BRIGHTON
I’m keeping up the good fight for Emil’s privacy.
Ma wants to let him cry in her arms, Wyatt wants to hold him, and Prudencia just wants to keep him company, but he asked to be alone, and it’s staying that way. We brought some chairs out into the hallway though so we can be with him at a moment’s notice if he changes his mind.
Everyone is exhausted. Before going to sleep in Maribelle’s room, Eva generously healed my burn marks from Emil’s fire. There’s a shortage of available rooms, so Wesley and Ruth joined her, and Maribelle doesn’t care that Iris is there too. I wish Ma would go take Emil’s bed in our room, but she’s being stubborn and resting in her chair.
“He must’ve really cared for him,” Wyatt whispers.
I honestly didn’t understand Ness’s whole thing. He didn’t seem like a Brightsider himself, to be fair. But he did a lot for my brother. “They bonded,” I say.
“He cared about Emil too,” Ma says with her eyes closed. “He said Emil made him feel warm.”
Wyatt stares at the floor.
Whenever Emil is ready to talk, I’ll be here for him. I expect he’s going to end whatever this Wyatt situation is immediately. I know my brother, he’s got to be feeling really guilty right now for getting romantically involved with Wyatt while Ness was alive and still thinking of him. Even bonding with our mother.
I’m on my phone typing up the format for the interviews I’ll film tomorrow morning when I switch back to BuzzFeed’s coverage of Ness’s discovery to find an update. Prudencia inches closer when I press play on the video. It’s of Senator Iron standing on a dock and addressing reporters.
“Thank you for your patience on this impossible evening,” Iron says as he tightens his jacket. “There were so many nights after the Blackout where I would wake up and forget that Eduardo was dead. I never in a million years suspected he was alive and being corrupted by the Blood Casters, and later by the Spell Walkers. He was manipulated into putting power above all—country, family, justice. To punish me after a successful debate against Congresswoman Sunstar, he tried to destroy the campaign he once fully believed in with the powers of a shifter.” He brushes his black eye, wincing. “I’ll admit, if this weren’t such a public affair I would get my son into a rehabilitation program to rescue him from this darkness, but my loyalties can’t only be for my family. They must also lie with the American people. My son is not above justice and has been sent to the Bounds alongside the terrorist Luna Marnette, who poisoned Eduardo with her powers. I have failed the memory of my late wife, but I hope this heartbreaking gesture proves my commitment to making this country safe from gleamcraft supremacy.”
Iron doesn’t answer any more questions as he steps into a black car and drives away.
Prudencia and I immediately charge into the library and Emil’s head pops up from the table in a panic.
“He’s alive, he’s alive,” we both say.
“What?” Emil wipes his eyes.
Ma and Wyatt follow us in and we replay Iron’s speech.
Emil bursts into more tears. “He’s being sent to the Bounds? This isn’t a win.”
“It can be,” I say. Everyone’s looking at me like I’m insane. “It wouldn’t be our first break-in tonight. We’re already tracking one-for-one in success rates.”
“This isn’t some politician’s home in the suburbs,” Prudencia says. “This is a federal prison on an island.”
“And maybe our last chance to save Ness,” Emil says. “He’s never going to get a fair trial.”
No one protests.
“This country is going to villainize everything we do,” I say. “But we know we’re the real heroes. Let’s go save the day.”