Sherry Ficklin - Extracted

He nods.

I hand my speaker back to Stills and thank him. He reconstructs the earpiece and inserts it back into its socket.

Nobel is in the corner of the courtyard, cradling somebody. I can just make out singed, frizzy red hair. Journey. He sobs into her limp body. I’ve never seen him show emotion like that before. It’s a nightmare. My mind reels. If we can get the other Dox and the key, maybe none of this will ever happen. Maybe everything will be set right. I hold on to the hope.

Ethan and I make our way over to where Stein and Ember are standing with Nobel. Ember has her hand over her mouth and Sisson is talking to her. The way she is moving her arms, I can tell she is recounting what happened to Ember, who still looks unnervingly fragile. Normally I’d ask Nobel to watch my back, especially on this, my last mission for the Hollows, with a guy I’m not sure I trust. But looking at him, I decide to leave Nobel to mourn the girl he secretly loved.

I approach the others.

“We have our missions,” I say, holding out my hand. The green pills are soiled with soot from my hands. Ethan grabs his. “Good luck, everybody.”

“Lex, maybe you should stay with Nobel,” Stein says, leaning in to hug me good-bye. “Ethan can get the key.”

It’s a tempting idea. But then I remember my outburst after Stein died and how Nobel had been smart enough to give me the one thing I really needed—space to grieve.

I shake my head. “We need to fix this, and I’m not sure I trust Ethan enough to let him go alone. At the rate the vortex is growing, it could chew through a full century in a matter of days. We don’t have time to waste.”

“I’ll stay,” Sisson offers, her face smeared with coal dust and tears. I want to reach out to her, to offer some comfort, but I don’t. I’m not sure why.

Ethan puts his arm around her small shoulders and offers her a squeeze, earning him somewhat reluctant points from me. Then he holds his other hand out for my sister and she takes it without hesitation.

“Who are the other bodies, the ones from your group?” Stein asks.

“Mistress Catherine,” Ethan answers. “She was one of our teachers.”

Ember shudders and he squeezes her. “And that’s Trace and Connor. The other one is Doctor Kevlotrotsky.”

“Well,” Stein winds her fingers into my empty hand, “what are we waiting for?”

I can’t help the feeling of lightness spreading in my chest, even though I know it’s not the right time to be feeling it. Something about feeling Stein’s hand in mine again makes all the bad stuff seem survivable.

Nobel stands erect. “Before you go, we need to bury them. They deserve that.”

He’s right. Time is not on our side, but we can’t just leave him and Sisson to do it alone. I look to Ethan, who nods.

Most of the fires have died down or gone out. The smoke from the burnt tower and the smoldering bodies leaves the courtyard shrouded in an eerie haze. It’s like a cemetery’s had all its bodies dug up and sprawled everywhere.

“Let’s make a cemetery in the front corner,” Nobel says, pointing to the spot in the courtyard. He wipes his nose and flicks the tears from his face like they are pesky gnats.

“We should put the fallen Tesla people in there too,” Stein says. She looks over to Ember. “They were all on the same side, once. Maybe we can put whatever bitterness separated them and made them enemies to rest too.

I blink. Part of me wants to burn the ones who did this. But looking at Stein I can see she’s trying to heal a rift I didn’t realize even existed. The one between Ember and me. We’ve been pulled apart, drafted to opposite sides in a war that wasn’t our own. I can see now that it hurts Ember, having been a part of that for so long. So I agree. Not for them, but for my sister.

EMBER

Ethan tosses his shovel and comes to my side. Lex and his friends are huddled over the last grave. He’s pounding a makeshift cross into the ground. I don’t want to be too close to them right now. What right do I have? Tesla did this. Attacked these people. Beyond the soft ache in my heart, there’s only shame.

“They need a minute,” he says gently.

I nod. “Ethan?” “Yeah?”

“I have to tell you something.” I pause. “It’s something I should have told you a while ago, but—I dunno—I suppose there was never time.”

He scoots close to me, shoulder to shoulder.

“Okay.”

“Right. So back at the Institute, the day of my rift test, you came to get me from the cafeteria, remember?”

He grins. “You were so nervous, you were almost green. How could I forget?”

“Well, I was in the cafeteria and sort of appeared to myself.”

Whatever he expects me to say, it isn’t that. His mouth falls agape as he struggles to understand.

“Wait, you mean you rifted back from somewhere and spoke to yourself inside the Institute?”

I nod. “Yeah. It was weird. She told me, well I guess I told me, to take something on my first rift. It was something specific. The thing is, I haven’t done that yet.”

“Took something on your test or gone back and talked to yourself?”

“Gone back. How will I know when to go do it?”

He sighs, rubbing his hand down his face slowly so he has time to think. Finally, he shrugs.

“Well, I would imagine you’ll know when. I mean, something will happen and you’ll know it’s time to go back. Was there anything different about her? Anything that stood out?”

I think back. “She was dressed differently. And she had…” I reach up and touch the scab under my chin, “a scar right here.”

“Did it look old or fresh?” he asks seriously.

“Older, I think. It was healed, at least.”

He turns his back to the others, blocking my eyeline. “Then you have some time.”

I see something glint on the ground. Kicking it with the toe of my boot, I see it’s one of Lex’s bottle caps. There’s a bunch of them, scattered in the grass. Bending over, I pick them up and stuff them in my pocket.

“If any of it even matters after this,” I say, earning me a confused look. “I mean, if the Dox works, then what? It sets time back on track? What does that even mean? Does this still happen? Does Lex ever save Stein? Or will I wake up in bed like none of this ever happened?” A sudden thought sends sparks of dread through my mind. “What if I don’t remember any of this?”

Ethan takes a deep breath but says nothing. There’s no comfort he can offer. Instead, he pulls me into a tight embrace and kisses the top of my head gently. In the distance, through the smoke and tears of the night, the sun rises. I can’t help wondering what tomorrow will bring. I don’t think I’ve ever had so much to lose or so much weight on my shoulders.

A memory slides to the front of my mind—my sisters and I sewing the royal jewels into our corsets to hide them from thieves. I remember not feeling like it was going to happen, like it was a waste of time. But Mama was panicked, so we sewed all night long until our fingers were raw. When I finished mine, Mama held it up to me.

“Here, Anya. This will be your armor. It will protect you from the dark things that come for us tomorrow.”

I feel a tear slide down my cheek.

She was wrong, my mama. Nothing could have protected me—or any of us—from the dark things that came for us. Just like nothing can protect me now. Now I have to be the armor for Ethan, Lex, and all the people I can still hold onto—all the people I love.

Because I don’t think I can survive losing them again.

LEX

I never thought I’d be crawling on my hands and knees through the Tesla Institute air ducts with my sister’s boyfriend. I wish I could be crawling behind Stein instead. At least it would be a nice view.