Alpha clearly had the upper hand with his wicked weapon. After blocking a sword thrust, Jordan had tried to punch him in the face but missed and stumbled. Alpha’s leg swept the ground, knocking Jordan to his knees.

“Jordan!” I cried out as Alpha stepped up and touched the edge of his sword to Jordan’s neck.

Kneeling with his head hanging, Jordan looked at me so hopelessly that my heart choked my throat. I couldn’t watch him die.

“Wait!” I called, but Alpha didn’t bother to turn around. I had no leverage here except as a liability to Jordan.

But I wasn’t blind. I could see where they had ended up on the mountainside, in front of the crevasse that almost split Mount Hope in two. Alpha had his back to me and was addressing Jordan.

I had to try. As terrified as I was of him, the look on Jordan’s face was the spur I needed to act. I wasn’t a fighter, but I wasn’t going to let Jordan die—not as long as I breathed.

“Know that you are expendable, Rho,” I heard Alpha say as I quietly approached. “It will take some time, but we have already begun the process of—ah—creating another transfer unit, Sigma, with abilities even superior to yours.”

Alpha was gloating, his eyes locked with Jordan’s. I waited for him to resume his wheezy speech to mask the sound of my soft footsteps.

“Perhaps Margaret would make a fine candidate for the gestation,” he concluded, a sick punch line for Jordan to hear as Alpha raised his sword arm for the killing blow. Those would not be the last words Jordan would hear in this lifetime.

I threw myself against Alpha, barreling into him with a mighty shoulder shove I learned from watching Jordan on the football field. Coach Garner would’ve approved of my hit as Alpha toppled forward—right onto the edge of that deep, deep fissure.

Before Alpha could get his bearings, Jordan lunged and pushed him into the crack.

Desperately, Alpha scrabbled for purchase on the dirt-packed ground, but a sword arm isn’t made for holding on. With his legs dangling above the crevasse, Alpha’s one functional hand was losing its battle to get a grip.

As if resigned to his end, Alpha ceased groping for a hold and fixed his stare on Jordan. “I not only performed the embryo implantation on your mother, Rho,” he said with his skull-like grin. “Happily, I was chosen to fertilize her oocyte as well. Our genetic configurations were a perfect match to produce … you.”

He relaxed his body.

“Whether through you or me, my legacy will live on.”

With his skinless face and dead eyes, he gazed at Jordan as he slid down the crevasse and then fell without a sound.

I dove for Jordan and grabbed him in a fierce hug. He sat motionless as if in shock.

“Don’t listen to him,” I told him. “He was just trying to rattle you. You can’t let him.”