I look at the Pandoras. My Pandoras.
“Can you climb down?” I ask AK-7.
Can you climb down? I think to KD-8.
Both bears flex their paws and their mammoth nails begin to grow until they’re nearly a foot long. I’m guessing the talons can be used for climbing almost any surface.
“Of course you have Wolverine claws. Of course.” I shake my head and move away from the ledge Titus fell from. When I find a place that seems easy to descend, I nod at the bears. Then I swing my leg over the side.
What goes up … I think.
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
When my feet touch the ground, I nearly collapse. It doesn’t take long to right myself, but I’m worried about how I’ll get to base camp. The bears descend behind me and then watch as I peer into the desert.
I believe I was correct. About a half-hour walk. It doesn’t seem like much. Not after everything I’ve been through. But with more blood leaking from my wound and dripping down my leg — the distance seems infinite. My biggest worry is that once I get there, I won’t find a way to continue the race. But I clench my fists and I grit my teeth and I vow to try.
“It is you,” a small voice says.
I spin around — still on guard — and spot a figure leaning against the formation. The person is only about twenty feet away. Close enough so that when I narrow my eyes, I realize who it is.
“Ransom!” I yell, rushing toward him. My steps slow as I close in. DN-99, his raccoon, is sleeping in his lap. Or maybe it’s just closing its eyes, trying to shut out what’s happening. “Oh God.” I note the ram at Ransom’s feet and crouch down beside the animal, one hand covering my stomach. G-6 is gasping for air and lying flat on his side. Looking at Ransom, I grasp what he’s trying to do. The knife is poised over the ram’s heart, but he doesn’t move an inch from there.
Ransom glances up at me with tears in his eyes. “I already killed a Pandora,” he explains. “That’s not why. It’s just he’s … He’s in so much pain.”
I nod and sit down next to him. My head swims from pain and loss of blood, but I can’t leave him. Not like this. Ransom glances over my shoulder and spots AK-7 and Madox, who’s back in fox form. He flinches. “It’s okay,” I tell him. “AK-7 helped me. He won’t hurt us or Madox.”
He shakes his head and lowers the knife. “That blasted fox. I tried to keep him still. When Harper came rushing around the corner earlier, I didn’t know what was happening. She took one look at me and tossed the fox in my direction. Told me to watch him. To not let him go.” He sighs and runs a hand through his red hair. “But that Pandora nearly took me out trying to get loose. He mimicked that eagle and wanted to go up the formation, see about the commotion. It was you up there, huh?”
I nod. Ransom looks only half there, like a part of his mind was lost somewhere in the desert. Seeing him this way, I can’t bear to tell him what happened.
“You’re hurt,” he says.
“I’ll be fine.”
“Harper has a daughter,” he adds.
My eyes widen. “She told you?”
“She told everyone. She screamed it.” Ransom points to where Harper stood, where she yelled out to me. “Think I’m the father?”
I laugh and then cringe with agony. Darkness lurks at my peripheral vision, threatening to pull me under. I drop down onto my butt and hang my head. “No, I don’t think you’re the father,” I tell the boy.
Ransom looks at me with clarity. Like some of the fuzziness in his head has subsided. He glances down at his hands, at the knife he’s holding. Then he slips it into my palm. “You have to do it,” he says in a whisper. “That’s why you’re here.”
I close my hand around the blade, but shake my head. “No, Ransom.” Though I already know I will do it. Not only because of Cody, though I feel a sting of guilt that this may be the opportunity I wanted. But because every breath the beast takes rips out my heart. I want it to end. I want the ram to go with his Contender. To be at peace. And, yes, because I want my brother to survive.
“I’m going home. I need to tell my family about Levi and be with my sister,” Ransom says suddenly. “But I need you to do this first.” He pulls himself up and moves closer to G-6. The raccoon startles and then crawls away. Ransom cradles the ram’s head in his arms and closes his eyes. “Please do it now, Tella. Please. Please don’t wait. Make it fa —”
Ransom’s voice breaks in a sob. Another wave of dizziness washes over me, but I fight the urge to succumb. There’s something I must do first. Getting to my knees, I hold the knife over the ram’s heart — or where I hope it is. Ransom lowers his mouth to the ram’s ear and whispers into it. Tears burn my eyes and I squeeze them shut. I want to make this all slow down. It seems ever since I climbed the formation — ever since I tossed my backpack on the passenger seat of the car, really — everything has moved too quickly. But I can’t draw this out. Not when both Pandora and Contender are in so much pain. I wonder if I will ever forget what I’m about to do.
No, never.
I thrust the blade in and cry out. When I look up, Ransom is staring at G-6. His face is relaxed, but his eyes seem more empty than ever.
My body shakes with disbelief. I’ve never killed anything before. The grief is instant and crushing. It wasn’t my Pandora. But it’s the last piece of Levi I’ll ever know.
“Thank you,” Ransom says. When he looks directly at me, his expression changes from sorrow — to concern. “We need to get you to base camp.”
It’s the last thing I hear before I lose consciousness.
What happens next comes only in fragments. It’s like I’m lying near the ocean; one moment, I see things clearly, the next, I’m smothered by the tide.
I feel a rocking, jerking sensation and realize I’m being carried. The person holding me is about the size of a mattress. He’s talking about his nails.
Beside him, I spot a blur of yellow curls. In focus. Out of focus. It’s like a flower blooming, then fading to black.
The mattress carries me farther.
I sleep in his arms, and when I wake again, there are men hovering over me, tending to my wound. I feel the sting of a needle sewing flesh. When I groan, one of the men stops and speaks to the other. Something pinches on the inside of my arm, and my mind goes blank.
And then, sometime in the night, I hear him.
Him.
He leans over me and whispers in my ear like Ransom did to Levi’s Pandora. His voice sounds like it’s coming from a wind tunnel, and I can barely understand what he’s saying.
“… don’t need to know everything now. Only that I’ll never leave you again,” Guy says. Though I can’t see him, I know he’s thinking. Wondering how much to say. Finally, I hear his voice continue. His words slide over my body like silk. “You asked about my tattoo.” Guy pauses, chooses his words carefully. “Do you know what hawks sometimes eat? Do you know what they hunt?” My heart beats faster, but I can’t open my eyes. Open your eyes!
“They hunt serpents, Tella,” he finishes. “Serpents, like the ones running this race.”
My heart thumps so hard, I’m afraid I’ll die in this moment. But no matter how hard I try, I cannot open my eyes.