She grips the back of her chair and pulls it out for me. “Convince them.”
I have no idea what Ezra’s plan is or how soon from now it will take effect, so I just have to keep everyone interested. I sit down and for the first time make eye contact with my friends.
Nishi glares at me, and she looks as livid as the two Arieans beside her. Mathias is stoic and Pandora is concerned, but I only glance at them peripherally. It’s Hysan my gaze locks on to.
His features are as unreadable as Mathias’s, but where the latter’s face is more of a familiar military mask, Hysan’s is almost expressionless. His hair is scruffy, his cheeks look sunken in, and his lively eyes have dulled, like his inner sun has set for good. Yet his shoulders are squared and his jaw is hard.
I suck in a deep breath, trying to call up my words from the place behind my booming heart. All thoughts of what I would say abandoned me as soon as I saw I’d have a Tomorrow Party audience. But I also didn’t realize how hard it would be to sit across from the family I deceived—and the Guardian whose secret I revealed.
Even though I’m not looking at him, I can feel Eurek’s furious scowl burning into my head, like his ember eyes might have real firepower. It seems the Guardians are all in support of making sacrifices for the greater good, just as long as it’s not their House doing the sacrificing.
“This isn’t about sides,” I begin, wishing I possessed some of Aquarius’s or Blaze’s magnetism. “This is about our species’ survival.
“Our ancestors came through a portal to get to the Zodiac because they, too, had a difficult decision to make, and the fact we’re here at all is a testament to their strength.”
Hysan looks unmoved, and I swallow and try again. “Aquarius is offering us a way out of this galaxy because Dark Matter will soon swallow our sun. I don’t like the way he’s gone about this any better than you—let’s not forget that Pisces and Cancer sacrificed more than any other House,” I add, and I venture a look at Eurek. His jaw stays clenched, but his eyes dial down their flames a little.
“Right now what matters is that we not spend this time fighting but communicating. We have to face the reality we have, not the one we want—”
“Do you really think he’s working this hard to convince us to come along because we’d make a fine addition to his Zodai collection?” Hysan’s voice is so soft, it’s more of a murmur, and yet every word is perfectly audible.
“The six people you’re closest to on this base also happen to be the Tomorrow Party’s only recruitment priorities. Doesn’t that strike you as strange?”
Skarlet pipes up. “I’m not close to her—”
But Hysan continues speaking in his low voice, cutting her off. “He wants us because he needs a way to control you.”
Imogen cackles and perches on the table in front of me. She looks at me and says, “Now I’m not even sure you know what side you’re on!”
“Look who’s talking!” snaps Nishi, panning her scorching amber gaze to Imogen. “Aren’t you the same person who came to Centaurion pledging to help defend Sagittarius from terrorists, before joining those same terrorists and shooting me into a world of my nightmares?”
“You broke into Blaze’s files and planned to betray us,” says Imogen. “But I didn’t kill you, and I spared you from worse pain.”
“Worse pain?” Nishi’s face is red with outrage, and she looks at me then back at Imogen. “Do you understand what those nightmares were like—”
“The other pellet would have been worse,” says the Geminin, and for the first time she doesn’t seem to be toying with us. “To dream of everything and everyone you long for . . . only to lose it all. Again. And again. And again . . . Trust me, that takes longer to recover from.”
“You’re right, I really should be thanking you,” snarls Nishi as she shoots to her feet. Only now she’s directing her anger at me.
“What’s wrong with you? Don’t you realize that if Aquarius really cared about us, he would have warned the Zodiac of this danger ages ago, so we could have had time to prepare? He’s only kept it to himself because he’s the one causing the Last Prophecy—he’s choosing who’s worthy of survival and dooming the rest of our species!”
“He’s saving us!” interjects Imogen. “He’s doing what natural selection would do on its own—he’s just expediting it.”
“And you’re fine with that justification for mass extermination?” Nishi is still looking at me.
“He doesn’t have to justify himself!” shouts Imogen, at last losing her cool and leaning forward on the table toward Nishi. “We don’t question the stars, Stargazer. We obey them—”
A bullet suddenly whizzes between Imogen and Nishi and hits the middle of the table, bursting into flame on contact with the wood.
Everyone dives away, and as I drop to the ground, I look up at Ezra and Gyzer. They’re standing back to back with their wrists raised and Arclights aimed at the soldiers. Within seconds, they’ve systematically taken out every single Marad member in the room before the soldiers could even fire their Murmurs. I remember them being the best shots of anyone on Centaurion, but this is on another level—I’ve never seen anyone shoot like that.
Someone yells for them to stop, but I don’t know who it is. Across from me, Mathias has also dropped to the floor, and he’s shielding Pandora’s and Nishi’s bodies with his own.
When the sound of scuffling behind me cuts out, I finally sit up and look back: Eurek has single-handedly disarmed the six Tomorrow Party members, and Skarlet has Imogen in a headlock.
I hear a hissing sound and I whip around to see Hysan using a fire freezer—a small silver gun that turns the flames on the table to icy curls of smoke.
“You’re going to love The Bellow,” says Skarlet into Imogen’s hair. “It’s the perfect place to spend the Zodiac’s last days.”
She and Eurek tie up the Party members, including a now-speechless Imogen, but Hysan is stalking over, looking furious.
I brace myself for his words—
“You killed them!” he shouts at Ezra and Gyzer. “You shot the Marad soldiers dead!”
“Yes, and we saved your asses!” Ezra shouts back. I’m surprised she’s glaring back at him just as furiously, since she usually idolizes him, but then I recognize her expression as the same one Brynda wore on Pisces. Ezra’s hurt by Hysan’s secrets.
After his broadcast, everyone who ever thought they were Hysan’s friends realized they were wrong.
“So Party members get rounded up and arrested, but Marad soldiers get a bullet to the head? Does that sound like justice to you?” he demands. “I gave you weapons that aren’t lethal, and I know you have Tasers—”