I have to end June now, otherwise Atlas and I will never truly be safe. She will eventually find our haven and slice our throats in the middle of the night.
I get a chill, a warning, and then shake and scream as something sharp digs into my side—a piece of glass June grabbed off the floor from a shattered display. She twists the shard in me, and I lose my grip long enough for her to shove me off her. I lunge, but she’s untouchable and staring up at me with her face masked in our blood.
June saunters toward me. She’s not threatening. She can’t hurt me unless she’s corporeal, and I can’t imagine this silent assassin is feeling good about round two. But she doesn’t stop, and her eyes that glow like flickering eclipses come closer to mine until she vanishes from sight, and I become so cold it’s like I’m naked in a freezing ocean.
My body doesn’t feel like my own anymore. I stand without meaning to and take steps like I’m on autopilot. June has possessed me. I don’t know if she can hear my screams. I’m panicking and suffocating inside my own body. I can feel the movement of every muscle, the floor underneath every step, but none of the decisions are mine. This is how helpless Mama must’ve felt, and out of all the experiences we dreamed about sharing together as mother and daughter, being occupied by a ghostly assassin wasn’t on the list.
There is so much chaos. Luna is watching by the door with the phoenix egg, and I want to call for Wesley to snatch it and run far, far away, but he’s dizzying Stanton. Atlas is hovering above the acolytes, dodging spellwork. He calls my name again, but this isn’t me walking toward him, not really. June picks up a wand with my hand, and I can feel a faint hum against my palm—there’s still enough charge in here for one spell. When June raises the wand, I expect to find it against my head—but to kill me, she’ll have to kill us both.
I aim—no, June aims—the wand at Atlas and the winds carrying him vanish as the spell hits his heart.
Thirty-Seven
Dark Yellow
MARIBELLE
Atlas crashes through glass right as June falls out of my body. I don’t bother with her as I run straight for Atlas. Iris is suddenly beside me, hurling acolytes far across the room. I push past the destroyed relics to reach Atlas. He has never been this still. I scoop up his neck.
“Atlas, Atlas. No, come on, my love.” His eyes are half open, and blood is soaking up his shirt. “Please see me, please see me.” I slip my hand underneath the vest that was too damaged to protect him and his heart isn’t speaking to me. But this doesn’t make sense, because this is Atlas and he has to be around because I wouldn’t be alive without him and we’re supposed to one day have kids who will fly through the air with us and we will live, live, live until we grow old.
I press my forehead against his and beg him to keep his promise. When that doesn’t work, I scream in his face, and that doesn’t wake him up either.
I shot him.
June made me.
My teeth clench, and I fight back this urge to vomit and my arms are shaking and a cold shiver runs down from my head to my heart. Then I’m warm like when I was sick in bed, always waiting on Mama’s tea with honey, lemon, and garlic. The fights around me continue, and June staring me down sets me off. I rise and scream, and my body feels so hot I swear I’m inside the sun. There’s pressure on my eyes, especially the left, and I hear a roar that comes out of nowhere. A ring of dark yellow fire explodes around me and collides into everyone twenty feet from me. I’m the last one standing.
Flames run up to my elbows.
How?
Everyone is looking up at me. Luna is watching me in awe by the exit when an acolyte takes her by surprise and punches her in the face. The acolyte snatches the egg and runs. He glows gray the closer he gets—Ness.
I don’t care about the phoenix or the elixir. I look back at Atlas, lifeless, and I want to put this fire to use before it goes away. A flow of dark yellow flames blasts from my palm, but June sinks through the floor before it can reach her. Dione has already charged away and I’m lucky enough to strike Stanton down, even briefly, before they all reach Luna and flee.
The flames vanish, and I feel faint, the emptiest I’ve ever felt. I stumble back to Atlas and fall on top of him, cuddling against his chest, and even though he doesn’t wrap his arm around me, I fall asleep.
Thirty-Eight
Ashes
MARIBELLE
I met Atlas on the Brooklyn Bridge.
I was there with Iris to take down a trio of celestials who were threatening to kill everyone if enforcers didn’t release their boss from the Bounds. It was a poetic moment for us since our parents were the reason their boss got locked up. But we were ambushed when people we believed to be potential victims in cars stepped out and began attacking us. We considered leaping into the East River, but we had to prove ourselves. One celestial was telekinetically pinning me to a wall and preparing to launch a dagger into my heart. He would have succeeded if Atlas hadn’t dropped from the sky and blasted him off the bridge. I recognized him from his attention-thirsty Instagram account, but in person, Atlas was dedicated to the mission. Same for Wesley, who was carrying people away from the action at an exhausting speed. Then a celestial was about to strike Atlas out of the air, and I drop-kicked him into a car’s windshield. He thanked me for saving his life, and I called it even.
Then tonight when he needed me to back him up, I killed him.
I’ve stayed in our room for an extra hour by myself, punching holes in the wall and screaming and crying into the pillow that smells of him. I want him in bed with me, to feel the world roll off my shoulders as he embraces me for the night, like we’re the only people in the world.
Mama and Papa were bold with how they wore their hearts on their sleeves when out saving the world that hated them. It inspired me growing up. Even after the Blackout, I was still determined to fall in love and fight for it. But I shouldn’t have said anything. June could’ve killed anyone, but she targeted Atlas to destroy me. At least my parents died together.
I wander the halls and find everyone in the boardroom. Wesley is balled up against the wall and sobbing; he even kicks at the floor. Emil, Brighton, and Prudencia are sitting around the egg, and they freeze when they see me. Eva is massaging circles into Iris’s back. Iris is in her own daze.
“Where is Atlas?” I ask.
“Maribelle, I’m so sorry,” Eva says. “There’s nothing I—”
“I know you can’t heal him. Where is he?”
“Downstairs in Wesley’s room.”
I’m running hot again, and if I can’t control myself, that mysterious ring of fire might kill everyone in this room. Seems appropriate since I’m truly a killer now. The boy I love more than anyone else is gone because of me.
“What’s wrong with me?” Atlas isn’t here to calm me down. “I’m heating up.”
“Power advancement?” Eva says.
“I can levitate. Flying higher and further would be a development.”
“You sure your parents didn’t have fire-casting in their bloodlines?” Brighton asks.
Everyone keeps speculating except Iris.
“You know something,” I say as I approach her.