The world smiles down on us, because I do not switch. For now, I am strong, and that is all I could ever have wanted. To hold my sister, alive and well, and make her feel safe.
We make it to the waterfall.
We swim together, Koi and I kicking beneath the surge of water, Peri in between us. We shove her through the hole in the surface, haul her to safety.
She gasps, and she trembles. But she does not cry. Without the mud and dirt, she almost looks like she used to. But she is broken. She stares ahead, empty as an eggshell.
By the time we make it to the cave, Peri is asleep in Koi’s arms. My heart is hammering strong and steady.
We found her.
I knock on the door, three times, and Abram answers, swinging his massive hands in our faces.
Koi pushes through. We carry Peri inside. My father is there, gently snoring in his sleep. I touch his shoulder and he jolts awake, eyes wide like he is ready for a fight.
“You need to see something,” I say.
I help him sit up.
His eyes adjust. He blinks, like he does not believe what he sees. But Koi approaches, Peri in his arms.
“Is she . . .” My father’s words trail off. Horror in his voice, like he is afraid to ask the question. He glares at her Regulator like he wishes he could tear it from her skin.
“She’s only sleeping,” I say. “She’s alive. She’s safe.”
“Good.” He is in shock, the same way I was, and still am.
He stands up, wobbling on his feet, but he recovers, crosses the fire to stand at Koi’s side. “Peri,” I hear him say. “My Peri.”
Koi sets her into our father’s arms. He trembles as he holds her, wraps her up like she is an infant again, and he refuses to let her go.
A single, bloody tear slips down his cheek.
And he smiles.
CHAPTER 102
ZEPHYR
I wake to Meadow’s voice, whispering my name.
My eyes fly open, and she’s there, alive. Safe.
“I wanted to come after you,” I blurt out.
“It’s okay,” she says.
And then she actually smiles. She sits beside me, a blanket draped across her shoulders, her bare toes warming by the fire.
“We found her, Zephyr,” she says. “We found Peri.”
“What?” I sit up.
And I see her. Peri, sitting beside Koi and her father. Stars, they actually found her.
Peri is tiny, wrapped up in a blanket that swallows her whole. She’s covered in bruises. Her Regulator looks somehow worse than Meadow’s. She’s so small, and it’s taking over her. And her curls are gone, her head looking even smaller bald. She sits motionless, staring. Like her mind has disappeared.
Her eyes are swollen, ringed with purple. There’s a fresh scar on her face, and she looks like she’s been in a war.
It’s sick. It’s so sick my stomach aches, my heart throbs, my hands beg to hurt the Leeches who did this to her, put her in this place.
“She’s in shock,” Meadow tells me. “After all she’s been through . . .”
“She’ll come around. Kids bounce back easy. She’s safe now, Meadow. You found her.”
Meadow nods. Her eyes are red, and sweat beads her brows. Still, there’s new light in her as she watches her sister.
“Are you okay?” I ask. I gently take her hand, and lift it.
Damn.
Her cuff is at 97. The highest it’s ever been.
“I did what I came here to do,” she says. Her voice cracks. She swallows, hard, and then she spits blood. “I can die happy now, Zephyr.”
“You’re not going to die,” I whisper. “The New Militia can help. We’re going to make it out of here. We just have to give the signal. Tell me what it is, Meadow. I’ll do it for you, and they’ll come for us.”
“You can’t help me with this,” she says. She smiles sadly.
Then she gasps. “This could be the last switch,” she says. I watch her cuff change, slide slowly back down to zero. Then it goes to the letter C.
She’s about to say something else when there’s a wailing, like the Night Siren. But it is different. Almost like . . . voices.
Shouts.
“War!” Tox shouts, from somewhere in the darkness. “Fight!”
That’s when the door of the cave bursts open.
Abram falls in, his meaty hands waving in the air.
A knife sticks out of the middle of his forehead.
“RAID!” Saxon screams.
The cave turns to chaos, as people pour in through the doorway, weapons aimed for the kill.
CHAPTER 103
MEADOW
Oranges fill the Cave.
I don’t know how they found our hideout. Did they follow me and my brother?
I see an Orange man, his ponytail swinging as he turns in circles, ordering his army to attack.
I leap to my feet.
I sprint for him, screaming hatred from my lungs. Not now, not when Peri is here and safe. No one will touch her tonight. A woman jumps in the way. I slam her to the ground, ignoring her screams.
She waves a knife in my face. I slam my forehead against hers, then rip the knife from her grasp.
She spits in my face. I use the butt end of the knife to knock her out, then move on. I have to find my father and Peri.
Everyone is screaming, running around the cave.
Two of the fires have gone out, and the world is a mix of shadows, voices bouncing off the walls.
There are more screams, more footsteps. At least fifty Oranges pour through the doorway. With this many, we don’t stand a chance.
I hear Peri scream, and it is just like the days of torture. I want to drop, put my hands over my ears, but I force myself to remember. That was then. This was now. I turn, see Koi trying to fight off two men while Peri cowers behind him, her face frozen in horror, mouth hanging open.
I don’t think.
I just fling the knife, watch as it sinks into the back of the first man’s neck. He drops, and Koi is able to get the other down to the floor. They grapple, and I rush for Peri. I scoop her into my arms, then rip the knife from the man’s skull.
“Are you okay?” I ask, looking into her eyes.
“Daddy!” she screams. Her first word since we found her.
She points behind me.
I turn in time to see my father, stumbling toward us in the chaos, a spear through his thigh. His eyes are wild, desperate, like he knows he doesn’t have the strength to carry on, and that is far more terrifying than anything I have ever seen. He has a woman on his tail, and she whirls a wicked-looking spiked ball in his direction.
He’s not going to make it.
“Duck!” I scream.
My father drops.
The woman lands on top of him, a snarl on her face. She slams his back with the spiked ball.
I see a rush of blood. Still, he fights.
“Stay here!” I shove Peri into Koi’s outstretched arms, then run to help my father.
I dive, my body slamming against the woman’s. She rolls off my father, and I’m on top of her, throwing punches into her face. She punches me back, and for a second, the world spins.
I slap the sides of her skull, pop her eardrums. Her eyes go wild. Feral. She lunges and sinks her teeth into my neck, draws blood.
“End her!” my father commands from my left. “End her now, Meadow!”