There’s a lot of smoke. Surely the fire has consumed the cabin and LifeSuPods by now. I take the turn to the gravel road a bit too hard, and the back tires screech on the asphalt until hitting the gravel and sliding over the edge of the road into the brush. I accelerate to give us momentum out of the ditch and then overcorrect and almost hit a tree.
Crixus’s popcorn-eating nonchalance disappears, and he grips whatever his hands find. “Easy, Cain.”
It’s hard to hear him over the roar of the gravel, but I slow because we’re approaching the smoke. I smell it through the truck grill, and it brings back immediate memories of almost burning to death in The Fire Swamp.
“Why are you even trying to save him?”
“Because I’m tired of killing.”
“So am I!” Crixus shouts. “But isn’t this worth it? Luc’s a killer. Galilei raised him. He’s probably a killer too. You, me, Spores, those kids!”
“We’re still alive, aren’t we?”
“That doesn’t change his heart.”
“But maybe it changes ours.”
We reach the cabin, and the heat of the flames breaches the truck cab. I think of Stranna, and the irony in the full circle of this is not lost on me.
“It’s too late, Cain.”
“I have to try.”
“There’s no way in—” Crixus abruptly cuts off as I gun it.
The truck smashes through the main cabin wall, and I reverse as burning timber falls on us. It smothers part of the flames. I leap from the cab and rush forward while I have a short window.
The heat sucks my breath out of my lungs in seconds. I pull my shirt over my mouth and shield my eyes as best I can.
I duck under a hanging beam half on fire and try to wave away the smoke. Then I see Galilei’s LifeSuPod.
The cover is broken. But it’s also open.
One step closer, and I see something that brings a chill to my body in complete contrast to the surrounding flames.
Galilei’s body is no longer in the LifeSuPod.
A gunshot comes from outside.
I stand frozen for a heartbeat, then I abandon the cabin, heart thundering. How could Galilei possibly be awake? He can’t be an Adelphoi. There’s no way.
I emerge from the flames and smoke in time to see Crixus heading for the forest opposite us. He runs with a broken gait and holds his side with both hands, a trail of blood following him from the truck to the woods. I hunch down and scan the area until I see him.
Galilei.
He’s awake, alive, and hurrying toward our truck, gun in hand. Much different from the nearly comatose man I observed in Tenebra not long ago. Did Luc use his strange device on Galilei? But why?
I crawl into the cab of the truck through Crixus’s open door. I rapidly shut and lock the doors, then rev the engine, popping my head just barely over the dash to see how close he is.
He ducks behind an old mattress propped up against the trash heap.
I don’t have a weapon, unless I drive the truck over the mattress. He seems to register this possibility and races the opposite direction, hurtling around the corner of the burning cabin.
I steer the truck after Crixus, honking the horn. I roll down the window and yell, “Crixus, get over here!”
He emerges from behind a tree several yards in, a giant rock in each hand. When he sees it’s me, he hobbles my way, blood streaming from his side.
He’s only a few trees away when a light blue streak of metal flies past me and slams into him.
It’s the VW bug that I assumed was out of gas. Galilei has Crixus pinned between the grill and the tree.
“No!”
With a quick reverse, Galilei barrels his vehicle into mine. I duck as the windshield shatters over my head. When I straighten, he’s peeling away from the cabin in a cloud of dust.
I jump out of the cab and hurry to Crixus. It doesn’t take much of a glance to tell me he’s broken beyond repair. Portions of his body bend in all manner of unnatural angles.
“No, Crixus. Oh man . . .” I drop to my knees beside him on the forest floor, reaching out but not sure what to touch.
His hand, slick with blood, finds my wrist. His breathing is labored. My chest is punched with the fist of reality—he’s dying. Really dying.
“Do you . . .” he licks his lips. “I’m not . . . not a Judas, am I?”
That’s what’s going through his mind right now?
“Of course not,” I choke. “Look at me, Crixus.” He does. “It’s about your heart now. At this moment.”
He nods, but even that seems labored. He’s fading.
