shirt with a hood, pulled over his head to help conceal his features.
“There’s a battle raging in the city,” he whispered. “I take it that’s courtesy of your friends?”
Olivia.
I drew in a shaky breath, trying not to get carried away by the little spark of warmth I felt at that news. “What’re you doing here?” I whispered back.
“I’m here for you. Let’s go.”
“Go?”
His face tightened. “I’m getting you out of here. We’re leaving.”
I hung back. How could I trust him now? “Why not just order them to let me go?” I asked bitterly. “These people would do anything for you.”
He gazed at me from the shadow of the hood. “They’d do anything for Prometheus,” he said quietly. “The man who’ll stop at nothing to save them. And what do we need more than someone with your abilities? If I let you go—that’d be the end of Prometheus anyway.” He shook his head. “Come on.”
Basil crossed swiftly to the doorway and stuck his head out, scanning the hall in both directions. He then stepped through, gesturing for me to follow. I hesitated—but what better way to escape than with Prometheus himself helping me? Just because I accepted his help didn’t mean I’d have to side with him.
And so I went after him—and the pixie came after me.
Basil’s face locked down as soon as he saw it. He pulled the mechanical device out of his pocket and stretched out his hand. I felt him gathering magic and in that instant realized what he meant to do.
“No!” I shoved at his arm, knocking it away and breaking his concentration. “Don’t. I think there’s still something of Nix in there.”
“Nix?” Basil stared at it. “Lark—is that your
“Yes.” I glanced at it, still hovering emotionlessly in the air. “You don’t understand—it’s changed. It learns, and it can make its own decisions. Maybe yours was different, or you destroyed it too quickly, but this one—this one is my friend.”
His gaze had swiveled toward me, eyebrows drawn in. I could almost see him wondering if his little sister had experienced some complete mental breakdown.
“Your people scrubbed it,” I continued, swallowing. “It doesn’t recognize me anymore, except—I think there’s something there still.”
He shook his head. “These models can’t be scrubbed. Believe me, I tried—their memories are buried too deeply in their programming. That’s why I destroyed mine.”
“They did something to it,” I insisted, trying to ignore the thread of hope flaring up inside me. Maybe Nix really was in there somewhere. “And I won’t leave it here.”
“Maybe they just put some sort of programming in on top of the old, bypassing it.” Basil glanced at it again. “Fine. Fine, bring it with us. But I’ll kill it the second it tries anything.”
Basil led the way out into the hall and down the corridor. He was still holding that thing in his hand—I couldn’t get a good look at it, but he clutched it in his fist as though it was all that stood between us and certain death.
“Basil,” I whispered as we turned a corner. “I can’t leave without my friends. I came here with others—I can’t leave them here to be tortured or killed by your people.”
He stopped, retreating into the alcove of a doorway. “Lark—you’re in no position to make requests. I’ve got to get you out. You don’t know what they’ll do to you—what I’ll be forced to do to you. We don’t have time to make stops for others.”
I inhaled slowly. This wasn’t the brother I knew. The Basil I knew would’ve stopped at nothing to rescue innocent people. “Then you’ll have to watch them torture me, because I’m not leaving without them.”
He stared at me, anger and fear clouding his features. I realized that he wasn’t used to anybody arguing with him anymore—no one ever debated Prometheus. He leaned back, staring down the corridor again, then turned back to me. Struggling with himself, he shut his eyes, teeth grinding against each other. “Fine. Fine. Okay —we’ll find your friends, then we’ll go.”
“And the rest of the Renewables too.”
He took a step back, staring at me. For a moment he was speechless, mouth opening with no sound coming out—then he shook his head. “You don’t understand. Those Renewables go free, this city falls within the week. And then everyone will die, or become Empty Ones. I can get your friends out, but we can’t let them all go. Lark, we
I thought of Nina, lying prone in an infirmary bed. One life for dozens—Marco, Parker, Dorian, and all the Renewables with him were alive because I took that power from her. In the heat of it, I’d made the same decision my brother had.
“Let’s go,” I said tightly, shoving the question aside—I would deal with it later. I’d have to make my decision when it came to it. I could always free them myself once Basil led me to where they kept the Renewables. “Wesley’s a Renewable, I’m assuming he’s wherever the rest of them are. Oren’s— Oren’s not. But I’m hoping he’s there too.”
“Wesley?” Basil had begun to step out of the alcove but stopped short, eyes widening. “Wesley—no, he was the one who arrested you and the murderer.”
I stared back at him. “You didn’t know? Adjutant came and ordered him and Oren taken away. I thought . . . I thought you had ordered it.”
“Why would I?” Basil was still standing, stricken. “Wesley’s one of my closest . . . ”
“He’s one of us,” I said simply. “A member of the resistance. You really didn’t know?”
Basil swallowed, his eyes sliding down to the floor. “I didn’t know,” he confirmed, his gaze troubled. “Adjutant has a certain amount of autonomy—he has to, or else he’d never get anything done. But I thought . . . I thought he’d just arrested you two.”
I opened my mouth to respond, but before I could speak, sparks exploded from the archway over Basil’s head. He ducked, cursing. Without thinking, I took a step out and looked down the hallway. A pair of Eagles stood there, holding out the same magical weapons that the Eagles in the square had—the same weapon Adjutant had. Talons.
And they didn’t even recognize their leader.
CHAPTER 25
The second guard fired as I looked out around the corner. For a moment I could only stand there, frozen, my eyes blinded by the wave of magic flowing toward me. I couldn’t think what would happen if it struck—I was already full to capacity after the first time I was zapped.
And then the wave exploded inches from my face. My dazzled eyes barely made out the tiny, metallic form of the pixie dropping to the ground from where it had flown between me and the weapon’s bolt. Without thinking I reached out and pulled, dragging enough magic away from the two guards to send them twitching to the floor. Wesley’s training stopped me short of taking all they had—but only just.
It felt as though my entire body had turned to mist—I couldn’t feel the ground beneath my feet or hear anything going on around me. With their magic added to what I’d already been given, my head was spinning so much I could barely stand. And still, even now, part of me wanted more. I could see the last bits of power lurking inside the guards, the vestiges that kept the machinery of their bodies working—and I wanted it.This was all a dream . . . who would I be hurting? I reached out dreamily.
