Ward #2
“You were the youngest. Grandpa gave you Home because he trusted you to bring us back. What did he say?”
Hazel’s breathing slowed.
“He said home wasn’t a place.”
“What was it?”
“The people who came when you called.”
Storm looked at me.
Then Ben.
Then the radio connecting all five sisters.
“Call us home, Hazel.”
Hazel began to sing.
A simple melody.
Soft.
Familiar.
Storm closed her eyes.
Calle joined from the lighthouse.
Then Ivy.
Willow.
Finally, Storm.
It wasn’t a song I knew.
But I had heard her hum it aboard Sea Whisper.
Grandpa’s sailing song.
Five sisters sang across the radio while the mountain shook around us.
A tone answered from inside the gate.
The final circle illuminated.
HOME CONFIRMED.
The timer stopped at six seconds.
The gate unlocked.
Ross lunged for the metal case.
Ben fired.
The bullet struck the rock beside Ross’s hand.
“Move away from it.”
Ross grabbed the case and pulled it toward the edge.
I fired.
My bullet hit his shoulder.
He spun.
The case slipped from his fingers.
Storm ran.
I caught her too late.
She threw herself across the ledge and grabbed the case before it fell.
Ross recovered.
He seized her from behind.
His injured arm locked around her throat.
A knife appeared beneath her chin.
My entire world stopped.
“Drop the weapon,” he ordered.
I aimed at his head.
Storm stood between us.
Just as Calle had stood between Ben and her captor.
“Ward,” Storm whispered.
“Don’t move.”
Ross dragged her closer to the water.
Ben shifted to my left.
Ross saw him.
“You too.”
Ben lowered his weapon.
“Kick them away.”
Neither of us moved.
Ross pressed the knife against Storm’s throat.
A thin line of blood appeared.
“Now.”
I set my weapon down.
Ben did the same.
Ross smiled.
“The great Ward Allen. Brought to his knees by a woman he barely knows.”
I kicked my gun away.
“You’re wrong.”
“About what?”
“I know her.”
Storm’s eyes locked on mine.
I continued.
“I know she carries everyone else’s fear so her sisters can sleep. I know she listens to engines because silence frightens her. I know she stands at the helm during storms because she doesn’t trust anyone else to bring her family home.”
Ross tightened his grip.
“And I know she won’t let you use her as a shield.”
Storm drove her head backward.
Her skull struck his face.
At the same moment, I moved.
Ross swung the knife.
Storm caught his wrist.
I hit him from the side.
All three of us crashed onto the ledge.
The metal case slid away.
Ben grabbed Storm and pulled her clear.
Ross drove the knife toward my chest.
I caught his arm.
The blade stopped inches from my heart.
Ross smiled through the blood covering his mouth.
“I killed her father.”
Rage burned through me.
I twisted his wrist.
The knife fell.
“I know.”
“I killed James.”
I drove my fist into his face.
“I know.”
“And you’re still too late.”
Ross reached beneath his jacket.
A detonator filled his hand.
I grabbed for it.
He pressed the button.
Nothing happened.
Confusion crossed his face.
Then Thomas’s voice came through the cavern speaker.
“Looking for this?”
We all turned.
Thomas stood at the entrance with Nathan supporting him.
In his hand was a small receiver connected to several cut wires.
Ross stared at him.
“You should be dead.”
Thomas smiled.
“You first.”
Ross lunged toward the metal case.
The ledge cracked beneath his weight.
Stone broke away.
He caught the edge with both hands.
His body swung above Blackwater.
For one second, I saw the terrified man beneath the cruelty.
“Help me.”
I moved toward him.
Storm caught my arm.
Ross looked at her.
“Your grandfather saved my life once.”
“And you repaid him by murdering everyone he loved, including him.”
“He would want you to save me.”
Storm stared down at him.
“No.”
Ross’s fingers slipped.
“I’m not my grandfather.”
The rock beneath his hand broke.
August Ross fell into Blackwater.
The current took him before he could scream again.
Silence filled the cavern.
The second gate began to open.
Not violently.
Slowly.
Carefully.
Water drained through channels beneath the floor.
Behind the gate waited a dry chamber.
Shelves lined the walls.
Metal boxes filled them.
Records.
Photographs.
Ledgers.
Enough evidence to destroy everything Ross’s family had built.
Storm picked up the case containing Elias’s final records.
Thomas leaned against Nathan.
“James protected it.”
“All these years,” Storm whispered.
“He protected you too.”
She looked at the human remains beside the empty grave.
“Grandpa deserved to know the truth came out.”
Thomas smiled sadly.
“He knew you’d finish it.”
“How?”
“Because he knew his girls.”
Ben’s radio crackled.
Calle’s voice came through.
“Ben?”
His entire body changed at the sound of her.
“I’m here.”
“Are you hurt?”
He looked at the blood covering his shirt.
“No.”
I almost laughed.
Storm did.
Calle didn’t sound convinced.
“You’d better come back.”
Ben stared toward the tunnel entrance.
“I will.”
“Promise?”
His voice softened.
“I promise.”
Storm stepped beside me.
Blood marked her throat where Ross’s knife had touched her.
I brushed my thumb beneath it.
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
“You followed me into the passage.”
“Yes.”
“You ran toward a falling metal case.”
“Yes.”
“You let Ross put a knife to your throat.”
“I didn’t exactly let him.”
“Storm.”
She touched my chest.
My anger disappeared.
Just as Nathan’s had when Elanore touched him.
I finally understood.
“You said you knew me,” she whispered.
“I do.”
“You said you’d always protect me.”
“I will.”
Her eyes searched mine.
“What happens when this is over?”
Behind us waited the truth about her family.
Ahead of us waited the sisters who needed her.
And somewhere beyond this night waited every reason I should move slowly.
But Ross’s knife had taught me how quickly a future could disappear.
I lowered my forehead to hers.
“When this is over, I stop pretending I can walk away from you.”