Lani looked up at Henry in alarm. “Is that the medicine too?”
“No,” Henry said softly. At that moment his face wore the experience of an old man. “He’s crying.”
“Why?” Lani reached a hand out and slipped it in Alex’s, her face filled with concern.
Samheed watched, surprised. He’d never seen his friend like this. Sky put her hand to her mouth and looked away, crying too, and Crow slipped his hand in hers.
“Sean,” Simber said. The cat growled, watching Alex relive it all again. Florence wiped a tear and flicked it overboard, and Octavia blew her nose loudly into her handkerchief.
Samheed looked around at everyone and his heart slammed in his chest. “What happened?” he whispered.
Sean took a deep breath and let it out slowly, and then he began. “In one instant, everything changed. Simber froze and fell into the sea. Claire’s boat that Alex was driving at full speed stopped running, throwing him and Meghan, who was unconscious, into the water. On land, the mansion disappeared in a poof, turning into the gray shack, and Artimé was gone. Completely wiped out, except for the people. And then a group from Quill attacked.”
Lani’s mouth hung open. “You’re not serious,” she breathed. “How could that have happened?” She looked around, bewildered and scared. “Sean?” she prompted. She stared at Henry, but he only looked at the deck.
Samheed’s eyes were wild. He stood up and looked all around, as if he might have missed someone. He looked at Alex, shaking in the chair, arm still flung over his face, and he grew pale. “Rufus called Alex . . . No. No way,” he mumbled, thinking. And then he gasped and went up to Sean, gripping his shirt, eyes begging the older boy to lie as he whispered, “Where’s Mr. Today?”
One Last Tale
When it was over, the ship was wet with tears. Alex had finally had a chance to grieve without having to be the brave one, while Samheed and Lani sat in shock. At Lani’s feet Henry fidgeted, his face wearing the strain of one final secret.
They sat like surviving comrades of a lost war, silent, finding comfort in the existence of the others.
One by one the Artiméans realized what hadn’t been told, and they slipped away to the lower deck. Even Simber tried to give them time alone by creating a job for himself. With his teeth, he grabbed a rope that was tied to the bow and began pulling, flying out ahead, helping the ship home.
Sky hesitated and then went belowdecks, knowing Samheed could help Alex if he needed it. Even though she’d spent a lot of time with Henry, Sky was a stranger to Lani, and she hadn’t earned the right to be in this conversation.
Meghan stole away, finding Sean and Carina standing quietly at the stern.
Soon only Alex, Lani, Samheed, and Henry remained. Alex forced himself to be strong. He gave Henry a long look. Henry returned it with sorrowful eyes and nodded. He scooted over to Alex and rested his chin on Alex’s knee, wrapping his arms around Alex’s lower leg like it was a security blanket. Alex rested his hand on the boy’s head, mussing his hair a little in a comforting way.
“We have one more thing we have to tell you, Lani,” Alex said. He breathed shallowly, lungs searing with every breath, his whole skeleton in pain, but he’d turned down a second dose of the medicine because throwing up endlessly was worse.
Lani looked up at him, her face going blank with fear. “What is it?”
Alex leaned forward slowly, pinching the bridge of his nose, thinking. He edged his body up and out of the chair, trying not to gasp in pain, Henry reaching out to help him kneel on the deck next to Lani.
“Al,” Samheed said, scrambling to help, but Alex waved him off.
“It’s cool. I’m fine,” he lied. He rested his elbow on Lani’s good leg and took her hand, and then he turned his head to look at Henry, giving him a sad smile and reaching out to bring the boy closer.
Lani couldn’t speak.
Alex looked deep into her new orange eyes, feeling the most tremendous sorrow, knowing the next few minutes would change her life drastically, and hating to have to be the one to bear the news. Finally he could delay it no longer. “When Quill attacked us after Artimé disappeared,” he said, “the Unwanteds fought hard. They gave everything they had. But they’d lost their magic and were unprepared to fight Quill’s way. We had no weapons,” he explained. “Because of that, we lost some of Artimé’s bravest, who fought to the death for the sake of all of us.”
Lani’s lip quivered and her already red-rimmed eyes filled again. “No,” she said. A tear escaped, and she looked at Henry. “No,” she pleaded.
Henry’s face broke. Alex put his hand on the boy’s shoulder.
Lani turned back to Alex. “No!” she screamed.
Alex’s head tipped back and his lids closed halfway, and then he pressed her hand to his heart. “I’m sorry to tell you that your mother—”
“NO!”
Alex breathed. Lani’s screams hurt more than his bones. “Your mother,” he said, pausing, waiting for her, but she was already quiet, “was one of those brave people, and she died.”
Lani stared at Alex, lips flared, face twisted and streaming with tears. Her body shuddered, and then her features softened as she looked at Henry. She reached out a quivering hand and touched his face, wiping a tear from his jaw and catching another that pooled in the shadow below his eye. And then she pulled her fingers free from Alex, buried her face in her hands, and rocked back and forth.