There’s a giant standing there, facing me. He’s not much older than me, if at all, but his sheer size makes me feel like a toddler. He has a belt of what looks like explosives hanging across his chest, and his face is caught in a moment of surprise at my appearance. The anger and fear mix inside my head like a chemical reaction and I lash out, kicking him in the knee so hard he drops to the ground. I kick him again, this time just under the chin, and send him flying backward into a metal file cabinet.
I hear Ethan behind me, but I don’t turn. A wiry, redheaded girl in black goggles comes flying at me. I grab her by the arm and spin so her back is pressed against my chest. Wrapping an arm around her neck, I squeeze until I feel her go limp and let her crumple to my feet. Ethan’s lash cracks and I turn. He’s fighting off a boy with a mechanical arm and a face that’s scarred and covered in tech.
A pair of arms grabs me from behind and lifts me off the ground.
From behind me a voice yells, “Drop her, Nobel. Now!”
I freeze. The voice tugs at something in the frayed edges of my mind.
“Why? She’s one of them,” the boy holding me yells back.
“Because—she’s my sister.”
My breath leaves my body in a rush as I collide with the floor. In that second I hear the door whoosh open. The others flood in, immediately joining the fray. My eyes are watering as I roll to my feet and look up into a familiar face.
FIFTEEN
LEX
I feel her before I see her. Immediately the feeling of hot flames billows up my neck and my vision blurs. The room is burning. I can’t breathe. Have to hide. My bedroom. Men with guns yell. My clothes are burning into my skin. Anastasia—my Anya—puts out the fire on me with heavy blue drapes, then stuffs the bottle caps in my hand. A flash of light eats the memory.
My heart pounds while I hide behind all the jars of brains on the shelf. Our friend Rasputin tells her that I ran down the hall. He has saved me from losing the hide-and-seek game with her. When Anya can’t find me, Rasputin winks and I laugh. Now I don’t have to be “it” for the time being. Another flash.
Anya is gone. I’m not sure where she went, but I’m alone in the flames and I’m crying. My skin hurts from the burning. I see a man in a blue conductor’s coat. Am I going to the hospital on the train? I like trains. I crawl onto his back and the world around me disappears.
I know who I am. I’m Alexei Romanov.
I come to when a sweaty fist hits me square in the jaw, right on my tattooed scar. It might as well have been a target. The Tesla vault is full of my memories and my legs go weak, dropping me to the floor. Someone crashes into my assailant, knocking him into the wall. From my knees, I look up at the girl.
My sister.
“Anya?”
SIXTEEN
EMBER
I blink once, twice.
My head swims as a flood of memories crashes over me. I can hear my heart pounding in my chest. Alexei kneels in front of me, looking as paralyzed as I am. His eyes are wide, and his mouth is closed in a tight grimace. He opens it and calls out. Not my name, another name. I can’t hear the sound escape his lips, but I can read the familiar shape of it as he speaks it. Something inside me snaps into place. He reaches out, offering me his hand. I reach to take it, but before our fingers connect the crack of a lash stings past my face, catching him in the arm.
The smell of burning flesh sets me into motion. I jump to my feet, putting the boy behind me, and scream for Ethan. My eyes find him, but he and Flynn are busy grappling with the tall boy. Catherine has the smaller girl pinned into a corner and is slashing away at her. The lash moves through the air like red lightning. The look on Catherine’s face is pure rage. She will kill the girl, I’m sure of it.
I don’t make the decision to step in—my body just moves of its own accord now. I run at Catherine, shoving her into the wall. She hits her head hard and slides down, leaving a streak of blood on the copper wall. Ethan sees me and freezes. Flynn presses forward and slams the boy into the shelves, knocking a pile of scrap parts to the floor with a clatter. I turn and the recognition is like a punch in the gut, sudden and painful. I know who he is. He’s mine. My little brother. Only he’s not so little anymore.
“Alexei?” My voice is a whisper. I’m not sure where the name comes from, but it is smooth and familiar on my tongue. With his back to me, Flynn freezes.
“Anya?” Alexei asks back. I nod, even though it’s not my name anymore.
With a quick shove, he knocks Flynn out of the way, rushes forward, and wraps his arms around me. Tears well up until they are spilling down my face as I squeeze him back. He was dead, I was sure of it. The fire. I left him behind. I left my brother behind to die.
“I thought you were dead,” I say, my heart heavy with guilt.
He pulls back, and I can see the scars on his neck are masked by a beautiful tattoo. He’s older too, closer to my age probably. He’s a man, and an enemy, and a warrior. And he looks so much like our father. There are no traces of the disease that ravaged his body as a child. The once waxy, ashen tint of his skin is now a warm glow, his once hollow cheeks plump.
“I thought you were dead, too.”
A boy in a grimy surgeon’s mask clears his throat. “I hate to interrupt, but we need to go, Lex. Now.”
I open my mouth to protest, but as I do a swarm of Peacekeepers falls from the air vent Ethan and I came through earlier.
Alexei curses. “Gear Heads. Quick, rift out now.” He grabs my hand. “Come on, Anya.”
I pull my hand away. “You can’t rift. You don’t have a Tether.”
“A what?” he asks, confused. “Look, all you need is this.”
He reaches over to where his friend is cradling the little redhead in his arms and pulls a green pill from her pocket. As soon as he hands it to me, one of the Peacekeepers leaps into the air and claws it out of my fingers, splitting the pill in half. The green liquid inside drips onto my leg.
The tiny creatures are quickly filling the room. I kick at one as it saws at my boot. I scream, and before I know it they are crawling up my legs. For a minute I’m stunned. Peacekeepers aren’t supposed to hurt us—they’re programmed to only attack Hollows. I glance up and see the Hollows under siege by the deadly robots. It’s like being inside a beehive, only instead of stinging us, the Peacekeepers are sawing at us with tiny chainsaw legs. Ethan is trying to get to me. I can see him out the corner of my eye with his arms outstretched, but the swarm is between us, cutting him off from me.
Crying out, I try to shake them off. The others aren’t faring any better. As a matter of fact, the Peacekeepers are attacking them even more ferociously. That’s when I notice Alexei’s leg. It’s a prosthetic steam machine. I’m too distracted fighting off the Peacekeepers to ask any questions, but just seeing him like this hurts. And now I remember why.
I was supposed to protect him. Papa told me to find Alexei and take care of him. The realization hits me like a brick. I stumble back, barely keeping myself from falling.
I’ve failed.
Whatever this is, whatever he’s become, it’s my fault. And if he doesn’t get out of here soon, the Peacekeepers will kill him.
The emotions override me, like being in the middle of a typhoon. I am being pulled this way and that. The brand on my arm burns as I remember the last order Tesla gave me. His voice floats through my head: “Let the boy die.” Inside me, the fighting ends in a snap and the decision is made.
There is no way I am going to let my brother die.
Not again.
“Alexei, do you have what you came here for?” I scream over the chaos.
He holds up what looks like a large, oval lightbulb.