“As if,” Mikey and I say in unison, our synchronicity not as startling as it’s been before.
“You’re a secret society trying to destroy the world though manipulation and driving a wedge deeper between first and second-worlders. I’d rather die than align myself with you.”
Atlas seems to deflate as Mikey finishes. I notice a soft pulsating red glow slipping between her fingers. I assume it’s Maverick’s coin.
“So then what have you come for?” he asks, withdrawing the coins. “Certainly not to chat about the weather.”
“I’ll assume there’s no trying to reason with any of you, considering the looks on your face,” I respond, sweeping my gaze over the fourteen sets of eyes above and the fourteen below. The air around Nathan seems to shimmer like heatwaves off asphalt. “That being said, I guess we’re here to bury you.”
Laughter explodes from above, and the Mindless Bleeders shift their weight, still waiting for a command.
“These two are denser than anyone else who’ve tried to go against us,” the ghost with a top hat guffaws in his heavy British accent. On the plaque before him, it reads Jasper. “What makes you any different? You are nothing but a bug to Mount Rook. You are the last thing we’d ever fear.”
“And a pawn if you press the right button,” Nathan offers, to which I swear everyone rolls their eyes. But the way he holds that sphere makes me uneasy. Suddenly, my scalp seems to tighten.
I lift a finger to Jasper. “You should fear us.”
There’s a instant where he seems about to retort.
And then a purple light shunts into his chest and sinks into his skin.
Nathan reels backwards, shouting. The council stands straighter, switching their focus between me and the ghost.
I turn to the snake woman, whose name looks to be Lorelei. “Your profits and power will mean nothing once you take your last breath.”
Her breath increases as white takes over her vision and she begins crying out as well. The group steps back, the panic in the air almost delicious to me.
“Did that make you feel better?” Atlas asks, unamused as I drop my hand and turn to him.
“I’m simply trying to prove a point,” I reply, acid thick as it coats my tongue. “We can start over. Create a new world where no one lives in fear.”
Atlas hesitates as Samuel pipes up. “I don’t think you understand,” he says, a staircase of his own appearing. He makes his way to the ground as the screams and shouts die out, replaced by curses and threats from Jasper and Lorelei. “There is no starting over.”
“But that’s what you’re doing, isn’t it?” Mikey asks. “You’re destroying the world we know to create another one by your design.”
A smile spreads across Samuel’s face. “But this is what the populous wants.”
“It seems as though you have no idea what the populous wants,” Mikey retorts, violent energy growing from her skin. “You only care about your agenda.”
Samuel cocks an eyebrow and licks his teeth in thought as Atlas remains silent. “I’d stay cautious, children. Don’t begin a battle you won’t win.”
Mikey and I share a glance, our thoughts riding the same train.
“I’d rather go down fighting for what I believe than giving in to an ancient, soulless organization.”
Mikey lowers her chin at my words. “Give me liberty…” Her frame tingles with a slow change. “Or give me death.”
My body reacts to her own, transforming way faster. Claws burst forth as venom drips from my gums and between my teeth. A few Mindless Bleeders move closer as they lock onto us, their growls rumbling through the vast area and shaking the clouds.
Samuel snorts and backs away, shaking his head. “Your funeral.”
He returns to his spot, but Atlas stays glued before us. He moves in closer, but his presence isn’t threatening. In fact, it’s as if he’s the only one actually trying to help us.
“You don’t want to fight us,” he whispers, with an expression imploring us to heed his warning. “If we don’t kill you, we will break you.”
“We’re already broken,” Mikey says, her form slowly shifting with purpose as she grows taller. “What’s one more fracture?”
“Mikaela.” Atlas’ voice wavers, his airy tone growing fuller, more forceful. “I’m telling you not to do this.”
Her transformation halts as her irises swim with confusion. Her brow furrows and her heartrate spikes. No thoughts press outward to me, but I can sense her thoughts growing convoluted.
“Please.”
As he reaches out to Mikey with an open palm, his skin shifts from silvery to peach, traveling up into his sleeve and spiderwebbing across his neck. He shrinks and inch or two and his frame fills out like he’d been starved. Black pupils expand from his silvery depths, green blossoming outward as white meets its rounding edges. His white-blonde hair darkens, turning the color of sand as it loosens, and a strand falls onto his forehead.
Ice crackles in the space between the three of us as Mikey’s Bleeder form dissipates and she’s left breathless, overwhelmed with emotions I only begin to comprehend.
Her chest heaves with breath as the confusion twists into anger, contorting her face. She grinds her teeth.
“You left us for this?” she snaps. “You abandoned me and your other children so you could—” She cuts herself off as her anger becomes too much to bear. “Guess I shouldn’t be surprised. You’re trying to destroy what’s left of the world. Why would you care about your own flesh and blood?”
“The offer to join Mount Rook is still on the table. Would that not be a symbol of mercy?”
“I don’t want your mercy, and I certainly don’t want your pity. I want my childhood back. I waited so long for you to come back, to take care of Kyler and Reba, but you never showed. And now I know why.” Her words tremble as she slowly finishes her transformation. “Your death will mean nothing to me, since you never existed in the first place.”