Joan lifts her sword. I take out my compressed weapon, and with the click of a button, the cylinder unfolds and snaps out into my sword. The hilt is surprisingly reassuring in my hand considering how much I hated the thing when the military first issued it to me.
The footsteps stop outside the doors.
Joan lifts her hand toward them.
The door creaks open.
A blast of ice bursts through the doorway at the same time a wall of earth rips the doors off their hinges.
Joan runs straight into the chaos, probably because she’s crazy, but after stopping just long enough to pick up some crates with my telekinesis, I follow. If I get separated from her, I’m dead.
As it turns out, Joan created a protective tunnel of ice leading out of the truck to shield us from whoever’s waiting outside. When I make it out the other end, it’s to find more chaos waiting. People shift through the darkness like demons, too difficult to make out in the faint moonlight. I find Joan by the glint of light off her ice as she sends it flying around her. The newcomers lift something up—shields?—and the ice bounces off. Siobhan fights back-to-back with Joan, blood running down the side of her face and dim moonlight bouncing off the metal claws on her hands, but I can’t see Jared or Lily. Everything is strangely muted.
Something whistles through the air toward me and I push my telekinesis out. I feel whatever it is sent flying back once it hits my force. Arrows? Knives? How many people are there around us? Too many.
Joan must think the same. Our eyes meet. Does she suspect me? Then, “Retreat. Now.”
She skips back as Siobhan races toward me, and with a wave of Joan’s hand, a long, thick wall of ice separates us from our attackers. She says nothing as we run. None of us do. But triumphant cheers follow us in the dead air. I feel like I should be enjoying that victory, too, but all I can think about are Jared and Lily laughing over an old story as they tried to help me.
* * *
Ellis’s palms slam onto her desk. The shadows around her office flicker, lengthen, sharpen with her anger. Joan and I stand before her, Joan with her hands grasped firmly behind her back, chin lowered, every inch a soldier reporting back from duty.
Cal stands by the window, wringing his hands in front of him and occasionally glancing outside. Gabriel sits in the armchair beside him; only his eyes move as he looks from Joan to me to Ellis and back again. Devin lounges against the wall behind Ellis, arms crossed, unusually quiet. Even the ever-present sneer on his face lacks its usual force.
“What do you mean some strangers showed up and intervened?” Ellis demands. Her voice is colder than Joan’s ice. But she doesn’t wait for an answer. “If it wasn’t the military and they weren’t with the trucks, who were these people? How did they find us?”
Devin’s eyes drift to me. “I can think of one way.”
I bristle instantly. Mostly to disguise my guilt. “If you’re going to accuse someone of something that stupid, you should at least have some proof.”
“You were on the sector’s side. As soon as you ‘returned’ here, these bastards show up exactly where and when we’re making a raid no one should’ve been able to predict. You think that looks like a coincidence?”
“I might have been with the military, but I don’t know jack about these randos.” I take a step forward and lift my chin, daring him to contradict me. Hoping my ability to lie is as good as I’ve always believed. “And even if I did, how exactly are you claiming I get information to them without anyone here noticing?”
Devin steps off from the wall. Hate burns in his soulless eyes. “I don’t know how, but I know you did. This timing is way too convenient. You could’ve at least waited a little longer to make yourself look less suspicious.”
“The timing doesn’t coincide with Erik’s arrival so much as with when we declared war,” Gabriel says evenly. He watches Devin, who holds the look angrily. “It makes sense that any group other than the military who’d been planning to fight us would wait until we were at war to do it. And this was our first attack since the war officially began. Unless you have some evidence against Erik that you’re not sharing with us, I suggest you keep your divisive views to yourself. The appearance of a new, completely unknown enemy force is bad enough without you instigating a fight amongst ourselves.”
“Gabriel’s right,” Ellis says. “We can’t start pointing fingers blindly. Besides, it’s only thanks to Erik that we managed to recover any supplies at all from this disaster.”
I throw a discreet, grateful glance to Gabriel, who nods slightly in return.
Ellis stares down at her hands, still splayed over her desk. “We managed to get some more food, but it’s not enough. Especially since we don’t know how we’ve been tracked or if it could happen again. We have to figure out how they got their intel on us and put a stop to it. That’s our new priority.” She looks up at all of us. “We’re going to have to send some of our Nytes into the sector to get food however they can. Cal, get Lesedi and tell her we need her and her teleportation gift to help us out. Assemble a team for gathering food.”
“Roger.”
“Joan, I want you to infiltrate Sector Eight and find out what you can about this mystery group. Listen for any rumors. Try to find out who they are, where they’re located, their numbers, anything. Take whoever you need with you. Try to find a place we can strike if you can. Don’t engage until we have a plan.”
“Understood.”
“Oh, and Joan?” Ellis’s voice is sickly sweet.
Despite the fact that Joan has to know that whatever’s coming next can only be bad, her expression doesn’t change. “Yes?”
“Next time, I expect no mercy.”
Joan’s lips press together. It takes a minute for me to realize what’s happening. Sure, I remember Joan not killing that truck driver, but how would Ellis know about that? It didn’t come up in the report.
Then I remember Ellis’s butterfly in my shadow and I try not to flinch. She really is constantly watching. And even though Joan did something I thought was great, I unintentionally betrayed her act of compassion. On top of all the intentional betrayal, I mean.
“Yes, Sara,” Joan says.
“Devin,” Ellis says, “I’m putting you in charge of examining the home base and seeing if there’s anything that could’ve transmitted information to them, any bugs or cameras. Leave no stone unturned.” Her eyes narrow. “And don’t come to me with any claims of a traitor without definitive proof.”
He smiles slowly, coldly. “Got it.”
“Do you? Do you really?” Ellis continues to stare at him, her eyes suddenly, intensely empty of emotion. It feels more like I’m looking at the shadow of a person than an actual human being. I shudder. The smile slips off Devin’s face. Without speaking, he nods.
“Good.” Ellis retrains her gaze on me, but thankfully, there’s life in her eyes again. Still, my shoulders are stiff and I know I won’t be able to relax until I get the hell away from her. “Erik, I want to talk with you in private. The rest of you are dismissed.”
My lungs sink to the bottom of my stomach. What could she possibly have to talk to me about? Despite what she said, does she actually suspect me of being a spy? If she starts interrogating me, I don’t know how well my lies will hold up against her.