CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE #3
As we were preparing to move on to the next group of injured, Nya caught my arm. When she spoke, her voice, hoarse from screaming, was pitched even lower. “I think you need to go be with Kieran. Keep an eye on him.”
I swallowed and nodded. “Nya…what was that?”
She knew my meaning. And she didn’t bother hiding the fear in her eyes.
“I don’t know, Maila. Ever since we found Kieran in the woods and took him in, we always wondered if he had other abilities besides just the enhanced vision.
I guess we assumed he did, and they were dormant.
But what happened today was…beyond what we had ever guessed.
” For the first time since she broke into my apartment that night, I saw something like real fear in Nya’s eyes.
“You were dead, Maila. Before Larimar’s magic revived you and brought you back to us, you weren’t even…
” She winced as if the memory was a physical sting. “You weren’t even recognizable.”
The reality of what that must have been like for her and Kieran settled over me.
“When Kieran saw that,” she continued. “Everything went to hell. He…he lost it. It was like suddenly he was so strong. Inhumanly strong. And I couldn’t even keep up with what was happening.
He knocked your Enforcer friend out of the way like it was nothing, and then he just unleashed on that horrible man.
Even when he was obviously dead, he just kept going and going and going…
and the sky was so dark, and I thought a storm was moving in or something… ”
She trailed off. I didn’t press her to continue. I understood enough about what had happened, and the raw terror that came over her expression as she recounted everything wasn’t worth satisfying my curiosity about the details.
“Do you have his power, then?” she asked. “Temporarily, I mean.”
“No,” I replied, and I was thankful that was the truth. “I didn’t actually take his power. I think I just used my ability to communicate with him somehow. To break through to him. I don’t really understand it, honestly.”
We were both silent for a while. Then I remembered our reason for pausing—Kieran. I needed to go be with him. Maybe even protect him, if people’s reactions so far were any indication.
I moved to turn, then realized Nya was still gripping my arm. She grabbed my other arm, squeezing them both so tightly that she nearly lifted me off the ground.
“Don’t ever do that again.”
I had never heard her voice sound so small.
“What do you mean?”
“You know exactly what I mean. Don’t you ever do that again, Maila.” Her eyes were glistening. I knew she would fight letting those tears fall with everything she had. “Next time, you let me die.”
When I spoke, my voice was just as small. “You know I can’t promise that.”
“You have to,” she snapped, releasing me. “Or I fucking swear I’ll follow you into whatever afterlife you’re in, and I’ll kill you again myself.”
Without another word, she strode away.
I watched her hurry toward a cluster of Strangers, all injured and trying to assist one another in patching wounds.
Standing amongst the others, cradling her left arm and leaning heavily on her right leg, was Xiomara.
Like the rest of us, she was covered in dirt, ash from the Immobilizers, and dried blood.
Some of the blood looked to be her own. But I sighed with relief when she almost tackled Nya to the ground, embracing her with her good arm. She was going to be just fine.
I spun in the direction of the beach. Or started to, at least.
In the distance, beyond the spot where Nya had just been standing, were the remains of the Knowledge Center. The first three floors still mostly intact, the rest a gaping void of nothingness. Just blue sky where immeasurable records and projects and supplies had once been.
Where the bulk of the Library had once been.
My safe space.
With the books that had been my friends, my teachers, my world, for so long.
I had known when I called on Larimar that there was no going back. This was a physical testament to that. But was it the right decision?
Was there even a right decision to be made?
As if on cue, something else came into focus.
I couldn’t say if he had been there all along, or if he had been kneeling and only just stood.
But I was motionless as I stared across the scorched field.
Beyond men and women from our group, leaning on one another for support as they made for the beach.
Beyond the Enforcers that were now assessing their status and providing first aid to one another, following a protocol that had undoubtedly been laid out for them in advance.
I stared past it all, unseeing, into the amber eyes that stared back at me.
Like two blazing infernos in both color and intensity, Zander’s eyes could have pierced my own.
Burned straight through me. There was some relief there, and I remembered then that he had watched me die, too.
But I watched the relief slowly dissolve, and in its place was nothing but profound sorrow and betrayal.
His armor was askew, barely hanging on. Between plates hung shredded wisps of cloth. His face was smudged with blood and ash. I took it all in, while at the same time, only seeing that stare.
I didn’t go to him. I didn’t try to speak. The thought that there could even be a possibility of repairing our friendship was laughable. Regardless of what I believed was right, and what I believed was wrong, I had participated in destroying everything he believed in.
His companions were injured and dead. His city was in shambles. That quiet woman that he had always carried a torch for was right there at the center of it all. And with another man, no less. As if all the rest wasn’t enough for a lifetime’s worth of despair.
I considered it a consolation that he was alive. It was the most that I was allowed to hope for. And with that knowledge, I turned and headed for the beach.
To Kieran.
To the Strangers.
To my future.