Even though I’d vowed not to look down, I do, for a split second. I see it now, below us. Castor Island, jutting up out of the water like a small cityscape. It’s all glass and steel and impossible geometric angles, just like I remember it. It’s breathtaking. For a minute, I forget to be nauseous.

And I forget all the suffering Gravelle has caused there.

Then it all comes crashing back to me, and I bristle. This is where he’s keeping Ollie and my dad. Which means we aren’t merely Gravelle’s captives; we’re his enemies. We will have to fight to get our loved ones back and restore them to their lives, or die trying.

This is what I’m thinking as Castor Island looms larger beneath us in the glass-bottomed copter: that we may not leave this place alive.

The Legacies

The copter delivers us to the island’s helipad, where we disembark. I’m relieved to be on solid ground again, but I feel a growing sense of dread as we follow the guards into the bowels of Gravelle’s compound. Jaeger is whisked off, too weak to walk, and I pray this isn’t the last time we ever see him. I shoot Pru a pained glance, and I can tell she’s doing everything she can not to scream in fear and frustration.

The guards lead us into a room I recognize from the last time I was here, a year ago. The long, cavernous chamber is as vast as a school gym, with high, narrow windows at the top. Out of those, I see hills and blue sky. Gravelle’s disturbing lab is here too, tucked away behind a set of doors. Being back here is painful, and I’m sure Levi feels this even more acutely than I do. After all, he just escaped this place. It’s both his prison and his home.

We’re standing in the center of the room, eager to organize, to come up with a plan. Find Ollie and the others. Get the hell out of here. But no one feels bold enough to launch into that, not with guards stationed all around us.

I start to ask Pru about her dad but don’t get a chance. She’s looking down the length of the room to where a video screen is set up. It’s got to be ten by ten feet, at least. The screen comes to life, turning on, and we can see it’s divided into six squares. A grid.

“Like surveillance footage,” Maude murmurs. It does look like the footage from a surveillance camera, divided into different zones. We all step closer to the screen to get a look at what’s on it. When we do—we can’t look away.