The Fate of Ten

“I’ve been sitting out here praying on our situation,” Marina continues. “I suppose it’s silly to hope for some kind of sign. I don’t know what else to do with myself, though.”

Before I can respond, a shrill buzzing sounds from behind us. At first, I think it’s only Adam’s latest attempt to create a new conduit. The noise is too close. It’s coming from practically right on top of us. Marina’s grinning at me, her eyes wide and excited. My heart starts to beat harder as I realize what’s happening. Maybe Marina’s prayers actually worked.

“Six? Aren’t you going to answer it?”

The thing’s been annoyingly silent for so long, I’d forgotten what the ringer on the satellite phone sounds like. I jump up, yanking the phone out of the back of my pants. Marina stands with me, leaning her head in close to listen, and Adam jogs over to join us. I can feel Phiri Dun-Ra watching us, but I ignore her.

“John?”

There’s a burst of static as the satellite phone establishes a connection, a familiar voice coming through between squeals of interference.

“Six? It’s Sam!”

A wide smile spreads across my face. I can hear the relief in Sam’s voice that I answered.

“Sam!” My own voice breaks a little. I hope he doesn’t hear it over our crackly connection. Actually, I don’t care. Marina grabs my arm, grinning wider. “You’re okay?” I ask Sam, the words coming out half question and half exclamation.

“I’m okay!” he shouts.

“And John?”

“John, too. We’re at a military encampment in Brooklyn. They loaned us a pair of satellite phones and John’s talking to Sarah on the other one.”

I snort and can’t help rolling my eyes a little. “Of course he is.”

“Where are you guys? Is everyone all right?” Sam asks. “Things have gotten nuts.”

“Everyone’s fine, but—”

Before I can tell Sam about our predicament, he interrupts. “Did anything happen down there, Six? While you were at the Sanctuary? Like, for instance, did you push a button for Legacies or something?”

“There weren’t any buttons,” I say, exchanging a look with Marina. “We met, I don’t know—”

“Lorien itself,” Marina says.

“We met an Entity,” I tell Sam. “It said some cryptic stuff, thanked us for waking it up and then, um . . .”

“Spread out into the Earth,” Marina finishes for me.

“Oh, hi, Marina,” Sam says distractedly. “Listen, I think this Entity of yours might have, uh, spread out into me.”

“What the hell does that mean, Sam?”

“I’ve got Legacies,” Sam replies. There’s such a strong mixture of excitement and pride in his voice that it’s impossible for me not to imagine Sam puffing out his chest a bit, looking like he did right after we kissed for the first time. “Well, just telekinesis. That’s always the first one, isn’t it?”

“You’ve got Legacies?” I exclaim, looking wide-eyed at the others. Marina’s hand tightens on my arm, and she turns to look at the Sanctuary. Meanwhile, Adam’s expression turns thoughtful as he looks down at his own hands, maybe wondering what this development says about his own Legacies.

“And I’m not the only one,” Sam continues. “We met another girl in New York by chance who had gotten powers, too. Who knows how many new Garde are out there?”

I shake my head, trying to digest all this information. I find myself staring at the Sanctuary too, thinking about the Entity hidden within.

“It worked,” I say quietly. “It actually worked.”

Marina faces me, tears in her eyes. “We’re home, Six,” she says. “We’ve brought Lorien here. We’ve changed the world.”

It all sounds great, but I’m not ready to celebrate just yet. We’re still stranded in Mexico. The war isn’t suddenly over.

“That Entity didn’t give you a list of new Garde, did it?” Sam asks. “Some way for us to find them?”

“No list,” I reply. “I can’t say for sure, but judging by my conversation with the Entity, it all seems pretty random. What’s happening there?” I ask Sam, steering the conversation towards the battles we’ve been missing. “We heard about the attack on New York . . .”

“It’s bad, Six,” Sam says, grimness creeping into his voice. “Manhattan is, like, on fire. We don’t know where Nine is; he’s still out there somewhere. Where are you guys? We could really use your help.”

I realize that I never finished telling Sam about our current situation. “There were Mogs guarding the Sanctuary,” I tell him. “We got all of them but one. While we were inside the temple, she wrecked all the ships. We’re stuck here. You think you could get your new friends in the military to send a jet? We need to be picked up.”

“Wait, you’re still in Mexico? At the Sanctuary?”

I don’t like the fear in Sam’s voice. Something’s not right.

“What’s wrong, Sam?”

“You need to get out of there,” Sam says. “Setrákus Ra and his big-ass warship are heading right for you.”

Chapter ELEVEN

A FEW MINUTES AFTER AGENT WALKER TELLS ME I’ve got forty-eight hours to win a war, a pair of soldiers in full body armor and a middle-aged civilian carrying a tablet device arrive at her tent. They want to deliver some kind of urgent report related to a recording the civilian made on his tablet that morning. I’m not paying much attention—my ears are ringing, heart pounding. I can feel the new arrivals stealing looks at me, like I’m a cross between a celebrity and a unicorn. That doesn’t help my feeling that the tent walls are slowly closing in.