Escape to Eden (39 page)

“Look out!” Jenna shouts.

I know what’s coming. I drop Max just as the Canine’s open hand knocks the side of my head. My body flies through the air several feet and into a tree. More cracked ribs. When I land, all I can do is inhale tiny sips of air.

But I can’t give up.

The Canine has Max by the throat with one hand, and with his other he takes Max’s arm and bites it hard. The consequences of what just happened pains me more than anything else. He’s had Max’s blood now and will be able to track him anywhere. I no longer have a choice. I know what has to be done.

I struggle to my feet, determined to save Max, even though I know there’s nothing I can do from my position. Jenna, however, can. She swings a big stick, hitting him directly on his wounded leg. When he drops to his knees, she reverses her swing and hits the knife still firmly embedded into the left side of his back. This makes him let go of Max.

This new, more clear-minded Max knows he needs to run. He turns to come toward me, but I point back the way he came.

“Get out of here!” My words are leaving half-full lungs, so they are barely audible. Max may not have heard me, but he sees the direction of my pointed finger and goes that way.

Jenna manages to hit the Canine two more times before he finally catches the limb in her hand. He twists it from her grip and stands tall.

Jenna opens her mouth to scream.

“No!” I yell, finding enough oxygen for the short word. If she does that it will render everyone within a twenty-yard radius useless, and if Tank and the others somehow lose the battle, Max and I will easily be dragged off. I can’t give up that control.

Instead of screaming, Jenna kicks at the Canine. She’s strong, but her movement barely affects him. In return, he picks her up and tosses her to the side, then snaps his head in my direction. Foamy, blood-tinged saliva bubbles in the corners of his mouth.

He walks toward me, mindful of his injured leg. His left shoulder drops unnaturally.

I hobble backwards out of the tree line and back toward the edge of the cliff, all the while searching for some kind of a weapon. I bend over and snatch up as many rocks as I can hold, almost slipping on the wet ground in the process.

The Canine’s breathing is ragged, and by the sound of it there’s fluid in his lungs, which means one of them is punctured.

I draw my hand back and throw a rock hard and fast. He easily dodges it. I do it again. This time I hit him in the shoulder, but the rock bounces off of him like it’s rubber. This is just stupid, but it’s all I got. I throw the rest of them and glance behind me. The edge isn’t far. It’s my only weapon, but one that can easily be used against me, too. It’s worth the risk for Max. The Canine has to die.

Beyond the Canine, the fight has grown fiercer. There’s not many standing. Tank is there. And Tori. I panic when I can’t find Anthony, but then I see him. He’s on the ground, dragging himself away from an approaching Titan. Blood runs down the side of his face.

I want so badly to help, but I can’t as long as the Canine is in my path. I glance behind me again. Only a few feet to the edge.

“Nowhere to go,” the Canine says.

It’s difficult and painful to speak, but I have to. Words are all I have left. “I can jump, and all my precious blood will be spilled on those rocks below.”

“You wouldn’t do that.”

“Of course I would, but if you promise to end the fight and let the others go, I’ll go with you peacefully.”

His gaze flickers to the edge behind me. He’s probably trying to decide if I really would jump or not. He doesn’t know me at all.

“Fine,” he says. “Give up now, and we’ll end this.”

I hold out my wrists. “Take me.”

He comes directly in front of me, and stares down at my outstretched hands. “I’m not stupid.” He reaches inside his leathered vest and removes a syringe from his pocket. “You’re a much better prisoner unconscious.”

Before he can do anything further, I make my move. The only one I have left.

Using both hands, I grab his good arm and roll backwards to the ground with as much force as I can, taking his body with me. I continue the momentum by raising my legs up, effectively flipping him directly over me and off of the cliff. The motion is so fast that I’m brought to my feet, completing a perfect backward somersault, my back to the sea.

I look over my shoulder. I did it! The Canine is falling to his death, his hands outstretched and mouth forming a giant O. Surprising myself, I laugh out loud, despite it hurting every part of my chest.

I go to take a step forward to help the others, but the edge I’m standing on doesn’t agree. The fragile earth gives way and my foot slips, followed by the rest of me. I claw at the dirt, my nails digging hard into the ground, but there is nothing to support my weight, and I fall even faster until there’s nothing beneath me but air.

I
’ve never felt heavier. Or more helpless.

The ground rushes up at me. I will be dead soon. At least Max will be safe.

I close my eyes, a natural instinct, when all of a sudden my body is plucked from the air. My arms and legs jerk forward, and I grunt.

My eyelids snap open. Somehow I’m flying just a few feet from the ground. When a small section of sandy beach opens, I’m let go and fall the rest of the way. I roll a few times before I stop. Pain radiates from my chest to the rest of my body, but I’m alive. That’s all that matters.

But how?

I roll onto my back. A dark figure, black wings spread wide, circles above me, cutting through the swirling snowflakes like a fallen angel.

Colt
.

He flies toward me then lands a few feet away. His wings fold behind him, completing the motion just as he kneels in front of me.

“Are you okay?”

I’m shocked beyond words. He shouldn’t be here!

“Answer me.” His expression is serious, but his eyes are concerned.

“What are you doing here?”

“Where’s Max?” he asks.

“Safe with Jenna. Now answer me. What are you doing here?”

He looks up like he’s about to fly away. I take hold of his arm. “You shouldn’t be here. Why are you here?”

He turns back to me. “What you did to me, taking away my agency, wasn’t cool, but I get why you did it. So I hope you can one day understand what I did.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

His jaw flexes.

“You’re all that matters, Sage.” He reaches into his back pocket. “Take this.” He shoves a small, metal device into my hand. His fingers linger over mine, making the pain in my body just an annoying distraction.

“I have to go help the others,” he says.

I latch onto his hand. I don’t want him to go. It’s so selfish of me, but I don’t. The feeling overwhelms me, bringing tears to my eyes, especially when I see sweat dotting every pore on his face. Some of it is tinged with blood.

“Please don’t go,” I say.

Colt brings his forehead down to mine. “You could never truly love me if I stayed.”

He kisses me hard on the mouth before pushing off the ground and flying into the air, leaving me crying after him . . . for all of two seconds before I mentally slap myself. I have to get up there to help.

All around me is a sheer cliff wall, but a long way down the beach the cliff lessens. I take off running, more like skipping, since the pain is intense, but I mentally push past it. The metal sphere Colt gave me is cold against my tightened hand. Hurry!

I curse him several times. Why didn’t he take the oDNA? Sure, he just saved my life, but in exchange for his own?

Up ahead I spot four figures. I squint hard through the snowflakes landing on my eyelashes. One of them is Max. The other is Jenna. They are talking to two adults near the shore. They must be the Originals we are supposed to meet. They turn toward me, and Jenna waves her arms back and forth.

The beach is rocky here, slowing my progress. Not much further and I’ll be able to work my way back to the fight.

A loud explosion goes off behind me, shaking the ground,
and I almost stumble. I glance behind me. Smoke at the top of the cliffs billows into the sky. My heart lurches inside my chest, and my gut twists something awful.

I run faster.

The only pain I feel now is in my heart.

I begin to cut up a steep, yet passable, incline to the top when Jenna calls my name. At first I ignore her and continue to climb, but then she yells again. She sounds frantic. I glance back at her.

She’s waving her arms along with the other two adults. Max is sitting on the ground. Something must be wrong.

I change directions and scramble down the rocky face to run toward Max. There’s not enough time. If I could stop the earth’s rotation if only for five minutes, I could save everyone I love.

But time has no master.

I’m gasping for air by the time I reach Max. I go straight to him and ignore the others.

“What’s wrong?” I ask.

Max shrugs his shoulders.

“What’s this about, Jenna? I have to get back to help the others. You should come too.”

“You’re not going anywhere,” a deep voice says behind me.

I turn around. My first thought is that he’s the oldest man I’ve ever seen. His hair is almost all gray, but his face appears younger. Only a few wrinkles gather at the corners of his eyes.

“I mean no disrespect, sir, but I’m going back.”

“You can’t,” the woman next to him says. She looks younger, but would still be considered old by many Primes. “The Institute will have this place surrounded within five minutes. We have to get you and your brother out of here right now. It’s your only chance.”

“But we can’t just leave them!” I turn to Jenna, my eyes wide, my expression pleading. “Jenna?”

She exhales. “You have to go, Patch. Take Max. I’ll go help the others.”

“But Colt—”

“I know. I saw him. Don’t worry about him. He’s a survivor.”

A bubbling sound in the ocean draws my attention. A ways off the beach, in deeper waters, a submarine emerges.

The older man takes hold of my arm. “Let’s go.”

I knock his hand away. “Don’t touch me!”

“Sage,” Jenna says, using my real name for the first time, “think about Max.”

My eyes lower to my brother. He’s staring up at me, his eyes matching the blue of the ocean’s water. He’s taken his shoes off and has buried his toes in the sand, just like he used to do before our lives changed forever. When things were simpler.

“We can’t waste any more time,” the man says. “We’re leaving with or without you, but it’s your choice.”

“Please,” the woman says. “Come be with your kind. There’s a good life waiting for you.”

Good life? The words twist inside me all kinds of wrong.

Max stands and takes my hand. I follow his gaze across the ocean that seems to go on forever. At the horizon, sunlight breaks through the grays and blacks of the snowstorm. Max smiles.

“Is this what you really want?” I ask.

My new seemingly clear-minded brother nods.

It’s hard to say the words, knowing I’m leaving without checking on the others, but I say them anyway. For Max.

“Let’s go.” I look back at Jenna.

“I don’t hug,” Jenna says like she thinks I was going to try. I was.

“Take care of yourself,” I say to her. “And please take care of the others.”

“I will.”

After I pocket the device Colt gave me into the waterproof pocket in my pants, Max and I step into the ocean to go after the man and the woman. The water is cold as it fills my shoes. I pick up Max to keep him from getting wet for as long as possible.

“My name is Audrey,” the older woman says over her shoulder. “And that’s Tom.”

Tom is already past the waves and swimming to the submarine whose latch is now open.

“Can the boy swim?” Audrey asks.

“He’ll do fine.”

A small swell reaches my thighs. The sea is calm today, soothing the storm raging inside me. I feel like such a traitor, leaving the others like this.

Tom reaches the submarine and yells to someone inside. A small flotation device appears at the top. He takes it with one arm and tosses it to Audrey, who’s already swimming.

She pushes it toward me. “Use this.”

The water is at my chest when I grab it. I don’t think I’ll need it, but as soon as I start swimming, a searing pain in my ribs stops me. I grab onto the tube along with Max and kick hard.

There’s no sign of Jenna behind me. Or anyone else. Even the smoke’s gone. It’s like they never existed.

Audrey has one hand on the black submarine and the other is stretched toward me. I take it, and she pulls us aboard.

“Climb in,” she says. “There are warm clothes and blankets down below. I’m a nurse and will take a look at your wounds when you’re ready.”

“Thank you,” I say. Because it’s too difficult for me to lift Max, I’m about to ask for help, but Max scrambles by me and climbs up and into the hatch all on his own.

The inside of the sub is surprisingly large. There are four sections divided up by narrow metal doors. Audrey leads us back to an octagonal-shaped room with bunk beds all around. She hands us each a prepared bundle.

“There’s a shower room to your left,” she says. “Take your time. Your new world is going to take some getting used to, but you’ll fit right in. I promise.”