The Search for Sam

I turn to her. What is she saying?

She bites her lip, looking at me apologetically. “You realize this was never about saving my life, right?”

My heart sinks into my stomach, but I don’t know why.

“Of course it was,” I say. “You think I came back and faced my family, went through all that for no reason? I was trying to save you.”

“There was never any way to save me. A part of you knew that.”

“I don’t understand.”

“We needed to help the Garde.” She looks away from me, like this is as hard for her to say as it is for me to hear. “But after your defeat at Ivan’s hands, you felt you had nothing to offer the cause. You said you were too weak, too skinny, that you weren’t the hero I am. That you didn’t have any power.

“But now you do.”

Her Legacy. She’s… given it to me? I get to keep it?

“I’m sorry for tricking you, Adam. But you needed to get to this point. If you hadn’t come back here, a part of you still would’ve been attached to your family, to your people. You’ve seen how little they value you, how little they value anything but bloodshed and war. Now you’re ready to walk with the Garde, to truly fight against your own people.”

No. I pull away, my mind reeling.

“Please Adam. Use my Legacy well.”

Across the sea, shadows dance and crackle and writhe in the clouds. Out there I can see her moving in slow-motion combat. Her last seconds, playing out in front of us.

“One,” I plead. “Please stop.”

“This is how it has to be. Deep down you knew it all along, Adam. I’m not real. I was never real.” She turns to the roiling storm, to the tragic movie of her death playing in the clouds. The blade of some faceless Mogadorian’s sword penetrates her through her back, erupting from her stomach. The killing blow.

“Deep down you knew. I’ve been dead this whole time.”

I look at One. She’s my best friend. She’s everything to me.

She turns from the scene of her death to look at me. “You created me, made me out of my memories, so you wouldn’t have to walk this path alone.”

“That’s not possible. You’re all I have.”

She smiles. “No. You have you. The courage it took to turn against your people, the courage it took to come back here, to risk your life to get the power you’d need to walk a hero’s path … that was always all you.”

One has never spoken so highly of me. I should be flattered, but all I am is scared. I’m going to lose her.

“I can’t be alone.” I feel pathetic, exposing my fears and weakness so totally to One. But I’m desperate. I’ve lost too much already to lose her too.

“Adam, the alone part is over. I promise you.”

“One,” I say, my eyes filling with tears. “I love you.”

She nods, smiling, then reaches forward to touch my cheek. She’s crying now too. “If I’d lived, I think …” she says, “I think you really would have.”

She kisses me and says good-bye.

And then she’s gone forever.

CHAPTER 12

There’s a shape in the dark, moving around me.

I see the sky. Stars above.

The shape is moving my limbs. Resting my head on a soft mound of earth. Pouring water over my wounds. Forcing me to drink.

The shape’s skin is as white as the moon.

“Malcolm,” I say.

“Yes,” he says. He laughs, crouching beside me. “I’m Malcolm. I remember that now.”

I sit up, half expecting to find myself still trapped in the lab, despite the sky. Despite the stars. But we’re in the wilderness, in a field at the edge of a forest.

“I carried you as far as I could. Then I needed to rest.” He sighs, taking a sip of water. “But we have to keep moving soon.”

I’m baffled, utterly confused. How did we escape?