Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Excerpt from The Fall of Five

Chapter One

Chapter Two

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About the Author

Books by Pittacus Lore

Copyright

About the Publisher

CHAPTER ONE

“THE MOGS ARE HERE!”

My eyes shoot open as I jerk upright, hoping that sentence was just something from a bad dream.

But it’s not.

“They’re here,” Rey whispers again as he crosses over the floor of our little shack to where I’m sleeping on top of a pallet of blankets.

I’m off the floor in seconds. Rey’s solar-powered lantern swings in front of my face, and it blinds me. I flinch away and then he turns it off, leaving me in complete darkness. As he pushes me towards the back of our home, all I can make out is a sliver of silver light peeking through the window.

“Out the back.” His voice is full of urgency and fear. “I’ll hold them off. Go, go, go.”

I start grabbing at the air where he’d stood moments before but find nothing. I can’t see anything: My eyes still burn from the lantern.

“Rey—”

“No.” He cuts me off from somewhere in the dark. “If you don’t go now, we’re both dead.”

There’s a clattering near the front of the shack, followed by the sound of something—or someone—slamming against the front door. Rey lets out a pained cry but the inside of the shack is still nothing but an abyss of black in my eyes. I know there’s a metal bar over the door that’s not going to hold up against much more than a little force. It’s for show more than anything else. If someone really wanted into our shack, they could just blow through the flimsy wooden walls. And if it’s the Mogs . . .

There’s no time to think, only to react. It’s me they’re after. I’ve got to get to safety.

I rip away the piece of cloth that serves as a makeshift curtain and throw myself through the little window. I land with a plop in a three-inch puddle of mud, slop, and things I don’t even want to imagine—I’m in the hog pen.

A single thought runs through my mind. I’m going to die a thirteen-year-old boy covered in pig shit on an island in the middle of nowhere.

Life is so unfair.

The hogs squeal—I’ve disturbed their sleep—and it snaps me back into the moment. Old training regimens and lectures from years before take over my brain and I’m moving again, checking my flanks to make sure there are no Mogs that have already made their way to the back of the hut. I start to think about what their plan of action might be. If the Mogs actually knew I was on the island, I’d be surrounded already. No, it must be a single scout that stumbled upon us by accident. Maybe he had time to report us to the others, maybe not. Whatever the case, I have to get out of the line of fire. Rey will take out the scout. He’ll be fine. At least that’s what I tell myself, choosing to ignore how frail Rey’s looked lately.

He has to be okay. He always is.

I head for the jungle behind our shack. My bare feet sink into the sand, as if the island itself is trying to slow me down. I’m dressed only in dark athletic shorts, and branches and shrubs around me scratch at my bare chest and stomach as I enter the cover of the trees. I’ve done this sort of thing before, once, in Canada. Then, coats and a few bags weighed me down. But we’d had a little more warning. Now, in the sticky-hot night of the Caribbean, I’m weighed down only by my lack of stamina.

As I hurl myself through the dense vegetation, I think of all the mornings I was supposed to spend jogging along the beach or hiking through the forest that I actually spent playing solitaire or simply lazing around. Doing what I really wanted to do, like drawing little cartoons in the sand. Coming up with short stories told by stick figures. Rey always said I shouldn’t actually write anything down—that any journal or notes I wrote could be found and used as proof of who I am. But writing and drawing in the sand was temporary. When the tide came in, my stories were gone. Even just doing that caused me to work up a sweat in this damned climate, and I’d return to Rey, pretending to be exhausted. He’d comment on the timing of my imaginary run and then treat me to a rich lunch as a reward. Rey is a taskmaster when it comes to doling out things to do, but his lungs are bad and he always trusted that I was doing the training he told me to do. He had no reason not to—no reason to think I wouldn’t take our situation seriously.

It wasn’t just the avoidance of having to work my ass off in the heat that kept me from training. It was the monotony of it all that I hated. Run, lift, stretch, aim, repeat—day in and day out. Plus, we’re living out in the middle of nowhere. Our island isn’t even on any maps. I never thought the Mogs would ever find us.

Now, I’m afraid that’s coming back to haunt me. I wheeze as I run. I’m totally unprepared for this attack. Those mornings lazing around the beach are going to get me killed.

It doesn’t take long before there’s a stitch in my side so sore that I think it’s possible I’ve burst some kind of internal organ. I’m out of breath, and the humid air feels like it’s trying to smother me. My hands grasp onto low-hanging branches as I half-pull my way through thick green foliage, the bottoms of my feet scraping against fallen limbs and razor-sharp shells. Within a few minutes the canopy above me is so dense that only pinpricks of the moonlight shine through. The jungle has given way to a full-blown rain forest.

I’m alone in the dark in a rain forest with alien monsters chasing after me.

I pause, panting and holding my side. Our island is small, but I’m only maybe a fifth of the way across it. On the other side of the island a small, hidden kayak is waiting for me, along with a pack of rations and first aid gear. The last-chance escape vessel, something that’ll let me slip into the dark of the night and disappear on the ocean. But that seems so far away now, with my lungs screaming at me and my bare feet bleeding. I lean against a tree, trying to catch my breath. Something skitters across the forest floor a few feet away from me and I jump, but it’s only one of the little green lizards that overrun the island. Still, my heart pounds. My head is dizzy.

The Mogadorians are here. I’m going to die.

I can’t imagine what Rey is doing back at the shack. How many Mogs are here? How many can he take on? I hope I’m right, and it’s just a single scout. I realize I haven’t heard any gunshots. Is that a good sign, or does it mean the bastards got to him before he was able to fire off a single round?

Keep going, I tell myself, and then start out again. My calves are burning and my lungs feel like they’re about to split open every time I inhale. I stumble, hitting the ground hard and knocking what little breath I had out of me.

Somewhere behind me, I can hear movement in the trees.

I glance around. Without a clear view of the sky, I can’t even tell which direction I’m going anymore. I’m totally screwed. I have to do something.

I abandon the plan to cross the island. I’m in no shape to do so. For a moment I think of burrowing down into the brush—maybe finding something to hide in until I can slip through the forest—but then I think of all the fist-sized spiders and ants and snakes that could be waiting there for me, and imagine a Mogadorian scout stepping on me by accident.

So I head up instead. Gathering every ounce of strength I have, I use a few sturdy vines to pull myself hand over hand up to a low branch on a nearby tree. All I can think of are the many different types of beasts Rey’s told me the Mogs can command, any one of which would like nothing more than to tear me apart.

Why don’t we have giant hell-beasts to fight for us?

My arms are shaking by the time I squat on the limb, the wood creaking under my weight as I stare into the blackness, hoping over and over again that nothing will emerge from it. That I can just wait this out.

That it will all just go away.

There’s no telling how much time passes. If I’d been more put together or hadn’t been so taken by surprise, I might have remembered to grab my watch on the way out the window. It’s weird—time always seemed like it didn’t mean anything on the island, and now it means everything. How many minutes before more of them arrive? How many seconds before they find me? I try to keep from trembling, and my stomach from turning over—between the running, my fear, and the damp smell of pig that clings to me in a thick coat of sludge, I’m teetering on the edge of vomiting. Maybe the stinking layer of crap will help keep me camouflaged, at least.

It’s not a very reassuring silver lining.

Finally, a silhouette starts to take shape in the darkness. I draw in closer to the tree. The figure is human sized. Maybe even a little hunched over, leaning on a cane as he steps into the dim moonlight. He’s wearing a blue linen shirt, khaki cargo pants, and sneakers that might have been white at some point. His beard is white, streaked with black, his wild hair almost silver.

I recognize him immediately, of course. Rey.

He’s got something held against him, wrapped in a piece of cloth. I start to call down to him, but he’s already staring holes into me, his lips quivering, as if he’s fighting every urge to yell. He simply stands there, the silence hanging in the thick air between us. Finally, I break it.

“Well? Did you get him?”

Rey doesn’t respond immediately, just looks away, staring down at the ground.

“What’d you forget?” His voice has a slight rattle to it.

“What?” I ask, my breath short.

He throws his parcel down on the ground. Part of the cloth falls back, and I can make out a familiar corner.

“The Chest?” I ask. My Loric Chest. The most sacred thing I own. The treasure I’m not actually allowed to look into. The container that supposedly holds my inheritance and the tools to rebuild my home planet, and I can’t even peek inside until Rey thinks I’m ready to—whatever that means.

“The Chest.” Rey nods.

I scramble down the tree, half falling to the earth.

“We should get going, right?” I ask. My words are spilling out now, my tongue stumbling over the letters as I try to say a million things at once. “You don’t have any weapons? Or our food? Where are we going now? Shouldn’t we be—”

“Your Chest is the second most important thing you have to protect after your own life. It was stupid to leave it. Next time, it’s your priority to keep it safe.”

“What are you—”

“You made it half a mile into the forest,” he says, ignoring me. His voice is getting louder now, filled with barely restrained anger. “I didn’t want to believe it, but I guess this is proof. You haven’t been doing your training. You’ve been lying to me about it. Every day.”

“Rey . . .”

“I already knew that, though.” He sounds sad now. “I could tell just by looking at you.”

My mind is racing, trying to figure out why we’re still standing here. Why he’s worried about my training when there could be a whole fleet of Mogs on their way after us. Unless . . .

“There aren’t any Mogs here,” I say quietly.

Rey just shakes his head and stares at the ground.

This was a test. No, worse than that: This was Rey’s way of trapping me and catching me in a lie. And even though, yes, I technically have been less than honest about my training regimen, I can’t believe Rey would scare me like this.

“Are you kidding me?” Unlike Rey, I don’t have the power to keep my anger from clouding my voice. “I was running for my life. I thought I was going to die.”

“Death is the least of your worries for now,” he says, pointing at my ankle. Underneath the layer of mud and crap is an ugly red mark that appeared a few days ago. A mark that’s starting to scab over, and will soon turn into a scar. The mark that—thanks to some otherworldly charm—shows me that another one of my fellow Garde has been murdered. Two is dead. Three and Four are all that stand between death and me.

I am Number Five.

I suddenly feel stupid for thinking I was about to be killed. Of course I wasn’t. Numbers Three and Four have to die before I can. I should have been worried about being captured and tortured for information. Not that Rey ever tells me anything.

And I realize what this is about. Ever since the scar appeared, it’s like something within Rey snapped. He’s been getting sicker the last few years, and I’m not anywhere as strong as he thinks I should be. I haven’t developed any of the magic powers I’m supposed to have. Neither of us can put up a good fight. That’s why we’re here on this stupid island, hiding.

Rey’s eyes have been on the ground, but he finally raises them to mine, looking at me for a long moment. Then he nods at the Chest.

“Carry it back,” he says. Then he’s shuffling off into the darkness, leaving me in the sparse moonlight, staring at the duffel bag that contains my Chest.

We weren’t under attack. It was only a test.

I’m not going to die on the island. At least, not tonight.

I pick up my Chest, hugging it close to me, letting the corners dig into my stomach.

I stare into the blackness that Rey has disappeared into, and in that moment there’s only one emotion filling me. Not fear or relief or even shame for being found out. It’s the feeling that the only person I have in this world has betrayed me.

CHAPTER TWO

THE SUN RISES AS I WASH OFF IN THE OCEAN and think of Canada, the first place I remember living here on Earth.

I really liked Canada.

In Canada we ate butter tarts and French fries covered in gravy and rubbery globs of cheese, all served out of carts on the sides of the roads. Even when it was summer there it wasn’t all that hot. I learned a little bit of French. Rey didn’t like the cold, but I did. He was Albert in Canada, a name he’d picked after seeing Alberta on a map, thinking it would make him sound like more of a local. “Old Al” he called himself sometimes when talking to servers or cashiers. I always thought it was funny when he dumbed his personality down and pretended to be my grandfather at times like that, using words like “whippersnapper” that he’d picked up from the TV. No one questioned the kindly old man and his grandson.

I was Cody then. I liked being Cody. I was a person, not just Five. At night, Rey would tell me about Lorien and the Mogadorians and the other Garde—my kindred spirits scattered across the world—and how one day we’d bring about the glorious return of our home planet. Back then, everything seemed like a fairy tale. All the aliens and powers and other worlds were nothing but stories to get me to do my chores. Didn’t clean up after yourself? Lorien didn’t stand a chance. Forget to brush your teeth? The Mogs would get you for sure.

Then they actually came.

We’d been living up near Montreal for six months—maybe a whole year—when Rey found out they were coming for us. I’m still not sure how. All I know is that suddenly I was running through the woods behind our little cottage while a few Mogadorians tracked me. I was six years old, scared out of my mind. Eventually I’d hidden in a tree. I thought I was a goner until Rey appeared, taking out the Mogs with a broken-off shovel and a shotgun he’d bought on the black market. He’s always been good with tools.

“Albert . . .” I’d said from the tree. We always called each other by our false names, never knowing who was listening. “Are they gone?”

“Albert’s dead,” Rey had said. I knew what he meant, even though I was so young. I’d felt it in my gut. It meant we weren’t safe. It meant we couldn’t stay there, in that place I liked so much.

So we went on the move, and we didn’t stop for a long time.

Rey was Aaron after that, followed by Andy, Jeffrey, and then James. I was Zach, Carson, and then Bolt, which was the last name I got to pick before Rey started choosing them. Maybe I’m forgetting a few in there—it all seems so long ago. I know that I was Carson when Rey’s cough first appeared, along with the dark hollows under his eyes. We were camping in the Appalachians. He thought it was the cold that was making him sick, so we started moving south, making our way through the United States and towards a warmer climate. Eventually—after a few sketchy boat rides Rey arranged for us—we set up camp in Martinique, where we stayed for a while. But Rey’s cough just got worse. He kept telling me he was feeling better, but at some point I stopped believing him.

I was always the better liar.

As a kid, I thought of lies as little stories or games. Sometimes people we came across would ask questions—Where were my parents? Where was I born?—and I’d just start talking, making up these elaborate histories for Rey and me. Having secrets means you do a lot of lying. Not because you’re evil or a bad person or anything like that, but out of necessity.

Really, Rey trained me to lie about all those morning runs and hikes. I make a mental note to tell him this later.

Sometimes I wonder if Rey is crazy. Like, what if he’s just a really messed-up old guy who stole me from a loving, normal home and all of this alien stuff is simply made up? Maybe he gave me drugs or brainwashed me into having fake memories of some place that couldn’t possibly exist. All my life I’ve heard about Lorien, but the only proof I have that any of it is true is a few weird-looking guys who came after me in Canada.

Well, that plus two scars that appeared like magic on my ankle and a Chest that’s supposed to house all kinds of treasures. A Chest that doesn’t open no matter how much you prod at it—I know, because I’ve tried about a million times to find out what’s inside over the years.

The treasure of Lorien. Sure. A lot of good it’s doing out here in the middle of nowhere.

I don’t mind the beach, really. I mean, I get why people go there on vacation. When we first got to the Caribbean, we stuck to the bigger, more populated resorts, just living on the fringes. We’d watch the tourists roll in every year, their brand-new beach clothes a parade of bright colors as they sipped drinks out of giant coconuts and pineapples that weren’t even native to the islands (not that they’d have known). But when One died—when that first scar formed on my ankle—Rey flipped out. I was nine years old and it was like the final string keeping him in check snapped, and he went into full-on survival mode. No more people. We’d have to live life completely off the grid. And so he’d cashed in whatever possessions we had, bought a few supplies and a small sailboat, and headed out to find the most deserted, godforsaken place he could. Gone were the restaurants and air-conditioning. No more TV, video games, or hot showers. Just a beach and a shack. I don’t know what kind of deal Rey must have struck to find this island, but I’ll give him one thing—it must be hidden away pretty well. A few times a year people mistakenly wash ashore here, but Rey always gets rid of them fast.

And that’s where I am now. Washing up in the ocean. A dark cloud forms around my body as I scrub the pig shit off in the clear water at the shoreline. That’s what the future holds for the great Number Five, one of the seven most important people left on the planet.

It’s not fair.

I remember watching old kung fu movies on cable right before we came out here. The main characters were always going to the tops of mountains to train with ancient masters who taught them to throw ninja stars and kill people with chopsticks and stuff. When One died and Rey moved us to the island, he told me he was no longer the grandfather he’d pretended to be, but my teacher. I’d be his disciple. And I was excited about this at the time. I thought I was going to live out one of those old movies or something. And at first, I did do the training—Rey could still walk and move well, then, so we practiced rudimentary martial arts moves. But soon he was sleeping most of the day and trusting that I was doing everything he told me to do. Life on the island turned out to be nothing like those old movies. In those, it’d only take a five-minute montage for the student to become the master. On the island, the training was brutal, unending, and above all, monotonous.

I used to dream of being taken away. That the Garde would all show up one day and tell me they’d been looking for me, and that they were going to take me to their space clubhouse or something. But for all I know, the other Garde don’t care about me at all.

“Five!” Rey calls from the shore. Here, where there’s no one, there’s no point in pretending to be who we’re not.

“What?” I yell back, still mad about this morning.

“Come here,” he says.

I glance up to see him waving me toward the shack. Instead of listening to him, I fall backwards, letting myself float in the warm water as the sun creeps higher over the horizon.

“Five, get—” but his shout is interrupted by a fit of coughing.

For some reason, this just adds to my annoyance. I’m one of the nine Garde—Lorien’s last hope—and this is who they sent to protect me? Out of all their magic and powers, he was the best they could do to keep me safe? A magic numbering system and a sick Cêpan to look after me. Thanks a lot.

A terrible thought rises in my mind, and even though I try to ignore it, it’s there, taunting me, making me hate myself not only for having it, but for thinking that it might be true: The Rey that was supposed to protect me died a long time ago. Before he got sick. When we were still in Canada, with the cold air and hot food. When I was just a little kid.

I hate this feeling—the bitterness that sometimes bubbles up to the surface when I’m upset with Rey. It’s not his fault he’s sick. I know that. But he’s the only person I have to be mad at.

The coughing continues. I crack, and I’m headed up the shore, toes digging into the sand. I shake my brown hair to try and dry it. It’s been a long time since I had a proper haircut, and my hair is long and matted against my neck. I pick up a coconut that’s fallen from a palm tree as I pass by it. We can break it open and have the sweet meat with breakfast. If I’m even getting breakfast. Rey’s no doubt about to chew my ass out and probably send me into the forest to live on my own for a few days to teach me a lesson about lying.

He’s breathing normally again by the time I reach him.

“You shouldn’t be out here,” I say. “You should be resting.”

He ignores me and holds a hatchet out. Behind him, I can hear the hogs freaking out about something. They sound spooked.

This is the give-and-take of our relationship: neither of us doing the things the other one says we should be.

“What’s this for?” I ask, hesitating to take it. He’s probably going to force me to chop wood or something to start making up for this morning. I’m sure he also would like an apology, but I’ll wait until I’m not mad about the whole “tell Five that aliens are here to murder him” thing.

“To protect us,” Rey says, pushing the hatchet closer towards me. “I’ve coddled you for too long, and now I’m afraid it’s too late.”

My face scrunches as I shove the coconut under my arm and take the tool. The hogs are still going crazy in their pen.

“What’s going on?” I ask slowly. I’m suddenly afraid he’s going to have me butcher one of the pigs. I mean, I’m totally on board with eating them; I just don’t want to have to kill them myself.

Rey nods towards the pen. The pigs are running around, snorting like mad. If they could scream, I’m guessing that’s what they’d be doing.

And then I see why. They’re telling us that something has infiltrated their home. That danger has come for them. On the other side of the pen is a coiled-up length of scales and muscles. A viper. A lance head. Nasty little bastards with a habit of making their homes a little too close to humans. Once, in Martinique, I saw a boy who was thirteen or so—about my age, now—who was being carried on a backboard to the hospital. He was suffering from a lance-head bite. Well, suffering might not actually be the right word. He was unconscious, and the bottom half of his left leg from the knee to the foot was a mess of black and green, like he’d been bitten by a zombie or something. It was the only lesson I ever needed in keeping an eye out for slithering when walking through the forest.

It’s not the first one I’ve seen on the island. Usually Rey takes care of any that wander too close to us.

“Kill it,” Rey says.

I stare at the coiled snake. The last thing I want to do is get close to it. It’s not that I’m a coward. I just don’t want to end up losing a limb. And there’s something else: I’ve never killed anything before. Nothing bigger than a spider or one of the giant mosquitoes that plague us here.

“Why?”

“You have to,” Rey says. “If you don’t, it’ll kill one of the hogs. Or us. Either way, we’ll be in for more trouble than is necessary.”

“I . . . I can’t. I mean . . .” But I don’t have any real argument to make. My fingers uncurl from around the hatchet I’m holding and it falls to the sandy beach. The coconut falls beside it, and I realize I’m shaking. “You do it.”

Rey mutters something under his breath.

“You’re supposed to keep me out of danger,” I argue, trying to save some face. “I mean, that’s what your job is, right?”

“My job is to help you get prepared for what’s to come,” Rey says, snatching the tool from the ground with a chastising quickness. “If you can’t kill a simple snake, what are you going to do if the Mogs discover you and you find yourself up against an actual enemy, huh? One that can think and understand you. One that’s been trained to take you out? What are you going to do when it’s just you and no one—” His rant is interrupted by another fit of coughing, and Rey buries his face in the tattered sleeve of his blue linen shirt. When he finally stops, he spits blood on the ground.

Blood.

He talks softly, more to himself than to me. “Maybe I should’ve spent more time teaching you to fight instead of hiding. I thought I could hide you away until you were stronger. But I failed to make sure you developed like I should have. I was too weak. The other Garde . . . they’ll probably have already gotten their first Legacies by now. Probably masters of all kinds of weapons and combat.”

“Hide well enough, and you’ll never have to fight,” I say, parroting one of his favorite lessons. I’m trying to make him happy now, but I just keep thinking about the fact that he’s coughing up blood. That’s bad. That’s what always happens in the movies a few scenes before a character dies.

I ignore it and keep talking.

“We can start doing more fight training again. I’ll do it, I promise. I’ll get good at it.”

Rey doesn’t respond, just nods a little bit and turns away. The hogs squeal louder. The viper’s up and ready to strike now, warning off the animals and humans around it, its body swaying slightly in the air like a constricted S.

“I’m afraid I’ve failed you as a Cêpan,” Rey says. He holds a hand out and grips my shoulder, squeezing it once. He smiles, but it’s a sad, far-off sort of expression. When did he start looking so old?

Rey turns and throws the hatchet with a flick of his arm. It sails through the air, spinning horizontally. The blade hits the snake a few inches below its head, and then embeds itself into the side of our little shack. The pigs scramble to the far side of the pen as the serpent’s body wriggles frantically on the ground, its nerves working out the last of their power.

Rey just keeps walking, hunched over, with a shuffle in his steps.

I don’t respond to Rey’s comment. I don’t think he expected me to. Instead, I replay what he said earlier about how the other Garde would probably be so much more advanced than me. So much more prepared for the future.

I feel like a disappointment.

But then, part of that is his fault, too, right? It’s not just me. It’s not my fault.

The last place I want to be is inside the hut with him now—or anywhere near the dead viper in our backyard—so I grab the coconut and get an old parasol that’s leaning against the shack and head farther down the beach, to where the trees give way to nothing but sand and crystal-blue water. I sit near the tide’s edge and plant the giant umbrella in the sand beside me, unfurling it. I burn easily, even after a few years of living in the tropics. I’m not meant for this sort of environment. I should be somewhere else.

Rey seems to have decided that if we’re out of sight and hidden, we’ll never have to fight. Which is a good thing, since I don’t think either of us could stand a chance against the Mogs.

Which also means we can’t leave. I’m stuck here, with Rey. And the hogs. And a forest full of deadly snakes and spiders and God knows what else.

I dig little ditches in the beach with my heels and sink my toes into the soft earth, cooling them down, and stare at the two scars on my ankle. I know Rey’s right. If the Mogs showed up I’d be defenseless. I’d have to rely on him to fight for me. I’m a failed Garde with a frail Cêpan. Again, I can’t help but think that Lorien has cheated me in all this. Surely this wasn’t how the Elders had meant everything to be.

In the pocket of my shorts, I find a little red rubber ball I’ve had for ages—the kind you get for a quarter in convenience store toy machines. I let it roll over the back of my hand, across my knuckles, then between my fingers, over and over again. A little sleight-of-hand craftiness.

I shouldn’t be here. The thought floats through my head again. I glance over at the little sailboat that’s tied to a post up the beach. It would be so easy to just get in, cast off, and float to the nearest civilization. Martinique isn’t far away, if I remember correctly. They have restaurants and hot showers and carnivals there. Street fairs packed with games and every type of food you could ever want. Not that far away.

It would be so easy.

I stare at the coconut as I grow more and more frustrated with the state of my life. My right hand curls into a fist at my side, shaking.

A jolt of energy rushes through me—something I’ve never felt before. The hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.

The coconut explodes.

For a second I’m stunned, then I just stare at my hands.

Did I just do that?

CHAPTER THREE

THERE’S A NAME FOR THE POWER I HAVE: TELEKINESIS. It’s the first of my Legacies—my special gifts. I know this because Rey has told me for years that this day would come. I’d almost stopped believing him, but they’re here now. I can feel the energy coursing through my veins.

I can feel the power. It feels good.

With just one exploded piece of fruit I suddenly have a newfound outlook on life. I see a future that doesn’t include this island. If I can move things with my mind, I can wipe out enemies—knock down entire armies. People will look up to me. Maybe even fear me. And Rey—he’ll never look at me like I’ve disappointed him again. He’ll know he hasn’t failed me as a Cêpan.

I don’t tell him about the coconut, or my newfound ability. I keep it a secret, practicing with it in my free time. I’m going to get good at it, and then show him how capable I am by pulling a tree out of the ground and batting away our little shack. Or something. Something big to prove to him that we no longer need to be on the island. That I’m ready to get out of here and back into the real world, because I’ll be able to fight the Mogs if they show up now. I’m so tired of this damned sun and humidity. This island. I’ll show him. He’ll take us somewhere else.

I start out with coconuts. They’re light and easy to crack, and I rip them apart with my power. I let the small green ones float above my mouth and drink the sweet-tasting water from inside. Then I slingshot them into the ocean, where they fly through the air and blend in with the sky before splashing down into the salty water on the horizon.

The only problem is that Rey is being better at making sure I actually am running all the miles I’m supposed to. He’s started popping up at random places around the island, stopwatch in hand, making sure I’m jogging—or at least walking really quickly. Fortunately that seems to take a lot of energy out of him, because he spends the rest of the day napping.

Perfect time for me to hone my badass new superpower.

I move on from coconuts to rocks and fallen logs. On the end of the island opposite our shack, I haul in a huge piece of driftwood against the tide with nothing more than force of will. The larger, heavier objects are a little harder to maneuver at first, but I’m getting better at it. Building my telekinetic muscles. This is the best I’ve felt in months.

On the day I’ve decided to tell Rey about my powers, thick black clouds start to roll in from the sea. I recognize what this means: The wet season is approaching, and it’s going to be nothing but rain for the next few months. I stop halfway through my morning jog and practice my power just a little more. I find a log on the ground and toss coconuts into the air, trying to bat them into the sea like some giant’s version of baseball. I don’t know how long I stand there trying before I actually make contact with one of the coconuts. It’s not the home run I’ve been imagining—both the coconut and the dead branch shatter, sending bits of wood and coconut milk raining down on me—but the destruction is incredibly satisfying.

It’s only then that I realize the sun is higher in the sky than I expected, and I wonder how long I’ve been standing there. My face is sunburned—I can feel it stinging as I head back to the hut. My stomach rumbles. I hope Rey’s made lunch already.

I see his white hair first. It’s practically shimmering in the sunlight. He’s facedown in the sand, just around the next curve in the shore.

My heart stops.

I yell his name as I run to him, over and over until my throat burns. No, I think as I run. And shit. Those two words repeat in my head as I get closer, trying to figure out how he got there and if he’s moving at all.

I practically slide into him in the sand, kicking up a little cloud around us. I roll him over. Grit and sand stick to one side of his face.

“Rey! Rey, wake up. Rey, can you hear me?”

His chest is rising up and down, but just barely. I stop talking long enough to hear his breath, which is wet and shallow. I wonder how long he’s been out here—why he’s so far away from the shack to begin with—but it’s obvious. He was out making sure I was training. Or trying to figure out what was taking me so long. Looking for me.

It’s my fault he’s like this.

He’s too heavy to lift with my body, but I can lift him with my Legacy. I jog beside him as his body flies through the air, lifted by my telekinesis.

He’d be so proud if he could see everything I was doing right now. If he’d just wake up.

I’ve spent the last few days honing my power and thinking of how I could survive anything now that my first Legacy has surfaced, but if Rey dies I don’t know what I’ll do. Every time I’ve ever thought of abandoning him or running away from the island on my own, I’ve always known in the back of my mind that there’s no way I could do that. Even sick and frail, Rey is the only one I have in the world, on this planet that’s not even technically my home.

By the time we reach the shack, I’m frantic. Inside there’s nothing much. We sleep on mats surrounded by netting, but his mat is elevated like an actual bed. I set him down, then scramble around, trying to figure out what I can do to help. There are a few barrels of water. I fill a cup and bring it to him, but of course he’s not awake to drink. I splash some of it on his face, but am too afraid it’s going to go up his nose and into his lungs to pour the whole cup on him. He doesn’t move at all. So I pull up a chair and wait. Staring at him. Willing him to open his eyes and reprimand me for taking too long on my run. Then we’ll cook lunch and I’ll show him how I can lift tree trunks and juggle coconuts just by thinking about it. And he’ll be happy.

An eternity passes before he speaks my name. It’s a rasp, so soft that had I not been sitting in a chair beside him with my eyes glued on his face, I might have missed it.

“Five,” Rey says again, then coughs into one of the blankets.

“Hold on,” I say, springing up. I find the lantern and flip it on, then refill the cup of water and bring it over to him. He waves it away.

“I was looking for you,” he says. His voice is weak and he only seems half coherent, like he’s talking to someone far away.

“I know.”

“I want you to listen to me,” he says, and I shake my head. He just needs to drink some water and rest and I’ll listen to him lecture me later.

“I have all the time in the world to listen when you’re better. I have nothing to do here except listen to you.”

His eyes look at me but also through me, as if he’s struggling to focus on my face.

“The Garde are still hidden,” he says softly, ignoring what I tell him. “If you go searching for them, you’ll expose yourself to the Mogs. You’ll be safer here. On your own. Until you’re stronger.”

“Rey. It’s okay. It’s going to be okay. Look, I have to show you what I can do now.”

He shakes his head once, and even with how weak he is, it causes me to stop moving and listen. His expression is so solemn, what can I do but hear what he has to say?

“My job was to protect you,” he continues. “I know I haven’t taught you everything I should have, but . . . I tried. I tried to do my best, but my body didn’t agree with this world.”

“No,” I whisper.

It finally seeps in that this might be the end of us.

There is something so unnatural about thinking that I might wake up in the morning and Rey would be gone. Not just out on the boat or across the island, but nowhere. Forever. I could probably count the times I didn’t know exactly where he was on one hand. His absence is inconceivable. It doesn’t compute. Suddenly I think of all the times I wished for another Cêpan or to run away from the island and hate myself.

I start to cry, tears falling in salty drops to the floor.

Rey starts gasping, and I stand, my chair falling backwards, feeling so helpless as I stare at him.

“Just tell me, what do I do to help you?”

The gasping turns into a fit of coughing that seems like it will never end. Blood trickles from his mouth.

“What do I do?” I repeat. “What do I do?”

Finally, he speaks, this time in such a low whisper that I have to kneel beside him to hear.

“Stay alive,” he says.

His eyes look more lucid now as his hand reaches out and grips my forearm.

“Five, don’t follow the Loric into this war until you’re ready. Trust your instincts.” He inhales again, deeply and unevenly. “When the time comes, trust yourself. You’re the future. Do whatever it takes to survive.”

His breath rattles again and then it stops.

And then there’s nothing. His chest doesn’t rise up. His eyes don’t open. Everything is quiet and still.

The silence is the worst thing I’ve ever heard.

“Rey?” I ask softly, then louder when he doesn’t respond, hoping that he just hasn’t heard me.

Nothing.

He’s gone.

My brain floods. All I can think about are the times I’ve disobeyed him, or cursed him—even if it was only in my head. I’m filled with regret.

I’m alone.

I run outside. It’s the only thing I can do. I’m barely aware that rain is pelting me, signaling the beginning of the wet season. My body shivers, even though the rain is warm. This tiny island suddenly feels huge and full of danger. Random thoughts keep shooting through my brain: You’ll have to do something with his body. He never knew how powerful your telekinesis had become. All the chores he’d done on this island are now yours—as I sink down to my knees. There’s distant thunder and the hogs squeal.

It’s all too much.

Alone, except for a bunch of pigs.

It takes me a while to catch my breath as I sit on my knees, bent over the wet sand. My eyes fall on the reddened scar on my ankle. Two’s symbol.

I almost laugh.

There were nine of us and now there are seven, and we’re the ones who are supposed to defeat the Mogadorians. An entire army of aliens. And so they sent us to Earth with fragile protectors and scattered us across the globe. Hoping what? That at least one of us would survive?

The rain beats down on me. I feel like my head’s going to explode—like something’s got to burst out of me. I shout from somewhere deep inside. The two palm trees nearest to me splinter in half under the power of my Legacy.

CHAPTER FOUR

I BURY REY IN THE FOREST.

I wanted to send him out to sea—to put him in the sailboat and just push him out. I remember seeing that in some movie about Vikings once, and Rey taught me the basics of sailing. But I was too afraid the currents would push him back to the beach. That I’d wake up one morning and find his body washed up on the shore, eyes pecked out by seabirds and body shriveled up like jerky. I couldn’t see that.

Burial seemed like the only solution. I couldn’t just leave him out in the elements as something for the little green lizards to pick at. So I find a place where there’s enough open land—once I’ve cleared away a few bushes—and start in with the shovel. Digging his grave is the hardest work I’ve done in a long time. Under different circumstances I’d joke that this was Rey’s last laugh—finally getting me to do some hard labor. But I miss him too much to do that.

The rain doesn’t let up. For every shovel of mud I scoop out, twice as much floods back in rivers of brown. Before I even realize I’m doing it, I’m punching into the earth with my newfound power, mud coating my body and face. I use my telekinesis to burrow out the rest of the hole and keep the mud back.

And then, once he’s in the bottom, I let all the mud and sand and earth and water fall in over him. His body is covered almost instantly.

He’s gone.

I carry on, alone on my island, through the wet season. Rey has taught me well—how to survive off the land—even if I didn’t realize he was doing it at the time. I know which plants to eat, and how to keep our shack dry on the inside as the sky continues to dump rain on me day after day. I continue running, and training—more so than I ever did when Rey was alive.

I keep thinking that someone will show up. If the Garde’s deaths are burned into my leg, is it the same for the Cêpans? Will Rey’s mark show up on the Loric guardian who’s looking after Three? Or Four? Will one of them come and find me and tell me what I should be doing next?

But no one does.

And after weeks—maybe even months—of waiting for something to happen, I know what I have to do. Rey told me to stay on the island until I was stronger, but he didn’t know about my power. I am stronger now. Besides, he also told me to survive, and if I’m going to do that, I’m going to have to leave. If I stay, I’ll go crazy.

Technically I can do whatever I want. I’m free. There’s no one looking after me. I’m alone.

I can go anywhere I want.

Martinique. It was the last island we were on. I didn’t mind it there. And it’s close. Or at least, it seemed close when we sailed from there.

On a day when the rain finally starts to die down, I act.

I empty out Rey’s pack and stuff it with some rations. It goes in the sailboat, alongside all the coconuts I can find and several canteens of water. Once I’m on the big island . . . well, I’ll have plenty of time at sea to figure out what to do next. Maybe I’ll try to track down the Garde. Maybe I’ll just find a way to get back to Canada and that home I so liked when I was a kid.

I toss my duffel into the boat, along with my Loric Chest. I take Rey’s big, broad straw hat to keep the sun off me. There’s no lower deck to the boat, so I’ll be exposed the whole time I’m at sea.

My last act is to break down the hog fence. I do it with a single burst of telekinetic power.

They’ll be fine, I tell myself as they reluctantly cross over the broken wooden slats and onto the beach. They’ll get a taste for all those lizards running around.

It takes me a few tries to get the two sails up on the little boat, and even longer to try to read the sea map I find on board. There are no markings in the place where I think our little island is, but I’m sure that Rey always said we were just east of Martinique. There’s a compass and a telescope in the drawer as well—all the things an amateur sailor could need.

I want to leave immediately, but I have to wait for high tide, and that means I have to sit around rethinking my decision until dusk. Finally, the ocean rolls in under the boat, and I use my power to push off into the water. Then I work on adjusting the sails to the direction I need to be going. By the time I get the course set it’s almost completely dark, the moon and stars obscured behind thin clouds. I can barely see our island as I turn back for one last look at it. I wave, even though I know there’s no one there to see it.

“Good-bye, Rey.”

The boat and I sail into the black night.

I wake up confused, unsure of where I am at first.

I’d meant to stay awake the whole night—by my guess, it shouldn’t have taken all that long to get to Martinique—but after working the sails and using my power so much, I must have passed out leaning against the wooden dock.

The morning sun shines down on me. Soon it will be mercilessly frying my skin. The boat bobs. I rush to my knees, expecting to see land. . . .

But there’s nothing. Just a world of ocean. Blue as far as the eye can see.

I try to remain calm, but panic is causing my heart to pound against my ribs.

In no time the map is out in front of me, spread on the deck. I’m sailing east, into the rising sun, which means that I’m still going in the right direction. I just haven’t hit Martinique yet. I’m not moving as fast as I thought I would.

Or I passed the island in the night. I realize that it’s possible I was wrong all along, and our little island wasn’t where I thought it was. I could be anywhere. There could be nothing ahead of me until Africa.

Africa.

I panic. There’s no way I’m making it all the way to Africa.

I can’t believe that Rey didn’t have some kind of GPS.

Or maybe there was one that I just didn’t know about. One that’s still at home. In the shack on the beach. A place that sounds much more appealing than it did last night.

I stare at the map for a long time as I gnaw on some of the jerky-like meat I brought with me. In the end, I take out the compass and set myself sailing north-northwest. At least that way I’m bound to hit some islands.

Right?

After searching in vain for a glimpse of land with the telescope, I lean back against the deck and take the red rubber ball out of the pocket of my shorts. Running it over the backs of my knuckles, I find a pack of cards in my bag.

Everything’s going to be all right, I tell myself as I shuffle the cards and begin to lay them out. Just keep yourself busy, or you’ll go nuts out here before you get to land.

What is all this useless shit?

It’s my fourth day in the boat before I discover I can unlock my Loric Chest. Rey always said it was something that we had to open together, and it hadn’t dawned on me to try now that he’s gone.

A bounty of shiny, useless-looking items gleam in the sunlight. I had hoped that there’d be a water filtration system magically waiting for me, but it looks like I’m out of luck. Which is worrisome, because I’ve already made my way through all the coconuts, and the rest of my rations are starting to look dangerously meager. It looks like the Chest is just filled with trinkets from a dollar store. My fingers pass over a little black flutelike instrument. I dig through a few more things and pull out a long glove. I slide it on, tugging it all the way up my forearm. When I flex my wrist, a blade shoots out. It comes within an inch of stabbing me in the eye, the entire silver blade almost a foot in length.

I’m too tired to even flinch.

Great. If I don’t want to die of dehydration, at least I’ve got this.

I shudder at the thought.

All of it’s useless. Or at least, none of the stuff has come with an instruction manual. I pack everything back inside except for the knife-glove. I can practice with that. Just in case.

The Chest goes back into my duffel, and I guzzle the last of a container of water. Then I use my telekinesis to push the boat farther, faster along the water, hoping with everything I have that I’m going in the right direction.

I bet the other Garde have better stuff in their Chests. Or that their Cêpans are there to explain what they’re supposed to do with them.

I’ve wondered plenty of times what the other Garde are like. What they’re doing. If their Cêpans keep them hidden away from the world in the farthest corners of the globe. But for the first time I wonder if I’m the only one missing out. Is it possible that the other Garde are all together somewhere, fighting and training with one another, wondering where I am? Would they even care?

Did Rey keep me hidden away because he was afraid they’d rush me into fighting? To make sure I stayed alive?

All I have are questions, and the only answer I get is the sun beating down on me.

My tongue feels swollen and rough in my mouth. I haven’t peed in a long time, which I think is probably a really bad sign. I’m not even sweating anymore. It’s nighttime, but I should still be sweating.

So much for making it out in the world on my own.

My seventh night at sea is the night I’m going to die. So long, Five. It only took a week for you to fuck up completely by disobeying all of Rey’s last wishes.

Is it even possible for me to die? Rey told me the special charm meant I’d be safe from death as long as one of the Garde before me was alive—that being captured was the real thing to fear—but does that mean it works against starvation and dehydration and exposure to the elements as well? Because I don’t want to be some kind of half-living, dried-up mummy washing up on the shores of Cuba a month from now.

My lips are chapped and peeling but my tongue has no moisture to wet them.

I can barely move—I feel so tired—but I pull my duffel bag closer, hugging it, looping my arms through its straps. I can feel the Loric Chest inside. My whole body hurts and I can barely keep my eyes open.

There’s a strange tickle in my chest, and I wonder if it’s some kind of death rattle—if this is what Rey felt right before he died. It grows, until my entire body feels alive, on fire.

So this is what it’s like to die. So much for the charm.

I close my eyes and hug the bag tighter. I wonder if my symbol will end up burned onto the other Garde’s legs even though I’m dying out of order.

I’m dying out of order. I refuse to have that be my last thought.

I crack my eyes open and my breath catches in my throat.

I’m not in the boat. The boat is still there, but it’s several yards beneath me. I’m floating towards the cloudless night sky, still holding my bag to my chest. I wonder for a moment if all the Garde get shot back into space when they die. Maybe this is part of the stupid plan that forced me to live out in the middle of nowhere. With my sick Cêpan.

My parched lips curl down into a frown as I speak my final words.

“Fuck Lorien.”

And then I’m shooting forward, the wind beating against my face. Flying.

CHAPTER FIVE

I DON’T KNOW HOW I’M DOING IT—OR WHERE I’M finding the energy—but I soar through the air. It feels different from my telekinesis, like it’s coming from somewhere else within me. I feel like I’m in some kind of trance as I shoot through clouds, focused only on looking for somewhere to crash that isn’t water. It doesn’t feel like too long before I see land. I picture myself on it, and like magic I’m lowering, until I’m bouncing on a beach, forming a little trench of sand.

I’m too exhausted to properly react to the fact that I was just flying through the air. All I can wonder is where I am and hope that no one saw me.

No such luck.

A female jogger is by my side before I can climb out of the little ditch my body’s made in the sand.

“Holy crap, what happ—”

I must look terrible, because when she gets a good look at me she stops in the middle of her sentence.

“Water,” I croak out, my throat feeling like it’s full of dust.

She pulls a bottle from her workout belt and hands it to me. I squeeze the cool liquid into my mouth, hardly stopping to savor it. My eyes are dry and stinging, but the water keeps coming, so I just keep swallowing.

“Careful, careful,” the woman says. “There’s plenty more.”

I look around warily. I’m on a beach, but not one that I recognize. It’s dawn, or just before—there’s hardly any light out at all. My mind spins.

“Where am I?” This doesn’t look like any place I remember in Martinique.

“Lummus Park,” the woman says. She’s looking less worried about me now and more confused. Her eyes keep looking out to the sea in the direction I came from.

“No, what island is this?”

Her face wrinkles.

“This is South Beach. Miami.”

Miami?

“Where do you live?” she asks me. “Was there an accident? Do we need to call for help? How did you—I mean, it looked like you were flying.”

I’m quick to shake my head.

“No accident,” I say between gulps. “No help. Don’t call anyone.”

A few people gather around us. People start asking if everything’s okay. After downing the last of the water, I start to get to my feet, but my legs are wobbly.

“No, no, no,” the woman says. “Stay right there. You need more water.”

She looks up at the handful of people gathered around us and someone offers her a bottle full of bright green liquid.

“Perfect,” she says, handing it to me. “Drink this. It’ll be good for you and help out with your electrolytes.”

I hesitate for only a second before I’m chugging the sweet liquid. My heart starts to pound, as if it’s been paused for the last few moments.

Something sparks in my mind and I look around. I’m still wearing the glove with the sheathed blade but I don’t see anything else on the beach.

“My bag . . .” I say, starting to get frantic. The Chest may not have had anything I thought I could use in it, but Rey talked about it as if it was Lorien’s last hope—other than me and the rest of the Garde, that is. There’s no way I can lose it.

It’s the only thing I have left.

A few yards away, I see a guy picking up my duffel bag. He tosses back the canvas flap and starts to pull out the Loric Chest.

“Hey!” I shout in the loudest voice I can muster.

Before I can think about what I’m doing I reach out my hand and feel a spark of telekinetic energy. The bag and Chest fly from the man’s hands and into mine. He’s stunned, but it looks to everyone else like he’s just tossed it over to me. I clutch it against my torso.

Someone snaps a picture of me on their phone.

“Hey.” The woman beside me stands up, sounding annoyed. “What are you trying to do, man? This kid’s obviously been through something and you want to take pictures of him?”

“I thought we’d need pictures to run if it’s a story,” the photographer says. “If this ‘something’ is big, we need to document it.”

They start to argue. I get up and start to run.

“Hey!” someone is shouting behind me—the woman, probably—but I don’t look back. I just put my head down and make a beeline toward the closest bushes and trees. Anything that will give me cover. My legs feel like jelly and my head pounds, but I keep going until I can’t hear anyone yelling behind me anymore.

It’s been so long since I’ve been in real civilization that I’ve almost forgotten how to function. Clinging to my bag, I do everything wrong. I almost knock down a few people as I run with my eyes looking over my shoulder. I catch bits and pieces of curses as I pass.

“Watch it, you little piece of . . .”

“. . . damned punk. I should . . .”

“. . . the hell do you think you’re doing . . .”

But I ignore all of them. Running, suddenly desperate to get away from the people and the rest of the world.

I come across another park, all lush lawns and palm trees, with a few rows of big shrubs. That’s where I head. The sun is rising, and people are already starting to fill the beach a hundred yards away, but I nestle down into the bushes until I’m as far out of sight as I can be. My body aches. My chapped lips burn. But at least I’ve gotten a little water.

Rey’s voice rings in my head, like some kind of taunting ghost. I know exactly what he’d say.

This is what you wanted, isn’t it? You’re off your little island. You got what you asked for. Welcome back to the real world.

I groan. It’s all I have the strength to do. Then I close my eyes and slip into darkness.

When I wake up, the sun is starting to go down. I’ve slept through the entire day, but I’m better for it. I’m still weak getting to my feet, but I don’t feel like I’m immediately going to collapse.

What I do feel is hunger. So much hunger that my stomach cramps at just the thought of food.

I have to find something to eat.

I take a quick stock of everything I own—dirty linen shirt, cargo shorts, sandals that are about to fall apart, and a duffel bag that holds an alien Chest. It’s not a lot to work with, but I’ve also got telekinetic powers.

And flight.

I wonder briefly if the flying has to do with my telekinesis or if it’s something different altogether. I’m anxious to try it out again, but my stomach twists and I know I’m not doing anything unless I get some food in me. I find a water fountain in the park and drink until I feel like I’m going to burst, but it doesn’t really help that much with the hunger pangs.

In the near distance are buildings and lights, and I head in that direction. If there are lights, there are probably people. And if there are people, there’s probably food.

It doesn’t take long before a sweet smell invades my nose. It smells like food I remember eating at a carnival in the Caribbean before we went off the grid. I follow it through a few streets as the buildings get bigger and the lights get brighter, keeping to the shadows as best I can. People pass me by, but they don’t pay me any mind. In fact, it looks like they’re purposefully avoiding the sight of me—probably because I look like a homeless person, and the last thing they want ruining their night is to have to talk to some destitute kid.

Perfect.

And then I find it: a street fair or carnival or whatever it is they call it here in Miami. The road is blocked off and swarming with people, but more importantly, it’s packed with food trucks and little stalls selling what look like crepes and burritos and tacos.

It feels like all the blood in my body is rushing to my head. People. Everywhere. After so long on the little isolated island, it’s intimidating to see such crowds.

Calm down, I tell myself. Just take this one step at a time.

I grab a seat on steps leading up to yet another little park—it’s as if they can’t get enough of them in this city—and start to stake out my options. I could use my powers to float a taco over to myself, but the stands are small and the food is being watched. Besides, Rey was always our cook, so I don’t even know what half the things I’m seeing are.

I realize how terribly unprepared I am to be back in the real world. I should have planned better. I thought I’d show up in Martinique with a boat—something to trade. I don’t have any money. Not even a penny. Just my Chest.

And my Legacies.

My stomach twists again with hunger and I realize what I’m going to have to do: steal. Use my telekinesis to lift some cash off someone down here. Somewhere in the back of my head an alarm is going off—this is an abuse of your Legacy!—but I ignore it. I’m starving. I’ll worry about paying the people back later.

My eyes scan the crowd. There’s a group of people standing nearby. They’re well dressed in suits and dresses and polished shoes. They definitely look like they could afford to lose a few bucks. It takes me several tries—the first few times I tug at someone’s wallet, they reach to their back pocket to make sure it’s still there—but eventually a leather billfold slips out, and I quickly shoot it into the bushes.

I don’t move yet, but count backwards from one hundred, watching to see if the guy notices his wallet’s missing or not.

As if on cue, my stomach makes a terrible gurgling noise when I get to “one.”

I stroll casually over to the bushes and retrieve the man’s wallet. It’s packed with cash. I grin, shove the bills into my pocket, and then head for the food stalls.

I stop at the first one I see. It’s some kind of Cuban food, and I end up with a greasy sandwich of pork and cheese that drips all over my hands when I bite into it. It’s the best thing I’ve ever tasted. When it’s gone, I move on to tacos, then ice cream. My stomach is filled up quickly, but I push through and keep eating.

I’m halfway through my ice cream when I realize someone’s watching me.

A policeman.

I casually walk away, and he less-than-casually follows me from a distance. I glance over my shoulder just long enough to see him tap something into his cell phone, his eyes never leaving me. It’s possible he just thinks I’m trouble based on how destitute I look, but it’s equally possible that after I ran away from the beach this morning, whoever it was that snapped a picture of me reported me to the police.

I can’t take that chance.

I make a beeline for a side street. Once I’m around the corner, I start running. The last thing I need is for an officer to start questioning me, or report me, or worse, try to take me into custody. Then I’d have to make a scene and use my powers and probably alert half the Mogadorian army to my presence. No, I just have to get away.

I immediately regret eating so much food.

It sits inside my stomach like a pile of bricks, and I feel like I’m going to vomit after just a few blocks of jogging. Over my shoulder, I see that the officer is keeping up with me. When I duck into an alleyway, I hear his footsteps turn into a run somewhere behind me.

Go, go, go, I shout at myself in my head. And I’m running as best I can through the alleys and across a side street and behind a huge building and past some fences, and then . . .

The alleyway dead-ends, and I’m screwed.

Or at least, I will be screwed if I don’t figure out this new flying thing. It’s not like I know how to make it happen. I stare up at the roof ten stories above me. I have to get up there. And so I clench all my muscles and envision myself floating up, and suddenly I’m not just floating, but shooting up into the air. I go way past the top of the building as my heart pounds, and for a moment I can see out over the ocean for what looks like forever. Then I try to calm down and gently float back to the top of the roof. I land with a bit of a thud, but it’s not bad for my second conscious attempt at getting out of the sky. Certainly better than crash-landing onto the beach.

I’m basically an alien superhero.

I peek over the edge of the building. The cop is standing in the alleyway, looking puzzled. Two more people soon join him there, though only one of them is in uniform. The other’s just wearing a suit, from what I can tell. They’re too far away to make out any specifics. After looking around for a while, they disappear.

I sink down and lean against the waist-high bricks at the edge of the roof. I can sleep here tonight. The air is cool, and I doubt anyone will bother me.

I pull the leftover money from my pocket and count it. It’s not much, but it’ll get me through the next few days while I figure out what to do next. Then I’m weirdly relieved to find the old red rubber ball in my pocket as well. I stare at the stars while I roll it over the backs of my knuckles.

It’s kind of strange that they’re the same stars as the ones I used to see from the island. When I look at the sky, it’s almost like I never left. For the millionth time in my life, I wonder if any of the stars I’m seeing are Lorien’s sun.

When we were on the run, moving through Canada after that Mog found us outside of Montreal, we always slept in shifts. That’s what we called them, at least. In actuality Rey would stay most of the night watching over me. My shift would just be the few minutes in the morning while Rey showered or went to get us food or something. Even in our shack, I think sometimes he’d stay up half the night by the door if he had a feeling or hunch that something would happen. I’d always kind of laughed it off as paranoia, but now, alone on the rooftop of a building in a town I’ve never been in, I wish more than anything that I had someone to look out for me.

CHAPTER SIX

I MAKE A HOME FOR MYSELF IN SOUTH BEACH.

I don’t have a roof over my head or anything, but I get familiar enough with the little area that it starts to feel like I know it, at least. Clubs, restaurants, and hotels line the beaches, and from the sidewalks I can see inside, into other worlds that seem so detached from what I grew up with that they’re completely alien to me. There are flashing lights and bands and dancers that spill out into the street. In Martinique I’d seen carnivals and festivals that had dancers but never anything quite like this—Rey had always made sure I was kept inside after dark. But now, alone, I’m free to wander.

I think about heading up towards Canada, but I’m still weak from the voyage. Besides, I need to practice the hell out of flying before I even begin to think of flying all the way there, which seems like the easiest way to avoid any issues with border patrol or police.

At first it’s hard for me to fly—without a rush of adrenaline or a near-death experience, I can’t seem to figure out where the power comes from. But over the course of a week or two I get better. Levitating just a few inches off the ground at first, then rising into the air as high as I can before I get freaked out and come falling back to the ground. Sometimes when it’s extra dark, I fly over the ocean, low enough that no one will see me, darting between buoys. I’m getting good at it.

The rooftops serve as my bed at night. They feel safer than sleeping on the beach or in alleys. During the daytime, I get really good at picking pockets with my telekinesis. I stop feeling bad about it after the second or third time. I’m surviving. If I’m going to make it to Canada—or anywhere else—I’m going to need plenty of cash and supplies. And there are countless targets walking in droves in and out of expensive-looking shops all over the island. I buy a new set of clothes—jeans to cover the scars of One and Two on my ankle—and keep a few other fresh shirts in my bag. In my clean T-shirt and with a wad of cash in my pocket, I’m just another kid in Miami whose parents have given him too much allowance.

I stay careful when it comes to my powers. They could easily give me away. That and my bulky, heavy Chest, which I carry with me everywhere I go.

I think about the Garde quite a bit at first. About maybe seeking them out and trying to find them. But how would I even go about doing that? Post “Missing” ads or something? For all I know they could be in shacks in Africa or Indonesia or Antarctica. And if they’re not—if they’re banding together . . . well, no one ever came to find me.

So I think of them less and less. Every time I discover something new about the city, part of me curses Rey. We could have been doing this all the time instead of being stuck in the middle of nowhere. I spend my days exploring or playing in arcades or reading books on the beach—doing all the things I didn’t get a chance to do on our island where there were no bookstores or electrical outlets. I feel like I could probably play video games or watch movies forever. I eat up all the stories. I wish I could create them myself.

I make up for lost time.

I know what Rey would say. He’d call me lazy. He’d trot out parables about ants and grasshoppers. But I refuse to feel bad about actually living my life for once instead of cowering in fear.

It’s almost too easy here. I get comfortable.

Maybe even careless.

And that’s how she finds me.

Normally any wallets I lift go straight into my duffel bag, and I go through them later when it’s dark and I’m not in a crowded area. But I’m hungry and low on cash and end up leaning against a palm tree on a nice, quiet section of beach. I’m rifling through my haul when she speaks from behind me.

“You’re just looking to get busted, aren’t you?”

I flinch and twist around, pulling my bag closer to me as I get a good look at the person this high, slightly raspy voice has come from. She looks like she’s a few years older than me, with deeply tanned skin and shiny black hair that’s pulled back in a ponytail. She’s wearing a lot of dark eye makeup and a gray tank top over cutoff jean shorts.

I stammer the beginnings of a few words and scramble to my feet. She laughs a little.

“Don’t worry,” she says with a shrug. “I’ve got enough reasons of my own to avoid the cops.”

She stares at me with dark brown eyes, waiting for me to say something, but I don’t know what to do. I’ve been avoiding people the whole time I’ve been here—old habits—and no one’s really gone out of their way to talk to me. But this girl seems . . . nice.

“Okay, so do you not talk or something?” she asks. “What’s your name?”

I open my mouth, and then stop. It’s a simple question, but of course I have no answer. At least not one I can give her truthfully. So I think back to a person I liked being.

“Cody,” I finally say. The name I used in Canada.

“Cody,” she repeats. “It’s nice to meet you finally. I’m Emma.”

Shit. What does she mean by “finally”? I stare at her face, analyzing it, looking for signs that she might be a Mog—ready to fight or fly at a moment’s notice if it comes to that.

“Oh, please. I’ve seen you lurking around. It’s impossible not to. I’m surprised the police haven’t picked you up yet. You look totally sketch when you’re on the prowl. It’s crazy that you even get close enough to people to lift off them.”

Oh. Well, the good news is, she doesn’t seem to notice that I’m able to pick pockets because of my Legacy. The bad news is, apparently I’m not nearly as stealthy as I thought I was.

“No offense,” she continues, squinting at me a little. “You don’t talk much, do you?”

“I guess not,” I say. I’ve never really thought about it. “I used to talk a lot when I was younger and then it was just me and . . .” I don’t know how to finish the sentence—realize that I’ve said too much already.

Luckily, Emma simply nods her head.

“You working for anyone?” she asks.

“No, it’s only me,” I say. Then I’m confused about what she’s even asking. “Wait, what do you mean?”

Stupid. I don’t know why, but I’m slipping up. I haven’t told her anything important—haven’t even scratched the fucked-up surface that is my past—but there’s no reason I should be telling her anything.

She just smiles and nods at my bag.

“Buy me an arepa and maybe I’ll tell you.”

If Rey were here, we’d be fleeing. Gone. I wouldn’t have even been given the chance to talk to Emma. But as much as I imagine Rey’s voice shouting at me to excuse myself and blend in with the crowd and make a break for the nearest sparsely inhabited island, he’s not actually here.

Besides, I haven’t talked to anyone in a long time. Not really. Maybe I’ll learn something useful. And if anything goes wrong and she leads me into a trap or something, I’ve got telekinetic powers and the ability to fly away. I’m practically untouchable.

“Okay,” I say, forcing a little smile. “What’s an arepa?”

She takes me to a little food stand up the beach and I order two arepas. When the cart owner tells me it’ll be six dollars, Emma says something in Spanish and the owner scowls.

“Three dollars,” he says, handing over two golden disks that shine in the sunlight. I pay and we walk away. The beach is on one side of us, a row of luxury hotels on the other.

“What was that about?” I ask. I bite into my arepa, which turns out to be one of the most delicious things I’ve ever eaten—savory-sweet corn cakes sandwiching melted white cheese. I’m in heaven.

“Just keeping that guy from taking advantage of you,” Emma says. “He thought you were a tourist.”

“What’d you tell him?”

“Just that I knew he was overcharging you.” She pauses for a beat. “Maybe I mentioned my brother’s name. He’s kind of a big deal around here.”

“What do you mean?” I ask.

“Let’s just say if you were lifting those wallets for someone, it’d probably be him.”

“What, is he like . . . a gangster?” Even as the words come out I realize how dumb they sound, but my mind immediately went to a mob movie I caught the day before when I’d spent half the waking hours in a theater. Cheese strings from my mouth to the golden half moon in my hand.

“Something like that.” Emma looks at me and smirks. I feel stupid, like some kind of naïve kid.

“So do you work for him?” I can’t picture her as one of the femme fatales from the movies. She’s too young, obviously, but also too friendly. “Is this the part where a black car drives up and I get shoved in and held for ransom or something?”

“I’d probably choose someone who wasn’t picking pockets if I was going to try to get some kind of ransom money,” she says with a little smirk. “No, I don’t work for my brother. I’m nothing like him. Don’t even talk to him, really. Besides, the last thing I want is someone telling me what I can or can’t do. Especially if that someone is as stupid as my brother.”

I smile, genuinely. I can kind of get where she’s coming from.

“Besides,” she adds. “He thinks I’m too young and that he doesn’t want me involved.” She lets out a long sigh between bites of her snack. Her mouth is half full when she speaks again. “So where are you from?”

“Why are you talking to me?” I ask, ignoring her question. She looks a little confused. “I mean, why did you come talk to me on the beach?”

“I wanted an arepa.”

“Sure.”

“Okay. I saw you around and knew what you were doing. I figured you could use a few pointers. I thought maybe you’d be my new beach buddy. I’m tired of working alone.”

“Working?” I ask. “What do you mean?”

She stops in the middle of the sidewalk, grins and then pulls a black leather billfold from her pocket. The first wallet I stole—the one I carry my cash around in now. My hand reaches to my back pocket and confirms what I already know. Somehow she’s managed to snag my wallet. I never felt a thing.

“Not everyone’s as easy a mark as you,” she says with a mischievous glint in her eyes. “I could use a hand if you’re up to it.”

“You want me to steal wallets for you?”

“With me.”

I hesitate. Walking around and talking to Emma is one thing, but I can practically hear Rey yelling at me and telling me not to get close or make friends with anyone but him. But she’s obviously not a Mog.

“Come on,” she says, sensing my reluctance. “Look, I don’t know where you’re from but it’s obvious you’re not as familiar with this place as you should be if you were about to shell out six bucks for some street food, even if it was delicious. Let’s meet up again and get into some trouble. I’m so bored this summer. That’s why I came and found you.”

Her last words stand out to me. She sought me out, came and found me on the beach. The least I can do is consider hanging out with her a little more.

“Sure,” I say.

Her face lights up a little.

“Great.” She pulls out her cell phone and grimaces at the screen. “Shit, I gotta go. What’s your number?”

“I don’t have one,” I say, a little sheepish.

“What do you mean you—” she starts. Then her face falls a little. “Well, meet me on the beach tomorrow. Same place I found you today. I’ll be down in the afternoon.”

I nod. “Yeah. Okay.”

She flashes one more smile and tosses my wallet to me. I fumble with it, uncoordinated. By the time I have it back in my pocket, she’s halfway to the street, disappearing into the throng of tourists.

Holy shit, I think. Did I just make a friend?

The realization that I’m not sure because I’ve never had a friend in my life other than Rey is crushing. How am I supposed to save a planet overrun with a warmongering species if I can’t even figure out how to interact with other people?

My thoughts flash to the other Garde. What if I don’t get along with them?

CHAPTER SEVEN

INSTEAD OF WAITING FOR EMMA IN THE SPOT where she snuck up on me yesterday, I stay half a beach away, loitering between some bathrooms and a thick line of plants. That way I’ll be able to see if she shows up with a Mog brigade or something—though I don’t really think she’s going to. I’m just trying to be cautious.

And I don’t want her to catch me by surprise again.

Emma appears early in the afternoon. She looks around for me before shrugging and sitting underneath the palm tree where she found me. She waits for a while—twenty minutes maybe—as I try to talk myself into walking over.

It’s weird how nervous I feel. This is just so foreign to me, meeting up with someone. Talking to someone new at all. I feel awkward.

When she stands up and looks like she’s going to leave, I grit my teeth and head her way.

“Hey!” she says with a grin when she catches sight of me. “I thought you were going to stand me up.”

“Sorry,” I say, shoving my hands into my pockets. “I, uh, lost track of time.”

“No problem. It’s nice out today. Let’s hang out here for a while.”

And so we sit and chat. Or, mostly she talks, and I respond to questions as vaguely as I can—or with outright lies. Where am I from? Around. Where do I live? Not far from the beach. What about my parents or family? They’re here and there. They travel a lot. I’m left to my own devices. I pick a pocket or two on occasion because I think it’s fun.

Emma doesn’t press me about anything, which almost makes me feel bad for all the lies I tell her—that I’ve got a home to go to at night and a loving family somewhere. She’s easy to talk to in a way that Rey never was. Mostly because she talks a lot about herself, and everything she says is new to me. Sometimes she slips into Spanish and it sounds so pretty that I don’t even point out to her that I can’t understand her.

Emma isn’t at all the person she made herself out to be when we first met, so self-assured and street smart. As she talks I can see the cracks begin to show. Her brother might be some kind of criminal guy—that much I think is true—but she’s just a rebellious girl who has gotten good at sneaking things from other people, looking for some adventure during the summer. Emma really does have a loving family and a home to go back to every night. But from what I can tell she’s hungry to be a part of something, to get a taste of danger.

It’s funny: I never imagined people would actually go out looking for trouble or danger. I guess when you spend your life hiding from everything to keep something bad from happening, stuff like that loses its thrill. Still, when she suggests we go out and lift a few wallets or purses, I go along. I think of it as a game, or training. Lying. Hiding. Stealth. These are all things that Rey would technically approve of since they’re skills that’ll help keep me hidden away from the Mogs.

Right?

I find out pretty quickly that I’m not the best thief when I’m not using my powers. I only have to be chased through the streets of South Beach once to figure that out. Emma can’t see how I’ve made it so far without getting caught, but I just shrug. My role becomes that of the distraction. I’m the person who stops and asks for directions, or falls down in front of a mark while she picks their pocket.

That I’m not terrible at: I’m basically just lying and telling stories.

And before I know it we have a system that works and are making a lot of money. At least, enough that I’m never hungry or wanting for much, with a little left over to put in my Canada fund. We get good at what we do. We make a code—a sort of Robin Hood pact. We steal only from those who look like they can afford to lose a few bucks. They’re easy to spot, coming in and out of designer stores or hotels. We target tourists, not people who look like locals.

We see each other most days. About a week after first meeting Emma, I ask her why she’s into breaking the law and stealing from people. I’ve deduced by this point that she probably comes from a good enough home that she could just ask her parents for money or something.

“Respect,” she tells me as she tosses some woman’s now-empty wallet into a trash bin on the beach. “That’s what I want. That’s what we need. When people respect you, you can do anything. That’s how you get real power in a city like this. Your name has to mean something to people.”

I want badly to tell her that my name does mean something. To a lot of people. I’m a savior. And a target. But the more time I spend with Emma, the less pressing these things seem, and the farther away Canada lies. With her I’m just a kid eating ice cream and street food every day, spending the afternoons sneaking into movie theaters and lazing around the beach at dusk.

Over the course of a few weeks Emma and I do get a reputation around the beaches—at least enough of one that Emma’s brother hears about us and tells her to lay off before she gets into trouble. I can tell that the locals have changed the way they think about me just from how they look at us when we pass them by. Some with respect. Some with a hint of fear. All of them with knowledge of who we are and what we can do.

It feels good to be acknowledged.

I carry my Chest with me wherever I go, too scared to leave it hidden somewhere. It’s all I have left of the island, and of Rey, which both seem so far away now. At night, I sleep with it pulled close to me. It’s in the moments between sleeping and waking that I find my thoughts drifting to my destiny and the rest of the Garde, to the war and fighting that surely waits in my future. I dream that I never have to be Five again. That I can do whatever I want, no longer bound by the destiny forced upon me by the Elders of Lorien.

But I know that’s something I can’t escape. Not entirely. Either I’ll fight alongside the Garde—seven super-powered soldiers who’ve never met one another, trying to take down an entire army—or the Mogs will kill all of us and take Earth as well.

I wish there was another way: a third option I’m not thinking of. But for the life of me I can’t think of one.

I might as well enjoy my time on this planet while I can.

One night, I spot the perfect target.

Emma and I are hanging out behind one of the fancy hotels that back up to the beach, divvying up what we’ve taken throughout the day. It’s nighttime, and the only people to bother us are a few late-night joggers who just nod to us as they pass us by.

The mark is in his midthirties or so and well dressed in a crisp black button-down shirt, gray pants and shiny black shoes that are impractical for a walk on the beach—even if he is keeping to the sidewalk. His dark hair is swept back and accentuates his pale skin, meaning he’s almost certainly not from Miami. And, most importantly, he’s alone.

Perfect. He’s practically begging us to lift his wallet.

I glance at Emma, who gives me a mischivious grin, one I recognize easily by now.

“What’s the story?” she asks.

“We lost our cat,” I say. “It’s black as night and we’ve been looking for hours.”

She smiles and nods, backing away from me. This is what we do. I provide the story and she does the “heavy lifting.”

As the man approaches, his eyes drift between the two of us but he doesn’t pay much attention. When he’s passed Emma, I step into his path. Emma positions herself behind him.

“Hey, mister. Have you seen a black cat running around here? We’ve been trying to—”

The man moves fast—faster than I would have thought—and in the blink of an eye he’s got Emma out beside him, her arm twisted in his grip. A red leather wallet falls from her fingers and bounces on the sidewalk. The man tightens his fingers around her, and Emma falls to the sand with a small cry. She lets out a string of curses in Spanish.

Shit.

I move forward, but he raises a hand to me, and there’s a command about his presence that causes me to stop. I don’t know what to do. He speaks to Emma in Spanish, saying something that makes her eyes go wide. She mutters back to him, and he responds. His voice is low and smooth. There’s some kind of dawning recognition that sweeps over Emma’s face. Clearly she’s puting things together that I don’t understand, and I start to feel like I’m completely in the dark about what’s actually happening in front of me.

All I know is that I have one friend in the world right now, and she’s on the ground in front of a man who she’s obviously afraid of. So when he reaches for her, I can’t help but react.

I send him stumbling backwards with a telekinetic blast.

The attack isn’t much—more of a flinch of my Legacy than anything—but it serves to put some distance between all of us. The man looks surprised for a moment, and then narrows his eyes at me. I puff out my chest and clench my fists.

“Cody, what are you . . .” Emma looks confused. “Listen, I know who this guy is. Sort of.”

The man bends down slowly, hands out in front of him, and picks his wallet up off the ground. He flicks two cards out from it. They land on the sidewalk.

“If you’re ever looking for work, call this number,” he says. Then, as if it’s an afterthought, he tosses a fifty-dollar bill onto the ground as well.

Then he walks right past us. Away. Like he doesn’t have a care in the world. There’s something about him that permeates the air and makes him seem untouchable.

When he’s out of earshot, I turn to Emma.

“Are you okay?” I ask, concerned.

“You have no idea who that is, do you?” Emma asks, her eyes never leaving the man’s back.

“No. Who?”

Emma picks up the two cards and holds one out to me. It’s white, with nothing but a black phone number printed in the center of it.

“His name is Ethan,” she says. “I’ve heard my brother talking about him lately. He’s some big important guy who is shaking things up around the city now. Do you know what this means?” She stares at me, but I just shake my head. She grins. “He’s our ticket to the next level.”

CHAPTER EIGHT

EMMA CALLS.

She doesn’t talk to Ethan, but the person on the line seems to know who both she and I are. It makes me nervous, but it’s only a fake name that they know.

Ethan is apparently in dire need of couriers—people to run packages and documents across the city for him. It’s not exactly what Emma had in mind when she called, but she agrees on behalf of both of us.

“I thought you didn’t want someone telling you what to do,” I say when she’s off the phone.

“I don’t.” She frowns a little bit. “But I’m getting bored lifting off of randos every day. Aren’t you?”

Not really, I think, but I just shrug.

“So, what, you’re going to work your way up to master cat burglar or something?” I ask with a smirk.

She punches me in the arm and laughs.

We call in for our assignments. Usually they include picking up envelopes at specific stores or locations and delivering them to stores on the other side of town. Emma hates it, but I don’t mind. I get to see parts of the city I never knew existed. Voodoo shops in Little Haiti and chandeliers hanging in store windows in the Design District. Sometimes we have to split up to get the work done. Mostly we’re running around the city together.

One day on a solo assignment, I meet Ethan again.

He sits in a big corner booth at the back of a restaurant. I have a package for him. The place is fancy, or at least fancier than the fast food and street vendor food that I usually eat. He grins widely when he sees me, flashing perfect white teeth.

“There’s my best worker,” he says, motioning to the other side of the booth. “Please, have a seat.”

“Thanks, uh . . .” I realize I don’t know what to call him.

“Please, call me Ethan.”

“Ethan.” I nod.

I plop down in the booth, setting my duffel down at my feet. Before I can say anything else, food starts arriving: plates upon plates of seviche and roasted chicken and pasta swimming in sauce. Ethan encourages me to eat as much as I want, and I practically shovel food into my mouth.

Ethan talks while we eat. “I don’t normally get my hands dirty with small-time crooks or gangs in this city,” he says, cutting into a shrimp on his plate. “But reports get back to me. From people on the streets. From cops. When someone of interest pops up, I know about it. And you and your friend are definitely people of interest. You had a solid partnership before you came across me. Tell me, what brought you to pickpocketing? Why do you do it?”

“To survive.”

Ethan smiles. He gestures to me with his fork.

“You’re young. About fourteen I’d say, right?”

I nod. He continues.

“I lived on the streets when I was your age. It made me a damned good thief and forced me to grow up fast. But it’s not an easy life. And it’s dangerous. My brother didn’t make it.” His voice goes quieter. I freeze. It feels inappropriate to keep eating while he’s telling me about his dead brother, so I sit there with a huge chunk of cheese squirreled away in one of my cheeks as he keeps talking. “I had to look for him for days before I finally found him. Another gang had . . . Well, it’s not important. I don’t want to scare you. More importantly, I see a lot of him in you. It’s uncanny, really. I think he would have survived if he had your talents.”

I tense up. As far as Ethan knows, my talents include delivering mail and taking wallets. I think back to when we met on the beach and I stupidly pushed him with my telekinesis. Has he figured out what that was?

No, I tell myself. He probably thinks it was the wind. How could he know?

“Uh, yeah,” I say. “I’m sorry to hear about your brother.”

“It’s all in the past,” Ethan says. “But you—you’re the future.”

Ethan’s lips curl up in a smile.

“Tell me more about yourself,” he says.

And so I start talking. Nothing about Lorien or the island, but about the things I like. Arepas, movies, books, arcades. And Ethan looks fascinated. It turns out he’s a movie buff. He’s waxing on about a long list of films I should have seen when I suddenly start to wonder how I managed to end up in a fancy Miami restaurant talking movies with some high-ranking criminal mastermind.

What would Rey say? I wish he were here. I wish he could see how well I was doing on my own. How important I’m becoming.

Emma is always hungry for more, wanting bigger and better assignments.

Eventually, we get one.

Ethan wants a series of warehouses bugged to keep tabs on competitors or something like that. As usual, we don’t ask questions. Emma and I are supposed to sneak in at night when the buildings are empty and plant a few tiny devices Ethan has supplied us with. It’s an extremely simple task.

So of course everything goes wrong.

Emma and I split up to get the work done, and I’m halfway through planting the bugs in a small warehouse filled with row upon row of boxes and shelves when a dozen guys show up. If I lived in a superhero movie, they’d be stereotypical henchmen.

“Uh,” I say as they form a half circle around me. “Hi. I was just looking for a place to sleep tonight. I’ll move along and—”

“Ethan sent you, didn’t he?” one of the men asks.

“Ethan?” I ask. “Who’s that?”

The man answers by throwing a punch at me.

At first the rudimentary training Rey had given me during hand-to-hand fighting comes in handy, but I’m rusty and was never really that good at it to begin with. And there are just so many of them. I dodge a few punches and then a fist lands in my gut and I crumple. Then I’m on the ground, kicks coming from every direction, my vision sparking as someone’s heel meets the back of my head.

They can’t kill me—there are still two Garde standing between me and death—but they can break me. Incapacitate me. Send me to the emergency room or abduct me.

I only have one chance of getting out of this.

Telekinetic energy erupts from my body, sending all the attackers sprawling backwards. I don’t give anyone a chance to recover. I use my Legacy to send them flying into walls and one another, lifting them into the air and then slamming them down onto the concrete. I lash out and use my powers in ways I never imagined. It’s strange how naturally it comes to me, this destruction. It feels so good—like I’m stretching a muscle I haven’t used in a while. I realize that I miss using my telekinesis so often, like I had on my little island or when I was first picking pockets. Bodies fly all around the room, crashing into shelves and lights, until someone calls my name and I freeze.

Emma.

I turn to see her standing in one of the open loading bay doors, half silhouetted by the moonlight. She makes no move to come forward. There’s a look on Emma’s face I’ve never seen before. Her eyes are wide, the whites standing out in the near darkness. Her hands are shaking.

She’s terrified.

Around me, all the attackers fall from the air, hitting the ground with thuds.

“Emma,” I say, stepping towards her.

She takes a step back.

“What are you? How did you—” she says.

Her eyes fall on someone lying a few yards away from me.

“Marcus?” she asks. And then she’s running towards him. He doesn’t respond when she shakes him, and tears start to fill her eyes.

It takes a moment for me to figure out why I know the name Marcus, and then it clicks. I hadn’t immediately recognized the name because she usually just calls him her brother.

Marcus appears to be alive but his leg is twisted in a way that I know means it’s broken. He’s probably cracked a few ribs from the drop in the air too.

What have I done?

“I’m sorry, I—” I start, but I’m cut off by Emma’s glare, one of pure hatred.

“You monster,” she says. “You fucking freak. Are you possessed? How did you do this?”

I take a step forward but she’s on her feet, a pipe from one of the shelves I knocked down in her hands.

“Emma . . .”

“Don’t you take another step closer.”

“It’s okay,” I say. “It’s me. Cody.”

She shakes her head. Or maybe it’s just trembling—it’s hard to say. At her feet, her brother gurgles something unintelligible.

I take another step forward.

“Let me help you—”

And then she swings. The pipe connects with the side of my head and everything goes black.

When I wake up I’m in a car. A really nice car, all gray leather and touch screens. A man in a suit drives. I sit in the back passenger seat. Ethan sits beside me.

“Welcome back to the world of the living,” he says.

My head pounds. I raise my fingers to find a throbbing knot on the side of my skull.

“Emma . . .” I murmur.

“It was quite the swing. You’ve probably got a concussion. I can have one of my doctors look at you if you feel dizzy or off.”

“Where is she?”

“She stayed behind. Apparently one of the men was her brother. She called for help. I came in as soon as I heard there was trouble and took you. Didn’t want you getting hurt more or arrested or anything like that.”

I nod my head a little, but that just makes it hurt more. The pain makes it difficult to piece together everything that’s just happened. A hundred different places on my body hurt. My white T-shirt is stained with drops of blood. My Loric Chest . . . there’s a thump in my heart when I think of it. I look around the car. My dirty duffel bag sits at my feet on the floorboard. I reach for it, frantically ripping back the cover. The Chest is still there. I exhale.

Ethan continues. “So, you have a few tricks up your sleeve you hadn’t bothered to tell me about. No wonder the two of you were so good at the jobs I gave you.”

“She didn’t know,” I say.

I regret the words immediately. They’re an accidental admission of truth—that I do have powers. That I’m different.

But he knows that already. He saw what I did just as clearly as Emma did.

“Ah, that explains her reaction.”

A monster, she called me. I thought she was my friend.

I stare out the window, unsure of where we’re going. Maybe I should just roll down the window and fly out into the night. Find some other place to go. Start over again.

Maybe it’s time I finally do go back to Canada.

A question forms in my sore head: Is this what my life is going to be like now? Moving from place to place, with no idea of what I’m supposed to be doing? No way to find the other Garde. No way the Garde are going to find me. If they’re even looking for me. I could cause a scene or show off my powers, but the Mogs would probably have me killed before the Garde ever came out of hiding.

I wish there was another way.

“What were you to her? Partners? Friends? More than that?”

I roll this question around in my head for a moment, trying to see what he’s getting at.

“Friends,” I say. “I mean, I think we were.”

“A friend wouldn’t have reacted as she did, Cody,” he says, leaning back into his seat. “A friend wouldn’t have turned her back on you. I hate to say this, but I think it’s possible that Emma has been riding on your coattails, trying to get anything out of you that she could. Using you.”

I start to protest, but he raises a hand, stopping me from speaking.

“Do you know what you are to me?”

I shake my head slowly. “An employee?” I ask.

“Potential,” Ethan says. “Raw power. I am not a fool. I know talent when I see it, and I respect it. I’ve been all around the world. I’ve seen some pretty crazy, unexplainable stuff in my day. Stuff you wouldn’t believe even if I swore an oath on everything I hold dear and holy. I’ve seen men in Indonesia who can tell you your darkest secrets. Women in the Caribbean who can resurrect animals. Nothing surprises me. You don’t have to tell me about yourself or your history. But you don’t have to hide anything either. I’ll never look at you like you’re a freak. Whatever power or gifts you have, it means you’re stronger than most people, right? It means you’re someone who is going to endure. To survive. And that’s why you’re here now.” He gestures back and forth between us. “We have a lot to offer each other. If we worked together, we’d be unstoppable.”

“What about Emma?” I murmur.

“Emma has a family. Her foolish brother, yes, but parents and a home as well. You, on the other hand, are alone, aren’t you?”

“What makes you think that?”

“Cody, I run a very tight ship when it comes to my business. I do thorough background checks on everyone I work with. You, my boy, have been something of an anomaly.”

It occurs to me that he hasn’t seemed shocked at all by anything that’s happened. My powers, or Emma’s leaving.

“You’ve been following me.”

“You need to work on your stealth.” Ethan pushes his dark hair back behind his ears. “That’s something I can teach you. And from the looks of it, you could use quite a bit of hand-to-hand combat training as well. But most important is that ability you seem to have. You can move things around just by waving your hands.”

“Telekinesis,” I say.

What am I doing? I should go, should jump out of the car and disappear into the darkness.

But Ethan already knows. And I suddenly realize he’s the only friend I have now. The way Emma looked at me—I know there’s no going back to her now. I’d be surprised if she ever talked to me again. Besides, all this talk of training—maybe this is actually a really good thing. Ethan is obviously a powerful man. If he can train me to be like him, I can use that later. I mean, I can always leave, right?

“People like you and me are different, Cody,” Ethan says. “You’re special. I knew it the moment I met you on the beach. I could tell that you were the talented one of your little duo. You’re powerful, but I can help you become someone that people truly admire and respect. Would you like that?”

“Yes,” I say. I don’t even really have to think about it.

“Good,” he says with a smile. “We have a bright future ahead of us.”

The driver turns towards a towering wrought-iron gate. It parts, exposing a long driveway leading up to a house that looks like something out of a movie about Hollywood millionaires.

“What is this place?” I ask.

“Your new home.”

CHAPTER NINE

IT’S KIND OF STRANGE HOW QUICKLY TIME GOES by after Ethan takes me under his wing. I tell myself I’ll stay a day or two, and then weeks pass like nothing. I keep thinking, “I’ll leave tomorrow.” But it’s always tomorrow and never today, and I stay.

There are no more courier assignments or picked pockets. I live in luxury.

With a place like Ethan’s it’s difficult to imagine going back to sleeping on rooftops or in a shack. His house has everything you could ever want. A library, game room, beachfront view—there’s even a little movie theater in the basement, which is where I spend a lot of my free time. Everything’s locked and unlocked with a little key card I carry around in the expensive wallet Ethan bought me. There’s a staff that cleans up after me. And there’s a cook. A cook. He’s probably my favorite person in the house. Aside from Ethan, who watches movies with me almost every night.

I like to remind myself that Rey would have wanted me safe. What could be safer than a place like Ethan’s? A compound. Ethan sets me up in a room bigger than our entire shack on the island. I practically have the whole second floor to myself. Everything I could possibly want. Things I didn’t even know I needed. We never had floss on the island, much less computers. I use the internet to try to find anything I can about the Garde—any news article or blog posts I can find that might lead me to them—but every time I think I’m getting close, the internet turns into a brick wall. I get an error message in the browser telling me the link is broken or the website is having difficulties. I figure the other Cêpans are doing this, trying to cover their tracks. If Rey were alive and we had the internet, I’m sure he’d be going around deleting things I posted too, or hacking into news sites.

That, or the other Garde are just too scared to come forward or do anything other than sit around waiting for something to happen for them to react to.

Not like Ethan. Ethan’s like a dream Cêpan. Anything I want, he gives me. And anything he wants, he just takes.

“Everything out there can be yours,” he says at least once a day, and when he does it sounds like he means it. It makes sense. What better display of strength and power is there than being able to do whatever you want when you want to. Ethan forgoes the running and weight training and instead focuses on my Legacies. I tell him I don’t know where they came from, and he says it doesn’t matter—all that matters is that we have them to use now. And he trains me, some days on the precision of my telekinesis, and other days on its strength. Flying comes easier and easier, until I can lift off with hardly a thought. His staff is well paid and wouldn’t dare speak of anything they see. And he assures me he’s definitely not telling anyone about what I can do. I’m his secret weapon. He has incredible things for my future. When I’m ready.

It’s a future I’m excited to discover.

Ethan believes in power. I think he’s obsessed with it. It’s not hard to see how happy he gets when he takes us to a fancy restaurant or some incredibly expensive boutique and the servers and employees treat him like a god who’s come down to Earth to order a filet mignon. I get it. I feel that way, too, when I’m with him. The thrill of being looked up to, of being envied even.

It’s like an addiction.

But envy and money aren’t the only aspects of power that Ethan values. His trade requires intimidation.

It’s not something I’m good at.

A few months after the incident at the warehouse, one day after lunch, we walk through some trendy part of downtown Miami that’s all billboards and lights. Ethan wears his normal dark suit and I’ve got on a T-shirt and jeans that cost enough money to probably buy the entire island I lived on with Rey. Gone is my long, matted brown hair. I’ve got a buzz cut now. I wonder how I survived in the tropics so long with so much hair on my head.

As usual, I keep an eye out for Emma. I don’t know if I really want to see her again, but I don’t want to just run into her on the street by surprise.

The last thing I need is another concussion.

We pass by a handful of kids a little older than me sitting outside a coffee shop—two guys and two girls. I don’t notice the dog at their feet until it barks at me, and I jump back, startled, half knocking Ethan into the street.

The table erupts in laughter. One of the girls apologizes and pulls the dog back on its leash.

“Pansy-ass douche bag,” one of the guys mutters to his friend.

“What was that?” Ethan asks, stepping up to the table.

I can see all of them begin to look uncomfortable.

“Nothing,” the guy says.

“Did you hear what he called you?” Ethan asks me. I recognize the tone in his voice. He’s turned on teacher mode, ready to impart some important lesson.

“Yeah . . .” I say.

“And are you a douche bag?”

“Hey, man,” the girl says. “We’re sorry. He didn’t mean anything. He’s just a jerk.”

Ethan ignores her. Instead, he talks to me.

“That boy disrespected you.”

“I guess.” I shrug.

Ethan looks around for a moment. We’re off to the side of the shop. There are not many people on the street. No one near us, at least.

“Then show him he should respect you.”

The guy at the table stands up. He’s twice my height, and at least two heads taller than Ethan.

“Leave it,” the guy says.

I look over at Ethan hesitantly.

“You have to start at the bottom of the food chain and work your way up,” Ethan says quietly. He turns to meet my eyes. “If you don’t teach them that you’re more powerful than they are, they’ll never fear you. It’s time for you to take action.”

I nod to him.

“Look,” the guy says, “I said—”

I raise my hand out in front of me and suddenly the boy flies three feet backwards, crashing into the wall of the coffee shop. He starts cursing and frantically trying to move, but I’ve got him a foot off the ground. He has no leverage. I’m in control.

The others at the table gasp and start to freak out.

“The girl’s got a phone out,” Ethan says calmly.

With my other hand I use my Legacy to rip it from her fingers and throw it to the ground. The screen shatters.

“The boy is going to run for it.”

One of the other guys at the table is heading towards the side entrance. I take his legs out from under him with a flick of my wrist.

“There’s someone behind you.”

I swing around, both palms out, ready to fight.

But there’s no one there.

I turn to Ethan. He’s smiling.

“Perfection,” he says. Then he glances around quickly. “We should go.”

I let the boy drop to the ground. He’s shaking and gasping for air as we walk away as if nothing has happened. His friends gather around him. My heart is thumping in my chest. I feel dizzy and light and weirdly satisfied.

I can’t help but grin.

“You look pleased with yourself,” Ethan says. “How did that feel?”

“Wonderful,” I say.

It felt wonderful.

A year after being at Ethan’s—almost down to the day—I’m pulled out of sleep in the middle of the night. My calf is on fire. I yelp, howling at the pain as I knock half the things off the nightstand trying to find the light. Even before it’s switched on, I know what the burning means.

Death.

Another one is gone.

A swirling, reddish symbol has appeared on my leg above two similar ones. Three is dead. This red mark is likely the only kind of tombstone he or she will get. Another Garde sacrificed for the Lorien cause. Only one person rests between me and death now, if what Rey always told me was true about the order in which we had to be killed.

Number Four.

I stagger out of bed, wincing a bit every time I put weight down on my ankle. And it’s more weight than usual. After a year of meals served up in Ethan’s house any time of day I might be hungry, I look nothing like the sunburned, skinny kid from the island. I’m built like a tank now. Solid. Maybe a little on the chubby side. Definitely a lot pastier than I was a year ago. I’ve been focusing much more on my Legacies than keeping my body in shape.

The death of Three takes me completely by surprise. I haven’t necessarily forgotten about Lorien and the Garde, but without Rey constantly badgering me about them, all that has kind of lived in the back of my mind. I’ve spent so much time lately living things up with Ethan that the Garde have once again become stories. I’ve forgotten that they’re actual people. I’ve tried to ignore the fact that I may end up the next target on death’s numerical list.

One more way I tell lies, I guess. Only these are told to myself.

My mind is finally catching up with my body’s wakefulness, and I start to think of all the implications this new development might have. Maybe Four’s death isn’t that far away. There’s always the chance that Three and Four were together. I do always imagine the other Garde working together without me.

I walk around the room holding my breath, waiting for a new searing burn to take over my leg. But after a few minutes nothing comes. Still, if another scar does appear, it means I’m next. I’m the new big target.

Me, and anyone else I’m around.

I stop pacing.

I could leave right now. Ethan would never be any wiser to what’s actually going on. I could fly away to a different city. A different country. Finally up to Canada—just a while later than I’d planned.

But I don’t want to be on my own again. Maybe Ethan would want to go with me. For someone who doesn’t like big groups of people, the thought of not having one person to rely on scares me.

Even then, though, the Mogs might track me back to him. We haven’t necessarily been subtle with the use of my powers. I feel so stupid all of the sudden. As good as it felt displaying my superiority over people like that asshat at the coffee shop, I never should have let Ethan talk me into it.

I have to tell him about what’s happening. It’s the least I can do for how good he’s been to me.

As I slip out of my room, I can almost hear Rey’s voice in the back of my head. Tell no one who you are. Tell no one what you know. Secrecy is your greatest weapon. But Rey’s not actually here now, and the world hasn’t exactly been the labyrinth of fear and persecution that he always said it would be. I’ve been in Miami for over a year and I haven’t even heard so much as a whisper of the word “Lorien.” If Rey were still alive, we’d probably be fishing sea snails out of their shells with bamboo shoots while we sweated and half-starved on some tropic island.

No, I have to tell Ethan. Maybe he can help somehow. He’s smart and rich—maybe there’s some titanium-plated safe house he can take me to. Or weapons. Maybe he knows someone in the military who can nuke Mogadore.

Or something.

I slink through the dark house. Ethan’s bedroom door is cracked, but he’s not inside. No lights are on in the bathroom or closet. He’s not there.

Gone.

My heart skips a beat.

They’ve already come. They’ve taken him. It’s too late, and I’m fucked.

Then I notice Ethan’s bed. It’s still made. He hasn’t gone to sleep yet.

Maybe he’s still awake.

I make my way downstairs cautiously, looking for lights in the kitchen and den, but there are none. I’m about to go outside when I hear the faintest strains of music floating through the air from somewhere farther inside the house. One swelling measure, and then it’s gone.

Tiptoeing through the halls, I figure out where it’s coming from. The door to Ethan’s private study—the room that shall not be entered—is cracked open. There’s a sliver of light shining through.

No way.

I’ve been over every inch of this house for the past year and this is the only room my key card won’t open. I even tried to jimmy the lock with my telekinesis one day when Ethan was out, with no luck. It’s always been an impenetrable fortress.

Until now, I guess.

I push the door open just a little more and am surprised by how heavy it is. The thing must be made of metal or something. I peer in.

There’s a wall of bookshelves on one side, but most of the rest of the room is covered in charts and graphs. A big circular desk in the center of the floor has a map spread across it covered in pins and little flags. Ethan sits at his workstation. There are three—no, make that four—computer monitors hooked up to a couple of PC towers, and a laptop opened off to the side. Music pours out of speakers hidden around the room, the volume just above a whisper. Beethoven, I think, but I only know that because Ethan dragged me to a symphony once thinking I might take a liking to a bunch of violins or something.

Ethan’s back is to me, but I can hear him. He’s talking to someone. It looks like a video call. I can almost make out the person on the screen.

My body freezes. “Person” might be the wrong word.

The figure on the screen has black hair, slicked back, with some other black marks—birthmarks? Tattoos?—peeking out at the sides. His eyes are dark orbs. On the sides of his nose are shining little slivers of flesh, like monstrous gills standing out against his ashen skin.

I’ve seen faces like that before. Only once. In Canada.

A Mogadorian.

Before I can wrap my head around anything that’s going on, Ethan speaks.

“What about Four? Have you got a lock on him?”

My head pounds.

What’s going on?

“We have a few leads.” The Mog grins, exposing rows of gray teeth. “It shouldn’t be long now. It’s only a matter of waiting for him to slip up now that Number Three has been taken off the board. We’d had leads connecting him to Florida, but it seems like those were probably all pointing to your charge.”

No, no, no, none of this is right.

“More than likely.” Ethan nods. “None of our eyes in Miami have reported anything, at least.”

His charge. The Mog is talking about me. My heart leaps into my throat. They know where I am.

Is Ethan working for them? Is he one of them?

Nothing’s making sense. My thoughts race. The red mark on my calf burns.

“And Number Five?” the Mog bastard asks. “I trust his training continues as planned.”

My hands tremble.

“He remains well,” Ethan says. He cocks his head to the side just a bit. “In fact, he’s here right now.”

A little cry escapes through my lips.

“I’ll have to call you back,” Ethan says, tapping on the keyboard. The Mog disappears.

So do I.

I have to get out of this house. Whatever is happening, my cover’s been blown, and I can’t afford to stick around and try to figure things out.

I dart for the front door, but it’s locked. My key card is upstairs, but I have a sneaking suspicion that it wouldn’t do any good.

I head to the back door—the sliding one that opens up to the patio, the one that’s never locked—but it won’t budge. I pick up a nearby chair and slam it into the glass. It should be more than enough force to shatter it. Instead, the chair just bounces off.

This house suddenly seems like one big prison.

“Bulletproof,” Ethan says from behind me.

I whirl around, holding up my fists, ready to punch him or use my telekinesis against him. He just stands there unarmed with his hands out in front of him, the sleeves of his white dress shirt rolled up to his elbows.

“Explain yourself!” I shout with a fury I didn’t even know I had in me. I’m running on pure adrenaline now.

“Look, there’s no reason for us to fight. I don’t want to, and we both know there’s no way I could even attempt to match you if—” He takes a step forward and I blast him back, sending him toppling over a gray couch in the living room, crashing through a glass coffee table.

When he looks up, he seems oddly pleased.

“I deserved that.”

“Explain yourself,” I say again. Not as loud, but more earnestly.

What has he done? What have I done?

Ethan gets up slowly and sits on the edge of the couch. He pulls a piece of glass out of his palm, wincing slightly.

“All right,” he says. “Let’s be honest with each other for once.”

I nod. He takes a deep breath and then starts to talk.

“I am not a thief or playboy criminal or anything like that. Not originally, at least. That was just a persona that was created for me. We have so many ties to the people that run this city—both the criminals and the politicians—that it was easy to plant me here.”

“How did you even find me?” is all I can manage to sputter.

“You flew to shore last year. That sort of thing gets noticed. Maybe not by the media or the police, but people talk. And we were listening.”

“Who are you? You don’t look like a Mog.”

“Do you know about the Greeters?”

That word brings up memories of Rey talking. An image of us in Canada flashes in my mind, me tucked into bed and my Cêpan telling me about our escape from Lorien. Ethan just keeps on talking.

“The Greeters were humans who met the Cêpans when you first arrived on Earth. They helped the Garde transition into life here. That sort of thing.”

Garde. Cêpan. It’s so strange to hear these words coming out of Ethan’s mouth—words I’ve kept hidden for so long.

“Right,” I say. “So what does that have to do with you?”

“I was supposed to be one of them.”

“You’re a Greeter?”

“I was a part of this message board that a man named Malcolm . . . You know what, that part doesn’t matter. What matters is that I predicted the future. I know power—know potential—when I see it. That part of me is true. And I could see that there was no way that Lorien’s squad of children could ever hope to stand up to the Mogadorians. So when the Mogs came to Earth looking for you, I struck a deal with them. In exchange for my service, I will be spared. Earth’s future belongs to the Mogadorians, and when they take over they’ll remember that I was the one who helped them.” He slumps a little, and when he talks again it’s more to himself than to me. “I chose correctly too. The Greeters haven’t necessarily had a great life since then.”

“You sold me out so you could live,” I say quietly, backing up against the door. My eyes dart outside. Suddenly I realize what this means. “They’re here to kill me already, aren’t they?”

“Whoa, whoa,” Ethan says, raising his hands again, one of them bloody from the glass. “You misunderstand. I’m not helping them by handing you over to them so they can kill you. They don’t want to hurt you at all. I’m helping them by training you. You’re going to rule here, Cody. The Mogadorians want you to reign alongside them.”

My mouth drops open.

“What?” I ask again dumbly, but it’s the only word I can summon right now.

“The Garde are done for,” Ethan says. “You’ve got another scar, right? That leaves six of you. The Mogadorians have an entire army—hell, entire worlds at their disposal. Do you really think Lorien poses any threat? That Earth could stop them?”

I don’t answer, just stand there trying to make sense of everything that’s happening.

“Why me?”

“They have others. Number Nine is in their custody right now, but he’s not leadership material. I know, because I’ve met him. You’re the one that’s got what it takes. The power and the hunger. All this—this house, the staff, me teaching you—everything was put together for you. To make you stronger.”

“You have Nine?” My mind races. For so long the other Garde have just been stories and scars—it’s almost shocking to hear that Ethan’s actually met one of them.

“Oh yes,” Ethan says. “You wouldn’t like him. He’s arrogant and cocky. A pretty boy. And do you know where he and his Cêpan were while you were picking pockets on the beach to stay alive? In a giant apartment in Chicago. Living a life of luxury. The life you should have been leading—and have been leading since you’ve been in my care.”

The last year of my life has been a lie. No wonder I haven’t felt like I’ve been hunted while in Miami—I’ve been in their care the whole time.

“But . . .” I struggle for words. “Rey . . . my destiny . . .”

“Your destiny is whatever you make of it,” Ethan says. He pats at something in his pants pocket and I can hear a metallic click in the door behind me. “You’re free to go if you want. But think about what that would mean. Three have fallen. The rest will fall in time. You can die with them, for some fight that you inherited, a fight that was forced upon you, or you can live like a king. The Mogs will give you Earth. They’ll give you anything you want. You were raised to think of them as the enemy, but that’s just because it’s all you knew. It’s a weird form of brainwashing. Try to put things in perspective. The Mogs are not your enemy. They’re your only chance for survival.”

No.

Before Ethan can say anything else I’ve used my telekinesis to push open the back door and am soaring through the sky. I worry for a moment that something might shoot me down—that there are guns or lasers hidden in the trees around Ethan’s compound—but nothing stops me from going.

I fly out over the water, low enough that no one should be able to see me. The Garde. Ethan. The Mogs. My mind is a mess and I can’t think straight. It doesn’t help that I’m surrounded by nothing but ocean now, bringing back memories of Rey’s little sailboat and being lost out at sea, near death.

How is it possible that everything I’ve done has been so wrong?

I fly back to the mainland—miles and miles away from Ethan’s home—to try to calm down and think rationally. I land on the top of the tallest building in downtown Miami, perch on the edge of the roof. And there I sit, trying to make sense of it all.

Everything about my life after I crash-landed on the beach might have been arranged by the Mogs. Well, not everything. It would have taken a while for word to spread about me. Everything after meeting Ethan on the beach has probably been staged, but things before that might not have been.

Like Emma. Did she know about me? Was she just a plant to get me into Ethan’s sights? Part of the plan all along? For some reason, the answers to these questions nag at my brain. When she called me a monster, was it because she really thought I was one or because she was told to do so?

I take the little rubber ball from my pocket and roll it over the backs of my knuckles. It’s the only little piece of my past I have left. That and . . .

Shit.

My Loric Chest is back in my room at Ethan’s. Of course I forgot it. I’m such an idiot. Rey would be furious if he were alive to know I’d left it like I did during his fake Mog attack back on the island.

But Rey’s not here. It wasn’t even a Mogadorian that killed him. It was this planet. Or his own body.

Rey’s not here. No one is. It’s just me.

I’m alone again.

My thoughts flash to the other Garde. The Mogs have Nine. That means there are only five of us alive and free. Five of us against the world. Against several worlds.

I wonder if Ethan might be right. Maybe Lorien’s last-chance plan of enchanting a bunch of little kids and sending them to another planet never had any hope of success. We never even got to question whether that was what we wanted to do or not. No one asked us if we wanted to be the chosen ones.

I’m suddenly reminded of a movie Emma and I saw together before everything went to hell—some horror flick we’d laughed our way through. There was an island inhabited by a cult and a man was stranded on it. He and the rest of the audience knew that the people in the cult were crazy, but they didn’t. They’d been a part of the cult their whole lives and just couldn’t see that they were the bad guys.

Was that my story too?

I wish Rey were here to make sense of things. Already he’s fading from my memory. And the things I do remember vividly are his rules, or his disappointment, or his failed training.

And his last words. Do whatever it takes to survive.

I stay on the roof all night. By morning, I still don’t know what my next move should be. And even though I know I shouldn’t—that it’s probably being watched—I go to the beach where I first met Emma.

I find the arepa stand where I bought us snacks.

It takes the owner a few moments to recognize me with a few extra pounds and close-cropped hair. When he finally does, he looks spooked.

“Have you seen Emma around?” I ask him.

He shakes his head a little.

“She’s gone.”

“What do you mean, she’s gone?” I ask. My heart races. If the Mogs killed her . . .

“Her family moved a few months ago. Her brother had been in the hospital for a while, but when he finally got out, they wanted to start over somewhere new. They hightailed it out of here.”

His face is going pale. At first I think the Mogs have shown up behind me or something, but then I realize it’s me. Emma must have told him, or the other locals, what she’d seen. About what a freak I was.

The man crosses his hand over his head and chest. He keeps talking, but I walk away.

I wander aimlessly, frustration growing inside me. Four other Garde are free, but hidden away. Probably living in high-rises or penthouses like Nine was. And here I am alone again. Forgotten. Having to start over.

Something hot boils up inside me. I slam my fist against the brick wall of a store beside me. And then, something strange starts to happen.

My body changes.

I can feel it stiffening and growing heavy. My skin grows dry and looks brittle.

I take a few steps away from the wall and back into a stop sign on the street. I wrap my fingers around it for balance—my head is spinning—and squeeze. The metal crumples under my touch.

Then my skin changes again. It takes on a silvery sheen. I stumble forward, pulse quickening. I lean against a storefront window. Again I change. I raise my hand. I can see through it.

Glass. I’ve turned into glass.

At first I think I’m dying—maybe I’ve been poisoned somehow. But with every step I take and every different material my fingers graze, it becomes more apparent what’s happening.

I’m turning into the things I touch.

My hands shake. My eyes grow wide and dry. It’s everything I can do just to keep breathing at a normal pace.

It’s early in the morning, and there aren’t many people around, but that will change. Soon, there’ll be crowds everywhere. Whatever is happening to me, I can’t stay out in the open.

I have to get to safety. To shelter.

I don’t want to be alone.

There’s only one person I know who can help me. Only one person I know, period.

I somehow manage to turn into a normal, fleshy human again, and then I’m in the air, flying faster than I ever have before, throwing caution to the wind as I soar high over the city. When I crash onto the beach at the back of Ethan’s property, one of the maids sees me and runs inside.

I try to stand on the beach, but suddenly I’m sinking—no, not sinking, I’m falling apart as my legs disintegrate, breaking up and turning into tiny pieces of earth. I’m becoming one with the beach. I scream as I start to collapse in on myself.

What’s happening? I wonder frantically. And then another, more pressing thought appears. I’m going to die a pile of beach.

“Cody!” someone shouts. It’s Ethan. The maid must have found him.

My torso’s falling apart now. I try to shout to Ethan but the only thing that escapes my throat is a dry wheeze. I reach forward, but my arm is already starting to break down.

He runs straight for me, grabbing my hand as best as he can, but half of it slips through his fingers. Part of me touches his watch and I start to solidify again, this time taking on a gold, metallic sheen. The rest of my body follows suit.

I hyperventilate. My heart thumps in my chest, and I swear for a moment it sounds like metal, clanging against my rib cage. That makes me freak out even more, and I can’t catch my breath.

“Calm down,” Ethan says. “This is . . .” He struggles to find the right word. “I guess you’re developing new powers or something.”

Calm down? Is he joking?

“Breathe, Cody,” he says.

I almost shout “You know that’s not my name” but stop myself.

The maid reappears. She hands a little black bag to Ethan. He says something back to her that I don’t hear while I continue to have the panic attack to end all panic attacks.

He pulls out a little vial of something from the bag. He snaps it in two and holds it up to my face.

“What—” I start.

“Just something to help you relax,” he says.

Some kind of white smoke drifts out of the vial and I start to feel light and dizzy.

“There you go,” Ethan says.

He grabs my hand to help me to my feet, and I don’t know if it’s the weird smoke or touching real human flesh, but suddenly I’m me again—flesh and bone and not looking like some kind of gold robot.

Before I know it I find it hard to think of anything—to even feel anything—and all I see is black.

When I wake up, I expect to be restrained or locked up somehow, but I’m still just lying on top of the covers. The window is even open. My duffel bag is on the bed beside me, my Loric Chest still inside.

Ethan sits in a chair at the foot of the bed.

“Good afternoon,” he says. There’s hesitancy in his voice, like he’s unsure how to act. Or how I’ll act.

I glance around, looping my arm through the straps of my bag.

“What did you give me?” I ask, thinking back to the strange white smoke.

“Nothing harmful,” Ethan says. “Just a little tranquilizer. I was afraid you were going to hurt yourself if you didn’t stop changing.”

My heart starts beating furiously as I remember the feeling of breaking apart on the beach.

“No,” Ethan says in his most authoritative voice. “Calm down. Breathe deeply. You don’t want to start morphing again.”

I nod, trying to focus on taking long, slow breaths. There’s a residual numbness from whatever the drug was. I feel alert and focused, but relaxed.

Ethan’s eyebrows knit together. Either he’s genuinely worried about me or he’s a really great actor. I’m not sure which is the case at this point. He throws his hands out to his sides.

“I’m sure you have a lot of questions,” he says. “It’s just you and me.”

“Like I’m supposed to believe you.”

“It’s important to them that you come of your own free will. That only makes sense. The Mogadorians don’t want someone they’ve forced to rule. They want someone who wants to be a part of their cause.”

“Free will?” I mutter. “That’s what you call all the lies you’ve told me?”

Ethan frowns.

I grip the handles of the duffel bag. I can be out the window in an instant if I need to be. But a huge part of me really wants to talk to Ethan, to find out why he’s done these things. To answer all the questions welling up inside me.

“Was Emma in on this?”

“Emma,” Ethan says with a frown. “No, she didn’t know anything that was going on. The men who attacked you at the warehouse were staged, but I honestly had no idea her brother would be one of them. They were just lackeys. I believe her family has moved to Tampa since you’ve been here. We keep tabs on them. I could have her brought here if you wanted.”

“No,” I say. All that means is that her hatred of me—her calling me a freak—was real. She was not really my friend. I wonder if that’s how all humans react to Legacies and superpowers like mine.

“You found Emma yourself. All I did was nudge you. Hell, all I did was show up on the beach and give you an opportunity. You came to us. You just didn’t know who we were.” He leans in a little. “Think about it. The Loric never gave you the choice we’re giving you. They put a spell on you and sent you away. They told you who you had to be. All I’m offering you is another way. A better way.”

“What about the other Garde?”

He shrugs.

“Maybe they’ll learn to see reason too.”

“And if I leave?”

“I’m not going to stop you,” Ethan says, looking very serious. “The last thing I want is for you to be hurt. But once you leave I can’t protect you any longer. If you turn down this offer, you’re the enemy. You won’t even be safe here. You’ve probably guessed it by now, but this isn’t my house. The Mogadorians arranged for it.”

“If I leave, you’ve failed your mission, haven’t you?” I ask.

Ethan nods. I know what this means. I’ve heard enough stories about the ruthlessness of the Mogs to know that they don’t tolerate failures. If I leave, Ethan is probably as good as dead.

I stare at him. Everything has happened so fast. Everything’s changed so quickly.

“I know you, Five,” Ethan says. “How good it makes you feel to be in control and respected. You can feel like that forever when you’re ruling with the Mogs. I’ve seen their power. It’s amazing. And they want you to be a part of it. They want you to be on their side, be one of them.”

“Everything out there can be yours,” I say, quoting Ethan’s favorite motto.

“Everything,” he says.

I close my eyes. It’s all too much to take in. But what Ethan says makes sense. At least, mostly.

The Elders left me with a dying old man to protect me. The Mogs built me up and gave me anything I wanted. Groomed me. They’re the ones who have shown me the most respect in my lifetime.

They’re the ones who can keep me alive.

I think of the other Garde. What easy lives they’ve probably had. Competent Cêpans. Homes in cities. One day in the future they will likely look at me and tell me that I’ve betrayed them. But who knows? Maybe they’ll see reason. If I can just talk to them, maybe they’ll start to see things differently. Why should we be hunted down like animals when we could be rulers? The humans don’t have powers like ours. They think we’re freaks. Monsters. We could show them what we truly are together.

“Okay,” I say slowly. “What do we do now?”

Relief washes over Ethan’s face, and his smile erupts again, the one I know so well by now.

“I’ll let them know,” he says. “Get your things together. They’ll want to talk with you as soon as possible.”

I nod, and head to the stairs.

“Hey.” Ethan turns back to me before leaving. “I’m proud of you. You’re doing the right thing. You’re doing the smart thing. That’s the biggest test of all.”

I move as if in a daze. My body functions, but it’s as if someone else is controlling it. I wonder briefly if I’m in shock. That’s what they always say on TV when someone’s been through something crazy like this.

“We’re heading up north,” Ethan yells from the stairs. “Grab a coat.”

I pull some cold-weather clothes out of the back of my closet—stuff Ethan bought me a while ago that I’ve never had reason to wear. Then I head for the door.

I pause and then turn back. I pick up my duffel bag and take my Loric Chest out, placing it on the bed. All the useless stuff is still there. I run my fingers over the items before picking up the hidden blade.

It might be smart to keep this handy, just in case we run into trouble.

I slip the bracer on over my hand and wrist, and then put a glove on over it.

Just in case we run into trouble.

There’s a chopping noise coming from outside my window. I look out and see a black helicopter landing on the sprawling yard of the house.

CHAPTER TEN

WE’RE IN THE HELICOPTER FOR WHAT SEEMS like a long time. It’s small, but fast. I don’t know who the pilot is and I don’t ask. All I know is that we have to wear these big noise-canceling headphones with radios built into them, and that’s the only way the three of us—me, Ethan, and the pilot—can talk to one another. None of us does, which is all right with me. I’m too busy trying to remain calm, focusing on the grass and roads flying by beneath me. Pretending the cars and trucks are toys.

Ethan keeps grinning, like he’s just won the lottery. I imagine the Mogs will reward him somehow for helping to recruit me. I start to pick apart everything he’s said and done in the past year, but I have to stop. Every time I start doing that, I begin to second-guess myself. So instead I just stare at the clouds and cities and pastures sweeping by beneath us, trying to steel myself for whatever’s coming next. I take deep breaths and keep my hands clasped together, trying not to freak out about the fact that I’m heading to Mog central.

For some reason I think they’re going to take me to some kind of alien ship or even an old Gothic mansion, but we land at a big, sterile-looking building. It’s still dark outside, but from what I can tell the place looks like a big office—not at all the HQ I would have expected the Mogs to be using.

Men in black suits meet us at the front doors. They look human enough, and nod—almost bow—to me in reverence when we approach. I try to keep my body from shaking, which takes a lot of effort. Everything is new and different and terrifying, and for a few passing moments all I want is to be sitting on the beach on my little island, even though by this point I probably couldn’t even find it if I tried.

“Welcome, sir,” they both say.

Inside, we’re escorted past a front desk and around security. I notice a placard on a wall as we pass: Federal Bureau of Investigation.

“Is this, like, a government facility?” I whisper to Ethan.

“I told you,” he says. “They’ve got eyes all over the place. They’ve got resources everywhere.”

He winks at me, though this fact is both impressive and unsettling. I’m beginning to see just how useless all the hiding and moving was.

We continue to silently wind through a few halls, down a set of stairs, and into what must be an underground level. Finally, we come to two doors next to each other.

“You’re in here,” one of the men says, motioning from me to the first door. Then he turns to Ethan. “You’re in the other one.”

“Wait,” I say, stepping forward. They can’t separate us. I don’t want to be alone in here. Panic starts to rise up in me. I can feel my skin start to change, taking on the properties of my duffel bag handles, all leathery and smooth. “Why can’t we—”

“It’s fine,” Ethan says in the most soothing voice he can. It works, because I start to calm down. “They just want to talk to you. It’s probably classified info or something like that. It’s okay. You’re their VIP. Don’t worry.”

I nod reluctantly. Ethan disappears into his appointed room. I stand in the hallway for a few seconds before one of the men clears his throat. I shoot him an annoyed look and then go inside.

It’s the kind of room I recognize from watching too many crime shows on cable over the last year. It’s empty except for a swinging light, a few chairs, and a big metal desk in the center of the room that looks like it could double as an operating table. An interrogation room. I swallow hard.

“Please, have a seat,” someone says.

I turn to see the Mogadorian Ethan was videoconferencing with last night standing in the corner. His gleaming black hair reflects the swinging light, black eyes twinkling. His lips spread across his gray teeth. He has to be seven feet tall, at least.

“We’ve been expecting you, Five,” he continues, his voice rich and low as he waves towards one of the chairs. I hesitate, and then take a seat. The Mog sits across from me.

I’m sitting across from a Mogadorian.

Suddenly, all I can remember are stories Rey told me growing up. About how the Mogs invaded, and about all the terrors they brought with them to our planet. You’d think that they were monsters—and though this guy is definitely creepy and intimidating, he doesn’t look all that different from me, all things considered.

Still, it’s hard for me to keep my fingers from drumming on the table. I pull my hands back, crossing my arms. That’s when I feel the Loric glove and its hidden blade.

Rey always told me that if I was caught I’d be tortured. If that’s what this is really about—all one setup to try to torture me—will I be fast enough to use the blade to escape? Either by destroying the Mogs or myself?

“We’re very pleased with your decision to join us, young Lorien,” the Mog says.

“I don’t have much of a choice if I want to live,” I say.

“An intelligent boy. I always knew we were correct in placing our bets on you. If only more of your kind were able to see the true extent of our might and the inevitability of the Mogadorian rule, we might have saved many casualties.”

“You’ve been in contact with the others?” I ask.

“In some ways.”

“What’s your plan? Are you going after Four next?”

“Based on the charm that protects all of you, that would make sense,” the Mog says, grinning widely, exposing those hideous teeth once again. “Of course, it’s possible that charm has its limits. How many times do you think it will work before it finally fails? We have so many soldiers and scouts willing to test out the spell’s longevity, happy to die in the name of securing our future.”

He’s going to try to kill me, I think. In an instant, I’ve got one glove off and a hand on the table. It’s as if by instinct. I haven’t trained with my newest power, but I take a chance. Sure enough, my skin goes silver as I absorb the properties of the metal. If nothing else it should buy me some time if he attacks me.

The Mog laughs a little.

“Oh, don’t worry. We have others we could test that out on. Isn’t it obvious by now that we have a much brighter future prepared for you?”

“You have other Garde here?” I remember Ethan mentioning Nine being held captive. The idea of meeting another of my kind makes my pulse pound.

I don’t want to do it. Not now, at least. I couldn’t face one of them as someone who turned on them. Not until I’m stronger, until I’ve got my head on right and can really talk some sense into them.

“In due time, you’ll learn about all the ways that we’ve ensured our success in the extermination of the Garde. But we can’t just go around telling you all our secrets, now, can we? Not if you were planning on double-crossing us or were to report back to the Garde. You must prove your loyalty to us before we can continue.”

I hesitate, and focus on my breathing. On calming down. My body changes back to normal, and I place my palms on the table before me.

“A useful power,” the Mog says. “Ethan had not mentioned it in his reports.”

“It’s new,” I say. “Very new.”

He just nods.

“We can help you with that. With all your skills. By the time we’re through training you, you’ll be one of the most powerful players in our ranks. There is not a place on this planet that will be worthy of your rule.”

Something sparks in me. The memory of a place. A destination I never made it to.

“Canada,” I say.

“I’m sorry?”

“Canada. I would want to rule over Canada.”

The Mog looks confused for a moment, and then smirks.

“How about all of North America. To start with.”

I nod. I don’t know how else to respond to being offered a continent.

“But, first, your loyalty,” he continues. “This is the sort of deal that is usually inked in blood.”

Blood?

“What do you want me to do?”

The Mog turns his head, nodding toward Ethan’s room.

“He has served us well.”

“What?” I ask. Ethan? My stomach turns. Surely he can’t mean what I think he means—that he wants me to kill the only person I have in the world. “But you made a deal with Ethan.” My voice threatens to shake.

I start to go on, almost pleading, but the Mog just lets out what might be a laugh, but sounds more like choking.

“No, no, dear boy. We aren’t asking you to hurt Ethan. That human has served us very well. And we honor our deals. I simply point out that Ethan went through some of the same trials you will have to go through in the future to prove his intentions to us. Your loyalty to him is commendable, but we’re going to have to harden your resolve.”

I exhale long and hard.

The Mog places a folder on the table.

“There will be a sacrifice to us. Not immediately, but once you’re ready. When we’ve trained you, and helped you unlock your full potential. There’s a picture of your target in here.” He slides the folder across the table. “Would you like to see who it is?”

I don’t touch the document.

“We are offering you the world, Five. Prove yourself, and we will make you a god on this planet. If you are serious about joining us, this is the way it must be. Not only as proof of your loyalty, but proof that you have what it takes to rule in the name of Mogadore. There is much to come. We have no room for the squeamish.”

And if I don’t do it, he’ll have me thrown into a cell and probably tortured. Ethan too. This he doesn’t say, but I know it must be true.

For a moment this scenario seems strangely familiar. My mind flashes back to our little shack on the island. The hogs snorting wildly, practically screaming in their pen. The scared snake, raised halfway off the ground like a clenched spring, ready to strike. Rey telling me to kill it before it harmed one of us. It was the snake or us. It just had to be that way.

The memory seems so far away. So long ago.

I’d simply stood there, not wanting to have to do anything. Hoping that everything would work out somehow—that the danger would go away on its own.

But that’s not how the world works. It’s no use just sitting around waiting for danger to come to me. At least with the Mogs, I’ll know the danger. I’ll be the danger.

Do whatever it takes to stay alive.

Rey’s last words to me.

“All right,” I say. My voice wavers a little, and I try to even it out as I continue. “If that’s what it takes to show my allegiance.”

The Mog grins.

I stare at the folder. I don’t have to open it, but I realize that this—like so many other things in my life—is a test. To see if I have the stomach for what’s to come. I’m going to have to get used to this sort of thing. Harden myself. The Mogs won’t coddle me—of this I have no doubt. They’re ruthless and powerful. That’s what I’ll have to become.

I take a deep breath and open the folder.

Excerpt from The Fall of Five

DON’T MISS BOOK FOUR IN THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING I AM NUMBER FOUR SERIES

CHAPTER ONE

TONIGHT’S ESCAPE FANTASY STARS SIX. A HORDE of Mogadorians stands between her and my cell—which isn’t technically realistic. The Mogs don’t usually devote any manpower whatsoever to keeping watch on me, but this is a dream, so whatever. The Mog warriors unsheathe their daggers and charge forward, howling. In response, Six tosses her hair and turns invisible. I watch from between the bars of my cell as she slices through the Mogs, blinking in and out of visibility, turning their own weapons against them. She twists her way through an ever-increasing cloud of ash, the Mogs soon completely decimated.

“That was pretty awesome,” I tell her, when she reaches the door of my cell. She smiles nonchalantly.

“Ready to go?” she asks.

And that’s when I wake up. Or when I snap out of the daydream. Sometimes it’s tough to tell whether I’m asleep or awake; every moment tends to take on a drowsy sameness when you’ve been kept in isolation for weeks. At least, I think it’s been weeks. Hard to keep track of time since there are no windows in my cell. The only thing I’m really certain of is that my imaginings of escape aren’t real. Sometimes it’s like tonight and Six has come to rescue me, other times it’s John, and other times I’ve developed Legacies of my own and I fly out of my cell, pummeling Mogadorians as I go.

It’s all fantasy. Just a way for my anxious mind to pass the time.

The sweat-soaked mattress with broken springs that dig into my back? That’s real. The cramps in my legs and my backache? Those are real, too.

I reach for the bucket of water on the floor next to me. A guard brings the bucket once a day along with a cheese sandwich. It’s not exactly room service, even though, as far as I can tell, I’m the only prisoner being held in this cell block—it’s just rows and rows of empty cells connected by steel gangways, and me alone.

The guard always sets the bucket down right next to my cell’s stainless-steel toilet, and I always drag the bucket over next to my bed, the closest thing I get to exercise. I eat the sandwich right away, of course. I don’t remember what it feels like not to be starving.

Processed cheese on stale bread, a toilet without a seat, and total isolation. That’s been my life.

When I first got here, I tried to keep track of how often the guard came so that I could keep count of the days, but sometimes I think they forget about me. Or ignore me on purpose. My greatest fear is that they’ll just leave me in here to waste away, that I’ll just pass out from dehydration, not even realizing that I’m living my last moment. I’d much rather die free, fighting the Mogadorians.

Or, better yet, not die at all.

I take a deep swig of the warm, rust-flavored water. It’s disgusting, but I’m able to work some moisture back into my mouth. I stretch my arms above my head, my joints popping in protest. A jolt of pain comes from my wrists, my stretch pulling at the still-fresh scar tissue there. And that’s when my mind starts wandering again—this time not into fantasy, but memory.

I think about West Virginia every day. I relive it.

I remember darting through those tunnels, clutching that red stone Nine had loaned me, shining its alien light on dozens of cell doors. In each one I hoped to find my father, and each time I was disappointed.

Then the Mogs came, cutting me off from John and Nine. I remember the fear that came from being separated from the others—maybe they could fight off that many Mogs and Piken with their Legacies. Unfortunately, all I had was a stolen Mog blaster.

I did the best I could, shooting any Mog that got too close, all the while trying to find a way back to John and Nine.

I could hear John shouting my name above all the fighting. He was close, if only we weren’t separated by a horde of alien beasts.

A monster’s tail lashed across my legs. My feet went out from under me. I lost my grip on Nine’s stone and went tumbling to the ground. I hit face first, opening up a gash above my eyebrow. Blood immediately started trickling into my eyes. Half blinded, I crawled for cover.

Of course, considering the lucky streak I’d been on since arriving in West Virginia, it wasn’t that surprising that I ended up right at the feet of a Mogadorian warrior. He aimed his blaster at me, could’ve killed me right then, but reconsidered before pulling the trigger. Instead of gunning me down, he clipped me on the temple with the butt of the gun.

Everything went black.

I woke up suspended from the ceiling by thick chains. Still in the cave, yet somehow I could tell they’d taken me deeper, to a more secure area. My stomach sank when I realized the cave was still standing at all, that I was being held prisoner—what did that mean about John and Nine? Had they gotten out?

I didn’t have much strength in my limbs, but I tried pulling against the chains anyway. There was no give. I felt desperate and claustrophobic. I was about to cry out when a huge Mogadorian strode into the room. The biggest one I’d ever seen, with an ugly purple scar on his neck and a strange-looking golden cane clutched in one of his massive hands. He was absolutely hideous, like a nightmare, but I couldn’t look away. Somehow, his empty black eyes held my gaze.

“Hello, Samuel,” he said as he stalked towards me. “Do you know who I am?”

I shook my head, my mouth suddenly beyond dry.

“I am Setrákus Ra. Supreme commander of the Mogadorian Empire, engineer of the Great Expansion, beloved leader.” He bared his teeth in what I realized was supposed to be a smile. “Et cetera.”

The ringmaster of a planetary genocide and the mastermind behind an upcoming invasion of Earth had just addressed me by name. I tried to think of what John would do in a situation like this—he’d never flinch in the face of his greatest enemy. I, on the other hand, started to shake, the chains that bound my wrists clanking together.

I could tell Setrákus appreciated my fear. “This can be painless, Samuel. You’ve chosen the wrong side, but I am nothing if not forgiving. Tell me what I want to know and I’ll set you free.”

“Never,” I stammered, shaking even harder as I anticipated what would come next.

I heard a hissing noise from above and looked up to see viscous black goo dribbling down the chain. It was acrid and chemical, like burning plastic. I could swear the sludge was leaving rust marks on the chain as it dribbled down towards me, and soon it was coating my wrists. I was screaming. The pain was excruciating and the goo had a stickiness to it that made it even worse, as if my wrists were covered in scalding tree sap.

I was about to pass out from the pain when Setrákus touched his staff to my neck, lifting my chin with it. An icy numbness flowed through my body and the pain on my wrists was momentarily eased. It was a twisted kind of relief; a deathly numbness radiated from Setrákus’s staff, like my limbs had been drained of blood.

“Just answer my questions,” snarled Setrákus, “and this can be over.”

His first questions were about John and Nine—where they would go, what they would do next. I felt relieved knowing that they’d escaped, and even more relieved that I hadn’t a clue where they’d be hiding. I had been the one holding on to Six’s instructions, which had meant John and Nine would need to figure out a new plan, one that I couldn’t possibly give away while being tortured. The paper was now missing, so it seemed like a safe bet that the Mogs had searched me while I was unconscious and confiscated the address. Hopefully Six would approach with caution.

“Wherever they end up, it won’t be long until they’re back here kicking your ass,” I told Setrákus. And that was my one badass, heroic moment, because the Mogadorian leader snorted and immediately pulled his staff away from me. The pain in my wrists returned—it was as if the Mogadorian goop was eating right down to my bones.

I was panting and crying the next time Setrákus touched his staff to me, giving me a reprieve. The fight, what little there’d been to begin with, had completely gone out of me.

“What about Spain?” he asked. “What can you tell me about that?”

“Six . . . ,” I mumbled, and regretted it. I needed to keep my mouth shut.

The questions kept coming. After Spain it was India, and then questions about the locations of Loralite stones, which I’d never even heard of. Eventually, he asked me about “the tenth,” something that Setrákus seemed particularly invested in. I remembered Henri writing about a tenth in his letter to John and how that last Garde didn’t make it off Lorien. When I told Setrákus that—information I hoped wouldn’t somehow hurt the remaining Garde—he was infuriated.

“You’re lying to me, Samuel. I know she’s here. Tell me where.”

“I don’t know,” I kept repeating, my voice shaking more and more. With every answer, or lack thereof, Setrákus pulled back his staff and let me feel the searing pain again.

Eventually, Setrákus gave up and just stared at me, disgusted. I was delirious at this point. As if with a mind of its own, the dark ooze slowly crawled back up the chain, disappearing into the dark recess it’d come from.

“You’re useless, Samuel,” he’d said, dismissively. “It appears the Loric only value you as a sacrificial lamb, a diversion to be left behind when they’re in need of a hasty escape.”

Setrákus swept out of the room and later, after I’d hung there for a while slipping in and out of consciousness, some of his soldiers came to retrieve me. They dumped me in a dark cell where I was sure they’d leave me to die.

Days later the Mogadorians dragged me out of my cell and handed me over to a pair of guys with buzz cuts and dark suits, and guns holstered beneath their coats. Humans. They looked like FBI or CIA or something. I don’t know why any human would want to work with the Mogs. It makes my blood boil just to think about it, these agents selling out humanity. Even so, the agents were gentler than the Mogadorians, one of them even mumbling an apology as he clasped a pair of manacles over my burned wrists. Then, they pulled a hood over my head, and that was the last I saw of them.

I was driven nonstop for at least two days, chained in the back of a van. After that, I was shoved into another cell—this cell, my new home—an entire block in some big base where I was the only prisoner.

I shudder when I think about Setrákus Ra, something I can’t help but do every time I catch a glimpse of the lingering blisters and scars on my wrists. I’ve tried to put that horrifying encounter out of my head, telling myself that what he’d said wasn’t true. I know John didn’t use me to cover his escape, and I know that I’m not useless. I can help John and the other Garde, just like my father was doing before he disappeared. I know I have some part to play, even if it isn’t clear exactly what that’s going to be.

When I get out of here—if I ever get out of here—my new goal in life is to prove Setrákus Ra wrong.

I’m so frustrated that I pound the mattress in front of me. As soon as I do, a layer of dust shakes loose from the ceiling, and a faint rumbling passes through the floor. It’s almost as if my punch sent a shockwave through the entire cell.

I look down at my hand in awe. Maybe those daydreams about developing my own Legacies weren’t so farfetched. I try to remember back to John’s backyard in Paradise, when Henri would lecture him about focusing his power. I squint hard and ball my fist up tight.

Even though it feels nuts and a little embarrassing, I punch the mattress again, just to see what happens.

Nothing. Just a soreness in my arms from not using those muscles in days. I’m not developing Legacies. That’s impossible for a human being and I know that. I’m just getting desperate. And maybe a little crazy.

“Okay, Sam,” I say to myself, my voice hoarse. “Keep it together.”

As soon as I lie back down, resigned to another endless stretch alone with my thoughts, a second jolt ripples through the floor. This one is much bigger than the first; I can feel it in my very bones. More plaster drifts down from the ceiling. It coats my face and gets in my mouth, bitter and chalky tasting. Moments later, I hear the muffled drumbeat of gunfire.

This isn’t a dream at all. I can distantly hear the sounds of a fight from somewhere deep within the base. The floor shakes again—another explosion. As long as I’ve been here, they’ve never done any kind of training or drills. Hell, I never hear anything except the echoing footsteps of the guard bringing me my food. And now this sudden action? What could be happening?

For the first time in—days? weeks?—I allow myself to hope. It’s the Garde. It has to be. They’ve come to rescue me.

“This is it, Sam,” I tell myself, willing myself to move.

I stand up and move shakily to the door of my cell. My legs feel like jelly. I haven’t had much reason to use them since they brought me here. Even crossing the short distance of my cell to the door is enough to make my head swim. I press my forehead to the cool metal of the bars, waiting for the dizziness to pass. I can feel reverberations of the fight below passing through the metal, growing stronger and more intense.

“John!” I shout, my voice hoarse. “Six! Anyone! I’m here! I’m in here!”

Part of me thinks it’s silly to cry out, as if the Garde could hear my cries over the massive battle it sounds like they’re fighting. It’s that same part of me that’s wanted to give up, to just curl up in my cell and wait out my ultimate fate. It’s the same part of me that thinks the Garde would be stupid to try to rescue me.

It’s the part of me that believed Setrákus Ra. I can’t give in to that feeling of despair. I have to prove him wrong.

I need to make some noise.

“John!” I scream again. “I’m in here, John!”

Weak as I feel, I pound my fists against the steel bars as hard as I can. The sound echoes throughout the empty block, but there’s no way the Garde could hear it above the muffled gunfire coming through the walls. It’s hard to tell over the increasing sounds of battle, but I think I hear footsteps rattling across the steel gangway that connects the cells. Too bad I can’t see anything beyond the few feet in front of my cell. If there is someone in here with me, I’ve got to get their attention and just hope it isn’t a Mog guard.

I grab my water bucket and dump out what’s left of my day’s supply. My plan—the best one I’ve got—is to bang it against the bars of my cell.

When I turn back around, there’s a guy standing outside my door.

CHAPTER TWO

HE’S TALL AND GAUNT, MAYBE A FEW YEARS older than me, with a shock of black hair that hangs in front of his face. It looks like he’s just been in a fight, dirt and sweat smudged across his pale face. I stare at him, wide-eyed—it’s been so long since I’ve seen another person. He looks almost equally surprised to see me.

There’s something off about him. Something not quite right.

The slightly too pale skin. The darkness around the edges of his eyes. He’s one of them.

I back up farther into my cell, hiding the empty water bucket behind my back. If he comes in here, I’m going to clock him with all the strength I have left.

“Who are you?” I ask, trying to keep my voice steady.

“We’re here to help,” the guy replies. He sounds uncomfortable, like he doesn’t know what to say.

Before I can ask who he means by “we,” a man shoves him aside. There are deep lines on his face, which is covered by a scruffy growth of beard. My mouth hangs open in disbelief and I take another step back into my cell, startled again, but this time for a different reason. I don’t know why I expected him to look like the pictures hanging in our family room, but it’s just the way I always imagined this moment. Years have passed, yet underneath the deep crevices I still recognize this man, especially when he smiles at me.

“Dad?”

“I’m here, Sam. I’m back.”

My face hurts and it takes me a moment to realize why. I’m smiling. Grinning, in fact. It’s the first time I’ve used those muscles in weeks.

We hug through the bars, the metal pressed uncomfortably into my ribs, but I don’t care. He’s here. He’s really here. I’d fantasized about the Garde coming to rescue me. Never in my wildest dreams did I think my father would be the one saving me from this place. I guess I always thought that I’d be the one rescuing him.

“I—I’ve been looking for you,” I tell him. I wipe my forearm across my eyes; that strange Mogadorian is still hovering nearby and I don’t want him to see me cry.

My dad squeezes me through the bars. “You’ve grown up so much,” he says, a note of sadness in his voice.

“Guys,” the Mog interrupts, “we have company.”

I can hear them coming. Soldiers pouring into the cell block from below, their boots rattling the gangway as they run up the metal stairs towards us. Finally, I’ve found my dad, he’s right here in front of me, and it’s all about to be ripped away.

The Mogadorian pulls my dad away from my cell door. He turns to me, his voice commanding.

“Stand in the center of your cell and cover your head.”

My instinct is not to trust him. He’s one of them. Except why would one of the Mogadorians bring my father here? Why would he try to help us? There’s no time to think about that now, not with other Mogadorians—ones I can guarantee aren’t here to help—closing in.

I do as he ordered.

The Mogadorian reaches his hands through the bars of my cell, focusing on the wall behind me. Maybe it’s because I was just thinking about them, but for some reason, I’m reminded of those early days when we tested John’s Legacies in the backyard. It’s something about the way this Mogadorian focuses—the determination in his eyes undermined by shaking hands, like he doesn’t quite know what he’s doing.

I feel something pass through the floor beneath me, like a ripple of energy. Then, with a piercing crack, the wall behind me crumbles. A piece of the ceiling shakes loose, smashing my toilet. The floor shifts and moves beneath my feet, and I’m thrown to the ground. It’s like the entire block of cells has been hit by a tiny earthquake. Everything is tilted. My stomach turns over, and it’s not entirely due to the shaky floor. It’s fear. Somehow, that Mogadorian just knocked down a wall with his mind. It was almost as if he was using a Legacy.

But that’s impossible, right?

Outside my cell, my dad and the Mogadorian have been knocked backwards against the gangway’s railing. The door of my cell is cockeyed now, the metal warped and bent. There’s enough space for them to squeeze through.

As the Mogadorian pushes my dad towards the door of my cell, he points to the opening in the wall behind me.

“Go!” he shouts. “Run!”

I hesitate for a moment, glancing at my dad. He’s already squeezing through the bars. I reassure myself that he’ll be right behind me.

I cough as some of the dust from the destroyed wall enters my lungs. Through the opening in the wall I can see the inner workings of the base; pipes and ventilation shafts, clumps of wiring and insulation.

Wrapping my legs around one of the larger pipes, I start shimmying down. Pins and needles shoot through my weakened legs and for a moment I’m worried that I’ll lose my grip and slip. But then the adrenaline kicks in and my grip tightens. Escape is so close, I have to push myself.

I see my dad’s shadow in the opening above me. He’s hesitating.

“What’re you doing?!” my dad shouts at the Mog. “Adam?”

I hear the Mogadorian—Adam—reply, his voice resolute. “Go with your son. Now.”

My dad starts climbing down after me, but I’ve stopped. I’m thinking about what it was like to be left behind in one of these places. Mogadorian or not, this Adam guy just broke me out of jail and reunited me with my father. He shouldn’t have to face down those soldiers alone.

I call up to my dad. “We’re just going to leave him?”

“Adam knows what he’s doing,” my dad answers, but his voice sounds unsure. “Keep moving, Sam!”

Another vibration strikes, nearly shaking me loose from the pipe. I look up to check on my dad, just as another shock wave jostles loose the gun he’s been carrying in the back of his pants. I’m clinging too tightly to the pipe to catch it and the weapon goes plummeting into the darkness below.

“Damn it,” he grunts.

The Mogs must have closed in on Adam and he’s fighting back. Shortly after the shock wave comes a metallic rending sound, a sound that can only be the gangway coming apart—I can picture it tearing loose from outside the cells, the whole structure crumbling with it. A couple loose bricks tumble down from above, and Dad and I both duck until it’s safe again.

At least Adam’s giving them a fight back there. But we need to move fast before he brings the place down on top of us.

I keep shimmying down. The space inside the walls is tight, a claustrophobic’s worst nightmare, with screws and loose wires ripping at my clothes.

“Sam, up here. Help me with this.”

My dad stopped in front of a ventilation shaft that I hadn’t noticed. I slip a little when I climb back up, but he reaches down to steady me. Together, we hook our fingers through the metal grate and yank it loose.

“This should lead us outside.”

No sooner are we army-crawling through the shaft than a massive explosion rocks us. We stop moving as the metal duct creaks and whines, both of us braced for the whole thing to collapse, but it holds.

We can hear screaming and sirens through the walls of the base. The fighting that I heard before has only intensified.

“Sounds like a war out there,” my dad says, crawling forward again.

“Did you bring the Garde?” I ask him, hopefully.

“No, Sam, it was just Adam and me.”

“Pretty amazing timing, Dad. You and the Garde all manage to show up at the exact same time?”

“I think this family was due for some good luck,” my dad replies. “Let’s just be thankful for the distraction and get the hell out of here.”

“It’s them fighting out there. I know it. They’re the only ones bold enough to attack a Mogadorian base.” I pause, forgetting about the danger for a moment, a giddy smile exploding onto my face as I realize my father just broke into a Mog base. “Dad,” I say, “I’m so glad to see you and everything, but you have so much explaining to do.”

BACK ADS

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

AUTHOR PHOTO © HOWARD HUANG

PITTACUS LORE is Lorien’s ruling Elder. He has been on Earth preparing for the war that will decide Earth’s fate. His whereabouts are unknown.

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THE LORIEN LEGACIES BY PITTACUS LORE

NOVELS

I AM NUMBER FOUR

THE POWER OF SIX

THE RISE OF NINE

THE FALL OF FIVE

NOVELLAS

I AM NUMBER FOUR: THE LOST FILES #1: SIX’S LEGACY

I AM NUMBER FOUR: THE LOST FILES #2: NINE’S LEGACY

I AM NUMBER FOUR: THE LOST FILES #3: THE FALLEN LEGACIES

I AM NUMBER FOUR: THE LOST FILES #4: THE SEARCH FOR SAM

I AM NUMBER FOUR: THE LOST FILES #5: THE LAST DAYS OF LORIEN

I AM NUMBER FOUR: THE LOST FILES #6: THE FORGOTTEN ONES

I AM NUMBER FOUR: THE LOST FILES #7: FIVE’S LEGACY

NOVELLA COLLECTIONS

I AM NUMBER FOUR: THE LOST FILES: THE LEGACIES (CONTAINS NOVELLAS #1–#3)

I AM NUMBER FOUR: THE LOST FILES: SECRET HISTORIES (CONTAINS NOVELLAS #4–#6)

COPYRIGHT

I AM NUMBER FOUR: THE LOST FILES: FIVE’S LEGACY. Copyright © 2014 by Pittacus Lore

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EPub Edition © FEBRUARY 2014 ISBN: 9780062287656

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