“Are you okay?” the girl asks me.
I lift up my shirt and place a hand on my wound. “I will be in a second.”
She ducks a blast from a cannon. “Good. What number are you?”
“Seven.”
“I’m Six,” she says before vanishing.
The iciness spreads from my fingers over my body, but I know I won’t be able to heal myself completely before the oncoming wave of Mogadorian soldiers reaches me. I roll into the lake and stay underwater. My wound is almost healed when I rise above the surface.
Number Six is on top of one of the armored Humvees with a glowing sword. She’s fighting several soldiers at once: hacking off body parts, blocking cannon fire with her blade, using telekinesis to aim a floating cannon high above her so it blasts through dozens of Mogadorians on the formation’s edge. She then hurls her sword into a crowd, impaling three soldiers at once. Number Six grabs the large gun mounted on top of the vehicle and mows down dozens of Mogadorians in seconds.
There are only twenty or thirty soldiers left. Maybe four krauls. Number Six holds one hand over her head while the gun in the other shoots and destroys the Humvees along the shore. Dark clouds form over the mountains and bolts of lightning crack and split the ground near her. The Mogadorians show fear for the first time, and I watch a few drop their weapons and run towards the woods.
“Out of the water!” I yell, fearful of the lightning. Ella drags Héctor to the edge of the lake and Crayton follows.
I reach the shore near Number Six and pick up two cannons. I struggle to keep my footing as I press both triggers, turning more soldiers to ash, destroying two of the krauls. An injured soldier hiding behind a wrecked Humvee tosses a grenade at Number Six’s back, but I’m able to shoot it in the air. The explosion rotates Number Six and the mounted gun, and a moment later the injured soldier is nothing but ash.
I can’t keep my eyes off of Number Six. Her strength is mesmerizing. The blue pendant bounces around as the gun in her one hand cuts down more and more soldiers. She rotates to her left and blows a kraul into bits, and then she rotates to her right and takes out several more Mogadorians with a bolt of lightning.
The valley is bright and smoky. It’s damp and charred. I look around me and can’t believe that victory will be ours in just a matter of seconds. Crayton races over and I toss him one of my guns, and instantly he’s killing soldiers retreating into the woods. Héctor runs with my Chest, and soon he and Ella stand behind me. I nod towards Number Six and smile at my friends, thinking that the worst is over; but that’s when Ella raises her eyes over my head and her face turns white.
“Pikens!” Ella yells.
Four of the horned monsters run down the mountainside at full speed. Directly below them, Number Six is preoccupied with the few remaining soldiers and the kraul. I uproot as many silver firs as I can and send them like rockets. Four hit the lead one and it falls backwards into the path of the other three, and it’s crushed and killed in the stampede.
“Number Six!” I shout. She hears me, and I point to the pikens rumbling down into the valley. She spins with the gun and blows the knees off the monster on the left. It tumbles down faster than the other two can run, and Number Six jumps from the Humvee a moment before the dead piken flattens it with an echoing crunch.
Crayton and I shoot our cannons at the other two, but they’re too fast, splitting up when they reach the valley floor. The clouds roar when Number Six stands, and an enormous bolt of lightning crashes into one of the pikens, cutting off its arm. It bellows and falls to its knees, but quickly regains its balance and charges ahead with blood spurting from its side. The other piken dodges Crayton’s fire and rushes in from the other direction. We all run towards Number Six, but Héctor is too slow with my Chest in his arms. The piken closes in, and before I can help, the one-armed monster reaches down and snatches Héctor and my Chest in its fist.
“No!” I scream. “Héctor!”
I’m in such shock that when the piken throws a lifeless Héctor and my Chest into the lake, I don’t use my telekinesis to stop either from sinking.
Number Six has killed the other piken. She turns towards us now and holds both hands up to the sky. A lightning bolt severs the monster’s head from its body.
For the first time all day, there is silence. I lean into Number Six, look at Ella and Crayton and the fire and destruction behind them, and I know that these quiet moments are about to become rare in my life.
“Your Chest, Marina,” Crayton says. “You have to go get it.”
I turn to Number Six and hug her. “Thank you. Thank you, Number Six.”
“I’m sure we’ll get a chance to do it again sometime.” She wraps her arms around my shoulders. “And just call me Six.”
“I’m Marina. This is Crayton and Ella. She’s Number Ten.”
Ella steps forward and shrinks to her seven-year-old body. She extends her small hand towards Six, who has her mouth open, speechless.
Crayton starts to explain Ella and the second ship to Six as I walk into the lake. I feel its coolness for the first time. I swim to the middle and dive, descending until the water is devoid of any light and my feet touch the muddy floor. I circle the bottom until I see my Chest. I rock it back and forth to dislodge it from the mud’s suction. Swimming with one arm, I start to ascend. When the water turns blue, I see Héctor’s body and wrap my other arm around his waist.
Ella and Crayton stand with Six on the shore. I drop the Chest and slap my wet hands on Héctor’s shin, arm, neck, all around his crushed back, hoping and praying the icy feeling will arrive in my fingers.
“He’s dead,” Crayton says, pulling on my shoulders.
I don’t give up. Hating myself for not trying the same thing on Adelina, I touch Héctor’s face. I run my hand through his gray hair. I even levitate him a few centimeters off the sand and try it all over again, but it’s true. He’s gone.
Chapter Thirty-Three
I’M HOVERING OVER GRASS. I’M FLOATING OVER a river. I feel wretched and stiff, and every time I dare to open my eyes, I’m either bouncing over a log or gliding up a rocky hill. There’s a constant noise, and it takes me several minutes to realize it’s the sound of Bernie Kosar’s hooves. I’m draped over his back and we’re moving quickly through the mountains.
“You awake?” Nine asks. I raise my head to see him sitting behind me, both of our Chests under his arms.
“I don’t know what I am,” I say, closing my eyes. “What . . . what happened?”
“You ran right into the blue stuff. That’s the last thing on Earth, or Lorien, or anywhere, you want to do.” He sounds pissed, like I just tore him away from his own birthday party.
“What about Setrákus Ra?” I ask.
“Somewhere in the mountain, the coward. I couldn’t find another way in. And I looked.”
I push myself up BK’s hide in a panic. “Where’s Sam?”
“Not a chance, Four. Your buddy is either long gone, or he’s hanging upside down staring at the wrong end of a knife.”
I vomit. Bernie Kosar quickly lowers himself so I can slide off his back, and then I vomit some more. Nine tries to explain the sickness will go away soon, that he’s gone through it several times when he tried to escape his cell, that the healing stone seems to be powerless against the force field’s effects, but I’m too dizzy with visions of Sam being tortured to listen. My sickness is from my betrayal, not from some Mogadorian force field. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to forgive myself. It’s my fault he went in there, and it’s my fault he was left behind. I turned my back on my best friend.
“We have to go back,” I say. “Sam would go back for me.”
“Not a chance. Not yet. You’re too much of a mess and like you said before, we need numbers.”
I pull myself to my feet but fall onto my hands and knees almost immediately. “You don’t even know where we are.”
“We’re a couple of miles from your car,” Nine says. He must see the confusion on my face, because he smiles and pats Bernie Kosar’s back. “Turns out I can talk to animals. Who knew? Bernie Kosar here is leading the way. Let’s jet.”
I’m too weak to protest and I climb back up. Bernie Kosar gallops as fast as he can, his belly brushing the tops of shrubs and felled trees as he hurdles us over obstacles. My body aches and I clutch his side as we zigzag up and down the mountains and hills, splashing through two fast-moving rivers. The stars slowly reveal themselves, high in the sky, and I know that one of them, far, far away, is the slight glimmer of Lorien’s own sun, shining its bright light upon a hibernating planet.
“So, what’s our next move?” Nine asks as we trot among the shadows.
I’m silent, wondering what Henri would say our next move would be. I wonder what kind of look would be on his face. Would he beam with pride over me retrieving the Chests, rescuing a member of the Garde and killing so many Mogs in the process, or would he be disappointed in me for not taking on the leader when I had the chance, and for leaving Sam behind?
Visions of Sam locked behind one of those steel doors come to me every few seconds, and I watch my tears glide down BK’s neck. I hate to think it, but I’d rather he die than be tortured for information about me.
I try to blame Sarah for turning us in to the police, but I can only blame myself for contacting her when everyone told me not to. I keep quiet and dig my heels into Bernie Kosar’s hide and he picks up the pace.
Six is somewhere in Spain, hopefully with another member of the Garde. Part of me wants to get on a plane, to go directly to her, but with my escape from a federal facility and my face still on the FBI’s Most Wanted List, I don’t see how it’s possible.
We make it to the SUV, and I painfully dismount. I unlock the back door and Nine quietly loads both Chests into the trunk. Crawling across the backseat, disgusted with myself, I ask Nine if he’ll drive.
“I was hoping you’d ask,” Nine replies. I hand him the keys and feel the engine come to life.
Something is under my body, and I shift to my side to find Sam’s dad’s glasses. I hold them above my head, and I let the moon reflect in the lenses. I suck in a deep breath and whisper, “We’ll see each other again soon, Sam. I promise.” And then, when I think things can’t get much worse, it hits me almost harder than the blue force field. “Oh shit! Six’s address for when we meet. It was in Sam’s pocket. I’m so stupid! How are we going to find each other now?”
Over his shoulder, Nine says, “Don’t worry, Four. Things are happening for a reason. If we’re supposed to meet up with Six or Five or whoever, we will. And if Sam is supposed to still be a part of all this, he will be.”
Bernie Kosar jumps into the backseat in his beagle form and licks my cheek. I pat his head and let out a long-drawn sigh, in utter disbelief that after everything that’s gone wrong in the last forty-eight hours, I’ve also managed to lose the address Six had written down. I look out the window to see the wind is blowing to the north, and I wonder if it might be telling me something, or, at the very least, pointing me in the right direction as Six believes it’s done for her.