North of Charleston, WV. Tuesday, 00:34hrs EDT
Taya gasped. Ben grabbed his brother before he fell and lowered him to the floor. “Grant.” He groaned his brother’s name.
Grant coughed. Blood lined his lips. In a choked voice he said, “My turn.”
“No, no.”
“We have to get the mud.” Taya’s hand lighted on his shoulder. “I’ll get it.”
Because Grant would be dead soon. “I won’t let you go.”
“Then figure out how to get me back.”
Taya raced to the table. Ben saw movement across the room. Not her. Someone had entered the door.
His mom stood in simple jeans and a jacket, her hair wild. Not her usual put-together self. She surveyed the scene. Finally taking in Ben, clutching his dying brother.
“Mom.”
Her jaw hardened. She glanced at the Teacher. “That’s enough, Hans.”
The Teacher jumped back. Shoved the golem he’d just created over Mei’s prone form toward the gunman. “Charlota.” Hatred oozed between the syllables. “You aren’t going to stop me. Not now, when I’ve already achieved my greatness.”
“It has corrupted you. I knew that years ago, when you did all those experiments on me hoping to create the ultimate golem. I had hoped that God would take care of you, but it seems He would ask one final thing of me.”
Hans said, “Justice cannot corrupt. It is pure. And I will bring a tide of it across this world in a wave unlike any before. I will conquer it. Set it free.”
“And finally destroy my family?” She lifted a gun. “No, you won’t.”
The gun trembled in her hand. She squeezed the trigger. Ben ducked to cover Grant as the shot rang out across the room. The gunman returned fire. Ben swiped up the knife and ran. He didn’t look at the door, but heard his mom hit the floor.
Ben shoved the knife between two ribs. The gun went off.
Taya cried out.
The gunman fell to the floor. Ben retrieved the weapon. Dauntless raced over and barked at the golems. Held them in their corner.
Ben spun to the Teacher.
Mei had her hands around his neck, despite her injuries. Tears raced down her cheeks, desperate to escape the turmoil inside. Her face red, she grasped the Teacher with an implacable grip.
Beyond her, his mother lay in a pool of blood.
“Mei.”
She didn’t even blink. The Teacher pawed at her hand, scratched lines down her forearms. She never adjusted her grip.
The dog barked.
“Mei, he needs to let the dead go. He has to release these people from his hold on them.”
“No.” Her teeth pressed together. “He dies, they’ll die. Right?”
“We don’t know that.”
“I feel like finding out.” She sucked in a breath. Swallowed a sob.
He stepped closer to her. “Mei, let him go. He has to answer for this.”
“No one is going to believe us. They’ll think we’re crazy.”
“I don’t care.” Nothing would ever be the same again. But Ben would do everything he could to help her through the transition. To help the team, and his family.
Taya called over from beside Grant, “It’s the right thing to do.”
“She’s right.”
Mei shook her head. The Teacher had stopped fighting. She let go of him, and he fell to the floor. “I don’t do mercy. It’s not in my nature.”
“It’s not in mine, either. That’s why we need it so badly.”