I stand stock-still for a moment, letting the shock of everything settle around me, and when it finally hits me that Nazeera is really here, really awake, really okay, I pull her into my arms. Her defensive posture melts away, and suddenly she’s just a girl—my girl—and happiness rockets through me. She’s not even close to being short, but in my arms, she feels small. Pocket-sized. Like she was always meant to fit here, against my chest.
It’s like heaven.
When we finally pull apart, I’m beaming like an idiot. I don’t even care that everyone is staring at us. I just want to live in this moment.
“Hey,” I say to her. “I’m so happy you’re okay.”
She takes a deep, unsteady breath, and then—smiles. It changes her whole face. It makes her look a lot less like a mercenary and a lot more like an eighteen-year-old girl. Though I think I like both versions, if I’m being honest.
“I’m so happy you’re okay, too,” she says quietly.
We stare at each other a moment longer before I hear someone clear their throat in a dramatic fashion.
Reluctantly, I turn around.
I know, in an instant, that the throat-clearing came from Nouria. I can tell by the way her arms are crossed, the way her eyes are narrowed. Sam, on the other hand, looks amused.
But Castle looks happy. Surprised, but happy. I grin at him.
Nouria’s frown deepens. “You two know Warner left, right?”
That wipes the smile off my face. I spin around, but there’s no sign of him. I turn back, swearing quietly under my breath.
Nazeera shoots me a look.
“I know,” I say, shaking my head. “He’s going to try and leave without us.”
She almost laughs. “Definitely.”
I’m about to say my good-byes again when Nouria jumps to her feet. “Wait,” she says.
“No time,” I say, already backing out the door. “Warner is going to bail on us, and I c—”
“He’s about to take a shower,” Sam says, cutting me off.
I freeze so fast I nearly fall over. I turn around, eyebrows high. “He’s what now?”
“He’s about to take a shower,” she says again.
I blink at her slowly, like I’m stupid, which, honestly, is kind of how I’m feeling at the moment. “You mean you’re, like, watching him get ready to take a shower?”
“It’s not weird,” Nouria says flatly. “Stop making it weird.”
I squint at Sam. “What’s Warner doing right now?” I ask her. “Is he in the shower yet?”
“Yes.”
Nazeera raises a single eyebrow. “So you’re just, like, watching a naked Warner in the shower right now?”
“I’m not looking at his body,” Sam says, sounding very close to irritated. “But you could,” I say, stunned. “That’s what’s so weird about this. You
could just watch any of us take extremely naked showers.”
“You know what?” Nouria says sharply. “I was going to do something to make things easier for you guys on your way out, but I think I’ve changed my mind.”
“Wait—” Nazeera says. “Make things easier how?” “I was going to help you steal a jet.”
“Okay, all right, I take it back,” I say, holding up my hands in apology. “I retract all my previous comments about nakedness. I would also like to formally apologize to Sam, who we all know is way too nice and way too cool to ever spy on anyone in the shower.”
Sam rolls her eyes. Cracks a smile.
Nouria sighs. “I don’t understand how you deal with him,” she says to Castle. “I can’t stand all the jokes. It would drive me insane to have to listen to this all day.”
I’m about to protest when Castle responds.
“That’s only because you don’t know him well enough,” Castle says, smiling at me. “Besides, we don’t love him for his jokes, do we, Nazeera?” The two of them lock eyes for a moment. “We love him for his heart.”
At that, the smile slips from my face. I’m still processing the weight of that statement—the generosity of such a statement—when I realize I’ve already missed a beat.
Nouria is talking.
“The air base isn’t far from here,” she’s saying, “and I guess this is as good a time as any to let you all know that Sam and I are about to take a page out of Ella’s playbook and take over Sector 241. Stealing a plane will be the least of the damage—and, in fact, I think it’s a great way to launch our offensive strategy.” She glances over her shoulder. “What do you think, Sam?”
“Brilliant,” she says, “as usual.” Nouria smiles.
“I didn’t realize that was your strategy,” Castle says, the smile fading from his face. “Don’t you think, based on how things turned out the last time, that m—”
“Why don’t we discuss this after we’ve sent the kids off on their mission? Right now it’s more important that we get them situated and give them a proper send-off before it’s officially too late.”
“Hey, speaking of which,” I say quickly, “what makes you think we’re not already too late?”
Nouria meets my eyes. “If they’d done the transfer,” she says, “we would’ve felt it.”
“Felt it how?”
It’s Sam who responds: “In order for their plan to work, Emmaline has to die. They won’t let that happen naturally, of course, because a natural death could occur in any number of ways, which leaves too many factors up in the air. They need to be able to control the experiment at all times— which is why they were so desperate to get their hands on Ella before Emmaline died. They’re almost certainly going to kill Emmaline in a controlled environment, and they’ll set it up in a way that leaves no room for error. Even so, we’re bound to feel something change.
“That infinitesimal shift—after Emmaline’s powers recede, but before they’re funneled into a new host body— will dramatically glitch our visual
of the world. And that moment hasn’t happened yet, which makes us think that Ella is probably still safe.” Sam shrugs. “But it could be happening any minute now. Time really is of the essence.”
“How do you know so much about this?” Nazeera asks, her brows furrowed. “For years I tried to get my hands on this information, and I came up with nothing, despite being so close to the source. But you seem to know all of this on some kind of personal level. It’s incredible.”
“It’s not that incredible,” Nouria says, shaking her head. “We’ve just been focused in our search. All rebel groups have a different strength or core principle. For some, it’s safety. For others, it’s war. For us, it’s been research. The things we’ve seen have been out there for everyone to see— there are glitches all the time—but when you’re not looking for them, you don’t notice them. But I noticed. Sam noticed. It was one of the things that brought us together.”
The two women share a glance.
“We felt really sure that part of our oppression was in an illusion,” Sam says. “And we’ve been chasing down the truth with every resource we’ve got. Unfortunately, we still don’t know everything.”
“But we’re closer than most,” Nouria says. She takes a sharp breath, refocusing. “We’ll be holding down our end of things while you’re gone. Hopefully, when you return, we’ll have flipped more than one sector to our side.”
“You really think you’ll be able to accomplish that much in such a short period of time?” I ask, eyes wide. “I was hoping we wouldn’t be gone for more than a couple days.”
Nouria smiles at me then, but it’s a strange smile, a searching smile. “Don’t you understand?” she says. “This is it. This is the end. This is the defining moment we’ve all been fighting for. The end of an era. The end of a revolution. We currently—finally—have every advantage. We have people on the inside. If we do this right, we could collapse The Reestablishment in a matter of days.”
“But all of that hinges on us getting to J on time,” I say. “What if we’re too late?”
“You’ll have to kill her.” “Nouria,” Castle gasps.
“You’re joking,” I say. “Tell me you’re joking.”
“Not joking in the slightest,” she says. “If you get there and Emmaline is dead and Ella has taken her place, you must kill Ella. You have to kill her and as many of the supreme commanders as you can.”
My jaw has come unhinged.
“What about all that shit you said to J the night we got here? What about all that talk about how inspiring she is and how so many people were moved by her actions— how she’s basically a hero? What happened to all that nonsense?”
“It wasn’t nonsense,” Nouria says. “I meant every word. But we’re at war, Kishimoto. We don’t have time to be sentimental.”
“Sentimental? Are you out of your—”
Nazeera places a calming hand on my arm. “We’ll find another way.
There has to be another way.”
“It’s impossible to reverse the process once it’s in effect,” Sam says calmly. “Operation Synthesis will remove every trace of your old friend. She will be unrecognizable. A super soldier in every sense of the word. Beyond salvation.”
“I’m not listening to this,” I say angrily. “I’m not listening to this.”
Nouria puts up her hands. “This conversation might turn out to be unnecessary. As long as you can get to her in time, it won’t matter. But remember: if you get there and Ella is still alive, you need to make sure that she kills Emmaline above all else. Removing Emmaline is key. Once she’s gone, the supreme commanders become easy targets. Vulnerable.”
“Wait.” I frown, still angry. “Why does it have to be J who kills Emmaline? Couldn’t one of us do it?”
Nouria shakes her head. “If it were that simple,” she says, “don’t you think it would’ve been done by now?”
I raise my eyebrows. “Not if no one knew she existed.”
“We knew she existed,” Sam says quietly. “We’ve known about Emmaline for a while now.”
Nouria goes on: “Why do you think we reached out to your team? Why do you think we risked the life of one of our own to get a message to Ella? Why do you think we opened our doors to you, even when we knew we’d be exposing ourselves to a possible attack? We made a series of increasingly difficult decisions, putting the lives of all those who depended on us at risk.” She sighs. “But even now, after suffering a disastrous loss,
Sam and I think that, ultimately, we did the right thing. Can you imagine why?”
“Because you’re . . . Good Samaritans?”
“Because we realized, months ago, that Ella was the only one strong enough to kill her own sister. We need her just as much as you do. Not just us”—Nouria gestures to herself and Sam—“but the whole world. If Ella is able to kill Emmaline before any powers can be transferred, then she’s killed The Reestablishment’s greatest weapon. If she doesn’t kill Emmaline now, while power still runs through Emmaline’s veins, The Reestablishment can continue to harness and transfer that power to a new host.”
“We once thought that Ella would have to fight her sister,” Sam says. “But based on the information Ella shared with us while she was here, it seems like Emmaline is ready and willing to die.” Sam shakes her head. “Even so, killing her is not as simple as pulling a plug. Ella will be going to war with the ghost of her mother’s genius. Evie undoubtedly put in place numerous fail-safes to keep Emmaline invulnerable to attacks from others and from herself. I have no idea what Ella will be up against, but I can guarantee it won’t be easy.”
“Jesus.” I drop my head into my hands. I thought I was already living with peak levels of stress, but I was wrong. This stress I’m experiencing now is on a whole new level.
I feel Nazeera’s hand on my back and I look up. Her face looks as uncertain as mine feels, and somehow, it makes me feel better.
“Pack your bags,” Nouria says. “Catch up with Warner. I’ll meet the three of you at the entrance in twenty minutes.”
