As soon as he said it, Sofia realized what the things were.
Metaspides.
Tick had to keep reminding himself to breathe.
A long, long moment passed, he and Jane staring at each other. Her eyes flickered away now and then, as if turmoil raged inside her as she thought about what she should do. Tick tried to think of his own options. Run seemed like a good one, but he couldn’t move, as if his feet were riveted to the floor. Then Jane’s eyes refocused on him, like she’d departed her own body for a few minutes and had finally returned.
She slowly walked forward, arms coming up, outstretched and reaching for Tick, her fingers curved like claws. Tick was so baffled by her sudden change, and the almost laughable Frankenstein gait she’d chosen, that at first he didn’t react. When she came within a foot, though, he snapped out of it and dodged to his right, ready to run.
With shocking speed, Jane spun and kicked her right leg out, smacking him in both shins. Tick lost his balance and dove toward the ground, just getting his hands beneath him before he crunched his nose. He started scrambling, but Jane was on top of him, grabbing both his shoulders from behind. With a jerk of her surprisingly strong arms, she flopped him over and onto his back, gripping his torso with her legs like a vice.
She clutched his face with both hands and leaned forward, putting her mouth flush against his ear, her breath hot. She whispered so low Tick could barely hear her.
“ Listen to me. I don’t think Chu can stop the Chi’karda in you-it’s too strong. But I need to draw it out. Listen to me. I’m going to strangle you, do you understand? I’m going to kill you unless you fight back. It’s the only way, Atticus. Do you hear me? I will not stop until you die or until you let the Chi’karda explode out of you and it saves us both. Listen to me. I… am… going… to
… kill… you. For your own good.”
Jane pulled her face away, staring down at him with her green eyes aflame. She put both of her hands around his neck, squeezing. Panic flared inside Tick. He kicked out with his legs, beat on her arms with his fists, but she didn’t budge.
“Let go of me!” he tried to yell, a guttural croak that barely came out.
Jane squeezed tighter. “Look at me, Chu!” she bellowed out, lunacy glazing her eyes. “I obeyed! I will be your apprentice!”
As pain enveloped him, as his breath left his body-squeezed from him-Tick thought distantly that he couldn’t tell her intentions. Is she really going to kill me? Is she acting? Would she really kill me?
Her fingers closed tighter, gripping his skin, pinching the tendons and nerves. Tighter still. Tick struggled, kicking, beating her arms, thrashing beneath her. She squeezed even harder. Tick couldn’t breathe, couldn’t find air.
“He’s almost dead!” Jane yelled. “Chu! I’ve won your test!”
Tick’s eyes bulged and he felt his face puffing up. He heard the choking sounds torn from his own throat. Black stars formed above him, swirling in the air, growing bigger until they blackened his vision. Darkness fell upon him, complete.
Images flashed across his mind’s eye almost too fast to register: his family, Sofia, Paul, the library back home, Master George, snow, school, Mr. Chu at the chalkboard, the Barrier Wand, the Grand Canyon, Rutger, Mothball…
I don’t want to die!
Something snapped inside Tick’s mind. He felt it-he heard it, like a branch cracked by a bolt of lightning. Heat surged through him, first warm then hot, pulsing through his veins, as if his blood had combusted into lava, burning him.
A piercing scream rocked the air. He realized it had come from him just as the blackness swept away, replaced by Jane’s face, hovering above him as she kept trying to strangle him.
Tick screamed again.
Jane flew off him, catapulting across the hallway and slamming into the wall. An unseen force pinned her arms and legs flat as her head thrashed back and forth. The ground shook as Tick struggled for breath, gasping in air, fighting to get his arms and legs under him. Sounds of bending and breaking filled the air. He looked up to see the metal panels of the walls warping and cracking, bubbling and melting. Tremors rocked the floor, ripples surging back and forth like waves on water, crashing into each other as large cracks rent the hard material.
Jane hadn’t moved, still pinned to the wall. The chaotic sounds of destruction hurt Tick’s ears. Everything had gone crazy; he couldn’t take it. Somewhere inside him, he knew it was coming from him, that it was all his fault. I’m a freak. I’m a freak! Knowing he had this power only made it worse, panicked him further, sent his mind and thoughts reeling.
I’m going crazy, he thought. I can’t do this. I can’t control it! What have I done?
Chu. Reginald Chu. This was all his fault. Everything was his fault.
Tick glared at the massive double doors, the black square still blank. The world around him rocked back and forth, things breaking and crashing and melting. The heat within him intensified. He felt certain his organs were about to burn, fry to a crisp, leaving him dead.
Tick threw all of his anger and pain at the doors. At Chu.
With a terrible squeal, the doors wrenched to the sides, crunching into a mass of twisted steel, leaving a gaping, smoking hole behind. Tick caught movement out of the corner of his eye-Jane falling to the floor in a crumpled heap.
I can’t do this, Tick thought. I can’t do this!
Screaming, he got to his feet and ran through the twisted and broken doorway.
Chapter 45
A sea of metaspides littered the park outside Chu’s artificial mountain, crawling along the ground with their creepy, jointed legs. Sofia found it hard to believe they were machines because they seemed so alive. They swarmed together in a tight pack, heading straight for the Realitants.
“Ready yourselves!” Mothball roared.
Sally stood a few people down from Sofia. He lifted his left hand into the air and shouted something completely unintelligible. But he looked ready to fight.
A small tremor abruptly shook the ground, making Sofia stumble backward a step. The Realitants looked around in confusion, Mothball in particular. Sofia looked up at the black mountain. It shook as well; in the distance, she heard the sounds of breaking glass and twisting metal.
“Need be keepin’ our focus!” Mothball shouted. “Master Tick must be goin’ about ’is business. On the count of three-we charge! One! ”
Sofia nudged Paul in the arm with her elbow. “For Tick and Sato,” she said, not caring if her voice betrayed how scared she felt.
“Two!”
Paul nodded without breaking his focused stare. “For Tick and Sato.”
“Three!”
Sofia sprinted forward before anyone else, her body acting before her mind could talk her out of it. Pumping her fist in the air, she screamed out one word, louder than she’d ever shouted anything in her life, almost ripping her throat raw.
“REEEEAAAAALITAAAAAANTS!”
The thunder of footsteps and echoing calls of her rallying cry sounded from behind her.
Sofia ran straight for the closing pack of metaspides.
The world shook.
Tick felt as if his mind was detached from his body. He rotated in a circle, staring at the huge open chamber
