“Your children have yet to surrender,” he said, his tone flat. Chills ran down my spine. Of course he knew who was in that group. Cassiel was still serving him, from what Isda had told me. That treacherous, two-faced, chicken-winged bastard.
I crossed my arms, doing my best to keep a straight face and not show him how deeply all this had already affected me. The last thing I wanted was an enemy reeking of self-satisfaction.
“Aha. And?” I asked.
“It just seems like your daughter and your son don’t love you as much as you might’ve thought.”
“If I die here today, Ta’Zan, it’s because they love me. Because they know that I would gladly give my life if that bought them some more time to pulverize you, like you deserve,” I replied, wearing a cold grin.
“And you’re okay with dying?”
“No one ever is. But we do what we can to save the lives of billions from monsters like you,” I snapped.
Ta’Zan didn’t like being called a monster. His face was ashen, almost the same color as his hair. His lips turned into a flat, thin line. Hate blazed from his eyes—raging oceans in one, dark forests in the other. Had he not been so cruel, he would’ve broken a few hearts. He was beautiful, physically, but he was rotten on the inside.
“I like how you try to convince yourself that your martyrdom will make some kind of difference,” he said. “It doesn’t matter, Sofia. I will kill you if they don’t surrender, and they will suffer. Then, I will kill another. Then another. And, in the end, I will kill them, too. There is no stopping this. No matter what tricks they pull. I will always be one step ahead. I know enough about them to understand where to hit for maximum damage.”
Stalling was suddenly a great idea. I exhaled sharply and prepared myself for what could be my last contribution to our final mission.
“What exactly do you know, Ta’Zan? You certainly didn’t know they’d steal Amal from you,” I retorted.
“I will get her back. Amal is my most loyal child. I will get Amane back, as well, whether she likes it or not. Your son, Ben, and your daughter, Rose, will never see their home world again. Vesta, your other fae, will probably be more useful to me alive than dead, since I understand she has control over all four elements. She has strong genes. I could do with Zeriel, too. He’s less… threatening,” Ta’Zan said.
Dread froze my joints, my throat gradually closing up. Cassiel had served us all up on a silver platter. If I get out of here, he’ll be the first chicken I roast… No! Scratch that! I’ll drain his blood. Every last drop!
“Your witch, Kailani, I’m particularly interested in her. I’m told she can kill my Perfects, permanently. I can’t have her walking around, loose and all. The white wolf, Hunter? Not so much. The dragon might come in handy,” Ta’Zan continued. “I know Amane likes him. She can keep him as a pet, if she comes back to me willingly. Dmitri, on the other hand… Again, I have no use for half-breeds, and Douma has exhausted her chances with me already. Elonora’s genetic material might work, but her mind is too sharp. I don’t need her conscious. The Dhaxanian, Nevis? I’ve not yet made a decision. But the bottom line, Sofia, is your children, their friends, and all the others who landed on Merinos will all suffer the same fate. You will not win, so if you think your death will help them, rest assured, it won’t.”
“My people were able to turn your Perfects into dust. A handful of them took out your favorite lieutenants,” I retorted, trying to find out who else he knew about. “Araquiel, Abaddon, and the others. They’re all dead. And that was before they took down your comms blockers. Before they blew up your starships. Ta’Zan, we’re just getting started, and you continue to underestimate us. You’re in over your head, and you know it. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be putting my neck on the line like this. Deep down, you know it. And you are afraid of them.”
He didn’t say anything for a while, but I could almost hear the wheels turning in his head. If there was one thing I’d learned about Ta’Zan throughout my involuntary stay here, it was that he always had to have the last word. This wasn’t going to be an exception.
“What happened to Araquiel and my other children was extremely unfortunate, but nothing short of a stroke of luck for your people,” Ta’Zan finally said. “It was a mistake on my part to think the Draenir wouldn’t be vicious enough to store such weapons in those bunkers of theirs. They were always delusional, thinking they’d eventually find a way to beat me. Speaking of which, I know there are survivors, too. They will all burn, as will the Faulties who joined them. The world I’m building has no room for weak and ungrateful children. Oh, and don’t think I’m too broken up about the death of a few Perfects. I can always make more. Besides, it’s the Arch-Perfects I’m counting on to lead the charge against the universe. They will be the true warriors. The Perfects will be colonists, at best.”
“Good grief! Are you not hearing yourself?!” I croaked. “You sound like you’ve completely lost your marbles. What happened to you, Ta’Zan? Were the Draenir mean to you, and so now you’re getting back at the whole universe? Who the hell do you think you are, to claim you’re superior to anyone?”
Ta’Zan smirked. I’d gotten the information I needed, but that didn’t make him any less irksome.
“I must be, since you’re in a glass box, and I’m watching you from the outside,” he said. “Sofia, there’s no need for you to rile yourself up any more. Enjoy these last hours you have left. If your children don’t surrender, I’ll put your head on a stake and mount it on the top of my colosseum for everyone to see.”
He turned around and walked toward the double doors. I knew now that Ta’Zan had no idea about Araquiel—which worked in our favor, in the end. If anyone could infiltrate and destroy the colosseum from the inside, it was a Perfect presumed dead. My synapses were quick to make the connections, and I also remembered the four Perfects that Harper had fished out from Strava’s orbit, shortly after the fleet attack.
They could help, too. And the idea that the Perfects were no longer at the top of the food chain couldn’t possibly sit well with them. I was confident that at least a handful would be annoyed by the prospect of Arch-Perfects doing all the conquering, while they came in last to colonize the planets. The sole pride of the Perfects was that they were the best, the greatest, the most powerful and whatever. This couldn’t possibly end well for Ta’Zan, and, even if I were to die in the next few hours, I was going to do my best to make sure I played a part in his demise.
“Ta’Zan!” I shouted after him. He stilled but didn’t turn his head to look at me. “Will I see Derek again before you kill me?”
He scoffed. “Let’s see what your children do first, Sofia.”
Words couldn’t describe the mixture of horror and hatred brewing inside me, like a hurricane threatening to rip me apart from the inside. I pressed my sweaty palms against the glass wall, wishing I could break out and end him, right then and there.
But I had no power in there. All I could do was wait for Isda to sneak in and update me on what was going on outside. Ben and Rose must’ve spoken to Derek and the other prisoners already. They had to have a plan for this. They had to. My biggest fear was that Ta’Zan knew something about it. If Ben and Rose were looking to stall him, it was incredibly dangerous to try it.
I’d raised two powerful and incredibly sharp kids. I knew I could count on them, always. They knew what they had to do, and I was fine with whatever decision they made—even sacrificing me, if needed. Anything to stop this monster. Anything.
Kailani
Hunter and I hadn’t really talked much after my last Word-mode episode. The words we’d exchanged had been harsh and filled with anger. In light of what we were all about to do, however, I felt the need to try and patch things up.
If this was going to be our last night of freedom, our last few hours together, I didn’t want them to go by in awkward and sullen silence. I loved him too much to let him be angry like this. And he loved me; otherwise, he wouldn’t have been so riled up about what the Word was doing to me.
We were done with the explosive charges and the pulverizer pellets. We’d used all the ingredients we had, until we ended up with enough firepower to take down a colosseum and an entire army of Perfects. Knowing that the Perfects could be reset to a more neutral stance made us reluctant to actually use the pulverizer pellets against them, which was why Amal and Amane were determined to put the mass memory wiper together, instead.
Hunter was busy putting his weapons in a small pile on the floor, on top of his backpack. I kneeled next to him, placing a hand on his muscular shoulder.
“Can we talk?” I asked, my voice barely audible.
He gave me a sideways glance, then looked around for a couple of seconds. We were pretty much on our own in the main hall, with the exception of three Faulties watching over the pulverizer ammo. The others in our crew were taking some time for themselves, probably to do what I was about to do: leave no room for sadness or regret. The plan had been drawn down to the last detail. If we succeeded, we’d all see each other again, in better circumstances. If we failed, there was a chance we wouldn’t, turning this night into the very last.
The thought nearly broke my heart, but I chose to focus on Hunter’s cool blue eyes, instead.
“What’s up?” he replied.
“I’m… I don’t want us to be like this when we go in there.”
“Like what?”
“Like this!” I said, irritated. He was definitely sulking, and I had no patience for that. I needed him to hold me and to tell me that everything was going to be okay—one of those pretty lies we told our loved ones before going off to war. “We’re not… I mean, I know you don’t like this Word apprenticeship, but, I don’t know, I feel like we didn’t really talk it through the other day.”
“We didn’t, Kale. We just argued,” he grumbled.
