Ash (44 page)

The only other thing I could do was beg. “Please,” I said, “she’s just a little girl. She doesn’t want to hurt anyone. What if…” an idea finally hit me, one that could actually save Aya. “What if we let her lead people to one Revenant: Me. I’m already helping you. I’ll officially become a Revenant, and Aya can expose me. This can work.”

He cocked his head, thinking it over. “Not a bad idea. But exposing one leads to exposing us all.”

I started to speak again as the timer hit zero, but Zane shushed me. “You knew the rules. And your time is up.” He took out his gun.

A
black car was parked near the trail. I snuck toward it, darting from tree to tree, doing my best to stay hidden. I stepped as lightly as I could over the fallen leaves and stones. I grabbed a large rock as I neared, adding it to the collection in my backpack I’d gathered on the way over. As weapons went it wasn’t much, but I could improvise if it came down to it. I hoped.

As I approached, I glanced into the car. A little girl sat in the back, huddled over some kind of holograph game. I felt the weight in my chest lighten just a bit. Aya was alive. I crept closer and ducked down near the passenger side to open the door. It was locked. I considered trying to get her attention, but was distracted by voices arguing. I peeked over the car, but I couldn’t see anything from where I was. I crept closer, hiding behind a tree stump. The scene playing out in front of me looked grim. Madden was waving her hands in Zane’s face, trying to block his path as he headed back in Aya’s direction. Her face was twisted into a kind of snarl.

“I’m not going to let you hurt her,” I heard her say.

“You’re not really in a position to make demands,” Zane replied. A gun dangled from his hand.

Don’t do anything stupid, Madden
, I willed her.

She didn’t heed my silent warning. Instead, she lunged at Zane, knocking them both—and his gun—to the ground. Zane might have been thrown off, but as Madden reached for the weapon, he easily beat her to it.

He stood up, brushing the leaves from his pants. “My thanks for that. You know, I had planned to keep you alive for a little while longer. Hoped you’d make yourself useful, but it’s probably easier this way.”

He aimed his gun at her head, his finger twitching at the trigger. He was going to shoot her. I couldn’t wait any longer.

“Stop,” I said, revealing myself.

Zane’s eyes darted toward me, momentarily taking his eyes off of Madden. His aim didn’t waver. “Dax,” he said. “Joining our little party?”

“What are you doing?” I asked, feigning shock. “You can’t shoot Madden. We need her. For your plan to work, for me to take over as the future minister, we need her alive.”

“Dead or alive, it’s all the same,” he said.

Madden was watching me. The look in her eyes made me think that if I didn’t come up with something soon, she’d try to take Zane out again. Only this time she would wind up with a bullet in her head.

“No, it’s not,” I said moving toward them. “If she’s killed before I tell everyone the truth, they’ll never believe it. They’ll think I murdered her and faked the evidence about our destiny swap. They’d never trust me. Not with her gone.”

He turned his gaze to me. “Tell me, are you really concerned about the cause? Or are you just trying to save this Purple?”

I knew what he wanted to hear. “The cause.”

“And you had nothing to do with this?” He waved his gun around, toward Madden, toward the car, toward me. “This ridiculous rescue plan?”

“Rescue plan?” I repeated, doing my best to sound confused as I walked closer to them.

He shook his head. “I’ve been tracking your whereabouts. And I know who you talk to. You’ve spent quite a bit of time with the Ash. The one I took care of today.”

“Sol’s dead?” Madden started to stand, but Zane flicked the gun back in her direction.

“Don’t worry,” he answered. “You’ll be joining him soon enough.”

The color drained from Madden’s face. I wanted to tell her that Sol was okay, but at the moment, the only thing that mattered was keeping her and Aya alive.

I forced myself to meet his eyes and smile. “Zane, think about it. Sol and Madden are the only people who actually know the truth about my status. Or who I can talk to about Link.” I gestured to Madden. “But she’s too high and mighty to have a normal conversation with, which just leaves Sol. So, yeah, I’ve spent time with him. It doesn’t mean anything.”

Zane considered this. “You realize between the two of them, they’d almost ruined everything we’ve been working toward?”

I pretended to hang on his words. “What do you mean?” I asked.

He glanced down at Madden, his expression darkening. “If they’d had their way, that little girl would have been the death of us all.”

I didn’t like the way he was looking at Madden. I stalled. “How did you figure out their plan?”

“Once she responded to my first ping, I gained access to her tracker. It was easy enough to put the pieces together from there.” He reached out, grabbing Madden’s hair to yank her head back. “I would advise considerably more caution in your future, short as it may be.”

“Please,” I said. “Let her go.
My
future, my destiny depends on it.”

“Then she needs to stay out of my way. Aya is going to bring down the Revenants. I need to stop her. One for the many.” He waited for me to object. When I didn’t, he continued, “You want to save this pretender, fine.” He pulled Madden back again. “But you keep her still, while I do what needs to be done. Deal?”

“Deal,” I said. I tugged Madden up from the ground and made a show of shoving her arms behind her back.

“No,” she screamed as Zane headed to the car.

As soon as his back was to us, I let her go and grabbed a rock the size of my fist from my bag. I slammed it into the back of Zane’s head. Probably just like he did to Sol.

“I should have known,” he seethed. He had one hand pressed to his head, the other swinging the gun wildly in my direction. “I should have gotten rid of you like I did your brother.”

“Link?” Madden said, her voice a whisper.

I recoiled, and Zane just laughed. “The other one. The racer.”

“Aldan?” I asked, confused. “His death was an accident. We all saw it.”

“You saw what I wanted you to see.” He glared at both of us, his hand squeezing the handle of the gun. I’d hurt him with the rock, but it just slowed him down. “He planned to make it a joke. Stop at the top of the track for a little longer than he should, then win the race. Thought it would make a statement.”

Zane continued to ramble on, and my chest was suddenly too tight to breath.

“He was always coming down to the underground. He didn’t belong. But my sister insisted. Said he could help. Could be the future face of the Revenants. Well, I helped that along. Rigged his board to lock after he was stationary for more than two minutes. When he tried to go down the last drop, he’d be stuck and ultimately lose the race. Missing his destiny by choice. Now
that’s
a statement! Had the PAE not caught me and my stolen toys, there would have been an even bigger finale. The whole loop track set to explode. Now that would have been something, though I’d say the ending was still memorable, all things considered.”

I tried to say something, but I was at a loss. I opened my mouth, then closed it again, unable to find the words.

When someone finally did speak, it wasn’t me. It was Oena, who was crawling out of the tunnels that were just behind Zane. “I don’t believe you,” she said, disbelief catching at her voice. “Aldan was helping us.” Her voice escalated as she stalked toward him. “He was helping the cause. Helping because
you
asked him to!”

Thom, Raze, and finally Link climbed up after her. There was a part of me that was desperately relieved to see them. But that part was muffled by Zane’s confession. He was a monster.

Zane turned, his gun aimed toward the new arrivals. He shrugged. “No one is above the cause, sis. Especially not some celebrity Purple.”

“I loved him,” Oena said, her voice cracking.

“We’ve all had to make sacrifices. This is war. And right now, our survival is in the hands of an eight-year-old. Since none of you have the guts to do what needs to be done, I’ll take care of it myself. You can thank me later.” He started to move toward Aya.

“Stop,” Oena said, pulling out her own gun to point toward her brother.

He turned back, aiming his gun at her. “I don’t want to hurt you, Oena.”

“You should have thought of that before you executed the best chance we had for acceptance,” she said. “Aldan was going to help us come out. We had plans, Zane. Good ones. That didn’t involve killing anyone, let alone innocents.”

“Grow up, Oena. This isn’t a Purple fairy tale. This is life, and if you want something, you have to take it. It’s time for the Revenants to come to power. This girl is a threat. She can expose us. I’m not going to let that happen, not even for you. Now stand down.”

“No,” she said. Both of Oena’s hands were on her gun, trying to keep herself from shaking.

Hesitation flickered over her face.
Shoot him,
I silently screamed.

Zane’s gun was still trained on her. “You know I’m a much better shot than you.”

“You wouldn’t.”

He studied her. “I suppose you’re right about that. We all have a weakness.”

Zane moved quicker than I could have imagined. One minute his gun was trained on Oena, the next he lunged toward Madden, twisting her body in front of his. She struggled against him, but she was pinned too tightly to get away.

“Maybe I can’t shoot you, Oena,” Zane said, “but I have no problem getting rid of this one.” He held the gun to Madden’s temple, dragging her backward, toward Aya. “Let me finish this so we can be on our way.”

“Zane stop, I’m warning you,” she said.

He shook his head. “You won’t shoot me either. Besides, you wouldn’t risk hitting the Purple. You’re good Oena, but you’re not that good.”

“Luckily I am.” It was Thom. He took the gun from Oena and fired.

I
felt Zane’s body jerk away from mine. His hands released their grip on my arms, and I stumbled away from him in terror.