I pushed my hands at the doors, and some of them unlatched, but most shattered on their hinges. The other Elementae stumbled to the doorways. Someone ran for Iona, but most stayed where they were.
Calix started laughing. “Magnificent!” he crowed. “You are a fine specimen, aren’t you? And you know, I considered what you said—what happens if I don’t ever find the elixir? If I can’t ever re-create it? Now I have my own answer to your little power. Danae!” he shouted.
A chunk of rock ripped free of the ceiling, and with a gasp I pushed it out of the way so it wouldn’t hurt the others. As I put it safely down, Danae came out of the hallway. Her eyes were sunken and shadowed, and I saw bruises so dark her skin looked black spread wide around stitched cuts in her arms.
I stared at Calix, and suddenly the experiments, the cuts, the disappearing blood, and the dead girl made a stunning amount of sense. “You didn’t. You couldn’t.”
He went to Danae, smiling at her for a moment. “Kill her. Meet us back at the City of Three,” he said before disappearing into the tunnel behind her.
“Danae,” I said.
She held up her hands, and fire wrapped around her fingers. “He made me one of you,” she said, her voice choked. “He made me one of you so I have the power to stop you. To keep him safe.” She swallowed. “He made me into the thing he hates most.”
“Danae, please,” I told her. “Your power is new; you won’t be able to control it. You have to stay calm or you’ll kill all of us.”
“Don’t tell me to stay calm!” she screamed, and fire shot from her palms, running over her arms as if flames were bleeding from her cuts. One of the others dove over Iona’s body to cover her. “Galen—Galen turned from him years ago. But I have always loved him—he’s my oldest brother!” she yelled. Her hands dropped, and the fire stopped flowing from them, but it raged out of control around us without anything to burn. She fell to her knees, covering her face. “My mother—my mother told me that he just needed someone to love him. That I had to love him after she was gone. And no matter what he did, I loved him. I did whatever he wanted. I protected him. I killed for him,” she cried.
I called up dirt and dust and rubble, trying to tamp out the flames, but they just grew.
“Get out of here!” I screamed at the others. I couldn’t see them. Fire was all around me, encircling Danae and me, forcing us closer together.
I could hear noises coming from beyond the fire, but I couldn’t see through its glaring light enough to know what was happening. Someone screamed.
Coming forward, I knelt beside Danae. I pulled her into my arms, and fire burst from her hands. Crying out, I jumped back from her. The cave was thick with smoke, and I didn’t think we could survive much longer.
Shaking, I touched Danae’s face. “Come back to me,” I told her. “Please, Danae—I love you. Galen loves you. No matter what, Calix did this because he trusts you more than anyone.”
She didn’t move, didn’t look at me. The fire was burning closer to me, searing my back, and I cried out, shaking her. “Danae, please!”
Something cool rushed over me, so intense it hurt for the first stinging moment. Then I was drenched in water, and water was flying through the air, swirling around the fire and fighting it back, containing it.
The smoke began to clear from the cave, and I saw Iona sitting on the table, clutching another one of the girls, and both their hands were outstretched.
Beyond them, I saw men in black uniforms filling the tunnel. I gasped—I thought we were in the mountains, with few guards. I hadn’t imagined contending with an army. I took a breath, turning, ready to fight back.
And then I saw Galen, and Kairos broke from the crowd, Kata and Rian behind him, and they ran for me.
As Kairos caught me in his arms, I saw that the men’s uniforms also had a green dragon on them. Not the Trifectate. “The Resistance?” I asked, staring at Galen over Kai’s shoulder.
“Put her down,” Kata ordered Kairos sternly. He did, and Rian and he both began chattering as Kata put her hands on me.
“Quiet!” Kata barked, closing her eyes.
“Kata, the others need you. Iona, they did something to her eye—”
“Stop,” she commanded. “I can heal you all.”
Her power rushed through me, healing my burns, and her eyes opened.
“Oh, Shalia,” she breathed.
The boys looked at each other. “What?” Rian demanded, his arm going tight on my waist. “She’s going to be all right, isn’t she? We just—Great Skies, tell me we got here in time.”
“She’s going to be a mother,” Kata whispered. She looked at me. “Did you know? That the baby’s alive?”
I nodded. “Just,” I whispered.
Rian crushed me to him in a strong hug, and I felt Kairos wrap his arms around us both.
We were the last of our clan. The knowledge struck me hard, like a blow, and I squeezed them tighter to me.
After a long moment, I pulled away from them and turned to where Galen was kneeling, holding Danae limp in his arms. Wiping my face, I came over to them. “What happened?”
“She passed out,” he said softly, looking at her. He touched her arms and the cuts there. “What did he do to my sister?” he whispered.
“I’ll explain,” I said. “But we should get her out of here. We should all get out of here.”
He nodded, standing. He turned to the gathered force of the Resistance, calling them forward, and to my shock, they answered.
The Resistance—they were Galen’s men.
Feeling dizzy and stunned, my eyes dropped to his chest. There, in careful stitching, was a green dragon.
“You …,” I managed, but I couldn’t form the words.
The soldiers took Danae’s small, slight body and started walking out of the cave. Other men were helping the Elementae as Kata healed them, and Galen glanced at me, swallowing.
He looked down. “Yes,” he said, lifting his shoulders. “When my brother became king and named me commander, I realized that if I did what he asked, I would be committing terrible sins, and those acts would be on both our souls. And I knew that if I could play both sides of the coin, I’d be able to stop him before he went too far. So I started the Resistance. And when I needed someone else to be its face, I asked your brother.”
I twisted around, and Rian was watching us, his arms crossed. He nodded once. I turned back to Galen, my mouth open but no words emerging.
Galen held up his hands. “I couldn’t tell you, Shalia. It wasn’t safe for you to know. I’m so sorry about that.”
“You … I called you a coward,” I realized.
His hands fell. “Fighting backdoor battles and lying to my brother’s face doesn’t quite make me a hero, Shalia. You weren’t wrong. And I was a fool to think he could ever be redeemed.” He stepped forward and raised his hand, then halted, looking at me. He swallowed again and touched my cheek. “Let’s get you out of here,” he whispered.
I nodded.
When we emerged from the cave, the fresh air was staggering. I shivered, and Galen looked at me. “I’ll get you a blanket,” he told me. “We don’t have far to walk.”