J. Mitchell - The Severed Tower

That piece of Mira’s mind unlocked, and when it did Zoey sharpened it, made it stronger, more resilient. It would never be anything like her own abilities, Zoey knew, but it would be enough.

Then Zoey pulled back and out. The golden energy faded. The Feelings receded into the dark, and Mira and Zoey both opened their eyes.

“What… what was that? ” Mira stared at her.

Zoey squeezed her hand one last time, then pulled it away. “Now you’re ready, Mira.”

“Zoey, what did you just do? ”

“Can you feel them yet? They’re close now.”

A new emotion formed within Mira. It started small but grew fast, fueled by instinct. Mira was starting to guess the truth. That Zoey had set something in motion, something horrible, and it was quickly approaching…

“Zoey… what did you—”

In the distance, a series of rapid-fire pops and bangs echoed through the air. Mira turned to look, but Zoey didn’t need to. The silver walkers were firing to the south, outside the ruins, flinging streams of plasma bolts into the air.

“I’m sorry, Mira,” Zoey said. “I… made a deal, kind of. A trade. It was the only way to make things right.”

Mira’s eyes widened. Just visible to the south was a flight of Assembly ships, two dozen maybe, and these were not silver or green-and-orange. They were blue-and-white, and streaming toward them.

Zoey could feel the fear from Mira then. Not just fear of those ships—but fear because she could feel them. Just as Zoey did. The sensations bleeding off them. Horrible feelings of victory and elation, of long roads finally traversed.

“Zoey, what have you done?” Her voice was horrified. The roar of engines filled the sky now. The White Helix stirred nervously below. “Tell me what you did so we can stop it!”

Zoey shook her head sadly. “We can’t, Mira. Not this time.”

Plasma cannons flashed above them, and flames blossomed on the ground and out the sides of buildings as the blue-and-white ships advanced. The White Helix below flipped and dodged. Crystal spear points streaked into the air, a few punching through the ships in bursts of colored flame, but it wouldn’t be enough. Things were set now.

“Pet the Max for me, okay?” Zoey asked Mira. She was almost out of time. “Scratch behind his ears, he likes that the best.”

“Zoey!” Mira moved for her—and then they were both blown in separate directions as explosions rocked the roof. Zoey hit and rolled and stared up at the ships, their engines drowning out everything.

From one of them came a flash. Zoey flinched.

There was a violent crunching as the Vulture’s claw slammed down around her. She had just enough time to look through the blades at Mira, vainly struggling to get to her feet, to reach the little girl, to stop this from happening, but it was too late.

“Good-bye, Mira,” Zoey whispered.

Then she screamed as the claw yanked her up into the sky and the flight of airships powered away, leaving Bismarck and Mira and Holt and Max and everyone and everything behind.

Scion, the chilling projections came. Zoey shut her eyes tightly. You are home.

MIRA LUNGED OUT THE DOOR and into the street. Her head was still dazed and foggy, and it wasn’t from the attack. What had Zoey done to her? She had felt those ships approach. It had been like sharp, cutting whispers in her mind, but without language, just sensation. It felt like she had heard them thinking …

Mira shoved through the crowd, ignoring the flames and the yells of pain and shock. The gunships were gone, but they had left their mark. A burning building collapsed nearby. White Helix carried injured friends to hurriedly erected aid stations. The Menagerie were trying to lift a crumpled, warped sedan off where it had trapped someone.

“Mira!” Holt shouted, and she spotted him pushing through the crowd. Max was with him, staring with anxiety at all the chaos. They met next to a bent station wagon, and she could see the look of worry on Holt’s face. “Where’s Zoey?”

The question hit her like a hammer. She hadn’t let herself think about it, had only concentrated on the immediate. Focusing, grabbing her things, getting down to the street, putting one foot in front of the other.

Now she saw it all over again. Zoey’s last words. The explosion that divided them. The sight of her being ripped away, her screams. Zoey had been there one second, then gone the next. It had all happened so fast.

But that was no excuse. It was her fault.

Holt took a surprised step back as Mira swung her pack and shattered what was left of the car’s rear window. Everyone nearby stopped what they were doing and stared.

It only made her feel worse.

She raised the pack again to—

“Mira,” Holt’s hand stopped her. She looked at him—and then she felt the tears form. Hot, angry ones. She leaned against the car and brought her shaking hands to her face, trying to hide what was obvious to anyone who looked.

Holt’s arms wrapped around her. She sunk into his chest and time seemed to slow. Zoey was gone.

She sensed the crowd moving in, heard figures land on top of the station wagon. “Where’s the Prime?” a voice she recognized demanded.

Mira held on to Holt and looked up at Dane and two other White Helix. It was clear they had already guessed the answer. “You lost her!”

The words cut like a knife.

“Back off!” Holt yelled up at Dane. “You saw those gunships, what was she supposed to do?”

“She shouldn’t have had her on the roof! She lost her!” As he spoke the Lancet twirled from his back and aimed down. In the same instant Holt drew his Ithaca and pulled Mira behind him. Max growled low and vicious.

“Dane!” A strong voice stopped him cold. Maybe the only voice that could. Avril stood a few feet away, out front of what was left of the Menagerie. Her hands were bound, Mira saw. Her Lancet was gone. Ravan stood next to her, and in spite of everything the daughter of Tiberius Marseilles seemed calm.

“The Tower’s gone now,” Avril said, wincing in the sunlight. “It can’t help Zoey anymore, there’s nothing anyone could have done.”

Dane didn’t seem to hear the words. His fury at Mira was quickly replaced with fury at the lengths of rope that bound Avril’s hands. His eyes found Ravan and he spoke with barely contained menace. “Set her free—or you will all die.”

Ravan just smiled. She didn’t even reach for the rifle on her back. “Well, that wouldn’t be very… honorable of you. Would it?”

“It’s my choice, Dane,” Avril said, though it was clear she wasn’t completely resolved. “It’s what Gideon wanted.”

“Gideon’s dead! ” Dane spat. “And with the Prime gone, so is everything he believed in. What was the point of any of this? Can anyone tell me?”

Mira heard Zoey’s last words in her mind. I… made a deal, kind of. A trade.

Thoughts swirled in her head, trying to form into something solid. “I think she may have planned this,” Mira said, and everyone looked at her. “It sounded like… she used the Tower to set all this in motion.”

“You mean she wanted the Assembly to take her?” Ravan asked dubiously.

“How convenient for you, Frebooter,” Dane said with a sneer.

“Mira,” Holt said, tilting her face up with her hands. “If she told you that, then she had something figured out. You have to know what it is; she would have told you somehow.”

Mira thought back desperately, running through the conversation again, but only one thing really stuck out. “Zoey did something to me. She… touched me. Went inside my mind, changed something.”