“He’s not armed,” I cry. “He’s going to get killed.” I rush forward, but Erik grabs my arm to stop me.
“He’ll be fine. He’s got powerful skills at his disposal,” Erik says. “Let’s stick together, Ad. We don’t know what’s going on in there.”
Inside a battle is being waged on Kincaid’s ornate carpets and marbled floors. There’s too much smoke to see who is who and we’re only in the house for a few minutes when Erik pushes me into an alcove previously occupied by a statue. Before I can process what he’s doing, he’s grabbed a Remnant. A crack shatters the air and Erik momentarily loses his grip, but then his fingers sink into the Remnant’s flesh with a wet
“Where’s Dante?” I call to Erik.
“Doesn’t matter. We need to get you out of here,” Erik orders me.
“I’m not leaving him!”
“Ad, the Guild might be after you, but these Rems don’t have the self-control to capture someone,” Erik argues, shoving me behind him until we’re near the stairway that leads to the upstairs guest rooms. But instead of directing me up, Erik reaches out to press a carved face in the woodwork. A panel swings open like the one Deniel pushed me through when he attacked me. I stare at Erik in wonder.
“How—” I start.
“I figured it might come in handy to explore,” Erik shouts over the clamor of gunfire in an adjacent room. “I’m a bad houseguest. I snooped. There’re hidden passages all over this place.”
“Where do they go?” I ask, unwilling to enter the dark passage.
“It doesn’t matter.” Erik pulls me into it, and before I can respond, the panel swings closed behind us. The insulation muffles the sounds of battle and I grope along the walls, wondering what terrors lie hidden in the dark. Erik’s hand closes over mine and he guides me.
Then Erik drops my hand, and suddenly the wall shifts, swinging to reveal another passage. I catch myself against the frame, which is a good thing because behind me a well-lit set of stairs curves down, spiraling toward an unknown destination.
“Sorry,” Erik says, reaching out to steady me. “I’ll go first.”
“I’m not helpless, you know.”
“Never said you were. I just know where the stairs go,” he says.
The stairs empty into the basement of the estate, and I recognize the passage leading to the cell block. My mother is there, and regardless of everything that’s transpired between us since I found her on Earth, my feet fly toward her cell. Erik follows. The familiar buzz of the electrified bars is absent.
“The security system is off,” I whisper. I turn to gauge his thoughts and notice he’s holding his left arm.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” he says, shifting away from me.
I turn to face him and stare at the blood seeping through his sleeve. “You’re bleeding!”
“That happens when you get shot,” he says. He tries to smile and fails magnificently, the grin faltering into a grimace of pain.
“We need to get you medical help.”
“There are people worse off right now,” he says. “Let’s find your mom and Dante.”
I start to protest, but he pushes past me toward the cell block.
There’s no guard stationed outside. The hair prickles along my scalp like a biological alarm, but the sound of Dante’s voice turns my panic into curiosity even as ice fills my veins. I press against the wall and listen, hoping to understand why he’s here instead of fighting with the rest of Kincaid’s men.
“Meria, I can’t change what they did to you,” he says.
“Don’t pretend to care, Dante. They didn’t take my memories. I know you left me. Left us.”
“I am sorry,” he says.
“Meria might have been once, too. But I don’t care now,” she responds. “Surely you have more important things to worry about than the next prisoner Kincaid is going to execute.”
“I won’t let that happen.”
“Why? I’d kill you if it weren’t for these bars,” she says.
“Would you?”
My mother lets loose a hollow laugh that’s nothing like the bell-like laugh I remember from my childhood. “I’m not Meria. No matter how much you want me to be. No matter how much she wants me to be. I am not your friend or your lover.”
“That doesn’t change anything for me,” he says.
His shoes click against the floor and I suck in a breath, sure I’m about to be caught. Instead a lock snaps open.
“What are you doing?” Meria asks in a suspicious tone.
“I’m letting you go,” he says.
I have to clap my hand over my mouth to keep from screaming.
“You want me to prove I’ll kill you?” she says, and I hear the smile in her voice.
“I’m drugging you first,” he says.
“This doesn’t change anything,” she warns him.
“That’s not why I’m doing it. Some things don’t change no matter what’s happened,” he says. “Even things that fade with time and distance aren’t ever really lost.”
Her shrieks grate on my ears and I know what he’s done before I hear her body hit the floor. This is my only chance to stop him. I take a deep breath and round the corner. Erik stands silently behind me.
“Ad,” Dante says in surprise. He’s hovering over her body. She looks like she’s sleeping—or worse. Dante looks from me to Erik, his hand running through his hair as he takes in our sudden appearance. “Erik—are you okay?”
“Fine,” Erik mutters.
“What are you doing?” I demand, unable to dismiss what he’s done to her.
“It’s not what it looks like.”
“It looks like you drugged her and are planning to drag her into the desert and leave her,” I say.
“Okay, then it’s exactly what it looks like,” he says, a note of confusion in his voice.
“I heard it all,” I say. Only some of her words stung, but I still feel their vibration on my skin. She isn’t my mother, I remind myself. “You can’t let her go. For Arras’s sake, it’s a war zone out there.”
“Which makes it my only chance to get her out without suspicion. I never should have brought her here. Once Kincaid returns he’ll blame her for this attack.”
“She wants to kill you,” I remind him, slowing down my words. “She wants to kill me.”
“I know.”
“And you’re okay with that?” I ask him.
“I would prefer she didn’t want to kill us,” he says. “Adelice, you don’t understand.”
“I’m trying to,” I say.
“Kincaid has humored me by keeping her here, but after a raid like this there’s no way he’ll keep harboring her.”
“Why does Kincaid care?” I ask. “He can’t supply the precious energy to keep the cell electrocuted anymore? He needs it to put on his sordid plays and watch his films? Even if you drop her off hours from here, sooner or later someone will kill her.
“Why won’t you save her?” I demand. “Alter her back—fix her.”
“You can’t patch in someone else’s soul,” Dante says, his fingers circling his temples. He leans against the disarmed bars that once held my mother captive.
“The Guild has the remains of her strand. They have the remains of all the Remnants’ strands. If we could get to them—”
“There isn’t time for that,” Dante interrupts me. “Whatever happens to her out there can’t be worse than what Kincaid will do to her.”
I touch one of the bars. It’s not dangerous now that the electricity is off. I need something tangible to hold on to. “What if she kills someone else? What then?”
