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Beads of sweat formed on Tim’s forehead and his whole body shook. I clenched my fists. Lady Winters was doing the same thing to Tim that she’d done to me and Gwen.
“Well?” Lady Winters curled her hands around a mug with the rising sun cog symbol.
“I can’t help them,” he whispered.
I clasped her charm in my fingers, eyeing the pacing beasts beside me. Their muscles twitched. The whole place was charged with thick, palpable tension.
Lady Winters reclined in her chair. “Very well.” She glanced at us, then flicked her hand at the beastmaster. “Kill them. Let’s see what this boy thinks he can do. And bring me more coffee.”
“This isn’t necessary!” Tim protested.
“The coffee?” She smirked. “Of course it is.”
There was a flash of movement beside me and I whipped the thorns of my vines into an agile beast. It screeched and recoiled, then circled me, its golden eyes catching the light.
“Nice beastie,” I whispered, taking a step back. The beastie growled, forcing me away from Inese and Crush and closer to the beasts near the wall.
It was trying to separate us.
The beast lunged. I thrust my vines outward, but the beast crashed into me, kicking and screeching as I skinned my elbows on the floor. I smashed my elbow into the beastie’s jaw. Its hind claws tore through my jacket and it snapped at my vines, jerking its head this way and that.
A shot exploded and the beast slumped over me, warm and sweaty. Inese held the other creatures at bay with the butt of her pistol while I untangled my vines from its corpse.
So... Lady Winters used telepathy to be heard over the beasties’ snarls and shrieks of pain. What can you bring to the Camaraderie of Evil, Timothy Zaytsev?
Tim swallowed hard, his knuckles white on the table’s edge.
Come on, Tim, I thought. Help us!
He glanced at me, his eyes wide. “I can hijack technology. I stole their anti-gravity craft.”
“That is of use, yes,” Lady Winters mused.
He couldn’t have done it on his own. He wouldn’t. Val must’ve used him. She must have manipulated him into stealing the car, just like Lady Winters was manipulating him now.
“Jenna, behind you!” Inese shouted.
I spun around. A fire beast cackled a weird half-laugh, half-bark. A ball of flame roared from its hand, twisting and turning. The fireball spiraled in golden orange streaks straight for my chest. I threw myself out of the way and Tim flung himself into the next chair as the fireball scorched the wall behind him. Lady Winters frowned, glancing to the beastmaster before taking another sip of coffee.
The beastmaster screamed and fell.
Several beasties lay dead, mostly due to Inese’s gunfire, but others lay half dead with their arms and necks twisted at odd angles. Crush bowled into the fire beast, not stopping until they collided into the wall. The beastie’s head smashed against the metal and Crush stumbled. He rubbed the smoldering hair on his arms.
Lady Winters cocked her head, smirking.
Crush bolted toward her.
She waggled a finger. “I don’t think so.”
Crush grasped his head and screamed. His feet twisted underneath him and Lady Winters stepped aside. He crashed into the table. Its metal legs screeched as his bones snapped, and the table crumpled against the wall and around his ribs.
Tim leapt to his feet. “Crush!”
Crush curled into a fetal position, his arms cradling his midsection. Blood trickled from his mouth as Lady Winters went to stand above him. “Inese—” he whispered.
Lady Winters smiled.
The ice beastie swung its hand in a wide arc. Hand-length crystals spewed across the room and imbedded into Inese’s vest. She hit the floor. I clutched Lady Winters’ charm in my fist and extended my vines, ready to kill the leader.
“Jenna, wait!” Inese tried to pick herself up, only to have the beastmaster clock her over the head with his fist.
“There, there,” Lady Winters crooned. “Can’t be helped. They simply can’t stop themselves.”
She chuckled, playing with the nail polish on her prissy fingers. Crush stared in horror at something only he could see. His body convulsed, then he didn’t move.
His eyes were still open.
Tim rushed to Crush. “You killed him!”
“And?” Lady Winters looked down at Inese and myself, then back at Tim. “You have a lot to learn, child.”
Tim’s eyes burned with a hatred I’d never seen in him. If only looks could kill.
“I’m not a child,” he whispered.
Lady Winters chuckled as Tim’s knees buckled and he grabbed the edge of the table. “I see you won’t be joining us.”
Traitor. I lashed my vines around Lady Winters’ neck and added my speed to their growth, letting the thorns grow deep. Nothing about this is efficient. Her eyes flew open and she closed her hands around the vines at her throat. She sputtered. Blood trickled down her neck, but I didn’t expect her to be dead yet. She’d gotten away from me before. Not this time.
This time I’d check.
“Very efficient,” she whispered. She coughed and held out a hand, telling the beastmaster to stop whatever he’d planned on doing.
I kept my vines tight. She’d die soon enough.
Kill. Rip and tear and suffocate. Maim and shred and kill...
I started and stepped back, unnerved.
Kill her like the beasts tried to kill me...
I gulped, my hands sweaty. I kept the vines in place, then removed Inese’s gun from its holster.
“Stand down.” I whispered, trembling. I held the gun to Lady Winters’ head. A clean shot wasn’t like the mangled marks of beasts. A clean shot would kill a telepath instantly.
Cold-blooded, but—
My vines were loose.
Lady Winters placed her hands on the puncture wounds and smiled.
The walls dissolved and she vanished. My pistol was gone. The room was sterile white, covered in Community sayings and posters. One poster read, “Thank you for taking your Health Scan.” Another had a picture of the Community flag. Another had the Community’s mantra:
The Community is safe.
The Community is secure.
The Community is efficient.
This is our duty.
“Excuse me, sir?”
I jumped as a young woman, about my age, raised her hand. She was dressed in a simple cotton gown, and she nervously sucked her lip. “Do I have theophrenia?”
I looked at my own clinically white lab coat. The nameplate on my chest read “Nikolai Nickleson.”
I held a scanner.
Oh no. No-no-no-no—
This was the government facility I’d always heard about, the one where people went if they failed the Health Scan. Plastic lab trays sat across the shiny counter. One had a syringe, scalpel, and a small, locked box of shields. A bottle of adominogen sat beside that, the nasty white pills I’d tried to avoid.
Panic pushed its way through my stomach as I checked the scanner:
Identity: Siri Kerala
Infection: Positive
Suggested Course of Action: Recruitment
Field: Pyrotechnics
This couldn’t be happening.
I rushed to the door. The handle didn’t budge. I knocked rapidly, bruising my knuckles against the pebbled metal. “Is anyone out there?”
My voice came deep.
“Sir?” She treaded her fingers together. “Can you help me?”
A chill ran down my spine, and I spun around, facing the young woman on the medical table.
Maybe I could warn her.
“You’ll be fine,” I said instead. “We can administer a treatment that will enable you to live longer than if you are left untreated.”
That wasn’t what I meant to say!
Siri bit her lip and watched me with wide, scared eyes.”What’s the treatment?”
“It’s experimental, but it has been effective on the field,” I said.
Not true!
I clamped my hands on the scanner. My fingers trembled, what little control I had over my own body.
This was like a documentary. No matter how many times I watched it, the little boy always died of theophrenia because his mother didn’t give him his pill. And if I didn’t stop this memory, Siri would be turned into a fire beastie and killed by a mech, or a rebel or—
Or me.
All those beasts I’d wounded or killed...
Yes, Lady Winters crooned. They had a chance to live a little longer, to make the Community safer, but you killed them.
“Stop this!”
If only you would admit to their usefulness. You have the makings of an efficient leader, Jenny. Just like your grandfather. He was such a perfectionist. Too bad he didn’t have the heart for his work.
I tucked the clipboard into the crook of my arm. “Commander Rick’s mission would be impossible without the help of an army,” I told Siri. “We need soldiers, and it is an honor to be recruited.” I smiled. She’d need to see confidence, and maybe I wouldn’t have to persuade her.
It was better that way.
Siri lowered her eyes. “You want me to be a soldier?”
“We can’t administer the treatment you need in the Community. There’s a chance that the disease will mutate. However, as a soldier, you might help the commander achieve world peace.”
Part of me regretted suggesting this. The treatment wasn’t pleasant. Not even a treatment, when it came down to it.
“Are there any other options?”
“No,” I said, though that was a lie. The box and syringe and a minor surgery would return her safe to the Community. She’d be fine, a legitimately healthy citizen.
But those weren’t my orders.
“Personally, I recommend joining Commander Rick’s army. You could even work in pyrotechnics,” I suggested, focusing on her willingness to join.
Her eyes brightened.”Really? I’ve always wanted to play with fire. But it isn’t safe,” she added quickly.
I smiled, gently easing my charm over her, and then picked up the recruitment papers. “Sign these and we can begin.”
She took the papers and pen, eagerly signing the condemning fields.
“Thank you, sir. The Community is safe.” She handed them back.
“It is our duty.” I took the papers and she scuttled outside, escorted by a waiting guard. He closed the door behind her.
I sighed. The treatment—the process—almost always resulted in a loss of personality. But if Miss Black’s training went well, I might convince her grandfather that my powers were better suited elsewhere.
I paused at the mirror hanging on the wall. My reflection revealed a young man with dark brown hair and eyes.
This is your future, Jenny. To be a leader, just like him.
Fear clenched in my stomach and the reflection morphed into the face of Lady Winters, the reserved, efficient leader I’d always known, with her strict business suit and pale, wrinkled face. She looked calm and reserved compared to the harsh reality Brainmaster imposed.
“Interesting, child. You do fit the specifics,” my mouth said, and the mirror image mouthed the same. I wore Lady Winters’ flowing purple robes, my nails painted a rich gold. I’d never worn nail polish before. It felt heavy and fake.
The sterile room with the Community posters vanished, and screams, pain, terror... everything merged into a single condensed point at the back of my skull, the rich cacophony of pitiful creatures being created into something more efficient—
I gagged, reeling in the corner of a gigantic room. A large, metal structure was seamlessly welded at the room’s center. Commander Rick walked along the perimeter, guiding beasts along the rails and into a towering structure of open-faced cages. A beastmaster tied their hands and feet to the chairs and the grid.
“Ready, Lady Nickleson?” Commander Rick asked.
I touched the pendant around my neck, rubbing my thumb along the grimy inscription on the back.
I strode past various beasties and humans who’d been tied into place.
“Yes,” I said.
“Good. Let’s get started.”
The yowling mass of metal and flesh was larger than most airships. Benjamin, the enthusiastic spirit leading us through the procedure, held up the amber pendant. Let’s get everything connected, he thought aloud. Do you remember the arrangement?
Lady Black took a moment to tie back her hair. “Yes, Benjamin. I remember.” Her voice betrayed irritation.
Commander Rick awaited instruction, his pendant’s chain already wrapped around his wrist. I did the same, though Lady Winters clenched the pendant in her fist. We formed a circle with Benjamin at its head, and behind us, the old servant waited with a keen eye. There was something in his mannerisms that made me think he looked at us like he was our leader, not the other way around.
No matter.
This particular procedure would hurt, but it’d make the Community safe. No more Oriental Alliance or Coalition of Freedom to keep us from world peace.
I felt a pang of regret. I’d miss the rebels, even if they wouldn’t miss me.
Commander Rick? Benjamin waved his hand for the commander to begin.
Commander Rick placed his sapphire pendant into the circle.
Creation.
Lady Black hooked her diamond pendant to his.
Life.
Trying not to think of what it would happen to the beasties, I fastened the hooks of my ruby pendant onto the little brass loops. This pendant formed the base of the U shape.
Energy.
Lady Winters smirked and placed the emerald pendant on the opposite side of Lady Black’s.
Growth.
You’ll want to be ready, Benjamin warned her. Otherwise these three won’t be able to withstand the mental strain.
Her grin widened and I glared at her.
She enjoyed pain too much.
Everyone? Benjamin asked.
“Yes,” Lady Black said, but she averted her eyes from the monstrosity. The pendants would amplify her shapeshifting powers, and the beasties calmed with Commander Rick’s efforts, but their whimpers filled the huge, four-story room.
“Affirmative,” Commander Rick said.
Benjamin turned to me. And you?
I cringed. If there was one thing I’d learned about Benjamin, it was that he wanted to see if we could get this whole, crazy contraption to work. I took a deep breath. This wasn’t one of the Camaraderie’s brightest plans, but I could use my speed powers to increase the efficiency of the others’ powers.
“Yes,” I said.
The final pendant, binding, was next.
Good. Benjamin placed his pendant in the loop. Energy blasted from the pendants, hurling us against the wall. Waves of radiation obscured my vision of the construct, and the beasties and humans cried in pain.
I let go of the pendant, dropping to my knees and trying to block my ears. Cries—both human and beast—rushed through my head, consuming every feeling and thought. My legs and hands merged with the metal, pieced together from hundreds and thousands of parts. I struggled to move, but I was rooted to the steel beneath. Fire burned in my limbs and a thick skin enveloped me, draping bits of organs and flesh. I lost my sense of touch, but our smell was putrid with burnt flesh and we lost our sight, compiled into one piece, a giant creature with a single thought, a legion of spirits merged into one...
We are Legion.
“Brainmaster!” Lady Black snapped, and the cold seeped through my clothes where I lay on the concrete floor. My mouth tasted acidic, like bile, and I shook so hard that I couldn’t unclench my fingers.
So much pain, we’re in so much pain...
“Sorry, my lady.” Lady Winters smirked. “This is my world now.”
The room morphed again. I sat on the lawn outside my parents’ house. A Community flag fluttered from a flagpole across the street.
The pain was gone.
I stood, my mouth dry and my lips cracked.
None of this was real.
Can’t you see this is real? Brainmaster stood beside me, her hands tucked behind her back, her lips curved into a fierce smile. She wore a business suit and had her white hair wrapped in a tight bun. I’ve seen your memories. You idolized me, and I know you have an interest in beasts. Why don’t you finish your grandfather’s job?
Fear raced through me and she cackled, her eyes bright. You will make an excellent leader, Lady Nickleson. Replace Master Matoska. Have your revenge on Val. She isn’t truly one of us, but you could be. You would be better for the Community. Miss Salazar could not care less.
I took a ragged breath. This felt real. But it couldn’t be. Could it?
Everything seemed calm. The flag fluttered in the cool September breeze. A woodpecker called overhead and landed on the roof of my parents’ house.
The Community was safe—there were no beasts there.
The Community was secure—everyone had a job and a place to live.
The Community was efficient—those who didn’t benefit the Community were removed.
It was our duty to follow those ideals and to ensure that the Community continued for all future generations as peaceful as the last.
I rubbed my arms. Real or not... “Doesn’t seem that peaceful,” I said quietly. “Not if you have to kill people with powers to keep it that way.”
If you had taken the pill, you wouldn’t have panicked. But consider, Lady Nickleson, that you shall have a say in how the Community runs. A strand of white hair dangled across Lady Winters’ wrinkled face and she offered me a coy smile. You might convince us that there’s a way to control the world without beasts—something Miss Salazar will never do.
I clenched my fists. “What about that monster of yours?”
That “monster” is the key to our future. We need never worry about the Oriental Alliance destroying the Community. It’s efficient, Lady Nickleson. All very efficient. She sighed contentedly.
I glanced at my surroundings. This was my parents’ home. The mowed lawn. The sidewalk. The wooden fence that surrounded the garden.
Lady Winters couldn’t have seen this before. She was in my mind. Telepathy and memory steal. According to Pops’ dissertation, she could read me like an open book.
But how fast could she read?
“I don’t want to be a monster,” I said.
My dear, I have far greater plans for—
I took off running. The world blurred. If I was right, and this wasn’t real, then as long as she was in my mind, she’d be distracted. That would give Inese a chance to recover and attack. Lance and Jack would have time to find us.
The fence zoomed toward me and I leapt. My speed propelled me the rest of the way over. I crashed on the other side. Chunks of grass and dirt spewed around me. I paused, reorienting myself.
The garden was here.
Most of my plants had died, but a few dark green potato plants and the leafy stems of celery remained. Not much to go on, but I urged them to grow around me, taking whatever nutrients they could and raising the plant leaves high.
They could only grow so tall, but anything would help.
I held my breath, peering through the thick maze of greenery. Maybe she couldn’t find me here. Maybe—
Lady Winters tapped her foot behind me. I’m in your mind, Nickleson. You can’t hide.
My breath caught in my throat.
She wore her purple robes now, her white hair cascading around her shoulders. Her forehead was a twisted set of angry wrinkles. Her eyes narrowed as she looked down her nose.
I propelled myself through the garden, wincing as leaves ripped from their stems and stalks were uprooted. The other side of the fence came fast, but I slowed enough to fumble with the gate’s lock and set it loose.
Lady Winters moved toward me like a blurry dot. I flung the gate open and raced across the street. The concrete was a pebbled gray streak. Running, running—
Jim once told me that there was an old saying.
I spun around the corner, skidding. My sneakers burned rubber as I raced the length of suburbs.
He told me, He who fights and runs away, lives to fight another day.
A toughness beast loomed ahead of me, sluggish and lumbering. Lady Winters was too slow to make it act. It hardly raised a finger as I skirted around it.
As long as I was running, she couldn’t touch me. But my sides ached and my lungs burned. My shirt clung to my back from humidity. I tried to keep running, but my legs cramped and I slowed to a jog, hoping that would keep me out of Lady Winters’ reach.
She waited along the sidewalk’s edge, patient.
I couldn’t keep going, but I had to give my team a chance of attacking her. I tried. I tried to keep running. Then my legs gave out, and I collapsed in the middle of the street. The concrete was warm and gravelly against the palms of my hands. Sunlight peeked through the clouds.
The street melted away. I knelt at the base of the flagpole. Lady Winters stood several meters from me, her lips set in a permanent frown. About time, Miss Nickleson.
“Why can’t you leave me alone?”
You’re an asset, Miss Nickleson. She strode across the sidewalk until her silken robes were only a hairsbreadth away from my nose. Her perfume reeked like flowers long past their prime. If you deny me, I will twist your thoughts until you heed only what I tell you. You will do my bidding, whether you like it or not. Now, will you come willingly, or must I make you my pet?
I clutched her charm in my hand, too out of breath to try standing. I knew she wanted me to agree to her terms. That she wanted me to be her pawn in the Camaraderie. But whatever I chose, she would still play with my thoughts. If I gave in to her demands, I would exist only to serve her desire to rule everything.
I glared at her. “I’m not a leader, but I’m not going to follow you, either.”
She crouched beside me, taking her charm in one hand and lifting my chin with the other. Impressive, Nickleson. You know so little about artifacts, and yet you could do so well with the proper training. It’s unfortunate that you’ve already made up your mind.
I yanked my head away with what little energy I had left. Suddenly my feet were swept out from under me and I slammed against the flagpole. I gasped for air. The pale blue flag burst into flames, replaced by a flag with the Lady of the Cog.
The rising sun half-cog, but with the silhouette of a lady above it.
Your mind is mine, Nickleson. This can be easy or hard—
BOOM!
Fire wrapped around my brain and the memory morphed to her horrible creation; pain from so many others, no sense of myself. Everything was dark and blood-soaked, and the pain—
“That’s enough,” a voice said.
I stared at a haze of lights, my back against a cold metallic floor. I clasped my knees to my chest. My arms stung where my nails drew blood.
I craned my head. My neck was stiff from the unnatural position I’d been in for Community knew how long. Lady Winters’ body lay crumpled on the floor, blood pooling from her forehead. Above me, Tim fired a second round into the lady’s corpse.
The beastmaster’s jaw dropped. The last ice beastie was nowhere in sight. Tim raised his gun as the beastmaster turned to run.
Another gunshot, and the beastmaster was dead.
