“Rhys?” Cillian sounds terrified.
For one second Rhys seems torn. Avenge his grandma’s attack, or protect my mother and Cillian’s after having lost his own without a chance to save her. I can’t nod at him because of the knife placement, but my eyes communicate enough.
He swings his crossbow toward the tunnels. “On it! Leo, with me! Imogen and Cillian, don’t let Artemis move.” They turn and run back into the tunnels.
“What now?” Cillian’s hands are trembling, his crossbow shaking. He keeps glancing to the side, trying to see what else is happening without taking his eyes off Artemis.
“Do what Artemis asks,” Imogen says, putting her hand on Cillian’s shoulder. Doug looks alarmed and unsure what to do. He can’t spit and hit Artemis without also hitting me, and we need me clearheaded.
“What?” Cillian turns to her.
“Jade blew up the stone and nothing changed. Nina tried to break this thing, and it didn’t work. We don’t have any plays left here. We can’t lose Nina. Artemis has already shown how far she’s willing to go. Whatever happens, we’ll deal with it. Besides, Mister Hellgod over there can’t reach it. He’s not even trying. He doesn’t expect us to be able to do anything. So we improvise.” She grins. She’s handling all of this really well. Or she’s lost touch with reality and is so far into panic mode that she’s actually calm.
Whichever it is, Cillian shouldn’t listen to her. I shake my head, but Artemis yanks me to the side, then drops me over the edge of the catwalk. I yelp, but my fall is broken as she grabs one of my useless arms and holds me there, dangling. The drop probably won’t kill me, but it’s far enough that even I’ll get hurt. And I don’t know how I’ll get back up here to help. Honora rolled off the side so she had things to grab on to. I’ll fall straight down.
“Save her!” Doug says, panic altering the desert landscape of his face.
“I’m doing it!” Cillian edges past Artemis, his hands up. He pauses in front of the doom triangle, studying it. Then he reaches out and takes hold of one of the corners. I don’t think it will move—I hope it won’t—but the way he slides it triggers a smooth progression of shifting sides. He manipulates it faster and faster, falling into a rhythm like someone who’s done a Rubik’s cube hundreds of times. The corners spin and spin until they shimmer, the lines disappearing into pure light. And then, suddenly, it all clicks into place. It looks almost the same, but everything is inverted, and the glow is brilliant, concentrated. Now it’s a pyramid, the side nearest the catwalk open like a door.
Artemis looks down at me, tears in her eyes. “You weren’t supposed to be here. I’m not sorry for anything I’ve done, but I want you to know that you were supposed to be far away.” She blinks rapidly, trying to clear her vision. “I always thought Mom saved me first because she loved me more. But she saved me first because I was weak. That’s why you got left behind. And someday soon, you’re going to die. Mom’s going to die. Honora’s going to die. I’m going to lose everyone I love just like we lost Dad because I’m not strong enough. Because I was never chosen. I’m choosing myself today. I’ll save everyone.”
Cillian shakes his head as though coming out of a daze. He slowly backs away, eyes drawn to the light.
Leo and Rhys reappear. “We couldn’t find them,” Rhys says, then stops, staring in alarm at the new configuration.
“We need Jade and her explosives!” I shout.
“On it!” Doug runs toward the tunnels.
“Give Nina to me,” Leo says, his voice gentle. “Nothing’s been done yet that can’t be undone.” He takes a step toward us. “I understand, maybe more than anyone else. Give me Nina, and then we’ll figure it out from there.”
“The hell we will,” Rhys says. He pulls his trigger. Artemis drops her shoulder, dodging the bolt, then swings me up and throws me right into my friends. They catch me, everyone falling except Leo. He holds me.
Artemis steps backward, knife up as Rhys scrambles to untangle himself and reload his crossbow. “You never trusted me. Any of you. And you, Nina?” Her voice breaks, but then goes hard and cold. “What did I expect? Watchers don’t take care of their own. It’s up to me.” She puts her hand on the side of the hellgod’s cage.
“What are you doing?” Cillian’s father asks. For the first time, he sounds alarmed. “You cannot use that.”
Artemis doesn’t look at him. She turns toward me and shakes her head, her expression exhausted but determined. She tightens her ponytail like she always does before a fight. “Ending it.”
And then Artemis steps into the light.
A blinding pulse throws us all to the metal grating of the catwalk. Leo covers me, trying to shield me, but it’s like the light is everywhere, in everything. Even with my eyes closed, I can see it. I can feel it.
It recedes like a wave from the shore, leaving me with the sensation that I’m still covered with little grains of light. “You okay?” I ask Leo.
He nods, eyes squeezed shut. “I’m sorry. They would have taken you. They made me choose, and—”
“I get it. We can talk later about how impossible it is to have to weigh the value of one life against another. Promise. We can also fight, because I’m not over everything you did. But for now, you’re back, and I’m glad.” I brush my lips against his cheek and stand. My eyes are dazed, my vision photosensitive and covered with spots like I’ve been staring at the sun.
No. Like I am staring at the sun. And she’s standing on the end of the catwalk. I can’t focus on Artemis. The light coming off her is so brilliant I have to look to the side of her in order to be able to see. The doom triangle behind her is a melted husk, totally ruined.
I shake out my hands. They’re still tingling and mostly numb, but I have movement.
I step toward her. Maybe it’s easier this way. She’s less like my sister and more like the monster she’s apparently become. “I’m not going to let you hurt anyone else. I can’t.”
She laughs, drops of liquid sunshine raining around me, warm and layered. She sounds like herself, but multiplied, amplified, and … happy. So, so happy. I can’t remember the last time I heard her sound this happy.
“I did it! Oh, Nina, I did it. I fixed everything. None of us have to be scared, ever again. I never have to be scared again. I can feel it everywhere. Everything. I can feel everything, but it doesn’t touch me.”
I have to stop her. I promised everyone I would. I promised her I would. If she tried to murder Ruth to get this power, what will she do to keep it? Girls of fire, I think, watching as my sister burns brighter and brighter.
A phone is ringing insistently in the background. It feels absurd that someone would be calling us at this moment. “Nina!” Imogen shouts. “You have to stop her! Before it takes over! She’ll become just like him, and we’ll all die!”
I look at my sister, wielding all the power of a hellgod. And I know—I know what she did, what she’s done. What she could do now. When she tested to be a Watcher, she was given a choice: save me, or save the world. She chose me. And she made me promise that if I was ever faced with the same decision, I’d choose neither. I’d choose myself. I know that’s not the promise Imogen is referring to, but it’s the only one I can think of.