“You found it?” Alpha asked.

“Yes!”

“Okay.” Alpha nodded. “Send us your location. This is excellent. There’s no way Bugz can stop us now. Good job, soldier!”

Alpha terminated the call and left the Behemoth sitting alone in the darkness. Rain poured down on his head.

CHAPTER 48

“Bugz, hold up.”

She could see Feng approaching in the hallway. Teenagers crowded the space, rushing out of their homerooms. Taking note of the impending confrontation, one passerby tapped a friend and they both stopped to watch.

“I don’t want to talk to you,” Bugz said, looking at the floor.

“C’mon.”

“No.”

“Bugz, talk to me!”

“Leave me alone!”

“You owe me an explanation.”

At this, Bugz turned and faced Feng with amazement in her eyes. “I owe you an explanation?” She amped up her tone. “I don’t owe you anything. You destroyed everything I cared about!” Bugz squared up to Feng, clearly challenging him. In spite of her shorter stature, she brought her face to within inches of his.

“What I did to you?” Feng’s face contorted in anger. “You eliminated me from the Spirit World! I have to start over from scratch! Do you know how long it took me last time?”

A crowd had gathered in a circle around them now. Every student had seen a stream or a replay of what happened in the Floraverse the night before. They’d all watched Bugz destroy the boy they assumed she loved. Dozens of phones now livestreamed this real-life rematch. The devices’ transparent screens revealed the shocked and excited expressions of their users.

“You deserved it,” Bugz said. “You brought them to me, and they took everything I had. Everything I gave life to is dead. Everything I did for my culture, it’s over. There’s only one of my creations left.”

“I didn’t do anything wrong. I was only trying to help you.”

Bugz fought back the urge to scream. She felt like hurting him. She also felt gross for still caring for someone who clearly didn’t understand her. Again, she thought of the scars she’d seen on her cousin Ally’s arm. A tear escaped down her cheek.

“Oh, she’s crying!” A bystander stated the obvious.

“Shut up!” Bugz yelled back. The bystander looked more closely at his phone, as though it would protect him.

“I understand.” Feng spoke again. “In the Floraverse, you were brave, but in the real world, you’re nothing. Now that you can’t magically respawn, that’s all you are—nothing.”