“Mark!” Sarah screams, wrestling free from me and running towards him.

Marina sees Mark’s injury and gasps. She turns her back on the Sanctuary and falls to her knees beside him, yanking out the glass and immediately starting to heal him.

Branches break above my head and I look up in time to see a basketball-sized chunk of limestone hurtling towards me. On reflex, I use my telekinesis and catch it in midair, tossing it aside.

I don’t catch the next one.

It hits me on top of the head. Before I even realize what’s happened, there’s something sticky and warm coating the side of my face. Adam grabs me under the arms as I fall to my knees. We’re both visible now. Must have lost my concentration. I try to get my legs under me, to refocus on my invisibility, but I can’t do either. My head swims and I have to blink blood out of my eyes.

“Help!” Adam yells to Marina. “Six is hurt!”

I try to hold on to consciousness, but it’s hard. The world is going black, even as everything we’ve fought for goes up in flames. Ella warned us there would be death. Feeling almost detached from my body, I wonder if this is it.

As I slip away, I hear Ella’s voice in my head.

I’m sorry, she says.

CHAPTER

SIXTEEN

I DON’T HAVE TIME FOR THIS SHIT.

Five wants to meet me at sunset at the Statue of Liberty. It sounds like the plan of some supervillain. He’s holding Nine hostage and plans to kill him if I don’t show up. I don’t know what he wants from me. At the United Nations, it seemed like he was trying to help us in his own psychotic way. At the very least, he stopped me from unintentionally hurting Ella. Of course, he can’t possibly know that I’m on the clock here, that every minute wasted on his screwed-up games is a minute not spent helping Sarah, Six and the others. If he did know, would he even care?

I sent Sarah and Mark to Mexico with the newly discovered Loric hacker-turned-pilot who I’m dying to meet. I sent them there because they’re literally the only support I could drum up for Six and the rest of the Garde who are in for a major fight.

At least they can escape now. They aren’t stranded. Six and Sarah are smart enough to cut their losses and get out of there. This is what I keep telling myself.

I do a quick mental calculation. Even if Agent Walker could somehow convince the military to loan me one of their fastest fighter jets, I still won’t be able to make it to Mexico ahead of Setrákus Ra. Not at this point.

That doesn’t mean I’m not going to try.