I nod at him. I wonder if we even accomplished anything down here. It was beautiful seeing Eight again, even for a few fleeting moments. Yet my conversation with the intergalactic entity that grants us our Legacies sure didn’t yield a lot of answers. Meanwhile, the time until a Mogadorian invasion is probably running out, if it hasn’t already.

Marina squeezes my arm. I look down at her.

“I saw it, Six,” Marina whispers to me. “When I kissed him, I saw inside the thing—Lorien, the energy, whatever you want to call it.”

“Okay,” I say, wanting to be gentle with her, but not sure we have time for this. “And?”

Marina grins at me. “It’s spreading, Six. Through the Earth. It’s spreading everywhere.”

“What does that mean?” Adam asks.

“It means,” Marina says, wiping her face and standing up straight, “that we aren’t alone anymore.”

CHAPTER

THIRTY

SKYSCRAPERS BURN.

We run.

The Mogadorian warship crawls across New York’s skyline, its massive energy cannons bombarding the blocks indiscriminately. The warship already disgorged dozens of armed scout ships, the smaller vessels zipping up and down the avenues, ferrying warriors to the ground, where they blast whatever civilians they come across.

Other things leaped down from the ship, too. Hungry, angry things. I haven’t seen any yet; I’ve only heard their terrible howls rising above the explosions.

Piken.

New York City is lost, that much I know for sure. There’s no turning back the Mogadorians at this point. I have no idea how the other cities where Mogadorian warships were spotted are doing. The network is down in New York, and my satellite phone sunk to the bottom of the East River.

All we can do is run. Just like I’ve been doing my entire life. Except now, unfortunately, there are a million people running with me.

“Run!” I shout at anyone we come across. “Run until you can’t see their ships! Survive, regroup and we will fight them!”

Sam is with me. His face is ashen and he looks like he’s going to be sick. He never saw what the Mogadorians did to Lorien. He’s been through some hard times with us, but never anything like this. I think he always believed that we would win. He never thought this day would come.

I’ve let him down.

I don’t know where Nine and Five are. There aren’t any new scars burning their way across my ankle, so they haven’t killed each other yet.

I lost Agent Walker, too. She and her agents are on their own. I hope they make it out alive. If they do, maybe they’ll be smart enough to meet us back at Ashwood Estates.

If Sam and I can even make it that far.

We run down streets filled with smoke, darting around overturned cars, climbing over fallen chunks of buildings. When one of the scout ships cruises by, we duck into alleys or hide in doorways.

I could fight them. With all the anger I’m holding on to, I’m sure I could rip through them in no time. I could easily take down one of the scout ships on my own.