It was the gaiaphage that had gone weak since inhabiting this girl’s body. She, it, seemed almost paralyzed by fear. Drake’s arm was back! Back, baby! Gaia had given it back to him, better than ever. He snapped it and broke a branch from a bush. Time for war. Time to kill. He was back!
Back! Hah hah hah! But his master was healing, and slowly. And worst of all, complaining. Like a typical female.
“She’s fighting me,” Gaia said. “I can feel her blocking me.”
Shook up, that was it. The mighty gaiaphage, all shook up. Well, that’s what came of turning yourself into a girl.
“When do we go?” Drake demanded. “They’re waiting to die.”
“When it’s dark,” Gaia said sullenly. “When the barrier comes down I have to walk out of here. In this body. I can’t be recognized by every human out there. I will need time. I will need to gather my powers . . . find a new form . . . a place to hide, out there.”
A place to hide? Drake coiled his arm around his new body. He was stronger than before. His whip was longer, quicker. A better, badder Whip Hand. And ready to go!
“I get Astrid to myself,” Drake said.
“You don’t make demands of me!” Gaia raged.
Drake laughed. His voice was strange now, with portions of Alex’s throat melded to his. He sounded older than he had before. “You’re afraid of the people outside?”
“This body keeps me alive. This body allows me to concentrate my strength. But this body is weak. I had not realized how weak. It makes its own demands. It needs food. It excretes. It hurts.” Gaia shook her long black hair. “It bothers me.”
“You look like her, you know. Like Diana. The way she looked before. Back when she thought she was hot.”
Gaia frowned.
“Yeah,” Drake said. “Yeah. You look hot and nasty. Like her.”
He knew immediately that he had gone too far, said too much.
Gaia’s blue eyes were like lasers. “You want to hurt me,” she whispered.
Drake shook his head violently. “No. No, that’s not what I—”
“You. Want. To hurt this body.”
“Not you,” Drake said, desperately. “Not the real you.”
“You think you know the real me?”
Drake shook his head again. He didn’t want to go any deeper into this. He just wanted to feel the satisfying slap of his whip hand on flesh. That was all. He just wanted to hear the cries of pain and terror. He wanted to find that blond witch, that smug so-called genius, and watch her fear grow, watch her—
“It comes closer, the fire. In the smoke . . . that’s when we attack.” Gaia looked off toward the wall of smoke in the north.
“I thought you were worried about Nemesis.”
“I worry about nothing,” Gaia said, but there was impatience in the toss of her head, worry in her eyes.
“He has a sister. Someone he cares about. Your Nemesis. Her name is Astrid. She could be a hostage. She could give us leverage over the Petard.”
Gaia’s eyes widened. “A loved one? Does he?” She smiled. She had very white teeth, almost perfect but for a single too-far-forward canine. “But if you kill her she’s useless as a hostage.”
“She’s no fun dead,” Drake said, and then laughed. “Let me go after her. I’ll bring her to you.”
“A hostage,” Gaia said thoughtfully. “A hostage.” She looked at Drake suspiciously. He could feel her dark mind brushing against his, probing for some trick. But there was no trick. He would bring Astrid alive.
Barely.
Eventually.
Drake saw her reach the decision. He saw a frown, a worried look. And then Gaia glanced around as if looking for someone. Then back at Drake.
It struck him that she didn’t want him to go because she didn’t want to be alone. He struggled to conceal his growing contempt. This girl’s body had given the gaiaphage the emotions of a girl. The weakness of a girl.
When he was done with Astrid . . . and done with Diana . . .
Gaia?
“Go then,” Gaia said finally. “Bring her to me.”
Astrid found Sam in the church. What was left of the church. He was sitting on an overturned pew, gazing toward the shards of a stained-glass window in a ruined frame. The cross had been propped up yet again by someone, so it wasn’t lying on the floor but was rather leaning in a corner, its base stabilized by rubble piled there.
He must have recognized something about the sound of her movements, because he didn’t bother to turn around.
“Anything?”
“Nothing,” she said. “Edilio’s losing his mind waiting, I think. He’s got Orc and Jack and Dekka all doing the rounds to try and get kids to stand fast, trying to get some more kids to come back from the barrier. I don’t think it’s working. And Albert’s actually riding a bike out to the fields to try to get kids to keep working.”
They both smiled at the picture of Albert in his chinos and button-down shirt exhorting kids from atop a bike.
“He’s looking for redemption,” Sam said.
“That’s unusually observant of you,” she said.
He smiled. “Occasionally I observe.”
She sat down next to him. “Well, he needs redemption.”
“We’re in the right place to be talking about it, huh?” He looked around the church as if just noticing where he was. “That was the story, right?” He nodded toward the cross.