered and turned blue, then he poured it into the container of muck below the plastic feeder tube. The mixture hissed and gave off faint grey smoke. “A trick is most effective when it has an element of truth,” he added. “My work will be your proof that we want to be obedient, complacent—docile.” He flashed Colton a quick smile.

“It looks like you’re making progress.”

Adsen shrugged.

“And if we fail,” said Colton, “then Kamiko has the completed virus.”

“So don’t fail.”

“Don’t finish the virus.”

Adsen sighed and his whole body sagged from exhaustion. “You need to leave. Right now. It’s my work. I need to finish it alone. And besides, the less you know, the better.”

“The less I know,” repeated Colton, shaking his head. “This isn’t the best time for secrets, Adsen. It’s probably the worst time imaginable.” He thought for a moment. “What if we destroyed all the equipment?” He pointed to the labyrinthine chemistry set. On the table next to it, glowing computer monitors flashed with complex molecular diagrams and lines of indecipherable equations.

“Then we’re finished,” said Adsen. “This work is the only reason any of us are still alive. Honestly, Colton, I expected a little more practicality from you.”

Colton wanted to flip the table over and shout, “How’s that for practicality?!” but he knew Adsen was right. He hated him for trying to finish Fade. He felt betrayed and alone. Going willingly toward the destruction of everything he loved went against the grain of Colton’s very soul—yet what choice did he have? Both paths were lined with razor-sharp knives and would cut him regardless. He just had to trust that he chose the right one.

“Don’t just stand there with your mouth open,” said Adsen. “It’s time for you to leave. I don’t want you here for the rest of the process. Find Dormer, he’ll know what to do.” Adsen waved Colton away and paid him no more attention.

Kamiko was gone when Colton walked into the dome room. Morning light filtered through the open hole at the top of the ceiling. It came down as a solid shaft to illuminate the spot in the rubble where Kamiko had been standing. Colton walked to it and stood looking up at the ceiling, squinting into the light. He followed the long ladder that ran down the wall to the floor. Two soldiers stood at the ladder’s base, watching him.

“Where’s Dormer?” he asked. His voice carried easily across the vast, empty room. At first, Colton thought they would ignore him. A moment later, one of them raised a finger from the grip of his rifle and pointed at the entrance to the Grove. Colton flipped him the bird and walked away.

The entrance to the Grove was directly across the dome room from the garage entrance. Colton pushed open the swinging doors and stepped onto soft grass. The air within the Grove was clear and cool, and it cut through the fog in Colton’s mind like a knife. The pressure that had been mounting at the front of his skull faded away.

He coughed into his sleeve and swayed on his feet. His right hand shook uncontrollably and Colton squeezed it into a tight fist. As he did, thick, black veins bulged on the back of his hand, pulsing with his heartbeat. The virus was affecting him more with each passing hour.

The Grove was contained in a rectangular, high-ceilinged room that burrowed farther out from the main dome than any other part of the underground complex. Colton looked up at the halogen lamp burning brightly in the ceiling—a fake sun that added a touch of realism to the indoor field.

He walked through the grid of ancient trees. They had been transplanted at the time of the Dome’s construction from the Old Home, the place where his kind had lived and been safe for decades. Elena told Haven about it—and about its destruction by the very people who had once called it their sanctuary.

He placed his palm against the trunk of a blackened, withered tree as he passed, remembering it was the tree that gave its life to save Haven’s. She had been brought there after grave injury and laid below its branches while Dormer healed her wounds. The once-verdant green of the tree’s foliage had browned and crumbled at Dormer’s touch as he drained its life and transferred it to Haven.

The first rows of the grid were filled with dead trees—those that had been siphoned of life so Haven and others could be healed. Farther down the line were the living trees, their healthy branches blooming with vibrant leaves, their trunks a pleasant brown.

At the far edge of the grid, the grass turned slightly upward in a long, rising hill. Colton stood atop the hill and looked down at the teardrop pond at the bottom of the other side. An old willow tree stood guard at one end of the pond, its wispy green branches trailing softly over the surface of clear water, moving slightly in the artificial wind pushed out through vents high in the ceiling. Dormer sat there, next to Elena’s grave, watching small, blue lights dance across the pond. He held up a hand in greeting and Colton walked down the hill toward him.

“What do you think?” asked Dormer, nodding toward the lights. “She’s pretty good.”

Colton sat next to him on the grass. “Haven made those?”

Dormer nodded. “Elena never got the chance to show her how to do it, but she figured it out. They’re still confined to the pond, though. Elena’s used to go to the trees and live on the branches. It was like a forest filled with blue fireflies.”

“I remember,” said Colton. He recalled the times with Haven at the pond when he offered endless suggestions on how to create the blue lights, knowing that almost all of his ideas were ridiculous. He came up with most of them just to make her laugh.

Colton had only seen the lights once, right before Elena died. When she passed, they had faded with her. Elena’s grave was a simple, unmarked stone next to the base of the tree. A single yellow flower was laid across the top of the grassy mound before the stone.

“What are clear cells?” asked Colton.

Dormer turned his head slowly to look at him. “And here I thought we were having a moment.”

“Adsen mentioned them in passing,” said Colton. “He said it had something to do with the way Fade affects us.”

“Sources and Conduits have an additional active set of cells in their bloodstream,” said Dormer. “You know about white cells and red cells, all of that.”

“Yes.”

“Well, we also have what Adsen calls clear cells. He thinks everyone has them, but they’re active in some and vestigial in others.”

“Like your appendix?”

“Correct. In ‘normal’ people—for lack of a better term—these clear cells serve no purpose. But in people like us, they exist solely to transmit the energy that Sources produce and Conduits absorb. They are simply microscopic pathways that funnel our energy throughout our bodies. Fade works by mutating those clear cells and tricking the body into thinking they are foreign bodies. Our immune system assumes we’ve been invaded by a parasite and fights back. Except when a white cell attacks, the mutated clear cell absorbs it and splits into two infected cells. After this happens enough times, bingo, you’re done.”

“Do the clear cells produce Source energy?”

“No, they are only the tunnels through which it travels.”

“So where does the energy come from? Something has to be making it.”

“You’re right,” said Dormer. “Something does. But we don’t know what. It’s kind of a mystery. Some say it’s spiritual—that it’s Mother Nature herself or some equivalent deity who is granting our abilities and altering our DNA so we can manipulate such powerful energies.”

“What do you think?”

“I don’t think it matters how we got our abilities. I think it just matters what we do with them.”

“That’s kind of a cop-out, isn’t it?”

Dormer smiled. “Perhaps.”

They sat there in silence, looking at the blue lights dance across the pond.

“Listen,” said Colton. “Not to shatter the calm or anything, but—”

“We need to get started,” interrupted Dormer. “I know. I was just…preparing myself.”

“Adsen is moving too quickly on the virus,” said Colton. “I tried to tell him to slow down, but he sent me away.”

“He is not the same man who was taken into that medical facility,” said Dormer. He stared blankly into the middle of the pond. “The time he spent in there…it changed him. He’s more distant. Hollow.” He shook his head and pulled out a roll of papers from his coat. He unrolled them on the grass and smoothed out the corners. “How long did Kamiko give him to finish the virus?”

“Ten hours. That was almost two hours ago.”

“And he’s already nearly finished?”

“Seems so, yes.”

“Right.” Dormer frowned at the Dome schematics and riffled through the pages.

“What is it?” asked Colton.

“It seems our timeline for action might be a bit shorter than we thought.”

“How much shorter?”

“There’s a shift change in ten minutes,” said Dormer. “All but two of the soldiers will be in the same area at the same time. It will be another twelve hours before it happens again.”

Colton nodded. “Then we’d better get moving.”

29

Bullets ricocheted off metal and hit the floor near Haven’s head, spitting up mortar explosions of dust and concrete. She screamed and squeezed her body into a fetal position. Roku and Bastian lay on the floor a few feet away, their backs pressed to a brick-shaped machine. Bullets thunked into the metal on the other side. Steam hissed from a burst pipe overhead.

The gunfire ceased. Haven heard the soft footsteps of boots on concrete and, somewhere in the distance, liquid gurgling onto the floor from a pierced container. She closed her eyes and focused on the glowing blue star in her mind. It was distant and weak. She clenched her jaws together until she felt like her teeth would shatter, but there was no way to summon her power. The taxing output in the storage room earlier had completely worn her out.

She heard a sharp CRACK of metal against armor, then a grunt as one of the guards dropped to the ground. The gunfire flared up again, although it was aimed at another part of the room.

“Let’s go!” she shouted at Roku and Bastian.

They nodded and followed her to a section of the room behind the guards. All of their attention was focused on a large metal bin on wheels. The guards fired nonstop at the metal bin, their bullets pinging harmlessly off its surface. The bin rolled toward them, slowly at first, then it picked up speed as it sped across the floor. Haven smiled when she saw Marius’s dirty black boots beneath the bin, pushing it from behind.

The guards backed up slowly, still firing. Haven turned to Bastian. “I need some time to recharge.”

“You two go find the main supply of Fade,” said Roku. “Marius and I can handle this.”

Bastian took her hand and tried to pull her away. She yanked her hand back and looked at Roku.

“Go,” he said, before she could talk him out of it. “Come and get us before the place explodes, okay?”

She hesitated a moment longer. “Okay,” she said finally.

Bastian was already moving, crouching low to the ground as he hurried across the room. Haven caught up and stayed close, checking over her shoulder as they moved. She saw the guards and Marius, but no sign of the thin man.

Bastian led her on a winding path through the machines. Haven looked up at the ceiling and saw that they were following a massive cluster of pipes that ran toward one wall of the room.

A man in a white lab coat peeked his head around the corner of a container as Haven and Bastian passed. He opened his mouth to say something but ran away screaming after Bastian blasted the top of his head with a quick burst of yellow fire. Haven wrinkled her nose in disgust at the smell of burnt hair.

They reached the far wall where the pipes in the ceiling terminated.

“Over there,” said Bastian, pointing along the wall. A metal door with a black keypad in place of a doorknob was set into the thick wall a few feet away. Bastian’s shoulders sank in defeat when he saw the keypad. “Now what?”

“Melt it off, dummy!” said Haven.

He put a hand over the keypad and a strong yellow glow flared from his palm. A second later, the plastic was a bubbling stream of molten goo that ran down the surface of the door. Bastian pushed against the door and it swung open with ease.

“Huh,” he said, then went into the next room. After a long glance at the distance muzzle-flashes where Roku and Marius fought the guards, Haven followed after him.

An enormous vat was in the middle of the room; a giant white tank with a huge window in its side that revealed a deep sea of thick, clear liquid. A woman wearing a sealed chemical biohazard suit stood on a small metal platform that reached out over the tank. She held a long wire that dipped down into the vat. After a few moments, she pulled up the wire and read a measurement from a small black box attached to the end.

Several more workers buzzed around the tank, tweaking machinery connected to the circular wall. Others sat at computer workstations that were shielded by thick sheets of Plexiglas. All of the workers wore full biohazard suits. They stopped what they were doing when Bastian stepped away from the door and walked toward the vat. He was lit up like the Olympic torch.

“Don’t anybody move,” he said, loud and clear, looking at each of the workers. One of the men turned to run and a stream of yellow plasma licked out from Bastian’s arm and hit him in the leg. The man yelled in pain and lay on the ground, peeling away strips of melting suit before it burned into his skin. “Probably hard of hearing,” said Bastian to the other workers. They didn’t laugh.

“Everybody up,” said Haven. She walked over to the row of workstations and pulled people out of their seats. Their crinkling body suits made it difficult for them to move quickly, like low-budget astronauts trapped in zero gravity. Quick, scared breaths fogged the insides of their flimsy masks. Haven herded them all next to the tank. She pointed to a cluster of pipes running out of the vat and up to the ceiling. “Which one of these is flammable?”

Bastian looked at her with confusion, then he realized what she meant to do and smiled wolfishly. “Yeah,” he said, taking a step forward and letting his fire reach out for the workers. They took a frightened step backward and bumped into the vat. “Speak up if you don’t wanna be cooked alive in your suits!”

The woman on the platform over the tank said, “That one,” and pointed to a fat pipe separate from the others. It ran up to the ceiling as well, but criss-crossed around and through the others on its circuitous route to the wall.

“Don’t lie to me,” said Haven, putting as much acid into her threat as she could. “I’m already at my limit for the day.”

The woman shook her head. “I’m not. I know what we’re making.” She looked relieved as she pointed at the pipe again.

“Run,” said Haven, turning to the workers. “Go on, get out of here!”

Bastian reached out for them with yellow fire but the workers scrambled out of the exit before his energy touched them. The woman on the platform slid down a metal ladder over the side of the vat and ran past without looking back.

“What’d you let ‘em go for?” asked Bastian. “They deserve to be in here when this place turns inside out.”

Haven ignored him. She went to the fat pipe and found the point where it was attached to the vat. She pulled just enough energy from inside of her to shear the pipe from its setting; with one quick explosion of blue plasma, its circular opening hung loose against the vat wall. Clear brown liquid sloshed within.

“Here,” she said, pulling the pipe as far from the vat as she could. The thick metal tube groaned in protest as she strained to make enough room for Bastian’s hand. “Light it up.”

“With pleasure,” he said.

30

Haven wondered how Bastian drew on his power. For her it was the blue star, burning bright in her mind’s eye. Marius had told her his method was to imagine his hands swelling with orange fire until it became too much to contain.

Fresh yellow flame shot out from Bastian’s arms—and then vanished. He looked down at his hands, confused.

“What’s wrong?” asked Haven. “Why did you stop?”

“I didn’t!” said Bastian. He tried again, and only managed to produced tiny puffs of yellow fire, like an empty lighter being sparked repeatedly.

Haven saw movement out of the corner of her eye. The thin man stood in the doorway, eyes black as coal, staring right at her.

“Bastian,” she said as she backed away. “Now would be a good time to fix that problem.”

“I’m trying! He’s taking everything as soon as I let it go.”

The thin man approached them slowly. Haven and Bastian backed into the tank.

“Any bright ideas?” asked Bastian.

“Yeah,” said Haven. “Burn this place to the ground.”

“What are you going to—”

Haven ran away from the tank before he could finish. She headed straight at the thin man, not entirely sure of her own plan. He seemed confused by her approach, and then his confusion turned to amusement as she drew closer. Haven tried to call on her energy and even managed to send out a few blue flames in his direction, but he was absorbing everything with his Conduit ability and stopping the fire before it got close.

She screamed and threw herself into the air, bringing her knees up at the last second. They sank into his stomach. He let out a woooof of air and buckled in half. All of his focus had been on absorbing Haven’s Source energy and he hadn’t expected an outright physical attack. They crumpled to the ground together in a thrashing heap. Haven grabbed his head and slammed it against the concrete floor.

“Do it!’ she shouted to Bastian.

He ran to the broken pipe on the side of the tank and put his arm inside of it up to his elbow, then closed his eyes. Sweat beaded on his face and his body shook as he concentrated. The liquid in the pipe boiled.

The thin man sat up and reached out for Haven. His hands wrapped around her throat and he squeezed until she could no longer breathe. He grinned as he sucked the life out of her, drawing on her energy until her heart slowed and stopped. Haven’s vision blurred as she looked over at Bastian.

An enormous yellow fireball erupted from his arm and shot into the pipe. He jumped back and dove for cover as an explosive chain reaction ran from the bottom of the pipe up to the top. The yellow fireball obliterated the pipe as it rushed toward the ceiling, exploding it outward like a cannonball fired into a cardboard tube.

The thin man released Haven and stood.

“No!’ he screamed, running toward the tank. “No-no-NO!”

Haven gasped for air and her vision cleared. Bastian scrambled over and hauled her to her feet.

“Time to go,” she said. They ran away from the spreading flames. The fireball exploded and the entire ceiling was consumed. Other pipes caught fire and flaming snakes crawled across the ceiling, following the paths of the tubes as they twisted throughout the entire complex.

The thin man stood by the tank at the base of the broken pipe, gripping it tightly, absorbing as much flame as he could—but there was too much. His skin erupted with yellow fire as he tried to extinguish the chaotic inferno. He looked up at the ceiling hopelessly, then he turned to Haven. His eyes were burning holes of blinding yellow plasma. He opened his mouth to scream but all that came out was a burst of yellow lava. It rolled down his chin and over his chest.

Haven closed her eyes and turned away. Bastian took her hand and led her back into the packaging room. Marius and Roku ran toward them, breathing heavily from their own battle. Marius had a large scratch down one side of his face and Roku was still holding his injured side, but otherwise they seemed little worse than before.

“No more guards,” said Marius. “We go now, or no more us.” He pushed the others away from the vat room, toward the door leading to the small storage room through which they had arrived.

Behind them, the fire broke through the wall, racing along the cluster of pipes overhead and across the ceiling. The machine nearest the wall exploded as fire shot down its feeder pipe from above. Chunks of metal whistled through the air, piercing everything around like shrapnel from a fragmentation grenade.

Something sharp hit Haven’s shoulder and sank into her skin. She cried out in pain but did not stop running.

More machines exploded across the room as fire streaked down the feeder tubes attached to the ceiling. Haven caught a quick glimpse of a cart filled with metal syringes and saw a terrifying image of what would happen if a machine exploded nearby. The syringes would be propelled through the room like bullets and would tear through her skin just as easily.

She was at the back of the line. Roku was right in front of her, stumbling to keep up with the others. Haven urged him forward as they ducked around burning equipment. Finally they reached the locked door that led to the small storage room.

Marius let out a bellowing roar and kicked the door in the middle. It flew off its hinges and exploded into the next room. He went through, with Bastian and Roku close behind. Haven turned to look back.

The ceiling was a patchy blanket of yellow flame. Much of it was already open to the early morning sky—huge chunks of metal sheeting had fallen to the floor, igniting everything they touched. Machines exploded like enormous fireworks across the vast warehouse.

Haven stood there, transfixed, seeing again the destruction of her own home as it was consumed by insatiable fire.

A hand grabbed her shoulder and pulled her into the next room.

“We are leaving!” shouted Marius. He jumped into the driver’s seat of the truck they had used to sneak into the building. Roku and Bastian climbed onto the bed and threw off some of the plastic containers. The two of them sat with their backs to the cab and held on tight.

The truck was already lurching forward when Haven ran around to the passenger’s side and jumped in. She slammed the door just as the remaining ceiling collapsed around them. The truck groaned in protest as Marius grinded the gears and forced it onward, through the wreckage.

A second later they were clear of the destruction and driving away. The last chunk of flaming debris slid off the hood of the truck. Haven looked back quickly to check on Roku and Bastian. They were still on the bed of the truck, coughing and brushing ash from their clothes and hair. She sat back and a sharp pain stabbed her shoulder. She reached back gently and her fingers brushed a sharp piece of metal. Haven closed her eyes and yanked it out, stifling a scream. The strip of metal was long but very thin, like a slender icicle. Haven threw it out the window and wiped her hand on her pants. Then she used some of her own energy to seal the wound.

Marius drove to the top of a small dune nearby and swung the truck around to face the building. Firelight danced across the windshield as the building collapsed violently onto itself.

Roku and Bastian stood up in the back and leaned on the roof of the cab as explosion after explosion leveled the complex. The middle of the packaging room was already extinguished, the fire having burnt its way through every possible fuel source. All that remained was a blackened skeleton, its fingers reaching up toward the dawn sky.

Workers in white lab coats ran screaming from the chaos and gathered in a small group a short distance away. They sat watching the building burn, huddled together in the desert. Haven wondered what would become of them; if Alistair would take pity and relocate them to a new facility or if he would wipe them all out for their incompetence.

For most of them—the ones who hadn’t known what they were really making—Haven felt deep pity. For the others, she was simultaneously shocked and relieved to find that she didn’t care either way.

31

Dormer rolled up the papers and hid them away in his coat. He and Colton trotted through the Grove toward the exit.

“What do you think will happen if we don’t take out all of the soldiers?” asked Colton.

“Let’s hope we don’t find out. First we need to secure the others in one location to minimize the risk of retaliation.”

“Where?”

“Marius and Corva’s room. We won’t be able to move the refugees quickly enough to get them anywhere else, so it’s best to bring everyone else to them.”

“June can help.”

“The chef?”

“Yeah.”

“Lunch was amazing,” said Dormer. “Best meal I’ve had in weeks.”

They slowed their pace as they left the Grove and walked into the dome room. The soldiers positioned nearby stiffened at their approach.

“At ease, gentlemen,” said Dormer as he and Colton passed, heading toward the dormitory hallway. The soldiers exchanged a brief glance.

The kitchen was empty. The aroma of slightly-burnt cake still clung to the air and made Colton’s mouth water as he passed.

The hallway split in two a little farther down. Colton took the left branch, toward Corva and the medical center refugees. Dormer went right to find Noah and Micah.

Colton spun the wheel to Marius and Corva’s room and pushed it open. Inside, June knelt next to Corva’s bed. The medical center refugees lay on their cots, thick blankets covering their shivering bodies. One of them turned to look at Colton with dread in his eyes.

“It’s alright,” said Colton as he entered the room. “I’m not here to hurt you.”

June dabbed Corva’s head with a wet cloth. Colton knelt next to her.

“June, it’s time.”

“Finally,” she said.

Dormer appeared in the doorway. “No sign of the boys.”

Colton’s stomach sank to think what would happen if Noah and Micah weren’t safe when the shooting started. “They’re probably in the training room, horsing around.”

“We don’t have time!” said Dormer. “Shift change is in two minutes.”

“I’ll get them,” said June. “Do what you need to do.”

Dormer nodded and turned to Colton. “Right. They’re going to be crossing paths in front of the door that leads to the elevator. Two will be stationed there already, and the others will be passing on the way to their next post. We hit them hard and take down as many as we can. But…”

“But what?!” said Colton eagerly.

“But two of them won’t be with the others.”

“Let me guess,” said Colton. “They’re guarding the training room.”

“Yes.”

“I’ll handle them,” said June. “Don’t worry about it.”

Colton and Dormer looked at her doubtfully.

“I said don’t worry about it,” she repeated.

“What about Kamiko?” asked Colton.

“We can only hope she’s somewhere else. Enough talk, we need to move.”

Colton and June followed him down the long hallway toward the dome room. As they left the comfortable shadows of the hall and stepped into the bright morning light pouring down through the open hole in the ceiling, Colton never felt more naked in his life. The soldiers who were usually guarding both sides of the dormitory hallway were gone. Across the room, the sound of boots tromping loudly over concrete echoed near the thick door that guarded the elevator hallway.

“Wish me luck,” said June, and before Colton could do just that, she was off, walking quickly toward the training room. The two soldiers positioned near the door watched her approach.

“Let’s go,” whispered Dormer.

He led Colton straight toward the middle of the room, through a long corridor of shelves that made up part of Dormer’s workshop. They crouched low to keep the soldiers across the room from seeing them over the debris of the crushed fire pit. Colton looked around, worried Kamiko would pop into view any second. She was nowhere in sight. They reached the pile of debris near the fire pit and Dormer stopped. Colton’s stomach clenched when he saw the soldiers in front of the door ahead.

Two stood on either side, talking to each other in low voices. They seemed a lot more relaxed than usual, and Colton wondered if this shift change was the two minutes out of their day where they could have a normal conversation. Two more soldiers came up and joined them while still more walked by on the way to their next post.

“Do you have enough juice for all of them?” whispered Colton.

“We’ll find out,” said Dormer. He stepped out from behind the mound of debris and walked toward the soldiers. Colton, unsure about what to do, followed him closely, expecting at any moment to be cut in half by a storm of bullets.

The training room door opened to his left and June appeared. She had Micah on her hip and held Noah’s hand. The soldiers to either side of her paid little attention. She looked right at Colton and froze. He waved her back into the room and she disappeared. The two soldiers by the training room were finally able to see Dormer and Colton stepping clear of the shelves and approaching the door to the elevator.

One of the soldiers ran into the training room, after June. The other shouted, “Hey!” and raised his rifle.

“It’s happening now,” said Dormer. He shoved Colton to the ground as the other soldiers noticed him. They raised their rifles and aimed right at Dormer’s head as he approached with his arms raised.

When the nearest soldier took a step forward, Dormer brought his hands down and clapped him on the sides of his helmet, just over his temples. The lights over the elevator hallway door flickered and blinked out. The soldier collapsed to the floor. His rifle fell from his hands and Dormer kicked it across the floor to Colton, who picked it up and slung the strap over his shoulder.

The soldiers rushed Dormer. He stood, fists closed, waiting.

Colton grabbed the gun and aimed at one of the two soldiers still standing near the elevator hallway door. They hadn’t moved toward Dormer with the rest of their pals. The gun felt too heavy in Colton’s hands, as if it would drag him down if he fired a single round.

He found the trigger and squeezed. The muzzle-flashes blocked out his vision, and when he lowered his rifle, the two soldiers by the elevator hallway door were out of the fight.

More gunfire erupted nearby and Colton dove for cover. He flipped over an empty metal table and huddled behind it, inspecting his gun and wishing he knew how to check his ammo count. He looked across the dome at the training room door.

The second soldier that had been guarding the room went inside after June.

“Go,” said Dormer to Colton. He stood a few feet away, using one of the soldiers as a body shield from the gunfire of the others. The bullets sank into the soldier’s armor and he groaned in agony. Colton guessed the bullets in the soldiers’ own guns were armor-piercing rounds never meant to be used on anyone but unarmed innocents.

Some of the bullets—the ones that normally would have missed the soldier and hit Dormer—stopped in the air, inches from his head. They fell to the ground a moment after being suspended mid-flight. Colton remembered Corva saying that a Conduit could only do that for so long before the bullets got through. Negating the velocity of a bullet drained a Con’s power quickly, as the output required for such a stopping force usually exceeded the energy they were consuming.

Dormer closed his eyes and the space around his body darkened. The soldier he was using for a body shield screamed as Dormer drew on his energy. The lights in the wall nearby exploded, sending glass shards tinkling to the ground. Dormer turned to Colton and saw he was still there. “Go!” he shouted.

Colton ran.

32

Bullets thunked into the floor at his feet. He zigzagged across the dome room, ducking behind shelves and anything else he could use for cover as he went. On the other side of the room, the door to his mother’s old holding cell opened. The door was less than a hundred feet from the training room, and Kamiko stood there, eyes blazing with blue fire.

Colton ran faster, but she wasn’t looking at him. Her gaze was focused across the room, at Dormer. A black hole had formed around his body as he moved from soldier to soldier. Any of them who passed through the black light fell instantly and lay on the ground, unmoving.

The last thing Colton saw before he kicked open the training room door was Kamiko literally flying across the room, carried through the air by long strands of lightning that shot from her back. They moved like the legs of a giant, electric spider as they carried her forward.

The door closed behind him and Colton squinted into the darkness of the training room. The overhead lamps had burned out and the back half of the room was pitch black. The only light was coming from the window in the door. On the floor, laying at the edge of the light, was Micah. Colton couldn’t tell if he was breathing. A few feet away from him was a soldier, sprawled out, unconscious or dead.

Colton took a step toward Micah and someone spoke to him from the shadows.

“Don’t come any closer.”

The voice was deep and muffled. A moment later, a soldier stepped slowly out of the darkness. He held June in front of him and kept the muzzle of his rifle buried under her chin. Her hands rested on Noah’s shoulders, who stared across the room at Micah with wide eyes.

Colton blinked heavily and his vision blurred. Blood rushed to his head and made him dizzy. The black veins that covered his body throbbed painfully and he realized it was the virus working its way deeper into his system.

He raised his rifle with shaking hands and aimed it at the soldier—he hoped he was aiming it at the soldier.

“I still have my ability,” said Colton stupidly, not knowing what else to do.

The soldier paused for a moment, then slowly marched forward. He laughed coldly from behind his mask. “Nice try. I can see the veins in your neck from here.”

“Why don’t you just shoot me then?” asked Colton.

The soldier stopped again, considering the offer. Finally, he shrugged, and pulled the rifle away from June’s throat so he could aim it at Colton. As soon as the gun was away from her skin, she raised her elbow and drove it back into his armored stomach. He let out a surprised laugh as June grabbed Noah and pushed him to the ground.

“Now!” she shouted.

The soldier was bringing his rifle back up when Colton pulled the trigger. The rifle was set to automatic mode and the bullets spat out in a steady stream. A haze of gunpowder hung in the air as Colton lowered the gun. The soldier was on the floor, a small pool of blood spreading out from his abdomen.

Noah pushed away from June and ran over to Micah. He crouched next to the boy’s body and wept. Even as Colton approached, he could tell that Micah’s skin was too pale. There was a dark bruise around his neck, and his eyes were closed peacefully, almost like he was sleeping.

Colton helped June to her feet and she gave him a quick hug. “Thank you,” she whispered. When she released him, she wiped away her tears and shook her head. “He tried to save us.” Her small smile told Colton she was familiar with the ways of children—familiar with their unclear sense of how the world really worked and also their crystal clear belief that you had to protect the ones you loved.

Colton did not ask her what happened. She would tell him in her own time, if she needed to tell him at all. He took Noah’s hand and led him away from Micah, and took June’s in his other. Together, they walked to the door and looked out through the window, into the dome room.

Smoke hung in an ugly haze near the elevator hallway door. Colton could barely see the lifeless bodies of at least six soldiers on the floor. Suddenly Kamiko appeared outside the window. Blue fire exploded from her eyes and melted the window. Colton pulled June and Noah away from the door as it slammed open.

Kamiko swatted Colton’s rifle aside with no effort at all. It clattered across the floor and stopped against the body of one of the dead soldiers. The fire in Kamiko’s eyes seemed to grow more intense when she saw the bodies.

Behind her, in the middle of the dome room, Dormer was on his knees, his hands tied behind his back. He looked close to falling over from exhaustion. Half his face was covered in blood. He turned and smiled weakly at Colton. One of the two soldiers still standing cracked him on top of the head with the butt of his rifle and Dormer collapsed to the floor, unconscious.

Lightning shot from Kamiko’s fist as she punched Colton in the chest. He hit the ground on his back and skidded across the floor. Noah screamed and broke free of June’s arms. He ran at Kamiko blindly, his eyes tightly closed, tears streaming down his face.

She turned to face him as a brilliant white light exploded from his body. The flash lit up the room and a wooden weapon rack hanging on the wall burst into flame. White plasma shot out of Noah’s chest toward Kamiko. It was a sloppy attack—a burst of raw, uncontrolled anger from a child with no training; from a five-year-old boy who should have been a decade away accessing his own ability.

Kamiko quickly brought her hands together in front of her face just as the plasma hit them. A shield of lightning erupted from her hands and surrounded her completely. White flames enveloped the protective shell.

When Noah’s fire died, he collapsed to the ground, unconscious. His nose was bleeding and his fingers twitched slightly, as if he were dreaming.

“Is he dead?” asked June. She huddled in the corner of the room, looking between the bodies of Noah and Micah.

The ball of lightning around Kamiko disappeared with a static crackle of energy. She floated over to Noah and looked down at him sadly. His small chest rose and fell in shallow gasps.

“Poor little Nova,” she whispered. “Now they’ll never leave you alone.”

Colton’s clothes smoked from the heat of the blast. He stood up and stumbled toward Kamiko. The black veins pulsed beneath his skin, choking his senses and dulling his mind. Kamiko reached out and grabbed him by the throat. She lifted him up in the air and screamed in anger. A storm of lightning erupted from her mouth and enveloped Colton in an electric cocoon that seized his lungs. He could not breathe. He could not fight back. Lightning crawled over his skin and burrowed into his body.

The lack of oxygen dimmed Colton’s vision. His world slowly faded into darkness, and the last thing he saw was Kamiko standing below him in a sea of swirling, shimmering, beautiful dark blue light.

33

The truck bumped across the desert as Marius drove farther from the burning virus facility. Haven’s brown, red-streaked hair whipped in the wind that blasted through the open windows. She watched black smoke billow up into the sky in the reflection of her passenger-door mirror. The building was hidden on the other side of a large rise, but the smoke climbed far into the blue morning sky like a soul reaching for heaven.

“Where are we going?” asked Haven.

Marius stared straight ahead, his bloodshot eyes fixed on the distant horizon. “Billings is the nearest town. South of here.” He looked at the truck’s fuel gauge. “Not enough gas to go anywhere else.”

The truck hit a dip and bounced back out roughly. Bastian shouted in surprise from the back. He and Roku sat with their backs against the truck’s cab, shielding their eyes from the sun with their hands. Haven put her palm against the glass that separated them and melted away a handprint-shaped hole with a slow burn of blue energy.

Bastian scooted closer to the hole. “Where are we going?” he shouted. Sand whipped up around the sides of the truck. He held up the collar of his jacket to shield his face.

“Billings,” said Haven.

Bastian nodded. “It’ll be south of here, about fifty miles.”

“Do you have any idea where Alistair might be?”

Bastian turned away to look at the black smoke, then shook his head.

“I’m sorry,” said Haven, and she meant it. In Bastian’s mind, no one else was working to get rid of Alistair. To him, his quest represented the only way to eliminate the threat for good. “What will you do now?”

Bastian looked at Roku. “I don’t know. We lost him and I don’t know if we’ll ever get another chance.” Roku sat quietly, his face an emotionless mask.

“Marius and I are going back to the Dome,” said Haven. “Cure or no cure.”

Roku opened his mouth to say something then quickly shut it again. Haven thought she knew what he was going to say.

“You can come with us,” she said. “Both of you.”

Bastian and Roku shared the same look again—a knowing look that carried some deeper knowledge.

“What if Kamiko is still there?” asked Bastian.

“She better not be,” said Haven. “For her sake.”

Roku stared at the tire tracks in the sand, winding like twin snakes back the way they had come. Bastian slapped him on the shoulder and tried to cheer him up. Roku pushed him away. After a moment, Bastian shrugged, then he leaned his head back against the window and closed his eyes.

Haven tucked several wind-blown strands of hair behind her ears and settled into her seat. Marius was still intently focused on the desert ahead.

“Marius wants to strangle him,” he said. He gripped the wheel until his knuckles looked like they might pop through the skin on the back of his hands. “No cure. Why did he lie about something like that? Marius should have stayed with Corva. What if she is gone by the time we get back?”

“I’m sure she’s fine,” said Haven. Even to her it sounded like an awful lie.

“Don’t say things you know are not true,” he said harshly. “Nothing we did made a difference.”

“We destroyed the Fade processing plant. That’s something. It means no one else is going to be infected.”

“Ha!” he said. “What you think, a man like Alistair isn’t going to have another place just like it somewhere? Or maybe he already shipped a hundred million needles out into the world to infect entire countries! Only way to stop it is to stop him, and he’s already killed most of us. They are all back at the Dome, dying slowly, while we drive through this desert and waste more time.”

He suddenly slammed on the brakes and the truck slid sideways over the sand. It came to a rocking stop, then Marius cut the engine and hopped quickly out of the cab.

“Marius…” said Haven. She had a bad feeling about what he might do.

“You!” shouted Marius as he walked around to the back of the truck.

“Me?” asked Bastian. His eyes were bleary from his brief nap.

“You.”

Marius grabbed his collar with both hands. He pulled Bastian off the truck bed and slammed him against the hard ground. He growled and pulled Bastian to his feet, then stuck his snarling face so close to Bastian’s that their noses touched. Then he lifted Bastian up into the air. Black veins throbbed in Marius’s neck. His bloodshot eyes studied Bastian as if he couldn’t understand why such a person existed in the first place.

“What—what are you doing?” asked Bastian.

Marius yelled and threw him as far as he could. Bastian hit the sand on his side and rolled to a stop against a large rock. Roku hopped easily from the bed of the truck and Marius turned on him and pointed a finger in his face.

“This does not concern you,” said Marius. “Let him be a man and fight his own fight.”

Roku’s face hardened, but he stayed by the truck. A few feet away, Bastian coughed sand back onto the desert ground. “I know you’re angry,” he said between coughs, “but—”

But he couldn’t finish. Marius stood over him and grabbed the back of his belt. He shoved Bastian forward and kicked him in the stomach. Yellow flame sputtered and died in Bastian’s hands as he held his side. He was unable to control his energy and small sparks of light shot out from his skin like tiny fireworks.

His breath returned and he took a long, gasping lungful. Haven ran up and grabbed Marius’s arm as he pulled it back for a punch.

“Stop it!” she shouted. Marius turned and scowled at her.

“It’s alright,” said Bastian weakly. He lay on the ground on his side, his breath pushing sand away from his face. He looked at Haven. “It’s alright.”

She slowly let go of Marius’s arm and stepped away. Roku stood next to her, watching.

Marius pulled his leg back for another kick. Right before it connected, a yellow bubble of energy swelled out from Bastian’s hands and burst. Marius flew back ten feet and landed hard on his shoulder. Bastian scrambled to his feet and stood there, half bent over from pain, panting to catch his breath.

Marius got to his feet slowly, his eyes fixed on his target.

“What do you want me to say?” asked Bastian. “That I’m sorry? Because I am. I’m sorry I took you away from your wife. I’m sorry she’s sick.”

Marius walked toward him, his heavy shoes leaving deep impressions in the sand. He looked like a bull in a slow-motion charge.

“But that didn’t change what we had to do,” said Bastian. Marius was just a foot away when another bubble of yellow energy popped in his face. The second burst hit him like a sledgehammer and slammed him down to the ground. He lay there, groaning, holding his head as if it were made of glass.

“I have a lot to atone for,” said Bastian, panting heavily. He wavered on his feet and bent forward to put his hands on his knees for support. “But to pay for it out here would be pointless, especially considering the road ahead.”

Marius kicked Bastian’s ankle, hard. Bastian screamed and lifted his foot off the ground. Marius kicked his other leg out from beneath him and Bastian hit the ground on his back. Marius rolled to him and sat up, then swung his leg over Bastian’s torso to straddle his chest. He pulled back his fist, ready to strike, but stopped.

Bastian fought for air, gasping like a fish on dry land, as Marius’s fist hovered over his head. The energy seemed to leave Marius all at once and he slumped to the side. He crawled away on his hands and knees, coughing, then collapsed in the sand and wept.

Roku knelt down next to Bastian and helped him sit up.

“I’m okay,” said Bastian. His voice was weak and strained, as if he had been screaming for days. “Thank you.”

“I did nothing,” said Roku.

Haven walked over and sat next to Marius. He lay face-down on the hot ground, his tears forming small patches of mud where they fell. He coughed and spat black blood onto the ground.

“Is getting worse,” he said.

Haven put a hand on his back and let some of her energy flow out through her palm, into his spine. He stopped quivering and relaxed.

“We’ve all lost someone,” said Haven. “Some more than others. But Corva is not gone yet. As long as she’s alive, you still have hope.”

Marius pushed away from the ground and sat up. One side of his face was covered in a thin layer of sand, like half-finished clown makeup, and Haven was unable to control the giggle that slipped out. She slapped her hands to her mouth to stifle the rest.

“Marius is no good at this kind of thing,” he said. “He is best at simple things, like punching and revenge. It hurts somewhere deep inside to think about losing her. It hurts more than anything in the world.”

Haven smiled at him. “So let’s get you back home, okay?”

He sniffed and wiped his face with his sleeve. “Okay.”

She helped him to his feet and they walked back to the truck. Roku boosted Bastian up onto the bed and climbed up after him.

“Are we going to make it?” asked Roku.

Haven looked at Marius and he nodded as he got into the driver’s seat.

“I think so,” she said.

She closed his door and walked around the front of the truck. Marius turned the keys in the ignition but all that came from the engine was a steady, slow wuh-wuh-wuh-wuh, then silence.

Haven stood in front of the truck, staring at the front grille. Marius keyed the ignition again and the chugs came slower and weaker: wuh…wuh… wuh.

“This not good,” said Marius from behind the wheel.

“Let me take a look,” said Roku. He hopped down from the truck bed and joined Haven at the front as Marius popped the hood. Roku lifted it and a cloud of acrid smoke rose into the air from the hissing engine.

Haven coughed and waved some of it away. “I’m guessing that’s a bad sign,” she said.

Roku touched parts of the engine, pausing for a moment on each one to feel the temperature. He knocked on a plastic tank bolted to the side panel next to the twin batteries. It thumped hollowly under his knuckles.

“Electrical problem?” asked Marius from the cab.

“Could be the starter,” said Roku. The radiator cap sizzled against his fingers as he unscrewed it. He waved away some of the smoke and peered into the radiator. “It’s also out of coolant.”

“We’re screwed,” said Bastian.

“Thanks for the professional assessment,” said Haven. “What can we do?”

“Unless there’s a tank of water in the truck and a spare starter,” said Roku, “nothing.”

Haven turned and looked in the direction they were heading. Heat shimmered over the miles of hard ground and crumbled rock between the truck and Billings.

“Should we go back to the warehouse?” she asked. “Maybe there’s another truck that wasn’t damaged.”

Roku shook his head. “We’re closer to the city than to the building. We have to walk.”

“It’s still forty miles!” said Haven. “And we don’t have any water.”

“I don’t need water,” said Roku.

Haven looked at him, her hands on her hips. She suddenly realized she was imitating an aggravated pose made famous by her mother and quickly dropped her hands to her side. “What do you mean, you don’t need it?” she asked.

“With this heat, I can draw in enough energy so I don’t have to use any of my own. I’m not sweating.”

Haven had noticed that Roku looked oddly cool in the burning heat. The rest of them were sweating bullets.

“You were sweating earlier in the warehouse,” she said.

“I was injured and I needed to focus all my energy on transferring a memory to you.”

“Yeah, cut the guy some slack,” said Bastian. He hopped off the back of the truck and stood next to Roku. “You going to do the running thing?”

“What running thing?” asked Haven.

“Roku here is a regular Flash. He does this thing where he can really book it for short periods of time, as long as he has enough energy to draw from.”

“If I don’t have enough, it starts draining internally instead of externally. I would be stealing my own life.” Roku looked up at the sun. “But this should be more than enough. I’ll get to town and come back with transportation.”

“We’ll get as far as we can on our own,” said Bastian.

Roku nodded and walked away in the direction of Billings. He took one more look up at the sun and sped up to a light jog. He picked up speed gradually, until his legs were moving so fast that Haven could hardly tell them apart. A plume of dust billowed up behind him as he shrank toward the horizon.

Haven and the others walked after him. She held up her hands to shield her eyes from the sun and wished for a cold bottle of water.

“How does he do it?” she asked. “The running thing.”

Bastian shrugged. “Roku can do a lot. Like the memory piggybacking magic he worked on you when we first met. He seems to have an understanding of the way his body interacts with the world on a biological level that no one else can begin to figure out. I think the running has something to do with the way his body distributes energy, all the way down to the amount of blood delivered to his muscles. He can control what parts get more attention if he really focuses. But he’ll burn out if he pushes too hard.”

“How long will it take?” asked Marius. He trudged forward, staring down at his feet to keep the sun off his face.

“Depends on how resourceful he is in town.”

“Marius is sorry about before,” he said suddenly.

“So am I,” said Bastian.

They continued on in silence, following Roku’s path across the hard-packed ground. Haven looked up at the blinding sun and the desire for water was temporarily forgotten behind the sincere hope that Noah and Colton were okay.

34

The smell of perfume seeped into Colton’s dreamless sleep like a thin sheet falling over a bed. It was a smell of spring flowers and rain, and he knew it belonged to his mother. He called out to her in his sleep, seeing her for a moment in front of him, smiling. Just smiling. It said more than her words ever could.

He reached out for her but she was gone.

He woke up in a small bed in the corner of a small room. There was a little vanity desk with a cracked mirror on top, a short dresser with three drawers, and a single door. Several thick, humming pipes ran along the interior walls—pipes through which a Conduit could funnel their uncontrollable energy instead of burning up with it from inside their own body.

It was his mother’s room.

Colton swung his legs over the side of the bed and sat up. He put his hand on the pillow in the depression made by his head and remembered his arrival at the Dome. His mother had lived in that very room for a time, guarded over and protected by Elena and the others; kept safe from Bernam, who would have killed her without hesitation. Colton’s Conduit ability had been taken by Bernam and given to Reece, a friend who Bernam was manipulating into an obedient follower. After that, Colton only had a short time to live. A Source or Con stripped of their ability will wither and eventually die.

Colton had been on the verge of death when his mother transferred her own Conduit energy into him. He tried to give it back to her—knowing it meant her death—but he didn’t know how. Unlike a Source, a Con can freely give their power to one who is without either ability. Colton’s mother knew how to pass her gift on to him, yet he didn’t know how to give it back.

She had died in his arms just as they were reunited for the first time since he was a boy.

A tingling sensation swept over the left side of his face. He reached up and touched his temple, feeling fresh scar tissue. It burned under his fingertips. Tracing it down, he followed a crescent moon of burnt skin past his left eye. The scar arced inward like a parenthesis cupping his eye and ended just below his cheekbone.

Kamiko.

Colton stood up and a wave of nausea swelled through his stomach. He quickly sat down and covered his mouth with one hand. There was a trash can nearby and he grabbed for it greedily, then threw up black liquid. He wiped his mouth and set the can aside, then slowly stood again. The nausea passed and he went to the door. It was locked. He rattled the doorknob and smacked his palm against the paneling.

“Hey!” he shouted, more of a croak than a word. He continued to hit the door until at last there was a soft click and the knob turned freely in his hand. Kamiko was in the next room, leaning casually against the wall with her hands at the small of her back. She stared at the wall across from her and did not acknowledge Colton as he slowly approached.

The room was narrow but long, with a single overhead fluorescent light that cast a flickering green glow upon the concrete floor and walls. A single table and chair sat pushed into a corner, long forgotten. The door at the other end of the room was solid steel, too thick to break through without his ability. Colton eyed it hungrily but stood still, waiting to see what Kamiko would do.

She turned her head lazily and looked at him with her dark eyes. Thin strands of shiny black hair hung in front of her face like wispy vines.

“What have you done to the others?” asked Colton.

She pushed off from the wall and brushed the hair away from her face, slowly, one side at a time, oblivious to the suffering of the world around her.

“What have you done to them?” she replied. Her voice purred like a kitten.

Colton took a step back, the confusion evident on his face. She moved gracefully, languidly, her every motion like a shifting pool of water, flowing seamlessly into the next.

“I told you not to try anything,” she said. “I warned you not to be a boy hero.”

“Are any of them still alive?”

She looked into his eyes. Her dark blue energy was gone, at least for the time being. She did not float over the floor as she stepped closer to him, but walked normally in slow, patient steps. Her eyes, what Colton once thought of as black holes, were now noticeably dark brown, with tiny flecks of gold around the irises.

She crossed her arms, then reached up and twirled a strand of her hair with a slender finger. “They’re alive,” she said at last. “For now. Your friend Dormer is in bad shape. He will be sedated until the work is done.”

“What about June and the others?”

She shrugged.

“What about Micah?” His voice cracked when he said the boy’s name.

“You saw him yourself,” she said, still staring at him with those deep, dark eyes.

“How could you let that happen?” he whispered, backing away. He hit the wall and stopped. “He was just a child.”

“Colton,” she scolded. “How many children do you think will die once Alistair releases his plague upon the world? How many innocent lives will be lost? What does it matter if one of them goes ahead of schedule?”

He ran at her and screamed. He got both hands around her throat and slammed her into the wall. She stared at him calmly and kneed him in the groin. He coughed out all of his air and fell to the ground in a fetal position, rocking from side to side, unable to breathe.

Kamiko knelt down and traced a sharp fingernail over his new scar. “I gave this to you so would always remember me.” She looked over his writhing body. “You don’t have to go with the others,” she said quietly, as if it embarrassed her to speak the words. “You could come with me after my work here is done.”

He looked at her like it was the most absurd thing he had ever heard, because it was. Then he saw that her face was about to twist from hope to rage at his reaction and he settled back down to the ground. He let his eyes play over her slim body, pretending to admire her every curve. She softened under his gaze, becoming more feminine in that mysterious way mastered by so many women before her.

“If you promise me they won’t die,” he said. “I’ll follow you anywhere.”

Kamiko smiled and put a gentle palm to his scar. Then she pulled him roughly to his feet and pushed him face-first into the wall.

“Don’t make me regret my decision,” she hissed in his ear. He nodded and she released him.

Kamiko walked to the steel door and hit it three times with her closed fist. A moment later, there was a loud mechanical whine and the door slowly opened. She walked out into the dome room, then stopped and turned back to Colton. He followed her, hesitantly at first, unsure of what she would do.

“Go see the Doctor,” she said. “He’s falling behind schedule.” She turned away abruptly and left him standing alone.

Three soldiers stood near the dormitory hallway. One of them leaned against the wall for support, but the others paced back and forth impatiently. The bodies of the dead soldiers still lay strewn about the floor in front of the elevator hallway door. Colton waited until Kamiko disappeared down the dormitory hallway. He walked quickly to the training room and ducked inside before anyone tried to stop him.

Micah’s body was on the cold ground. Colton picked him up gently and carried him back into the dome room. One of the soldiers stood outside the door and raised his rifle.

“Put him down,” he said.

Colton shook his head and said, “Shoot me.” He walked past the soldier with his eyes closed, hoping he didn’t catch a bullet in the back.

35

After Colton took a few more steps, he looked back. The soldier stood there, his rifle held loosely at his side.

The Grove was the only room in the Dome that had not been tainted by the arrival of Kamiko and her thugs. The grass was still as vibrant, the air as crisp and cool as the day Colton had first arrived at the underground complex.

He walked through the grid of healing trees and over the small hill on the far side. Tiny blue lights danced slowly over the surface of the still pond. Colton knelt down and laid Micah’s small body against the base of the willow tree next to Elena’s grave, as if he had simply fallen asleep for a light afternoon nap.

Colton made a silent promise to come back and bury him as soon as he could. He rested his right palm over the boy’s eyes and said goodbye.

All three soldiers were by the dormitory hallway when Colton walked out of the Grove. He went right past them. Their heads turned to follow him, but they said nothing. He walked directly to the water processing room and pushed through the door.

Adsen was still inside, rushing around his makeshift lab like a mad scientist whose creation was about to explode. He muttered to himself and did not notice Colton staring down at Dormer, who lay unconscious on a small cot next to the aluminum tables in the middle of the room. A thick plastic tube burrowed into a vein in Dormer’s arm and fed blood to a machine on the table.

“Were you working for them all along or did you switch sides at the end?” asked Colton.

Adsen let out a shriek and whirled around to face him. “Colton, good heavens! You nearly scared the life out of me!” He put his face too close to a computer monitor and read off some numbers, then scribbled the numbers on a notepad. “You shouldn’t be in here. I already told you that. You should be out there trying to stop the madness.”

“We missed our chance,” said Colton. “We were only able to get some of the soldiers. We failed.” He looked down at Dormer. Dark bruises covered his arms and neck. A large cut started over his nose and ran up his scalp, all the way to the back of his head.

“Yes,” said Adsen. “I was made aware of the…particulars.”

Colton took a step closer. “So you can stop now.”

Adsen’s pencil froze in place. He peered at Colton over the top of his reading glasses. “What do you mean, stop?”

“I mean you don’t have to prove to Kamiko that we’re cooperating. It was all just a distraction anyway, right? But we failed, so now it doesn’t matter if she knows you’re not making any progress. You need to stop working on Fade.”

Adsen sighed. “Do you know why I’m drawing blood from my brother?”

“Because you’re crazy?”

Adsen smiled without humor. “The same reason I drew blood from myself.” He rolled up his sleeve and showed Colton a dark bruise on his forearm. “Do you know what connects us, and only us?”

Colton thought for a moment. “You’re the only ones not infected with Fade.”

“Correct—well, mostly correct. I fear the only reason I am not infected is because I had no ability in the first place. They drained it out of me while I was stuck in Bernam’s facility. I am, for all intents and purposes, normal.”

“So you’re drawing Dormer’s blood to see if the improved Fade will infect it. Doesn’t take a genius to figure that one out.”

Adsen smiled at him and there was a genuine twinkle of joy in his dark pupils. “It does if creating a more powerful virus is not your true goal.”

For the first time, Colton noticed a row of medical syringes laid out on the table. Adsen picked one up and pulled out the plunger. He selected a vial of bubbling yellow liquid from the apex position of his chemistry set and carefully tipped it into the syringe. When the small reservoir was full, Adsen replaced the vial over an open flame and put the plunger back in the syringe.

“You might want to try this,” he said, and handed Colton the syringe.

“I’m not injecting that poison into my veins.”

“Use your head, Colton. Put the pieces together quickly, before we run out of time.”

Colton concentrated as best he could. What was another reason to draw blood from an immune patient if not to learn how to infect their system?

“You made a cure.”

The smile on Adsen’s face grew into one of great pleasure and relief. “Well done, my boy. Well done.”

“But how?”

Adsen filled the other syringes, one at a time, carefully measuring out just enough liquid to fill the tiny reservoirs. He talked as he worked. “To tell you the truth, it was something of a miracle. It was only possible because the genetic makeup of the virus and the cure are nearly identical until after the very last chemical process. I was able to give Kamiko reports on exactly what I was doing as I went along, because I was, in essence, furthering the capabilities of the base virus. Only in the final report—which she has not yet received—would it become obvious that I had deviated from her orders. Here,” he said, offering the syringe to Colton. “I doubt we have much time.”

Colton took the syringe and held out his arm. He made a fist, pumping it hard until the black veins under his skin bulged out. He rested the needle over the thickest vein in his forearm and then stopped. Adsen watched him eagerly, his breath coming out in short gasps.

“What are you waiting for?” he asked.

“I’m trying to decide if you’re lying.”

“You’re already infected,” said Adsen. “What good would it do to infect you again?”

“How should I know? You’ve already lied, Adsen. Why didn’t you just tell me you were working on a cure?”

Adsen turned away and ran a hand through his slick, thinning hair. “I couldn’t risk you knowing the truth. If they took you, and—and they tortured you…” His hand went to his neck and scratched at a faint scar over his throat, usually hidden beneath his shirt collar. “I know their methods. It was too great a risk. You would have talked. I’m sorry I kept you in the dark, Colton. I’m sorry you hated me for it. But it was the only way.”

Colton stuck the needle into his vein and pushed down on the plunger. The hot yellow liquid shot into his arm, burning like acid as it surged through his veins. He dropped the empty syringe and staggered backward. Adsen watched him with a mix of horror and wonder.

“Tell me how you feel!” he whispered.

Colton smacked his lips. They had suddenly become dry as a desert. “Weird,” he said. “Like…like someone pulled out my skeleton.” He held up his fingers and squinted at them. There were twenty on each hand, wiggling back and forth like earthworms.

“Fascinating,” said Adsen. He wrote quickly on his notepad.

Colton’s vision cleared and he took a deep, long breath. “I feel like I can breathe for the first time in my life!” The air was more light and fresh than the air in the Grove had ever been. Colton felt new strength filling out his muscles, making him whole again.

“Excellent!” said Adsen.

The strange sensations left Colton as soon as they had found him and he stood there, his mind as calm and serene as the Grove pond, seeing very clearly what needed to be done. He reached out and took every syringe. He found a small black duffel bag under the table, emptied its contents, and put in the syringes.

“Wait!” said Adsen. “We need more time to see if it’s permanent!”

Colton held out his arms. The black veins that ran like snakes under his skin were already fading.

“That could mean anything,” said Adsen. “We have to be sure.”

“Run more tests, then,” said Colton. “But run them after I’m finished. And wake up your brother. We’re gonna need him.”

36

Haven stared straight ahead as she walked across the desert. The sun reflected too brightly off the ground and it burned too brightly in the sky, so she kept her focus on the wavering horizon, across the miles of cracked earth and rock and through the shimmering heat. Several times she thought she glimpsed a distant vehicle, only to see the dark splotch on the horizon fade away like vapor.

The others marched silently, lost in their own thoughts. Bastian and Haven walked side by side a few feet apart as they picked their way over loose shale and around prickly-pear cactus. Bastian had said they could eat it if they really had to, but it would be a lot easier if they could boil the spines and fry the cactus meat first. Haven said they may as well find a way to cook sand for all the trouble it took to prepare one small chunk of cactus.

Marius walked behind them and had been slowing down over time. Haven glanced back occasionally, but every time she did, Marius waved her away impatiently. His face was slick with sweat and the black veins had crept up from his neckline to cover the sides of his face.

They had been walking for four hours without a drop of water. With the amount of sweat they were each shedding, it wouldn’t be much longer before they all collapsed and died out in the middle of nowhere. Roku would come back—if he came back—to find three dried-out corpses.

Haven tried not to think about never seeing Colton again. Every time he entered her thoughts, it felt like he was pulling her back to him.

“Look,” said Bastian, pointing to the horizon.

A black shimmer appeared between the distant outline of two low mountains. Haven squinted and shielded her eyes, watching intently. She expected the mirage to waver and fade away, just like the others, but instead it grew larger. A cloud of dust rose slowly into the air behind what was most definitely a shiny black vehicle.

“I really hope that’s him,” said Bastian.

They stopped walking and waited as the vehicle drew closer. The noise of the engine carried across the flat ground; a loud growl that reached their ears long before the vehicle came to a skidding halt in front of them. Roku sat behind the wheel of a four-wheel-drive Jeep with no doors or roof. A roll-cage offered the only protection.

“Best I could find on such short notice,” he said.

Bastian whooped and jumped into the passenger’s seat. He leaned over and kissed Roku on the cheek. Roku pushed him away, disgusted, and wiped his face. Bastian hardly noticed; he was too busy messing with the air conditioner controls.

Haven waited behind Marius as he slowly climbed into the back seat, ready to help just in case he was too weak to boost himself up. He made it on his own. Haven grabbed the roll-cage bar and pulled herself up next to him.

“Good job, Roku,” she said. She reached forward and squeezed his shoulder. He smiled at her in the rear-view mirror.

“You couldn’t find one with a roof?” asked Bastian. He had the air conditioner cranked up full blast and put his face right up to the vent.

Roku looked at him, frowning, then put the Jeep into gear and made a U-turn.

Bastian hadn’t stopped smiling since he got in the car. “I thought that was the end, my friend. I thought we were done for.”

Roku picked up speed and followed his own tracks back toward Billings. He reached down near his feet and brought out three bottles of water. Haven took hers and drank all of the water in several long gulps.

“How long did it take you to reach us?” she shouted.

“Thirty minutes,” said Roku.

Sand and small rocks shot up from the back tires as Roku sped over the desert. Looking ahead, Haven saw the glimmering lines of a city.

“Where’d you get the Jeep?” asked Bastian.

“You really want to know?”

Bastian looked at the dashboard, then opened the glove box. It was empty. “This thing’s brand new! Did you steal this right off the lot? Take it for a test drive and never bring it back?”

Roku shook his head and Bastian’s smile faded. “Tell me you didn’t buy this Jeep.”

“You paid for this thing?” asked Haven, leaning forward. “How?”

Bastian’s mouth hung open in disbelief. “Come on, man! We’re down to our last bit of cash!”

“I didn’t want to steal it,” said Roku. He gripped the wheel tightly and pressed down on the accelerator.

“He didn’t want to steal it,” said Bastian to no one in particular, shaking his head. “Of course he didn’t. Always the Boy Scout. Captain Morality. Well, I hope they do refunds. And what happened to the roof?!”

“It would have taken too long to attach,” said Roku.

“How did you guys get so much money?” asked Haven.

Roku and Bastian exchanged a quick glance, and Roku nodded. Bastian turned around in the passenger’s seat. Marius was slouched down next to Haven with his arms crossed, asleep, an empty water bottle gripped tightly in hand. His head bounced lightly as the Jeep rode across the bumpy ground.

“You remember I told you about Helix Scientific?” asked Bastian. “We spoke about it briefly at the airport.”

“The company Roku used to work for,” said Haven. “I remember.”

“Yeah, well, let’s just say he didn’t exactly see eye to eye at the time of his, um, departure. He stole a couple of company credit cards on his last day and cashed them out.”

“I thought you didn’t like stealing,” said Haven to Roku. He looked at her in the rear-view mirror but remained silent.

“Stealing from a company like Helix is different than ripping off a car salesman,” said Bastian.

“What makes them so bad?”

Bastian shrugged. “Just the fact that they’re tagging and cataloguing every Source and Conduit they can find.”

“Why?”

“Because we’re easier to control if they can herd us like sheep.”

The Jeep hit a shallow divot in the ground and sand flew up over the windshield to sting Haven’s face. She rubbed it from her eyes and said, “No one at the Dome ever told me anything about them.”

“They probably didn’t know the company existed,” said Bastian. “It’s a private group, funded anonymously, with no clear purpose other than tagging Sources and Cons. Sounds harmless enough, right? Especially with that ‘Scientific’ at the end of their name. Roku spent a year undercover with them and never found out anything more than that. Even internally, they keep a tight lid on all of their operations. But I have a theory.”

“Well, let’s hear it,” said Haven.

Bastian smiled. “You won’t believe me.”

“After what I’ve seen? Give me a break.”

“I think it’s Bernam’s company.”

“Bernam’s dead. I watched Alistair kill him.”

Bastian nodded. “And yet Helix Scientific still exists. Which means control of the company has passed to someone else.”

“Alistair?”

“Maybe.”

“Seems a little small in scale for his tastes.”

“Perhaps,” said Bastian. “But tagging and cataloguing our kind would make it very easy to track us down if, say for example, he wanted to inject each of us with Fade. Anyway, Helix isn’t a major player yet, but we need to watch them closely.”

“Are most of the employees normal people?”

Bastian smiled. “‘Normal’?

“You know what I mean. Not Sources or Cons.”

“Yes. All of the upper management, anyway. They use people like Roku to do the hunting and collecting.”

“Sounds to me like all the money belongs to Roku.”

“What money?”

“The money he took from Helix. Sounds like he can buy a Jeep with it if he wants to.”

Bastian laughed. “I guess you’re right.”

“So,” said Haven. “All that time he worked for Helix, you were working for Alistair?”

Bastian’s face changed and he looked away. Haven didn’t think he was going to answer. He looked down at his open palms as if he were ashamed of himself.

“I got myself into a little bit of trouble,” he said at last. “Before I met old Rock-You here, I was a bit of a grifter. A small-time scam-artist, you could say.”

“Why doesn’t that surprise me?” asked Haven. She meant it as a joke but Bastian didn’t smile.

“There are people out there you don’t know about, Haven,” he said. “Sources and Cons who aren’t like us. They’re rotten, all the way to the core, no better than common street thugs. They form gangs and roam the streets of major cities, preying on easy targets—stealing and hurting those who can’t defend themselves.”

“You were one of them,” said Haven.

Bastian shook his head. “No. But my brother was. After my mother left us and ran off with her new boyfriend, my brother started taking drugs—heavy junk, none of that kiddy weekender fluff. He got in deep with a local drug lord. Turns out this guy’s a Con, and he uses his ability on my brother to teach him a lesson. Only afterward, my brother doesn’t wake up.”

Roku looked over at Bastian and Haven could tell by the look on his face that he had never heard the story.

Bastian spoke as if in a trance, his eyes wide and unblinking. “So I go pay the drug lord a visit. His name was Frank. Funny, right? A drug lord named Frank. Anyway, he can tell what I am before I get within twenty feet of him, and he wants to order his boys to spray me with bullets, but by then it’s too late. I’m lit up like the sun, wading through them like nothing. And then it was over. It was just me, standing there, alone.”

“What did you do after it was done?” asked Haven.

“The only thing I could do. I ran. And I didn’t stop until Alistair found me and told me that I should come work for Bernam. He paid for everything and he made my problems go away.”

“He recruited Colton as well,” said Haven. “He bailed him out of prison.”

Bastian nodded. “I have a feeling he had people like us all over the world. Little seeds he was hoping to cultivate into great big trees for his army. Alistair was my main contact. I only met Bernam once, right after I joined up. The funny thing is that I never really did anything at all for them. They told me to live my life and they would call me when they needed me. Then one day, the call finally came, and the first thing they wanted me to do was burn down someone’s house in Arizona. I didn’t go, obviously, and I spent my time running from them until Alistair finally caught me a year ago. They injected me with Fade, and then the cure. Bernam died right after that and Alistair disappeared. That’s when I met Roku, and the two of us have been quite the activists ever since.” He smiled and slapped Roku hard in the shoulder. “Ain’t that right?”

Haven sat in the back seat, stunned. “Scottsdale?” she asked weakly. Her voice sounded far away, as if it came from another person.

“I’m sorry?” said Bastian.

She swallowed hard. “Scottsdale, Arizona? Is that where they wanted you to go?”

“Yes,” said Bastian, looking at her with surprise. “How did you know?”

Roku reached over and punched him in the arm.

“Ow!” said Bastian. “What’d you hit me for?”

Roku nodded at Haven.

“Oh,” said Bastian quietly. “Haven, I’m sorry. I didn’t put the two pieces together.”

“It’s okay,” she said, and looked into his eyes. “I’m glad you told me.” In a way, it was good to know that there were people out in the world who wouldn’t sell their souls because they were simply “doing their jobs”. In another way, her parents were still dead, and that meant there were people out there in the world who enjoyed inflicting pain. For the time being, Haven chose to believe the world was filled with more good than bad, even though, recently, all of the evidence pointed in the other direction. She chose to look at it like that because it was the only way to keep from completely losing her mind.

“We’re almost there,” said Roku.

Haven looked ahead as the Jeep left the desert and hit smooth asphalt. The outskirts of civilization rose up around them—abandoned buildings and industrial lots filled with rusty machinery and old trucks. A few miles away, downtown Billings awaited.

“Good,” said Bastian. “Let’s refuel and hit the highway.”

Haven leaned over and put a hand to Marius’s forehead. His skin was burning up but he shivered, even under the bright midday sun. His eyelids opened and he smiled when he saw her. He said something in Russian and before Haven could ask what he meant, he closed his eyes again and fell asleep.

“Please hurry,” she said to Roku. She wanted Marius to see Corva one last time before Fade ran its course. She did her best to push the thought of burying them together out of her mind, but it was useless. All she saw when she closed her eyes was a row of graves, all lined up next to Elena’s in the Grove. Etched into each one was the name of someone she loved.

37

The three soldiers guarding the dormitory hallway didn’t try to stop Colton as he approached. He carried the small black duffel bag confidently and looked right at them when he passed. He could feel them staring at him and fought the urge to quicken his pace. Finally he was past the kitchen and at the fork in the hallway. Colton turned left and followed the hall until he reached Marius and Corva’s room.

He spun the wheel, pushed open the door, and went inside. June stood against the wall with an iron frying pan in her hand, ready to bring it down on his head. She let out a relieved sigh when she saw it was him and tossed the pan onto an empty chair.

“You’re lucky you aren’t one of them. I almost flattened your head.”

“Thanks for double-checking,” said Colton. He went quickly to Corva’s bed and knelt down, then unzipped the duffel bag and pulled out a handful of capped syringes.

“What are those?” asked June.

“The cure.” He handed one to her and pulled off the protective cap covering the needle. “Here, take it.”

“What?! You’re crazy.”

Colton showed her his arms, now completely free of black veins. He pulled down his shirt collar so she could see the faint grey outlines of the veins that had once been pitch black.

“Good enough for me,” she said. She inserted the needle into a vein in the crook of her arm and slowly pushed in the plunger. “It burns.”

“Yeah,” said Colton. “It gets better. In a minute you’re going to feel really good. You should probably sit down.”

“It’s already started,” said June. Her eyes crossed and uncrossed, then she sat down heavily on the nearest chair and right in the frying pan. She didn’t notice.

“What’s going on?” asked Noah. He had been hiding under a cot and stuck his head out to look up at Colton.

“Hey Noah,” said Colton. “How are you feeling?”

Noah shrugged and scratched at the floor shyly. Colton wanted to ask him how he managed to use his ability while infected with Fade. He wanted to know how Noah was able to use his ability at all, given that no Source or Con ever manifested their power before they were at least sixteen years old. The black veins that had been so prominent in Colton’s skin were only thin lines in Noah’s, and had been since he was first infected. His body had something extra to fight off the infection, even though Colton was certain that Fade would eventually win in the end.

“We found some medicine that’s going to make everyone better,” said Colton. “Come on out here and we’ll all take it together.”

Noah crawled out and sat on the cot.

Colton prepared another syringe and gently turned Corva’s face toward him. The skin on her cheeks was almost completely purple-black, and when he lifted her eyelids he only saw onyx orbs with red streaks running through them. Her arm was cold as ice as he rolled up her sleeve and found the biggest vein beneath her skin. He put the needle in slowly, watching for a reaction. Her breathing quickened and then stopped. The beating pulse that had been so clearly visible in her neck was still.

He injected the cure and held his breath with her, afraid that if he filled his lungs it would curse everything. The needle was black when he removed it from her skin. Her back arched up suddenly and she screamed. Colton put his hands on her shoulders and pushed her back down to the bed. She stared at him from behind strands of wild, white hair. Her eyes were no longer black.

“You’re going to be okay,” said Colton.

Her back arched up again, too strongly for Colton to press down, and then she collapsed. Her eyelids fluttered closed and she let out a deep, contented sigh. Colton felt for a pulse on her neck—weak, but steady, and her skin was already warming.

“Will she be okay?” asked June. She hovered over Colton’s shoulder, looking down at Corva.

“I think so,” he said. He picked up some syringes and handed them to June. “Here. For them.” He nodded toward the five comatose people on the cots around the room—the other survivors from the medical facility.

Colton administered the cure to Noah while June took the syringes and, one by one, injected the others. None of them were as bad off as Corva, but it would not have been long before Fade ran its full course. Colton sat heavily on the ground, holding Corva’s clammy hand, and closed his eyes.

They did it. They survived. And it was all thanks to Adsen, a man who Colton thought had been trying to perfect his own creation—his virus that Alistair meant to unleash upon the world. There would be a nice, fat steak in Adsen’s future, Colton was sure of it. Ten steaks, if he wanted them. There was no way to thank him enough.

A scream echoed down the long hallway. Colton stood up, his eyes fixed on the door as the scream tapered off into silence. A moment later, it started again, quiet at first, and then louder, like a demented siren cranking to full power.

“It’s Adsen,” he said, and ran out of the room.

The hallway had never seemed so long. Colton’s legs felt as if they were moving too slowly—like his own body did not want him to go any farther.

When he finally ran out of the hall and into the dome room, he immediately wished he had stayed away.

Kamiko stood in the middle of the room near the shattered fire pit, her skin shimmering with dark blue flame. Long, electric legs of lightning stretched from her back and held Adsen twenty feet off the floor. They spun him in the air slowly, like a spider cocooning its prey in slow motion. The ends of the legs crackled over his skin, leaving black char marks in their wake.

In her madness, Kamiko had released her energy with no consideration for anyone else in the room. Two of the three soldiers that had survived the earlier attack lay in a heap behind her. Their armor was burnt and fused with their skin. Thick smoke rose from their bubbling face-masks.

Adsen let out another ear-piercing scream as one of the legs brushed over his chest.

Colton ran down the corridor of shelves toward Kamiko, blind to everything else. For the first time since he had been infected, he felt the presence of his ability. As he ran, he drew from Kamiko’s energy. It radiated from her body and seeped into the room, and Colton took it in and stored it, letting it fill him like a charging battery.

He was only a few feet away from her when a rifle cracked him in the skull and he tumbled to the ground. Colton’s world threatened to go dark but he fought to stay conscious. A soldier stepped out from behind a metal shelf and stood over him. He brought his rifle up slowly. Colton knew he was going to shoot. The soldier racked a round into the chamber, then rested the butt of the rifle gently against his shoulder. He let out a deep breath as his finger found the trigger and started to squeeze.

Colton closed his eyes but no shot came. Instead there was a long whuuuUMPH, followed by a short scream. He opened his eyes and the soldier was gone. He lay in a heap on the other side of the room. Suddenly Dormer was there, helping Colton to his feet. He was a little paler than usual, but the deep cut on his head was almost completely healed.

“Let’s get him down,” he said.

Colton nodded and together they ran at Kamiko. She turned to them at the last second. Two of the lightning legs holding Adsen detached from his skin and disappeared into her body. Colton reached out for her neck and the strands shot out and slammed into his chest.

But he had been ready. He focused everything he had on absorbing her energy. There was so much raw power in her attack that he knew he couldn’t hold out for long. Dormer stood a few feet away, fighting against the same kind of attack. The long bolts of lightning held the two men in place.

Adsen screamed once more, and then was silent.

Dormer looked up at him and his concentration was broken. Kamiko’s energy surged into his torso and he launched back into the air. He smacked into the dome wall and slid down to the floor, unconscious.

Colton yelled and pushed forward, ignoring the sensation of pain that was slowly spreading out from his shoulders and down his spine. He knew Kamiko was overloading his system—knew that she was forcing more energy into his body than he could disperse. If he didn’t break free, eventually his ability would simply stop working and he would melt from the inside-out.

Kamiko’s eyes burned brighter than Colton had ever seen. Her black hair floated around her head in silken waves.

“I don’t want to hurt you,” she said.

“You sure don’t act like it,” said someone directly behind her.

Kamiko turned quickly as June grabbed her face. Two black and blue energy spheres blossomed from June’s palms and enveloped Kamiko’s head. The spheres exploded and Kamiko flew backward. The lightning sprouting from her back and the fire covering her skin instantly vanished.

Adsen fell to the floor and hit the hard concrete with a dull thud. He looked at Colton with glassy eyes. Adsen smiled—a smile full of peace; a smile of a man content with his own personal redemption. The light faded from his eyes and Colton knew he was dead.

Kamiko lay on the ground twenty feet away, groaning. June and Colton ran at her, their fists humming with built-up energy. They were still ten feet away when Kamiko screamed. A blue sphere of solid energy formed around her body. Colton and June stopped short, just outside the sphere. Kamiko was barely visible within. She stood slowly, stumbled and fell, then stood again.

Her eyes burned with rage as she looked first at June, then at Colton.

“You made a promise,” she said.

“What?” said June. She turned to Colton. “What is she talking about?”

Kamiko’s eyes shifted back to June and Colton remembered the deal he had made. Dormer groaned and tried to sit up against the wall. Kamiko’s gaze drifted over to him and the sphere flared out, widening in diameter.

June pushed her hand through the barrier and screamed. One of the lightning strands shot out of the barrier and hit her like a truck. She skidded back across the floor and slammed to a stop against the rubble of the fire pit.

“Don’t hurt them,” said Colton. He held up his palms and let his built-up energy drain visibly from his palms as he stepped toward Kamiko. “I’ll go with you.”

She smiled at him like a girl who had just been asked to the school dance. For a split second she was Kamiko the girl, and not Kamiko the psychopath.

The sphere disappeared in the blink of an eye and the lightning returned, arcing out from her back to grab at the inner walls of the dome. She beckoned Colton over. He went to her and she wrapped her arms around him, hugging him close. She rested her head on his shoulder and sighed happily.

“Hold on tight,” she said.

Colton wrapped his arms around her as their feet slowly lifted off the floor. The lightning scraped along the surface of the dome wall like the inside of a plasma globe. It carried them up toward the hole in the ceiling and out into the sunlight. Colton looked down as Kamiko set them at the edge of the hole. Down in the darkness, he saw June crawling across the floor toward Dormer. She reached him and looked up at Colton.

Tears streamed down her face. She turned away and tried to get Dormer to wake up.

The distant sound of a helicopter drew nearer. Colton shielded his eyes from the sun to look up as the aircraft approached and set down nearby. Kamiko stood a few feet away, staring at Colton. After one last look into the dome room, he turned away. Kamiko held out her hand for him and he stopped. Her smile faltered just enough to be noticeable. Colton took her hand and allowed her to lead him away from the only place in the world that felt like home.

38

The Jeep was a mile away from the Dome when Haven saw the helicopter take off. She knew the stop to refuel in Billings would cost them, but there had been no other choice.

The chopper was long and sleek, with two heavy machine guns jutting out from the front. It made a slow circle over the Dome, like a buzzard circling a corpse. As the helicopter turned, Haven suddenly knew that Colton was inside. She felt it in her bones.

“Drive faster!” shouted Haven. She stood up in the back seat and held onto the roll cage bar. The Jeep bounced harshly over the rough ground leading up to the Dome.

“It’s too late,” said Bastian.

He was right. The chopper rose quickly into the air flew in the opposite direction. By the time Roku pulled the Jeep next to the massive hole in the ceiling of the dome room, the helicopter was nothing more than a shrinking black speck in the sky.

Haven jumped out of the Jeep and ran to the hole. She fell to her knees and peered over the ragged edge. The only light in the dome room was coming from the hole in the ceiling. A thick shaft of bright light pierced the gloom, illuminating a broad circle of the floor. Dormer and another woman—Haven realized she was one of the medical facility survivors—sat against the wall at the edge of the light, looking up.

“The ladder’s gone,” shouted the woman. “She melted half the stuff in here when she left.”

“Is my brother okay?”

“Noah’s fine.”

Haven hesitated before asking her next question. She was certain she already knew the answer. “And Colton?”

There was a long pause. “Kamiko took him,” said Dormer.

Haven looked up at the sky, but the helicopter was gone. Nothing but clear, empty blue as far as she could see.

“Haven,” said Dormer. She looked back down. “There’s a cure. Everyone here was inoculated.”

Her breath escaped her and she felt like she was going to cry from relief. “Do—do you have any more?” she asked. Her voice was shaking and she covered her mouth with her hand. Tears squeezed out of the corners of her closed eyes.

“Just enough for Marius,” said the woman. “Kamiko destroyed everything else.”

Haven couldn’t speak. She nodded and walked back to the Jeep. Only after she was a few feet away from the hole could she take a deep breath and begin to calm herself down. Marius stirred in the back of the Jeep. His eyes opened when Haven gently brushed his cheek with the back of her hand. His face was icy cold.

“There’s a cure,” said Haven. “They have it below. But the ladder’s gone. We need to find a way down and then we’ll get you to Corva, okay?”

Marius rested his head against the seat and nodded weakly. He closed his eyes and shivered despite the heat.

“What do we do?” asked Bastian.

“Let’s try the garage,” said Haven.

She hopped up into the Jeep and Roku drove over to the small, rocky mountain nearby. The garage roll-up door at the base of the mountain was in good condition except for a big dent right in the middle. Roku and Bastian went to either side of the door and forced it open inch by inch. It groaned as they pushed it upward until there was finally enough room to get into the garage.

“Well, that’s just great,” said Haven after she walked inside.

Dormer’s black sedan—or what was left of it—was parked next to several large chunks of concrete that had fallen from the ceiling. The frame of the car had been liquefied until all that remained was a mound of wrinkled black metal. It looked like a melted candle.

“So they parked the car and then melted it.”

Bastian shook his head. “Some people, right?”

All of the shelves lining the walls of the garage had been overturned and some of the walls had crumbled inward, revealing wet, red clay. Part of the roof lay in huge pieces against the elevator cage which led down to the main dome room. The front of the cage was bent inward until it almost touched the back.

“Let’s find some rope to lower us through the hole,” said Haven. “The elevator is useless.”

She poked around the rubble, searching for anything that would help them descend into the Dome. Bastian stood still, staring at the elevator.

“You going to help, or what?” she asked.

“There’s a winch on the front of the Jeep,” he said.

“You want to lower us with the winch?”

“We can pull this debris away with the Jeep and maybe coax that cage back into shape, and bingo.”

Haven looked outside at the Jeep, then at the pile of concrete in front of the elevator. “Worth a shot,” she said.

A minute later Bastian was back in the garage, pulling a long steel cable that was attached to a spool under the Jeep’s front bumper. Roku drove the Jeep slowly forward and got close to the garage. He waited behind the wheel while Bastian and Haven ran the steel cable around the largest piece of concrete blocking the elevator. Bastian fed the cable under to Haven and she looped it back over the top, then he connected the large metal hook to the cable, creating a giant lasso around the chunk of debris.

Bastian gave a thumb’s up and Roku flipped a switch in the Jeep. The spool reeled back in, pulling the excess cable until it became taught. He shifted the Jeep into reverse and backed slowly away from the garage.

The huge chunk of concrete scraped loudly over the floor, pushing smaller chunks out of its way like a glacier cutting through icy water. It hit the side of the melted black sedan and stopped. The steel cable groaned and there was a loud TWANG as the winch snapped off the front of the Jeep. Roku got out and looked down at it, frowning.

“Maybe you should get your money back,” said Bastian, grinning.

“It’s okay,” said Haven. “I think that cleared enough room.”

She went to the elevator and put her hands against the bent metal cage. Bastian stood next to her and did the same. The cage bars glowed blue and yellow as Haven and Bastian used their energies to heat the metal. They bent the bars back into their rightful places one at a time, as if the cage was made of molding clay.

They removed their hands and the cage bars cooled quickly, losing their glow and hardening into place.

“I’ll get Marius,” said Haven. She went back to the Jeep. Marius was already standing next to it, swaying slightly on his feet.

“Everything good?” he asked.

“It’s getting better,” said Haven. She took his arm and helped support his weight as they walked to the elevator. Marius breathed slowly and heavily, like a man in a deep sleep. His eyes were glazed over as if he were drunk. They got into the elevator with Roku and Bastian.

“Let’s hope this piece of junk still works,” said Haven.

Bastian lowered the cage door. A small control panel was welded onto one of the cage bars, and a small silver key dangled next to a red button. Bastian turned the key and the button lit up. He smiled and pushed down on it until the elevator lurched in place. For a split second, Haven thought they were going to break free of the supports and plummet to their deaths. To go through everything they had endured only to be flattened like pancakes right at the very end struck her as universally cruel.

The elevator jumped again, then slowly moved down the shaft. Haven let out a sigh of relief when it finally touched bottom and the door slid up.

“First floor, Housewares,” said Bastian. He stepped aside so Haven could help Marius out into the long, wide hallway that led to the rest of the Dome.

The four of them walked in silence, their footsteps echoing down the corridor. The end of the hallway was destroyed. The large door lay on its side in three separate pieces. Haven stepped over the rubble and brought Marius to the wall next to Dormer and the woman from the medical facility. She eased him down and brushed her hands off against her jeans.

“Is the cure for real?” she asked.

Dormer nodded. “It’s for real.”

Bastian put his hand on Roku’s shoulder and led him away. They spoke quietly to each other, just out of earshot.

The woman from the medical facility crouched next to Marius holding a syringe containing clear yellow liquid. “I’m June,” she said. She injected Marius with the serum. He smiled at her but was too weak to speak. “Nice to meet you, too,” she said.

“Where is everyone?” asked Haven.

“In their rooms,” said Dormer. “Resting. Fade hit some of them harder than the others.”

“But are they okay?”

Dormer looked away. “Micah and Adsen are dead.”

“What?” whispered Haven. “H—How?”

“Micah was trying to protect us,” said June. She put the cap back on Marius’s syringe and set it aside. “One of the soldiers thought it was a bad idea.” She stood up abruptly. “I’ll go check on the others.” She walked away, toward the dormitory hallway.

“What about Adsen?” asked Haven.

“He was supposed to be working on a way to make Fade more lethal,” said Dormer. “Instead he lied to Kamiko and produced a cure. She found out after it was too late to stop him, but that didn’t matter. She killed him anyway.”

“I’m so sorry.”

Dormer smiled weakly, then he looked at her for a long moment. “I’m glad you’re back.”

“So am I.”

“Listen, there’s something you should know about Noah.”

“What happened? I thought you said everyone was okay!”

“They are, they are. It’s just that—well, after Micah was killed, Noah displayed some of his ability.”

“What do you mean? He’s just a boy, there’s no way he can—”

“Haven!”

She turned as Noah ran across the room and leapt into her arms. She hugged him so tightly that he coughed. “Oh!” she said, loosening her grip. “Oh, Noah, I’m sorry! I was just so happy to see you!” She kissed his forehead and his cheeks. He wiggled away from her and then came back in and gave her a big hug.

“I missed you,” he said.

“I missed you more.” She kissed the top of his head.

“Micah’s gone.”

“I know, sweetie. I know.” She held him as close as she could. She wanted him to stay a little boy forever, or at least for a few more years. Noah shouldn’t have to deal with any of the problems that plagued her and the other adults in the Dome. He was just a sweet little boy who never asked to be cursed and never did anything to deserve the Nova ability. Haven wondered if he would ever be safe once people found out the truth.

Marius suddenly cried out and sat straight up as if someone had splashed a bucket of ice water over his face. He looked around, confused, like it was his first time in the Dome. “What?” he said.

“It’s okay, Marius,” said Haven. “You’ve been given the cure.”

“Corva!” he shouted.

“She’s fine,” said Dormer. “Recovering nicely.”

Haven reluctantly released Noah and looked into his eyes. “Noah, would you mind taking Marius back to see Corva?”

Noah nodded and held out his hand. Marius took it and stood up. He allowed the small boy to lead him through the rubble and down the dormitory hallway.

Haven turned to Dormer. “Where did Kamiko take Colton?”

He winced in pain as he stood. “Come. I have something to show you.”

Roku and Bastian fell into step behind her as she followed Dormer into the water processing room. A broken cot lay against one of the water tanks. The middle of the room was a mess of smashed equipment and broken glass. At the very top of the pile rested a single piece of paper with strange markings written on one side. Dormer plucked it from the pile and handed it to Haven.

“This was waiting for us after Kamiko left. She must have known she wouldn’t be here much longer.”

“Is this Japanese?” asked Haven. She looked up in frustration. “I have no idea what it says! Why leave a message in another language?”

“Because she knows I can read it,” said Roku. Everyone looked at him. “She must have known I was with you.”

Haven almost asked how they knew each other, then she saw the pained look on Roku’s face and thought better of it. She handed him the piece of paper.

He studied it carefully. “These are coordinates. Longitude and latitude.”

“Coordinates for what?”

“The rest of the message might reveal the answer.”

“Well, come on!” said Bastian. “Out with it!”

Roku looked at Haven. “Kamiko wants you to know that she has Colton and will keep him as her own until the day you feel strong enough to challenge her. The coordinates on this note are the location where he is being held.”

“What are they?” asked Dormer. He kicked away some of the rubble and found a stack of papers strewn across the floor. He flipped through the pages and pulled out a map. Roku read off some numbers and Dormer made a small black X with a pencil, not too far from the Dome’s location. “That can’t be right,” he said.

“What’s wrong?”

“Those coordinates are in the exact same spot as Bernam’s old headquarters. You remember the black building connected to the medical facility?”

“The one I blew up,” said Haven. “Yeah, I remember. The whole place melted into the ground.”

“It would seem that is where Kamiko is waiting.”

The doors opened and June and Marius walked into the room. The blackish, poisoned tint was already fading from Marius’s skin. His eyes were bright and alert.

“Corva is alive,” he said. His voice caught in his throat as he turned to Dormer and said, “Marius is sorry about your brother. To do such a thing, to make this cure, he is a hero.”

Dormer nodded.

“So,” said Marius. He turned to Haven. “What will you do?”

“I’m going to bring Colton back. And I’m going to make sure Kamiko never hurts anyone else ever again.”

“I’ll take a piece of that action,” said Bastian.

“Me too,” said Roku.

“I feel I owe it to my brother to pay her a little visit,” said Dormer.

“What about you, Marius?” asked Haven.

He shook his head, somewhat sadly. “I am not leaving Corva again. I will stay.”

“So will I,” said June. “I’ll watch out for Noah and the others while you four take care of business.”

“Thank you,” said Haven. She turned to Roku, Bastian, and Dormer. “Well boys, let’s go finish what Kamiko started.”

39

Colton looked out a window in the helicopter as the Jeep drive up to the Dome and stopped next to the hole in the ground. The helicopter rose higher into the air until the Jeep became a speck, then disappeared far below. He imagined Haven stepping up next to the hole and looking in; he could picture her face when she saw the ruin within—her second home to be attacked by people who wanted her dead or as a lab specimen.

Colton turned away from the window and settled back in his seat. Kamiko sat across the cabin, staring at him. The passenger area of the chopper looked like the inside of a luxury van, which struck Colton as odd for many reasons, the biggest being the twin machine guns sticking out from the aircraft’s nose. Each seat was made from molded leather and swiveled freely. Kamiko turned hers slowly back and forth and chewed on some of her hair.

“Do you love her?” she asked suddenly.

Colton said, “Who?” even though he knew exactly who she meant.

Kamiko tilted her head to the side and smiled. “True love doesn’t exist, you know.”

“Is that what Alistair told you?”

She laughed; a soft, feminine sound. “He didn’t have to tell me. I already knew.”

“Who broke your heart?”

Her smile faded and her eyes darkened.

“Whoever he is,” said Colton, “or was, I hope he didn’t learn the hard way that it’s a bad idea to make you angry.”

She smiled again and looked up at the ceiling. Colton thought he saw tears welling up in her eyes. There was a faint flash of blue from her pupils and her eyes were dry again.

“Most men are intimidated by me,” she said.

“No kidding.”

“But you are not.”

“I’ve been around plenty of crazy.”

A thin strand of lightning cracked out from her hand like a whip and slashed him across the face, then disappeared just as quickly. His skin sizzled where it struck his cheek.

“Perhaps you want another scar to match the one I already gave you,” said Kamiko. Her breath hissed out through her clenched teeth and she shook with anger. A moment later, the anger vanished, and she was turning her chair slowly from side to side as if nothing had happened.

Colton touched the crescent scar on the side of his face. “Where are we going?” he asked.

“My home.”

“And how is the underworld this time of year?”

Another lightning whip snapped out, but Colton was ready. He absorbed the blow easily and felt renewed by the powerful energy that filled his veins. The whip crackled across his skin as Kamiko tried to hurt him, then she gave up and the lightning dissipated into the air as if blown away by a calm wind.

“You learn quickly,” she said. Colton thought he heard a hint of appreciation in her voice.

He looked out the window and tried to force himself to think about other things. Kamiko closed her eyes and appeared to be sleeping. Colton looked toward the front of the helicopter. The cockpit was closed off from the rest of the chopper—the only way to take out the pilot would be to go outside and back in through one of the doors up front. As if Kamiko were reading his mind, she opened her eyes and shook her head ever so slightly.

The helicopter slowly descended. The ground below turned from a light beige to a darker clay color, with less plant life and more hulking boulders dotting the landscape. Colton had a sinking feeling that he recognized the area—as much as anyone could recognize a generic patch of nowhere in the middle of Montana—and as the helicopter touched down, he was certain he knew where they were going.

“But it was destroyed,” he said.

Kamiko stood and gently touched his scar. She smiled and pulled the door open. Wind from the blades blasted into the cabin and Colton held his head down as he followed Kamiko outside.

A tall building stood over the ruins of Bernam’s old headquarters. The mirrored, modern architecture of his square office had been replaced with a palatial spire of twisting black metal that reached up toward the sky like the turret of a futuristic castle. The sides of the building were lined with solar panels that hugged and encircled the building every few feet up its length like enormous belts.

“What do you think?” shouted Kamiko over the helicopter noise.

Colton couldn’t answer. His voice had died in his throat as he looked up at the powerful building. Something about it made him feel that it would be pointless to resist any organization that could construct such a thing.

The helicopter lifted off and flew away as Kamiko led Colton to the base of the building. A flat black door rested in a deep groove. Three security cameras looked down at them as they stood outside, waiting. She looked right into one of the cameras and a small light below the lens flashed green. There was a deep metal clank and the door swung inward. Colton followed Kamiko into the darkness of a cool hallway, dark except for a dim red light glowing somewhere far above. It felt more like the entrance to a nightclub than to a villain’s lair.

She walked down the long hallway, Colton following closely behind. He looked up and saw the ceiling was a hundred feet from the narrow floor. Cameras hidden behind black domes dotted the ceiling every few feet, just barely visible in the dim red light—and something else was up there as well. Small objects with holes in the center. Colton realized they were sentry guns. They were aimed down at the floor at different angles so any unwanted guests would have to cross through a sheet of bullets to get past the hallway.

The door at the end of the hall opened automatically as Kamiko approached. Colton stepped through the doorway, expecting a maze of claustrophobic tunnels that led to countless rooms. Instead, the inside of the building was mostly hollow.

Like an ancient cathedral, the floor was open to the peak of the spire far above. Supporting arches ringed the massive floor and helped to support the walls, but higher up, the building tapered inward and supported itself. Colton imagined it was like being inside the shell of a skyscraper shaped like a giant rocket. The polished floor was multi-tiered, with steps leading up and down between different levels. There was a lounge area up a small flight of stairs to his left and a command center with rows of tables topped with sleek black computers to his right. The highest level was against the far wall up a steep flight of steps—a bedroom with a dozen byōbu folding screens used as walls. The byōbu were painted with vibrant colors and depicted forest scenes filled with animals. One of them showed a large feathered bird rising up into the air, its bright feathers burning with blue fire.

“Where is everyone?” asked Colton. He was expecting his voice to echo throughout the empty chamber, but instead it seemed to die inches from his face. The room was soundproofed.

“You killed them at the Dome,” she said without anger. She walked up the set of steps to her left and Colton followed. The wide, circular lounge area was lined with black, overstuffed couches, black end tables, and even blacker coffee tables.

“I think I know your favorite color,” said Colton.

Kamiko looked at him demurely and sat on a couch. Her slender frame barely made a dent in its plush fabric.

“Who’s going to push all those buttons?” he asked, pointing over to the command center. Red lights flashed across racks filled with various equipment.

“Alistair will send someone. He always does.” She ran her finger in small circles on the seat next to her. “But now I have you to keep me company, haven’t I?”

“Why do you work for him in the first place?”

She looked at him knowingly. “Are you trying to appeal to my reasonable side?”

“Maybe.”

“I can assure you, I have none.”

Blood rushed to Colton’s face. “You must want something! Who teams up with a guy like Alistair? You think he cares about you or anyone else who does his bidding? He would toss you aside like garbage if he thought he couldn’t use you. He probably will anyway, once he’s finished.”

“Then he is no different from anyone else in this world,” said Kamiko. “You think people care about you, Colton? They don’t. They only care about what you can do for them. I was lucky enough to realize that truth before it was too late.”

“So now you just get what you can, while you can. Is that about it?”

“It’s the perfect relationship,” she said. “He gets what he wants, and I get what I want.”

“So you do want something.”

She smiled again and turned away slightly. Colton couldn’t tell if she was trying to flirt with him or if she was just plain crazy. “Every girl does,” she said.

“Well?”

“You’re going to make me say it?”

“Yeah.”

“I want you to stay with me.”

Colton looked at her for a long time, pretending to think it over. She waited with a hopeful gleam in her eyes. He let her wait a little bit longer. “Why do you want Haven so badly, anyway?” he asked.

Kamiko grinned wickedly. “You’re smart enough to figure it out.”

“Maybe I’m not.”

She sighed. “Why would any girl with blue flame want to be the only girl with blue flame in the world?”

Colton’s eyes widened with understanding. “So the Phoenix power would be forced to go to you.”

She nodded. “I simply want to eliminate my competition.”

“But I thought you already—” and then he stopped. Dormer and everyone else at the Dome thought Kamiko had already received the Phoenix power instead of Haven. She was so strong that it was an easy assumption to make. But if she didn’t have it, and neither did Haven, then who did? Was it possible that no one had received the ability?

“Already what?” asked Kamiko.

“Nothing,” said Colton. “It was nothing.”

She eyed him suspiciously.

“So,” he continued, “what do you think Alistair’s going to do with you when he finds out you didn’t improve the virus?”

Kamiko shrugged and inspected her fingernails. “I’m not worried about it.”

“You should be.”

“He needs me,” she said.

“But for how long? What happens when his charity runs out?”

“I’ll be long gone by then.” She crossed her arms and glared at him. “So what is your answer?”

“Answer for what?”

Anger flashed quickly over her face. “Will you stay?”

Colton sighed and looked up at the ceiling. “Nah,” he said at last, then looked into Kamiko’s eyes. “I’m in love with somebody else—the person you were looking for the moment you set foot in the Dome. I don’t know how many girls with blue flame you killed before you started looking for Haven, but I promise that you’ll never get your hands on her as long as I’m around.”

Dark blue fire ignited from Kamiko’s skin and swept over her body as if she had been doused with kerosene and set ablaze. Her eyes looked like swirling pits of blue lava. The energy coursing through her body was so intense that Colton could see the outline of her bones through her glowing blue skin.

She stood, fists clenched, and leaned over him. He backed away from the heat. It burned his eyes and made him sweat. The table he was sitting on burst into flames. He kicked it away and fell to the floor.

Over in the command center, there was a ping, and a soft, mechanical voice said, “Proximity…alert. Proximity…alert.”

Kamiko smiled down at Colton and tiny bolts of lightning crackled over her teeth. “You were saying?”

40

The black tower loomed ahead, thrust upward from the desert like a spear. Dormer drove the Jeep straight toward the building. None of the four passengers had said a word since they left the Dome. Haven rode in the passenger’s seat and tried not to think that Colton might be dead. Roku and Bastian sat in the back, each absorbed in their own thoughts.

A heavy weight of seriousness had settled over all of them when the black building first appeared on the horizon. It had been built atop the ruins of the blocky, mirrored headquarters of Bernam, Alistair’s old boss. Haven and Alistair had destroyed that building in a vicious fight—a fight that should have killed him.

The top of the tower glinted in the sunlight like a beacon, calling Haven to her fate, whatever that might be. Two Sources and two Conduits—each of the others among the strongest she’d ever met— should be more than enough to handle Kamiko.

Then why are you so nervous? thought Haven.

She didn’t have an answer. All she had were sweaty palms and a fluttering stomach. She wanted to get everything over with so she could go back to the Dome and sit with Colton under the Grove willow. He was the one who had suggested the correct way to bring the floating blue lights into existence, although she hadn’t had a chance to tell him yet. Haven and Colton had wandered out to the willow tree late one night to pay their respects to Elena. Afterward, they ended up sitting at the edge of the teardrop pond under the willow, and Colton offered one of his many suggestions on how to create the lights. Haven had returned to the pond the next day and was surprised to find that he had finally given her the answer. Hers couldn’t float up into the air like Elena’s—not yet, anyway—but they could dance over the surface of the pond like tiny blue fireflies.

Haven smiled and tried to keep the warm memory at the forefront of her mind as she looked up at the black building. She could see no obvious entrance at the base. It appeared as if the entire bottom of the outer wall was a series of pits and grooves, almost as if the architect had scooped out huge pieces of material with an enormous spoon.

A plume of red sand erupted next to the Jeep and a machine gun with a rotating barrel rose quickly from the ground. The gun swung around to track the Jeep and the barrel gave off a high-pitched drone as it spun to a blur.

“Sentry guns!” shouted Bastian. He stood up in the back seat and stuck his arms out toward the long barrel of the gun. Bright yellow orbs of plasma grew from his shoulders and moved quickly down to his closed fists. He slammed his fists together and a jet of molten energy shot out toward the gun. The sentry gun managed to fire off a single bullet. It sank into the side of the Jeep with a loud THONK right before the stream of energy hit the barrel of the gun and liquefied the metal.

“So much for the surprise attack,” said Bastian. He sat down in the back seat and the yellow orbs shrank and disappeared into his hands.

“How do we get in?” asked Haven.

Dormer drove the Jeep up to the base of the building and circled it slowly, looking for a door. Another gun popped out of the ground ahead of them but Haven was quick enough to hit it before it rose all the way up. A quick burst of blue plasma and the gun was a glowing puddle of liquid metal.

“We might have to make our own entrance,” said Dormer.

He drove past a deep groove at the base of the building and a door suddenly swung inward. Dormer hit the brakes and the four of them sat there, staring into a dark hallway.

“I don’t know about that,” said Bastian.

“She is very treacherous,” said Roku. “We should be careful.”

Haven looked up at the building. The surface was smooth all the way to the top—there was no way to climb high enough to get to a vulnerable window for access, if there were any vulnerable windows at all.

“I don’t think we have much choice,” she said.

“You go first, then,” said Bastian with a grin.

“I’ll go first,” said Dormer. He got out of the Jeep and approached the door. The others followed and stood close behind as he leaned over the threshold and squinted down the dark hallway. He took a few hesitant steps inside.

Haven walked past the door and looked up. “Tall ceiling,” she said. “Security cameras. Kamiko definitely knows we’re here.”

“Of course I do,” said Kamiko from above. Haven and the others jumped at the sound and looked up quickly. Speakers embedded in the walls of the hallway played a tinny, metallic version of Kamiko’s voice. “I hope the trip was worth it,” she said with obvious amusement. “It will be the last journey you’ll ever make. Well, not including death, of course.”

“She had to spell it out for us,” said Bastian, shaking his head.

“Where’s Colton?!” shouted Haven.

There was a pause. Then, “Why don’t you come and see? I’ll be waiting.”

The speakers went silent.

Dormer led them farther down the hallway. When they were about halfway, a distant whirring noise came down from high above their heads.

“That sounds familiar…” said Bastian.

Haven looked up and saw the small objects between the security cameras on the ceiling. “Run!” she screamed.

The guns in the ceiling opened fire. Bullets rained down from above, hitting the floor and ricocheting back and forth between the walls. The surfaces of the hallway had been intentionally lined with bulletproof material and the bullets easily bounced off, as if they were made of rubber.

“Stay close!” shouted Dormer.

Haven huddled against his back as he ran forward. Her eyes were only open for a part of the time, and she caught glimpses of bullets sparking off the walls and then bouncing away inches in front of her face. Suddenly Dormer stopped and Haven nearly pushed him over as her momentum carried her forward. The guns stopped firing and the last of the bullets clattered to the ground. Dormer put his hands on Haven’s shoulders until she steadied.

They were at the end of the long hallway. Bastian stood by a closed, black door and quickly patted down his entire body, looking for holes. “Hah!” he said, then slapped Roku on the back. He nodded at Dormer. “That did the trick, didn’t it?”

The door behind him opened and he was yanked out of the hallway, his eyes wide with terror. He left a yellow stream of energy in his wake, which flowed through the air like a snake into the next room.

“No!” screamed Roku.

He lunged forward to grab Bastian, but it was already too late.

41

Haven hurried through the doorway and into an enormous circular room with a vaulted ceiling that ran unobstructed all the way to the top of the building. Across the room and up a small flight of stairs, Colton sat chained to a chair. A thick strip of black tape covered his mouth. He saw Haven and shook against the chains as he struggled to free himself.

Kamiko hovered in the air thirty feet off the ground, suspended over the middle of the room by long strands of lightning that extended from her back and arced down to the floor. She held Bastian in front of her like a rag doll. His body was limp in her hands. Two strands of lightning extended from her shoulders and burrowed into his temples. He moaned softly and turned his head away.

Roku pushed past Haven and raised his fists. Haven joined him, allowing her energy to flow to her hands, ready for release.

Kamiko’s eyes sparked with lightning. She brought back her arm as if she meant to throw a baseball, only what she threw was a ball of lightning the size of a small car. Dormer grabbed Haven’s arm and tried to pull her back but it was too late. The ball of lightning flew through the air and hit Haven full-force. She was knocked backward to the ground, paralyzed as if she had been hit with a giant taser gun. The lightning passed over her and hit the wall, exploding the hallway door. Huge chunks of metal and concrete burst into the room. Debris hit Roku and Dormer from behind and pushed them to the floor. They struggled to get out from under the heavy rubble.

The lightning around Haven died and the room became just quiet enough to hear Bastian whisper, “I don’t want to die.”

Kamiko held his chin in her hands and turned his head until he was staring directly into her eyes. “Then you shouldn’t have come here.” She opened her mouth in a silent scream and blue energy poured out to envelop Bastian’s entire body.

Roku stumbled to his feet. He banged against a table as he tried to walk forward. Haven pushed herself up and fell right back over. Her muscles were still jerking in spasms from the lightning. Bastian screamed, and then there was silence. Kamiko was alone in the air. Bastian was gone.

“Who’s next?” said Kamiko. She sounded bored.

Blue energy covered Haven’s body like a new layer of skin. Kamiko smiled when she looked down and saw Haven approaching. Then she noticed Roku circling around to the other side of the room and her smile slowly faded. Roku looked up at her with a mixture of hatred and love.

“I never thought I’d see you again,” said Kamiko. More strands of lightning grew out from her back and grabbed onto the walls. She hovered lower, moving toward Roku gracefully.

“I always knew we would be together,” said Roku. “One last time.”

She saw something in his face that made her angry. She scowled at him and brilliant blue energy shot out from her back and arced over her head. It crashed against him—but he remained standing. The energy hit the center of his chest and he absorbed all of it. A bright blue aura surrounded his body as he walked toward Kamiko. She lowered herself closer to the ground as he approached. Soon his eyes were as luminescent as hers—two small blue stars emitting enough heat to melt steel.

Haven tried to lift a large piece of concrete on top of Dormer. He helped push up one corner and managed to scoot out just before Haven lost her grip and let go. The concrete slammed down to the floor, sending up a cloud of dust.

Dormer coughed and pulled Haven closer to him. “Hit her now,” he said. “We might not get another chance.”

“He’s her counterpart,” said Haven. That was why Kamiko’s energy wasn’t vaporizing Roku upon contact. They were a Source and a Conduit who had found each other in the world—against all odds, they had once been together.

Haven looked over at Colton. He struggled helplessly against the heavy chains that bound him. She wanted to run over and melt away the chains, but between them was Kamiko, and Haven was sure she would never be able to reach him in time. Faint blue fire sparked from his hands as he tried to use some of Kamiko’s excess energy to melt the chains, but it wasn’t working.

In the middle of the room, Roku and Kamiko were almost touching. The energy she fired in his direction shot up from him like a pillar of dark blue light. He walked toward her with his fists clenched. His eyes of blue fire were hard and unforgiving. For a fleeting moment, Kamiko’s face seemed to soften. She looked suddenly tired and alone, like she had been lost for years and had suddenly found her way back to her home.

“You left me,” she said.

“I had to,” said Roku. “Look what you’ve become.”

She screamed at him. New strands of lightning burst from her body and slammed into his chest. The tips crawled over him, searching for a way to burn his skin.

He turned to Haven. “Do it!” he shouted.

Kamiko’s trance was broken. She turned her head just as Dormer and Haven gave her everything they had. Haven’s wings spread behind her. They opened up into the air, fanning out like giant blades of light. Her vision went blue as she let go. There was no need to visualize the sphere of energy in her mind’s eye—no need to call it forth to the forefront of her imagination and draw the fire from its core.

The energy came to her naturally, without thought or concentration. It erupted from her fists like a volcanic stream, twisting through the air and hitting Kamiko in the head.

Dormer must have been storing up as much of Kamiko’s energy as he could safely retain since they first arrived. A wide tunnel of black energy laced with blue lightning exploded from his chest and hit Kamiko in the stomach.

The four of them remained in those spots, frozen like a painting: Dormer and Haven unleashing their powers against Kamiko, and she, hovering in the air with dozens of lightning bolts reaching out from her body, putting everything she had into destroying Roku. He stood before her, funneling the powerful energy upward, holding his ground against her malicious onslaught.

One of the four had to weaken eventually, and Haven was determined it wouldn’t be her. She grit her teeth as more energy flowed down her arms and shot into the steady stream hitting Kamiko. Her wings pulsed with her exertion, lighting up the entire room in bright flashes.

It went on like that for what seemed like minutes.

Roku looked up at Kamiko and smiled sadly. He closed his eyes. Suddenly, the energy he was funneling disappeared. He was no longer absorbing and dispersing—he was completely blocking her energy flow. Everything she aimed at him hit his skin and disappeared.

Kamiko looked confused for a second, and then she tried to back away, but she wasn’t able to cut off her assault in time. The stream of dark blue plasma that connected her to Roku suddenly reversed directions. All of the hair on Haven’s skin stood up on end as a massive electrical shift crackled through the air.

Roku grabbed Kamiko and pulled her close. She struggled to push away but he held her there in a tight embrace. Their bodies vibrated rapidly, like plucked guitar strings. The vibration traveled through the floor and into Haven’s bones.

Dormer’s stream of energy broke off and he reached for Haven. He shouted something but she couldn’t hear him. In the middle of the room, a blue ball of light had completely engulfed Kamiko and Roku. Kamiko screamed and the ball exploded like a star going nova. A shockwave of energy ripped through the room. Haven and Dormer were thrown back. They slammed into the wall and fell to the ground. Colton’s chair fell over backward and skid across the floor until it crashed into the side of a couch.

Bits of debris crumbled to the ground near Haven’s head. Dormer lay next to her, groaning softly. His eyelids fluttered open and he saw Haven.

“Are you alright?” he whispered.

She nodded and they helped each other up. Roku and Kamiko lay apart in the middle of the room, forced away from each other by the blast. Roku lay on his back with his eyes open, staring up blankly to the far-away ceiling. A thick smear of blood ran from one side of his mouth and down his face. Haven could tell, even from a distance, that he wasn’t breathing.

Kamiko lay face-down, unmoving. Haven and Dormer approached her slowly.

“I’m almost out,” said Haven. She reached deep within herself to summon more energy. Residual traces of power tugged at her from deep within, but she knew she needed more time to call on anything powerful enough to put up a good fight.

“Same here,” said Dormer. He held his left arm close to his body as they walked. Haven thought she had heard the crack of bone when they hit the wall.

Across the room, Colton stirred. He wriggled in his chair against the chains. He managed to get one of his arms free and scoot the chair around so he could see the rest of the room. His eyes met Haven’s and she stopped walking. She wanted to say something but didn’t know the right words.

Colton saw what they meant to do, then he looked down at Kamiko. Her face was toward him. He watched her for a moment, then his eyes opened wide. He quickly peeled off the tape covering his mouth and shouted, “She’s awake!”

Dormer lunged for Kamiko just as she turned and saw Haven. She grinned and blue energy blossomed from her body. Another shockwave exploded outward and knocked Haven and Dormer to the floor. Two thick strands of blue flame licked out from Kamiko’s back like giant snakes. One hit Dormer in the neck and slammed his head against the floor. The other opened its wide jaws and lunged at Haven’s face.

42

Colton used his free hand to loosen another chain that kept him bound to the chair. He lay on his side next to a couch, squirming to get free. A blue shockwave slammed into him and pushed his chair back another few feet. It scraped along the couch until he was able to grab one of the legs and stop himself.

Across the room, Kamiko slowly got to her feet. Twin snakes of blue fire grew from the middle of her back. They writhed and twisted in the air as they pinned Haven and Dormer to the floor.

The one that had Dormer by the neck flickered near its head as he tried to absorb all of its energy, but it was either too strong or Dormer was too fatigued to fully deflect the plasma. He struggled uselessly against it, unable to free himself.

Kamiko looked down at her two captives and casually brushed her hands together. She knelt down next to Haven and pushed a flaming strand of hair from her face.

“You’re not the only one who’s full of surprises,” she said.

Haven choked against the fire, barely managing to breathe. “You killed him,” she whispered.

Kamiko turned and looked at Roku’s body. “He killed himself,” she said softly. “Foolish boy.” She turned back to Haven. “I should blame you for his death. You brought him here.”

“I’m here for him,” said Haven, looking over at Colton.

He lay there, watching helplessly, still half-chained to the chair. The only energy he could draw from the room was residual—barely enough to warm his skin, let alone melt the chains. He would have gotten a good burst of it from Kamiko’s shockwave if he was paying attention, but he had been too focused on trying to loosen the chains and missed his opportunity.

“Ah, yes,” said Kamiko. She stood and took a few steps toward him. “But didn’t he tell you? He’s with me now.”

“She’s a liar,” said Colton. Anger flashed across Kamiko’s face and that made him feel better. “I only agreed to go with her so she would spare the others at the Dome.”

Kamiko stared at him, a look of betrayal in her eyes. “Well,” she said finally, “I guess that means I don’t have to hold up my end of the bargain any longer.”

She stood next to Dormer as he writhed on the ground. The fire snake twisted and plunged deeper into his neck, as if it were burrowing down into his torso.

Kamiko knelt next to him and put one of her hands on his forehead. Dormer tried to sit up but she pushed him back down. “Shhhh,” she said. “It will be over soon.” Energy flashed under her palm, pulsing in short, quick bursts. With each one, light seemed to shine from deep within Dormer’s head. Each pulse made his eyes glow and turned his skin translucent. Colton could see the outline of his skull with each flash of light.

“Stop it!” screamed Haven. Colton could tell she was trying to use her own energy to fight the fire snake that kept her pinned to the floor, but every time she pushed back, Kamiko sent a fresh wave of dark blue plasma down the snake to slam into Haven’s chest.

Kamiko suddenly released Dormer. He fell back against the floor and lay there, barely conscious.

“You’re right,” said Kamiko. “It’s not fair for me to choose which one dies.”

She walked across the room and grabbed Colton’s ankles. The fire snake extended from Haven to Kamiko like a long tube of burning fire. It continued burrowing into Haven’s chest and pressed her to the floor.

“What are you doing?!” shouted Colton. He grabbed for her with his free arm but couldn’t reach down to where she had him by the ankles.

Kamiko dragged his chair to the middle of the room and put him right next to Dormer. With a single burst of blue plasma from her palms, his chains fell loose. He kicked away from the chair but was too slow for Kamiko. She grabbed his forehead and slammed his head against the floor. A pulse of burning light burst from her palm and seared his brain. He wanted to scream but nothing in his body was responding. The light came again, blinding and burning, cutting into his head like a knife. Kamiko grabbed Dormer’s forehead with her other hand and dark blue light flashed from her palm.

“It’s your choice, Haven,” said Kamiko. Colton opened his mouth to speak but another wave of pain shot through his body. He lay there on the ground, unable to move. “Pick one of them.”

Colton’s vision flashed white and he heard Haven breathing heavily somewhere nearby.

“I…won’t,” she said.

“Then I’ll kill them both.” Another wave of pain and light. Colton heard something sizzling deep within his body, as if her plasma was charring his bones. He wondered if he was dying.

“Don’t!” screamed Haven.

“Then make your decision.”

Another flash of pain. Colton was almost numb to it. It surged through his body and down his spine, but he no longer convulsed against its power. He felt detached from his own body, far away. Even between pulses, he was blind. He tried to open his eyes but realized they were already open. All he saw was a blinding white nothingness. His eye sockets felt strangely empty. Nearby, Haven wept.

“Oh,” said Kamiko. “Too late for this one.”

Colton heard Dormer’s head hit the floor with a soft thud as Kamiko released him. Haven cried softly between deep gasps for air. “You killed him,” she said, her voice hot with anger and despair.

“Yes,” said Kamiko. “And now I will kill the other one, too.”

“No!”

“You should have made your choice when you still had time. There are consequences for your actions, little girl. Hasn’t anyone ever told you?”

Colton could tell Kamiko was hitting him with more energy, but he could no longer feel it. His body convulsed under her hand with each pulse—he was unable to control his own muscles. The only thing that remained within him was the desire to reach out and take Haven’s hand, to tell her it was going to be okay.

Another pulse, stronger than all the others put together. Something broke deep inside him, as if a tube had cracked in half to release his soul. Kamiko let go of his forehead. Colton lay there, finally feeling something. He felt his life leaving his body. He felt his essence flow out from him like a deep, satisfying sigh. Yet he was not at peace. He always thought that people who were dying experienced absolute clarity, as if they were finally at rest after a lifetime of struggle.

He heard Haven screaming from far away, calling his name and pounding on the floor. The bright white nothingness of Colton’s vision grew more intense as he felt himself slipping farther and farther away from her. Her screams faded. He exhaled and realized he could not breathe in. He did not experience terror, nor bliss, nor a sense of a completed life. Colton felt like he had never made any difference at all.

He faded slowly, unable to breathe. He lay there thinking of Haven, wishing he had been able to hold her one last time.

Then, there was nothing.

43

Haven saw him die. She saw the life leave his face in one long moment where it looked like he was going to speak. And then he was gone, just like that.

The burning sensation in her chest disappeared while she looked at Colton’s body, motionless on the ground. His eyes were burnt, empty pits. His skin smoked and sizzled. Kamiko stood over him, looking down at his body. The remaining fire snake still writhed from her back, looping through the air and plunging into Haven’s throat and chest. It swelled to cover her stomach. Soon it would be thick enough to consume her entirely.

Haven barely noticed. The pain had been replaced with anger and regret—regret for not being able to save Colton. Kamiko turned to her and smiled wickedly.

Energy bloomed within Haven’s chest—her own power, reaching out from far away to answer her rage. Light blue flames flared up from Haven’s hand to meet the dark, vibrant blue of Kamiko’s twisting fire snake. Haven pushed with everything she had, forcing the stream of plasma out of her chest. Her own energy flowed over the fire snake and crawled quickly toward Kamiko, who pushed back even harder. Haven’s energy flickered and died. She rolled out of the way and the fire snake slammed into the ground where she had just been a second earlier. Kamiko screamed in anger and lightning erupted from her back like an insect sprouting enormous legs. They struck the floor next to Haven as she dove out of the way.

She landed on her stomach and a bolt of lightning stabbed into the small of her back. Her body was paralyzed. A second later, the bolt disappeared. Haven rolled onto her back and another bolt struck her in the stomach. Kamiko walked toward her slowly, brushing black hair away from her eyes.

“You’re a lot more trouble than the last girls,” she said.

A sphere of plasma surged down the lightning bolt from Kamiko’s back and hit Haven in the stomach like a cannonball. It pushed the wind out of her lungs and she lay on the floor gasping for air.

Kamiko smiled and stood over her. “Such a little bird,” she said, shaking her head in pity. “I will send you to be with him. Isn’t that what you want?” She knelt and put her hand over Haven’s forehead. The lightning bolt growing from her back crackled in the air as it lifted away from Haven’s stomach.

Warmth flooded out of Kamiko’s palm and spread across Haven’s skull. She found it easy to lay there and let it happen. It was almost peaceful. But then there was pain, such as she had never felt before. The light from Kamiko’s palm grew too bright and Haven closed her eyes, except the light did not go away. She had a horrible vision of Colton’s face and his burnt eye sockets.

Above the sizzling of her own bones, Haven heard Kamiko laughing.

Then she heard something else—a loud CRACK as the air in the room was forced apart. Kamiko stumbled backward and Haven’s vision returned. Standing a few feet away, looking down at Colton’s body, was a tall black man in a long green coat.

“It’s impossible,” whispered Kamiko. She scrambled back, pushing herself away from the intruder. “You’re supposed to be dead!”

He was tall and muscular. White scars covered his bald scalp. A particularly vicious scar ran down the left side of his face and crossed his left eye. The iris of that eye was clouded white with blindness. The other carefully took in his surroundings. His dark green trench coat had many pockets. Beneath it he wore black pants and a black shirt. The muscles in his jaw bulged visibly as he looked at Colton. Then he turned and saw Kamiko.

She screeched and threw up her hands. There was a tremendous surge of light from her palms. Haven and the intruder looked away from the blinding pulse, and when it faded, Kamiko was gone. Her footsteps receded quickly down the long hallway that led outside.

The intruder looked after her thoughtfully. Haven lay on the ground, breathing heavily. She groaned as she sat up, keeping a wary eye on the man. He turned and noticed her for the first time.

“Who are you?” asked Haven. He stepped toward her and she backed away. “Don’t come any closer!”

He stopped. Haven had her closed fist in the air, pointed at him in what she hoped was a threatening gesture. He cocked his head as he looked at her, then in two long strides, crossed the distance between them and grabbed her fist with his own massive hand.

She tried to call upon her ability, but she was empty inside. Not empty from lack of energy—it was in there, somewhere. She could feel it swirling in the depths of her soul, waiting to be called. She was empty for another reason. Her eyes drifted slowly over to Colton’s body. It felt like someone had carved out her insides and left nothing but her skin and bones.

The man’s one good eye glinted with understanding as he looked between Colton and Haven; the clouded iris of his other regarded her without emotion. He squeezed her fist and pulled her to her feet.

Haven started to protest but the man reached out and grabbed her other hand before she could pull it away. Suddenly she felt as if she were being ripped into a billion tiny pieces. The floor dropped away beneath her feet and she was suspended in space. The room exploded around her and swirled away as if it were being sucked into a black hole. The universe blurred out of existence. Haven was surrounded by an infinite void of nothing. Her stomach dropped and she felt like she was going to vomit. A distant noise—a scream of wind and metal—grew louder.

The man held her close. A tiny pinpoint of light appeared far away and approached quickly. They were heading straight for it at an incredible speed, as if they were standing on top of a bullet train in complete darkness. The light grew and grew until Haven was sure they were going to slam right into it—whatever it was.

Then it hit them. There was a loud CRACK as the air ripped apart to make room for their arrival. Haven was suddenly standing on firm ground. The man released her and she collapsed. Her ribcage felt compressed and she couldn’t force air into her lungs. The man slapped her on the back and she sucked in a deep breath, then coughed and bent forward. Her coughing turned to weeping as she thought about Colton.

Haven clawed at the grey dirt beneath her hands. She wept and her whole body shook with her sobs. It took her a moment to realize she was no longer in the black building. She forced herself to calm down and sat up. Haven opened her hands and soft grey dirt fell to the ground like sand from a broken hourglass.

The man stood next to her, offering his hand. Haven looked up at it hesitantly, then took it and stood. She wiped away her tears with the back of her hands and looked around.

They were standing in a wide field of the grey dirt. The grains were so fine that small clouds lifted up from their shoes whenever they took a step. At the edge of the dirt lot, all around them, were the ruins of buildings.

Skyscrapers and parking garages—an entire city had been destroyed. Haven looked up and saw a dirty grey sky, much the same color as the dirt that covered the ground. A hot wind howled throughout the buildings.

The man walked away and Haven hurried to catch up.

“Where are we?” she asked.

“Don’t you recognize it?” His voice was deep and pleasant.

Haven looked at the broken buildings. Rebar skeletons pierced chunks of charred concrete like shish kebabs. “It—it looks like Chicago.”

“It was Chicago.”

“So…” she said, thinking. “When are we?”

A small smile crossed his lips. “Now you have it.”

“How is that possible?” she asked. “I’ve never heard of anything like it, not even rumors.”

“I haven’t always known the method,” he said. “I spent years probing the limits of my capabilities. Life is energy, all the way down to the molecular level. I thought that if I could manipulate something as pedestrian as heat or light, why not reach farther? Why not try to manipulate a section of space on the other side of the planet?”

“Or in a different time,” said Haven. He nodded.

She couldn’t tell where they were going. The buildings surrounding them formed a barrier around the dirt lot, and she didn’t exactly feel like climbing across the ruins.

Haven studied him as they walked. Somehow he looked young and old at the same time. His skin was smooth and youthful except for the scars on his scalp, but his eyes, even the left one with the scarred iris, were deep with experience. A small gasp escaped her lips when she saw the tiny black veins creeping up his neck from beneath the collar of his jacket.

He smiled again. “Yes, I’m infected. A parting gift from Alistair when last we met.”

Haven thought back to a conversation with Bastian. “Australia. You were the one who fought him.”

The man nodded. “Too much devastation without any result. Alistair still lives. He was gravely wounded, and I may have slowed him down, but he will return stronger than ever.”

“We have a cure,” said Haven. “For Fade.”

The man shook his head slowly. “I have accepted the inevitable.”

“But—you’re a Nova!” she said. “Aren’t you?”

“Yes. Long thought dead by my own kind.”

“Why?”

“Because I wished it. When you have been around as long as I have, you start to see things differently. You start to see the big picture.”

They walked for a moment in silence.

“What’s your name?” asked Haven at last.

“Nathaniel.”

“You have a last name?”

“It was taken away by the man who bought me.”

Haven looked at him. “How old are you?”

“Old enough to know that people don’t change. Old enough to know that nothing we do makes any difference.”

He led her to the base of a fallen skyscraper. The building lay on its side, its top propped against the building next to it so that it formed an enormous, gently-ascending ramp. Nathaniel climbed over the rubble leading to the flat side of the skyscraper. He reached back, offering his hand to Haven, but she ignored him and climbed up on her own.

They walked up the steady slope on the side of the skyscraper, heading slowly higher. Parts of the wall on that side of the building had been torn away in large chunks, and they had to be careful to avoid soft spots in the concrete as they walked higher. Every window was shattered. Haven looked down into the rooms as she walked past—nothing but ash within.

“Why would you not take the cure?” she asked.

Nathaniel walked a short ways in front of her, studying the building before him carefully. “Look around you. This is what happens to humanity in the future.”

“How far into the future?”

“My time here is finished,” he said, ignoring her question. “There is nothing else I can do to prevent what is happening.”

“You can travel through time and you’re pretty much a self-powered nuclear generator,” said Haven irritably. “I think you might be selling yourself a little short.”

“I used to think so as well. By the time I first learned how to use my abilities, a century of persecution, torture, and murder had already passed. I could do nothing to save my people from a lifetime of despair. Even if I went back and changed everything, an equally devastating scenario would arise. Believe me, I’ve tried. The hard truth is that men like Alistair will always exist to inflict such pain on the rest of the world.”

“And people like us are there to stop them,” said Haven. It felt good to say the words—to know she served some purpose in the world. In the background of her mind, Colton’s death tugged at her, begging her to break down and cry. She forced the thought far away and choked back her tears.

Nathaniel shook his head as they climbed higher up the fallen building. They neared the top and the air grew thinner, even though they were only two hundred feet off the ground.

“If you could take a step back and observe things as I do,” said Nathaniel, “you would see that Alistair and all the men like him are nothing but ants fighting over a piece of grass.”

He reached the edge of the building and stopped. Haven stood next to him, looking out upon a horizon of destruction. The entire city of Chicago was laid to waste. As far as the eye could see, there existed nothing but crumbled buildings and piles of debris. The grey sky extended in all directions and had no end.

“Earth will eventually tire of your presence,” said Nathaniel. “The skies will darken to block out the sun. The oceans will rise to swallow half the planet. Humanity will die.”

They stood there, looking out onto a world of nothing.

“Don’t you see?” he asked.

Haven nodded. “I see,” she said. “I see that you gave up, and you’re asking me to do the same thing. But there are things worth fighting for that maybe you’ve forgotten. Things like family and friendship.” Her eyes welled with tears. “And love.”

He shook his head sadly. “I have not forgotten them. Perhaps they have forgotten me. Do you know what it’s like to be alone, Haven? Truly alone, with no hope of salvation?”

She swallowed hard, thinking of her parents and Colton. “I know enough.” She waited for him to speak, but he remained silent. “Why did you really bring me here?”

Nathaniel looked out at the horizon for a long time. “When I was a boy,” he said, “I knew all of those things you mentioned. Love most of all. And then my family was taken and sent far away. I never saw them again. I worked for a man and his wife in South Carolina, plowing fields, sowing crops. If I misbehaved, I was punished.”

He turned away and lifted his coat and shirt. His back was covered with dozens of long, thin scars. Several chunks of skin had been ripped away and lumpy scar tissue covered the old wounds. Nathaniel lowered his shirt and jacket and turned back to Haven.

“I didn’t know what I was at the time, so I had to take the beatings. But there were others like me, too. Boys and girls, each with their own special ability. You know what happened to them when they were discovered?”

Haven shook her head, afraid to hear the answer.

“They were dragged away and shot in the fields like dogs, before they could learn how to fight back. Every great tragedy throughout humanity’s bloody history—every war, every genocide, every century of slavery—leaves a scar on the soul of this world. And so out we come,” said Nathaniel, pointing at Haven and himself. “Soldiers to turn the tide in humanity’s favor—to staunch the flow of innocent blood. Kind of hard when the people in charge kill you before you realize what true power lies within.” He tapped his chest.

“So you were too afraid to save your own people,” said Haven, “and now you’re going to let everyone else die? Did you bring me here for comfort? So you could hear someone tell you it’s a good idea to roll over and welcome extinction?!”

Nathaniel sighed. “No. I tried to stop what was coming. I met Alistair in battle, and we both failed. I did not bring you here for comfort. I brought you here to say goodbye. Soon I will be moving on.”

“To where?”

“To wherever it is my kind goes when this world is finished with us. One day you will understand. You’ll feel it in your bones, as I do. I was led to you to tell you that it’s no longer up to me to keep those like Alistair from spreading their evil. It’s up to you, and anyone lucky enough to call you their friend.”

Haven shook her head. “I don’t believe it. You can go back and fix everything. You can take me to my parents, the night before everything went wrong.” She was crying, unable to stop her tears. “Noah could have a normal life, not the one I’m scrounging out of the dirt. You have the ability to change anything you want, and you choose to fade into the background. Why do you get that luxury but I have to stay and watch my friends and family die all around me? Who made that decision?!”

She sat at the edge of the building, dangling her legs over the side. A gentle breeze pushed her hair back and she wiped away her tears. Nathaniel quietly sat next to her and looked out at the horizon.

“It is not our place to change things in such a manner,” he said. “It is our place to go on—to accept our fates and to live accordingly. What you’re feeling now is what I’ve been feeling for decades,” he said. “It never gets better. I wanted you to hear it from me before it hit you later in life, when you don’t have the ability to adapt and survive. Maybe if I would have figured it out sooner, things would have been different. But it’s too late for me to change. Is it too late for you, Haven?”

She sniffed and kicked her heels against the building. Small chunks of concrete broke free and tumbled down the wall to the ground below. “I worry about what all this death is doing to me,” she said. “As a person.”

“At first it hardens you,” said Nathaniel. “And then it destroys you. I can see all of you, Haven. Little lights glowing bright across the world. Every Source, every Conduit—you’re all there, in my mind, burning with life. Every time one of those lights goes out, a part of me goes with it.”

“Wow,” said Haven, without sympathy. “That must be quite a burden.” She slapped her thighs and stood up. “I better get back before anyone else dies. You go ahead and vaporize yourself or whatever you plan on doing that doesn’t involve helping anyone.”

Nathaniel stood next to her. “I’m helping you right now.”

“Could have fooled me. Do you have any idea how infuriating it is to know that you exist but I can’t ask you for help?”

“You need to find your own path, Haven. You need to win your own victories.”

She shook her head and turned away. “I can’t believe this. Alright, then, take me back.”

He moved toward her, then hesitated. “I could take you somewhere else. Somewhere safe. You don’t owe those people anything.”

She looked out at the ruined city. “Yes I do. Of course I do.”

Nathaniel studied her carefully. “So you’re not giving up, then?”

“Never.”

He smiled. “Fascinating. In that case, I hope you’re feeling recharged. You’re going to need it.”

Haven burned with rage at the thought of Kamiko standing over Colton’s body. Heat blossomed at the top of her spine and swept over her body like wildfire. “There’s enough in me to handle Kamiko, and then some.”

Nathaniel nodded and stepped toward her. “Then hold on.” He grabbed her shoulders and paused. “You know, I said you needed to find your own path, but I never said I couldn’t nudge you in the right direction.” He pulled her close and the world disappeared.

44

Colton lay on the floor, writhing in pain. Kamiko’s hand burned like acid on his forehead. The image of her standing over him brightened to the point of blindness. He heard Dormer struggling next to him, fighting against Kamiko’s grasp.

There was a sudden CRACK as the air in the room was split in two. Kamiko’s hand yanked away from Colton’s forehead and the piercing brightness that blinded him slowly faded as his vision returned.

“It’s impossible,” whispered Kamiko. She backed away, toward the exit. “You’re supposed to be dead!”

Colton thought he saw Haven standing on the other side of the room with someone else—a tall black man with broad shoulders and a long coat—but his vision was still too blurry to make it out clearly.

The first Haven—the one that had been there with him the whole time—lay groaning on the floor a few feet away. The fire snake disappeared and she lay twisting in pain with her eyes closed, unaware of the new arrivals.

Two Havens.

Colton’s mind struggled to grasp the concept. He pushed himself up onto his elbows and shook his head to clear his vision. Dormer lay unconscious next to him. Rapid footsteps faded away as Kamiko ran down the hallway, toward the exit.

“Is this your idea of a nudge?” said the new Haven across the room.

The tall man smile at her. Then he reached out for the Haven lying on the ground and grabbed her wrist. There was another loud CRACK  as both of them vanished and the air in the room slammed back together.

Then it was just the new Haven, standing there alone. She ran across the room and practically fell on top of Colton. He groaned in pain as she hugged him as hard as she could.

“Easy!” he said. “I’m still here.” He leaned back and looked at her. She was exactly the same Haven he knew from before. “So I guess you’re trapped in some kind of time loop now?”

“You don’t sound that surprised.”

“Not with everything else that’s been going on.”

“To be honest, I don’t really know what happened.”

“Tell me about it later, okay?”

She looked him over, patting his arms, his chest, his cheeks. She pulled his face to hers and kissed him deeply. When she released him, he looked at her with only a hint of confusion.

“What was that for?” he asked.

“Nothing,” she said. Happy tears rolled down her cheeks and she wiped them away. “Nothing at all. We have to go after her, Colton. She’ll go back to the Dome and—”

Dormer moaned and his eyelids fluttered open. He saw Haven and smiled, then beckoned her closer with a weak twitch of his finger. Haven went to him and knelt at his side. She gently took his hands in hers and rested them on his chest. His breathing was shallow and raspy. The whites of his eyes were solid red.

“Almost finished,” he whispered.

“Maybe Colton could help you,” she said. She looked at Colton hopefully. He nodded and stood up. Blood rushed to his head and he stumbled back to his knees.

“No,” said Dormer. He held onto Haven’s hands and shook them fervently. “Listen to me. She’s not a Phoenix.”

Haven looked at him in confusion. “But how could you know that? You saw how powerful she is.”

“It’s true,” said Colton. “She told me herself.”

“Listen,” said Dormer. “The Phoenix energy would never go to someone like her. It does not choose randomly. It is not chance. A person like Kamiko could never receive such a gift because her only focus is death. Do you understand me?”

Haven nodded. “It means she’s not as strong as we thought.”

“Only if you work together,” said Dormer. He cried out in pain, then relaxed. His eyes found Haven’s and he smiled. His lips parted as if he meant to say another word, but only a deep sigh came out. His body went limp and his eyelids slowly closed.

“Is he…gone?” asked Colton.

Barely noticeable breaths moved his chest up and down. Colton walked over and stood next to Haven. He rested his hand on her shoulder and squeezed it gently.

“We can’t do anything else for him now,” he said. “Let’s get Kamiko.”

They ran down the long hallway together. A control panel they had passed near the door was open and a key was pressed into a keyhole, turned to the side—the machine guns in the ceiling were switched off. Colton and Haven ran outside into the sunset light of the desert.

Kamiko sat in the driver’s seat of the Jeep, frantically looking for the keys.

“Dormer has them,” said Haven loudly.

Kamiko’s head jerked up and she snarled when she saw them standing there. She hopped out of the Jeep and approached them slowly. Her eyes lit on fire and dark blue flame crept over her entire body. Lightning stretched out from her back and extended twenty feet in all directions, crackling and snapping as it reached for Colton and Haven.

“I will not hesitate this time,” said Kamiko.

“You just did,” said Haven. She jumped onto Colton’s back, wrapping her legs around his waist and her arms around his neck. She held him close and said, “Let her have it.”

Colton felt the surge of energy from Haven’s body. He was unprepared for the absolute raw power she produced—it hit him like a freight train and nearly knocked him to the ground. He focused on widening the gate for absorption—the mental doorway through which he let in all outside energy. It swung wide in his mind as the blue fire flooded his system.

He closed his fists and held them out toward Kamiko. She stopped walking forward, temporarily halted by this new development. Then she growled and ran forward.

Colton let go. He let everything out of him as fast as it was coming in—he was a direct funnel for all that Haven was giving him, amplifying her energy as it passed through his body on the way down to his fists. A pillar of blue plasma rocketed toward Kamiko and hit her in the chest. She lifted up into the air and slammed against the Jeep.

Colton stopped the flow of energy and waited. Kamiko fell off the side of the Jeep and hit the ground face-first. She clawed at the sand and crawled forward. Fresh bolts of lightning sprouted from her back as she looked up at him with hatred.

“Don’t stop,” whispered Haven. She buried her face into the side of his neck and closed her eyes. “Because she never will.”

The surge of energy that hit Colton was more powerful than the first. Kamiko got to her feet and stumbled forward, eyes blazing like spheres of blue lava.

Colton let the enormous amount of energy pool inside him. He focused on amplifying it on its way down to his fists. Soon his hands were glowing like two brilliant stars. The stars grew so large and so bright that his arms disappeared, lost in their brilliant glow. Haven’s energy wings unfolded behind him. They extended twenty feet into the air on either side, shining brighter than the sun. The sand at Colton’s feet pushed away in all directions.

Kamiko took another step forward and reached out for him. Colton screamed as he let loose a single burst of energy. The spheres of plasma on his fists shot out and collided in the air just in front of Kamiko. Her eyes widened as the spheres merged and swallowed her whole. The giant ball of blue plasma rotated in place like a spinning globe, its energy swirling over the surface like the clouds of a miniature planet.

The sphere slowly dissipated like fog in a strong wind, leaving behind only small wisps of blue smoke. The sand beneath it was crystalized. Kamiko was gone.

Colton found it difficult to believe what he had just done.

“We did it,” he said finally.

Haven moaned softly into his neck. He held her close as they sat down in the sand. Her eyes were distant and unfocused. Colton shook her gently.

“What’s wrong? Haven? What’s the matter?”

He pushed hair away from her eyes and felt her cheek. Her skin was icy cold.

“Elena said this would happen,” she said weakly. “How fast it could hit you once…once you were the next one in line.”

“No!” shouted Colton. “I don’t want you to be the next one in line. I want you to stay!”

“I’m dying Colton. I knew it could happen if Kamiko died. But we did it anyway, didn’t we? Because we had to. There was no one else to stop her.” She smiled up at him. “Just you and me.”

“Then we shouldn’t have done it! What if you’re not the next Phoenix? Sometimes it doesn’t choose you, even after you’re dead, right? She said that, too! Then what?!”

“Take me away from the building,” said Haven.

Colton stared at her, knowing that agreeing to do that would be admitting the inevitable.

“I don’t want you to leave.”

“Please,” she said, and reached up to touch his face.

Colton scooped her up in his arms. He carried her away from the building, toward the sunset. She rested peacefully against him, her eyes closed, a small, content smile on her face.

“Just here,” she said.

Colton knelt down and cradled her in his arms. She turned her head to look at the setting sun.

“I just remembered it’s my birthday,” she said. A small tear rolled from the corner of her eye. “You tell Noah to be a good boy.”

“You’ll come back,” said Colton. The desert wind cooled as the sun approached the horizon. Colton wiped at the tears that rolled down his cheeks.

“Tell him I’m sorry about Mom and Dad.”

“Tell him yourself,” said Colton.

She turned away from the setting sun and smiled at him. “We were meant to be together, you and I. We finally figured it out.”

Colton nodded, fighting to hold back his tears. He opened his mouth to tell her he loved her, but it was too late. Haven was gone.

He closed his eyes, pressed his forehead to hers, and wept. The last light of day disappeared as the sun dipped below the horizon, and Colton was alone.

DEDICATION

For the readers.

1

Colton was alone.

The distant horizon slowly turned from deep purple to light blue as morning approached. A sliver of piercing orange light appeared over the mountains as the sun began its slow crawl across Montana’s desert sky.

All through the long night he sat motionless on the cold ground, cradling Haven’s body in his lap. He was numb from the waist down as he sat shivering, unwilling to move. He waited all night for the coming dawn, expecting at any moment for Haven to wake, but her cold body had not responded. Patches of burnt skin marked her arms and neck from the battle with Kamiko. The singed tips of her red-brown hair curled up around her peaceful face.

There had only been enough energy to keep his body warm for several hours after sunset, and he could absorb no more heat during the long, cold night. His legs felt like they were submerged in a pool of ice water. The cold worked its way into his bones and froze him to the hard sand of the desert. His breath fogged out in ragged clouds as soft morning light cast a glow over the bleak landscape. Behind him, the black building that Kamiko had used as her headquarters towered overhead, ominous and silent. It reached up toward the sky like a black spear, tapering to a sharp point high above the desert. After the events that had led to the deaths of so many of the others, it was now more of a tomb than anything else.

Colton shivered as he thought of Bastian and Roku, both lost to Kamiko’s madness. Dormer was alive the last Colton saw him, before he and Haven had run out of the building to face Kamiko for the last time. He had wanted to go back to check Dormer all night, but he was afraid to move Haven for fear that the Phoenix energy would not find her.

His mind had been swimming all night with insane possibilities. What if the Phoenix energy wouldn’t come if someone else was too close to her body? What if it had to be warm outside instead of the freezing cold? He remembered that a potential Phoenix had to die before the power would arrive, but he also knew there was a chance it would pass her over—that Haven was truly dead and she was never coming back.

He looked down and brushed a strand of hair from her cold face. Her lips were purple and her skin grew paler by the hour, as if she had been floating in a winter lake. The paleness accentuated the burns on her soft skin, making her injuries seem all the more grievous in the dawning light.

The sun was now completely free of the distant mountains, and Colton pulled Haven close to his body. He stared at the bright yellow star, waiting for its warmth to find Haven and wake her from death.

Another lonely hour passed before Colton realized she was not going to wake. He stood up slowly, cold needles pushing into his bones after a long night of immobility, and lifted Haven’s lifeless body from the ground. He held her close as he walked to the black building. It loomed over him like a giant tombstone, as if it had been made for that very purpose. Colton wasn’t sure exactly what would happen if and when she awoke, but some instinct told him he needed to stay close to her. Perhaps it was the same instinct that drew them together the moment they met—the unmistakable knowledge that Haven was the Source to Colton’s Conduit ability. She was his counterpart, and he hers, and he would never again find another person with which he shared that close of a connection.

And she was gone.

Colton walked through the crumbling entrance to the black building. The long hallway ahead of him was in ruins, torn to shreds by the sentry guns in the ceiling and from the intense battle with Kamiko. The hallway led to the inside of the building—a huge, cavernous room that was open all the way to the pointed apex hundreds of feet above. The black walls were scarred from energy blasts and all of the electronic equipment was fried. Morning sunlight shone through small holes in the walls, illuminating small patches of the debris-strewn floor.

In one of those patches lay the body of Roku, Kamiko’s counterpart. He had sacrificed himself to weaken Kamiko enough for the others to get the upper hand in the fight. His friend Bastian had been lost early on during the violent encounter, his body completely disintegrated by Kamiko’s devastating power.

In the middle of the room lay Dormer. A thin shaft of sunlight fell over his unmoving face, and Colton knew that he was not alive. He gently lay Haven’s body on the ground and knelt down, brushing small pieces of debris from Dormer’s chest. Colton was not the only one who had lost someone he cared about. Dormer lost his brother to Kamiko after he invented a cure for the Fade virus. He was a prisoner at the Dome and had refused to complete the plague because he knew its true purpose: the annihilation of their own kind. Both brothers had given their lives to put an end to Kamiko’s murderous plan. Colton rested his hand on Dormer’s forehead and said goodbye.

He was truly alone in the desert. Haven’s little brother, Noah, and all the others were still at the Dome. Marius, Corva, and June—he needed to get back to make sure they were still safe. Colton knew that Noah was his responsibility now that Haven was gone. She would have wanted it that way, he was sure. The boy would need guidance. Colton feared telling him that his sister was never coming back. When Noah’s friend Micah had been killed, Noah had lashed out with his Nova ability and could have hurt everyone at the Dome, including himself. There was no way to know how he would react when he found out Haven was gone.

Colton stood and was about to lift Haven’s body when he heard the distant thumping of helicopter blades over the desert. For the first time since he had arrived at the black building the day before, he felt a glimmer of hope. He thought that if Marius and the others had come to get him, then maybe there was the tiniest chance they could take Haven back to the Grove to be healed. Colton knew that the ancient trees had been used to heal terrible wounds in the past. He had never heard of them bringing anyone back from the dead, but he clung to that desperate hope beyond all reason. The healing process would be more difficult with Dormer gone. He had been the group’s most gifted healer.

Colton’s hopes faded instantly when he looked out through the holes in the wall and saw the dark silhouette of an attack helicopter fly past the building. The gunship was long and menacing, with several long machine guns bolted to the sides of its body. Colton stood over Haven’s body, ready to fight to the death to keep anyone else from touching her. The chopper landed outside. Its rotors slowly whined down but didn’t stop completely.

Heavy footsteps approached from the hallway. Colton clenched his fists and tried to draw energy from the room around him. Staying outside all night in the cold desert had numbed his senses and he had used everything to keep himself warm until he had used the last of it hours before. He drew a minimal amount from the sunlight shining through the cracked walls of the building, but it wouldn’t have been enough to light a single candle if his life depended on it.

The footsteps grew louder and a large man walked into the room. He wore a full suit of heavy body armor and carried a massive rifle that looked like it would crush anyone smaller than a silverback gorilla. He wasn’t wearing a helmet and Colton was surprised that the soldier looked barely older than twenty. His brown hair was buzzed close to his skull and his jaws bulged with knotted muscles.

The soldier stopped ten feet away from Colton and moved to the side. Colton was about to speak but his voice caught in his throat when he saw the two people standing behind the soldier’s bulky frame.

Shelly crossed her arms and popped her bubblegum as she inspected Colton with cold eyes. Reece strode forward and stopped a few feet away.

“Heya, Colt,” he said, grinning like a jackal. “Long time, no see.”

2

Reece was bigger than the last time Colton had seen him, more than a year ago. He was broader in the shoulders, lean but muscular. Reece noticed Colton studying him and shrugged.

“Yeah, I’ve been working out. Not much else to do, most of the time.” He looked at the scar on the left side of Colton’s face and winced. “Ouch, that must have hurt. See what happens when I’m not around to watch your back?”

Colton touched the scar over his left temple. It ran down in an arc, cradling his eye, and ended at the top of his cheekbone—a gift from Kamiko. The injury had instantly scarred the moment she burned him, the skin fusing together in a rough line that constantly itched.

“What are you doing here?” he asked. “I heard you hooked up with Alistair.” Colton looked at Shelly, who tilted her head up and snapped her bubblegum. “It’s good to see you, Shelly. Or is it?”

She never answered him. Her hair was a little longer than Colton remembered, the tips brushing over the tops of her shoulders as she flipped it back. It was also dyed blonde—a big change from her natural auburn. Her piercing green eyes shone like two jade stars as she watched him intently. The bulky soldier that was with them stood back from the middle of the room, resting his arms across the top of his heavy rifle.

Reece kicked a chunk of concrete near his feet and it skid across the floor. He walked in a wide circle around Colton, casually glancing down at Haven’s body. “We tried to make it on our own, didn’t we, Shell? But it’s hard out there with no friends.” He gestured at Dormer’s lifeless body. “I’m sure Colton knows the feeling.”

“You walked away from me, remember?” said Colton.

Reece nodded. “I do, yes. That was my choice. And maybe it was one I shouldn’t have made. But now that’s in the past. My mind is on the future.”

Colton could sense the conversation reaching its end and tried to draw more energy from his surroundings. His eyes flicked around the room, searching for anything he could absorb. Beyond the ambient sunlight shining in through the holes in the walls, there was nothing.

Reece grinned and shook his head. “Honestly, Colt, I hoped you would give me the benefit of the doubt this time around.”

“Alistair tried to wipe out the planet with a virus,” said Colton. “And for all I know, you helped him.”

“The man is ambitious. No one is arguing that point. But he also has his hands in a lot of projects that we know nothing about.”

“So you’re here on your own account?”

“I didn’t say that, now did I?”

The big soldier walked forward. The sounds of his large black boots thudding the ground echoed throughout the huge, empty room. He had something in his hands—some sort of device that looked like an oversized dog collar.

Colton stepped back and stumbled over Dormer’s body. The big soldier was surprisingly fast. He ran forward and closed the distance between them in the blink of an eye. Small trails of purple energy crawled over his forearms from a point on his wrists.

“Careful!” warned Reece. “Don’t give Colton anything he can use.”

The purple energy evaporated as the soldier stepped in front of Colton. He brought the collar up and moved closer. Colton grabbed the soldier’s neck with both hands and squeezed as hard as he could. The skin paled under his touch as the soldier’s air supply was cut off. Normally it only took a few seconds for someone to pass out if Colton used his Conduit ability to affect them, but the big soldier grinned and hit Colton on the top of the head with a closed fist. It hit his skull like a sledgehammer and he crumpled to the ground.

The soldier put one of his boots against Colton’s chest and pinned him down to the floor, then forced his head up and snapped the thick mechanical collar around his neck. The device clicked as the ends closed together. A soft, steady hum emanated from the cold metal as tiny needles extended from the inside of the collar and pierced the skin of Colton’s neck. The soldier went back to his original position near the entrance and resumed his idle stance, arms resting on the massive rifle.

Reece walked forward and knelt down next to Colton, who was pulling tentatively at the collar. His vision was still blurred from the blow to his head.

“Looks good on you, Colt,” said Reece.

“What did you do to me?”

“I hear it’s all the rage in Paris.” Reece cackled at his own joke. “It’s a feedback collar. Stops you from doing what you want to do to me at this very moment. Give it a shot.”

Colton reached out and grabbed Reece’s wrist. The soldier raised his gun but Reece motioned for him to relax.

“Well?” asked Reece. “How do you feel?”

Colton pulled in as much energy from Reece’s skin as he could. It was the first major draw he had achieved since he exhausted his reserves to stay warm during the long night in the desert. He let the renewing energy surge throughout his body. It also worked to clear his mind and his vision. He focused the energy down to the palm of his hands and reached up to choke Reece.

Instead of the energy pulsing out of his palms like he intended, it shot back up his arms and sank down into his stomach. Colton let go of Reece and turned away, then vomited. He gasped for air and lay on his back. It felt like he had just contracted an instant case of food poisoning.

Reece laughed. “Oh, man, you should see your face! You look like you’re on a boat in the middle of a hurricane. Isn’t technology wonderful?”

Colton coughed and wiped his mouth. “Swell.” He looked at Shelly but she turned away and avoided eye contact. Colton thought she was disgusted by the fact that he had gotten sick, but she looked back at him a moment later and he realized it was something else. She was sad—about what, Colton couldn’t guess.

Reece slapped him on the shoulder and helped him to his feet.

“You want to tell me what happened with Kamiko?”

Colton swayed on his feet and rested his hands on his knees until his head stopped spinning. “She’s dead.”

“I kind of guessed that, Genius,” said Reece. “Give me details. She was too powerful for you or any of your little friends. The only person who wasn’t afraid of her was Alistair. Spill it.”

Colton shook his head. “You have nothing to threaten me with, Reece. Haven is gone, and so is Dormer.”

“Good point. And you would be right, if you hadn’t forgotten that Alistair can find anyone anywhere in the world. He also knows how to find the Dome. We’ve already been back there, Colt, while you and Haven were here having your little showdown with Kamiko.”

Colton stood up and lunged at Reece. He tried to release the power he had slowly been drawing from the mechanical collar but it sank back into his own skin like poison. He dropped to the ground, choking for air.

“Are they alive?” he whispered.

“For now,” said Reece. “Tell me what I want to know, and they’ll live a little while longer.”

Colton closed his eyes and fought for air. It felt like someone was holding a plastic bag over his head. He thought of telling Reece about Nathaniel, the Nova who had arrived and taken Haven away during the fight. He had taken one Haven, but left another in her place, swapping them out like interchangeable pieces on a game board. Colton still didn’t entirely understand the details himself, so he decided against telling Reece until it was absolutely necessary. The others had told Colton stories about Nathaniel after he moved into the Dome—myths, really. He was the only Nova Elena had ever seen, they said, besides Haven’s brother Noah—and besides Alistair, who had forced the ability onto himself.

“So you want to know how we beat Kamiko?” asked Colton.

“I’m just dying to hear the details.”

“Haven is my counterpart.”

Reece studied Colton’s face for a moment, his eyes searching for some hint of a lie. “No kidding?”

Colton shook his head.

“What’s that like?” asked Reece.

“Like nothing I’ve ever experienced. The flow of energy felt endless. I felt…” He paused as he searched for the right words. “I felt unrestricted for the first time since I found out I was different.”

“So you could focus all of Haven’s energy toward Kamiko?”

“Not just focus. Boost. I was able to intensify the energy by orders of magnitude within my own body before releasing it. Kamiko was completely consumed, and when it was over…she was gone. Completely gone. All of her.”

Reece helped Colton to his feet again and patted his back gently.

“Listen, Colt,” he said. “The big guy has plans for you. And personally, I’d like to have you around again, just like old times. You’ll have to forgive me for the collar and the cold welcome, but we haven’t seen each other in a while and who knows what kind of bad opinions you’ve been forming about me when I wasn’t around to defend myself?” He led Colton toward the exit, past Shelly and the soldier.

Colton wanted to lash out with his ability and knock them all unconscious, but the very thought made him feel sick to his stomach. The feedback collar around his neck hummed louder with the small amounts of energy he drew into his body.

“Now, I expect you to behave yourself, Colt,” said Reece. “It’s a long trip and I don’t want to have to sedate you. Just remember how the collar made you feel when you tried to use your ability, and you should be just fine. Say goodbye to the desert, my friend.”

“Where are you taking me?”

Reece grinned. “To your new home.” He turned to the soldier and nodded at Haven’s body. “Bring her.”

The soldier knelt next to her body and clamped a feedback collar around her neck. He easily picked up her limp body and carried her over his shoulder.

Reece led them down the long hallway and out of the building toward the helicopter.

“What happens if she wakes up while she’s wearing that collar?” asked Colton.

“What do you think is going to happen?” asked Reece. “She’ll melt herself instead of us. So you just hope that doesn’t happen, yeah?”

Colton slowly dropped back a few steps until he was walking in front of the soldier. He turned and hooked his ankle behind one of the soldier’s knees, then pulled hard. It knocked him off balance and he stumbled forward, nearly dropping Haven’s body. The soldier reached out for support and Colton kicked him in the stomach, then head-butted his nose. There was a CRACK and a sudden smell of blood.

The soldier dropped Haven. Colton caught her body before it hit the ground, then he turned to run. Reece sighed behind him and a strong hand gripped the top of his head.

“I was hoping to avoid this, Colt.”

A bubble of black energy expanded around Colton’s head and consumed his vision. It sizzled like a burning steak and when it exploded, Colton fell to the ground, unconscious.

3

Colton awoke a few times during the long journey, and each time he was forced back to sleep by the metal collar around his neck. Every time consciousness found him, the feedback collar hummed loudly and his vision blurred until he passed out.

He caught glimpses of desert through the helicopter window, and then ocean. A streak of green that looked like the canopy of a vast jungle blurred below, but then he was asleep again.

At last he was able to wake and stay conscious. The big soldier that had travelled with Reece and Shelly pulled him from the helicopter after it landed. Strong wind beat down from the blades as Colton was escorted across a small concrete landing pad with a big yellow circle painted across its surface.

Dark jungle surrounded the landing pad on all sides. Tall trees that Colton had only seen in pictures towered around the edge of the small clearing, ropey vines hanging from their branches. The air was thick and damp with humidity, and it smelled like fresh rain.

Reece hopped out of the chopper. He pointed at Haven’s body and shouted to the pilot. “Take her to the lab!”

The pilot nodded as Reece helped Shelly out of the helicopter. He lifted her by the waist and set her down lightly on the ground. She kissed him quickly on the cheek and he playfully slapped her butt as she walked away.

The young soldier leading Colton pretended not to notice, but his cheeks flushed red and his jaw clenched tightly. He grunted as he easily lifted Colton into the back seat of a waiting Jeep. Shelly touched his arm kindly and said, “Thank you, Kai.” Kai smiled and climbed into the seat next to Colton. Reece got in the driver’s seat and Shelly sat next to him.

“You’re gonna love this, Colt,” said Reece with a grin. He took a deep breath and let it out dramatically. “Nothing like a little nature to really clear the old noggin.”

Kai rested his big rifle across his lap and kept the business end pointed at Colton. The helicopter took off behind them as Reece started the Jeep and drove down a small dirt road that led away from the landing pad and through the jungle.

Colton saw no buildings anywhere along the road, nor in the distance whenever he caught a glimpse of the surrounding land through a break in the dense foliage. The road seemed to follow the ridge of a low mountain—one of many in a long range that stretched away to the green horizon in all directions. Deep valleys swept out to both sides of the ridge trail, curving down for miles before gently sloping back up toward the peak of the nearest mountains.

Even if he managed to escape, Colton knew he wouldn’t be able to make it back to civilization. It might be possible if he knew where he was and where he could find the nearest city. There was no way to gauge how long he had been in the helicopter. Judging by the direction of the sun over the ocean when he had briefly awoken during the journey, the only thing he knew for sure was that they had gone south.

Kai tapped Colton’s knee with the nozzle of his rifle. “There really is nowhere to go,” he said. “I saw you looking. It’s jungle for a hundred miles in every direction. And that collar has a tracking device inside.”

Colton studied the soldier. He was a little younger than Colton, but he was built like a tank. Colton wondered if that was natural or if Alistair had been experimenting with some kind of super soldier program. The big guy’s face flushed easily whenever Reece rubbed Shelly’s leg with a greedy hand. She ruffled Reece’s short, sandy hair and turned around in her seat.

“What have you been up to, Colton?”

He stared at her for a moment. “I think we’re past small talk.”

She shrugged. “Fair enough.”

Colton pulled at the collar around his neck. “This thing have a key, or what?”

Shelly smiled and held up a small remote control shaped like a pocket lighter. “It’s coded to this.”

Colton leaned forward eagerly. Kai grabbed his shoulder and pinned him back to the seat. Faint purple energy swirled around Kai’s forearm and down to his hand, then disappeared into Colton’s shoulder. The collar couldn’t stop him from absorbing energy, but it started a feedback loop whenever he tried to release it.

“You wanna be careful about how much you take in,” said Kai. He released Colton’s shoulder. “I don’t know how much you can hold, but I know there’s a limit. I doubt you want to hit yourself with a full charge. It’ll just keep building up inside until you pop.”

“Where are we going?” asked Colton.

Shelly rested her elbows on the center console and rested her chin on her hands. “So you want small talk, after all. Where do you think we’re going?”

“To see Alistair.”

“New digs, Colt,” said Reece. He looked at Colton in the rearview mirror. “We have a different setup down here. It’s nice, you know? Get outta the States for a while. Everything’s all spread out. Alistair learned his lesson after you blew up Bernam’s headquarters the first time around. Now we have the lab in one building, the sleeping quarters in another, and everything else—well, it’s all different, anyway.” He grinned. “I missed you, buddy. Even if you never thought about me after we parted ways, I still missed you.”

“So did I,” said Shelly. She leaned over to Reece and kissed his cheek.

Kai’s trigger finger tapped patiently on the safety switch of his rifle.

“What?” said Colton.

Kai smiled. “I don’t think I would miss you.”

“That’s really sweet.” Colton leaned forward again. “Where’d you pick up this rhinoceros, anyway?”

“Who, Kai?” said Shelly. “Give him a chance, Colton. He’s a lot like you. Alistair pulled him out of trouble and set him on the right path.”

Colton laughed. “You know you’re not on the right path, right?” He looked from Kai to Reece to Shelly. “Right?! You’re not serious about following Alistair. He tried to kill everyone in the world with the Fade virus! You must have known about that!”

“He keeps a lot of things from the people closest to him,” said Shelly.

“Give me a break. An operation that size couldn’t be kept under wraps. Not from you two.”

“Well, it was,” she said. “Please believe me.”

“Why should I? What difference does it make? You think we can still be friends after all of this?” He pulled at the collar around his throat. “Even if he didn’t tell you about it while it was happening, you know about it now and you’re still with him.”

Shelly and Kai exchanged a knowing glance, but Reece was oblivious. He drove recklessly over the dirt road, bouncing in and out of potholes as the Jeep sped along the mountain ridge. The path was slowly descending, and ahead of them rose a large peak. A paved road spiraled up around the huge mountain, dotted with low concrete buildings that stuck out of the dense foliage.

“Get off your high horse, Colt!” said Reece. “You think just because Alistair’s done some bad things that your side is squeaky clean? Did anyone ever tell you about the kind of war Elena waged against Bernam before you came along? How she couldn’t compete against him in a stand-up fight so she tried to poison the food supply to his headquarters? Only she got the shipments mixed up and a correctional facility got the order meant for Bernam. She killed an entire building full of people in a single night in one of the worst ways imaginable, and you want to lecture us about following the wrong person?!” He shook his head. “You need some adjustment, Colt. You need some correction.”

Colton saw darkness filling Reece’s eyes in the rearview mirror. He fervently believed everything he was saying. It was hard for Colton not to blame himself, even though Reece was the one who left. He walked away with Shelly and Colton had asked them to stay. Reece had always been slightly vengeful, but only in a superficial kind of way. When they were roommates, he and Colton had petty feuds that never lasted more than a day, and usually it had been over something as ridiculous as who had been eating more food out of the fridge. It was clear to Colton that their days of friendship were over. Reece had apparently made up his mind to sever the last remaining ties to their old life.

Shelly rubbed a tear from Reece’s cheek. The darkness in his eyes cleared and he smiled at her, then winked. He took a deep breath of the fresh mountain air.

“Sure is something, right Colt?” He acted as if the last few minutes had never occurred. “Sure is something.”

Colton studied the mountain ahead. He could now see a smaller network of dirt roads running through the dense jungle leading to the blunted peak. A dozen small buildings were immediately visible, and many more could be spied hiding behind tall clumps of canopy. At the very peak was a building that had been designed to fit over the blunted top of the mountain. Strong structural supports reached down from the building’s foundation like the fingers of a large hand trying to lift the mountain by the peak. The exterior was painted a blue-green that seemed to match the jungle canopy and the sky at the same time. The roof was slightly domed, and all of the outside windows were hidden under the lip of the wide, overhanging roof to prevent glare from the sun.

Colton suspected that was where they were taking him. He didn’t feel good about his prospects. If Alistair was as cold and calculating as Colton expected him to be, there was no reason for his prisoners to be kept alive any longer than the time it took to extract what was needed.

Whatever Alistair had planned for him, Colton was sure it would end in his death.

4

The unpaved ridge road stopped at a thick metal gate at the base of the looming mountain. The word HELIX was engraved in tall letters on the side of a security building next to the road. Reece waved impatiently at a stocky guard within. The guard nodded and pushed a button on the desk next to him. There was not just one gate, but two. As the first slid to the right, a second, identical barrier behind it slid to the left, revealing a smooth road that gently sloped up toward the mountain.

Colton observed as much as he could between the infrequent breaks in the thick foliage on either side of the road. He could make out no direct pattern in the massive fence that encircled the mountain at its base. Electrified razor wire had been woven around steel I-beams driven deep into the ground at twenty foot intervals, forming a giant, lopsided ring around the perimeter. The terrain surrounding the mountain dropped off into valleys on all but one side, creating a base that would be easily defended against ground attacks. Colton guessed that was one of the main reasons Alistair had chosen the location—that, and being far from prying eyes so he could continue whatever dark work in which he was involved.

Reece drove the Jeep up the smooth incline and turned onto a road that hugged the mountainside. Armed guards patrolled the road, and Colton saw a few camouflaged platforms high in the nearby trees concealing men with long, slender sniper rifles. The snipers looked down at him as the Jeep passed below.

Reece followed the spiraling road halfway up the mountain before he turned the Jeep into a tunnel bored straight through the rock. A small cavern with a parking lot had been carved out of the middle of the mountain, several hundred feet directly below the peak. Reece took one of the only three parking spots and cut the engine.

Two hulking guards approached the vehicle as Reece hopped out. They recognized him a moment later and turned away without acknowledgment. Reece sneered at their backs, then helped Shelly out of her seat. Kai stood up in the back and the whole Jeep squealed on its chassis. He picked Colton up under one arm, then lifted him out of his seat and set him down on the pavement.

Curved I-beams bolted to the walls of the cavern formed a skeletal dome that kept the top of the mountain from crumbling down to fill the void. Light glinted off the black doors of an elevator in the wall next to the Jeep. Reece waved at a small camera near the ceiling and the elevator doors slowly opened.

Colton’s face was green from his continued unsuccessful efforts to use his ability. He was drawing in energy just like normal, but he still hadn’t found a way to circumvent the collar’s suppressive restriction. He was stuck in a feedback loop—everything he tried to release was kicked back right into his own body.

Kai saw the look on Colton’s face and grunted, then shoved him into the elevator. “Slow learner, aren’t you?” he said.

Reece and Shelly followed them into the elevator, and as the doors closed, Reece turned to Colton and grinned. “Welcome to Helix Scientific, Colt.”

The doors slid shut and the elevator rose smoothly. Reece and Kai stood closest to the door, their backs to Shelly and Colton. She watched him as the elevator ascended. Sweat beaded on his forehead and his jaw was shaking. He found it difficult not to draw from the abundant energy sources all around him. Kai seemed to be giving off a low-grade ambient heat that was all too easy for Colton to absorb. The elevator was powered by some kind of magnetic circuit that sent out a steady stream of excess energy. Colton needed to release soon or he would start to hear the sizzling and popping of his own insides frying from the trapped power.

Shelly touched the top of his hand with her fingertips. Warmth flowed from his skin into hers. Her cheeks flushed with healthy color and her eyes sparkled like brilliant jewels when she looked at him. Colton felt the energy pulled from his body like the last remnants of liquid through a straw from the bottom of a glass. His jaw stopped shaking and he let out a shallow breath of relief.

Shelly squeezed his hand quickly, then let go. Colton could tell that she wanted to smile at him, but she didn’t. They rode on in silence.

5

The elevator doors opened to reveal a wide office. The walls on either side were solid glass and the black, tiled floor was polished to a mirror shine. Dense jungle was visible far below on either side. Colton realized they were at the very peak of the mountain, in the building that looked down over the nearby valleys.

Kai followed Reece out of the elevator, pulling Colton behind him. The collar was getting heavier around Colton’s neck. He pulled at it half-heartedly, knowing he would not be able to remove it on his own. The sides of his neck itched where the thin needles stuck into his skin.

Directly across from the elevator was a long, hardwood desk. It sat before a dividing wall with an opening on both ends, near the wide glass panels.

“Wait here,” said Reece, and pulled Colton away from Kai.

Kai stood still a moment, squeezing and releasing the grip of his heavy rifle. Shelly patted Kai’s shoulder reassuringly as she followed after Reece. The big soldier relaxed visibly under her touch, then unslung his weapon and rested it on the desk as the other three walked past the dividing wall.

A long room stretched out and tapered to a blunted point, surrounded on all sides by crystal clear glass. The black mirrored floor matched the ceiling except for inset lights spaced down the middle. The room was completely empty except for a single man halfway down. He stood near the glass and looked far into the distance. He wore a black suit under a long, black leather coat. His gloved hands twisted thoughtfully around the handle of a bamboo cane.

It took a moment for Colton to recognize him. The only exposed part of his body was his head, and that was completely hairless. The flesh was dark red with a deep black undertone, like burnt chicken left on the grill far too long. Deep cracks traced crooked lines over his skull and face. The cracks glowed with burning white energy, and Colton knew he was looking at a man he thought was dead.

“Colton Ross,” said Alistair at last. He wheezed heavily with each word. His every breath was a painful exhalation that seemed to pull more energy from him. “You return to us at last.” He turned and looked at Colton. “You’ve grown.”

“Where is Haven?”

“You mean her body?” he wheezed. “You mean her corpse?” The cracks in his black-red skin glowed brighter, pulsing with energy. The paper-thin flesh over his cheeks crackled like burnt paper as he grinned and exposed bone-white teeth. “She doesn’t matter to you anymore. You are both children, and you are both ended. Unless…” He held up a gloved hand and lifted his index finger. “Unless you tell me what I want to know.”

“And then what?” asked Colton. “You’ll bring her back?”

“Fool boy!” spat Alistair. Shadow enveloped his features even though there was more than enough light in the room. He pointed to the glass window and the jungle beyond. “Look outside. What do you see? Do you see time moving backward? Do you see the hands of the clock spinning in the other direction? She is dead, do you hear me?!” He stopped to catch his breath, leaning on his cane for support. Reece took a step forward but Alistair quickly held up his hand. “Leave us,” he said in a deep, commanding voice, completely free of the weakness that seemed to plague his every action.

Reece stood still a moment, then opened his mouth as if to speak. Alistair’s eyes rolled in his skull and glared. Reece swallowed hard and left the room, pulling Shelly roughly by the arm behind him.

Alistair sighed. “What is it they say about good help these days?” He scratched his bald head and a thin piece of translucent skin flaked off. Alistair watched, frowning, as the flake drifted slowly to the floor and rested next to his shoe. He stepped on the fallen flake and ground it into the tile.

“She is dead, Colton,” he repeated. “If she was meant to be the next Phoenix, she would have awoken by now.”

Colton wanted to fight—wanted to reach out and drain everything left within Alistair, no matter how vile and poisonous. Instead, he was numb. It wasn’t the collar. It was the thought that Haven was truly gone. They had spent a year together—barely a moment apart during their time at the Dome. Colton felt as if they had barely gotten started.

“Can I see her?” he asked quietly.

“If I am sufficiently satisfied with our conversation, I may allow it.”

Another thought crossed Colton’s mind. “Why am I still alive?” he asked. “My resources for information are nothing compared to yours. You can find out anything you want because you’re not afraid to hurt people.”

Alistair grunted. “That only works if you’re stronger than everyone else.”

“Have you grown so weak?”

Alistair breathed in and stared at Colton. His eyes smoldered with white lava. “You can try me, if you like.” He let out his breath and shook his head. “But I was speaking of Nathaniel.” He watched Colton for a reaction. “Ah, so you do know him, after all.”

“No, I—I’ve only seen him once. During the fight with Kamiko.”

“Mmm,” said Alistair thoughtfully. He frowned and turned away to look out at the jungle far below. “Her loss is one of the great tragedies of my life. It’s not often one finds a pupil so…”

“So evil?” said Colton.

Alistair smiled. “I was going to say capable. Tell me more about Nathaniel.”

“I don’t know anything. He showed up out of nowhere with…” Colton paused. Some instinct told him not to reveal too much of the truth.

“Yes?” prompted Alistair.

“He just popped in and looked around, almost as if he was observing us like we were lab animals. He didn’t help. He didn’t fight Kamiko, even though he could have easily destroyed her. And then he left, just like that.” Colton thought it was gibberish, even to him who had seen it firsthand, but Alistair clasped his hands behind his back and clenched his jaw thoughtfully.

“Left how?” he asked.

“I don’t know,” said Colton. “The air shifted, there was a loud crack, and they were gone.”

“‘They’?”

“I mean Nathaniel. He was gone.”

“You shouldn’t keep things from me, Colton. Not when you want something in return.”

“I’m telling you everything.”

“We’ll see,” said Alistair. He pressed a concealed button on the top of his cane and two muscular guards stomped into the room.

“Wait,” said Colton, and backed away. Each of the guards had a long stun baton in one hand.

“Hold him down,” said Alistair.

The guards jabbed their batons into Colton’s stomach and electric shock surged through his torso. His legs buckled and he collapsed to the floor. Alistair appeared over him as the guards grabbed Colton’s shoulders and pinned him down.

“You still have some fight,” said Alistair, “even with the collar.” He pulled a capped syringe out of his coat pocket and held the glowing red liquid up to the light. He grinned when he saw the look on Colton’s face. “It’s not the Fade virus, so don’t look so worried. Wouldn’t make much sense to inject someone who was already inoculated, now would it?”

Alistair pulled off the cap with his teeth, then spat it aside. He sank all three inches of the needle into Colton’s shoulder, then backed away. He rubbed his hands over his skull as if he were smoothing back his hair, then looked at his palm in disgust. The guards released Colton and stood. Alistair waved them away and they stomped out of the room as loudly as they had entered.

“Now,” said Alistair. His voice was coarse and tired. “Let’s hear the truth.”

6

Colton lay on the floor, unable to stand. He sat up straight and the room drifted sideways in his vision. He closed his eyes and crawled over to the large glass window, then pressed his cheek against it. His breath fogged the glass with each exhalation. Whatever Alistair had injected into his system traveled through his bloodstream rapidly. It seized the muscles in his stomach and made him feel like he had a mutant strain of the flu. He wanted to puke, but felt like the motion would surely kill him.

Instead he breathed against the cool glass and stared far out toward the horizon.

“What…what did you give me?” he asked between breaths.

Alistair brushed off his sleeves and fixed the collar of his jacket. “I’ll ask you a question, then you tell me what you think it is.” He walked to the window and stood next to Colton, who was unable to reach out and grab him, no matter how hard he willed his muscles to move. The simple thought of motion made his stomach lurch up into throat. Alistair crossed his arms. “Do you love…oh, excuse me. Did you love Haven?”

Colton tried not to speak but the word came out anyway. “Yes.”

“Truly?”

“Yes.”

“Shall I ask another one, or are you ready to guess?” He waited a moment. “Very well. You were secretly happy when your mother gave you her ability, weren’t you? Even though the transfer process killed her.”

Colton grit his teeth together, disgusted at the answer that wanted to crawl out from his throat.

“You missed your ability after Bernam pulled it from you and gave it to Reece,” continued Alistair. “You feel grief at her loss yet happiness that she gave you back the power, isn’t that so?”

“Yes!” shouted Colton. He let out a tremendous sigh, as if the answer had been pulled violently from him. Tears rolled down his cheeks and streaked against the window. “It’s a truth serum,” he said weakly. “The syringe.”

“Took you long enough,” said Alistair. He shook his head. “Poor boy. Tortured by the truth even though you lie to yourself and everyone around you every single day. You have an air of virtue around you, but you know what I see now that it’s all stripped away? Just another pathetic human.” He put the heel of his shoe on Colton’s shoulder and kicked hard.

Colton fell over and lay on his back, staring up at the ceiling. It swirled above him, and his eyes felt like they were sinking back into his skull.

“Tell me about Nathaniel’s arrival during the fight with Kamiko.”

Suddenly Colton felt very light, almost as if he were floating up into the air. He no longer cared about anything except chasing that good feeling for as long as possible. He smiled slowly and his blinks seemed to last an eternity.

“He just showed up,” said Colton. He couldn’t stop smiling. His head lolled on his neck and thudded gently against the window. “Poof! Out of thin air.”

“Alone?” asked Alistair.

Colton shook his head. “Haven was with him. But she was also on the floor. With Kamiko. Two Havens. How’d she do that?”

“I would certainly like to know,” said Alistair. “What happened next?”

“Nathaniel said something to the Haven that appeared with him, then he grabbed the other Haven—the one that was fighting Kamiko—and disappeared.” Colton laughed.

“What’s funny?” asked Alistair.

Colton’s brain was a puddle of slush. Every time he tried to form a concrete idea, it melted away and left him feeling more sick than before. He stopped laughing and swallowed hard. “I feel like I’m dying.”

“Not yet, my boy. Not quite yet. Did Nathaniel say anything to you? Anything at all?”

Colton hiccupped. “Nope. Just grabbed one of the Havens and whoooosh!”

“And then you fought Kamiko,” said Alistair.

“Wasn’t much of a fight,” said Colton. He sounded happier about it than he felt he should. “When Haven and I teamed up on her, she didn’t really stand a chance, did she?”

Alistair turned toward him. “Haven is your counterpart? You have achieved unity with her?”

Concentrating on Haven made Colton sad. The drugs in his system seemed to heighten every emotion as well as force him to answer every question Alistair asked of him. He began to cry softly against the window as he stared out at the blue sky over the jungle. “I felt it from the beginning,” he said. “But I waited too long to do anything about it.”

“I should have guessed,” said Alistair thoughtfully. “I thought it was simple puppy love, the kind that grows and fades so quickly among people your age. I see I was wrong.”

“Doesn’t matter now,” said Colton. “She’s dead and you’re going to kill me.”

The skin on Alistair’s burnt face crinkled when he smiled. White light glowed from his mouth. “I doubt you needed the truth serum to know that.”

7

Alistair stared at Colton as he lay on the ground, then walked around him and left the room. A moment later, Shelly came in, alone. Colton struggled to push himself up to a sitting position. He turned and pressed his back against the large window. Shelly kept her distance and sat cross-legged next to the window a short distance away. The natural light spilling in through the glass cast a soft shadow from each of their figures toward the center of the room.

“Where did he go?” asked Colton. His mouth was as dry as a desert but his head was clearing slowly. He still felt compelled to talk; to tell Shelly everything that was on his mind. It took great effort to keep his mouth shut.

“He’s talking with Reece,” said Shelly. She leaned her head against the glass and watched Colton. “Probably about what to do with you.”

Colton squeezed his eyes closed and concentrated. “Why are you still here?”

“You mean, with Alistair?”

Colton nodded slowly.

“You know the answer to that,” she said.

“Reece,” he whispered.

“Yep. He was there when no one else wanted anything to do with me.”

“I would have—”

“Would have what?” interrupted Shelly. “Would have been my friend so I could watch you and Haven run around together? Oh, thank you. Thank you so very much!”

Pain rolled through Colton’s brain like a wave, starting in the back of his skull and pushing toward the front with immense pressure. It rested behind his eyes, swirling there like a ball of snakes trying to push out through his forehead. The heavy collar around his neck constantly pulled him downward. “What was I supposed to do?”

She shrugged. “I really don’t know. But Reece did, and we work well together. Well, worked.”

“What do you mean?”

Shelly looked over her shoulder to make sure they were still alone. “I’m worried about him. Over the past few weeks, he’s become more unstable. He won’t admit anything to me, but I think his body is starting to reject the Conduit ability Bernam forced into him.”

“The ability he stole from me when I wouldn’t kill Elena,” said Colton. “The same thing happened to my mom. She kept another power inside of her too long and it damaged her ability to control her own.”

“Well, it’s affecting his brain in a really bad way,” said Shelly. She traced a bright red fingernail over the glass as she spoke. “He won’t remember things Alistair tells him to do, then he blames me for keeping secrets from him. He—” She paused for a long moment, then lowered her voice. “He cries out in his sleep, and he thrashes around like he’s being attacked. If I didn’t use my Conduit power to absorb the kicks, my shins would be covered in bruises. He’s degenerating quickly, and I don’t know what to do about it!”

Colton noticed the tears in her eyes for the first time. She stared out at the jungle in the valley below the building, unwilling to make eye contact.

“He has to give up his ability,” said Colton weakly. His vision blurred with every heartbeat, then cleared before going fuzzy again. “It’s the only way.”

“I’ve told him,” said Shelly. “He won’t do it. I’ve never seen him so angry as when I tell him he could be normal again. I even told him I would do it, too.”

“But you would probably die since you were born with it.”

“I was ready to do anything,” she said. “But it doesn’t matter, because he’ll keep his ability until he gets better or it kills him.” Her eyes drifted to Colton’s. “Are the drugs still working?”

He nodded slowly. “Yes.”

She hesitated another moment. “When we first met, did you like me?”

He nodded again. “Very much.”

“Did you think I was pretty?”

“Beautiful.”

A small smile touched her lips. “And if Haven wouldn’t have come along?”

“We would probably have been together.” He swallowed hard, his mouth as dry as cotton. “I’m sorry.”

She laughed and wiped a tear from her cheek. She seemed genuinely happy. “It’s okay. Really. You can’t fight fate.” She tugged at a strand of her blonde hair. Colton suddenly remembered how similar her old auburn color had been to Haven’s. “But you can change it. If I would have met my counterpart while you were still around, I’m sure I would have dropped you like a bad habit.”

Colton smiled. The wave of pain finally faded from his skull and he could see clearly once again. He thought he might press his luck with a few questions of his own. “Why is Alistair so interested in Nathaniel?”

“You kidding me?” asked Shelly. “As soon as he found out that a Nova could travel across the planet or even back in time in the blink of an eye, he was all over it. It’s just another shiny new toy for his arsenal.”

“If he figures out how to do it,” said Colton, “we’re all screwed.”

“You think?” Shelly stood up and walked over to Colton, then crouched next to him and spoke in a hushed voice. “Reece would never go for it, but you know Kai, the big guy?”

“Hard to miss him,” said Colton.

“Exactly. Anyway, we’ve talked about leaving.”

Colton looked at her, surprised. “Leave Alistair?”

“I wanted out of the group after I learned what he tried to do with Fade,” said Shelly. “I stuck around for Reece, hoping I could change his mind. Now it’s almost too late. If Alistair learns Nathaniel’s secret, we’re more than screwed. We’re doomed.” She rested her hand on his knee. “Reece and I were there when Alistair fought Nathaniel in Australia. They ripped up the whole coastline trying to hurt each other. I’ve never seen anything like it, Colton. It was terrible. Alistair would never admit it, but that fight took a lot out of him. They were evenly matched until the end, then they each got in a few good hits and Nathaniel just disappeared. Alistair is running on fumes. He wants to learn the ability to time travel so he can go back and undo it all. He wants to reshape history.”

There was a noise from the hallway beyond the partition that lead to the elevator. Shelly quickly stood up and wiped her eyes, then stepped away from Colton as Reece walked into the room. She turned so Reece couldn’t see her face and whispered to Colton, “Five-five-six-two-seven.”

“What?” he asked.

She didn’t answer. Reece picked her up from behind and lifted her into the air. She giggled playfully as he spun her around and set her back on her feet. She twirled twice, her hair bobbing over her shoulders, then winked at him.

The smile faded from Reece’s face as he turned to look at Colton. “It’s a shame it has to end like this, Colt.”

“It doesn’t,” said Colton.

Reece laughed. “I see the truth serum is wearing off. You been keeping up with your cardio, Colt? How are those legs holding up?” He reached down and helped Colton to his feet. Colton’s legs wobbled unsteadily and Reece frowned. “Not the worst I’ve seen, but definitely not the best. When you’re out there, old buddy, remember to rest in the shade and don’t drink from any standing pools of water. This is very important if you want to make it more than one night.”

“What are you talking about?”

Reece grinned and slapped him on the shoulder. “We’re going hunting. Well, I’m going hunting. You’re, well…I think I’ll let you figure it out.” He gave the metal collar around Colton’s neck a firm tug to make sure it was still on tight. “But you’re a smart guy, right? You don’t need friends to help you through your troubles, not like the rest of us do.”

Blackness clouded Reece’s eyes as he shoved Colton toward the elevator. The air around his body crackled with static electricity, like a power line carrying a high voltage.

“What happened to you?” asked Colton.

“I grew up. I’d suggest you do the same, but it’s probably a little late in the game, don’t you think?”

“What are you going to do to me?”

“Me? Oh, nothing. Unless I catch you. Then…well, then, I’ll just let you use your imagination.”

His crazy jackal grin returned as he pushed Colton into the elevator. The Reece that Colton had known—the old Reece who had been his roommate and friend—was gone. Shelly looked at them both with worry in her eyes. The elevator doors closed, blocking her from view, and they descended.

8

The ceiling lights flickered off and on as Reece drew from everything around him. He seemed to be doing it almost as an afterthought, like it was nothing more than another way to breathe. The warmth slowly drained from Colton’s skin as the air in the elevator rapidly cooled. The feedback collar allowed for someone else to pull his stored energy out, but did not allow for Colton to release it himself. He twisted his neck to the side and felt the tiny needles pulling at his skin over his carotid arteries, like cactus spikes tugging at his flesh.

Reece turned to him. “You want to see her?”

Colton didn’t answer. He expected it was some kind of mind-game meant to torture him further.

“I’m not supposed to show you,” Reece continued, “but I think Alistair will appreciate how much it ramps your levels once you’re outside. She’s dead, you know. Dead as a doornail.”

“I know,” said Colton quietly.

The elevator slowed to a cushioned stop and the doors slid open. Reece stepped out, pulling Colton behind him by the collar. They were deep in the heart of the mountain, far below the modern building perched at its peak. A dark tunnel lined with metal supply crates led directly away from the elevator. Thick black piping ran down both sides of the rocky, unfinished walls, toward a massive steel door at the end of the hall.

Reece led them to the door and tapped a long string of numbers into a keypad set into the rock wall. He put his thumb on a fingerprint reader until a green light appeared. Metal clunked deep within, and the door rolled to the side.

Reece tugged hard on Colton’s collar and flung him into the next room. Colton tripped on a table leg and fell to the ground. It was a lot easier to fall wearing the collar than it was to get back up. He got to his feet slowly, first to his knees, then one leg at a time. The drugs Alistair had given him were wearing off, but he still felt sluggish and dull.

All of that went to the back of his mind when he saw the tank in the middle of the room.

Haven floated there, suspended in bluish liquid. The transparent, curved wall of the tank was several inches thick and distorted her body when Colton moved the slightest bit. The top and bottom of the tank were sealed with complex machinery that connected to the ceiling and floor, completely encasing the cylinder of liquid, as well as Haven’s body.

She floated peacefully within the tank, her arms and legs swaying slowly with a gentle current that agitated the liquid. Her red-brown hair floated around her head and over her closed eyes. Colton kept waiting for those eyes to open, but he knew they wouldn’t.

And yet she looked no different than she always had. It might have been the tint of the thick liquid in which she floated or the distortion of the tank wall, but Colton thought her skin looked as flushed and healthy as if she were sleeping. The burn-marks from her fight with Kamiko were nowhere to be seen.

“She was a beauty, Colt,” said Reece. “I’ll give you that. But not Phoenix material after all. Guess we’re gonna have a fun time finding out who ended up with the energy. Too much trouble, if you ask me, but Alastair is sort of obsessed. It’s the only thing about the guy I can’t really get used to.”

The room they were in was circular, and crammed with monitoring equipment around its periphery. Another door led away from the room, presumably deeper into the mountain. It was locked with the same keypad and fingerprint scanner Reece had used to get them into the tank room.

Colton noticed the plastic tubes running into holes in Haven’s clothes—the same clothes she had been wearing when he carried her out into the desert to die. Dark liquid moved through the tubes, drawn out from her skin. The liquid was being collected in small containers at the base of the tank.

“What are you doing to her?” asked Colton. He walked to the tank and placed a hand against the cool surface. There was a huge void inside of him where Haven had fit so perfectly. It felt like someone had scraped everything out of his ribcage with a frozen shovel.

“Oh, you know Alistair,” said Reece. “The guy’s work is never done. He probably still thinks he can draw out the Phoenix energy and plug it into his own system.”

“And you don’t?” asked Colton. He stared up at Haven’s lifeless body and slowly leaned toward the tank, as if he were drawn to it like a magnet.

“No,” said Reece gravely. “I don’t. I know what happens when you try to bend nature to your own will.” His face, for an instant, was tired and sullen. Then he smiled and the devilish twinkle was back in his eyes. “But enough about that! We’re on a schedule, so let’s get moving.”

He walked toward Colton and reached up to grab his collar, then he stopped. A soft hum built slowly throughout the room. It was barely audible at first, as if someone had left a stereo playing static on low volume.

The tank vibrated against Colton’s palm.

“What is that?” asked Reece. He stepped back. “What’s going on?”

Haven opened her eyes and looked right at Colton.

“She’s waking up,” he said, and smiled at her. “Guess she was Phoenix material, after all.”

9

Reece stared at her, dumbfounded. He shook his head quickly as if to get rid of his doubt. “Doesn’t matter,” he said as he walked to the wall. He slapped a huge red button in the center of a large metal panel. The lights in the room dimmed instantly and red emergency lights flooded the ceiling. “The tank was designed to contain her if she woke up.”

Colton was smiling and shaking his head, but he could not look away from Haven’s eyes. She stared at him without expression—he could not tell if she was terrified or content. She simply was.

“They’ll be here any second now,” said Reece. It seemed like more of a reassurance for himself than a promise to Colton. “They’ll put your girlfriend back to sleep before she blows herself up.”

“What do you mean?” asked Colton. The vibration of the tank wall was increasing. It rattled the bones in his hand and slowly moved up his arm toward his shoulder. Haven reached out for him and pressed both of her palms against the transparent wall.

“The tank and the liquid are designed to contain a huge blast, but there’s no way to know what she’ll do to herself if she can’t release it all,” said Reece. “I remember Alistair saying something about a Phoenix needing a Con to channel the excess energy when they wake up.”

“Not just any Con,” said Colton quietly.

He put his other hand on the tank. A blue spark bloomed from Haven’s hands and exploded in the thick liquid. She drifted away in slow motion, toward the middle of the tank. Her eyes opened wide in terror and Colton knew she was suddenly aware of what was happening. For the first time since she awoke, she realized she was trapped and could not breathe.

Haven pushed her way through the thick liquid toward Colton, reaching out for him as she neared the side of the tank.

“She needs air!” shouted Colton. Reece shook his head. Colton ran over and shoved him against the wall of the room. “Let her out!”

He drew back his fist for a swing. Reece’s eyes glazed over black and he punched Colton in the middle of the chest, releasing a blast of pressure that slammed him against the tank.

“Not so easy without your ability, is it, Colt?”

Reece fixed his ruffled shirt as he walked over. Colton waited until he got close enough, then kicked him above the knee at a downward angle as hard as he could. Reece screamed in pain as his kneecap slid out of place and his leg buckled. Colton made a tight fist and brought it down on Reece’s jaw. There was an audible crack as the bone snapped.

Colton turned to the tank. Haven was inside, wild with fright. She pounded against the wall as hard as she could.

The vibration had not stopped, and was now moving outward from the tank across the floor. Colton felt it in his feet, then his shins, then his knees. The electronic panels and the machines in the walls began to rattle. Blood pooling on the floor below Reece’s jaw danced like the surface of a pond in the rain.

Something deep within Colton told him that he had to make contact with her—that they had to be as close as possible when the great swell of energy was released. He knew nothing about the awakening process of a Phoenix, but Elena had nearly leveled an entire building when the power found her.

Blue light shimmered from Haven’s body. The thick liquid in the tank seemed like it was trying to get away from her skin. An air pocket formed around her body as the liquid compressed against the walls of the tank. Haven gasped for air before the liquid crashed back against her, sending her spinning.

The liquid was pushed back again, and she took another breath. Colton knew it was only a matter of time before that cycle wouldn’t be enough to keep her alive. He ran to the wall, searching for anything that might help to break her free. Reece was still on the floor, groaning and holding his jaw. Colton briefly wondered if he was adept enough with his Conduit ability to fix his own broken bones.

The two doors to the room remained closed. They were still alone, for the time being.

The machines around the room were for monitoring and relaying information—none of them seemed to contain a release mechanism for the tank. Colton only stopped when he got to the panel that contained the big red button that Reece had pushed. Below that was a digital keypad, and next to that, a physical key sitting inside a chrome keyhole.

Shelly flashed through Colton’s mind. “Five-five-six-two-seven,” he whispered, and punched in the code.

Nothing happened.

Haven floated in the tank, unconscious. Reece climbed to his feet, glaring at Colton with deep hatred. He opened his broken jaw and moved it from side to side, then he laughed as he walked across the room. His hand reached out. Colton looked back at the panel and twisted the small key in its lock.

Reece turned as the transparent wall of the tank shot up into the ceiling as if it were spring-loaded. The liquid gushed out in all directions. It hit Reece in the chest and pushed him back into the wall. Colton hugged the wall and managed to stay on his feet. He sloshed through the shin-deep pool of bluish liquid toward Haven, who lay on the center platform in the middle of the room. Her body vibrated, sending ripples out through the liquid. Colton’s teeth clattered together from the force of the vibration. If it didn’t stop soon, his bones would shatter.

He reached her just as she was about to slip off the side of the small platform. He knelt down next to her and scooped her body into his lap. The vibration stopped instantly.

Reece got to his feet slowly, fighting not to slip in the viscous goop that covered the floor. The red lights in the ceiling dimmed as he absorbed their power.

Colton looked down at Haven. He didn’t care what happened next, just so long as he could be with her one last time. At this thought, she opened her eyes and screamed. He clutched her to his chest as a heat unlike any he’d ever felt grew from her body like an exploding star. He was soon enveloped in the energy and could not see through the blinding light.

Something sizzled deep within his body and he realized the collar was stopping him from releasing Haven’s energy. If he didn’t get it out of him soon, they would both melt.

He felt a light hand touch his neck. His eyes were open, but all he saw was a blanket of piercing, white-blue light. Haven’s hand gripped the metal collar, and it melted away beneath her touch like water. The molten metal did not burn his skin as it dripped down his body and into the thick liquid covering the floor.

Haven screamed again and her back arched. Colton used all his strength to stop her from rising up into the air. He clenched her close and pulled down as hard as he could.

An explosion of blue energy shot out from her like a supernova. A ring of plasma hit Reece in the chest and punched him through the wall of the room, leaving a gaping hole in one of the machines.

Haven let out a long sigh of air and collapsed. She looked up at Colton and blinked slowly as he held her. He brushed back a strand of hair from her face.

“Colton,” she said softly. “It’s not—”

She was ripped from his hands by an unseen force. Huge blue wings of pure energy erupted from her back as she floated into the air. The hum that had been present in the room since Colton first got close to her increased to a deafening roar. He leapt for her and clung to her in mid-air.

She looked at him with eyes of swirling blue plasma, regarding him as if she had never seen him before in her life. The hum stopped and the room was completely silent.

“Now,” she whispered.

The same instinct that told Colton he had to be making physical contact with Haven during the awakening process now told him it was time for him to do his part. He closed his eyes and opened his body to her energy.

It hit him like a freight train. He was crushed on all sides by the force of it, like a tidal wave slamming him down against hard sand. Colton took in as much as he could and funneled it upward. He heard the ceiling crumble and the rock beyond turn to dust as the tunnel of energy drilled through the mountain, toward its peak.

Blue plasma burst from Haven’s body in pulses. It swirled around the room like snakes speeding through water, then collapsed back into Colton as he drew it in and forced it skyward.

They were closer now than they’d ever been. The knowledge that they both would have died if they hadn’t been together was etched in Colton’s mind forever.

He opened his eyes and saw the savage fury of Haven’s transformation. Her wings grew until they burned through the walls of the room. The plasma from her eyes flowed down her cheeks like burning rivers of tears. Her hair was no longer reddish-brown—each strand was a filament of glowing blue light.

Colton clenched his eyes shut again. He continued to funnel the energy, not knowing if it would ever stop. He held on to Haven, and waited.

10

Haven knew she had died but had no memory of her death. It was a knowledge in her very bones—that she was one who had not been, and now was.

Yet she remembered Colton. He clung to her tightly as she hovered in mid-air, in the same exact spot she had floated in the tank full of thick liquid. Now she hovered four feet off the ground. The floor and ceiling directly above and below had melted away from the excess plasma blooming outward from her body. Colton was doing a good job of absorbing most of it and redirecting it upward, but even he could only handle so much at one time. His skin glowed the same blue as Haven’s, because the energy was in their blood. It coursed through every inch of their bodies, surging, seeking a way out.

She saw a world of bright blue light. Vibrant outlines, mere thin-line sketches of objects, were all that existed to reveal her surroundings. Colton had one arm over her shoulders and the other under one of her arms. He clasped his hands together at her back, but his grip was slipping. Haven’s energy output was increasing by the second, and there was no way for her to tell when it would end—or if it would end.

Elena had only been able to give Haven vague information about the transformation process of Source to Phoenix. It was a devastating transition, made survivable only by the presence of a counterpart—in Haven’s case, Colton. If there had been any doubt in her mind before that he was the one, it had been obliterated by the simple fact that they were both still alive.

The vibration emanating from Haven’s body intensified and the wall of the circular room cracked from floor to ceiling. Monitor screens shattered and shards of glass splashed down into the agitated liquid.

Haven looked down. Plasma sloughed off her skin and melted through the floor, then through the mountain rock. A deep tunnel dropped away below her feet—certain death if she were to suddenly fall. The liquid that had formed a pool over the floor of the room flowed thickly over the ledge of the hole.

Until that moment, she had been at the whim of the terrifying energy exploding from her skin. Now, with great effort, she held some of it back. Colton gasped for air as the flow of molten blue plasma ceased. Haven held both arms in front of her and let everything loose.

A thick beam of white-blue energy shot out from her hands and hit the wall. The force of the blast pushed her to the other side of the room, dragging Colton along with her. He hit the wall first and she crashed against him.

The hurricane of energy subsided and they fell to the slick floor. Colton groaned in pain and rolled to his side. He spit blood and wiped his mouth with a shaking hand.

“Sorry,” said Haven weakly. Her breathing slowed and her eyes were only half-open.

The torrent of plasma energy swirling around the room had dissipated, leaving behind charred walls. Haven’s wings had receded into her back after she fired off the blast to push them away from the hole. Now she felt empty, as if the energy had never been there in the first place. She didn’t feel any different than before—before what?

The harder she tried to remember everything that happened before she died in the desert, the farther it drifted from her mind.

She could vaguely remember Noah, her little brother. He was all that was left of her family. She remembered Marius and Corva, but her memories of them were little more than snapshots in a photo album that faded with every passing moment.

And then there was Dormer. Where was Dormer? There was a black hole in her memory when she tried to recall his face.

He was dead.

She knew that had to be the reason. The battle with Kamiko came to her as Colton helped her to her feet. Haven remembered arriving at the black building and going inside. Others were with her, but she couldn’t remember their names. Where they should have been standing in her memory, there was only darkness.

“We have to get out of here,” said Colton. “They’ll be here soon, if they’re not outside the doors already.”

“Only one way to find out,” said Haven. She stood up straight and her knees buckled. Colton reached out and caught her before she fell back to the ground.

“What’s the matter?” he asked.

“I don’t know. I feel dizzy.” Haven shook her head to try and clear away the fog. “It doesn’t matter,” she said. “Do you know how to get out of here?”

“Only the way I came in,” said Colton, pointing at the entrance. The steel door through which he entered had bowed outward during Haven’s awakening, but it remained sealed. There was another door on the opposite side of the room, identical to the first, that had not been damaged.

Colton went to the door leading back to the cavern parking lot, looking for a way to open it. He heard shouting on the other side. Wires protruding from a gash in the wall sparked violently as someone on the other side tried to override the lockout.

“The other one, then,” said Haven.

She and Colton crossed the room to the second door, careful to avoid the massive hole they had burned into the dense rock below the room.

She put both of her palms against the door and concentrated. Haven tried to picture the swirling sphere of blue energy in her mind’s eye, just as Marius had taught her when she was first learning how to use her ability.

So I do remember something from the past, she thought.

The sphere would not materialize. Like the memory of those who had fallen, there was only a shadow of what she wanted to see. Colton touched her arm and she let out a frustrated sigh.

“I can’t do it,” she said.

Colton gently moved her back from the door until she stood behind him. “I saved enough,” he said. “Stay close behind me.”

She took his hand and looked back. The bent door guarding the other way into the room hadn’t budged. There was a moment of silence, and then came the sound of a saw blade biting down into the steel.

Colton’s hand grew warm in her own and Haven turned back around. His skin glowed bright blue and his short, brown hair stuck up like he had just put his finger into an electrical outlet.

“We have to move fast,” he said.

He stepped quickly to the door and easily pushed his free hand into the surface. The thick steel melted around his skin as he carved out a door-shaped section. The edges of the metal glowed white-orange as his skin instantly liquefied the steel. Colton withdrew his hand and kicked the cutout section of the door. He released a small pressure blast when his foot made contact and the door flew out into the hallway.

Behind them, the grinding of the saw blade grew louder. A small line appeared in the bent door and brilliant sparks showered into the room, sizzling in the thin puddle of what remained from the tank fluid. Men shouted on the other side of the door.

Colton pulled her out of the room and into the dark hallway. She followed close behind him as he stepped over the fallen door, still clasping his burning hand.

It didn’t hurt her at all.

11

Colton moved down the hallway as quickly as he could without leaving Haven behind. She was slowing down as they hurried away from the tank room. He felt more alive than he had in a long time, and he was sure that Haven’s awakening had everything to do with it. Funneling that much energy through his body had cleared him out in a good way—he felt faster and lighter than he ever thought possible.

The long hallway curved gently as it descended away from the tank room. If there were any lights in the ceiling, they were off. Colton’s skin threw out enough bright blue light by which to easily navigate. He pulled back on the heat after they got through the steel door so he wouldn’t accidentally melt into the floor. It was just one of the many things he had to be careful about when he emitted that much energy.

The passage cooled as they descended. The walls had been covered in sheets of polished metal right after they left the tank room, but now the metal was sparse, replaced with the natural, rough-hewn rock below the mountain. Colton wondered hopefully if Haven’s blast of energy had reached the peak and destroyed Alistair’s building at the very top.

She stumbled behind him. Colton wrapped one of her arms over his shoulders, holding her wrist, then hooked his other arm around her waist. He shifted some of his stored energy from his skin into his muscles, giving them added fuel for the extra load—not that he would ever phrase it like that out loud. The light emitting from his body dimmed, but he was able to lift her easily from the ground as he picked up speed.

The dark tunnel descended steeply, and doors began to appear on either side. They were all sealed and marked with block numbers, like cell doors. Colton shuddered to think what they contained.

He grit his teeth and carried Haven farther down the long passage. She groaned and her head rolled to one side. Her breathing was too shallow for her to be in a deep sleep, yet her eyes would not open. Whatever had happened to her during her transformation wasn’t finished yet.

Finally they reached the end of the tunnel. A steel door identical to the ones in the tank room blocked their exit. Colton drew on the remaining energy deep within him and unleashed it from his fist in a single blast of burning plasma. The ball of molten blue energy hit the door in its center, ripping it off its hinges and spinning it away like a thrown playing card.

Colton hurried through the cloud of smoke and the falling debris. He gave a quick look over his shoulder and saw that no one was in the hallway behind them, then he ran for the first cover he could find. Next to the tunnel exit were several huge wooden crates. Colton ducked behind one and gently laid Haven on the ground. Her eyelids fluttered open and she smiled weakly at him.

“Hey there,” he said.

“I thought it would be different.”

“So did I.”

She closed her eyes again. Colton peaked over the top of the wooden crate and looked around.

The long tunnel deposited them at the base of the mountain on its western side. The setting sun hovered just above the low mountains in the distance. A wide jungle valley stretched away from the Helix complex in all directions.

To the north, several miles away from the main compound, two concrete smokestacks protruded from the jungle canopy. Thin trails of black smoke rose from each and formed a hazy cloud of smog over the trees in that area, which covered the area like a thick blanket of green.

The tunnel exit was along a well-kept dirt road that ran around the base of the mountain. Colton didn’t want to be there when the next patrol came through. He guessed that somebody was already on their way, probably even Reece and Alistair.

He knelt down and helped Haven to her feet. Her eyes were open and she nodded at him to let him know she could walk. Colton kept one arm around her as they left the cover of the wooden crates and hurried away from the base of the mountain.

Past the dirt road, the ground sloped away toward the edge of the jungle and the beginning of the valley. A large chain-linked fence surrounded the entire complex, separating it from the dense jungle.

Colton hurried to the tall fence and stopped. The metal buzzed with the sound of electric current. He was all out of energy, having used the last of it to blast through the steel door.

Someone shouted behind them and Colton turned. Three men with AR-15 rifles ran out of the tunnel and pointed excitedly at the escapees.

“I don’t suppose you could maybe do something?” asked Colton hurriedly.

Haven shook her head. “Something’s wrong,” she said. “I can’t tap into my ability.”

“Well, that’s a shame,” said Colton.

He put himself between Haven and the approaching guards, then reached back and grasped the fence. Hot electricity shot up his arm and over his entire body, but Colton drew it in and stored it shallowly, ready to make use of it in a split-second. He released the fence and took a step away from Haven.

The guards stumbled down the slope and nearly pushed each other over when they stopped twenty feet away. All three of their guns raised in unison. Colton lifted his arms toward them in what he hoped was a threatening manner.

The guards fired. Their bullets stopped inches from Colton’s body. He sent out a short-range blast wave that halted the projectiles in midair. The guards’ guns clicked empty as the useless bullets fell to the soft ground at Colton’s feet. He smiled as he reached back once more for the fence.

Bolts of lightning shot out of Colton’s other hand and smacked into the guards. They lifted up into the air and slammed back to the ground, writhing violently as their skin sizzled and smoked.

Colton released the fence and the lightning disappeared instantly. The guards groaned and rolled around, burning the ground wherever they touched.

“What do we do now?” asked Haven.

“Same as before,” said Colton.

He turned to the chain-linked fence and grabbed it with both hands. Instead of storing the current that raced into his skin, he sent it right back out into the metal. In seconds, a section of the fence large enough to walk through had melted away.

Colton took Haven’s hand and led her past the fence, into the dense jungle. He looked back at the peak of the looming mountain. The energy blast from Haven that Colton funneled upward had barely grazed the side of the building. Pieces of the supporting pylons on one side had melted away, and the roof was slightly burnt. Other than that, the building had escaped destruction.

The Helix complex vanished behind them as they were swallowed in a lush world of green. In the distance, more guards shouted orders at each other. A helicopter circled far overhead, but Colton figured he and Haven could only be tracked if the helicopter had infrared equipment. Knowing Alistair’s penchant for technological devices, it was a strong possibility, but one that Colton kept to himself. Haven probably had enough on her mind, what with coming back from the dead.

They needed to rest, and they needed a plan. There was no help for them so far from everyone they knew, and Colton had never before longed so much for home.

12

Haven’s physical strength slowly returned as she and Colton walked through the jungle, but the supposed power of the Phoenix eluded her. It seemed to be drifting farther away instead of overtaking her, as she thought it would. A presence swirled deep within her, but it was alien to her—an intruder. It swam in the pit of her soul like an observer, doing little more than watching and waiting…but for what?

The jungle was oppressively hot, even as the sun dipped below the mountains and cast a long shadow over the valley. The interwoven canopy far above allowed little light to penetrate through to the ground, and even less as nighttime approached. Dusk set in quickly and for a few brief moments, the lush green leaves of all the trees and plants seemed hyper-vibrant, as if Haven were walking through a fake jungle, one that had been artificially enhanced to add brilliant pops of color.

Long vines bursting with bright red flowers encircled thick tree trunks. The trees towered up toward the canopy, expanding at the top to create a thick blanket of green. The dark brown trunks were as thick as the Redwoods Haven had seen in photographs. Cars could drive right through them if there was a hole in the middle.

She wiped sweat from her face as Colton led her deeper into the tropical jungle. The mountain complex behind them was occluded by the near-impenetrable foliage, and the sounds of the search helicopter drifted farther away. There were no men with guns crashing through the foliage after them, and Haven thought this a little strange. If Alistair wanted them in custody, why give up so quickly?

She did not voice this concern to Colton, who no doubt had equally as much on his mind. She watched him as he pushed through the thick plants that hindered the path leading away from Alistair’s mountain compound. He was stronger than she remembered, even though she remembered very little. Perhaps her awakening played a small role in that. He seemed much more comfortable with his own ability and knew exactly what to do with it. Haven sensed no hesitation in him when it came to his ability…or to her.

Colton was careful not to snap any branches as they plunged deeper into the jungle. He held aside huge leafy fronds as Haven passed and pointed out black puddles of muck to avoid.

“Leeches,” he said. “Don’t want to find one of those in your pants in the middle of the night. Size of your fist when they’re finished.”

Haven turned her attention inward. She carefully retraced the moments leading up to her death, grasping at details that eluded her memory.

A man had taken her away from an epic battle. She was on the ground, and Kamiko was over her, burning the life from her body with electric blue lightning. Then the man was there, reaching out for her, and suddenly she was gone.

He took her to a fallen city.

She was surrounded by an eerie landscape of broken buildings. The ground was covered in fine grey ash. She could not remember the man’s name, yet he spoke as if they had known each other for years. He told her she was looking upon humanity’s end.

Haven reached back farther into her memory, before the fight with Kamiko and before the man had showed up to take her to the bleak and distant future. She had some concept of the passage of time, of locations where she lived and visited, and vague images of those she held most dear.

Beyond that, there was nothing.

A great darkness expanded over her mind. She heard whispers in the distant recesses of her memory, but there were no faces, no shapes. Haven stopped and gasped when she realized that she could barely remember anything before the last few minutes leading up her death.

“What’s wrong?” asked Colton. He was breathing hard and his clothes were soaked with sweat.

“Nothing,” said Haven, shaking her head. She wasn’t sure if it was a good idea to tell him or not, so she decided to wait. Would it hurt him to know she didn’t remember any of their time together? She felt close to him—nothing could change that. Yet there was a hesitation in her, one that Colton did not reciprocate.

He looked as if he did not fully believe her, but left it alone. They walked for a few more minutes in the quickly-fading light, until they reached the base of a massive tree. Its dark wood folded into thick ridges as it ran into the ground, creating wide hollows near the trunk that offered moderate protection from all but one angle.

“I guess we can sleep here,” said Colton. “We’ll have to find some water.” He looked around aimlessly at their surroundings. Haven suddenly hugged him, and after a brief moment of surprise, he returned the embrace. “It’ll be alright,” he said.

She sniffed and pressed her cheek against his chest. They were both sweating heavily so she didn’t bother to try and hide her own perspiration.

“Thank you,” she whispered.

He held her tighter and kissed the top of her head. “Any time.”

She let out a soft laugh. “Any time I’m trapped in some secret compound, suspended in gross jelly, and am about to shoot out a nuclear blast of energy?”

He smiled. “Exactly. Do you think I would rather be back in the States, resting comfortably by the fire at the Dome?”

“It crossed my mind,” she said. “Where are we, anyway?”

“Someplace near the equator,” said Colton. “Maybe South America.”

“How do we get home?”

Colton was silent for a long time. She released him and stepped away, tucking wet strands of hair behind her ears as she looked around.

“There has to be a village, or something,” he said at last. “Someone will have a phone we can use to call the others.”

“What if we can’t find one? How do we survive out here?”

“We’ll find a way. We’re together, right?”

She smiled at him. “Right.”

He sighed and walked into the nook at the base of the tree. The jungle was almost completely dark, and night insects were beginning to chirp.

“We should get some sleep,” said Colton. “Who knows what fun we’ll have tomorrow?”

He settled down against the base of the tree with his legs stuck out before him. Haven walked over and sat down with her back to the trunk. She leaned against Colton and he wrapped his arm around her. Within seconds, his chest rose and fell with the deep rhythm of sleep.

It was a long time before Haven joined him.

13

When Colton awoke, Haven was gone.

He got quickly to his feet and looked around. It took him a few seconds to remember everything—he had been expecting his own bed back at the Dome. Instead he was standing under a massive tree, and droplets of water were splatting on top of his head.

Morning sunlight shot down through small breaks in the canopy, casting bright patches of light on the jungle floor. Haven crouched next to a large plant in one of the patches of light. She tilted a broad leaf upward and a pool of captured water poured into her mouth. She grinned and wiped water from her chin when she noticed Colton watching her.

“I think it’s the only way without drinking from the puddles on the ground,” she said. “Unless we find a stream or something.”

“Even then,” said Colton, “there’s no way to know if Alistair’s been dumping hazardous waste into the local water supply. I’ll stick with rain.”

He joined her below the fronds of the large plant. The wide leaves fanned out over their heads, the shaft of sunlight illuminating thin outlines of water pools that had been collected. Colton drank from several before standing up and looking around for a good place to relieve himself.

“I went behind the tree,” said Haven, trying to suppress a grin. “I imagine you’ll have it a lot easier than me.”

Colton found a spot behind the huge tree they had slept under and did his business. He walked back to the small clearing and clapped his hands.

“So, what’s for breakfast?”

Haven didn’t answer. She was staring at a spot in the trees twenty feet off the ground. Colton followed her gaze and saw a small black box with a glass circle in the middle. As he stared at it, the glass circle rotated and pushed out a little from the box.

“It’s a camera,” said Haven. “There’s another one over there.” She pointed behind them and Colton turned to see one more black box bolted to the trunk of a tree, well out of reach. “Can you hit them?”

“Can’t you?”

She shook her head. Colton didn’t draw any energy overnight, so whatever he used in the morning he had to pull from his immediate surroundings. The sun’s rays weren’t strong enough below the canopy to allow for rapid consumption. Maybe if he had a few hours he could get a proper charge, but he wanted to be long gone from that location as soon as possible.

He stood directly under the first camera and stared up, thinking.

“Hm,” he said, then reached out and touched the trunk of the tree with both hands.

Within seconds, the bark blackened under his palms. The rot spread quickly, encompassing the trunk in a thick band, then spreading up and down the length of the tree until the blackness reached the leaves high in the canopy. They withered and fell to the ground as if they had been long dead.

A huge crack split the trunk up to the camera, but the small black box remained intact.

“I don’t want the whole thing coming down on our heads,” he explained.

He felt good. The energy within him was so pure and invigorating. He felt like he could run a thousand miles without stopping.

Colton flicked the air over his head and a concentrated tunnel of pressure hit the camera dead center, exploding it into a hundred tiny pieces. Chunks of bark ripped off the tree right behind the broken camera and spun away into the jungle.

“Guess I need to work on my aim,” said Colton.

“Looks good to me,” said Haven. “Want to get the other?”

Colton did, the second time with a little more accuracy. Both cameras had been pulverized—the cameras they knew about, anyway.

“They’re watching us,” said Haven.

“That probably explains why we made it through the night in the first place.”

“But why?”

Colton thought about it for a moment. The escape from Alistair’s facility hadn’t been easy. The drugs he was given during his interrogation had muted the sharpness of his memory, but Colton remembered Reece saying something about running around outside in the jungle. Maybe it had been the plan all along for him to get out of the Helix compound. At the very least, Colton took satisfaction in the fact that his release into the wild hadn’t gone as planned. He was certain neither Reece nor Alistair had been counting on Haven waking up and getting out with Colton.

“I got the feeling they didn’t want to kill me right away,” he said. “I’m trying to think of a reason they would want to observe instead of capture us, and nothing makes any sense.”

“I think we should keep going anyway,” said Haven.

“I thought about going back. They have food and there would be a way to communicate with Marius and the others.”

“They also have a boatload of guns and other nasty toys. I’m not at my best right now.”

“Did Elena say anything about this?” asked Colton. “I thought you were supposed to wake up and just, you know, win everything.”

“So did I. Maybe it takes a while to get into my system. There’s definitely something in there. I can feel it, like it’s trying to latch on to my original Source ability.”

“Well,” said Colton, “I hope it latches on soon. Until then, I guess you’re right. We’ll keep on through the jungle and try to find a way to get home. I don’t want to have to kill a tree every time I see one of those cameras, though.”

“Colton Ross, friend of the forest,” she said, then stopped.

“What?”

Haven smiled. “I’m just glad I remembered your last name.”

She walked away, a strange smile on her face. Colton took one last look around the small clearing and quickly followed after her.

14

They walked for several hours in the increasing heat. Once, far away, they heard gunshots, but all had been quiet for the past few hours except the sound of wind rustling the canopy leaves.

There had only been a few cameras along the way, and Colton was an ace marksman by the time he crushed the third one they spotted, but Haven was certain they weren’t catching all of them.

She led the way through the jungle, following narrow trails when she could find them and making her own when she could not. She was feeling stronger with each passing hour. None of her ability had yet returned since the initial outburst during her awakening, but she was almost starting to return to normal—if a thing like “normal” had ever existed for her in the first place. She passed the time trying to remember more details about Noah and her parents.

The sun was high in the sky, peeking down through the canopy, when Colton placed a hand on her shoulder and they stopped.

“Do you hear that?” he asked.

Haven held her breath a moment until she heard the sound of gargling water not too far ahead.

“Sounds like a stream,” she said. “I would love to rinse off.”

Colton raised an eyebrow.

“Don’t get any ideas, smart guy. Now isn’t the time, and it certainly isn’t the place.”

He shrugged. “Can’t blame a guy for hoping.”

They had reached an area where the trees were a little farther apart and the ground cover was less dense. It made things a little easier since Colton didn’t have to burn through obstacles, potentially giving away their location in the process. Neither of them could say for sure how far they’d traveled, but Haven estimated it was no less than three miles since setting out that morning.

A shallow stream cut across their trail. Its clear waters ran swiftly over roots and stones. Haven studied its curving path farther downstream, where it was swallowed up into the jungle a short distance away. A little ways upstream, the ground had cracked and shifted ten feet into the air, creating a small cliff. The stream poured over the edge of the up-thrust ground, creating a thin waterfall that splashed over smooth rocks where the stream reformed.

Haven and Colton went to the falling water and splashed their faces. Colton took off his shirt and rubbed dirt and sweat from his skin while Haven stuck her head under the stream and soaked her hair. The water was pleasantly cool, and the small cove created by the low cliff temporarily guarded them from the oppressive heat.

Colton was still washing off as Haven stepped out of the stream to look around. She climbed the low mound at the top of the small waterfall to get a better view of their surroundings. A man stood along the bank a short way upstream.

“Why, hello there,” he said easily. He was perhaps forty, with the first signs of grey showing slightly in his dark beard and at his temples. His coarse, shoulder-length black hair was slicked back with sweat and his chest heaved steadily from exertion. Small scratches covered his body and he carried a heavy walking stick with a big knot at the top. He smiled at Haven but the gesture rang false immediately. “What brings you to this neck of the woods?”

When Haven didn’t reply, he strode forward. She took a quick step back and he smiled again as he bent down and scooped water into his hands. He splashed it over his hair and shook his head briskly.

“You’re going the wrong way,” said Haven. She tilted her head so she could see Colton under the cliff without the other man noticing. Colton was crouched down at the base of the waterfall, looking up at her intently.

“Am I?” asked the man. He rubbed water from his eyes and looked around, feigning confusion. “That doesn’t seem like me.” He wore a tight necklace with a stone pendant in the middle. He fingered it absentmindedly as he stood and stepped into the stream. In his other hand he held the walking stick out toward Haven. “Maybe you’re going in the wrong direction.”

Colton stepped out from behind the waterfall and walked quickly up to the top of the mound. The man took a quick step back when he saw him, then smiled at Haven.

“I thought you were alone.”

“Something tells me it’s a good thing I wasn’t,” she said.

“Now, now,” said the man. “I didn’t mean to get off on the wrong foot. What’s your name?”

“What’s yours?”

That grin again. Haven was starting to wonder if the man ever did anything else. From the looks of his dirty clothes and scratched skin, he seemed to have been in the jungle a long time and had no great reason to smile.

“You can call me Wes.”

He waited for Haven and Colton to give their names, but they remained silent. The man’s mood suddenly shifted to one of rejection.

“I get it,” he said. “Strange guy in the jungle, not too far from Alistair’s funhouse…”

“You know Alistair?” asked Colton.

“Of course I do. Who do you think dropped me out here in the first place?”

Haven eyed him suspiciously. “What do you mean?”

“I mean he let me loose out here in the jungle, and I’ve been doing everything I can to survive.”

Colton looked at Haven, then back at Wes. “There has to be a city or a village. Some way to get a message out.”

Wes shook his head. “Ain’t no way,” he said. “I’ve trudged through the whole valley and all I’ve found was more jungle.”

“Over the mountains, then,” said Colton.

“You’re welcome to try,” said Wes. “I’ll stay here with your pretty little friend.”

“Careful,” said Colton. He stepped forward and let his eyes gloss over with a thin sheen of yellow energy. The sun was bright in the clearing along the stream.

“Careful yourself, Junior,” said Wes. His own eyes filled with yellow energy as he stared right at Colton.

“Take it easy, boys,” said Haven. “I think we have a few more pressing matters to deal with.”

“Listen to your pretty little friend here,” said Wes. He winked at Haven. “Look, you two are welcome to tag along with me if you like. I’m just on a little supply run up to Helix, get me some of that military-style cooking.”

“We’ll pass, but thanks anyway,” said Haven. She looked at Colton and he nodded. They walked a wide circle around Wes, who stood by the stream with both arms crossed on the top of his walking stick. He watched them like a hawk until they went into the jungle.

Colton checked behind them frequently as they hurried on.

“He’s not back there,” said Haven.

“I feel better for looking. What do you think he’s really doing?”

“I don’t know, but I didn’t like when he said there was nothing else out here but jungle.”

“I didn’t believe a word of it,” said Colton. “He’s up to something. Maybe he works for Alistair and he’s out here to keep an eye on us. He was heading back to the facility, after all.”

“Maybe,” said Haven. “Whatever he’s up to, we should get as much distance from him as possible.” She didn’t voice her other concern: that it was too big of a coincidence for another Conduit to be out in the middle of the jungle, and for that Con to run into her and Colton by chance alone.

They had only been walking for half an hour when they heard another noise, but it wasn’t running water. It was a low, constant drone—almost a hum—and it sounded human.

“Sounds like someone in pain,” said Colton.

Haven hurried forward, pushing back wet fronds and tripping over raised tree roots. She hit her knee on a dead stump and fell on her hands. They sank down into a soft spot on the ground. Colton helped her up and they both saw what lay ahead.

A large tree trunk sat alone in the middle of a small clearing. The canopy was unbroken overhead, giving the space a dark, hollow atmosphere.

The stump was low and broad, and bound by rope to the top was a young man no older than Haven. He groaned softly and fought weakly against his bindings. The ropes were secured to the base of the stump by heavy nails. He wore a metal collar around his neck, the same as Haven had seen on Colton when she first awoke.

They walked quickly to the young man. He saw them but didn’t have the energy to struggle.

“We’re here to help,” said Colton. He knelt down and quickly used his index finger to burn through the ropes.

The young man rolled to the side. Haven caught him and guided him down to the ground, where he opened his eyes and looked up at her.

“He’ll come back,” he whispered.

“No one is coming to get you,” said Haven. “You’re safe with us.”

Colton walked a few feet in the direction they had just come, looking into the jungle. “I think he means Wes. I knew there was something wrong about that guy.”

“Why did he leave you out here?” asked Haven.

“Not Wes,” said the man weakly, trying to shake his head. “Not Wes.”

His eyes rolled up into his head and his chest fluttered up and down with shallow breaths. His clothes were torn and his left shoulder was caked with blood. Haven carefully pulled the ropes off his wrists and legs.

“We need to get moving,” said Colton. “I don’t want him coming back and catching us off-guard.”

“I don’t think he’ll hurt us if we’re together,” said Haven. “You saw how he backed off when he noticed I wasn’t alone. I think he’s an opportunist.”

“More like a vulture. Anyway, let’s not give him an opportunity.”

The young man in Haven’s arms was mostly skin and bones. Colton lifted him over his shoulder easily and settled him into place.

“How long do you think you can carry him like that?” asked Haven.

“As long as it takes.”

She gently put her hand over the scar on the side of Colton’s face. He kissed her palm and she smiled, then they continued on through the jungle.

15

For the next hour, Colton thought the layout of the terrain was leading them naturally downward, toward a specific location. The young man draped over his shoulder had become a tiresome weight about ten minutes after Colton picked him up, but the only other option was to leave him behind.

Every few minutes, they stopped so Colton could draw just enough energy from a living tree to keep going a little farther. The quick boosts helped him to trudge onward despite the growing desire to lie down and sleep. The air was thick and hard to breathe. Colton had long since given up hope that he would ever wear dry clothes again.

He and Haven had both been searching the ground for something edible. They weren’t exactly experts at jungle cuisine, but Colton was so hungry he was almost to the point of taking a bite out of the first thing that reminded him of a food he recognized.

Haven walked in front of him, choosing their winding path through the jungle. They were on a nice, flat stretch that sloped down after climbing up a few hundred yards. The feeling that they were being unconsciously guided to a specific point turned out to be true when Colton followed Haven past a line of trees and into a broad field.

The tall trees ringed the field in a large circle, and the entire area was open to the sky. In the middle of the clearing was a small building, not much larger than a two-bedroom house. Its flat roof was painted dark grey, the same as its walls. A door with rotting corners was the only adornment on the side facing Haven and Colton, and it was closed.

The young man on Colton’s shoulder suddenly stirred. Before Colton could calm him down, the man bucked so wildly that Colton simply let him drop. The young man hit the ground and flipped over in the blink of an eye, completely alert after being nearly unconscious for more than an hour.

“It’s alright,” said Colton. “We’re not going to hurt—”

The young man let out a shrill cry, then grasped at the collar around his neck. His eyes jerked back and forth between Colton and Haven. She reached out for him and he shrieked again. He scrambled backward, got to his feet quickly, and ran into the jungle.

“I guess that’s that,” said Haven.

“A ‘thank you’ would have been nice,” added Colton. He turned and nodded toward the building in the middle of the field. “What do you think?”

“I think if there’s food, I’m going to eat everything and let you fend for yourself.”

He followed her to the door, then they made a slow circuit around the outside of the building. There were no windows. A small generator hummed on a raised platform out back.

“Guess somebody’s using the place,” said Haven.

They went back to the front door and Colton tried the knob. It turned easily, but he had to push his shoulder against the door to budge it open a few inches. He had been hoping for a gust of air-conditioning, but was instead hit in the face with the stench of death. He quickly backed away and pulled the door closed.

“We don’t want to go in there,” he said.

“Well I do,” said Haven. “There could be food!”

“Not for us,” said Colton, shaking his head. “Something’s been dead in there a long time.”

Haven looked at the door, a slow look of disgust crawling over her face.

“Then what’s the generator for?”

“I didn’t ask,” said Colton.

She punched his arm playfully.

“Hey!” he said, mocking injury.

It felt good to be able to joke around with her again. There was something about her, though, something deep within, that was holding back. He hadn’t said anything the whole time they were walking because he didn’t want to press his luck. He felt grateful enough that Haven wasn’t dead, and had made a decision not to look that gift horse too closely in the mouth.

Someone screamed in the jungle behind them. The scream turned into a high-pitched cry for help.

“Maybe it’s the guy from the stump,” said Colton.

“He’s not alone,” said Haven.

“What? How do you know?”

“Listen.”

Colton strained to hear the noises emanating from the jungle. He could clearly make out the sound of one person crashing through the underbrush. As he concentrated, he was able to distinguish louder noises as well. Several people were pursuing the first, chasing him at a fast run.

“Get inside,” said Haven.

“We have to help him!” said Colton. He walked toward the jungle but Haven grabbed him hard and pulled him back.

“No!” she said urgently.

Colton looked at her, confused. The expression on her face was borderline terror.

“Alistair’s with them, Colton. We have to hide, now!”

Before he could say anything else, she shoved open the door and dragged him inside the building. As she pushed it closed, the young man they found on the tree stump tumbled out of the jungle at the edge of the clearing. He eyed the building with fresh hope as he got to his feet, constantly looking back over his shoulders.

Haven closed the door all the way, against Colton’s protests. He stared at her in disbelief but she clenched her jaw and shook her head. He moved to the side and burned a small hole in the wall with his finger. Sunlight shot in and illuminated a small circle of light on the wall past the door.

Barely visible below the circle of light was a dead man in an office chair—the source of the evil smell that assaulted Colton’s senses upon first opening the door.

“He’s been here a while,” said Haven, almost indifferently. “What’s happening outside?”

Colton burnt her a hole like his on the other side of the door so she could look out at the field. The young man was halfway to the building when Reece strode out of the jungle. He stopped and put his hands on his hips, seemingly ignoring the running man and admiring the sunshine. Then he took a theatrically deep breath of air and grinned at the wilderness around him.

Almost as an afterthought, he saw the young man trying to escape. He put his hand to his mouth as if to say Oops! then wagged his finger shamefully. A moment later, a thin stream of black energy laced with blue lightning shot from both of Reece’s palms. The stream hit the young man square in the back and spun him up forward through the air. He hit the ground fifty feet from the building and lay there like a shot animal, struggling to breathe.

The big brute, Kai, stepped out of the jungle behind Reece. He waited patiently, his hands resting on the huge rifle he wore slung over one shoulder. Reece turned to him for a high-five but Kai ignored him. Reece shoved the big soldier and turned his back. Even from a distance, Colton could see the muscles over Kai’s jaw clench and unclench as he tried to contain his frustration.

“If it’s just them,” whispered Haven, “we could—”

But it wasn’t just them.

A black streak of movement drew Colton’s eyes to the edge of the jungle. Something moved quickly around the perimeter of the clearing, circling the field once, then twice. Branches exploded as it passed and the smaller trees rocked back and forth.

Reece and Kai watched intently. On the third lap, the figure burst from the treeline, flew through the air, and landed with an earth-shaking thoooooooom next to the fallen young man.

It was Alistair. Something was different about him—he was a far cry from the sickly man Colton had spoken with upon his arrival at the Helix compound, yet he breathed heavily and his exhaustion was apparent. Alistair flicked his head around like a bird, moving with lightning speed. He crouched next to the young man like a predator who had just killed its prey and was guarding it from scavengers. His eyes were solid black to match his clothes and long coat. The burnt skin covering his bald skull was reddish black, translucent in the direct sunlight. Cracks of glowing white light split his face into segments. His wiry frame made him look like a skeleton in baggy clothes.

Colton backed away from the eye hole when Alistair’s gaze fell on the building. He bared his teeth in a wild grin, then turned his sights on the young man on the ground. With painstaking slowness, Alistair placed one of his hands on the man’s chest, and the other on his forehead.

The grass at Alistair’s feet turned black and the air around his body seemed to shift inward, as if it were light trying to escape a black hole. The man on the ground lifted one arm, almost as if to point at something in the sky. Alistair looked at the arm, still grinning, as it blackened and fell back to the charred ground.

In less than thirty seconds, the man was dead. His body had shriveled into nothing more than a crispy, blackened husk. That wasn’t the worst part for Colton. The worst part was the noise the man’s body made after he was dead. It let out a long, sad sigh, as if the soul had been forced out into the world.

Alistair leaned over the man’s shrunken body, closed his eyes, and breathed deep. The white cracks in his skin glowed brighter, his eyes cleared, and his frame seemed to swell beneath his clothes.

He stood and brushed off each of his sleeves, then kicked the body at his feet. It crumbled like charcoal as ash floated up into the air. Alistair turned around and walked back into the jungle. He patted Reece on the shoulder as he passed.

Kai turned and followed after him, but Reece waited behind. He cocked his head to the side and stared at the building. Then he winked, and turned to follow Alistair.

16

“They saw us,” said Haven. “Why didn’t they come after us?”

Colton shook his head but didn’t answer. His gaze was fixed on the remains of the young man they had pulled off the tree stump. Nothing was left of him but a scattered dusting of black ash and a few charred bones.

Haven turned away from her eye hole and leaned back against the wall. She and Colton had most definitely been seen. This building must have been well-known to Alistair and the others. They must have used it as a killing ground before that day.

The events of the last few moments had driven away Haven’s senses, but now the stench of the room flooded back into her nose. She coughed and bent forward, then spit on the floor. If she had anything to eat that day, it would have been on the floor. Instead, she dry-heaved until the nausea passed.

“Are you okay?” asked Colton.

She wiped her mouth and nodded. “Let’s open the door.”

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?”

“They saw us, Colton. If they wanted us, we wouldn’t be alive.”

He shrugged and pulled the door open a few inches. Hot jungle air was better than hot rotting air, Haven decided. Maybe not by much, but at least it was something.

She moved away from the door, deeper into the building.

“Help me out with a light?” she asked.

A moment later, one of Colton’s palms glowed yellow. Haven walked over to the dead man propped up in an office chair.

Colton followed behind her, holding up his open palm to act as a wide flashlight.

“Reece shot at that guy with blue energy,” he said. “That means he stored some of yours from yesterday when you woke up.”

“I noticed.”

“That’s a long time to store that kind of juice. I’ve done twenty-four hours, but after that it bleeds out so quickly that there isn’t any point in trying to keep it in.”

“He’s gotten stronger since you last saw him.”

“And then some,” said Colton. “Shelly told me she thought he was becoming unstable.”

“You can tell that just by the company he keeps,” said Haven. She bent down and inspected the dead man in the chair. His skin was sunken and crispy, just like the young man’s body outside before Alistair kicked his remains. The one in the chair was only in the early stages of the rapid decomposition that Haven and Colton witnessed outside the building. “I think he got to this guy, too. But he’s not as far gone as the other guy.”

“That’s because he didn’t need as much when he first started,” said a female voice in the darkness. It carried with it the slightest hint of French accent.

Haven and Colton jumped and stood close to one another. Colton held out his hand and the light illuminated a room past the foyer in which they were standing. There was a wall behind the dead man in the office chair, and a doorway next to him lead to the room beyond. Judging by the outside dimensions of the house, Haven realized there were probably only two rooms in the entire building.

“Who’s there?” asked Colton in a deep voice.

There was a creaking noise as someone moved in the other room. The light in Colton’s hand brightened until it lit up most of the building. There were more bodies on the ground in the second room. It was unfurnished, just four walls and a roof. Five dead people—they could have been men or women for the lack of visible detail on their decomposed bodies—sat propped against the walls in a morbid death circle.

A woman appeared from the shadows, holding her hand in front of her eyes to block out the blinding light from Colton’s palm. She had dark skin and short hair tied back in a tight ponytail. A metal feedback collar was clamped firmly around her neck.

“Colton?”

He moved the light so it wasn’t shining directly in her face.

“June?!”

Before Haven could ask what was going on, Colton ran forward and embraced the woman in a strong hug. She let out a small, scared shriek when he moved in, but then she relaxed and leaned into him, crying softly as she clutched him tightly.

Colton let her go and she took a step back to look at them.

“Haven,” she said, smiling. “I’m so glad you’re alright.”

Haven looked at Colton in confusion, then back to the woman. “Do I…do I know you?” she asked.

“We met very briefly,” said June. “At the Dome, before you went to fight Kamiko.” Her eyes searched Haven’s, waiting for the realization to come. It never did.

“I’m sorry,” said Haven quietly. “I don’t remember.”

“But if you’re here,” said Colton, “then that means…”

June nodded. “Oui. They came to the Dome not long after the two of you left with Dormer.”

“Let’s go outside,” said Colton. He looked around at the dead bodies on the floor. He led the other two outside into the hot midday sun.

“Is Noah okay?” asked Haven as soon as she pulled the door closed behind her.

“The last time I saw him, yes,” said June. “But now, I don’t know. We were all taken together. There was no use fighting after we saw that Alistair was there. He had to melt down the entire ceiling over the dome room before we surrendered. Marius, Corva, Noah, and I, we were loaded into a helicopter and taken here.”

“What about the Dome?” asked Colton.

June shook her head. “It’s not good. After it was over, they brought us here and let us go.”

“He let you go?” asked Haven.

“All of us, but in different parts of the valley. After they put these collars on,” she said, tugging at the metal around her neck. “I was the third one out, after Marius and Corva.”

“So there’s no way to know if Alistair let Noah go in the jungle or took him back to Helix,” said Haven. She turned away in frustration, cursing the fact that the Phoenix ability eluded her. It should have been there all along, since her awakening, or else what was the point? She and Colton could have wiped out that entire compound by themselves if only she could tap into her new power.

“I’m sorry,” said June. “That’s all I know.”

“Hey, it’s not your fault,” said Colton. He hugged her again and looked at Haven. There was deep sorrow in his eyes—for his friends, but mostly for Haven. Noah had been taken from her once before, and she swore she wouldn’t let it happen again.

She felt a heat rising up within her body, boiling toward the surface. In her mind’s eye, way off in the distance, a tiny speck of blue light appeared. It would grow no bigger for now…but she knew it would soon come to the forefront, larger than it had ever been before—an endless well of energy from which to draw. The swirling sphere of blue plasma represented her raw power, that which was deep inside her, only now there was another source alongside the original. The Phoenix energy danced around her Source ability, as if looking for the perfect place to connect.

Every time Haven forced the two together, they pushed apart like magnets with similar poles.

Give it time, said a comforting voice in her mind. It was Elena. Whether or not the voice was really there or if it was just her subconscious masking its true identity with one that Haven found more acceptable, she didn’t know.

She turned to discover that Colton and June were staring at her. “Hm? Did you say something?”

“I said you look a little blue,” said Colton.

Haven looked down at herself. The exposed skin of her forearms was indeed glowing a very faint, electric blue. “Well, how about that,” she said.

Colton studied her for a moment. “How did you know that Alistair was with the others outside?”

She tried to remember, but couldn’t. “I’m not sure. Somehow I just knew.”

“All Phoenix have some kind of tracking ability, right?”

“All Nova do,” corrected Haven. “Elena could find a Nova if they were emitting enough energy, but not every Phoenix gets that little perk.”

“Seems like maybe you do,” said Colton.

“If that’s true,” said June, “you might be able to find the others.”

“I can’t control it yet,” said Haven. “I might not ever be able to, so we shouldn’t count on it.”

“Then how do we find the others?” asked Colton.

“You got me,” said June. “The chopper flew off in that direction.” She pointed north.

“Well, it’s a start,” said Colton. He realized he was standing on the remains of the young man that had been killed and stepped to the side.

Haven looked at June. “What did you mean when you said that Alistair didn’t need as much back then? As much what?”

“Life energy. He’s sucking the life out of everyone he releases into the jungle.”

“Why doesn’t he just lock them up and make it easy?” asked Colton.

“I think that’s the point,” said June. “I think being out here does something to us that makes us more potent to him. Maybe it’s the fear or the adrenaline, but it heightens our abilities and makes us, I don’t know, fresher to him somehow.”

“He’s been at it a while, judging by the number of bodies in that house,” said Colton. “What were you doing in there, anyway?”

“Waiting to die,” said June.

Colton looked as if he was going to question her, but the steady look in her eyes shut him up. Whatever had happened to make her decide such a fate, Haven was glad she changed her mind when they arrived.

“Have you seen a guy with a beard?” asked Colton. “Kind of hippie-looking, with a big walking stick.”

June shook her head. “Should I have?”

“It’s probably best that you didn’t,” said Haven.

“He had this guy tied to a tree stump,” said Colton, pointing down at the young man’s ashes. “All trussed up and ready.”

“For Alistair,” said June.

“Yeah. I don’t know if he’s working directly for that psychopath or not. Maybe he was dropped here like you and decided to survive by making it easier for Alistair to feed on everyone else.”

June tugged at the collar around her neck. “I wouldn’t be able to do anything about it even I did see him.” She noticed the tiny red marks on the sides of Colton’s neck that meant he had been wearing a collar as well. “How’d you get yours off?”

He looked at Haven and smiled. “Had a little help. It was kind of a big deal.”

“How about helping me out?” asked June.

“Wish I could,” said Haven, looking at her own palms. “I’m a whole lot of nothing at the moment.”

The three of them stood silent for a moment, looking at each other and the jungle on all sides. They were at a low point in the valley, and the canopy stretched up and out in all directions, bordered by low mountains to the west and brooded over by the Helix compound to the east.

“So!” said Colton, and clapped his hands loudly. “North, then?”

“North,” said Haven. She clenched her fists as they left the open field and walked back into the jungle. Her patience was running out. She didn’t feel the least bit sorry for whoever stood between her and Noah when her power returned.

A nagging voice deep in her mind—definitely not the comforting voice of Elena—taunted her as she walked. If your power returns at all…

17

June walked next to Colton as they made their way north through the jungle. Haven was a little ways ahead, setting a steady pace over the uneven terrain. Her skin glowed a faint, constant blue, and the heat was enough to vaporize the leafy fronds and vines that blocked her path. She carved a path forward, leaving behind a narrow tunnel lined with plants that were suddenly only half there.

June stumbled over a tall tree root and Colton was quick to grab her arm so she didn’t fall.

“Thanks,” she said after he let go.

“No problem.” He lowered his voice so Haven wouldn’t overhear. “Wouldn’t want you to get left behind at the rate she’s going.”

“I’m sorry if I upset her by mentioning Noah.”

“Don’t be. She needed the motivation. At least now there’s some hope, and it looks like some of her ability is returning. It’s a good thing, trust me.”

“Colton…” said June. She was silent for a long time.

“What is it?”

She sighed. “I’m guessing since Dormer isn’t here with you and since you’re not out looking for him…that maybe he didn’t do so well during the fight with Kamiko.”

Colton tried to think of a way to soften the news, but he realized June would want to hear it straight. “He died from his wounds after the battle. Kamiko was already dead.”

“At least she didn’t get the satisfaction of seeing him go. I rather liked him.”

She picked up her pace and walked ahead of Colton, wiping sweat or tears or both from her face with the sleeve of her shirt. Colton slowed down and dropped back a few feet. He didn’t want to be clumped together in case Alistair decided to attack. If they kept far enough apart, there was a chance at least one of them could turn the tide if things went bad.

After a short while, Haven no longer needed to burn a path through the jungle. A natural trail led them onward, weaving around tall trees and under low branches. It could have been a game path, but Colton saw no tracks, nor had he seen a single animal since he had arrived. There had been the occasional bug, but nowhere near as many as he expected for a tropical jungle. Even the birds were silent, if they were there at all. He wondered if Helix cleared them out or if the creatures just knew to stay away since there was a larger, much more deadly predator on the loose.

Colton’s stomach growled loudly and June turned to look at him, her mouth open in shock.

“Was that your stomach?” she asked.

“I’m starving,” he said. “Haven’t eaten since…” He tried to think of the last time he had food. “…since I can’t remember when.”

“You should have said something earlier.”

June abruptly left the path and walked into the jungle. Colton stayed on the trail as she went to the nearest large palm tree—Colton guessed it was at least thirty feet tall—and looked up at the top with her hands on her hips. Then she pushed against the trunk with one of her hands, as if testing its sturdiness. She turned to Colton.

“This one,” she said, beckoning him over.

“Everything okay?” called Haven from farther down the trail.

“I think so,” said Colton.

“Why are we stopping?”

Colton didn’t answer. He went to June, then looked up at the top of the palm tree.

“Right here,” said June, taking his hands and placing them on the trunk at chest-level. “Cohune Palm. Delicious.”

“I’m gonna eat this tree?” asked Colton.

“Only if you can get to the heart. Crack it open.” She scratched at her neck beneath the feedback collar.

Colton focused on the trunk of the palm tree. He let his energy sink into the bark. It spread out across the surface instead of burning it, traveling up and down the trunk as it searched for a way out. The leaves began to shake. Several of the large nuts that hung in clusters from the top-most fronds broke free and fell to the soft ground.

With a loud CRACK, the tree split open under Colton’s hands. The heart of the palm was healthy and white. He wiped his hands on his pants as June reached into the ragged hole in the side of the trunk and peeled off a thin strip of soft white pulp. She popped it into her mouth.

“Mmm-mm!” she exclaimed. “You like artichoke?”

“Not really.”

“Try it anyway. Might want to heat it up a little first.”

Haven appeared on the trail, looking exasperated. “What’s the hold-up?”

“You hungry?” asked Colton.

She crossed her arms and looked down the trail. Her arms came back down and she trudged over to Colton and June. “You’re eating tree?”

“About to,” said Colton. He peeled off a strip of the heart and heated it between his fingers. The top began to smoke.

“That’s good,” said June.

He took a bite and chewed it hesitantly. It was soft and sweet, with only a slight hint of artichoke. “It’s delicious.”

“You bet it is,” said June. She peeled off a thick handful of the soft white pulp and got back on the trail.

Colton peeled off enough to fill his pockets. Each hand grasped a big clump of the pulp. He compressed the strips into a solid clump and took big bites, as if he were eating a softball.

Haven walked next to him, more reasonably chewing on one strip at a time.

“What did she do before all of this?” she asked, nodding at June farther up the trail.

Colton swallowed more pulp and wiped his mouth. “She was a chef in New Orleans. Had her own restaurant and everything.”

“What happened?”

“The same thing that happened to Noah when everything started. She was taken.”

“I remember her now. She was in the Dome right before we fought Kamiko.” Haven frowned as she became lost in her thoughts. Colton thought the conversation was over when she looked up and said suddenly, “She and Dormer would have fallen in love.”

“What? How do you know?”

Haven hesitated a moment, searching for the words. “When I think back on the time right before I…I…”

“Before you died,” said Colton.

“Right. That. Anyway, when I look back and remember, I see stuff that wasn’t there.”

“Like what?”

“Well, like the attraction between June and Dormer, for example. It was almost like…like seeing a thin line drawn between them. Connecting them. It was very faint, but it was almost a strand of spider’s silk that appeared when they were close together.”

“So the Phoenix ability also comes with retroactive matchmaking skills?” he asked playfully.

She smiled. “I don’t think I would have had to do anything. I think I just saw something that was already there. Had been there,” she corrected herself. Her smile faded at the mention of Dormer’s passing. “It’s a bunch of little things,” she said after a while. “Another one is seeing the look on Kamiko’s face when she died.”

“It was just a big ball of light,” said Colton. “My eyes still hurt from looking at it.” He was exaggerating, but it had been extremely painful to look at the sphere of energy that Haven and Colton had created around Kamiko right before she was vaporized. There would have been no way to see any kind of detail within the swirling mass of molten energy.

“I know,” said Haven. “But now I also know that she was afraid, and in the last millisecond before she died, she was at peace.”

“What do you see when you remember me?” he asked.

She looked into his eyes. “Happiness.”

He wasn’t expecting that. Her answer was so genuine that Colton couldn’t think of a way to reply.

“Hey you two,” said June. She had stopped on the trail ahead and stood on a small rise. “Come and take a look.”

Colton and Haven climbed the short, steep slope and stood next to her. They were on the ridge of a short cliff of mud and rock. The jungle valley swept down below them until it hit the line of mountains that bordered Helix territory to the west and north. A mile away, toward the north, two concrete smokestacks jutted up from the canopy.

“I saw those when we escaped from Helix,” said Colton.

“You think Noah and the others would have gone there?” asked June.

“It’s the only visual landmark in sight besides trees and mountains, so yeah. There’s a good chance they went that way.”

“Only one way to be sure,” said Haven. She didn’t wait for the others to agree before she hurried along the ridge, looking for a safe place to descend.

18

Haven walked quickly in the direction of the smokestacks, her every thought on Noah. They made record time through the dense foliage after descending the ridge. Haven’s skin set fire to the plants that were in her way. Colton followed right behind her, extinguishing the flames as he passed.

She could feel the energy within her pushing toward the surface in preparation for what she might have to do, even though she wasn’t entirely sure what it was just yet. She knew she was going to get Noah back no matter what, and she knew that there was no way she was ever going to let Alistair leave that jungle alive.

The smokestacks appeared intermittently between small breaks in the canopy high above. Black trails of smoke drifted up from each, clouding the sky with a haze of fog. The jungle smelled differently that close to the source of pollution. The leafy plants along the trail drooped, as if their leaves were made out of wet paper.

After half an hour without a single view of the smokestacks, there was suddenly a large hole in the canopy through which Haven could see the large concrete towers looming almost directly overhead.

“Let’s go,” she said, and started forward.

“Whoa,” said Colton. “Hold up a minute. We’re not just going to barge in there. Not to bring up a sore spot, but you’re still not up to speed and June has a feedback collar.”

“I’d like to figure out how to take it off, by the way,” she said. “You know, if we get the chance.”

“Maybe there’s a key inside,” said Haven, anxious to go.

“It’s a little remote,” said Colton. “Shelly had one for me. Maybe there’s just one for each collar, or maybe they’re universal.”

“Are we just going to stand around all day?” asked Haven.

“Just wait a minute,” said Colton. “Let’s get as close as we can without showing ourselves. The place could be stuffed with guys carrying big machine guns.”

Haven wanted to argue, but she was forced to admit that he was right. The three of them crept forward through the thinning foliage, stopping occasionally to make sure they weren’t being tracked.

The two enormous concrete pillars that were the smokestacks rose right out of the ground, spaced wide enough apart to allow room for a small shack between them. The jungle had been cleared in a wide radius around the area, leaving no cover if Haven and the others decided to approach. They would be easy targets for anyone watching.

And Haven saw that someone was watching.

A single guard stood by the door to the small shack. He scanned the perimeter of the circular clearing as if his head were a security camera on a tripod, steadily back and forth. He wore jungle camouflage and carried a compact automatic rifle in his hands. A dark green, short-brimmed Kepi hat was pulled tightly down over his forehead.

“So we’ll sneak around behind the shed,” said Colton.

“Do we even need to get in there?” whispered June.

“Until we find out where Noah and the others are, yes,” said Haven. “And I’m not going around. I’m going in right now.”

Before Colton could stop her, she strode out of the jungle and walked across the clearing, right toward the guard. He saw her the second she emerged from the treeline and watched her intently, not making any sudden moves. He slowly raised his rifle as she closed the distance between them.

Haven opened and closed her sweaty palms, urging the energy to flow. She felt a tingling at the base of her spine. It moved up along her vertebrae to her neck, then trickled back down like dripping water.

But that was it.

As the guard raised his rifle, Haven realized she would not be able to use her ability. She had thought that forcing herself into a dangerous situation would coax the dormant power to the surface. The guard sighted down his rifle and Haven turned to run.

Colton was right behind her. A shot rang out and a sharp pain burrowed into her back, like a finger jabbing into her skin. She screamed and fell to the ground. Above her, a thick beam of blue-black energy surged out of Colton’s fists. The beam hit the guard in the chest and slammed him back into the shed between the smokestacks. He crashed through the door and out the other side, tumbling across the clearing until he came to an abrupt stop at the edge of the jungle.

Haven rolled onto her back and looked up at the clear blue sky. The oppressive heat suddenly seemed to not bother her as much. The grass smelled sweet and fresh around her, and she ignored the spreading blood on her clothes.

Colton said something, but his speech was muffled and far-away. He knelt down next to Haven and turned her gently on her side so he could look at her back. He called out for June, and she ran over, her eyes wide with fright. Together they lifted Haven off the ground and carried her back into the jungle.

She didn’t mind that either. She thought whatever they were doing was fine, and wherever they put her down would be fine, too. Her eyelids grew heavy and it occurred to her that she was long overdue for a nap. Not a long one—just a little rest so she could regain her strength.

They set her down at the base of an enormous tree. Haven enjoyed looking up at the rough trunk that rose up into the sky. She barely noticed Colton put his hand up the back of her shirt and squeeze the hole in her skin.

He was shouting something at her, but she couldn’t understand his words. She smiled, or maybe she only thought she smiled, and then she fell asleep.

19

Colton yelled at Haven to stay awake as he propped her against the base of a large tree, but she was either unconscious or already dead. He probed the wound between her shoulder blades with one hand and placed the other on the trunk of the tree.

“You trying to get yourself killed again?” Colton whispered under his breath. “You have to die twice for the power to stick?”

He was scolding himself as much as Haven for not trying harder to stop her from marching out into the clearing. It was simply unlike her to act so impulsively.

“How could someone so smart be so stupid?” he said to himself and to Haven at the same time.

June watched him silently. His hand covered the bleeding hole on Haven’s back. The tree that Colton touched with his other hand was already blackening near its roots. Several of the heavy branches cracked and hung loosely from the canopy high above. The air around his body seemed drawn inward, causing his clothes to ripple even though there was no breeze.

“Wake up, Haven,” he said forcefully.

She moaned and tried to roll over, but Colton forced her to stay in place.

At least she’s still alive, he thought with relief.

Warm light glowed from beneath his palm. A moment later, his hand shot out from under her shirt. He threw away the bullet that had stopped one inch from her heart and gently returned his hand to the wound.

Haven let out a soft sigh and seemed to relax. The light faded from Colton’s palm and he withdrew his hand. Through the hole in her shirt, he could see a red line sealing the flesh where the bullet had entered.

“Will she be okay?” asked June.

“I hope so,” said Colton, shaking his head. “I can’t believe she did that.” He leaned Haven against June and stood up. The tree he had drawn from was completely black. The bark was sunken in as if crushed from all sides by a powerful force. The leaves had turned to dust.

“Where are you going?” asked June as Colton walked away.

“I’m going to clear out that gopher hole,” he said.

“What if Alistair comes back while you’re gone?!” she called to his back.

“Trust me, he’ll have bigger things to worry about.”

He jogged out of the jungle and crossed the broad clearing that led up to the smokestacks. He had seen something, very briefly, as the guard crashed through the shed. It might take a little digging, but—

There.

Colton lifted one of the flimsy walls that had fallen off the shed. The structure existed merely to protect the entrance to an underground facility. A large hole led straight downward through concrete. A ladder was bolted to one side. Colton kicked a small piece of rubble over the ledge and waited. It took a while for the chunk to hit bottom. He waited a few moments longer, just in case anyone came to the base of the ladder and decided to shoot at the sky and ask questions later.

When no one came, Colton crouched into the hole and climbed down the ladder.

The air got cooler as he descended, and soon his sweat-soaked shirt was ice cold, clinging to his body as if he had just gotten out of a frigid lake.

He counted the rungs all the way to the bottom: an even hundred.

The vertical tunnel he had just descended met a horizontal passage that led in one direction. It was empty as far as he could see except for lights attached to the ceiling every hundred or so yards.

Colton set off down the tunnel at a light jog, wanting to conserve his energy as much as possible. That blast he fired at the guard sucked a lot out of him, but he had taken more than he needed to heal Haven from the tree. It was that living energy that fueled him now, working to keep the fatigue out of his muscles.

He counted off the distance in ceiling lights, and after five lights, the tunnel took a sharp turn to the left. After another short run of only two lights, the passage ended at a door. Colton quickly melted the security keypad in the wall. He stepped over the melting puddle of plastic and copper as the door slid to the side.

As far as he could tell, the tunnel had taken him back in the direction of the Helix compound. If his estimate was correct, the room beyond the door was large enough to cover almost the entire length from Alistair’s compound to the smokestacks where Colton now stood, and possibly even the whole distance. It was an unbroken chamber that lay beneath the jungle floor, stretching away for miles.

The door from the hallway opened on a platform several hundred feet off the floor. The concrete ceiling was right above Colton’s head, and it stretched out in a flat plane as far as he could see. The distant end of the room was lost in a haze. Between where he stood and the far end were countless, enormous turbines, generators, pumps, and pipes. Colton was standing in a gigantic power plant of some kind. Large silver tanks with radioactive symbols labeled from top to bottom rested in secure housings every few hundred feet, tucked comfortably amid the framework of supporting machinery. Giant steel tubes fed out of the tanks and passed through the floor.

A set of stairs led down from the end of the platform. Colton descended quickly, looking around for any signs of company. The first he found was waiting for him behind the bottom of the stairs. The guard had just awoken from a nap and was just fixing his hat when Colton punched him in the chest. The added pressure blast cracked several of the man’s ribs and sent him skidding back on the floor. The back of his legs hit a protruding pipe and he fell flat on his back.

Colton walked quickly to the guard and knelt down. He decided to try something new. He placed one of his hands on the man’s forehead. He could feel the energy in the man’s brain dancing around like a live wire. Colton concentrated hard, producing just enough of a vacuum to snuff it out for a millisecond. All of the electrical energy surged into Colton’s body and the man stopped breathing instantly.

Colton slapped the guard’s face but he would not wake. Then he put his hand back on the guard’s forehead and sent in a spike of what he had taken.

The man jerked as if he had been shocked with a defibrillator, and he started breathing again. Colton slapped his cheeks once more, a little worried he went too far, and the man did not wake up. At least he was breathing.

“Maybe a little less next time,” said Colton.

He stood and jogged farther down the long room. For a while, he thought he had seen the only person in the entire place. Then he came to what he guessed was the middle of the expansive chamber. Along the wall was an elevator door, and next to that was a long desk. Leaning on the desk was Reece.

He inspected his fingernails and pretended not to see Colton right away. Eventually, he looked up. “Oh, hey Colt. Miss me?”

Colton looked around. They were alone.

“Just me,” said Reece. The way he spiked his short blond hair made his face look long and lean, especially when he grinned.

“Where’s your boss?” asked Colton. He kept his distance, maneuvering slowly in a wide arc around the desk so he could get closer to one of the machines in the middle of the room.

“Out to lunch.” Reece cackled harshly and he wiped away a tear. “That one never gets old. Been watching you on the security cameras. Very entertaining. I liked the part where Haven caught a bullet.”

“What do you want?”

Reece stood up and Colton took a quick step back. “Easy, Colt. I’m not here to start anything. Besides, we could go back and forth all day. I’m stronger now. Anything you spit at me, I can spit right back. And then some.” He walked at the same speed as Colton, both of them circling each other. “I’m just here to offer you one last chance to join up. Alistair is impressed with the way you rescued Haven. It was an ‘out of the frying pan and into the fire’ type of thing, but still a bold move. I’m willing to forgive your earlier transgressions and welcome you back into the fold.”

“Even you must know that’s impossible.”

Reece shrugged. “Yeah, I know. Still had to ask.”

“After all this time, you’re nothing more than an errand boy?”

Reece’s cheeks flushed red. “I’m so much more than that, Colt.”

“Where are Noah and the others?”

“Probably with Alistair. I imagine the two lovely ladies you left topside are with him as well. Honestly, Colt, why’d you come down here? You’ve done some stupid things before, but this…” He shook his head in disappointment.

The two of them were still slowly circling, neither willing to make the first move. Reece was in front of the generator now, his gaze focused intently on Colton. The generator stuck up out of the concrete as if it had been dropped into the mix while it was still wet. The side of the machine was open to the air, and huge chugging turbines cranked non-stop, producing thick black smoke that was funneled down through a big clear tube in the ground.

“What’s all this equipment powering?” asked Colton.

“Everything.” Reece looked hungry. His eyes were black and he wore his perpetual wolf’s grin. “So what do you say, Colt?” asked Reece. “Want to give it a shot, for old time’s sake?”

Colton waited until he circled back around to the generator. Just when Reece was getting ready to unleash an attack, Colton reached back and grabbed an exposed electrical panel on the generator.

“I think I’ll take my chances with Haven and the others,” he said.

Reece’s eyes widened when he realized what Colton was trying to do. He reached out to stop him, but it was too late.

The amount of power at Colton’s immediate disposal was almost as much as what he had felt when he connected with Haven during her awakening. He opened his mind and his body completely and let it surge through him as if it were light passing through glass. It formed a sphere of white light around his body that expanded rapidly. It was so bright that Reece screamed in pain, even when he closed his eyes. The edge of the expanding sphere touched the skin of his arm and burnt away flesh in a microsecond. He turned and fled.

Colton turned, his hand still on the generator, and let the energy flow into the room, destroying everything it touched.

20

Haven dreamed she was standing in front of a two-story house on a quiet street. The other houses in the neighborhood were all dark except for the one before her. All of the lights were on inside and there was music playing from the downstairs den.

A shadow crossed in front of a window on the second story, and Haven saw the outline of a girl. The girl moved aside her bedroom curtain to look outside. Perhaps she felt like she was being watched. The girl walked away from the window and the bedroom light clicked off.

Haven suddenly knew it was her own house she was observing. That was her in the window, but how she could be two places at once? It was all so confusing.

Movement downstairs. Her parents were still alive! There was still time to warn them about the fire; to get them to safety before she lost them forever.

Haven tried to run for the house but her feet were stuck to the ground. The grass swallowed her toes, her heels, and then her ankles. She tried to scream for help but her voice came out as a whisper. Her body shook uncontrollably, as if she were having a seizure. The house burst into red flames and the roof crumbled inward, turning to cinders in the blink of an eye. Screaming echoed from within the walls.

“Haven, wake up!”

She opened her eyes. June was leaning over her, shaking her by the shoulders.

“Get up!” whispered June. “Someone’s coming!”

The jungle came into focus as Haven sat up. She winced at the pain in the middle of her back and took a sharp breath. It felt like a cold finger sticking between her ribs.

June backed against the nearby trunk and stared at a dark patch of trees a short distance away. Haven stood slowly and held her breath. Footsteps approached quickly, muffled slightly by the decaying organic matter on the ground. The wet blanket of rotting compost made it easy to walk quietly if one chose, but whoever was coming their way was only being moderately careful.

Then the footsteps stopped.

June started to lean away from the tree but Haven touched her shoulder and held her back. She put a finger to her lips and motioned for June to stay put. June pulled at the collar around her throat in frustration as Haven quietly circled around the trunk.

Between the two of them, Haven wasn’t exactly sure which one had the best chance of putting up a decent fight. June was shackled by a feedback collar and Haven was getting no help from her own ability. The only real option seemed to be to distract whoever was stalking them so June could get away and warn Colton.

Haven stepped away from the tree and came slowly around to where she heard the footsteps, but she could see no one. Her face was hot with embarrassment from what she had done earlier. Rushing into danger without a full grasp of her ability was about as dumb a thing as she could imagine, and she felt as if she would never be able to escape the shame. The truth was that she hadn’t been thinking clearly. Haven remembered turning the decision over in her mind before suddenly disregarding the rational choice and stepping blindly into harm’s way.

She pushed the thought away and concentrated on the tip of a boot she saw sticking out from behind a tree a little ways ahead. The jungle was particularly dense in that area, and she had a hard time moving without disturbing the plants nearby. She crouched down and straddled a fallen tree, holding her breath as she dropped down on the other side. Then it was a complex ballet of ducking and stretching to avoid hanging vines and giant fronds. She felt like a spy trying to navigate a room full of criss-crossing laser triggers.

Finally, she reached the boot. There was no foot inside.

Haven realized her mistake a second too late. A figure stepped up behind her and clubbed her over the head with a heavy stick, then disappeared back into the jungle. Haven dropped to one knee. It sank into soft dirt, pulled down by the mud. She put her hand to the base of her skull. Her fingers were wet with blood, but they were also on fire. Blue flame licked up her palm, over the tips of her fingers. The blood evaporated quickly, and Haven smiled.

She snapped her fingers and the flame vanished—snapped them again, it returned.

“About time,” she said.

The figure appeared around the other side of the tree, and this time Haven got a good look before he swung the stick. It was Wes, the man she and Colton had met by the stream earlier. He was all business this time around, fully disregarding his earlier attempt at being friendly. He was distracted by the flames covering Haven’s hand and his swing went high.

Haven hooked her foot around the back of his knee and pulled. Wes stumbled forward and Haven jabbed his Adam’s apple with the flat of her palm. His eyes opened wide and he reached for his throat, choking out a stream of noises that Haven assumed were supposed to be insults. She kept his momentum going by stepping to the side and shoving his back as he stumbled forward. He tripped over a tree root and sprawled fell face-first in the muck.

Haven kicked through dead leaves and decaying branches to get to him. He flipped over onto his back, his eyes dark pits of anger. Haven let out everything she had in his direction, which turned out to be little more than a flicker.

A weak beam of pale blue energy shot out of her hands and hit him in the chest. She fizzled like a wet firecracker. He looked down at the plasma as he took it in, absorbing it with no more difficulty than if it were made of sunlight.

“Thanks for that,” he said with a wicked grin.

He leapt to his feet and charged. Haven didn’t have time to get out of the way before he ducked and rammed his shoulder into her stomach. He lifted her up in the air and slammed her against the trunk of a tree, knocking the wind out of her.

Wes stepped back and Haven sank to her knees. He breathed heavily as he wiped dirt from his arms and sweat from his brow. Blue light flickered over Haven’s body, but she couldn’t manipulate it enough to give Wes anything more than a pretty little light show.

He crossed his arms and shook his head, chuckling. “I guess I was expecting something…more.”

He looked around for his walking stick while Haven struggled to stand. She had smacked her head against the tree when Wes slammed into her, adding to the pain from the blow she took earlier. Her vision blurred and she leaned back against the trunk for support.

Wes found his stick and thoughtfully wiped off Haven’s blood from the knot at the top.

“Now,” he said, “let’s go see about your friend.”

He spun around with lightning speed. The walking stick slid through his hands until Haven thought it was going to shoot off into the jungle. Instead, he grabbed the bottom at the last second and swung the heavier, knotted end at the side of her head. The knot connected with her temple and bright stars exploded in her vision as her body fell sideways. She was out cold before she hit the ground.

21

Colton watched the destruction unfold before him.

The room ended at the stairway behind him, which led up to the jungle. In the other direction, spreading out to touch both sides of the room, was a wall of flame. The wall had started as a fireball that erupted from a nearby generator after it cracked down the middle. Colton used blasts of air pressure to flatten the fireball into a solid wall of flame. He walked slowly after it, pushing it farther down the room as it consumed everything in its path.

He realized there was another level below his when one of the machines had fallen through the weakened floor. Perhaps the generators powered something in the cavernous space below. He thought it would be a good idea to go down and check it out, just in case he could throw a bigger monkey wrench into Alistair’s plans.

Colton walked slowly down the room, heading in the direction of Helix’s main base. The wall of fire was like a liquid blanket of flame before him. He stood only a few feet away, yet was unharmed. Whatever heat energy he absorbed, he pushed right back out, creating a perpetual energy loop.

The machines he left in his wake became nothing more than melted globs of metal. The floor cracked in several places and the molten liquid seeped down.

Suddenly he thought of Haven.

A sensation of fear pricked at his spine and he winced at a momentary slam of pain in his right temple, as if someone had struck him with a baseball bat. Haven was in trouble.

The blanket of flame curled inward from the walls and flickered out like a snuffed candle. Colton cocked his head to the side. He smelled dirt and tasted blood, but when he ran his finger along the inside of his lip, it was clean.

He turned around to go to the stairway so he could get topside and find Haven. Reece stood twenty feet away, blocking Colton’s path, and he wasn’t alone. One of his arms was locked around Noah’s neck, keeping him close. Noah tried to pull away, but Reece tightened his hold, choking the young boy.

“Let him go,” said Colton.

Reece whistled as he looked at the charred walls and melted machines farther down the room.

“Impressive, Colt. This’ll set old Alistair back a few weeks, no doubt.”

Noah squirmed and Reece violently jerked him to the side, then pulled him back in at the throat and squeezed. The boy’s face turned purple. Reece took a few steps closer to Colton. Dark energy glimmered in his wide eyes.

“It wasn’t supposed to be like this,” he said.

“I could say the same to you. You’re the one holding a child in front of you for protection. What are you doing, Reece? This isn’t you, man.”

“Isn’t it?” he asked, moving closer. The arm around Noah’s neck loosened just enough for the boy to suck in a precious breath. “What do you know? You have Haven and the others. You have a family, Colt.”

“What about Shelly? What about all of the people you’ve met through her?”

“You’re kidding, right?” He shook his head. “Table scraps. I’ve moved so far beyond them, it’s like I’m watching them disappear in my rear view mirror.”

“What about Alistair?” asked Colton.

Some of Reece’s old good humor returned as he shrugged and nodded. “The old bat has some juice left in him yet. But I’ve got a secret, Colt.” He tilted his head back and broke into maniacal laughter. He closed his eyes as his cackling shook his body.

Colton’s attention was drawn down to Noah, who stood pressed against Reece, struggling for escape. The faintest white glow rippled over the back of the boy’s hands. He looked at Colton with fear in his eyes. Colton stared right back and gave the slightest of nods. It seemed to comfort Noah. He looked down at his glowing hands and frowned as he concentrated. The glow brightened.

Reece’s laughter stuttered to a stop and he wiped at his eyes with his one free arm.

“So you have a secret,” said Colton.

“Yeah,” said Reece, “a real nasty one.”

“So do I.”

Reece’s smiled disappeared instantly. He squinted suspiciously at Colton and tightened his grip around Noah’s neck. “What is it?” he hissed. “Tell me!”

“I don’t think you’re going to like it.”

“I don’t care! You don’t get to keep secrets from me, Colton.” He chuckled to himself. “We’re friends, remember?”

Noah’s intense concentration turned to absolute terror, and Colton realized the boy had no control over his ability. He had simply started the flow, but whatever came next he could not contain.

“If you want it, you got it. Here’s my secret: Noah’s already using his powers.”

The white glow on Noah’s hands solidified and burst out in all directions. Molten white energy exploded outward like two popped water balloons. Reece shrieked in surprise and stumbled backward. Some of the plasma landed on his temple and his flesh sizzled as it burnt quickly down to his skull. It was only a second before he regained his bearings and could absorb the rest of the energy, but damage had already been done.

Noah ran toward Colton now that he was free from Reece’s grasp. Liquid energy sloshed from his hands, burning holes in the floor. As soon as he reached Colton and hugged him tightly, the white glow disappeared and the molten energy vanished. He cried heavily and his whole body shook.

“We have to move fast,” said Colton. He was drawing in the boy’s wild energy to stop it from burning through the floor where they stood, staunching the flow like a rag to a wound.

Noah wiped his eyes and nodded.

A section of the floor between Reece and Colton cracked and fell to the level below. Noah’s plasma had compromised a load-bearing structure. The walls groaned under sudden pressure. Chunks of concrete exploded out from the wall—soon the whole room would collapse on their heads.

“Colton!” screamed Reece. He got to his feet. His eyes were burning pits of black flames with flecks of white sparking throughout.

Colton didn’t hesitate. He picked up Noah and carried him piggy-back toward the stairway. “Hold on tight!” he shouted. Noah wrapped his arms around Colton’s neck and held on a little too tight.

The wall to their right buckled as Colton ran toward the stairway. It cracked along the bottom and sagged into the room, breaking free from the ceiling. The slit at the top widened quickly, shooting a broad yellow swath of sunlight down to the concrete floor.

Reece turned as Colton ran past. A huge crack split the other wall, starting at the floor and moving up to the ceiling in quick explosions that sent out bursts of concrete.

Reece screamed in frustration when he grabbed for Colton and Noah but missed. Colton looked back as he ran. Reece stood still, arms outstretched. Huge spheres of dark plasma swirled around his fists. His eyes were lost in shimmering pools of white-black energy.

Colton made it to the stairwell as a beam of black plasma hit the crumbling wall behind him. Reece must have been drawing an enormous amount of energy from the destruction of the room, or else he had that energy stored from earlier. The strength of his output was unlike anything Colton had seen from a normal Conduit—usually a recharge would have been needed long before, yet Reece had not slowed down since he started.

The black-white beam of energy grew in diameter until it was a thick pillar of molten plasma. Colton took the steps three at a time, holding on to Noah’s arms so the boy didn’t fall backward.

The metal stairs squealed beneath his feet. Something popped and the stairway lurched a foot away from the wall. Colton lost his balance and hit the railing. Reece stood below, waiting, eyes fixed on his prey. He held both arms out in front of him, aimed at the stairs. A beam of black-white energy shot out and hit Colton in the legs.

He had prepared his body to absorb as much as he could, but the exertion from destroying the machines in the room before Reece arrived had blunted his ability. Colton was only able to absorb a fraction of the power that slammed against his legs.

It was like getting hit by a truck. His body snapped to the side and he hit the opposite railing. Noah slid off his back and fell over the side, bouncing between the stairs and the wall. Colton reached down and grabbed for the boy. He caught an elbow and bore down hard. Noah howled in pain as Colton’s fingernails dug into his skin. He pulled the boy back onto the stairs. Noah latched onto Colton’s back as he ran for the exit above.

Reece screamed below.

Colton didn’t look back. The stairs evaporated as soon as his feet left them, turned instantly to smoke as Reece’s energy moved upward. The ceiling rumbled. Chunks of concrete broke free and fell to the ground.

Colton sprinted up the last few stairs just as the platform ahead broke free of the wall. Only two metal struts held the remaining stairway to the wall, and those would soon be consumed by Reece’s energy.

Colton ran up to the platform as the chunk of stairs he was on tilted down. The entrance to the hallway where he came in was to his left, but it was already out of reach, slipping quickly away as they swung forward. The chunk of stairs fell toward the crumbling wall to the right of the entrance like a ride at an amusement park, pivoting on the two struts that were barely keeping the platform from dropping straight down.

“Hang on!” yelled Colton.

The platform hit a cracked slab of concrete as what was left of the wall collapsed down toward the floor. Colton jumped forward off the platform and landed on shifting concrete. Black-white energy followed him as he jumped off the falling debris and reached out for something to grab hold of.

Everything fell away around him as he soared through the air, Noah on his back, the ground fifty feet below.

The concrete wall had completely crumbled to the ground, leaving a ragged cliff of black soil beneath. Colton hit the wall of soft dirt, his arms flailing madly. His right hand cracked against something hard, and he grabbed hold of it, pain lancing up his forearm like a knife through his bone.

It was a root. He held it with both hands as he steadied himself from the fall.

“He’s getting ready to shoot!” said Noah.

Colton looked down. Reece had been too busy avoiding the crumbling wall to fire off a plasma blast at his targets. That would soon change. He pushed a slab of concrete off his legs and got to his feet. Black energy swirled around his body and sucked into his skin.

Colton went hand-over-hand up the sheer wall of soil, grabbing roots and rocks when he could find them, and sinking his arms into the dirt up to his shoulders if he couldn’t find a proper handhold. The energy he pulled from Noah’s gradually dying output fueled him upward. He used his legs to vault him up several feet at a time before sinking his arms back into the soil, anchoring him to the wall.

The last jump carried them over the ledge and they burst into the sunlight. It wasn’t a moment too soon, for the ground behind them evaporated as Reece blasted the wall with energy. A tunnel of black plasma shot up into the sky.

Colton didn’t stop, he just kept running. The twin smokestacks flanking the entrance to the underground facility vibrated as if an earthquake moved through the jungle. He ran across the clearing and into the dense foliage, looking for Haven and June. He ran for the spot he had left them before he went underground.

The earth shook beneath his feet. There was a roar of steel and a grinding of concrete as a massive hole opened in the ground between the two smokestacks. Colton ran faster as the hole opened wider, like a huge mouth trying to swallow the sky. The bottom of the smokestacks sank in slow motion. Their tops fell toward each other as the ground opened to swallow them both. The stack on the left fell more quickly. It dropped lower, cracking in the middle, and hit the one on the right halfway down, breaking it in two.

Colton made it to the edge of the jungle. He set Noah down and leaned against a tree so he could catch his breath. The ground continued to disappear. In the distance, entire trees fell into the new sinkhole. When it was finished, there was a pit the size of a football field where a dense patch of trees used to be. Ash and dark smoke billowed up from the hole and drifted up into the sky.

Colton waited for a long time, staring at the pit. If Reece was alive, he was silent. Colton took Noah’s hand and led him into the jungle.

22

Haven awoke next to two dead men.

The bodies lay beside her on the ground, stretched out like rigid planks, the empty eye-sockets of each staring in her direction. They were identical to each other, down to the very—

Haven shook her head and looked again. The two bodies merged and became one. A moment later they split again and slowly floated in circles before her. She saw double of everything. Haven rested her head on the ground, then slowly tried to sit up. Her brain seemed connected to her heartbeat, and it pounded painfully against the inside of her skull when she sat up. Bright stars exploded in Haven’s vision and she quickly sank back down to the wet ground. All she could do was lie there, helpless, breathing like a small, wounded animal.

Next to the dead bodies—body, she told herself—was a wide tree stump. Haven realized she had been taken back to the small clearing she had seen earlier, the one where the now-deceased young man was bound to the trunk as some kind of twisted offering to Alistair.

She slowly rolled to her side and saw two Junes on the ground a few feet away. Haven squinted until the floating images melded into one. The feedback collar was still around June’s neck. She was unconscious and there was a deep gash on her forehead, but she was breathing.

The dead man next to Haven moved. He jerked toward the trees surrounding the small clearing. Haven wanted to scream but she was afraid she would throw up if she made a sound. The body slid away from the trunk and someone laughed.

“My goodness,” said a male voice. “You are jumpy.” Wes came back from the treeline, wiping his hands on his pants. He looked at his palms, then showed them to Haven. “Dead guy juice. Blech!”

“What are you—” said Haven, but that was all she could get out before bile swelled up her throat. She rolled onto her side and threw up on the ground.

“Whoops!” said Wes. He slicked back his hair as he knelt down next to June. He poked her shoulder roughly, then waited. June groaned softly and rolled over, but she didn’t wake up. Wes grabbed one of her arms and one of her legs, then easily lifted her off the ground. He carried her over to the low, flat stump, and dropped her on top, as casually as if he were throwing aside a piece of garbage. June groaned again and tried to roll off the stump, but Wes pinned her down while he grabbed a length of rope on the ground near his feet.

Haven closed her eyes to keep from throwing up again. The right side of her head where Wes hit her with the walking stick felt like it had been used as a punching bag, and a single spot over her right temple may as well have been drilled out with a rusty screw, for all the difference it would make. She reached within to try and harness her ability, but there was nothing but a pale blue flame flickering in the darkness far away. She tried to call it closer, to force it to grow in her mind, but it remained beyond her grasp.

“What are you doing?” she whispered. With her eyes closed, she could hear Wes working the ropes around June’s wrists and ankles.

“You know the answer to that,” he said. Then he started whistling a song, as if he were performing the most mundane of tasks.

Haven had to take a few breaths before she could speak again. “I mean why?”

“Oh,” said Wes cheerfully. “I’m making a deal with the devil so I don’t get burned. To paraphrase someone I greatly admire: I don’t have to outrun Alistair, I just have to outrun you.”

“Why don’t you leave the jungle?”

“Ha! I don’t suppose you’ve tried it? There is no escape from this valley, sweetheart. I’m stuck here. We all are, including you.” He chuckled. “Well, not quite like you. You’re stuck with me.”

Haven dragged herself toward the stump slowly, keeping her eyes closed. The soil beneath her was moist. It stuck between her fingers as she gripped at the ground and pulled her body forward inch by inch. A rich, earthy smell flooded her nostrils as she broke apart clumps of loose dirt on her slow crawl. She was temporarily transported back to the Dome, and to the Grove with its rows of ancient trees, its low hill, and the teardrop pond watched over by an ancient willow.

Wes was suddenly standing on Haven’s hands and pressing down hard. She screamed and pulled her hands back. He kicked her hard in the right temple, in the exact same spot he had cracked her skull with his walking stick. Haven curled into a ball and put her arms over her face. The blue flame deep within her flickered briefly, then went out.

Yet she felt heat. Intense heat, as if she were standing too close to a roaring fire. Haven opened her eyes but there were no flames. After he was satisfied that Haven wasn’t going anywhere, Wes walked around to the other side of the tree trunk and continued to bind June’s arms and legs. He gave no indication that the area was getting hotter.

Yet the sweat on Haven’s arms began to evaporate from the heat, leaving her skin salty and dry. She saw Noah in front of her, standing no more than ten feet away—but he wasn’t alone. Someone had him by the neck and was hurting him.

Reece, thought Haven.

“The old bat has some juice left in him yet,” said Reece. His voice was distant and echoed, as if Haven were watching a recorded dream. “But I’ve got a secret, Colt.”

Colton, thought Haven. Am I seeing this through his eyes?

In her vision, fire danced all around Noah and Reece. The heat intensified until Haven’s skin felt like it would burst into flames. Then Noah vanished, and the rest of the vision with him. Haven was back in the small clearing, watching Wes as he finished lashing June to the stump.

He tested the tightness of the ropes, then took a step back and crossed his arms. He nodded with satisfaction and grinned at Haven.

“I suppose Alistair will be along shortly,” he said. “Not like we have a set schedule or anything, but since I put the other guy here a couple days ago, I’m not sure how much he’s…you know…consumed.”

Wes walked over to where Haven lay on the ground. He started to bend down to pick her up, then stopped.

“You’re going to behave yourself, promise? I don’t want to have to leave you here with your friend. I have something special in mind that I think you’re really going to enjoy.”

He knelt down and picked her up, then carried her over one shoulder as he left the small clearing. Haven kept her eyes fixed on June until the jungle blocked her view. She was still unconscious, but alive—at least for the time being.

Wes was taking her back in the direction of the Helix compound. She punched weakly at his back until he turned and elbowed her in the temple, then she slumped down and remained still, focusing what little energy she had on trying to ignite her ability.

What good is it having the Phoenix energy if I can’t even use it? she thought in frustration. She would have traded her new broken power for the old working Source energy in a heartbeat. Haven had always assumed that once she had the Phoenix energy, she would be able to use it instantly and whenever she wanted. The last thing she had been expecting was an acclimation period for the new force to adapt to her body.

Wes wiped his brow often and smeared his sweat on tree trunks and leafy fronds. He sniffed his hand and smiled with satisfaction, then rubbed his sweat on Haven’s legs.

“You’re disgusting,” she said. It was barely whimper, but he understood.

“We can’t all be heroes, my dear,” said Wes.

She watched his boots as he carried her through the jungle. He moved easily, confidently, and Haven wondered how long he had been out there, hunting other Sources and Cons and leaving them as snacks for Alistair. She wanted to reach into his back and rip out his spine.

Wes stopped. For a sickening moment, Haven wondered if he could read minds as well. He turned around as a small tremor shook the ground. Leaves rustled loudly in the canopy far above. Dead branches cracked off tree trunks and fell to the ground.

There was a tremendous crash somewhere in the distance, as if a giant had fallen in the middle of the jungle.

“That’ll be the smokestacks,” said Wes. He turned back in the direction he had been going and moved more quickly than before. “Bet it was your boyfriend. He looks like he enjoys breaking things.”

Haven was too weak to answer. She hoped it was Colton, and she hoped he took as many of Alistair’s men down as possible. There was no sense of fear in her mind when it came to wondering if Noah was safe or not. After she had seen him in her vision, she knew, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that the two were together, and they were safe.

She could only hope the same would be true for her.

23

Colton held aside a large palm frond as Noah carefully hopped over a tree root sticking out of the ground. Noah’s hands were black with the gritty mud he and Colton had been trudging over for almost an hour. The ground would sink in places under their feet, causing them to lose their balance and fall forward, hopefully on their hands, sometimes not.

Noah was slightly better off since he didn’t have as much weight to pull him down, but Colton had almost lost a shoe in one of the deeper mud-puddles. His leg sank in up to his shin, and when he pulled out his foot, his shoe was gone. He got one of his arms filthy up to his armpit rooting around the muck before he found it. Now his right foot squished every time he took a step.

They could find no traces of Haven and June after the sinkhole collapsed. Colton was no tracker, and he couldn’t tell footprints from dried-out puddles on the uneven jungle floor. His best guess was that the two of them had run for cover once the smokestacks started to collapse. Apparently they had moved out of earshot, because Colton and Noah walked around for ten minutes shouting their names with no answer.

Eventually, Colton gave up looking, then continued on through the jungle with Noah. He didn’t want to risk being in one place for too long, and he could only assume that Haven and June felt the same way—or worse, that they had been taken. Trying to find them in the jungle would have been like searching for two needles in a hundred miles of haystack, so Colton did his best to push the thought far back in his mind.

There was one distinguishing mountain on the horizon, and Colton chose that for his guide point. It was a little shorter than the others in the range and its peak curved slightly at the very tip, almost like the point of a wizard’s hat. If June and Haven had continued on to find their way out of the valley, heading toward the squat, crooked mountain offered the straightest path.

Colton hoped he ran into them before it got too dark outside. There had been no sign of animals, but he still didn’t like the idea of being out there at night.

He picked Noah up and lifted him over a fallen tree, then hopped over and joined him on the other side. Noah took in a breath as if he wanted to ask a question, then exhaled and shook his head.

“What is it?” asked Colton. They had been walking in near-silence almost the entire time since leaving the underground machine room. Colton wasn’t too worried about anyone hearing them approach—the dense jungle swallowed up every noise, even the squishing of Colton’s sodden shoe.

“You think we’ll find Haven soon?” asked Noah.

“I hope so.”

“I miss her.”

“So do I.”

“Why did they take us? Everyone at the Dome, I mean.”

“Well…” said Colton. He thought for a moment. It was easy to think of Noah as older than his six years. He was already displaying some aspects of his Nova ability, but was still just a child. “You know about Alistair?”

“The bad man who sent that lightning girl to the Dome.”

“That’s right. He’s the same guy who worked for Bernam, the man who kidnapped you from your parents’ house.”

“Before he burned it with my parents still inside.” Noah’s voice was thick with bitterness and hatred.

“Right,” said Colton. “Bernam had a machine that was supposed to turn him into a Nova.”

“He wasn’t one already?”

“He was a Conduit, but a really strong one.”

“A Void,” said Noah, a hint of awe creeping into his voice.

Colton nodded. “The strongest one of all. But he wanted to be stronger, so he made a machine that would fuse his Void power with that of a Source.”

Noah tripped over a root and Colton helped him to his feet.

“Did it work?” asked Noah.

“Not for Bernam. Alistair killed him and took his place in the machine.”

“So he’s a Nova.”

“He was,” said Colton. “At least for a while. And maybe he still is, but something’s very wrong. He brings people out here to the jungle so he can chase them.” And feed on them until they’re dead, thought Colton.

“Why?”

“Well, he needs their energy. He needs what’s inside of them, and it has to be from someone who is afraid.”

“But everyone’s afraid of him!” said Noah.

“I think it has to be more than that,” said Colton. “I think the adrenaline that races through our bodies when we’re fighting for our lives amplifies our abilities and purifies the energy somehow. Alistair has figured out that it sustains him better if he ki—if he catches us right at the peak of that fear. It would be like eating a hamburger instead of a salad.”

“I hate salad,” said Noah. He was silent for a moment, a deep frown creasing his boyish face. “Haven should have killed him when she had the chance,” he said at last.

Colton watched the boy, looking for any sign that he was parroting something he had heard, or was perhaps just saying what he thought Colton wanted to hear. From the serious look on Noah’s face, Colton guessed he meant every word. It broke his heart that someone so young could experience such strong feelings of hatred.

“Haven did what was right at the time,” said Colton. “Alistair is very powerful.”

“But Haven is a Phoenix now, right?” asked Noah hopefully. “She’s stronger than anyone.”

Colton wished he could tell Noah that were true. Other than the massive display of power when they were escaping her containment room, she had been unable to output the kind of destruction that one of her kind was known for.

“What is a Phoenix, anyway?” asked Noah.

Colton smiled. Back when they had all been at the Dome, before Kamiko arrived and turned everything upside down, he was accustomed to Noah and his friend Micah following him around the workshop and asking questions. Noah did most of the asking. Micah was always the silent one, but he seemed just as interested. Now that Micah was gone, Noah didn’t have anyone his own age he could relate to, which probably made everything he was going through even harder.

“It’s not really a physical thing,” said Colton. “It’s a special kind of energy that grows only in the right kind of person. It’s not like a Void, which is a power that can be taken by someone stronger.”

“But I thought the Void was the strongest Conduit.”

“Even a Void has to sleep sometime,” said Colton with a grin.

“What kind of people can have the Phoenix energy?” asked Noah.

The jungle had thinned slightly as they descended farther into the valley. Colton caught glimpses of the wizard-hat mountain in the distance between breaks in the canopy. The sinkhole that he and Reece had created was far behind them, and the Helix compound farther still.

“The only thing I know for sure is that the Source has to have blue flame,” said Colton.

“And that’s a rare thing?”

“Apparently.”

“But that Kammy girl had it, too.”

“Kamiko. Yeah, and I guess she had gotten rid of a couple other girls who also had it before she arrived at the Dome.”

“So it’s not super rare.”

Colton was suddenly reminded of how exhausting it could be when he tried to answer the questions of a six-year-old.

“I’m a Nova, aren’t I?” asked Noah.

“Yes. But you’re not supposed to be showing any signs of your ability until you’re a teenager.” Colton wanted to add, But you grew up a lot faster than you should have, and then decided against it. He didn’t want to remind Noah of all the bad things he had experienced in his short lifetime.

“Guess I’m an early bloomer,” said Noah.

Colton laughed abruptly and Noah jumped in surprise. “I’m sorry,” said Colton, wiping at his eyes. He cleared his throat. “Sorry. I don’t know why I thought that was so funny. I think I’m just exhausted.”

Noah stopped and Colton almost ran into him.

“What’s that?” he asked, pointing ahead.

Colton squinted at the dense foliage blocking their path but couldn’t make out anything unusual. “I don’t see anything except more plants.”

Noah walked forward quickly, pushing aside huge leafy ferns. He climbed onto a long, flat surface that was completely covered in green vines. The surface extended in both directions until it was swallowed up by the jungle. Noah walked a few feet on the platform and grabbed something in midair with both hands. It took Colton a moment to realize there was a fence hidden by the foliage, reaching up from the platform to the canopy high above.

He joined Noah on the platform—which turned out to be solid concrete beneath all the vines—and studied the fence. It looked to be simple chain-link, supported by vertical steel beams every ten feet.

“How far does it go?” asked Noah.

“All the way, it looks like,” said Colton.

“Around the whole valley?!”

“I think so. If Haven and June had come this way, there would be a hole.”

“We could burn right through it,” said Noah. “Well, you could.”

“You can’t use your ability whenever you want?” asked Colton.

Noah shook his head sadly.

“Don’t be ashamed, Noah. You’ll have control over it soon enough. We were just lucky you were able to use it when Reece was holding you hostage.”

“Yeah, I guess so. But I could only control it for like a second.”

Colton walked along the platform, searching the fence for a hole. “There’s no point in us going through if we don’t know if Haven and June are on the other side.”

The farther he went along the fence, the more the little voice in his head told him he wouldn’t find any signs that the others had come that way. They could be anywhere in that huge valley, even back at the Helix compound if they had been taken by Alistair’s guards while Colton and Noah were below ground.

The fatigue he had been forcefully pushing aside now crept up on him quickly, and he sank down against the fence. It bowed slightly under his weight as he sat quietly, staring back the in the direction they had come.

“What’s wrong?” asked Noah. He walked over and stood next to Colton, one hand moving back and forth against the chain-link fence.

“They didn’t come this way.”

“You don’t know that,” said Noah. “We have to check the rest of the fence!”

“It goes on for miles,” said Colton. “They could be anywhere.”

Noah knelt down and tried to lift Colton off the concrete platform. “Get up!” He grunted as he pushed Colton’s shoulder as hard as he could. Eventually the boy’s feet slipped out from under him and he fell. Colton caught him and propped him next to him against the fence. He breathed hard and wiped tears from his eyes. “I don’t want to lose her again,” said Noah.

Colton hugged him close. “I know you don’t.”

If he had put off utter exhaustion for that long, he could do it a little longer. Colton drew in from the life of the jungle, drew in until the vines on the platform beneath him withered and turned to dried husks. The branches of the nearby trees curled downward, blackening as their life force quickly drained. Colton let a little of the energy flow into Noah, and the boy lifted his head. His eyes were brighter than they had been all day, and his skin flushed a healthy red.

Colton got to his feet. He helped Noah to stand and was about to say thank you when a horrifying scream pierced the air.

“Was that Haven?!” asked Noah.

“It was June,” said Colton grimly. He picked up Noah and carried him piggyback as he moved through the jungle, running toward the screams.

24

Wes had been carrying Haven in silence when the first twinges of her ability stirred deep within. For the last half-hour, he had been moving through the jungle at a quick speed, not worrying about the branches and wet fronds constantly slapping Haven in the face as she hung like a wet noodle draped over his shoulder.

She almost started squirming the moment the heat bloomed in her stomach, but knew she needed to wait until she could unleash a full barrage. She closed her eyes and called the light closer. In her mind’s eye, she saw the distant glow of blue plasma take the shape of a sphere. It pulsed as it grew in diameter until it was the size of a small star. Slowly and silently, it moved toward her. Strands of liquid energy snaked up from the sphere and reached for her. The energy warmed her bones and settled in her stomach, pulsing there like a living organism. Her abs clenched as the power worked its way slowly to her limbs.

The power suddenly lurched in her stomach and surged up to her chest. It spun there rapidly, gaining momentum, feeding out to her limbs like the tributaries of a river. For a brief moment she thought she would be able to fight.

Then Wes shifted her on his shoulder and leeched the power from her body, as if he were drawing it out with a syringe. She tried to hold on to it, but it slipped away too quickly. The energy drained from her bones, leaving her cold and shivering. A soft blue glow emanated from Wes’s skin as he carried her deeper into the jungle. He grinned and patted her leg.

“Thanks for that,” he said.

Haven was too weak to scream. Wes easily hopped over a fallen tree and turned to look back the way they had come. Haven studied the path ahead, hoping to find a way to escape. She saw a camera bolted to the trunk of a tree thirty feet off the ground. It had been damaged beyond use long ago—not that it would do her any good if anyone saw Wes carrying her through the jungle. They would probably grab a bag of popcorn and watch the show. Still, she wouldn’t say no to being rescued by anyone else at that point, even if it was the other bad guys.

Farther down the narrow path, there was a natural structure of some kind. It looked almost like an igloo, but made from branches, palm fronds, vines, and other plants. The domed roof rose up from the ground ten feet, and was surrounded by a ring of tall trees that reached skyward, all the way to the canopy. The area was completely shaded from the sun, and a light mist hung in the air.

There were two other cameras bolted to trees beyond the makeshift building, both disabled. Wes scanned the path behind them a moment longer, then headed toward the jungle hut. He held aside a thick curtain of vines covering the entrance and pushed open a door made out of woven palm fronds. Haven tried to hold on to the doorframe as he walked inside, but she was too weak to hold a grip.

Wes set her down on the dirt floor and kicked the door shut.

“You hungry?”

She was, but she kept it to herself. He eventually shrugged and moved to the other side of the hut. It was surprisingly roomy inside, with no dividers segmenting the interior. Its curved walls led up to a small opening at the apex, forming a chimney.

A cook pot hung on a stand constructed of thick tree limbs and bound with dried-out vines. Wes picked up a handful of branches from a pile next to the cook pot and ignited them with blue fire from his hands. He tossed the branches under the cook pot, then opened a can of chicken noodle soup and poured it into the pot.

“Beggars can’t be choosers,” he said with a grin. “Hard to get the good stuff out here.”

Haven sat up slowly and leaned against the wall. Wes had drained a little more from her than her excess energy. Her skin was bone-white and stretched thin over the knuckles of her hands. Translucent black veins followed gossamer trails up her arms.

“Alistair must know about this place,” she whispered.

“I’m sure he does,” said Wes. He stirred the soup with a wooden ladle. “Yet it’s still standing. What does that tell you?”

“That you make an excellent pet.”

His good humor vanished and he looked at her, clenching his jaw. Finally, he sighed. “Not for long.”

“What are you—” Haven stopped so she could catch her breath. Every word was a struggle. “What do you want with me?”

“Oh, that,” said Wes. “Won’t be long now, you’ll see.” He drew the ladle from the cook pot and sipped the soup, then shook his head and continued stirring.

There was a bed made from woven vines on the floor of the hut, across from the entrance. Leaning against the wall next to the door was a thick plank of wood that Haven assumed was used to block the door when Wes slept at night. Hanging from the wall, all lined up in a row, were at least a dozen watches of different shapes and sizes. Some were in near-perfect condition and some were completely shattered. None of them were working.

“I’m something of a collector,” said Wes, noticing Haven’s interest. He rolled up his left sleeve and showed her the three watches he was wearing. “Tokyo time,” he said, pointing to the one farthest from his wrist. Then he pointed to the middle watch, then the one nearest his wrist. “London. Local. The batteries on these are still working, but they’ll run out soon.”

Haven wondered how many people Wes had left for Alistair to harvest. She couldn’t keep her mind off the image of June, strapped unconscious to the tree stump. The thought of Alistair doing to June what he had done to the poor man they had found on the stump made Haven want to throw up again. Her stomach churned as if she were drinking curdled milk, and sour bile climbed up to the back of her mouth.

Then she thought of Colton and she did throw up.

“Ah, hey!” said Wes, looking at her in disgust. “I’m trying to eat over here!” He kicked dirt over her mess and went back to the cook pot.

Haven wiped her mouth but didn’t apologize. She would burn the hut down with both of them inside it if she could. Colton was probably dead, and so were the others, so what did it matter? Haven wondered if the Phoenix energy would save her from getting burned. If Wes hadn’t taken everything out of her, she would try it and hope for the best. An involuntary smile twitched at her lips as she suddenly remembered Chemistry class at her high school in Arizona. She doubted her teacher would agree with her methodology of setting a building on fire to see if you could withstand the heat. How’s that for the scientific method?

Haven’s thoughts were violently ripped back to the present by the sound of screams in the distance. She recognized June’s voice, and she scrambled to her hands and knees, despite her weakness.

Wes was next to her in a flash. He kicked her hands out from under her and shoved her down to the dirt floor.

“You stay put,” he said. He walked to the entrance and pulled open the woven door, then rolled up his sleeve and checked his watches. “Won’t be long now. He’ll be coming soon.” He closed the door and squatted next to Haven. “Sorry to have to do this to you, but I’m going to need as much as I can get.”

She opened her mouth to ask him what he meant, but the sound died in her throat as Wes put his hands around her neck and squeezed. Fierce blue light glowed in his wide, crazy eyes as he gently lowered Haven to the floor. Energy cascaded up his arms from her skin and disappeared into his chest, like a spirit being pulled from one body and settling into another.

Soon all sounds but the screaming faded away, and Haven saw nothing but Wes’s glowing blue form in front of her, smiling down with a wicked grin as he drained her life energy.

25

Colton jumped over rotting stumps and roots, moving faster than he thought was humanly possible. Noah was feeding him energy, whether the boy knew it or not. He constantly emitted some kind of low-pressure airwave as he clung to Colton’s back. The wave pulsed out from his small body like a beating heart, and Colton drew in the energy to fuel his burning muscles.

The screams had suddenly stopped less than a minute before, cutting out abruptly and plunging the jungle into dead silence. Colton had run right into a tree trunk when it happened, slamming face-first when he took his eyes off the trail. Noah barely seemed to notice. He blinked hard when Colton hit the tree, but he stared ahead, holding his breath, waiting to hear a sound.

Colton had wiped the blood from his forehead and kept running.

At his current pace, he knew he was only a short distance away—then he heard the gunshots. They clapped out through the jungle like exploding sticks of dynamite, shattering the silence. First a volley of three, then a pause, then three more.

Colton was suddenly hesitant to go bursting into the clearing with the tree stump. He might be running headlong into a hail of bullets. Caution gave way to urgency as he barreled ahead and jumped into the clearing.

June was still tied to the tree stump, but she was awake and struggling to get free. The feedback collar around her neck was glowing red as she tried to use her Conduit powers—tried and failed.

Because that would have been too easy, thought Colton.

Alistair crouched on the other side of the clearing, poised to leap forward like a striking snake. Deep canyons of flickering black energy etched his burnt skin.

Standing a few feet away, blocking the way between Alistair and June, were Marius and Corva. They didn’t look as bad as Colton would have expected, if he had been expecting to see them again at all. They had a few bumps and bruises, and Corva’s ear-length white hair was streaked with dirt and blood. Marius looked as stout as always, his bald head glistening with sweat and his belly—proudly earned from too many Russian beers—protruding slightly over his beltline.

Each of them wore a feedback collar identical to June’s. Marius aimed a black handgun at Alistair and pulled the trigger twice. Alistair dodged one of them by shifting to the side with inhuman speed, streaking like a blur, but Marius had anticipated his movements and the other bullet hit him in the shoulder. Alistair howled in pain and spun around quickly, blood spattering the fronds behind him.

He twisted back around and ran on all fours toward Marius and Corva, looking more like an animal than a man.

Colton hurried over to June. He set Noah down next to the stump and burned through June’s ropes.

“Thank you,” she said hoarsely. Her skin was ashen and her eyes were bloodshot. Alistair had apparently been working on her for some time before he was interrupted by Marius and Corva.

Colton helped June off the stump, drawing on her built-up energy before it caused her internal damage. In her panic, she had not stopped using her Conduit ability, even though the collar was pumping the energy right back into her own system.

Noah stood up and walked with them to the treeline.

“Watch out for her,” said Colton. Noah nodded and helped June into the jungle a short ways, where they both sat down behind a huge plant, safely out of sight.

Colton turned back as Alistair leapt into the air. Corva stepped in front of Marius and widened her stance. Just as Alistair reached for her throat, she snapped her body around and delivered a roundhouse kick to his neck. The kick stopped him dead in his tracks. He fell to the ground and rolled away faster than Marius could shoot him.

The bullets hit the ground and sent up bursts of wet soil—then the gun clicked empty.

Alistair rolled to his hands and feet, crouching like an animal, and he grinned. Then he stood to his full height and cracked his back.

“Now that the gun’s out of the picture…” he said with a growling voice. There was a slight echo to his words, almost like he was speaking into a microphone.

Marius and Corva took a step back. Alistair advanced casually, like he had all the time in the world. Colton kept his distance, circling around the other side of the tree stump.

Marius bellowed and ran toward Alistair. Corva reached out to stop him but she was too late. Alistair grinned wickedly as Marius drew closer. Black spheres expanded around Alistair’s hands. He clenched his fists and small fireworks of black plasma exploded from his skin.

Marius feinted to the right, then quickly shifted his course and went left. Alistair was a millisecond too late in swinging his fists down on his attacker. The black spheres barely missed Marius’s head as he bent forward and rammed his shoulder into Alistair’s stomach. Both of their feet left the ground as Marius went horizontal, pushing Alistair toward the edge of the clearing.

They skid across the ground and slammed into the base of a tree.

“Marius!” shouted Corva, running after them.

The black spheres reappeared around Alistair’s fists. He slammed the sides of Marius’s skull and the spheres sank into his skin. Marius screamed and rolled onto his back, clawing at the sides of his head. He spasmed once, and then was still.

Corva leapt into the air and fell on Alistair, arms and legs punching and kicking. He laughed, then grabbed her by the throat as he stood. She beat her fists on his arm, but he simply cocked his head to the side and watched. He rolled his eyes and threw her to the side as if she weighed no more than a ball of paper.

Colton was next to Alistair as soon as he released Corva. She hit the ground and rolled to a stop, groaning in pain. Alistair had just enough time to frown before Colton grabbed the back of his head and pulled it down. Colton brought his knee up and smashed Alistair’s face into it, then he did it again, and again. The white-hot energy he had absorbed from Noah crackled over his knee with each blow like lightning. It stuck in Alistair’s eyes and arced into his mouth when he tried to scream.

Alistair stumbled backward, waving his arms in front of his face to ward off any more attacks. He blinked furiously, and Colton realized he was blinded. Alistair’s heel caught on a tree root and he fell backward, landing flat on the ground. Colton wasted no time in running over as Alistair flopped on the ground like a fish out of water. He pulled his foot back and sent every last bit of power he had down his leg. The energy dropped to his foot like a bowling ball. He kicked Alistair in the ribs as hard as he could, launching him up into the air. Alistair spun rapidly as he soared out of the clearing and landed with a tremendous crash in the jungle.

Colton ran to the edge of the clearing and started to make his way after him. Alistair sprang to his feet, blood streaming down one side of his burnt face. His lips curled back and he snarled at Colton, then he stopped and sniffed the air. He went to a nearby tree and smelled the bark, then he moved farther away and touched a low frond. He sniffed his fingers and his ears perked up. Alistair looked back at Colton, snarled again, then tore off through the jungle, leaving behind a trail of broken fronds and swaying branches.

Colton turned back to the others. Corva knelt next to Marius, gently probing the sides of his head with her fingers. She helped him sit up and lean against the nearest tree trunk. June and Noah stepped out of the jungle hesitantly, looking in Alistair’s direction.

“Is he gone?” asked Noah.

“For now,” said Colton. “But I don’t want to think about where he’s going.” He knelt down next to Marius and Corva. “It’s good to see both of you.”

Corva offered a weak smile as she wiped blood from Marius’s head. He nodded slowly and closed his eyes, then leaned his head back against the tree as Corva did what she could to patch him up. If she hadn’t been wearing the feedback collar, she could have used her Con ability to heal him. As it was, she was just a regular person, trying to help another regular person recover from a violent encounter.

“Marius hates this collar,” said Marius weakly. “Feels like he is going to pop like balloon.”

Colton gently squeezed his shoulder. His own collar had melted off when Haven awoke back at the Helix facility, instantly liquefying in the intense heat. He was worried if he tried something like that without Haven, he wouldn’t be able to generate enough heat to melt the collar and it might trigger some kind of defense mechanism. There was no way to know if there was some kind of remote self-destruct button that one of Alistair’s henchmen could press if they were alerted that someone was tampering with the collars.

It added up to be just one more reason he wanted to find Haven. If Colton could remove their collars with her help, he would feel a lot better about their chances of surviving their current nightmare.

Noah walked over and sat down next to the others. Marius opened his eyes and smiled weakly.

“Marius is so happy to see you,” he said.

“Noah is happy to see you, too,” said Noah. Corva giggled, then coughed and cradled her head in pain.

“We followed the screams,” she said. “First we went toward the earthquake, or whatever it was.”

“The smokestacks,” said Colton. “I had a run-in with Reece. We kind of brought the roof down on our heads.”

“Thought that was you,” said Marius.

“Then we heard June,” said Corva, “and we came as fast as we could.”

“And I’m so glad you did,” said June. She sat on the ground next to them. Her skin was not as pale as before, and her eyes were less bloodshot. “You came in the nick of time. It was horrible, what he was doing to me. I wouldn’t wish it on anyone.”

“Not even on Alistair?” asked Noah.

“Well…” she said, and winked at him.

“What happened after I went underground?” asked Colton.

“It was Wes,” said June. “He jumped us and brought us here.”

“What about Haven?”

“I don’t know. I woke up strapped to that tree stump and Alistair was staring down at me. His eyes were solid black and he…he…” She broke off and swallowed hard, then shook her head and refused to continue.

“Speaking of the devil,” said Corva, “what should we do about him?”

Colton looked around the group. He was the only one on his feet, and the only one who looked to be able to move at a decent pace.

“I want to go after him,” he said. “We need to find Haven, and I think Alistair might lead us to her.”

“We’re right behind you,” said Marius. He tried to sit up. His face flushed bright red and he grimaced, then sank back against the tree with a groan.

“Maybe not right behind,” said Corva.

“I’m going to follow the trail,” said Colton, pointing at the path of destruction Alistair had blazed in his haste to get away. “I won’t make a move on him until you’re there, not unless I have to.”

June and Corva helped Marius to his feet.

“What about me?” asked Noah. He stood next to Colton, looking up with his arms crossed.

“I need you to stay with them,” said Colton. “You’re the only one without a collar, so if anyone tries to attack, you have to fight them off.”

“But I can’t even use my stupid ability yet!” said Noah. He kicked at the ground in frustration.

Colton got down on one knee next to the boy and held his shoulders. “You still have to be strong, Noah. You have to be strong for your friends when they can’t be strong on their own. That’s the mark of a true hero.”

Noah wiped a small tear from the corner of his eye. “Reece said I didn’t have to help anybody. He said I could use my powers to get whatever I wanted.”

“When did he tell you that?”

“Before you fought him under the smokestacks. He was keeping me in a room with lots of toys and games and food. He said if I helped him, then I wouldn’t have to do anything I didn’t want to do.”

Colton studied Noah for a moment. “And what did you think about his offer?”

“I think it sounded good!”

“Noah, listen to me. People are going to try and get you to do things that they want, and sometimes it might even be something that you should do. You’re far too young to be showing signs that you’re a Nova, and yet it’s happening anyway. Some people are going to try and mold you into what they think you should be.”

“You mean like a good guy or a bad guy?”

“Exactly. But you don’t have to listen to any of them. You just have to do what your heart tells you is right.”

He sniffed and wiped his nose. “Right now it’s telling me to help my friends.”

Colton smiled. “Then that’s what you have to do. I’m going to go find your sister, okay?”

“Okay.” He joined the others and helped June and Corva support Marius.

“We’ll be along as soon as we can,” said June.

Colton nodded, then turned away and ran into the jungle, following Alistair’s trail.

26

Haven heard Alistair approaching long before she saw him arrive. A few moments before, Wes had dragged her out of the hut after the distant screams abruptly ceased. There were gunshots, and then silence. Wes had pulled her to a small patch of trampled ground a short distance from the hut. He dropped her and slunk away into the shadows of the jungle, silent as a cat.

Haven half-crawled, half-dragged herself back toward the hut. She was almost to the door when she heard Alistair in the jungle. There was a shift in air pressure, then a soft rustling of leaves. The rustling grew into a rumble and Alistair leapt from the jungle and into the clearing—a blurred line rocketing through the air.

He landed on Haven’s back full-force, slamming against her like a tidal wave. The air rushed out of her lungs as she sank into the soft soil. Alistair peeled her off the ground and threw her up into the air. Branches scratched at her clothes and body as Haven burst through the jungle canopy. There was a brief moment of no gravity—she hovered just over the canopy for a split second, long enough to notice a cloud of dust roiling up from a giant sinkhole in the jungle nearby.

Then she was falling, dropping back down through the canopy, grabbing wildly for something to stop her. She missed every branch.

Alistair caught her at the last second. He grabbed her legs, swung her back up into the air using her own momentum, then slammed her down into the ground. Some of her ribs snapped. She lay on the ground, unable to move or breathe, staring up at the jungle canopy. Her mouth opened and closed slowly, like a fish trying to pass water through its gills.

Alistair looked down at her, his figure silhouetted by the sunlight shining through the hole Haven created in the canopy. He knelt down and brushed a strand of wet hair from her face, studying her body with a strange affection, as if he were admiring the corpse of a worthy enemy.

“I think that once I’m through with you,” he said in a deep, echoing voice, “I’ll be finished.” He bent low and sniffed the air over her torso, closing his eyes and reveling in some secret scent. He ran a burnt hand over his bald, blackened scalp, tracing one of the deep cracks that pulsed with black energy. The black light dimmed under his touch. Alistair drew his hand back and looked at it, frowning. “And not a moment too soon, it would seem.”

What are you? Haven wanted to ask him, but she couldn’t speak. She couldn’t even breathe. Blood welled in her mouth and she feared a broken rib had punctured one of her lungs.

Alistair laughed—a chilling, haunting sound that echoed through the jungle. He bent down over her body once more, put his hands around her neck, and began the process of extraction.

It was unlike anything she’d ever felt before. Wes had drained her energy earlier, but that was superficial—he had only been able to take the energy she was trying to get to the surface.

This was something deeper.

Alistair was somehow reaching into the depths of her very ability and strangling it—forcing it to give up the root of its power. Haven felt like her insides were being scooped out with a spoon.

There was a rustling sound from the jungle next to the small hut.

Haven couldn’t move under Alistair’s grasp.

“Stop!” someone shouted—a woman.

Alistair jerked his head toward the voice and hissed. Haven’s head rolled slowly to the side and she blinked heavily at a blurry figure standing next to the hut. There were two figures, but she wasn’t seeing double. One was short and slender, and the other was hulking—big shoulders over a wide frame. Purple energy flowed over that one’s hands.

“Shelly!” said Alistair, as friendly as could be. “And Kai. Young Kai. Oh, I had such plans for both of you.” He dropped Haven to the ground and stood, then wiped his mouth as if he’d just finished a messy meal.

“That’s enough,” said Shelly. Her voice was shaky, but she stepped forward and held her ground, Kai at her side. He seemed ready to jump in front of her at a moment’s notice.

“Oh, it’s never enough,” said Alistair. “Tell me, what’s your big plan?”

“Big plan?” asked Shelly.

“You came to stop me, didn’t you?”

“Yes,” said Kai.

“Okay. How?”

“With this,” said Kai, holding out an open feedback collar.

Alistair took an instinctive step back, then grinned. “That won’t work on me. I’m too powerful.”

“Then why do you look so nervous?” asked Shelly. She took Kai’s hand and squeezed it for comfort.

No, thought Haven. Not comfort.

Purple energy swirled down Kai’s forearm and disappeared into Shelly’s skin. Haven wondered if the two of them were counterparts—his Source to her Con—and she got her answer a moment later when Shelly released his hand. Counterparts would have been able to stay connected no matter what, but incompatible Sources and Cons would fry their own bodies if they tried to channel the energy for too long.

“I don’t have time for this,” said Alistair. He raised an open palm and a beam of blue energy shot from his hand. It hit Shelly in the chest, but she didn’t fall down. The beam disappeared and Alistair raised his eyebrows. “Impressive! You’ve been training. Sneaking behind Reece’s back with the muscled brute, I take it?”

Kai moved forward but Shelly put a steadying hand on his arm. “Not yet,” she said quietly.

Haven rolled to the side, temporarily forgotten. She spat blood in the dirt and took a few ragged gasps for air—if a lung was punctured, she would have been a lot worse off. She kept rolling sideways, away from the action. It was slow going since it felt like the world fell on her back every time her stomach touched the ground. The snapped ribs grinded against each other with the smallest movement, sending stabs of pain throughout her entire body. She rolled past the hut, and was almost out of sight behind a thick tree when someone walked up and put a boot on her back.

Wes.

So he hadn’t run off, after all. He bent down and grabbed Haven’s arms, then dragged her farther behind the hut.

“Looks like I have someone else to keep him distracted now,” he said, keeping his voice down.

“What do you want from him?” croaked Haven. She was shocked her voice worked at all. And there was something else working inside her as well—something moving toward the surface…

“Don’t be stupid,” he said hastily, peeking his head around the corner to watch Alistair and the others. “I want the Void energy.”

“He’s too strong.”

“Ah, but that’s where you come in. Or your little friends. It doesn’t really matter. I just need someone to take him down a notch or two so I can syphon out the goods. You’re on deck in case your friends die, so be ready.”

“I don’t have enough energy to give him a scratch.”

Wes studied her for a moment. Weak, out of breath, pale—it was an easy enough sell.

“Good point,” he said finally. He took both of her hands and held them in his. Dark energy laced with streaks of blue flowed into her skin.

Warmth flooded Haven’s body. The new energy sank deep into her core and stirred up what was already there—the energy that had only needed a small boost to break the surface. There was a cracking sound in her chest as her broken ribs realigned and fused back into place.

Wes looked at her, confused at the noise. Haven reached out and grabbed him in a chokehold. He tried to speak but only managed a few garbled whimpers as she squeezed his neck until his windpipe was pinched shut. His legs kicked out and scraped the ground, but Haven wrapped her own around his thighs and locked her ankles together, forcing him to be still.

Blue plasma he had taken from her moments before poured from his skin as he tried to burn her off, but he was panicking and couldn’t control his output. Instead of emitting harmful energy, he was feeding it directly into Haven, boosting her vitality. She grew stronger with each passing second, until finally Wes lost consciousness and slumped down in her arms.

Haven pushed him aside and he flopped face-down in the muck next to his hut. She brushed off her hands and stood, preparing to step out and take care of Alistair once and for all.

“Pssst,” said someone to her right.

Haven turned toward the noise. Reece stood at the edge of the jungle, smiling.

“You gotta be kidding me,” she said.

He wiggled his fingers at her and smiled, then blasted her in the chest with a thick beam of black plasma. Haven flew back through the air, over the hut, and hit the ground on her stomach between Kai, Shelly, and Alistair.

“Well, well,” said Alistair, grinning down at her. “Look who’s back in the game.”

Reece stepped out from behind the hut, his fists burning orbs of black fire. The pits of his eyes emitted black flames that danced upward, trailing thin strands of smoke as he moved.

“Oh crap,” said Shelly.

“This should be interesting,” mumbled Haven. She rolled onto her back, pointed her fists at Alistair, and started the party.

27

Wet fronds slapped Colton in the face as he ran through the jungle. He saw green everywhere, punctuated by the brief splash of muddy water when his shoes slapped down into a puddle. His muscles pumped with adrenaline and the added boost he was feeding them from his stored energy. Even though the sun was completely occluded by the jungle canopy, his skin was warm, as if he were lying on a sunny beach.

Colton followed Alistair’s haphazard trail as best he could. Broken fronds and exploded roots were his primary indicators. He had gotten turned around only once, but then saw a tree in the distance with a massive hole in its side. Alistair had been moving so fast that he splintered the wood and carved out a half-moon chunk in the tree, which was still standing despite its injury. There was no blood on the exposed pulp beneath the bark, but some of it was charred, as if it had been scorched by a concentrated fire.

Colton stuck to the path easily after that, following a straight line in the direction of the distant Helix compound. He ducked a low-hanging branch and leapt over a fallen tree. His feet landed in a thick puddle of brown muck and it took him a moment to extricate himself without leaving his shoes behind.

Then he was running again, his shoes squashing with every step. He spent a microscopic amount of his energy to heat the area around his feet, and the mud turned from squishy to crusty. Most of it flaked away after a few seconds, but his socks were still soaked.

He saw a flash of blue up ahead—he was getting close. Someone shouted and a solid beam of black energy shot up into the sky, obliterating the canopy overhead. Branches and leaves evaporated, leaving behind a wide circle open to the sky. Orange flame crept around the edge of the hole like the dying embers of a campfire.

Colton suddenly burst out into a clearing, completely exposed. He didn’t have time to see what was going on before a beam of black energy hit him in the chest and sent him spinning back the way he had come.

He hit the ground hard on his shoulder and stuck there in a puddle of muck. There was a wet sucking sound as he pushed himself to his feet and ran back to the clearing.

He was ready the next time. Another beam of black plasma struck him in the chest as soon as he pushed through the treeline, but Colton took it in and funneled it down, storing some of it for later, just in case. The rest he directed to his skin, sheathing his body in a protective layer of energy. The plasma crackled over him like a second skin.

Reece stood a few feet away, eyes burning with energy. His fists were clenched tightly at his sides. There was a look of madness on his face that Colton had never seen before—he hardly looked like Reece at all. He was instead some twisted version of Colton’s old friend, blind to his actions.

It was that thought in Colton’s mind—more of a hope, really—that stopped him from launching everything he had in Reece’s direction. He also wondered how one Conduit could defeat another when they were both highly skilled. It was obvious Reece was a lot stronger than Colton had been expecting. Either he trained intensely over the past year, or there was another explanation entirely.

“Colton!” shouted Haven.

His thoughts shattered as he saw her on the other side of the clearing. She was getting to her feet. Alistair ran at her on all fours, quickly closing the distance between them. Shelly and Kai stood nearby, watching the events unfold.

Colton had time to register a pair of shoes he didn’t recognize sticking out from behind a small hut off to one side. The door to the hut was open and a delicious smell emanated from within. His mouth watered at the possibility of food, but then Reece was standing directly in front of him, black light burning in his eyes.

His hands found Colton’s neck and he seized his old friend with a violence that would have separated a normal person’s head from their shoulders. The plasma coursing over Colton’s skin crawled onto Reece’s hands and raced up his arms toward his neck. Reece laughed as the plasma sank down into his skin. He absorbed it without effort, then kicked Colton’s legs out from under him and slammed him down to the ground, still grasping his neck.

“I wanted you with us,” hissed Reece.

Colton thought he saw a hint of sadness sweep across Reece’s face when he spoke, then it was replaced by pure madness. Reece tightened his grip around Colton’s neck, cutting off his air supply. Colton brought his stored energy to the surface and focused it into his chest. Heat spread over his ribcage. A cannonball of black energy shot out and crashed into Reece’s torso, pushing him up into the air. His grip on Colton’s neck anchored him and he fell back to the ground. In a flash, he was back over Colton, squeezing his neck harder than before. Colton’s eyes bulged in their sockets and the world around him began to dim.

An electric flash of blue plasma streaked through the air and hit Reece in the side of his head. One moment he was on top of Colton, the next he was gone. Colton sat up quickly and saw Reece crumpled at the bottom of a tree at the edge of the clearing. He groaned and slowly got to his feet.

Colton met Haven’s eyes. She was on the other side of the small clearing, fighting with Alistair. Her burst of energy to help Colton had given Alistair a chance to get the upper hand. He picked her up and threw her against the trunk of a tree. The bark crunched inward at the point of impact, and Haven stuck in the splintered wood, struggling to get free.

Alistair moved toward her with lightning speed, faster than Colton could have crossed the clearing to get between them. He looked around quickly and noticed that Shelly and Kai were gone. The feedback collar they were carrying was on the ground next to the hut. There wasn’t enough time to get to it and get back to Alistair before he got to Haven.

Seeing Haven stuck in the tree had given Colton another idea.

Reece got to his feet and stumbled toward Colton, rage glowing in his eyes.

“You can’t beat me, Colt,” he said with absolute malice.

“I don’t have to,” said Colton. “I just have to use you.”

Reece snarled as he launched himself into the air. Colton stepped deftly to the side and struck Reece in the back as he flew past. Reece shrieked and fell to the ground. Colton stomped his heel into the small of Reece’s back and ground down as hard as he could. Reece let loose an uncontrolled surge of energy outward in all directions—a wild panic attack that was meant to disorient anyone nearby.

Colton had been expecting something of that nature, though, and funneled it up to his chest, then down to his arms.

Alistair was next to Haven across the clearing. Her skin glowed a faint blue and her head rolled to the side as Alistair yanked her out of the tree and let her drop to the ground. He lifted his leg, hovering the heel of his boot over Haven’s neck, ready to bring it down and snap her spine.

28

A beam of black energy hit the tree behind Haven and razor-sharp chunks of wood exploded outward in all directions. There was a second of silence, then the tree groaned and began to fall. Haven curled into a ball, unable to think of what else to do. The tall tree whooooshed through the air, branches snapping and leaves rustling, as it fell into the middle of the clearing. Alistair dove out of the way as the trunk crashed against the earth.

The ground shook as Haven got to her feet. She stumbled to the fallen tree and tried to climb over it, but she was too weak to push off from the ground. She leaned against the trunk, breathing heavily as she looked at Colton. He was on the other side of the tree, but he didn’t notice Haven—he didn’t notice anything except for Reece, who was squirming on the ground under his heel.

Haven reached over the top of the trunk and grabbed the stump of a broken branch. She screamed with exertion as she pulled herself up. She got to the top of the fallen trunk and rolled off on the other side, hitting the dirt on her stomach.

Black energy pulsed up Colton’s legs and was absorbed into his body. After a moment, the flow of energy subsided, but Colton didn’t let up. Reece’s face turned pale and choked for air. His cheeks sank inward, as if he were a rapidly-decomposing corpse.

Haven half-tripped, half-ran to Colton’s side and laid a gentle hand on his shoulder. His head snapped around and he glared at her, fury in his eyes, then his body relaxed when he realized who it was. He swallowed hard and took his foot off Reece’s back, then kicked him in the side. Reece rolled over, clutching his ribcage and groaning.

“I’m sorry,” said Colton. “I wasn’t thinking straight.”

“It’s okay,” said Haven. She sank to the ground next to Reece, too exhausted to stand any longer. “I underst—”

Her words were cut off as Alistair leapt over the fallen tree and slammed into Colton. The two of them hit the ground at a roll. Alistair hopped to his feet while Colton slid across the dirt.

“Young love,” said Alistair, musing. “So stupid.”

Haven’s vision went blue as power surged through her body. Her exhaustion vanished and was replaced with burning anger. The air around her body crackled with energy. Her wings burst from her back and spread wide. Plants and leaves at the edge of the clearing curled back and withered from the heat. Low-hanging vines exploded into flames.

“Impressive, as always,” said Alistair. The cracks in his burnt skin pulsed with black energy. He licked his charred lips with a yellowed tongue. “Pity about your morals. You would have made a good pet.”

The burst of blue plasma that Haven fired in his direction missed him by a fraction of a second. Alistair moved to the side so quickly that he was nothing more than a blur, then changed course and headed straight at her.

Colton was suddenly between them, feet planted in a wide stance, ready to intercept. Alistair knocked him to the side without any effort, then barreled into Haven’s stomach, pushing her down to the ground. She fired a burst of blue plasma from her hands. The liquid energy slapped against Alistair’s face and sizzled over his burnt skin.

He laughed, then grabbed Haven’s head with both hands and slammed it against the ground. The blue light faded from her vision and her wings disappeared.

She tried to stand but Alistair was right there, holding her down. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Reece looming over Colton as he tried to get to his feet. There was a cold gleam in Reece’s eyes. Sunlight poured through the hole in the canopy overhead, illuminating the two of them in the middle of the clearing, making each of them glow with a soft yellow light.

“You two,” said Alistair into Haven’s ear as he pressed her head to the ground. His breath reeked of tobacco and rotten meat. “You two are always in the way. Ever since the beginning. I’m going to consume you now. I’m going to drain you until you are an empty husk—a dried-out shell of a person. I’m going to take everything from you.”

Haven struggled under his iron grasp. “You’ve tried that,” she said. Her hair fell down over her face, obstructing her view. “I’m still here.”

“Your parents aren’t,” said Alistair.

Nearby, Colton screamed. Haven couldn’t get the hair out of her eyes to see what Reece was doing to him.

“Your brother isn’t,” continued Alistair. “Probably dead in the jungle somewhere, along with the rest of your little crew. I wanted each of them so very much. There is power in you, in all of you, even if you are collectively no smarter than a rock.”

There was a rustle from the bushes nearby, and Alistair’s attention snapped away from Haven.

“Not dead,” said someone nearby. The accent was unmistakably Russian. “Here for you, Ugly Man.”

Haven smiled as Alistair hissed.

Gunshots cracked through the air. Alistair was suddenly gone from her back, and Haven rolled to the side. Marius stood at the edge of the clearing next to the hut, holding a black pistol, Corva and June next to him. They smiled at Haven when she looked over. All three of them wore feedback collars around their necks.

“I’m really glad to see you guys,” said Haven.

“Be glad later,” said Marius. “Get bad guys now.”

Alistair ran at the three new arrivals. Marius aimed carefully and fired. The shots bounced off Alistair’s chest, and he didn’t even notice. The bullets fell to the ground as Alistair reached out.

A knife appeared in Corva’s hand. She stuck it into Alistair’s stomach as he landed on top of her, knocking June and Marius backward. Alistair howled in pain as Corva dug the knife in up to its hilt, twisting it sideways to do as much damage as possible.

Marius was back on his feet in an instant. He grabbed Alistair in a chokehold and pulled him to the side, keeping him close to the ground. Corva rolled over and straddled Alistair, the knife still sticking out of his stomach. She bashed her closed fists against his head over and over, raining down a hailstorm of rapid blows.

Alistair seemed unable to handle the situation. The life strength drained from him as he was assaulted—he suddenly looked like a frail, helpless old man.

Haven stood and was about to join Corva and the others when Reece spoke to her left.

“That’s enough,” he said.

She turned to face him. Reece held Colton like a human shield, his arm locked tightly around his neck. He was feeding off Colton, Haven could tell. A faint aura of dark energy flowed over Colton’s skin and disappeared into Reece’s arms.

“You three,” said Reece, nodding toward Corva, Marius, and June. “Off him. Now. Or Colton’s dead before he hits the ground.”

They complied slowly, backing away from Alistair but keeping their eyes on him as they moved.

“Where’s the rest of your gang?” said Colton, choking out the words under Reece’s grasp. “Trouble in paradise?”

“Shelly and Kai are no longer my concern,” said Reece. “I can’t save them from the path they’ve chosen.”

“Must be hard,” said Colton between gasps for air. “First she wanted me over you…now she picks Kai.”

Reece tightened his grip and Colton’s face turned purple.

“Stop it!” shouted Haven. The blue energy surged back into her, pooling around her fists to form small stars.

“I wouldn’t,” said Reece, turning so that Colton was between them. “Hard to be accurate when we’re so close.”

“What do you want?” she asked.

“You dead, for a start.”

He unleashed a barrage of black plasma in her direction, shooting spheres of molten energy like bullets from a machine gun. Haven ducked and rolled to the side. She sprang to her feet just as someone grabbed her from behind. The rotten stench of meat filled her nostrils and she knew it was Alistair. He seemed to have regained his strength—he squeezed her until she was certain her bones would shatter.

Haven managed a glimpse to the side and saw June and Corva unconscious on the ground, their skin ashen. Dark handprints, like bruises, covered their arms. Marius was nowhere to be seen.

Alistair lifted Haven into the air and shook her like a ragdoll, his hands grasping her neck, laughing the whole time. He lowered her until her feet touched the ground, then loosened his grip enough so she could breathe.

Every ounce of energy she tried to bring to the surface evaporated into Alistair’s skin. He was taking in everything she produced, and then some. The strength drained from her legs and her head swam with dizziness.

Alistair took in a deep breath and let it out dramatically. “Now that’s the stuff,” he said. “Phoenix energy. Nothing else quite like it.”

Haven looked at Colton. He stared back at her, but his eyes were slowly closing as Reece drew out his life energy.

“Well,” said Alistair, “at least they get to go together.”

Haven heard light footsteps run into the clearing from the jungle.

“You let go of my sister!” shouted a small voice.

Alistair turned with a smile to look at Noah.

“Hello there, little one! Wait your turn. I’ll be with you shortly.”

Alistair’s smile turned to a small frown as he watched the boy. Sweat beaded from Noah’s forehead as he glared at the man holding his sister. His body shook with rage, his fists clenched at his sides, as a soft white light glowed from his chest.

“Noah,” said Haven weakly.

But Noah was beyond hearing. All of his focus was on Alistair.

“Now, son,” he said, gently releasing Haven and stepping toward the boy. “Your sister is just fine, see?”

Noah made no indication that he saw. Haven swayed on her feet. She slapped at her temples, trying to force the hazy fog from her mind.

The ground began to shake. Alistair looked up at the canopy as the entire jungle quivered. The light on Noah’s chest grew to cover his entire body.

Reece dropped Colton to the ground and went to Alistair. He pulled him toward the edge of the clearing.

“We need to leave.”

Alistair shrugged him off and moved toward Noah. “Now listen, little boy,” he said in a commanding voice. “I demand that you—”

Alistair’s demand was cut short when Noah opened his mouth and screamed. A beam of white-hot plasma shot out and burned a hole through the middle of Alistair’s stomach and out of his back.

He stared down at the hole, blinking in astonishment.

Reece was at his side again, pulling him away. They vanished into the dense jungle. Noah was still shaking, and the entire jungle with him.

A tree exploded off to one side, sending splinters slicing through the clearing. Haven covered her head and her arms were peppered with chunks of wood. She looked at her skin—slivers of wood stuck out from her forearms, some of them stuck in down to the bone. Haven yanked them out hastily, breaking off the ones that wouldn’t come out—hopefully they would burn up the next time she used her ability.

Noah hadn’t even noticed. The splinters evaporated upon contact with his skin, which glowed a brilliant white, sheathing him in a ghost-like shell. Haven reached out for him but her fingers burst into flame when she was still a few feet away. She recoiled and blew out the fire.

She wanted to chase after Alistair and Reece, but she couldn’t just abandon her brother.

Colton ran up to her as the trunk of another tree exploded. “We have to get out of here!” he shouted, turning her away from the flying splinters.

“I’m not leaving him!” she yelled over the noise.

Noah’s eyes were pure white. His feet lifted several inches off the ground, and he hovered there, motionless. The dirt around his feet floated up with him and swirled around his legs in slow motion.

“Help the others,” said Haven quickly, motioning to June and Corva. They were on the ground at the edge of the clearing, awake and trying to stand up. “Something’s happening to him, Colton. He’s about to do something, and I don’t know what. We need to be ready.”

“Ready for what?”

“Anything. Protect them! I’ll try to contain it from here.”

She could tell it pained Colton to leave, but he nodded and ran over to Corva and June. He helped them up and led them farther away from Noah.

“You need help?” said Marius, appearing at Haven’s side.

She jumped in surprise. “Marius! No, go with the others! You can’t help at this point—”

Noah suddenly stopped shaking, and the ground went still. He hovered in the air, eyes wide and unseeing.

“Too late,” said Marius.

“Colton!” screamed Haven.

A white sphere of energy grew from Noah’s chest, expanding quickly to swallow his small body. It swelled outward, hesitated, then collapsed back into his ribcage. He took a deep breath, as if he had been underwater for minutes, and screamed.

The energy exploded from his chest like a detonated bomb. Haven’s eyes were open, but all she saw was white. She grabbed Marius and pulled him close, then did everything she could to shield them from the blast. They crouched on the ground as the first blast hit, washing over them like a wave.

She had managed to produce a small dome of blue plasma—just enough to cover her and Marius, before the energy hit them. The white flames crawled over the protective shield, trying to burn through as they flowed outward in all directions. The ground beneath Haven’s shoes went from warm to searing hot, and small curls of smoke drifted up from the stones scattered under the protective shield.

“What we do?!” shouted Marius. “What about the others?!”

Haven didn’t answer him. She focused every ounce of energy on keeping up the shield. If it failed, she had no doubt they would be evaporated in the blink of an eye. Through it all, she felt sadness for Noah—she longed to hug him, to calm him down and to tell him everything was going to be alright, even if she didn’t really believe it herself. She couldn’t imagine how scared he must be, like a prisoner at the whim of an all-consuming power.

As for the others, Haven could only hope they had gotten to safety in time.

29

The blast hit Colton, but he could only contain the first fraction of its immense power. He reached his storage limit after only a millisecond of exposure to the energy. Noah was still emitting, so Colton had to rapidly discharge whatever he took in just to deflect the rest, then draw more before he was cooked from the inside-out. What resulted was a sort of energy-breathing process that worked well enough to keep his skin from peeling off his bones—Colton was filled to capacity in one instant, then he immediately released that energy, buffering his body from the burning plasma that was constantly trying to turn him into a puddle.

He stumbled through a world of white, as if he were navigating through a terrible blizzard. The air swirled around him, whipping his hair and pulling at his clothes. He walked toward where he had last seen June and Corva, but couldn’t pick out their exact location because all landmarks had been totally annihilated by Noah’s energy storm. The trees were gone, the plants were vapor, and the ground under Colton’s feet had solidified into something harder than concrete. The soles of his shoes felt soft every time he took a step.

The farther he got from Noah, however, the more visibility he gained. Shapes began to distinguish themselves in the chaos—first a tall, dark silhouette that turned out to be a tree, bending away from the force of the blast. At the base of the trunk, on the far side, June and Corva huddled together for protection. Their clothes were in tatters and patches of skin on their arms and legs were burnt red and black.

Colton hurried over and knelt beside them, trying his best to increase the range of his output to shield all three of them from the heat. Noah’s range dropped off substantially past the tree, however, which was probably the only reason June and Corva were still alive. They each still wore a feedback collar, and so they were only able to absorb. Taking in too much energy without being able to release would kill them slowly and painfully.

They remained there for a long time, Colton cycling his input and output, pushing back against the constant waves from Noah’s outburst. After several more minutes, the tree above them groaned back into place as the wind subsided. With a long, low rustling of leaves, the jungle quieted down.

An afterglow of white light clung to the area, dimming only slightly as Colton helped June and Corva from the ground. All three of them had suffered minor burns, mostly on their exposed limbs. Corva’s khaki pants were nearly black, with holes dotting the length of both legs. The white t-shirt she wore was similarly charred, and the lightweight green jacket over her shirt looked like someone had held it up and fired a few rounds of buckshot through the cloth.

June was a little shaky, but seemed to be okay otherwise. Her jeans and black blouse were in better shape than they should have been, suffering only minor rips and tears. She brushed her hair back and pinned it into a small ponytail as the three of them looked around the small clearing.

“Where are the others?” asked June.

Colton walked back to where he thought Noah had been standing. He, Marius, and Haven were all gone.

“Alistair and Reece, too,” said Corva.

Colton looked around quickly. The small clearing had become one large, flat piece of land without a single tree, plant, or stone. The ground had hardened into a solid mass and the canopy above was gone. Noah’s explosion had completely cleared the area for fifty yards in every direction, except one.

The small hut that had once rested on the edge of the clearing was now half a hut, and stood alone a short distance away. Part of the homemade building had been evaporated in the energy storm. The other half sagged weakly under its own weight, threatening to collapse at any moment.

Someone groaned behind what remained of the hut, and Colton ran over to see who it was.

Wes was on the ground, blinking up at the sky like he was blind. He saw Colton and immediately snapped back to reality. He hopped up on his hands and feet in a flash, a wild look in his eyes.

“What happened?” he demanded. “Answer me!”

When Colton failed to do so as quickly as Wes desired, he threw himself forward, one of his arms outstretched to catch Colton across the neck.

There was a tremendous GONNGGG as June swung a cook pot through the air and hit Wes on the head. He crumpled to the ground in a heap, a small stream of blood trickling from his scalp.

Colton turned to June, who tossed the cook pot on top of the unconscious man.

“Only thing that big of a pot is really good for, anyway,” she said.

Corva stooped down and picked something from the ground, then knelt next to Wes. She lifted his neck and slipped an open feedback collar under his head, then brought the ends together and snapped them shut. A small red light switched to green as small needles lining the inside of the collar burrowed into his neck.

“Where did you find that?” asked Colton.

“Next to the cook pot,” she said, then looked around slowly. “They couldn’t have all been, you know…”

Colton shook his head but couldn’t answer. A lump crawled up his throat that he was trying hard to keep down. The thought of so many dying so suddenly was too much to comprehend.

He coughed and looked down at Wes. “We should take him with us, just in case. If he had some kind of deal with Alistair, it might be worth it to keep him close.”

“Where are we going?” asked June.

“Alistair and Reece were leaving by the time Noah really got started,” said Colton. “I wouldn’t be surprised if they managed to weasel their way to safety. There’s a small chance they took Haven and the others.”

“Colton,” said Corva softly. “You know that’s a slim-to-none chance.”

“But still a chance. Whatever happened, they aren’t dead. I can feel that Haven is still alive. There’s a fence surrounding the perimeter of this valley. Even if we get through that, what are we supposed to do? We don’t know where we are or how far it is to the nearest town.”

“Brazil,” said Corva.

“What?”

“We’re in Brazil.”

“How do you know that?”

“Abiu trees,” she said. “Pouteria caimito. The fruit is edible. It grows all throughout the Amazon rainforest.”

“Yeah, but the Amazon stretches all across the top of South America.”

She shrugged. “I also may have heard one of the guards say it when they put us in the helicopter.”

Colton looked around. “Great,” he said without enthusiasm.

June had been twisting a small twig in her hands, studying the edge of the clearing in every direction. “The only way out is back,” she said. “We need to go back to the Helix compound and steal a helicopter.”

“I can’t fly,” said Colton. “Can either of you?”

Corva shook her head.

“So we recruit someone,” said June with a mischievous grin.

“I’d like to get this collar off,” said Corva, pulling at the ring around her neck.

Wes groaned on the ground and his eyelids fluttered open.

“Wha—?” he said, shaking his head and blinking heavily. He noticed the collar around his neck and sat up straighter. He tugged at the metal, then let out a sharp yell of pain as the needles pulled at his skin.

Colton knelt and put his hand on Wes’s shoulder. The sun was beating down intensely, and Colton drew from the heat and forced it through his palm, into Wes.

“If I keep going,” said Colton, “you’ll burn up from the inside.”

Wes lunged for him but Colton ducked out of the way, then increased his energy output and crushed Wes’s shoulder in his grip.

“Really?” he said, taunting. “You can’t ditch your energy. Are you sure you don’t want to behave?”

Wes gave it another few seconds, trying to fight, then sank down in defeat. “Alright!” he said, shrugging away from Colton’s hand. He sighed. “Alright. What do you want from me?”

“I know you had a deal with Alistair. As long as you kept offering up other Sources and Cons, he would let you live. I’m betting you know the best way into Helix.”

Wes didn’t answer. He looked up at June, then Corva, then back to Colton. He flicked his shaggy hair back from his eyes and spit on the ground. Colton punched him in the nose, not hard, but hard enough.

Wes’s head snapped back and blood spurt from his nostrils. He waited like that, looking up at the sky, sniffing back blood. When he finally lowered his head, he glared at Colton with a mixture of malice and defeat.

“Fine,” he said. “There is a way. Then you take off this collar and we see which one of us is the better man.”

“I already know the answer to that,” said Colton. He yanked Wes to his feet and winked. “But we’ll do it anyway.”

He motioned for Wes to walk out in front. After another frustrated glare, he led Colton, June, and Corva into the jungle, toward the Helix compound.

30

The solid field of white outside Haven’s small protective shield dimmed slowly, like the aftermath of a camera flash, until Noah’s unconscious form came into focus on the ground a few feet away.

Marius stood next to Haven, gaping at the destruction. She ran to her brother and knelt beside him, gently brushing his hair back from his forehead and checking the temperature of his skin. He was warm, but not burning. A thin sheen of sweat covered his body, but he wasn’t pale. His deep breaths came slowly, his small chest rising up and down with a comforting rhythm. Haven hummed softly to him as she ran her fingertips through his hair.

Marius grunted and walked around them. The ground had solidified into a flat black platform. He stomped on it with his feet, testing its strength. All of the plant life in the immediate area was gone. It was just the three of them—Haven, Noah, and Marius. There was a sound of rushing water somewhere close.

“Where everybody go?” asked Marius.

“I don’t think they went anywhere,” said Haven. “I think we did.”

“Don’t try to fool Marius,” he said, wagging his finger at her. “Not the time for that.”

“We were on the western side of the Helix compound before,” said Haven. She stood and looked to the horizon, away from the sun, then found the mountain with the small speck of glinting glass at its peak. “Now we’re on the eastern side.”

He rubbed his scruffy chin as he tried to work it out. “How that happen?”

“Noah teleported us here.”

Marius laughed deeply, shaking his entire body. He put both hands over his round belly as the sound echoed against the trees. Suddenly he stopped, then looked seriously at Noah. “Is the only way it could happen,” he said in his thick Russian accent. “We don’t just fall asleep and wake up here. The running water, that was not where we were before.”

“We must be near a river or stream,” said Haven. She looked down at Noah and shook her head. “He must have been terrified.” Nathaniel had been able to rip Haven through time to show her a distant future, one where humanity was destroyed. All that remained were the ruined husks of dead cities. If one Nova could move through time, was it such a stretch to believe Noah could move through space?

“Everybody was terrified,” said Marius. “Marius most of all.” He tried to scratch his neck but his hand hit the metal feedback collar. He tapped it thoughtfully. “Marius would be a lot more help without this.”

“If Colton were here I could melt it off,” said Haven. Her eyes glassed over as she thought of him. She knew he was alive because she felt his presence. She couldn’t see him, though, not like she had before. There was only a simple knowledge that he was alive. Marius growled and looked away, trying to hide the fact that he was troubled. “They’re alive,” said Haven.

He perked up a little. “Really? How you know for sure?”

“Because I know Colton is alive. And I know he wouldn’t let anything happen to the others.”

Marius breathed out and nodded, clearly relieved. “Hey, why you don’t try without him?”

“Try what?”

“Melt the collar,” he said, pointing at the metal ring around his neck.

“Colton’s came off when we were at unity,” she said. “I would be afraid to hurt you.”

“Oh, please,” he said. “Marius can take the heat. He is in kitchen all the time.”

Haven tried not to smile.

“What?” he said. “I say it wrong?”

“Close enough.”

She left Noah reluctantly as Marius walked over. He lifted his chin so she could wrap both hands around the collar.

“This might burn,” she said. “I don’t know if it will work since you can’t absorb anything.”

“Always glad I was Source and not Con,” he said. “No regrets now.”

“Here goes,” said Haven.

Without any effort, the ability sprang to life within her. Where before it had taken great concentration to conjure the mental image of the blue sphere of energy, now it filled her mind’s eye as if it had always been there; as if there was never a question about her right to wield the Phoenix energy.

Her hands grew warm on the collar as blue light sheathed her vision.

There was something else inside her, swirling around beside her very essence. It was no longer alien to her; not a foreign presence to be feared. Instead, it felt like an enhancement to her own abilities—almost like an upgrade. It was as if she had been designed with the possibility of the upgrade in mind, like there had always been a spot for it, yet without it she was still fully functional.

In that moment, Haven truly understood the Phoenix energy.

It was not an entity, nor a parasite. Instead of being something external that had merged with her body, it was a wellspring of power from within, allowed to bloom because it was needed to balance the Void. When Elena wielded the Phoenix energy, it was an unknowable concept to Haven. She pictured it like a weapon given to the most worthy—or a better bullet for a gun that already existed.

Now she realized it was something more—something deeper and more personal. It had always been a part of her, but had lain dormant until it was needed.

The existence of the Phoenix energy was simple to explain, now that Haven understood its nature. It was all about balance, just as Elena always said. There would always be a Phoenix as long as there was a Void. One balanced the other, as it always had long before Haven was born.

“Ow!” said Marius.

“Sorry!” said Haven, realizing her concentration had slipped. She had accidentally let out too much heat from her fingertips and singed the skin of Marius’s neck. “I think I almost have it. Once it starts to melt, you have to do your best to keep it from burning your skin.”

“Marius can deflect,” he said.

The metal feedback collar glowed bright orange from the constant energy Haven pumped into its casing. Its donut shape softened under her hands. She squeezed into it like it was hard dough until she pinched all the way through, creating a gap in the pliable metal. It glowed like a red-hot poker as she separated the two ends enough so Marius could step forward. Sweat dripped freely down his face.

One end of the collar hit his neck and he yelped. A glob of molten metal dripped down and plopped onto his shoulder, burning quickly through his sleeve. He flicked it aside as he would a bug. His hand was covered in orange flame, but not from the collar. Marius shaped his hand into a gun, then blew out the flame with a wink at Haven.

“Nice going,” he said with a big grin. He wiped sweat from his forehead and let out a heavy sigh of relief, then delicately rubbed his neck. “Those needles, they were worst part.”

“I didn’t know it would work,” said Haven.

“Well, now you know. We should find the others and get rid of their collars, too. Then maybe take care of Alistair once and for all.”

“Yes,” said Haven as she walked back to Noah. “No more running. Whatever he’s planning, we’re going to stop him before it happens. We’re going to stop him forever. I’m not going to spend a lifetime waiting for something bad to show up on the news before I can do something about it.”

Marius knelt down and gently picked up Noah, then rested him over one shoulder. He patted the boy’s back. “He will be fine. Strong boy. Good, strong boy.”

Haven brushed the back of her hand against Noah’s cheek, and smiled. He slept soundly, and she hoped without nightmares.

Marius walked off first, Noah on his shoulder, heading east toward the Helix compound. Haven followed after them, mentally reaching out to Colton as she walked, trying in vain to strengthen their connection.

31

Twenty minutes after leaving the spot where Noah had overloaded, Colton realized where Wes was leading them.

“We’re heading back to the smokestacks,” he said.

“Can’t pull one over on you.”

“It’s a crater. Reece and I tore the whole thing down.”

“Is that right?” asked Wes, a faint trace of smile on his lips. He stretched his neck and gently adjusted the feedback collar, then sighed. His long hair was slicked back with sweat, giving his face a sharp, hawkish appearance. “You sure about that?”

Colton remembered seeing a deep chamber below the floor when the place was collapsing. He also remembered that the long room with the generators went a lot farther toward the Helix compound beyond the area right below the smokestacks.

“It can’t be safe down there,” said Colton. “Even once we get past the compromised foundation, Alistair’s men will be crawling all over the place.”

“Oh, I don’t know about that,” said Wes. “Depends on where they’re looking. Besides, you’ve noticed the cameras.” He pointed at a spot fifty feet from the ground. A small black box was bolted to a thick tree trunk. A reflective lens in the center of the box tracked Colton and the others as they passed by the tree. “Alistair was only using them to observe,” continued Wes. “But now he’ll know exactly where to find you, and he won’t waste any time regrouping and coming back.”

Colton looked at June and Corva, who followed a short distance behind. Both of them were sullen, trapped in their own worlds.

“But he could take us easily right now,” said Colton. “Especially with those two in collars.”

“Which kinda makes you nervous why he doesn’t, right?” asked Wes. “Maybe he’s busy with your girlfriend, getting to know her in that special way.” He wiggled his eyebrows.

Colton wanted to rip those brows right off Wes’s face, but there could still come a time when he needed the scumbag. If it turned out he wasn’t needed, then the eyebrows were coming off.

“In other words,” said Wes, “we should get underground as soon as possible.”

Colton dropped back and walked with June and Corva.

“What’s he talking about?” asked June.

“He’s taking us to the smokestacks—well, where they used to be, anyway. He says there’s a way we can get to the compound by following the underground power plant.”

“You trust him?” asked Corva.

“Not even a little, but he did bring up a good point about the cameras.”

“I’ve been watching those, too,” said June. “They’re tracking our movements.”

“It’s only a matter of time before Alistair and Reece come back,” said Colton.

“So we go underground,” said Corva.

“Exactly.” An uncomfortable thought occurred to him when Corva said that word. “Listen, I don’t really know the best way to ask this. When you two were at the Dome, and Alistair and the others came for you…”

A shadow fell over June’s face and she looked away. It took a moment, but Corva finally answered.

“They destroyed almost everything,” she said. “The dormitories, the workshop, the training room, everything.”

“And the Grove?” asked Colton, afraid to hear the answer.

“Alistair used it as a bargaining chip when we put up a fight. He said he would torch it if we didn’t go with him.”

Colton waited but she didn’t continue. “What happened?”

June answered. “We agreed. He put the collars on all of us, then torched it anyway.”

For a minute, Colton couldn’t speak. There was a great emptiness in his chest, like all the air had been pulled out of his lungs, even though he could still breathe. “It’s…it’s gone?”

“All of it.”

“Even the willow,” said Corva. “Some of those trees were ancient, Colton. Older than we can ever know. They came from the Old Home, long before any of us were born.”

They walked in silence for a long time, each one a prisoner to their own gloomy thoughts.

“What is the Old Home?” asked Colton.

“She lived there when she was just a girl,” said Corva. “She was very young when it was destroyed, and then she and a few others moved to America.”

“It was in Europe somewhere?”

“Poland,” said June.

Corva looked at her in surprise. “You know about the Old Home?”

June nodded. “Oui. My great-grandfather was there when it fell. He had long been a resident.”

“What was it?” asked Colton. “What happened? How was it destroyed?”

“Which question first?” asked June with a smile. “It was a place of safety for our kind, much like the Dome here in America. Sources and Conduits built it together, deep within the Tatras Mountains. My great-grandfather was not among the original builders, of course. The Old Home had been there for centuries before him. It was built by the persecuted during a period of heavy bloodshed. At times it was empty because it was not needed. But during the years of great strife, it was always occupied.”

“When was it destroyed?” asked Colton.

“January of 1940.”

“World War Two,” said Corva.

“Yes. Germany invaded Poland, sweeping across the country like wildfire. Resistance fighters were overwhelmed by German forces and fled to the mountains, where our kind tried to protect them. We lost. The Old Home was completely destroyed.”

“Your great-grandfather…” said Colton.

“He survived, but not for long. He and a few others marched into Germany and did as much damage as they could to the Nazis before he and the rest of his friends were killed.”

“So he knew Elena?” asked Corva.

“It is possible, though at that time, there were hundreds of people in the Old Home. Refugees from all over the world sought safety in those mountains.”

“If there were so many, why didn’t they fight back?” asked Colton.

“There were no leaders,” said June. “The bravest of them left with my great-grandfather to fight in Germany. The rest were farmers, office-workers, scientists—they were not soldiers. It was a slaughter.”

Colton thought about that for a long time, his blood slowly boiling at the notion of such evil existing in the world.

“Evil flourishes when good people do nothing,” said Corva. “It’s the way of the world.”

“Well, we’re going to do something,” said Colton with clenched teeth. “And then we’re going to teach others how to do it, too. I’m sick and tired of people like Alistair steamrolling over the rest of humanity because they want a few extra diamonds in their watches or a few more minions to do their bidding. I’m through with it.”

“Hey!” called Wes from up ahead. “This is it.”

He stood at the edge of the enormous sinkhole. Colton stopped a few feet away from Wes and knelt down at the ledge. The ground had collapsed at a slant, creating a rough ramp that led down to the floor of the underground facility. A hundred yards ahead, the ruins of the smokestacks were spread across the jungle ground and over the floor of the power plant below.

“Ladies first,” said Wes, with a broad, sweeping gesture.

Colton shoved him over the edge of the sinkhole, then brushed off his hands. June and Corva joined him at the ledge, laughing as Wes struggled not to fall on his rapid descent down the ramp.

“Wup!” he said a few times as rocks rolled out from under his heels. He looked like he was trying to stay upright on a spinning log in water. “Wup-woah!” he shouted as he lost the struggle and fell forward on the ramp. He turned his body sideways at the last second and landed on his shoulder, then rolled the rest of the way down the bumpy ramp and came to a halting stop at the bottom.

Colton, June, and Corva followed him down easily, taking their time and picking out the safest path. Wes was on his back, groaning, when Colton bent over him and smiled. “No rest for the wicked. Let’s keep moving.”

Colton offered Wes his hand, which Wes almost took. He stopped right before he made contact, as if he thought that Colton might try to feed him more energy. Wes slapped aside the offered hand and crawled to his feet slowly, grunting with pain.

Colton shrugged. “Suit yourself. Lead on, then.”

With a grudging look back at the others, Wes followed a path through the rubble, past the fallen smokestacks.

32

Haven and Marius forged a path as best they could through the dense jungle. She walked in front, burning through obstacles if they could not be pushed aside, but being careful not to give off too much light in case anyone was watching. She had seen no cameras the entire time they had been walking, and she wondered if Noah had teleported them beyond the border of Alistair’s compound.

Marius stayed close behind her, carrying Noah over his shoulder. The little Nova hadn’t stirred since his outburst, but his breathing was comfortingly slow and steady.

As far as she could tell, they were still several miles from the Helix base. The ground beneath them descended slowly after peaking over a sharp rise, and Haven had an unobstructed view of the valley to the west, stretching to the mountain at the heart of Alistair’s compound and beyond. Unless Noah woke up and could replicate his teleport trick while accurately landing them directly on top of the Helix base, Haven doubted they would get there any time soon.

It didn’t matter anyway, because she wouldn’t allow Noah to try it again even if he were willing. He could have been seconds away from burning himself up with that sudden and enormous output, but she wasn’t going to find out how much more he could take by encouraging it a second time.

“Wait,” said Marius.

Haven stopped. The downward slope led to a thick line of trees before the ground leveled out and continued westward. Marius held up a finger and cocked his head, listening.

Haven held her breath until she heard it, too.

“Water,” she said.

They had heard rushing water shortly after recovering from the teleportation, but their path toward the Helix compound took them away from its source. There was definitely a stream or river close by. She was parched, but there was no way she would drink from any water in the jungle. She heard stories in high school about the terrible things microscopic organisms would do if they got into your system.

Haven shivered with disgust. Maybe there was some way they could sterilize the water without evaporating it—boil it with their abilities right before they drank from the stream.

“This way,” said Marius, walking quickly down to the tree line at the base of the slope.

He turned at the line of trees and followed them parallel to the direction they were originally heading, stopping every few feet to listen for the water.

“Through here!” he called back to Haven, then disappeared into the foliage with Noah.

Haven sighed. Marius was always excitable, but she had to assume he was so thirsty that he wasn’t thinking about the swarms of harmful bacteria waiting to curl up in his intestines and kill him. Still, she followed the narrow path he had burnt through the trees and plants. Thin trails of smoke wafted up into the air from half-vaporized leaves and plant stalks.

She emerged from the trees at the shore of a river, wide but shallow. The water rushed quickly over roots and stones, creating the gurgling noise that had led them to the shore.

“Ah ha!” said Marius.

“Ah ha, what?” asked Haven. “We can’t drink it, not unless you want to spend your last few hours curled up in a ball with stuff coming out both ends.”

“Marius hates stuff,” he said, frowning. “And he is dying of thirst. But!”

He scrambled down to the edge of the water and hesitantly tapped it with the sole of his shoe.

“Is not that deep,” he said. “Which is good. Means no hippos. We could build raft, wide raft, so it doesn’t sink too low. Look! River flows toward Helix. We take raft most of the way there, then, boom. We finish Alistair.”

“Marius, we don’t have time to build a raft,” said Haven.

“Why not? Would take longer to walk. Takes hour to build raft, hour to ride to Helix. Would take many hours to walk. See?”

Haven sighed and rested her hands on her hips in the same manner as her mother when she was reluctantly admitting defeat. “Well, how are we going to build it? The tree trunks around here are too thick. They would scrape the bottom and we’d never get anywhere.”

“Ah, but Marius has been thinking about this,” he said. He opened his mouth to continue when there was a shout from a little ways downstream. “Back to the trees!” whispered Marius. “Quickly!”

He and Haven ran up the slope and ducked behind a massive tree just as two men walked out of the jungle farther down the river. They wore dark green military uniforms and Kepi hats pulled low to shield their eyes. Each had an AR-15 rifle slung over his back. They knelt at the edge of the river and scooped water into their mouths with cupped hands, then spit it out while they talked.

“Ugh,” said Marius, a sour look on his face. “Soon they will have stuff from both ends. They speak Portuguese, but I cannot tell what they say. They seem happy.”

Haven watched the men. They seemed to be on some kind of patrol. While one of them washed his face with water from the river, the other walked the bank and surveyed both shores. They weren’t taking it too seriously, so Haven guessed this was either the limit of their patrol or nothing exciting ever happened while they were on duty.

The man by the river stood and slapped the other guard on the back. He gestured farther downstream and both men followed the water around a bend and out of sight.

“What we do?” asked Marius.

“Follow them,” said Haven. “If they’re out this far from the compound, they must have a way to get back. Maybe a car or even a boat.”

“Maybe helicopter drops them off,” said Marius.

Haven hoped not. A helicopter didn’t exactly fit her plan for a covert infiltration into the Helix facility. Still, without knowing exactly what Colton and the others were up to, she might have to sacrifice a surprise attack in favor of getting to Alistair as soon as possible.

She walked ahead, but Marius was looking longingly at the river. “Maybe since they drink it, we could have small sip?”

“They didn’t drink it,” she said. “They rinsed and spit it out.”

“Bah.”

He readjusted Noah on his shoulder and followed Haven down the bank of the river, following after the two guards. They hugged the treeline, just in case they had to duck for cover at a moment’s notice. Haven was certain her ability could melt any bullets before they got close, but with Noah unconscious, she was hesitant to directly confront the guards until she found out exactly what they were up to so far from the base.

There was also the fact that the Phoenix energy hadn’t taken to her immediately. Haven was worried that she would step out to fight and her ability would fizzle at her fingertips, just like it did when she got shot near the smokestacks. She was confident at the moment, like she could wield all the power at her disposal in the blink of an eye—but she couldn’t risk it with anyone’s life but her own. Marius could handle himself, she knew that much, but as long as Noah was comatose, Haven decided not to take any unnecessary risks.

The bank curved as the river turned south. If it was a tributary to the Amazon, Haven knew it eventually fed east into the Atlantic Ocean. Even if they were forced to use a raft, they didn’t want to go that far—just far enough to get close to Alistair’s headquarters. Besides, the longer they stayed in the water, the greater the chance the raft would tip or break apart, leaving them as an easy meal for crocodiles or piranhas or some other jungle nightmare that Haven had never heard about. She had a hard enough time finding the courage to swim in the ocean because of the sharks, let alone the Amazon with all sorts of critters that were all-too-eager to pick the meat right off her bones.

She stopped behind the broad trunk of a tree when she spotted the two guards farther downstream. They had stopped next to a small hut on the bank of the river. It was little more than four corrugated metal walls held together by bailing wire with a thatched roof made from dead palm fronds. A small fire burned next to the hut near the water, and a spit skewering a bony fish rested over the fire. A hammock was strung between two trees near the edge of the jungle, and one of the men promptly went to it, unstrapped his rifle, and climbed in. He rested his AR-15 across his chest and pulled his cap down to cover his eyes.

The other guard whistled a tune to himself as he turned the fish on the spit over the fire.

“Those walls make good deck for raft,” whispered Marius.

The guard near the fire suddenly froze. He looked in Haven’s direction for a long time, then continued whistling and turned the spit.

“Did he see us?” asked Haven.

Marius was about to answer when the guard abruptly stood and walked off in the other direction.

“Where he’s going?” asked Marius.

“There’s something in the water past the hut,” said Haven. “Some kind of big tube.”

She leaned out from behind the tree to see around the hut. The guard walked to the edge of the water farther downstream. He tugged at the corner of a large patch of vines, pulling it back like he was peeling a blanket from a bed. Haven realized it was a woven covering used to camouflage the end of a wide tube that ran from the river into the jungle. It wasn’t dumping sludge into the water, as Haven expected. Instead, water was feeding into the tunnel, heading directly toward the Helix compound.

Haven turned to Marius but he held up a quick finger.

“Oh, no,” he said, shaking his head. “Marius is fine with raft. Raft is good plan. No water slides.”

“Come on, Marius! It’s our fastest way to get there.”

“You don’t know where it leads,” he said, still shaking his head. “Could dump into big room where all the toilets flush. You want to be stuck in room like that?”

“They’re probably using it for cooling, or for hydroelectric power,” said Haven. “Why else would they need so much? If there are no places to get out before we get to the end, then we make our own. Don’t tell me you can’t burn a hole through a flimsy piece of plastic.”

“Marius can burn hole through anything,” he said. “But that doesn’t mean he likes the idea of riding down dark tunnel.”

“You won’t be alone,” said Haven. “Come on, let’s get past those guards.”

She stepped out from behind the tree but the guards were gone. The hammock was empty, swaying gently back and forth from the two trees. The guard by the pipe had left the opening uncovered, but he was nowhere to be seen.

“Get ready,” said Haven.

Marius came up next to her. “Ready for wh—”

The first bullet hit a rock near his left foot and sent shards of stone into the air. Marius and Haven dove into the trees as a volley of bullets cut through the air overhead. The bullets thunked into the nearby trees and ricocheted off rocks on the ground.

Marius rolled Noah off his shoulder and rested him on the opposite side of the closest tree, away from the guards. He risked a quick peek around the trunk. Three bullets sank into the bark and he quickly retreated.

“They may already know we’re here,” said Haven, peeking out from behind the tree. A bullet hit the trunk a second later. Shards of splinters burst from the impact point and scratched her face. She quickly pulled back.

“They are advancing,” said Marius. “There are two of them. How hard could it be?”

There was a rustling noise in the bushes behind them, and three more guards emerged from the jungle.

“So much for easy,” said Marius.

He shouted as the three guards opened fire, and the jungle exploded with orange and blue flames.

33

Wes picked his way through the rubble carefully, avoiding the parts of the floor that had fallen down to the chamber below. Colton still hadn’t gotten a good look at what was beneath the first underground level where he had his fight with Reece. Every time he passed a hole in the floor, he could only see darkness in the deep space of the second level.

He followed Wes slowly, making sure his prisoner wasn’t leading the others too close to an unstable patch of concrete. The floor had cracked under Colton’s feet once or twice, causing his heart to pound and making him think, This is it, I’m going down. So far, however, the floor had remained intact as the four of them walked in silence.

June followed behind Colton, stepping where he stepped. She kept her arms crossed, presumably to avoid the temptation to steady herself on anything that might give way. Corva was last in line as they walked through the shadows cast down by the towering trees at the edge of the sinkhole above.

After they had passed the fallen smokestacks, the sinkhole continued for another half-mile. The jungle floor had fallen through to the first underground level, leaving broken trees and clumps of plants for Colton and the others to walk over. Pieces of melted and shattered machinery jutted up from the soil and roots. The roof above was open all the way to the sky, the canopy having been destroyed when the jungle floor collapsed.

The room that made up the first underground level went farther than Colton had originally thought. They passed the point he had reached when Reece showed up holding Noah hostage, and there was no end in sight as he looked in the direction of the Helix complex. Intact machines dotted the middle of the room at regular intervals all the way to the hazy distance. Emergency lamps glowed red along the ceiling, dimly illuminating a path between the concrete wall and the machinery in the center of the room.

Colton hesitated when Wes reached the point where the roof overhead had not collapsed. The comforting warmth from the rays of the setting sun disappeared and all that remained was the antiseptic red glow from the emergency lamps. Wes stopped when he noticed the other three weren’t following him.

“It’s this way,” he said.

“What’s below us?” asked Colton.

“Below what?”

“There’s another level down there, beneath this one.”

“That’s nothing,” said Wes. “Useless. Just a bunch of pipes. Sewage!” he said, grasping for the word. “Nasty business. Best to stay up here.”

“We’ll run into guards sooner or later,” said Corva.

“There’s a utility tunnel up ahead,” said Wes. “Feeds off this main room. It will bypass the first two guard posts.”

“How many are after that?” asked Colton.

Wes shrugged. “One or two.” He gestured for the others to follow. “Come on.”

June looked up hesitantly as she passed Colton. The edge of the roof overhead where the sinkhole stopped was covered with roots and vines—probably the only things keeping it from crumbling down to the floor of the long underground room. Corva passed next, giving Colton a “You sure about this?” look. He grudgingly nodded as he followed after her.

Wes continued on with renewed vigor, hurrying ahead, then stopping to wait impatiently for the others. Eventually he brought them to a door on the wall with no handle.

“Through here,” he said.

“How do we get in?” asked Colton.

Wes crossed his arms. “I hope that’s not a serious question.”

Colton clenched his teeth and glared at him. Wes stepped aside and gestured to the door. If Colton hadn’t been so heated, he would have gently melted out the area around the hinges and swung the door open. Instead, he put his palm against the metal and let out a tremendous burst of pressurized air. The door blew inward as if it had been hit with a battering ram, breaking into a dozen pieces that stuck into the far wall like throwing knives.

“I usually just kick them,” said Wes as he walked past Colton. “But that works, too.”

Beyond the doorway was a long hall that ran parallel to the main room. Huge electrical boxes were bolted to the right side of the wall at hundred-foot intervals. Wes hurried down the hallway, not bothering to check behind him to see if the others were keeping pace.

Colton walked next to Corva, and June followed a short distance behind.

“There’s something I’ve been wanting to ask you,” asked Colton.

“Have at it,” said Corva.

He glanced back over his shoulder to make sure June was out of earshot. He wasn’t sure how she felt about not yet finding her counterpart, and he didn’t want to risk upsetting her.

“It’s about unity,” he said, then hesitated.

“Yeeessss?” said Corva, motioning for him to speed it up.

His cheeks flushed with heat when he finally asked the question. “Is it always so awesome?”

Corva smiled and brushed a strand of short white hair behind her ear. Colton thought that despite all they had been through, her pretty features had only been enhanced. Yet she looked a little older somehow, if only slightly. When she smiled, tiny lines formed at the corners of her eyes, but the smile didn’t seem to contain much happiness. Even her eyes carried a hint of some deep sadness, of a changing that meant she would never be the same.

“It is,” she said. “Marius and I were older than you and Haven when we first found each other. I was dating this businessman from New York. Real handsome. Tall, too, like you wouldn’t believe.”

“Really?” asked Colton, looking at her in surprise.

“Oh, sure. What, you think a girl would turn down diamond jewelry every other week?”

“Did he know about your ability?”

She shook her head. “Not until the day we broke up. We were shopping for a wedding ring and two armed men tried to rob the place.”

“Tried?”

She grinned. “Let’s just say the fact I was a Con didn’t stay secret for too long after they came busting through the front door with shotguns.”

“What happened?” asked Colton.

Her eyes glazed over as she remembered, then she sighed. “Well, John had been next to the door when they came in. They went right past him, toward the cashier. John looked at me for a split second, and I saw it in his eyes. The fear, the apology.”

“He left.”

She nodded. “He ran right out the door. Didn’t even look back. I made short work of the robbers right after that. Helix had a devil of a time cleaning up that mess, I can tell you.”

Colton watched their guide for a moment. Wes would quickly glance back over his shoulder every so often, then quicken his pace before slowing down again. He pointed repeatedly at the left side of the wall like he was counting something, even though it was just a flat surface along the entire length of the hallway.

“I thought your ex—I mean, John—found out about your ability,” said Colton, “but you said he left before you took down the robbers.”

“I may have chased him down the street a little after it was all over.”

Colton laughed. “What a jerk!”

She was smiling, though. “Turns out it was the best thing that ever happened to me. I met Marius a week later, and we knew instantly that we were counterparts. Well, I did, anyway. Marius took some convincing.”

“Wait a second. You had to convince Marius to give you a chance?”

“Why is that so hard to believe?”

Colton couldn’t think of anything to say to that. “The first time for Haven and I was when we were fighting Kamiko,” he said. “And the next was when she woke up in that lab after she…after she died.”

“Did it feel the same?” asked Corva.

“Yeah, but better. Like we were getting even closer.”

“It feels like that every time. You keep thinking it will stop getting better, but it doesn’t. It creates a bond between both halves that becomes impossible to separate.”

“I already feel it,” said Colton. “It’s like a thin strand connecting us, even when we’re apart.”

“Soon you will be able to sense where she is, even at great distance.”

“Can you sense Marius right now?”

She nodded. “I couldn’t until a few minutes ago. Thinking about being at unity with him and focusing on our connection probably made it easier. I can’t tell his precise location, but I know he’s alive.”

“That’s great!” said Colton. He forced himself to calm down, not wanting to make too much noise. He looked back at June and she gave him a small smile, then he turned to Corva. “How bad is it for the ones who never find their counterpart?”

“They get lonely just like anyone else. Some fall in love even if they never find their true counterpart.”

For some reason, Colton thought of Shelly.

“You said Helix covered up your heroics at the jewelry store.”

Corva nodded. “I don’t know how the company is being run now, but years ago Helix was the agency that kept news of our kind from getting out to the public. Best I can guess, Bernam owned the operation back when he was still trying to be a legitimate businessman. Maybe he thought that if he could control the information, he could use it to his advantage someday. Helix slowly evolved from a wall between our two worlds to something much more sinister. They began tracking Sources and Cons. Soon after that, people started disappearing.”

“Bernam’s medical facility,” said Colton. “The place he took Noah after Haven’s parents were killed.”

“Now I’m guessing Alistair runs Helix. I don’t know what he’s up to, but I know what I saw on the level below us, and it wasn’t good.”

“What did you see?”

“Tanks for holding nuclear waste.”

“What?!”

She nodded. “Portable industrial tanks used for disposing of hazardous material, usually toxic byproducts.”

Wes, who had been steadily increasing his distance from the others, suddenly broke into a sprint down the long hallway.

“Hey!” shouted Colton as Wes got farther ahead. “Slow down!” When he didn’t obey, Colton prepared to fire a small warning burst of energy in his direction. Then Wes took a quick left and disappeared through the solid concrete wall.

“Where’d he go?!” shouted June.

Colton ran to the spot where Wes had vanished. There was a narrow break in the wall, impossible to see unless he was right next to it, just wide enough to slip through sideways. It led to a thin metal ladder attached to the wall. The ladder ran up through a hole in the roof and down through a hole in the floor. Each vertical passage was pitch black, and there was no indication as to the direction Wes had chosen. Colton went to the ladder and looked up, then looked down.

“I can’t see anything,” he said. He knelt down and listened for any noises coming from below.

“We can either chase after him,” said Corva, “or continue on.”

Colton hesitated, weighing the decision.

“If Haven and the others are alive,” said June, “and if Alistair already has them—”

“They’re alive,” said Colton.

“But if Alistair has them,” continued June, “then we don’t have time to go chasing after Wes.”

“The others are more important,” said Colton. “Let’s—”

He stopped when he heard a metal clank somewhere in the darkness below. He quickly put a finger to his lips for the other to be quiet and crouched low to the hole in the floor.

A voice drifted up, echoing from far away. “Help us…”

“Someone’s down there,” he said, already positioning himself to go down the ladder.

“It could be Wes trying to trick us,” said June.

“It was a woman,” said Colton.

“Haven?”

“Could be. Either way, I’m going.”

Without checking to see if Corva and June were following him, he grabbed the ladder and slid into the darkness below.

34

The three guards that emerged from the jungle behind Marius and Haven jumped out of the way as she fired a plasma beam in their direction. The energy cut through the air over their heads, slicing into the trees behind.

Marius tried to stop the guards with a burst of orange flame where they landed, but they hit the ground at a roll and were out of the way by the time the fire hit the dirt. Haven and Marius scrambled around the other side of the tree as the nearest guard rolled to a crouch and raised his rifle. He squeezed off three quick rounds that hit the ground at Haven’s feet. She pulled her legs in and scooted back against the trunk.

A bullet hit her in the shoulder and instantly liquefied. It dripped down her arm like a bright blue raindrop. She flicked it from her wrist and stood up against the tree, squinting into the dense foliage to spot the two guards approaching from the direction of the hut. Sweaty strands of hair were plastered to her forehead, hanging over eyes. She wiped them aside impatiently and finally caught a glimpse of the two guards she and Marius had followed to the pipe. They spread out amongst the trees, moving slowly and quietly, using hand signals to communicate.

Marius yelled and jumped out from behind the tree. He fired a barrage of orange plasma at the three guards standing nearby. The energy hit them dead center, but it didn’t put them down. An electric barrier flickered inches from their skin, as if they were shielded by a transparent protective covering. Haven shot a thin beam of blue energy at one of them and it sizzled across the guard’s chest, inches from his skin. The protective field encasing his torso shimmered and crackled.

She and Marius were surrounded, pinned down against a tree, approached on all sides by armed guards. A rapid succession of bullets thunked into the tree as they ducked down.

“Are they trying to miss us?” shouted Haven.

Marius looked up toward the top of the tree. “Idea,” he said, then pulled Haven away from the trunk. His hands surged with orange plasma and he shoved them against the bark of the tree. “Help me!” he shouted.

Haven pressed her palms against the bark and funneled her energy down to her hands. They sank into the tree as if she were pushing through warm butter. Her hands met Marius’s near the heart.

“Now pull to us!” he shouted.

There was a crack of gunfire and Marius howled in pain, but he kept his hands in the tree. Haven pulled her arms through the trunk with his, like they were slicing through clay with a hot metal wire. When their arms popped free, the massive tree groaned and began to fall.

Two of the guards behind them noticed in time and dove out of the way. The third had been aiming through the sight of his rifle when he realized the tree was falling. He got out half a second of scream before the trunk crushed him into the ground.

Marius reached over his shoulder, grunting with pain. When he pulled his hand back, it was covered in blood. Haven looked at him, the question obvious in her eyes.

“Marius is okay,” he said. “We need to move.”

He scooped up Noah from the ground and charged in the direction of the guard hut. They were completely exposed now that the tree had fallen, leaving behind only a sizzling stump that popped and crackled like a log on a fire.

There were four guards left, two on either side.

Why aren’t they shooting? thought Haven.

It took her a moment to realize they would catch each other in the crossfire, and another moment to wonder why it would matter if they were shielded by those electric fields.

“Aim for their heads!” said Haven.

Marius changed course and charged directly at the two guards nearest the hut.

Haven’s foot caught a root and she fell forward just as one of the guards behind her opened fire. The bullets zipped over her head and struck another guard in the chest. His shield deflected the bullets, but that didn’t stop him from shouting Portuguese curses at the guard who pulled the trigger. The other one yelled back, then he circled around so he could fire without hitting anyone but Haven and Marius.

“The heads!” shouted Haven.

She knelt down and fired a focused beam of plasma at the nearest guard. It hit him square in the forehead and snapped his head back. The gun fell loosely from his hands as he collapsed.

The other guards shouted at each other and ran for cover. Haven had been right—the shields protected the biggest target on the guards’ bodies: their torsos. Their heads and possibly their limbs were unshielded.

Marius laughed as he hit another guard with a carefully-aimed volley of orange energy. He flung out a shotgun blast of plasma globs that slapped against the guard from head to toe. One glob hit his cheek and exploded on impact, sending him flying back through the air and into the bushes.

The two remaining guards emptied their clips, no longer caring if one caught the other in the crossfire. Haven grabbed Marius by the arm and yanked him toward the guard hut while the guards reloaded. Noah bounced over his shoulder, still unconscious. He groaned a little at the rough ride, but his eyes remained closed.

Haven followed the edge of the river as bullets hit the water to her left. She had a vague feeling that one of them hit her in the leg, but when she looked down, she only saw a little puff of smoke where she had felt the sting.

Ahead, the river poured into the mouth of the pipe leading toward the Helix compound, rushing like a water slide at an amusement park. The pipe was wide enough to fit two people side-by-side.

Marius slowed down as they got closer.

“Come on!” shouted Haven.

He shook his head. On the other side of the river, five more guards burst from the jungle. The two remaining on Haven’s side shouted across the water at the new arrivals, formulating some kind of plan. The five of them spread out and ran toward the edge of the river, raising their rifles and preparing to fire.

“No choice!” yelled Haven.

She grabbed Marius by the collar and dragged him to the opening of the pipe. Water rushed by their feet, threatening to yank their legs out from under them.

“Marius will regret this,” he said gloomily as he sat at the lip of the pipe. He pulled Noah off his shoulder and held him in his lap.

A storm of bullets thunked into the side of the pipe as Haven shoved him forward. He let out a long howl as the water carried him quickly away from the river. Haven looked back. The guards were closing in on the pipe, weapons raised. They fired in unison, pelting the side of the pipe and the water at Haven’s feet with bullets. Some of them hit her body, but she barely noticed. They melted on impact and dripped from her skin, sizzling into the water rushing past her ankles.

She double-checked to make sure Marius and Noah were out of sight, then turned to face the guards. Now that the other two were safe, she had no reservations about what she was about to do.

Haven flexed her shoulders and her energy wings erupted from her back, sprouting into the air as if they were spring-loaded. Her eyes burst with blue flame and her hair floated up slowly, as if she were suspended in water.

The guards stopped in their tracks, eyes wide in terror. They tried to run, but there was nowhere for them to hide. Haven’s energy washed over them like fire from a flamethrower. A blanket of blue plasma consumed their bodies, burning through their protective shields.

When it was over, they were curled up on the ground, skin smoking with third-degree burns, muttering to themselves in Portuguese. They paid no attention to Haven as her wings receded and the blue flames evaporated around her body. She walked to the edge of the pipe and sat on the lip, then pushed herself forward and let the water carry her after Marius and Noah.

35

The sides of the ladder were damp and smooth, allowing Colton to slide down easily. The insides of his shoes squeaked softly against the metal until he finally landed with a jolt against the concrete floor.

Colton looked up and saw the small circle of light from the entrance to the hallway above. Two silhouetted heads peered down at him. They disappeared briefly, then a figure gripped the ladder and slid down to the bottom, landing lightly next to Colton.

June stepped to the side as Corva came down after her. “What is this place?” she whispered.

Colton couldn’t begin to guess. The lower-level chamber they were in extended in both directions, just like the one above. Unlike the one above, however, the lower level was dimly lit, illuminated only by the occasional weak light bulb dangling several feet from the ceiling. The light from each lamp barely reached halfway down to the floor. The ends of the room were swallowed by darkness, and the walls of the long chamber were painted in shadow.

Colton’s shoes splashed in thin puddles as he walked cautiously away from the ladder. The walls and floor of the chamber were unfinished concrete, porous like a rock-hard sponge. The floor glistened as the dim light from above reflected off shallow puddles that dotted its surface.

A large, sealed holding tank materialized out of the darkness ahead, and Colton got close enough to see a large biohazard symbol painted on the exterior. Other warning signs were plastered around the sides of the tank, each reprinted in multiple languages. As his eyes grew accustomed to the low light, more tanks became visible in the shadows leading toward the Helix compound.

He froze when a loud clang came from the direction of the ladder—someone had sealed off the passage to the level above. The soft glow of ambient light from the hallway cut off instantly, making it even harder to see in the gloom.

“Well, that’s a bad sign,” whispered June. “They know we’re here.”

Colton risked a little light. His skin slowly illuminated until a faint blue glow covered his entire body.

“Is that Haven’s energy?” asked Corva.

He nodded. “I seem to be able to store it longer than anything else. I thought I was out earlier, but it was like I found a small pocket of it hiding deep inside.”

Someone groaned in the shadows ahead. Colton hurried forward, June and Corva close behind.

“I wish we could take off these collars,” said June.

“If we meet up with Haven, we can melt them off,” said Colton. “That’s how I got rid of mine.”

The groaning got louder until Colton finally saw the source. Between two of the massive holding tanks was a thick metal pipe that ran from floor to ceiling. A rusted ladder clung to the side of the pipe, leading up to a sealed hatch in the concrete ceiling above. A set of metal steps led to a small platform ten feet up the pipe. Shelly and Kai stood on the platform, bound to the pipe with metal razor-wire. The wire cut into their flesh whenever they moved.

Shiny new feedback collars encircled each of their necks.

“Colton!” said Shelly in a trembling, high-pitched voice. “Colton, behind you—”

Whatever was behind him hit him hard. It cracked against his skull like a baseball bat hitting a rock, and he fell forward onto his hands and knees. There was a rush of air, and then silence.

“I didn’t see him!” said June. She and Corva stood back-to-back, scanning the darkness for Colton’s attacker.

Deep laughter came from the shadows—a slow, amused chuckle. Colton recognized it instantly.

“Reece,” he said, wincing as he pushed himself to his feet. His hand felt slick when he drew it away from the back of his skull. The world spun around him when he was upright, and he blinked hard to clear away the blinding white light that exploded in his vision.

“This is it, Colt,” said Reece. His voice came from somewhere to the left. Colton squinted into the darkness but couldn’t see the wall beyond the massive tanks in the center of the room. When Reece spoke again, his voice was coming from Colton’s right. “This is where we finally say goodbye.”

There was another rush of air and something struck Colton’s temple. He grunted and dropped to the ground like a sack of bricks.

“There!” shouted June, pointing into the shadows. “No, wait—”

Reece cackled. Now it sounded like he was standing right behind Shelly and Kai.

“What do we do?!” hissed Corva as she helped Colton to his feet.

“Get—get them down,” he said weakly. “I’ll lead Reece away if I can.”

“Oh, you can, Colt,” said Reece, his voice seemingly coming down from the roof far above. “And then I’ll be back for your little friends. Shelly will go last, because she’s special. Aren’t you, Shell? You care about me, right?” He cackled again, and the sound of his voice moved with astonishing speed through the dark chamber, coming from several spots at once.

Colton stood upright and swayed on his feet, fighting dizziness. He motioned for June and Corva to climb the steps to the platform while he circled away from the vertical pipe, moving slowly in the direction of the Helix compound.

He guessed there was still half a mile or more to go underground before they ran smack into the foundation of Alistair’s facility. Colton doubted he could drag things out long enough with Reece to get close enough to find Marius and Haven in time.

“I thought you cared about her, Reece!” he shouted into the shadows. “It was always hard for you to make friends, let alone get a girl. Why push this one away?”

“She pushed me away!” he hissed from farther down the long room.

Which one of us is leading the other? wondered Colton.

“She went to that big lug out of fear, because I was growing too strong! She’s weak! She couldn’t handle the fact that Alistair chose me instead of her to receive the gift! Kai,” he said bitterly, spitting out the word. “What a waste.”

Colton edged toward the wall as he continued away from the others. Reece’s voice was getting closer, but it was still shifting locations every few seconds.

“What gift, Reece?” asked Colton. “What did Alistair give you?”

There was a moment’s pause. “Oh, Colt.” It was obvious he was smiling even though Colton couldn’t see him. “You almost had me. Everything is amplified when you get stronger, you know? Even emotions. Anger, mostly. I’m really pissed off, like, all the time. Know what I mean?”

“I think so.”

“Don’t condescend me, you traitor!” screamed Reece.

Colton saw him coming that time—a blur in the darkness. Reece gripped a metal pipe in his hands and swung it down as he passed. Colton had time to step to the side, but the pipe still caught him on the shoulder, cracking a bone on impact. He grabbed for Reece but caught only air.

“Tsk, tsk,” said Reece. “You’re sloppy. I’m evolving and you’re moving backward down the food chain. Pathetic.” He laughed again, barely able to control himself.

Colton prodded his skin over the broken bone, grimacing when he found the fracture. He focused his energy to his injured shoulder and heard a soft crack as the bones reset. Next came a noise like the grinding of sand as the bone was fused whole.

A thought clicked in Colton’s mind, and he blurted it out before he could decide if it was a good idea.

“Alistair gave you the Void ability.”

The laughter cut off instantly, and the long room was silent except for the occasional dripping of water from the ceiling. There was no strong light down in the chamber—nothing obvious from which Colton could draw energy. The tanks in the middle of the room were shielded too well to give off any residual heat. He had been able to absorb a small amount from the blow to his shoulder, but he used it up to heal the injury.

“Very good, Colt,” growled Reece. “No point in denying it. I’m sure it’s painfully obvious how strong I’ve become.”

His voice drifted away, moving farther down the room. Colton slowly followed. He looked back, but the platform and the others were lost in the gloom.

“It was driving the old man absolutely bonkers,” said Reece, “having the two abilities ping-ponging around inside. Bernam’s machine worked on him for a time. He turned himself into a Nova, and a powerful one at that. Powerful enough to fight a real Nova and survive, anyway.”

“So what happened?” asked Colton. He wanted to keep Reece talking as long as possible, even though he was clueless about what to do next.

“Alistair is strong enough to keep two abilities inside of him for a time, but they never fully joined together. Like two wolves fighting over a steak in a burlap sack!” He cackled again, lost for a moment in his own hysteria. His voice was at ground-level now, not far ahead of Colton. “He was invincible for a while, but the fight in Australia with Nathaniel knocked him down a few pegs. Things slipped quickly after that. He had to balance out before it killed him. So we swapped. He didn’t want to be without a Con ability completely, but he couldn’t handle the Void much longer, so he switched with me. It slowed down the process, but he’s still on his way out. He has to feed off Sources and Cons just to stay alive. He tried to ditch the Source ability, but it wouldn’t let go, so he had to part with the Void before he ended up like your mother.”

Colton stopped. The sudden mention of his mom hit him like a punch to the gut.

“Oops,” said Reece wickedly. “Did I poke a sore spot? If memory serves, Bernam fed her an extra ability and it totally fried her wiring. I’m sure she told you all about it right before she died. But that was a while ago, right? I’m sure you’re over it by now. Kai sure isn’t, though.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Ask him sometime,” said Reece, his voice closer than ever. “Or don’t. Hard to talk when you’re dead.”

He appeared from behind the nearest tank, leaping through the air. Streams of black energy trailed from his eyes. His lips were curled up like a wild dog’s, exposing slick teeth. Colton turned just as Reece slammed into him and brought him to the ground.

36

The pipe descended quickly as it carried Haven farther from the river. Soon the light from the entrance behind her shrank to a pinpoint, then disappeared, plunging the pipe into utter darkness.

She called out for Marius but the rush of the water made it impossible to hear a response if he was even able to answer. She banged her head against the top of the pipe and leaned back as she slid through the pipe, wishing she had done more ab workouts in her previous life. The inner walls were smooth except for the sharp seams that she bumped over every few seconds. Haven learned to anticipate them and kept her palms off the pipe to keep her fingers from jamming against the raised edges.

The temperature dropped quickly the deeper she went. Goosebumps stood out all over skin until she used some of her energy to heat her core. Then she got the idea to make her own light, and soon her body glowed faint blue.

There wasn’t much to see besides the inside of the pipe and the water rushing beneath her. The light from her skin bounced off the water, creating a kind of psychedelic laser show on the inside of the tunnel.

The pipe dropped suddenly and Haven screamed. She rocketed down at a steep angle, unable to stop her body from spinning around.

The pipe leveled out again and she spun her body so she was sliding feet-first. A tiny speck of light appeared ahead, growing quickly larger. The water flowed faster around her, and Haven realized she was about to reach the end of the ride. The light ahead was suddenly around her as she shot out of the pipe.

Haven fell through the air until she smacked down on her stomach into a pool of water, as if she were trying for a belly-flop. She moaned as she drifted below the surface, hurting too much to move just yet.

A moment later, strong hands grabbed her shoulders and pulled her above the water. Marius patted her cheek gently.

“Hey. No time for nap.”

He stood her up straight. The pool was only a few feet deep, and Haven could easily touch the bottom. She looked at Marius in a panic.

“Where’s Noah?!”

He pointed to the edge of the pool, where Noah sat cross-legged, staring into the water.

“He woke up on the way down,” said Marius. He wiped water from his face and ran a hand over the stubble on his head. “He is not saying much.”

Haven waded through the pool toward her brother. They were in a cavern with walls of jagged rock. The ceiling was far above, hidden in shadow. Massive pipes fed off the pool in which they had landed, leading up to a giant machine on the other side of the cavern. Huge pumps sucked water from the pool and siphoned them through the pipes. The water entered the machine with a loud hiss, then was funneled farther on down the line through smaller pipes that disappeared into the cavern wall. It was some sort of cooling system—but for what, Haven couldn’t tell.

She climbed out of the pool and sat in the gritty dirt next to Noah. She put her arm around his stiff shoulders and emitted a low-grade heat that was enough to dry their clothes but not enough to burn them.

“How you doin’?” she whispered, then kissed his head.

He sat quietly, staring into the pool.

“Yeah,” she said. “I hear you.”

Marius joined them at the edge of the water, using his own energy to dry himself off. He put a little too much juice into it and his sleeve burst into flames. He quickly patted out the fire and sat down with a heavy sigh.

“How’s your shoulder?” asked Haven.

“Already closed up,” he said. “Next time they should try bigger bullets.” He looked around the cavern. “We are below the foundation. If there is no passage, will be hard work to get up top.”

“There has to be some way,” said Haven. “Unless whoever does maintenance on these machines rides the pipe all the way down when there’s a problem.”

Marius chuckled. “It was fun. When Marius was a boy, all he had were hills made of ice. Starts to hurt after a while, and if you are not careful,” he said, making a popping noise, “off comes the skin.” He looked up to the ceiling. “Corva is close.”

“So is Colton,” said Haven. She had become aware of his presence the moment she fell out of the pipe, like a beacon had suddenly been lit in the distance.

“What should we do?”

Haven tried to stand up but Noah reached out for her desperately and pulled her back to him. She hugged him close and he buried his head into her shoulder.

“I’m right here,” she said softly. “I’m not going to leave you.”

They stood up together, his hand in hers, while they explored the cavern. Marius rapped against the big machine with his knuckles, then stuck his ear to the metal and listened intently.

“Hm,” he said. “Not hydroelectric. Look. It funnels the water to new location. Massive amounts, but why?”

“Cooling,” said Haven.

“What?”

“Alistair is using the river as coolant.”

“What for?”

She shrugged. “Beats me, but knowing Alistair, it isn’t for anything good.”

“I see no cameras,” said Marius.

Haven had noticed that as well. The walls of the cavern were rough rock, with dim halogen lamps secured at random intervals, There was no indication that the area was monitored.

“Maybe we catch them by surprise after all,” said Marius.

They walked away from the pool, following the natural path of the cavern. The walls rose steeply on both sides, jagged all the way to the ceiling. The noise from the water pump faded into the background, mixing with the natural sound of rushing water.

The ground turned solid under their feet, and Haven realized they were now walking on poured concrete. The path widened and the walls of the cavern became smoother. Lights were spaced more evenly and more frequently. Finally they came to the end of the path. A small set of metal stairs led up to a closed door.

“There’s our exit,” said Haven.

Marius walked past her and climbed the stairs. Without hesitating, he put his palms on the door and orange flames burst from his hands. The metal softened, then melted around his skin as he carved a big hole in the middle of the door. He stepped through the hole and reached back to help Noah.

“Holy moly,” he said quietly as Haven climbed through the hole.

They stood on a small platform on one side of an expansive room. Unlike the cavern, the walls of the new room were smooth concrete, and the entire space was lit by hundreds of long lamps in the ceiling.

It was a foundry. Huge vats of molten liquid were stirred by enormous iron rods attached to robotic arms. The vats were spaced out across the room like giant checker pieces, each one containing glowing, red-orange liquid. Large iron buckets were lowered by mechanical arms down into the liquid, scooping up the burning material from the vats. A long track suspended from the ceiling carried the buckets through a gaping hole in the far wall.

On one side of the room was a long line of bulky machines that looked to Haven like a combination of a trash compactor and generator.

“Oh boy,” said Marius quietly.

“What?” she asked.

“Those are machines for refining uranium.”

“You mean nuclear uranium?”

“Yes. Is very nasty stuff.”

Haven looked more closely at the machines. They didn’t seem to be connected to the vats in the rest of the room. Instead, they appeared to have their own network of thick pipes that led through an opening in the wall behind them.

“Whatever he does here is not good,” said Marius. “Not good at all.”

“Let’s keep moving,” said Haven. “I want to find the others.”

They took a few steps into the massive room when a voice boomed down from far above.

“I’m so glad you found your way!”

Alistair stood on a small catwalk suspended from the ceiling. He looked like a small child at such a great distance. Haven pulled Noah close to her side as Marius took a few steps away, giving Alistair less of a chance to wipe them both out in a single attack.

“I do hope you enjoyed the ride down,” shouted Alistair.

Haven didn’t wait to hear any more. Blue fire leapt from her skin and shot up toward the ceiling like a flaming whip. Alistair jumped out of the way as the plasma licked against the sides of the catwalk, melting away the metal.

He appeared a few feet away, grinning down at her over the edge, his eyes small specks of black.

“Really now!” he taunted. “You can do better than that!”

Haven intended to do just that. As Alistair leapt over the edge of the catwalk and plummeted toward the floor, Haven’s wings burst from her back. The explosion carried her forward and she hit Alistair before he landed on the ground. She flew across the room as a bright blue streak of light with him in her arms, narrowly avoiding the giant vats. She funneled more power into her wings, using them like rocket boosters to propel her forward, and focused the rest of her energy into her grip on Alistair. He screamed as her hands squeezed his neck and burned past his skin.

Then he suddenly stopped screaming and grinned at her. His eyes were black marbles and the cracks in his burnt flesh pulsed with dark energy.

He moved so fast that he seemed to disappear right in front of Haven’s eyes. Her hands grasped at empty air as he shifted to the side. He crawled onto her back and put her in a headlock, then reached into his pocket and pulled out a long blade. Haven tried to shake him off but his sharp nails dug into the skin of her neck, anchoring the two of them together.

She flipped over onto her back and slammed him against the ground. Alistair howled with laughter as they barreled across the room. The floor cracked beneath him, creating a long trough of broken concrete as Haven picked up speed, pushing more energy into her wings.

Then Alistair was gone and Haven smashed head-first into the wall. It broke against her shoulders as her head punched a hole in the concrete. Alistair grabbed her ankles and yanked her free. He licked his cracked lips as he straddled her squirming body. She tried to struggle against his groping hands, but her head was spinning and all she saw was a bright white light. Blood trickled from her ears and nose.

“Now,” said Alistair with a wet snarl, “now you’re mine.”

37

Colton’s face scraped against the wet concrete floor as Reece dug a knee into his back. He tried to push off from the floor, but Reece seemed to weigh a thousand pounds. He was making himself heavier, forcing all of his weight into the middle of Colton’s back. The air around his body darkened as it swirled into his chest, as if being sucked in by a black hole.

“Interesting thing about this Void ability,” he said, pushing his knee harder into Colton’s back. “It’s like I don’t even have to try anymore.”

He hesitated when the sound of footsteps echoed from the direction of the platform.

“Well, how about that,” said Reece.

He released Colton and stood up as June and Corva came into view. Shelly and Kai were right behind them, breathing hard. Blood ran from deep cuts on their forearms where the razor-wire had sliced into their skin.

Reece held out one arm toward them and opened his hand with a snap. “Sleep,” he said, like a hypnotist commanding a volunteer at a magic show.

There was a rush of air and a sudden absence of sound. For a brief moment, the room was a vacuum. The air was sucked out of Colton’s lungs. June and the others stopped where they were, swaying on their feet. Kai reached out for Reece, then his eyes rolled up into the back of his head as he fell face-first on the ground, unconscious. Corva, June, and Shelly followed right after.

As soon as they were all knocked out, pressure returned to the room and Colton could breathe again. He sucked in a lungful of air and coughed it back out. He stood up clumsily and tried to catch his breath.

Reece’s eyes burned with black fire. Colton kept his distance, searching the room for anything that could give him energy. He placed his palm against the cold metal wall of one of the tanks lining the middle of the long corridor, but it gave up nothing. The dim light sources on the ceiling were useless if he wanted massive output—which is exactly what he needed against Reece.

“There’s nothing down here, Colt,” said Reece, flashing him a knowing smile. “Just you and me. To be honest, it doesn’t look too good for one of us. I’ll let you figure out which one. I hate spoilers.”

He flexed his chest and a thick beam of black plasma shot out of his ribcage. Strands of purple energy arced out from the main beams like lightning and crawled over the insides of the concrete walls.

The beam hit Colton in the stomach, but he was ready. Yet the energy was surprisingly concentrated, and his system quickly reached capacity. It would have been enough power to destroy the long corridor and then some, but he had to focus on distributing the charge so he didn’t spontaneously combust. The air around his body sizzled with the redirected energy. It drifted away from his body as a fine black mist, then dissipated after a few feet.

Reece whistled in appreciation, still funneling the plasma stream in Colton’s direction.

“Not bad, Colt!” he shouted over the crackling energy. The beam showed no signs of weakening as he walked forward.

Colton stumbled to the nearest tank in the middle of the room and reached out for support. A sphere of energy shot down the beam and hit Colton’s chest like a cannonball. The impact threw him back against the side of the next tank. It dented inward and he stuck there, several feet off the ground, pinned to the metal wall by the beam of black plasma.

He focused on shedding all of the excess energy that hit his body, trying to store some in case he got the chance to use it. With great effort, he pushed back from the tank, fighting against the steady stream of plasma.

“Uh oh!” said Reece in a mocking tone. “Are you finally ready to fight back?”

Colton didn’t answer—not with words, at least. He focused all of the incoming energy to his arms. It pooled and formed black spheres over his hands that rapidly grew until they swallowed his arms, then his shoulders. He put his feet against the side of the tank, still held against it by the plasma beam.

He pounded the tank with closed fists, transferring his stored energy into the metal surface. It spread quickly, weakening the tank wall as it worked to consume the material. Colton’s muscles strained as he pushed off from the tank with his feet. For a moment, he thought he wouldn’t be able to escape the flow of black energy. His legs burned as he pushed off the tank, and then he was clear, falling toward the floor. He hit the concrete on his shoulder and rolled away from the tank.

Colton had moved too quickly for Reece to track him with the plasma. Reece let out a startled shriek as the black energy slammed into the tank where Colton had been a second earlier. It hit the weakened metal full-force. The tank wall exploded outward like the petals of a blooming flower. Glowing yellow liquid sloshed within, shining out a sickly aura that painted the room a bright shade of bile.

Colton quickly got to his feet as the yellow liquid gushed forth. The hole in the tank widened, spilling its contents to the floor of the long room.

“You idiot!” shouted Reece as he ran away from the spreading pool on the floor. “Don’t you know what that is?! It’s not corrosive until it hits the air!” He climbed up the nearest tank and stood on top, crouching near the edge as he looked down at the liquid like a nervous gargoyle.

Colton quickly scrambled up the next tank down the line as the glowing yellow liquid quickly covered the floor. The sludge surrounded the base of its own ruptured tank. The metal around the bottom bulged outward as it softened, and the tank slowly melted into the yellow sludge.

Reece glared at Colton. Their tanks were about ten feet apart—too far to jump without risking a fall into the burning yellow liquid. The sludge reached Reece’s tank first, sliding around the base until the tank was an island in the middle of a bright yellow sea. Smoke rose from the metal as the liquid began its corrosive work.

“Way to go,” said Reece, shaking his head.

Colton ignored him. He paced the top edge of his tank, anxiously watching as the yellow liquid encircled the entire base. Soon the metal siding was smoking. The painted symbols on the side bubbled and melted.

He looked around quickly, searching for an escape. The concrete walls on either side of the room were bare. The ceiling was too high to reach, and even if it were lower, there was nothing to grab onto. The floor was not completely covered in yellow sludge from wall to wall, but that wouldn’t be the case for much longer.

“June!” he shouted suddenly, running to the other side of the tank. “Corva!”

They were still unconscious, lying on the ground next to Shelly and Kai four tanks back. None of them stirred as the yellow liquid burned its way across the floor, straight for them.

“What a way to die,” said Reece gloomily. He was now sitting cross-legged, picking at his socks and throwing the fuzz over the side of the tank. He sighed and shook his head hopelessly. “What went wrong, Colt? Why do you hate me so much?”

“Why do I hate you? You have it all mixed up. You were jealous of me.” Reece looked up, confusion evident on his face. “That’s why you went with Alistair in the first place, isn’t it?” asked Colton. “You could have had anything you wanted, but you were an idiot and threw it all away.”

“I had nothing. My parents wished I was never born.”

“Your parents loved you.”

“They hated my guts!” screamed Reece, jumping to his feet. “They hated me!”

“No, they didn’t,” said Colton. “They just hated that you were wasting your life. You had talent, Reece. I saw it. But you thought it would always be there, so you ignored it.”

Reece dismissed him with a wave and turned his back. The temperature in the room was quickly rising, and they were both sweating. Colton swallowed hard as he peered over the side of his tank. The bottom was just starting to melt into the yellow liquid. It wouldn’t be long before the metal gave out and he sank down into the sludge. He wondered if simply being that close to the liquid was enough to get radiation poisoning.

“I never understood why you wanted to hang out with me,” continued Colton. “Or why you envied me. My mother was gone, my father beat me. I didn’t come from money and I was practically an orphan.”

“Not as much as I was,” said Reece. Colton couldn’t tell if tears were streaming down his face or if he was sweating from the heat. “Anyway, that’s over now. I don’t need you or anybody else.”

“What about Alistair?”

“Ha! I’m beyond him now. It’s only a matter of time before he withers and dies.”

Colton looked toward the others in a panic. The yellow liquid was moving over the ground like creeping lava, and it was less than ten feet from their unconscious bodies.

“Is it too late to go back?” said Colton suddenly, turning to Reece.

“Back to what?”

“To the way things used to be between us.”

“You mean friends?” asked Reece. He threw back his head and cackled, then wiped his eyes. “Oh, Colt. That was a good one. Actually, I think I’ll leave you on that tank to die.”

He raised a closed fist at the wall and fired off a burst of yellow-black plasma. It smacked the wall, crumbling the concrete and leaving behind a hole ten feet wide.

Colton’s tank shifted under his feet and he slid to the edge, barely managing to stop from tumbling over. It was sinking lower every second, and soon the yellow liquid would touch his feet.

He looked back at the others, knowing he only had seconds to act. The spreading sludge was inches from Kai’s feet, who was the closest of the four.

Reece crouched at the edge of his tank, preparing to jump for the hole in the wall. He grinned at Colton—an evil grin, filled with nothing but hatred and contempt.

“Goodbye, Colt.”

He jumped and soared through the air, straight toward the hole. When he was halfway there, Colton jumped, too. He had been charging his reserves the entire time his tank was sinking in the liquid. He took a risk absorbing the tremendous amount of energy radiating from the sludge, but had kept it close to the surface for instant use—and in case it would have done any damage to his internal organs.

He crashed into Reece mid-air, knocking him to the side of the hole. Reece’s surprise was so absolute that he didn’t realize what was happening until he fell on his back in the yellow liquid with Colton standing on top of him. Reece grabbed for him, but Colton was already gone, jumping farther down the room. He landed on solid ground next to the others just as the liquid melted the sole off one of Kai’s shoes.

Colton absorbed a steady stream of energy into his body, drawing from the heat, and he diverted most of it to his muscles as he grabbed Kai’s wrists and pulled him away from the creeping sludge. The guy was brutally heavy, but with the extra boost to his muscles, Colton dragged him with ease. He leaned him against the wall just past the others.

Reece screamed behind him. Colton heard him sloshing around in the liquid, but didn’t look back. Instead, he moved Shelly, Corva, and June past Kai, farther down the room. He carried them one-by-one up the small platform and rested them carefully against the vertical pipe.

He went back for Kai, but he was gone.

Reece stepped out from behind a tank, yellow liquid pulsing over his skin. It dripped from his body, melting his flesh wherever it touched. He was fighting it—patches of skin healed instantly after being melted by the liquid, but then the sludge dripped down onto a fresh patch of flesh and instantly burnt it away.

The top half of his face was gone, exposing his skull. His one good eye glared at Colton with hatred. The pool of yellow liquid hit the back of his feet and he stepped forward calmly, as if he wasn’t concerned that half of his skin had already oozed away.

It was simply too much damage to heal against. Reece’s body was trying to fix itself, but it couldn’t keep up with the radioactive liquid.

If Colton was expecting a sudden change of heart from Reece due to his current predicament, he was wrong. Reece lurched forward, his mouth open wide, and grabbed Colton’s neck. One of his hands was mostly bone, and the fingertips pierced Colton’s skin as Reece squeezed harder.

The power between them had shifted, however. Colton was the stronger one—had always been the stronger one—and that knowledge made his next actions occur without thought.

His eyes filled with dark energy as he stared into the hollow pit of Reece’s skull. Reece squeezed Colton’s neck, grunting with exertion, but he barely had any strength with which to fight since all of his focus was on keeping his body in one piece.

Colton reached out and put a hand over Reece’s sternum, at the base of his neck.

“What—” said Reece in surprise. “No!”

He redoubled his efforts to strangle Colton. He pushed forward, trying to use the momentum to knock them both to the ground.

Colton did not budge.

“Yes,” he said simply, as he drew from Reece’s very essence.

Reece howled as his bones were stripped of the Void energy. It flowed into Colton willingly, eager to be in one who was stronger than the last.

When he let go, Reece’s arms went limp and swung at his sides. His jaw was fixed open at a crooked angle, and drool dribbled from the corner of his mouth. His one good eye searched the room slowly, then landed on Colton. Its haze of stupidity disappeared and Reece’s mouth twisted into a hideous snarl.

The weight of the Void energy hit Colton like a ton of bricks. His knees buckled and he stumbled forward, unable to keep his equilibrium. Reece caught him and forced him to stand up straight. His hands found Colton’s neck again and squeezed.

“I want it back!” hissed Reece. “GIVE IT BACK!”

Colton had two abilities inside of him, and they fought each other like violent storms, crashing together and pulling back, only to crash together again. His system wasn’t meant to contain them both. The duality had killed his mother, it had driven Alistair mad, and now it was happening to him.

He shoved Reece away and fell backward, landing on hard concrete. Reece growled and lunged at Colton, a glint of murder in his one remaining eye.

Kai leapt forward and slammed his shoulder into Reece’s chest. Reece screamed as he flew backward and landed in the yellow liquid. He tried to stand, but the sludge was thick over that part of the floor. He barely got to his knees before they melted. His entire body fell forward and was completely covered by the liquid.

Colton turned away and tried to tune out the splashes behind him. Kai put his arm around Colton’s shoulder and helped him back to the platform by the pipe. Shelly, June, and Corva had regained consciousness and were looking at Colton with pity in their eyes.

Kai helped him to the stairs and guided him down. Colton sat there quietly, staring at his feet, waiting for the hurricane in his body to subside.

38

Alistair dragged Haven by the feet across the concrete floor. Her stomach scraped on the gritty surface as she struggled to wrench her legs free. Alistair suddenly stopped and sniffed the air.

“The Void,” he said, his voice a chorus of echoes. “It has shifted. That can only mean one thing for poor Reece.”

He shook his head slowly and mumbled something under his breath, then he yanked hard on Haven’s feet and resumed pulling her across the floor of the vat room. Her head was still spinning from the impact with the wall, and the feeble bursts of energy she was able to launch in Alistair’s direction were easily deflected. If she could only focus it down into one concentrated blast, she might be able distract Alistair long enough to get back on her feet.

He continued to shake his head as he dragged her across the floor. Iron buckets dipped into the open vats spaced around the room, dripping molten liquid over their sides as they were lifted to the track in the ceiling and carried out of the room.

Haven heard footsteps running in her direction.

About time! she thought.

Marius shouted in Russian and ran toward Alistair. Noah wasn’t with him. She hoped Marius had the good sense to tuck him out of sight, just in case things went bad with Alistair. Of course, if things went that bad, Noah probably couldn’t get out of the facility on his own. Even if he did, they were in the middle of a jungle. Where would he go?

Alistair turned to face Marius. Haven used the opportunity to kick him in the groin. He looked down at her slowly, seemingly unaffected, and shook his head back and forth as if to scold her like a child. Haven figured she may as well let him have the rest of it.

She slapped her hands together and a thin sheet of blue energy sliced toward him, hitting him right down the middle. He shrieked and let go of her feet as he stumbled backward. He hit the side of a vat and his clothes began to smoke on contact with the vat wall. He pushed off from the searing metal and glared at Haven. His lips curled up in a snarl and he charged.

A blast of orange flame hit his side. It exploded like a fireball against his torso, consuming his entire body in flame. He screamed and clawed at the burnt skin on his face, then spun around and banged his head against the side of the vat repeatedly.

Marius ran up to Haven and tried to pull her away.

“Come on! Corva is close now. We find her and the others, then we fight him!”

She shrugged him off. “Take Noah and go. I’m going to finish it.”

“But—”

“Do it! He doesn’t have the Void energy anymore. I can feel that it’s gone.”

“So who has it?”

“Just go, Marius! And keep Noah safe!”

He hesitated for just a moment, then fired one more blast of flame at Alistair as he ran back in the other direction.

Alistair spun back to face Haven. He stood up straight and inhaled deeply. The flames covering his body sank down into his skin and disappeared, as it someone had slowly turned down the power of a propane torch.

His smile cracked the newly burnt flesh on both sides of his mouth.

“That’s the problem with you and your friends,” he said. “You never do anything on your own. How about some independence? How about learning to—”

Haven stopped listening because her body had become a funnel for a massive blast of plasma. It expanded like a bubble in front of her and exploded in Alistair’s direction. He didn’t move. Instead, a spinning black disc spread in front of him, almost like a miniature spinning galaxy with a black hole at its center. It caught the energy from Haven’s attack and sucked it through, except nothing came out the other side.

When the blue plasma had vanished, the black disc collapsed on itself and was gone.

“Pretty cool, huh?” said Alistair. “Some of the things you learn as a Void carry over. Nobody tells you these things, you know? I guess experience really is the best teacher.”

Haven wanted to shut him up forever. Her wings sprang from her back, scorching the ground behind her. Blue flames burned from her eyes and mouth as she launched another attack.

Alistair was too quick. He shifted to the side and avoided most of what Haven shot in his direction. She saw just enough to know he pulled something out from the back of his belt right before he jabbed it into a gap between two of her ribs.

Her wings retracted instantly and the fire in her eyes snuffed out.

Alistair withdrew a thick needle from her skin and stepped back. The barrel of the syringe was empty.

Haven lunged for him and he deftly moved to the side, avoiding her grasp. She tripped and hit the ground on her face. The room swam before her eyes, and the image shattered into a thousand kaleidoscope copies that swirled in her vision. Alistair leaned over her, studying the syringe in his hand.

“Works faster than the last batch,” he said pleasantly. “There are always improvements to be made. It’s a pity that mass production is still a year off.” He threw the syringe aside and picked Haven up off the ground.

He gently laid her over his shoulder and whistled contentedly as he navigated amongst the vats in the room, making his way toward the machines that Marius had said were used for uranium processing.

Haven’s head bounced against Alistair’s back as he walked. She managed to turn to one side to look at the entrance where she and Marius had entered, but there was no one there. Marius really had gone to find the others. Haven hoped that Noah was safe, wherever he was.

Alistair chuckled to himself. “It just burns my toast when I think how much time I’ve spent looking over my shoulder for you and your band of misfits. Bernam should have killed you and Colton at the very start, but no. He was like a cat playing with his food. Well, now we’re going to play a different kind of game.”

He continued to whistle as he mounted a set of stairs next to the machines by the wall. He walked past them, rapping on each one with his knuckles. Haven tried to say something, but the words came out as a slur.

“What’s that you say?” asked Alistair. “Oh, you want to know about the syringe. It was Fade. I thought that would have been obvious. You managed to destroy the main supply, but I still had the recipe.” He patted her on the back. “Don’t feel bad. Your attack on my manufacturing plant was extremely successful. You threw a great big monkey wrench into my plans, so don’t be hard on yourself. I knew you might come to try and stop me again, so I had some figuring to do. I figured that even if you had been inoculated from the virus, your DNA has changed. I had hoped the addition of the Phoenix energy would have made you susceptible once more.”

Haven’s head lolled to the side. She commanded her body to fight back, but her muscles would not obey. Her ability floated just out of reach and she was unable to produce even the smallest flame.

Alistair descended another set of stairs past the long row of uranium compressors and carried Haven through an open door. The room beyond was as big as the one they had just left, but empty except for a sealed tank that looked like a huge metal aqualung standing on its end. The tank stood in the middle of the room. It was shaped like a pill, except where its square base rested on thick metal struts that sank into the floor. A big door with a metal wheel for a handle was cut into its exterior. It had a small porthole in its center that reminded Haven of the helmets worn by the first deep-sea divers.

“Welcome to the end,” he said as he carried her across the room toward the tank.

Haven twitched a little in his hold, but he only laughed at her attempt to escape.

“We’re going to perform a little experiment, you and I,” he said. “The other Nova came for you once—what was his name again? Nigel? Nathan? Nathan—that sounds right! He saved you right before Kamiko could rightfully send you to your doom. I want to test the hypothesis that history will repeat itself. The only problem is, I think it has to be an absolute certainty that you’ll die before he will bother to interfere. He can travel through time, don’t you know, so I imagine it has to be really important for him to look down and help one of the lesser beings.”

He readjusted her on his shoulder and climbed the small set of stairs leading up to the chamber door, then he lowered her to the platform. Her head bonked against the side of the tank as he leaned her to one side.

“Oops,” said Alistair.

He pushed her over until she hit the platform on her shoulder, then he laughed hysterically and spun the wheel to the chamber. The door swung open and his face got very serious.

“Obsession is a dangerous thing, young Haven. You think you know yourself, but then a thought grabs hold of you, and BAM,” he said, slapping his hand against the tank. “Suddenly all you can think about is harvesting a Nova’s organs to figure out how he travels through time. Obsession,” he repeated, shaking his head. “It ruins so many great people.”

He picked her up under her armpits and dumped her into the chamber. The door clanged shut after her.

The floor was icy cold, but Haven couldn’t lift her face from the metal. Alistair peered in at her through the porthole, then gave her a thumb’s up. He said something, but all sound was muted in the sealed chamber. She thought it looked like he said, “Here goes nothing.”

Four small grates were evenly spaced apart halfway up the walls of the chamber—tiny rows of rectangular holes cut into the metal. There was a squeak and a long hiss of air as Alistair adjusted a control outside. Haven was still unable to move her body, but she could twist her head just enough to look at the vents in the tank wall.

Glowing yellow liquid seeped through the holes and oozed down the wall inch by inch, scarring the metal as it moved slowly to the floor. The sludge looked like a cross between yellow lava and slime, and it gave off a powerful heat.

Haven noticed for the first time that the floor of the tank was curved. She was resting at the basin of a large metal bowl, unable to use her ability and unable to move. There was only one place for the burning yellow liquid to go, and Haven was lying paralyzed right in the middle of it.

39

Colton sat on the lowest step of the stairs, gently cradling his head in his hands as if the slightest pressure would cause it to implode. The yellow sludge was still on its slow crawl across the floor, consuming every holding tank in its path.

“We only have a few minutes before it gets here,” said Kai. He stood in front of Colton, looking down at him.

“I need some time,” said Colton. He closed his eyes and concentrated. The Void energy felt like a physical entity moving through his body. It was a bundle of sparks traveling along his bones, tracing the outline of each rib, each vertebra, then moving down his arms and legs one at a time. Finally it settled at the base of his skull and whipped around the top of his spine like a livewire.

“What does it feel like?” asked Kai. Shelly came up next to him and put her arms around his waist. He rested one of his big arms over her small shoulders. Corva sat next to Colton on the stairs and rubbed his back gently, while June walked a short distance away to keep an eye on the approaching sludge.

“Like two poisons in my bloodstream fighting to be the first one to kill me,” said Colton.

He had become aware of his Conduit ability in a completely new way. After the Void energy passed into his body, his original power retreated, like it was curling away from an approaching snake. He now had two unique powers inside of him, each pulling whatever it could grab from his surroundings and feeding it into his core. Usually he could turn off the flow at his whim if he knew he wouldn’t need the extra energy for a while, or if he was already fully charged.

Now he couldn’t stop the absorption process no matter how hard he tried. Both abilities were pumping him full with a constant stream of energy, so much that he had to continually release it from his body. A pale yellow-black aura hovered an inch over his skin, radiating heat and casting a dull glow several feet away.

“I have to get one of the abilities out of me soon,” said Colton. He thought of his mother. She had been quarantined in her small room at the Dome, forced to continuously shed her excess energy because she couldn’t control her output.

“Can’t you just…let it go?” asked Shelly.

“It has to go into another person,” said Corva. “A full Conduit ability isn’t like the normal energy we absorb and release. It’s more like an essence. It needs a body to bond with or else it can’t be forced out.”

Colton coughed and doubled over. His brain felt like a swelling bowling ball, pushing against the sides of his skull.

“Let’s get moving,” said Corva. “First things first—we need to get these collars off.”

“Each one has a unique key,” said Shelly, “but you should be able to override the locking circuit from the security office.”

“Where is that?” asked June.

“In the main building.”

“The one at the top of the mountain?” asked Colton.

“Yeah, why?”

He shook his head. “Too far.”

“We just have to double back a short ways,” said Shelly. “We’ll go up the ladder that you guys used to come down here. It leads to a service elevator that will take us up to the surface.”

Colton thought about it a moment, then nodded. “First the collars, then we find the others.”

“They’re close,” said Corva, keeping a supporting hand on his back as he stood. “Well, Marius is, at least.”

June hurried back to the group. “Are we moving? That yellow stuff is almost to the nearest tank.”

“We’re out of here,” said Shelly. She led the way with Kai, heading back in the direction of the ladder.

Corva walked close to Colton, making sure he didn’t collapse along the way. He felt better than he had at first, but the two abilities were still snapping at each other in his body. A steady heat traveled from his palms, up his forearms, and across his chest. He tried to release it into the air around him, but it clung to his skin and grew hotter.

They reached the ladder and Shelly stopped.

“Maybe you want to go first?” she asked, looking at Colton. “Someone sealed the entry up there, and you’re the only one without a collar.”

Colton climbed the ladder slowly, keeping his eyes focused on the dark circle in the ceiling. He reached the top and put one of his hands against the portal cover. It vibrated slowly at first, then more violently until its edges blurred. The metal squealed and exploded upward, pelting the corridor above with shards of razor-sharp metal.

Colton climbed up into the hallway and cleared away the debris from the broken cover.

“Which way?” he asked.

“Up,” said Shelly, staying on the ladder. She climbed past him and disappeared through the hole in the ceiling. Kai, June, and Corva followed next.

The long hallway was empty, and Colton wondered who had sealed them underground in the first place. Whoever it was, they had pushed the group right toward Reece. Colton turned away from the thought of his old friend and followed the others up the ladder.

The next vertical section was much longer than the one that led to the lower level. It was a single tube that seemed to go up and up. Colton looked down—if he lost his grip on the ladder, it would be a long, painful drop back down to the hallway. The group climbed higher until Shelly came to another sealed covering. This one had a small electronic keypad in its center. She entered a code and the covering slid to the side, revealing bright sunlight beyond.

One by one, they climbed off the ladder and onto the surface. They had emerged next to a large building with concrete walls at the edge of the jungle. A tall fence separated the foliage from the outskirts of the Helix compound.

Colton followed Shelly and Kai as they hurried to the side of the building for cover. He saw no armed guards patrolling the area—perhaps they had been called away to deal with Haven and Marius. The mountain peak rose into the air before them, crowned at the top with the shining glass façade of Alistair’s main headquarters.

“There’s an entrance to the elevator at the base of the mountain,” said Shelly.

“Everyone ready?” asked Corva.

Colton nodded along with the others. They broke away from the wall as a group, moving as quickly as possible across the exposed ground, staying low.

There was a hundred yards of nothing between the concrete building and a security shack at the base of the mountain. A chain-link fence topped with barbed wire encircled its base, punctuated every so often by small shacks with big glass windows facing outward.

Colton moved to the front of the group as they approached the nearest guard shack. It was empty. He went past it and walked right through the chain-link fence, burning a hole through the metal as it touched his skin. He barely had to output any extra energy to liquefy the links—the aura surrounding his body was growing more volatile by the second.

The others followed him through the hole in the fence and to a garage door at the base of the mountain. Colton started to burn his way through the door when Shelly ran past him, urging him to follow.

“This way!” she whispered.

A gunshot cracked the silence and hit the ground at June’s feet. She screamed in surprise and jumped out of the way. The next round of bullets hit the ground where she had just been standing. After that it was like they were in a shooting gallery—Colton and the others were moving targets as they ran along the base of the mountain, searching for the entrance to the elevator.

The bullets were coming from above. It took Colton a moment to pinpoint their origin, then he looked up into the trees over the security fence around the perimeter. Two guards were camouflaged in the low-hanging braches of the trees, resting on small platforms secured to the trunks. Each of them aimed down the sights of their rifles and squeezed off a seemingly endless stream of bullets.

“Around here!” shouted Shelly.

The base of the mountain was lined with a solid concrete wall. Shelly turned down a narrow gap in the wall and ran to the end of a long concrete hallway, the others close behind. The hallway was only wide enough for one person, and there was only one way in or out. Bullets bounced off the concrete walls as the group huddled at the end of the narrow tunnel.

“Now what?!” yelled June over the gunfire.

“Colton!” said Shelly. “Through here!”

He squeezed past the others—getting around Kai proved hopeless until the big soldier lifted Colton over his head and set him down on the other side.

“Thanks,” said Colton.

He made it to the end of the concrete hallway. There was no door, no entrance to the interior of the mountain—just a solid concrete wall.

“It’s blocked off!” said Shelly. “Come on!”

Colton stuck his hands into the wall first, feeling no resistance as they melted through the concrete. The wall shuddered. Its entire surface cracked instantly, shattering into a thousand spiderweb fissures. Colton withdrew his arms and kicked the center of the wall. It collapsed inward, creating a low door.

Shelly went past him and disappeared into a dark hallway. Colton followed with the others.

“The elevator is down this way,” she said, running ahead.

Colton stumbled just inside the entrance and fell to his hands and knees. Kai picked him up easily.

“It’s getting worse,” said Kai.

Colton nodded, then looked up at him. “Reece said something to me about you.”

“Oh yeah?”

Colton hesitated a moment before asking the question. “Is your mother still alive?”

Kai’s face hardened as he clenched his jaw. A darkness covered his eyes. “Why did he mention her?”

“You know what?” said Colton, shaking his head tiredly. “It doesn’t matter. He was just playing mind games. Let’s keep moving.”

They followed Shelly to a set of steel elevator doors at the end of the hall. There was no security checkpoint or electronic keypad to stop her from pressing the Up button in the wall.

“I thought that would be harder,” said June.

“It’s not over yet,” said Corva.

The elevator doors slid open and the five of them crammed inside. Kai took a deep breath and sucked in his stomach, trying his best to shove himself into the corner. The doors slid closed right in front of Colton’s face.

“Did someone push the button?” he asked.

Corva grunted as she wiggled an arm free.

“Ow!” said June.

“Sorry!” There was another grunt. “Got it.”

The elevator moved gently upward.

“I’m glad there’s no music,” said Kai.

After another minute, the elevator stopped and the doors slid open. They were in a large, circular room with metal doors spaced out around the wall. A single, round window was set into the wall, looking out over the jungle. The interior had the same style of design that Colton remembered from his first meeting with Alistair at the peak of the mountain—spare but modern.

“This is it,” said Shelly as they spilled out of the elevator.

The center of the room was a hub of consoles, each with a computer station and communication equipment. She went to the nearest one and sat down.

“Grab me one of those readers over there, would you?”

Kai must have known what she meant, because he went to a cabinet in the wall and pulled out a small black box. He brought it to Shelly, then she put it on the desk next to her and unspooled a long black wire from the box. At the end of the wire was a small black circle of plastic.

She stuck the plastic circle to the side of her collar and turned on the computer. Its screen glowed to life and she typed rapidly at the keyboard. Lines of code filled the screen, moving faster than Colton could read.

“Where is everyone?” asked June. She paced the perimeter of the room nervously, checking each of the door handles. They were all locked.

Colton went to the round window in the wall and looked out. They were high enough over the jungle that he could see over the valley to the western mountain range. Low-hanging clouds hovered over the peaks, dumping rain in wide grey sheets.

“Maybe Haven and Marius took care of them,” said Corva.

“Got it!” said Shelly. There was an electronic click inside her collar and it snapped open. She hastily yanked it off her neck and threw it on the ground. “Who’s next?”

One at a time, she removed all of their collars. Kai stretched his neck when his came off. Deep purple energy—almost violet—swirled around each of his wrists. “Ahhhhh,” he said.

“Right,” said Colton. “Let’s go find the others.”

One of the metal doors along the wall burst open, and Wes strode into the room.

“No need!” he said, a big smile on his face. The collar was off his neck and a rifle was strapped to his back. “We brought the party to you.”

Colton and the others slowly spread out, each of them preparing to attack.

“Careful!” said Wes quickly, holding up a warning finger. “Wouldn’t want to hit the kid, would you?”

He stepped to the side as two armed guards entered the room, pushing Noah in front of them. The boy didn’t look afraid or angry—he showed no emotion at all, except maybe a disturbing sadness. He looked as if he didn’t even know anyone else was in the room. Another guard walked through the doorway, pushing Marius with the muzzle of his AR-15.

Corva took a step forward when she saw him, but he held up a hand to stop her.

“Is okay, my love. We are okay.”

“For now,” said Wes. He seemed to notice their missing collars for the first time, and frowned. He turned to the nearest guard. “Put those back on the prisoners.”

“I permanently deactivated them,” said Shelly.

Wes motioned for the guard to continue. He picked up the nearest collar and tried to connect it around Shelly’s neck, but it wouldn’t close.

Wes sighed. “Fine, then.” He grabbed Noah and pulled him close. One of the guards handed him a pistol, which he aimed at Noah’s temple. “If I so much as catch a whiff of energy from any of you, the kid is out of the picture.” He nodded toward Colton. “And what’s wrong with him?”

“Him?” said Corva. “He just doesn’t like you.”

Colton swallowed hard. His vision blurred at the edges and he swayed drunkenly on his feet. He had managed to turn off the visual spectrum of his shedding aura so Wes couldn’t see that he was emitting, but he was quickly losing control of his motor functions because of it.

Wes laughed. “Pathetic! Anyway, if you’ll follow me, I think you might enjoy what I have to show you.” He motioned with his gun for everyone to go through the open door. More armed guards filed into the circular room, rifles at the ready.

Wes turned around and pushed Noah ahead of him, disappearing into the next room. Colton looked at the others, wanting to say something, until one of the guards cracked him over the back of the head with the butt of his rifle and shoved him toward the door.

“Move!” shouted the guard.

Colton followed Noah and Wes, trying as hard as he could not to melt right through the floor.

40

Haven wiggled her pinky finger. It was the first voluntary movement she had been able to make since Alistair injected her with the Fade virus. She was on her side on the curved floor of the sealed tank, watching glowing yellow sludge ooze down the metal walls. The liquid moved slowly, or else she would have been covered in it already.

The sludge bubbled over the walls of the tank as it slid down, leaving behind a smoking trail of charred metal. It gave off an acrid smell that burned in Haven’s nostrils.

She moved her pinky finger again, then twitched her wrist. She clenched her left hand open and closed, making sure it wasn’t just a fluke.

Alistair’s face suddenly appeared in the porthole window. He scowled in at her through the glass. He looked much paler since he had tossed her into the tank a few minutes earlier, and the burnt skin of his face wrinkled over his nose and forehead as he sneered.

Then he was gone. The ooze crept farther down the walls. It was only several feet from the part of the tank that curved inward—the bowl that would feed the glowing liquid straight to Haven.

She tried to force the rest of the muscles in her body to move. Her feet tapped quickly against the bottom of the tank, then went still. She managed to move both her arms down to her sides, then back up again, but it did nothing to help her current situation.

Haven wondered if Alistair’s trap would really entice Nathaniel into showing up to save her. Alistair had been right about that part—the last time the Nova had shown up, Kamiko was only seconds away from ending Haven’s life. He had taken her to a distant future, where all of mankind was destroyed.

Staring at the desolation, she had made a decision to do whatever she could to keep that from happening, even if humanity itself was responsible for its own demise.

Can’t do much from in here, she thought bitterly.

The yellow sludge crawled over the seam where the tank curved inward. The long streams of glowing ooze closed in on all sides, inch by inch. Haven let out a strained yell and managed to sit up. She felt paralyzed from the waist down. Her arms flapped at her sides as she struggled to push herself to a standing position.

She got to her knees, pins and needles shooting through her shaking thighs, as the yellow sludge passed the spot where her feet had just been moments earlier. If she fell now, she would land face-first in the liquid. There was no way to know exactly what was in the sludge, but judging by everything Haven had seen in the compound and the fact that it was burning metal on its way down the tank, she guessed it was highly toxic.

She wanted to see Noah again. She wanted to see Colton and Marius and Corva and all the others. There was always someone in the way of her goals—Bernam, Alistair, the twins who had killed her parents, Kamiko—they were always blocking her path and putting up monumental obstacles.

Haven had known things would never be the same the moment she left high school and moved into the Dome. She left behind a (mostly) normal life—family game nights, weekend road trips. Noah reminded her of all those things—about all of the good times, which was one of the reasons she had to protect him.

She wavered to her feet as the yellow sludge touched her shoes. The soles began to melt immediately, mushing outward as if she were stepping on soft dough.

When the tiniest bit of sludge touched Haven’s bare foot, she jumped quickly and stood on the tips of her toes. For a moment, she was frozen in place, her mind trying desperately to realize that she had full control of her legs once more. The yellow sludge pooled around her feet, melting her shoes.

Haven jumped up again, higher this time. At the height of her jump she put a foot against two opposing walls and propped herself up. She pushed against the sides of the tank with her hands, her muscles quivering as she suspended herself above the growing pool of burning sludge below.

Her shoes were no more than puddles of black in the middle of the liquid that was collecting at the bottom of the tank. She had fortunately missed the streams oozing down the walls when she pushed against the sides of the tank with her hands and feet.

Alistair appeared at the window again. When he saw what Haven was doing, he burst into laughter and pretended to wipe a tear from his eye. If Haven had access to her Phoenix ability, she would have burned laser-thin holes in the glass with her eyes and right through his skull. He would have been dead before he hit the floor.

Instead, the only power she had at her disposal was in her muscles, and those were quickly failing. Her arms and legs shook violently from the strain of pressing against the tank walls. She tried to inch higher to avoid the rising sludge, but one of her feet slipped and splashed against the top of the yellow liquid. She screamed as the heel of her foot was instantly scorched. When she repositioned her foot against the wall to steady herself, her heel was smoking and bleeding.

At first, she had hoped that Nathaniel wouldn’t show up at all. She didn’t want Alistair to get his hands on the ability to travel through time, nor did she want anything bad to happen to Nathaniel. From all that she could tell, he just wanted to be left alone with what limited time he had left on the planet.

Now, though—now she wished that someone—anyone would save her.

Her feet slipped down the wall and she fell. Haven jammed her feet against the metal to stop her fall, screaming in pain as the flesh of her injured heel ripped open. She held on, though, suspended inches above the sludge, pushing as hard as she could against the walls of the tank.

She closed her eyes and reached out to Colton.

41

He heard her calling to him, but her voice was muffled. Colton knew it was Haven immediately, just as he had known—from the first moment he saw her—that they were meant for each other.

There were no words in her message, but they carried a very specific sentiment that he couldn’t quite figure out. If only he were with her, he could do something. He and the others were being marched down a long, wide hallway. Fluorescent lamps glared harsh light down from the ceiling, reflecting off the white walls to create a long tunnel of painful brightness. Wes walked in front with Noah’s shoulder gripped firmly in one hand, the pistol aimed at the boy’s head. At least a dozen armed guards flanked Colton and the other five prisoners.

His body hummed with built-up energy, and he knew he was getting close to the point where having two abilities bouncing around inside of him would cause serious long-term damage unless he got one of them out.

Shelly looked at him and gave him a silent Are you okay? look. Colton would have thought the answer was an obvious No. One of the guards in the back shoved June with his rifle.

“Hey!” she shouted.

“Why you don’t mind your manners?” asked Marius, his voice graveled with anger.

“Keep walking,” said the guard.

Wes glanced back over his shoulder and smirked. He stopped in front of a door on one side of the long hallway. Farther down, more doors were evenly spaced all the way to the end of the hall, where the path terminated into a dead end.

Colton realized they were being taken to holding cells.

“You,” said Wes, nodding at Corva. “Woman. This is your new home.”

Marius stepped in front of her, orange light blazing from his eyes.

“Ah ah!” warned Wes, pulling Noah closer to him as a shield. “Behave, Russki, or you see the inside of his little skull.”

Kai took a step toward Wes, his forearms glowing with purple light. Two guards moved next to him and aimed their rifles at his head. Each of the dozen guards was slowly shifting position, scattering themselves throughout the grouping of six prisoners, two of them for every Source and Con. The hallway was wide enough so everyone formed a big bunch in front of the door to Corva’s intended cell.

“It’s alright,” she said, putting her hand on Marius’s arm. “I’ll go. We’ll figure this out.” She kissed him quickly on the cheek and walked toward the cell.

“Atta girl,” said Wes with a grin. He pointed at Marius. “You’re next, Russki, so don’t think I forgot about you. I’ll put the lovebirds in adjacent rooms, so you’ll be just out of reach.”

Marius scowled and clenched his jaw. His eyes lit up again with orange fire.

It was then that Haven spoke very clearly in Colton’s mind. She said a single word, and it burrowed through his brain and struck his very soul.

Goodbye.

“Hey, are you deaf?!” shouted Wes. He pulled the gun away from Noah and aimed it in Marius’s direction. “Switch yourself off or I got a bullet with your name on it!”

Colton closed his eyes and cracked his neck from side to side. He was close to exploding with pain, though he had been containing it successfully until that moment. After he heard Haven’s voice, discipline and logic took a nose-dive out the proverbial window.

“I have something for you,” he said.

“Oh yeah?” asked Wes sarcastically.

“Yeah,” growled Colton.

Faster than Wes could blink, Colton was past Noah. He pushed the boy to the ground toward the open cell, then picked Wes up by the neck and slammed him into the nearest wall.

“Take them down!” yelled Marius. He picked Noah off the ground by his arm and tossed him into the open holding cell.

Corva ran back and grabbed Marius’s outstretched hand. Orange fire erupted from their skin simultaneously and swirled out toward the closest guard. His clothes burst into flames and he screamed as he spun around, trying to put himself out.

Colton squeezed Wes’s neck until he felt the Adam’s apple snap out of place. The gun in Wes’s hand fired until the clip went empty, but he hit nothing but floor. Slowly—very slowly—Colton drew on Wes’s life-force.

Shelly was closest to Colton. She turned to say something when one of the guards grabbed her hair and yanked her backward.

She spun and slapped him in the face. He blinked at her in confusion, then started to laugh. Shelly kicked him between the legs and the guard’s laugh turned to a moan of pain. He dropped to his knees in front of her. She grabbed him by the temples and whispered something in his ear.

His eyes widened in horror as the skin of his face shrank over his skull. The color drained from his cheeks as his face rapidly decomposed. His eyeballs swam in their sockets and Shelly pushed him to the side. She looked at Colton with an icy gleam in her eyes that he had never seen before, then she turned and found another guard.

At the back of the group, June had more of Alistair’s goons closer to her than the others. She crouched low to the ground as the guards aimed their rifles and fired downward. The bullets bounced harmlessly in the air a few inches from her skin and fell to the ground. Spheres of electric black energy formed around her hands, as if she were palming basketballs made of shadows. She spun around and jumped up into the air, swinging the plasma spheres at the guards. She slapped one in the side of the head and the black sphere disappeared into his skull. His eyes rolled up into his head and he fell unconscious to the ground. She hit the second guard in the chest and the sphere stuck in his ribcage, burning a hole through his flesh and exposing bone.

The guards nearby waited until their friend dropped out of the way before opening fire. June wasn’t ready and caught a bullet in the shoulder that spun her around. She hit the wall hard as more rounds ricocheted around her head.

Kai let out a yell and picked up two guards, one with each hand. He threw them toward the back of the crowd and they hit the guards who were firing at June. The group of them collapsed to the ground, guns shooting wildly.

Colton leaned closer to Wes’s terrified face. “Enjoying the show?” he asked. Colton turned to watch as purple energy flared over Kai’s forearms. He stepped to the middle of the hallway right in front of the group of fallen guards and raised his fists in the air. The guards were scrambling out of reach so they could turn and fire on their attacker.

Kai brought his fists down and slammed them into the ground. The floor cracked on impact as purple energy exploded from his arms. He brought his fists up, then down again. Two huge cracks ran out to the walls and climbed up to the ceiling. The fluorescent lamp overhead exploded and sent a shower of sparks over Kai’s shoulders.

One of the guards managed to get his finger on the trigger of his AR-15 just as Kai brought his fists down for another swing. The guard squeezed off three rounds, but the bullets went wide, missing their mark. Kai’s impact shook the walls. The ceiling collapsed on top of the guards, burying them under a pile of concrete and rebar.

Marius and Corva were handling themselves just fine. They were at the center of the group, taking on the other guards. Brilliant orange flames bloomed from Marius’s arms and cascaded over his hands as he held Corva’s waist. The fire surged up her torso, turning into a vortex of swirling flames over her head before she funneled the energy down her arms and toward any guard foolish enough to aim his gun in their direction.

More than one of them ran shrieking back the way they had come, only to run head-first into the pile of debris covering their fallen comrades. Kai, Shelly, and June were waiting for all of them, and soon there was a pile of bodies stacked almost as high as the debris.

“Well,” said Colton. His voice echoed, like he had another person trapped inside of him. “Looks like they handled everything just fine.”

Wes tried to speak, but his voice came out as a cracked wheeze.

“I said I had something to give you,” said Colton. “Are you ready?”

Wes tried to shake his head, but Colton’s squeezed his neck harder and kept him pinned in place.

All of the guards were out of commission. Shelly and the others walked slowly toward Colton. His eyes were dark black stars, and his entire body seemed to shift in and out of focus. He didn’t have to try very hard at all to force his old Conduit ability into Wes’s neck. The Void energy helped the process along. It surged forward, pushing out the old Conduit power and claiming Colton’s body as its own.

Wes’s body shook violently under Colton’s grasp. When the process was complete, Colton released his neck and Wes sank to the floor. Shelly walked up and handed Colton an open feedback collar.

“I reprogrammed it before they captured us,” she said.

He took it and put it around Wes’s neck. The ends snapped into place and tiny needles extended from the collar and punctured his skin. He groaned and opened his eyes. When he saw who was standing over him, he scrambled away across the floor, mumbling incoherently. He got to his feet and stuck his arms out toward Colton and the others.

“He’s gonna go for it,” said Marius.

Bolts of black lightning danced across Wes’s arms, but were quickly absorbed back into his skin. The veins on his forearms bulged outward. He stared at his skin as it turned bright red and started to smoke. Wes opened his mouth and growled at Colton. Smoke poured off his face. The metal feedback collar glowed bright red-orange as it fought to contain his output.

Colton figured that with two Conduit abilities inside Wes’s body and the feedback collar overloading from the stress, it would only be another few seconds before one or the other gave out.

It was Wes. There was a wet pop in his skull and his eyes rolled back in his head. He collapsed to the ground, his skin still smoking.

Colton turned to Shelly. “Do you know a way out of here?”

She looked at him as if he were a complete stranger, then shook her head and the look was gone. “Um…yeah. Yeah, there’s a helicopter up on the roof.”

“I didn’t see one earlier.”

“It sort of comes up out of the top of the building.”

“Is it big enough for everyone?”

“It’s like a freakin’ limousine,” she said, then smiled.

Noah ran out of the holding cell and hugged Colton’s leg. Colton knelt down and took him gently by the shoulders.

“You go with them, Noah.”

“What about Haven?”

“I’m going to get her right now.” He stood up. “You guys don’t want to be here for what happens next. Take the helicopter and get to a safe distance.”

“What are you going to do?” asked June. She was already guiding Noah down the hallway after the others.

“I’m going to put a stop to Alistair’s madness once and for all.”

When the others were gone, Colton took a deep breath and slowly let it out. Power surged through his veins, filling him with a strength he had never known before. The Conduit energy was one thing, but it was so small compared to the Void essence. It had no thoughts of its own—was not an entity unto itself. It had merged with his own being in such a way that made it feel as if he had been born with the ability.

He looked down at the floor and remembered something from the distant past—practically from another life altogether.

The shortest distance between two points is a straight line.

The floor melted around his feet and he sank through solid concrete. There was plenty of power to draw from within his own body. The energy felt compacted in his chest, and it took far less output to achieve what would normally have taken him a full charge.

He sank through rock and steel, dropping down through the foundation of the mountain and the buildings above, until he emerged from the ceiling of a large room. Colton fell as soon as his head cleared the ceiling. Right before impact, he let out a tremendous downward burst of pressurized air that negated the momentum of his fall. He landed easily on his feet and walked toward a long row of machines near one side of the room.

Haven’s voice was quiet now, but he knew she was close.

He descended a small staircase past the row of machines and walked through an open doorway. In the middle of the next room was a large vertical tank, completely sealed. Alistair leaned against it, picking his teeth.

“Well,” he said. “If you can’t have one, settle for second best.”

He laughed, but Colton thought he looked weak. His burnt skin was pale around his eyes, and the deep cracks over his bald skull showed only bone.

“Where is she?” asked Colton.

Alistair rapped against the tank with one of his knuckles, then peered through the round window in the door.

“She’s still hanging in there,” he said. “The will to live is a very powerful motivator.”

Colton ran forward but Alistair held up a hand. “No,” he said, and Colton stopped. “I could kill her before you ever got close enough to stop me.”

“What do you want?” asked Colton.

“So many things,” he said wistfully. “That’s the problem with being ambitious. Nothing is ever enough.”

“Ambitious and insane,” said Colton.

“No argument there,” said Alistair. “The only way forward is to embrace who you truly are, Colton. Haven’t you figured that out by now?”

Colton walked slowly to the side, angling for a better view through the tank window.

“Anyway,” continued Alistair. “I’m actually glad to see you, because I’ve changed my mind.”

“About what?”

“About giving up the Void energy. It really is no fun without it, even if it kills me. I do hope you went easy on poor Mr. Reece. What a pity…for you as well.”

“Why’s that?”

“My boy, don’t you know what you get when a Phoenix and a Void also happen to be counterparts?”

Colton hadn’t thought about it. Who had which power was the last thing on his mind at that moment.

“You get a world-class Nova. Two energies, so pure, so attuned.” He shivered. “Gives me goose bumps just thinking about it.”

“You can’t have it,” said Colton. He moved a little closer toward the tank with each step, though he was still a good thirty feet from the door.

“I expected as much,” said Alistair.

“Try and take it.”

“Excuse me?”

“You want it so bad, come and take it.”

Alistair laughed, but his laughter quickly turned into a hacking cough. He spit blood onto the ground.

“You don’t sound so good,” said Colton.

“Yes, well, it looks worse than it sounds, I’m afraid.” He glanced around the room impatiently, then his shoulders sank in defeat. “He isn’t coming.”

Alistair turned to the tank and raised his arms to strike the metal.

“Wait!” shouted Colton.

Alistair paused mid-swing and looked back.

“Reece died in the yellow sludge from those tanks. What is the sludge?”

Alistair exposed his teeth in a mad grin. “The same thing that’s keeping your girlfriend company right now. It’s just my own little twist on toxic waste. Nothing fancy. I tweaked it enough so that it would stay radioactive for centuries, and probably longer.”

“Why?” asked Colton. He had to keep Alistair talking. There was still too much distance between them.

“It’s really quite diabolical. I wanted to—”

“Take it back in time,” interrupted Colton. He never expected that to be the correct answer.

“Good for you!” said Alistair. “Bravo, truly. Yes, I was going to kill Nathaniel when he showed up to save your damsel in distress, then dissect him until his corpse gave up the secret to opening temporal rifts.”

“Noah can teleport,” said Colton.

“Is that what happened out there in the jungle?” mused Alistair. “How fascinating! I shall have to give the boy more of my attention.”

“You won’t get the chance.”

Alistair chuckled. “Your stalling tactics are futile, Colton. Don’t you want to know the rest?”

“Tell me.”

“I was going to sow the toxic waste into the very soil of this country, long before man ever set foot on it.”

Colton almost stopped in his tracks as he tried to wrap his mind around the concept. “No one would be able to survive,” he said.

“No one except…?” prompted Alistair.

“Conduits.”

“Precisely. Conduits are perfectly capable of safely absorbing the low-grade radiation emitted from the toxic waste as long as it doesn’t make contact with their skin. Everyone else who attempted to live here would die after a few days. Imagine! An entire nation of our kind—a country to call our own. Ah, Colton, it would have been beautiful. I was also going to inject everyone else with Fade, just as a finale.”

“Insane and ambitious,” said Colton. “That hits the nail right on the head. Why kill everyone else, though? Having one country isn’t enough?”

“Spend one day in a major city, then try not to pick a reason.” Alistair sighed deeply. His eyes drifted to the window of the tank, and he suddenly looked like a very old man at the end of his years.

“He definitely isn’t coming,” said Alistair.

He raised his fists and pounded against the tank. Black energy surged from his hands and crawled over the outside of the tank, vibrating the metal shell all the way down to its supports.

Colton heard Haven scream in his mind—a scream of terror and pain.

His world turned to slow motion as he ran toward the tank. Alistair doubled over and coughed blood onto the floor as Colton pushed past him and looked in the window.

Haven was inside, neck deep in yellow sludge.

“How do you open it?!” screamed Colton.

“You don’t,” said Alistair. He was still bent over, clutching his stomach and hacking up blood.

Colton couldn’t hear Haven’s screams through the tank walls, but he heard them in his head. He punched the door with every ounce of strength in his body. It dented inward with each impact, but the seams held. Black energy exploded from his fists as he tried to burn through the tank wall to get to her, but the metal only charred under his touch and would not give way.

He looked through the open window and knew that it was too late. Haven splashed in the deep pool of glowing liquid as she tried to climb the walls of the tank. Her skin was burning, it was on fire, it was—

The screams in his head stopped abruptly. He could no longer see her in the yellow liquid. All that remained was a dark pool floating in the middle of the yellow sludge.

Haven was gone.

Colton turned away from the window and sank down to the ground. He stared forward blankly, seeing nothing.

A few feet away, Alistair coughed, then cleared his throat. “You’re just such a nuisance, the whole lot of you.”

Colton’s gaze hardened on him.

“Wuh-oh,” said Alistair. “I’ve seen that look before.” He stumbled to the side of the tank and opened a flat box that was bolted to the side. He put his hands inside the box and twisted a small valve. Yellow sludge gushed out of the valve and Alistair cupped his hands beneath the flow. Warm light glowed over his arms and sank into his torso. The sunken flesh on his face filled out with new life as he absorbed the sludge into his body.

Colton got slowly to his feet. His mind was blank except for the rage that burned down to his soul.

“I’m going to destroy you,” he said. “There will be nothing left but dust.”

Alistair moved away from the tank. Black lightning crawled through the yellow energy that surged over his body from head to toe. His eyes sparked with molten yellow plasma.

“Alright then, Colton,” said Alistair. “Let’s go out in style.”

42

Haven fell through white light.

A moment earlier, she had been inside Kamiko’s desert headquarters, fighting for her life. Kamiko had her on the ground by the throat, burning through Haven’s defenses down to her bones. Dormer was lying on the ground a few feet away, but Haven didn’t know if he was alive or dead.

Colton, she remembered suddenly. The light faded from his eyes after Kamiko’s brutal attack. He was dead.

Then the air pressure in the room shifted, and two people appeared out of nowhere. Haven didn’t recognize one of them—he was a tall black man with a big scar on one side of his face. The other person she recognized well enough, because she had stared at that face in the mirror ever since she was old enough to remember. It was her.

The man had crossed the room toward her in the blink of an eye. He reached out—and then she was nowhere, falling through a vast white expanse with no walls, no floor or ceiling.

Tiny black particles zipped upward past her body, creating thin, pulsing streaks. She looked down and saw a blurry green patch far below. The patch grew to the size of a quarter, and it continued to get larger. She realized it was solid and that she was going to crash into it at any second.

Haven screamed but there was no sound. The particles that had been rocketing up past her suddenly froze in the middle of the vast white nothingness, as if instantly suspended in thick liquid.

She was suddenly standing on the blurry green patch, but there had been no impact. The white light dissolved around her, revealing square shapes and a long grey stripe on the ground. The grey stripe was a road, and the squares were the familiar outlines of houses.

Haven collapsed to the ground, out of breath. Tears streamed down her face and her whole body shook as she thought of Colton, lying dead on the ground, his skin burnt away from Kamiko’s touch.

There was a large oak tree nearby, and she crawled over to it leaned against its trunk. She pulled her knees up to her chest as she tried to control her crying.

After what seemed like a long time, Haven raised her head and looked around. She was struck by a sensation of familiarity when she studied the identical houses lining the street. Haven was in a suburban neighborhood. Her old neighborhood, in Scottsdale, Arizona. The sun was shining and the sky was a uniform light blue from horizon to horizon. She looked down and lifted one of her shoes. The green patch she had seen while falling was a tract of freshly-cut grass next to a sidewalk that ran alongside the street.

None of that was as disturbing to Haven as the fact that she was standing across the street from a house that burned to the ground more than a year ago, claiming the lives of her parents in the process. Her old two-story home stood intact before her, its windows reflecting brilliant rays of sunshine into her eyes. She wiped her cheeks and her nose as she stood up, keeping one hand against the tree for support.

A dog barked in one of the neighbors’ yards a few houses down, and Haven turned toward it slowly, her mouth slightly open as if in a daze.

“Hello, Oscar,” she whispered. Oscar was a golden retriever who belonged to the Myers family. Haven had gone to school with their daughter. Oscar’s ears perked up and he looked in her direction, then he ran around the side of the house to the backyard.

Haven turned back toward her own home and bumped into a man standing almost on top of her. She jumped away from him, blue light flaring up over her fists.

“Easy,” he said, holding up his hands to show that he meant no harm. It was the tall black man that had appeared out of nowhere in Kamiko’s lair. Old scars etched deep lines on his bald head. One long scar ran down the left side of his face, touching the corner of his left eye. The pupil of that eye was clouded white from the injury. He looked sick—malnourished. The skin around his eyes was ashy grey, and his lips were pale. Thin black veins crawled up his neck from beneath his collar.

“You’re infected with Fade,” she said, taking another step back. “Who are you? Where am I?”

“My name is Nathaniel,” he said calmly. “And you know where you are.”

Haven kept her distance as she looked between Nathaniel and her home.

“It’s impossible,” she said. “I watched it burn to the ground.”

“No, you haven’t. Not yet.”

She was breathless and her hands trembled. Haven pushed them into her pockets and stepped a little closer to her home. She took a deep breath and let it out.

“So…when am I?”

Nathaniel smiled. “That’s the right question. It is the day before the fire.”

“How is this possible?” she asked, turning to him. He tilted his head, prompting her to figure it out on her own. “You’re a Nova.”

“I am.”

“I didn’t know you could travel through time.” She studied the front of her home. Only a year had passed since she last saw it, but it looked different to her somehow, almost like it belonged to someone else. “Am I dead?” she whispered.

Nathaniel chuckled. “Hardly.”

She was quiet for a moment. “Is Colton?”

“It’s complicated.”

“Wrong,” she said, glaring at him. “It’s a yes or no question.”

A shadow passed over Nathaniel’s face. “Temporal jumping is never an easy thing to explain.”

“Try me.”

He sighed. “Imagine that you are back at Kamiko’s, on the ground, about to die.”

“Not really hard to imagine, but okay…”

“I show up, only I’m alone.”

“No other me?”

“No. I’m alone. That’s what happened the first time I saved you.”

“I didn’t arrive with you because you hadn’t actually pulled me out of there yet.”

“Correct. That was the first split.”

“What split?”

“Well, not exactly a split. More like a duplication. When I first pulled you out of Kamiko’s, your timeline duplicated into two identical timelines. Every event that occurred in your past happened exactly the same in the other timeline, only from that point on—from the moment I took you—they could be different. They are copies of each other only up until the point I pulled you away.”

“So in one of these timelines, Colton is dead and Kamiko won the fight?”

“Yes.”

“And I’m not there anymore because you pulled me away?”

“Exactly.”

“But then you brought me back to fight Kamiko.”

“Yes, in the second timeline. You defeated Kamiko, and Colton is still alive.”

She looked at him quickly. “He’s alive?”

Nathaniel smiled and nodded. Haven turned away and wiped her eyes.

“And then you brought me here,” she said, “creating a third timeline.”

Nathaniel frowned. “I expected you to be more confused.”

“Gee, thanks. So the ‘me’ from the first timeline, the one where Colton dies and Kamiko wins…where did the two of you go?”

“The future.”

“What?!”

“You didn’t like it very much.”

“Now that’s a shocker,” said Haven. “Okay, then you brought the other me back from the future into my timeline, at the exact moment when you took the other Haven.”

He nodded. “I left her there and I brought you back here.”

“Sure,” she said sarcastically. “I mean, why not? Can’t have two of me hanging out together, right?”

Just as she said it, an old junker of a car pulled up in front of her house.

“That’s Kayla!” said Haven. It was her best friend from high school in her beat-up old car. They both used to ride around after school, gossiping about the day’s drama. Kayla sat in the driver’s seat, naturally beautiful as she always had been. Haven took a step forward and was about to call out to her when the passenger door opened and another Haven got out of the car.

The Haven standing by the tree backed away quickly and hid behind the trunk. Nathaniel stood next to her, watching patiently.

The Haven by the car grabbed her backpack from the back seat and said goodbye to Kayla. The car lurched forward, grinding gears and spewing black smoke from its tailpipe as Kayla drove off down the street.

“I look different,” said Haven to Nathaniel.

“A lot has happened to you in a short amount of time,” he said.

The Haven who had been in the car walked up the sidewalk to her home and went inside.

“The door was unlocked,” said the Haven by the tree. “That means one of my parents is home.” She slowly turned and looked at Nathaniel. “Why did you bring me here? Is this some kind of cruel joke, to make me watch them die all over again?”

“Far from it,” he said. “I have made many mistakes throughout my long life, Haven. It is too late for me to fix them. Soon I will move on from this world, to a completely new existence. When I took you to the future, you made me realize something I had forgotten.”

“What did you forget?”

“That life is always worth fighting for.”

The front door of her home opened. Haven crouched by the tree as the other her walked down the front steps. She waved goodbye to someone inside right before the door closed. She had her backpack on one shoulder and a bottle of water in one hand.

“It looks like I’m going to the park,” said the Haven by the tree. “I don’t remember doing that the day before the fire.”

“Our presence here has already caused changes,” said Nathaniel. “You are now in two places at once, and it is possible the other ‘you’ is experiencing altered chemistry from the close proximity of your heightened abilities.”

“You could have just said she feels weird because I’m close by,” said Haven.

“I guess that would have been easier,” he admitted.

The other Haven walked around a corner at the end of the street. When she was completely out of sight, the Haven by the tree stepped closer to her home, a sudden urge to go inside burning fiercely in her heart.

“I would go to the park for hours sometimes,” she said, remembering her long visits. “I would read, or study, or sometimes just lie there, looking up at the swaying branches and the blue sky.”

She started forward, walking directly toward her home.

“Haven,” said Nathaniel, his voice deep and serious.

She stopped in the middle of the street and turned back.

“Remember,” he said. “Not everyone is as adaptable as you are.”

She smiled. “I’ll be careful.”

She half-expected the door handle to disappear at her touch, and for the entire world to dissolve around her. Instead, the door swung open easily. Haven stood perfectly still, staring at the inside of a house she had known she would never see again.

Warm sunlight poured through open windows on the first and second floors. Plates clinked in the kitchen. As Haven stepped slowly into the house, her mother walked past the entrance to the kitchen, a steaming cup of coffee in her hand. She stopped abruptly and stepped back to look at Haven.

“Hey there, sweetie! You forget something?”

Haven stood there with her mouth open for a moment, then shook her head and cleared her throat. “No, Mom, I just—I just…I’m going to hang out for a little while longer.”

“Oh! Well, I’m making banana nut bread if you want some.”

Haven swallowed hard to keep from bursting into tears. “That sounds great.”

Footsteps pounded down the stairs and Haven turned as Noah barreled toward her, already in his pajamas. He had a plastic plane in one hand and made engine sound effects as he waved it through the air. Haven scooped him up when he reached the bottom of the stairs and spun him around. The wind lifted his hair from his forehead and he giggled with delight as he watched the propeller of his plane twirl faster.

Haven set him down and he kept on running, past the kitchen and down the hallway.

“Woah!” said a deep voice as Noah disappeared down the hall. Haven’s father emerged from the hallway, smiling after Noah. “Rookie pilot, coming through.” He winked at Haven as he walked into the kitchen. “Change your mind about studying?” he asked.

Haven walked into the den and sat on the couch. She watched her father wrap his arms around her mother’s waist and kiss her neck. Haven’s mom leaned back into his kiss with her eyes closed and a smile on her face.

It was a perfect day.

The sun had mostly set by the time Haven left. The sky was a deep shade of blue, and the first stars appeared like pinholes in a curtain. She walked slowly down the steps and back to the oak tree across the street. Nathaniel was sitting on the ground, leaning against the trunk, his legs outstretched before him. His eyes were closed and his breathing was deep and steady.

Haven nudged him with the tip of her shoe. He opened his eyes and stood up slowly.

“You waited here the whole time?” she asked him.

He nodded.

Haven looked back toward the house. “It’s funny. I used to get so bored just sitting around, not doing anything.”

“What did you do while you were inside?”

“I was just…there, you know?”

“I think I do.”

“Thank you,” she said. “Really. Thank you.”

He smiled. “Haven, when you fight people like Kamiko and Alistair, you aren’t just fighting for your loved ones. You are fighting for everyone who has ever loved. Every mother, father, and child—every family deserves happiness.”

She heard someone coming down the sidewalk and hid behind the tree. The other Haven walked up the steps to her home and went inside.

The Haven by the tree laughed, then slapped her hands over her mouth to stifle the sound.

“What’s funny?” asked Nathaniel.

“I ate all the banana bread. I’d like to see the look on my parents’ faces if I ask for more.” She fell silent for a moment. “So this timeline is completely independent from the others? If something changes here, it will stay changed?”

“It won’t affect the other timelines, but yes.”

“So in my timeline, my parents stay dead and Noah is robbed of his childhood. But in this one—”

Haven’s voice cut off as the air was suddenly sucked out of her lungs, compressing her ribcage. An unseen force hit her in the chest like a sledgehammer. Her legs buckled and she collapsed to the ground like a ragdoll, unable to move. Acid burned through her veins and her vision turned bright blue, like someone had dropped an electric sheet in front of her eyes.

Her heart pounded in her chest, faster and faster as her bones vibrated so quickly she was sure they would shatter.

Her heart stopped beating and she couldn’t breathe. Nathaniel stood over her, looking down without concern. Haven’s fingertips twitched, and suddenly her heart leapt in her chest and began pounding once again. She sat bolt upright and sucked in a huge breath of air, her eyes wide with panic.

She let the breath out slowly, her body shaking with new energy.

“What…was that?!” she gasped.

“That was the Phoenix energy,” said Nathaniel. He crouched next to her and put his hands on her shoulders to calm her down.

“I thought—I thought you had to die to get it,” said Haven.

“You do, and you have. One version of you has, anyway.”

“But what does that mean? Does that mean another Haven had to die before it came to me?”

The same shadow she had seen on his face earlier crossed over it again. “I’m afraid so.”

“Colton,” said Haven suddenly. She stood up and pulled Nathaniel impatiently to his feet. “Take me to him. Take me to my timeline. Can you do that? Can we go back, or do we always end up in a copy of the original timeline?”

“If you have a strong enough connection to someone in your timeline, that connection can act as an anchor to draw you back.”

“It’s strong enough,” said Haven.

A car turned quickly onto the street, its headlights flashing over Haven and Nathaniel. They moved next to the trunk and stood still while the car pulled to a stop a few houses down from Haven’s home.

She didn’t know who it was, but something inside her told her they were trouble. Her hands were still shaking as the Phoenix energy coursed through her veins.

She heard voices—two distinct voices bantering quickly back and forth. Haven peaked around the trunk of the tree and saw them—Lee and Dane, the twins who had burned her home and murdered her parents with red fire.

The twins were tall, with spiky blond hair. They wore long, dark coats that trailed around their ankles as they strolled casually down the street. They stopped talking as they approached Haven’s house.

She stepped away from the tree and Nathaniel pulled her back.

“Wait,” he said.

The twins stopped on the street, looked up and down the neighborhood briefly to make sure they weren’t being watched, then moved across Haven’s yard, toward the side of the house. They crouched along the fence next to the house and waited in the shadows without moving.

A curtain over a second-floor window was pushed aside and a silhouette appeared.

“That’s me,” whispered Haven. “I remember seeing something outside my window. But that wasn’t the night of the fire.”

The silhouette disappeared from the window and the twins giggled as they hurried across the yard, back to the street. They were getting close to their car when Nathaniel turned Haven toward him.

“You’re sure you want to do this?”

“I’m going to give this Haven and this Noah the chance at a normal life.”

She walked away, and he didn’t try to stop her. The twins were laughing as they opened the car doors and got inside. Haven thought that maybe they were just on a scouting mission, or checking to see if anyone was home at that time of night so they would know when to torch the place when they were ready to strike.

Either way, they would never get that chance.

The engine was running when she stepped up next to the driver’s window. She rapped on the glass with her knuckles and smiled when Lee recognized her, a look of terror on his face.

After she was finished, she walked back to the oak tree. Nathaniel looked past her, at the smoking skeleton of the twins’ car.

“That will only delay Bernam and Alistair from trying again.”

“I received the bulk of my powers in the cafeteria right after the house burned down. I have a feeling the other me will be ready the next time someone comes around. Now,” said Haven, “take me to Colton.”

43

The cracks in Alistair’s skin glowed bright yellow, the same color as the sludge he had absorbed from the tank. His eyes were solid marbles of plasma, swirling in their sockets like the molten surface of stars. When he grinned to reveal his slimy teeth, yellow light shot out between them from deep in his throat.

Colton felt beyond numb—what he felt was dead, like there was no existence beyond the anger inside him. He clenched his fists and flexed his back. The light around his skin fell into him as if he were a human black hole. It created a shadow that encased his body, growing outward as he pulled in more light. He could see Alistair through the dark haze by the yellow streaks of plasma that coursed over his burnt skin. All else was darkness.

The tank groaned on its supports as the metal warped out of place. One of the supporting struts cracked in the middle and a bolt shot out like a bullet. It hit Colton’s chest and melted on contact, turning into a droplet of molten metal. The liquid disappeared into his skin.

Yellow plasma exploded from Alistair’s hands, arcing through the air toward Colton. It smacked into the void around Colton’s body and spread across it like paint poured over a bowling ball. Then it was gone, evaporated in the blink of an eye.

Yellow lightning crackled over Colton’s skin as he harnessed the power he had just been given. A thin bolt shot out and hit Alistair in the shoulder. The man shrieked in surprise. He patted out a small fire that ignited on his shoulder and took a step back.

Black plasma burst from Colton’s eyes as he continued to draw from the world around him. The dust at Alistair’s feet slid across the floor and disappeared into the black hole encapsulating Colton’s body.

“You should have left us alone,” said Colton.

Alistair turned and tried to run. He leaned away from Colton at a sharp angle, as if he were trying to run against the wind in a hurricane. Every time he lifted one foot to take a step, the other foot slid backward, toward the shadow. Wind ripped at his clothes, and his jacket flapped wildly behind his back. He turned to Colton, his face a mask of stoic indignation.

The walls on all four sides of the room cracked simultaneously. Chunks of concrete broke free and swirled through the air, disappearing into the void.

Alistair’s feet slid freely across the floor, toward Colton. He made no apparent attempt to escape. Alistair was about ten feet away from Colton when he screamed and launched his attack. A thick beam of yellow-black plasma erupted from his fists and hit Colton square in the chest. Colton didn’t even flinch. The plasma dissipated the moment it hit his skin, evaporating into the swirling vortex of shadow that surrounded his body.

Alistair’s arms fell limply to his sides. He shook his head slowly as he was dragged closer to the void. He said something then, but Colton didn’t hear what it was. He didn’t care.

He focused on pulling everything in at once—the wisps of energy, the debris at the edge of the storm, and the darkness of the void around him collapsed into his body like an imploding star. The lights in the room quickly brightened.

Alistair’s momentum carried him forward. He stumbled the last few feet and stopped just short of impact.

Colton pulled back his arm and clenched his fist. There was a universe of energy inside his body, and he funneled it all down to the bones in his hand. Alistair’s eyes widened as Colton hit him in the middle of the chest. All of the stored energy exploded from his fist. It shattered Alistair’s ribcage and launched him back into the air. He flew across the room and slammed into the far wall, compacted into the crater formed by his body, his head drooping from side to side.

Then he fell and hit the concrete floor face-first. He groaned once, and then was still.

Colton drew in a deep breath. As he let it out, his body began to shudder. He dropped to his knees and spit blood on the floor. The thoughts of Haven he had pushed aside for the last few minutes came flooding into his mind. He screamed and pounded the floor with his fists, cracking the concrete into a huge crater beneath him.

Alistair groaned and rolled over onto his back. Colton wiped his mouth and stood up, ready to finish the job. He was halfway across the room toward Alistair when the air in the room shifted. There was a loud CRACK, like the snap of a heavy branch.

Haven stood a few feet away, next to the man who had swapped her for another Haven at Kamiko’s lair. Haven turned to the man and thanked him. He nodded in return, smiled at Colton, and with another CRACK, he was gone.

Colton stood where he was, his mad vendetta against Alistair completely forgotten.

“Hi,” said Haven timidly.

He opened his mouth to reply but it came out as a thin squeak. He coughed into his hand and cleared his throat. “Hey.”

She saw the crater in the floor behind him. “Was that you?”

He shrugged. “Yeah, well, you know. I kind of thought you were dead. Again. That’s twice now,” he said, holding up two fingers. “Two times I thought you were gone forever.”

“I guess I really did die,” she said, looking at the tank. “I don’t know how to feel about that.” She wrung her hands together and bit her bottom lip. God he loved it when she did that.

“You know,” he continued, “next time it happens, I’m going to wait a few days before I get upset, because let me tell you—”

He stopped talking when she ran into his arms. He lifted her chin and kissed her. The lights in the room dimmed and a tornado of blue energy swirled up from the ground. It surrounded them while they embraced.

Alistair coughed loudly. The swirl of blue energy quickly faded into the air as Colton and Haven turned to him. He was on his stomach, crawling toward them slowly, using only his arms to drag his broken body across the ground.

“I…must feed,” he said. His voice popped with wet fluid, and he paused for a moment to hack a glob of black blood on the floor.

Haven walked calmly to him and kicked him in the face. He grunted and flipped onto his back, where he lay breathing heavily and staring up at the ceiling with unseeing eyes.

She brushed off her hands and walked back to Colton.

“I feel like torching this place in a big way,” he said.

“Oh, yeah? What did you have in mind?”

He took her hand and led her through the complex until they reached the elevator that went up to Alistair’s main headquarters.

“Where are we going?” asked Haven as they ascended in the elevator.

“I got us a room with a view,” he said, then winked.

The doors slid open and he brought her to the glass-walled office where Alistair had first spoken to him upon his arrival. The jungle valley stretched out in all directions below. Colton and Haven walked to the very end of the room, where the glass walls came together at a point. Then he put his hands on her shoulders and smiled.

“Are you okay?” she asked. The concern was obvious on her face.

“I’m fine,” he said, and he meant it. His voice was laced with just a hint of the echo he had spoken with earlier, but he cleared his throat and it went away. “There are thousands of gallons of toxic waste beneath this complex. Alistair was going to use it to make the country uninhabitable for everyone except Conduits.”

“That sounds like Alistair,” said Haven.

“He was also going to kill Nathaniel and travel back in time so he could poison the country before anyone got there.”

“That really sounds like Alistair. So what do we do?”

“He said that if a Phoenix and a Void were ever counterparts, they would form a Nova.”

“Wait, is that what’s wrong with you? How did you get the Void energy?”

“It isn’t wrong at all,” he said. “Better with me than someone like Alistair, right?”

“No argument there.” Her face scrunched up and she looked skeptical. “So, he said we’d make a Nova? You really believe him?”

“Only one way to find out.”

He pulled her close just as a helicopter flew over the building. It banked to the side as it flew over the jungle. Colton saw Marius at the controls.

“Will they come back for us?” asked Haven.

“I certainly hope so. It’s a long walk back.”

She wrapped her arms around his chest and hugged him tightly. Colton held her around the shoulders and closed his eyes.

The transfer between them was instantaneous. It was like a floodgate had been suddenly lifted, and everything inside of Colton and everything inside of Haven rushed forward to meet in the middle.

Her energy wings grew from her back slowly, the tips of each one burning into the ceiling. She was outputting so much energy that at first Colton wasn’t sure if he could deflect it away. A sphere of piercingly bright blue plasma swelled around them, connected to Colton by a thick strand of swirling energy. He funneled everything Haven gave him into the sphere, expanding it until its edges burned through the walls and floor of the room.

“Colton…” said Haven, opening her eyes to look at the destruction.

“It’s okay,” he said. He lifted her chin and smiled. He could feel the fires burning upward from his eyes. Haven reached up and touched his cheek, then pulled his face to hers and kissed him deeply.

The energy sphere exploded, then reformed almost instantly. The ceiling, walls, and floor of the room were completely consumed. Colton and Haven hovered in mid-air above the mountain. The sphere continued to expand, evaporating the foundation of the building and cutting down through the mountain, consuming everything it touched.

“Are you ready?” he asked.

“Yes.”

Colton closed his eyes and held his breath. His body shook violently as he pulled the energy sphere back in. It shrank quickly, shuddering wildly until it disappeared into Colton’s body.

“Now,” whispered Haven.

The sphere exploded from his body like an atomic bomb. Haven continued to feed energy through him as the explosion quickly expanded. It was solid, spherical wall of electric blue plasma that consumed the entire mountain, and Haven and Colton were two small specks hovering in the middle.

“Keep going!” shouted Colton.

Haven closed her eyes and buried her face in his chest. The mountain was gone, leaving nothing but air between them and the ground hundreds of feet below. The explosion swelled, swallowing buildings, vehicles, and everything else in its path.

Colton looked down. The wall of the sphere cut through the lower levels of the complex as it sank through the ground, forming an enormous crater. The energy pushed down through the vat room where the toxic sludge was produced. There was no resistance as the plasma sphere descended through the vats, leaving behind nothing but vapor as it sank lower into the ground.

Colton pulled Haven’s head away from his chest and held her whipping hair back from her eyes. The question she wanted to ask him was obvious, and he nodded. She breathed out a heavy sigh, and the enormous blue sphere flickered out.

The air crackled around them as they descended slowly through the air.

Haven giggled. “I didn’t know we could fly. This is probably the coolest thing that’s happened to me so far,” she said.

“It’s more like hovering,” he said. “But I’ll take it.”

The sphere had burned a perfectly curved crater in the dirt below the complex, like a huge satellite dish facing the sky. Colton and Haven gently landed on their feet in the center of the giant bowl.

The distant sound of a helicopter beat over the jungle, heading in their direction.

“Quite an adventure,” said Haven, looking up into Colton’s eyes. “But I think I’m ready to relax for a while.”

He smiled. “I couldn’t have said it better myself.”

EPILOGUE

—TWO MONTHS LATER—

Haven awoke to the sound of birdsong. A thin ray of sunlight found the tiny hole at the top of the window curtains and flashed over her eyes as she rolled over in bed. It had been a late evening out with Colton the night before.

She heard noises outside her cabin and knew she was probably the last one awake, as usual. The bunk bed on the other side of the room was empty. June was an early riser, Haven had discovered, and she usually woke as soon as the sun peaked above the mountains to the east. Corva was somewhere in between, but she was still more of a morning person than Haven.

After the complete annihilation of the Helix compound, there had been a lot of discussion about where to settle the group. In the end, it was agreed that, while most of them wanted to rebuild the Dome and remain in Montana, the location of their home was compromised. If Alistair knew where to find them, it was possible that many others knew about the Dome and its inhabitants.

The matter of where to go had been settled when Corva revealed the contents of Dormer’s Living Will to the group. He and his brother Adsen came from a wealthy family, though Dormer never flaunted it to the group when he was alive. According to his Will, he left every penny in his substantial savings to whosoever inhabited his grandparents’ property in the mountains of western Virginia. He also just happened to leave the key to the main house in June’s dresser drawer.

Haven rolled out of bed and pulled on a sweatshirt over her tank top, then changed out her sweatpants for jeans. She tied her hair back into a hasty ponytail as she walked outside. The mid-morning air was crisp and cool, and it did wonders for clearing the mind. She took a deep breath and stood with her hands on her hips as she looked around the property.

Dormer’s grandparents had built a single-level home in the Appalachian Mountains of Virginia. They had chosen a high peak with a commanding view of the surrounding land. Haven shielded her eyes as she looked toward the horizon. It was a crystal clear morning, and she could see parts of West Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee before the curvature of the earth disappeared into a fine haze.

Noah bumped into her legs, giggling as he ran past. He had a snake held in both hands and his forearms were covered in mud up to his elbows. It was a simple grass snake, harmless to anything bigger than a large cricket. Noah spent many of his mornings playing at the edge of a small lake on the property, before his daily lessons. Haven didn’t think she was a very good teacher, but Noah seemed to think so. He didn’t mind learning, but he did mind not being outside as much as possible. They would often sit outside under a tall oak tree next to the lake when he got too restless.

“Be careful, Noah,” she called after him with a smile.

“Okay!” he said without looking back.

It had taken him a while to recover from what happened in the jungle. The massive energy output and the teleportation had affected him on a deep level, and caused him to draw into himself. He had barely uttered more than one word at a time for several weeks. When Haven finally got him to open up about it, he said he had been afraid it would happen again. He was worried he would hurt the others, so he did his best to bottle up his emotions to keep from feeling anything, good or bad.

Haven made it part of their daily lesson plan to focus on his mastery of the Nova ability. She was starting small, and Noah was making good progress, considering he was only half the age of someone who was supposed to have an ability in the first place. He displayed a comforting confidence and rarely became frustrated when he couldn’t learn something immediately. Haven found a patience she never knew she had in her lessons with her little brother. It was either that or strangle him, and she loved the little bugger too much for that.

Dormer’s grandparents had lived on a flat piece of land near the peak of the mountain, almost like a wide, grassy shelf, upon which sat three buildings, empty stables that were now only inhabited by a dozen chickens, and a wide, shallow lake filled by a natural spring. A small waterfall spilled over the far side of the lake, cascading over a rocky path all the way down the side of the mountain to the valley two thousand feet below.

Haven had been pleased to discover her new home had a lake—it reminded her of the pond in the Grove back at the Dome. She had seen the place only once since the events in the jungle, and she felt certain she would never see it again.

Marius, Corva, and Haven had gone to the Dome shortly after the destruction of the Helix compound. The place was a ruin. The ceiling in the main dome room had fully collapsed, opening the floor to the elements above. Wind pushed hills of sand over the edge of the hole in the ceiling, where it piled into dunes on the floor.

The dormitory rooms were crushed, squeezed like tin cans by immense external pressure. The kitchen had been completely gutted by fire, leaving nothing behind but the charred remains of the old stove.

What broke Haven’s heart the most was the desecration of the Grove. The ancient trees on the grassy hill had been uprooted and left to rot. For some reason, that was worse than seeing them burnt to ashes. Even the willow that stood guard over the teardrop pond next to Elena’s grave had not escaped Alistair’s wrath. Its trunk was broken in the middle. The top half had fallen to the ground, sticking halfway out of the pond. No blue lights danced around its grey, rotting boughs.

The only ray of hope had been a tiny sapling growing over Elena’s grave. The small, grassy mound in front of her tombstone was home to a thin, weak little willow that had been struggling to survive in the shadow of its parent.

Haven had replanted that sapling next to the waterfall at the far side of the lake. In time, it would grow as big as the one in the Grove, and hopefully bigger, since there would always be a ready supply of water and sunshine.

The cabin Haven shared with June and Shelly was smaller than the other two buildings, but that didn’t bother her. It had a wood-burning stove against the middle of one wall, and a set of bunk-beds on either side. The shower was outside around back. It was little more than a hose suspended over a wooden platform with flimsy plywood walls, open to the sky above. Haven wasn’t looking forward to shuffling to and from the shower in the winter. It was already chilly in the mountains, and they had barely left summer behind.

Noah, Colton, and Kai shared the other small cabin, though it was only slightly larger than the one used by the three women. She suspected the three of them could have been sleeping in a tent for the last two months and would have been as happy as could be. Something about being outdoors and away from civilization had changed them all for the better. They smiled more often and seemed to be forgetting the troubles of the past.

Haven followed a narrow dirt path through the grass, toward the main residence shared by Marius and Corva. The three buildings were arranged in a half-moon shape around the property, with the small cabins at either end and the main cabin in the middle, all facing the lake. The mountain’s peak shielded the back of the property behind the cabins, blocking most of the wind that swept up from the valley.

June had planted a small garden between the main cabin and the lake, and she was bent over, pulling out weeds as Haven walked by. Shelly was on her knees a few feet away, digging through the dirt with a trowel. Dirt smudged her cheeks. She looked up and smiled at Haven, then went back to her digging. Shelly had quite the green thumb, as it turned out, and June had recruited her to help with the garden. June had a handful of carrots by the stems and wiped her brow with the back of a gloved hand as she stood up and stretched her back.

“It’s looking good,” said Haven with appreciation. At least a dozen different kinds of vegetables sprouted up from the ground near June’s feet.

“Oui,” she said with a smile. “The soil is very rich up here.”

“Have you seen Colton?” asked Haven.

June nodded to the other side of the property. Colton and Kai appeared over the edge of the grassy platform. It dropped down steeply toward the base of the mountain, but there was an old trail that wound over rocks and streams that one could follow safely to the bottom.

The boys had been using the trail to hunt game for meals. They had gotten good at it very quickly, thought Haven. Where first they would come back with nothing more than a field mouse, now they rarely returned without enough meat to last them all a week or more.

The two of them laughed heartily as they crested the rise at the edge of the property. Colton and Kai both had several rabbits slung over their shoulders, each clump bound together with rough twine. They needed no weapons, since each of them had become proficient in using their abilities on a small enough scale to take down a small animal without burning up the side of the mountain.

Haven was truly happy for both of them. It wasn’t often that someone found out they had a brother, especially after thinking for so long that they had no real family. Colton’s mother, it seemed, had been living a secret life long before she ever left Colton and his father. Kai would not say who his father was, or if even he knew his identity. Yet now that Haven knew they were related, she could easily see the resemblance, even if Kai stood a good few inches taller than Colton and was built like an ox.

Colton said something as the two of them walked over to Haven and Kai punched him in the shoulder. It was meant to be playful, but Colton staggered sideways from the force of the punch. He responded by hitting Kai in the shoulder with a small beam of black energy. The beam snapped the twine binding Kai’s rabbits together and they tumbled to the ground.

Colton laughed as he came up to Haven and kissed her. That was the one thing she liked most about her new life—she had the time to indulge in little things like affection.

“Morning,” he said.

“Good morning, brave hunter,” she said playfully.

Colton’s face was tanned from spending most of his time outdoors. Haven thought it suited him quite nicely. The scar on the left side of his face from the battle with Kamiko was slowly fading.

“Hey,” he said. “You have any plans tonight?”

“Hmm,” she said, putting a finger to her lips as she thought. “I’d have to check my schedule, but I might be able to find some time.”

“I was thinking we do that thing again, like last night.” He wiggled his eyebrows up and down and she laughed as she pushed his shoulder.

They had been spending more of their nights out in the wild, honing their abilities both as individuals and as counterparts. Haven felt as if they were barely scratching the surface of all they could accomplish when they were at unity, but she had insisted they take it slow despite Colton’s obvious desire to move forward at the speed of light. She already had to stop him from destroying a nearby mountain because he wanted to make sure what they did in the jungle wasn’t a fluke. He finally agreed that it was a bad idea after a lot of convincing on Haven’s part, but she could tell he still wouldn’t have minded going through with it.

Kai finished picking up his rabbits and carried them over to June for inspection. Shelly stood up and jumped onto Kai. He caught her easily around the waist and she wrapped her limbs around his body. He spun around quickly and she threw back her head and laughed.

“Good job, boys,” said June. “How about rabbit stew with fresh carrots for dinner?”

“Sounds delicious,” said Colton.

“Hey,” said Haven, squeezing his hand. “I’m going to go talk to Corva. Meet up with you soon?”

“Sounds good,” he said, then pecked her on the cheek.

Noah ran by, still covered in mud but without a snake. “OooOOoh!” he teased, making kissing noises and sticking out his tongue.

Colton swatted at his head as he ran past, but missed.

Haven walked the narrow dirt path through the grass to the main cabin. Smoke curled up lazily from the chimney. A hand-carved sign over the door read “New Home”. The Old Home had been a sanctuary for their kind before its destruction, as had the Dome. Now they had a new place to live, separate from the world but still very much a part of it.

Haven liked the name. It spoke to her of fresh beginnings and it made her feel like she had a place where she truly belonged.

The main cabin was wider than the others. Instead having just a single room like the other cabins, it had a bedroom, living room, and kitchen. There was a sliding glass door at the back, behind a small dining table.

Marius walked out of the bedroom in a pink bathrobe and Haven burst out laughing.

“What?” he said. “Don’t real men wear pink in this country? Marius has seen it on tee shirts.”

He went into the kitchen and poured a cup of coffee from a pot on the stove. Corva came out of the bedroom a moment later, dressed more sensibly in jeans and a sweatshirt.

“Morning, Haven,” she said. She ran a hand through her shock-white hair and yawned. It seemed that Haven wasn’t the only one who had a late night.

“Can I talk to you for a minute?” asked Haven.

“Sure,” said Corva. “Come on out back.”

She opened the sliding glass door at the back of the cabin.

“She doesn’t want to talk to Marius,” he grumbled as the two women left the cabin. “The tee shirts lied to him and now he is stuck with woman’s bathrobe.”

“I tried to tell him,” said Corva as she closed the sliding door behind her. “What’s up?”

“First of all, I wanted to say thanks.”

Corva smiled. “For what?”

“Just for organizing this whole thing, taking care of the details. All of that.”

“Haven, come on. Don’t even mention it. What’s really bothering you?”

Haven looked away for a moment, thinking. “I’m worried about Colton.”

“What’s wrong with him?”

“Not him, particularly. More like us. After what we did to Helix in the jungle, I’m a little…I don’t know…”

“Afraid?”

“Exactly.”

Corva smiled. “That’s a healthy response after what you experienced, Haven. To be honest, if you were anything less than afraid, I would be worried. The Phoenix and Void energies are stronger than any one of us could ever realize, and I sleep much better at night knowing they are with two people I trust.”

“You really feel that way?”

“I do. I would be scared out of my wits if someone else had those powers. You kidding me? After what the Void energy did to Alistair?”

“What happens if someone else tries to take the abilities?”

“We’ll stand together and make sure that doesn’t happen. We’re a family, and that’s what families do for each other.”

Haven hugged her quickly. “Thank you,” she said.

“Any time,” said Corva. She walked back to the cabin. “Hey, you want breakfast?”

“I think it’s almost lunchtime.”

Corva shrugged. “I think omelets are an all-day food.”

“Maybe in a little while,” said Haven. “I’m going to catch up with Colton.”

“Better hurry before Marius eats all the eggs,” said Corva as she opened the sliding glass door. “That pink bathrobe makes him extra hungry for some reason.”

After she was inside, Haven turned and walked up the trail leading to the very peak of the mountain. She could sense that Colton was up there, waiting for her, just like she could sense that there was something troubling him.

The trail spiraled around the narrowing mountaintop until it delivered Haven to the very peak. Colton sat on a flat rock, his legs dangling over the edge. The wind was stronger that high up without any protection. Haven hugged herself tightly as she sat next to Colton and leaned against him.

“Hey,” she said.

“Hi.”

He put his arm around her and held her close.

“You okay?” she asked.

He was silent for a long time before he answered. “I have a bad feeling that there are other people like Alistair out there in the world, hurting others and destroying families.”

“It happens every day, Colton. It’s part of life.”

“Why does it have to be, though? Why doesn’t anyone do something about it?”

“We did. Kamiko’s gone, and so are Bernam and Alistair. Three major psychopaths, out of the picture forever.”

“What about the rest of them?” asked Colton. He shook his head and breathed out a heavy sigh.

Haven could tell it troubled him greatly. She put her hand on the back of his head and ran her fingers through his hair.

“You want to be a crime-fighter, Mr. Hero? Use your powers to protect the innocent?”

He smiled. “If no one else is going to do it, sure.”

“You mind if I tag along?” she asked.

Colton turned and looked at her, mischief glinting in his eyes. “You want to be my sidekick?”

“Hah!” she said. “Equal partners, how about that?”

He pretended to think it over for a moment. “Deal.”

She rested her head on his shoulder and looked out at the horizon. The sun shone brightly, reflecting off a dozen lakes, like tiny jewels on the surface of the world below.

Colton held Haven tightly, and she made a wish that he would never let her go.

From The Author

Thank you so much for reading The Bloom Series. I hope you enjoyed the ride.

If you liked the books and have a moment, please click here to write a review on Amazon with your thoughts so other readers can discover the series.

Until the next adventure.

—APK

The Bloom Series Website

Copyright

This book and parts thereof may not be reproduced in any form, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopying, or otherwise—without prior written permission of the author.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any similarities to actual persons, organizations, and/or events is purely coincidental.