MARCH 6, 2022

"I'm grateful for all of you," Zoey All said. "I really am. But I want to know what you're hiding from me. What's the big secret?"

It was the sixth of March. The year was 2022.

Zoey sat in the spaceship's cafeteria, cloaked in bright illumination. Hero sat next to her at a long bench, and his brothers and sisters were nearby.

Trays of food sat on the table. Seven of them.

Bottled juices stood on the hard surface. Seven of them.

A teleportation stone sat in Zoey's pants pocket.

"If you don't want anything bad to happen, I suggest that you stop," Macy said. Sydney sat next to her, and Macy's hand was on her back. "And I'm being as nice as I can."

Sydney didn't touch her food. Her bottled juice remained closed.

"Sydney, you should eat," Zoey said. "I know you can do it. Just like how I know that you can tell me the secret. You can talk to me."

Glaring, Macy's fingers dug into her fruit's purple flesh.

When Macy, Wade, Everett and Kat wanted to kill Zoey, Sydney hadn't. She and Hero had defended Zoey.

Sydney was fond of her, without a doubt. The eleven-year-old needed to reveal the secret.

"She can't talk to you about everything, Zoey," Kat said.

"Sydney doesn't even do much talking anymore," Everett said. Macy rubbed Sydney's back. "That High sister of yours is always willing to talk to you, though."

"Lena isn't here," Zoey said. "And even if she were, none of you would like her."

Lena Majestic. Violent, power-hungry, loving toward Zoey and Betty. She had uncovered her body and her feelings. Meanwhile, the Shame children kept a secret hidden.

"I miss her," Zoey said. "She never hid anything from me. Lena doesn't keep secrets."

"Zoey," Hero said. "I can't tell you what you want to know. I'm sorry."

Zoey left her seat.

"My mother, my kidnapper, kept a secret from me for years," she said. "She didn't tell me that I'm Alice Endman. I'm grateful that I met all of you. And I appreciate the help you've given me, but I need to get out."

"You're leaving?" Wade said. He lowered his bottled juice to the table. "Stay."

"I'm going to get some air," Zoey said. "There aren't any secrets outside. Just a ruined planet."

On the neighboring table was her Soynite laser pistol. She had put the gun there earlier. So, with the desire to step foot on Soy's ruined landscape, Zoey retrieved her weapon.

"It doesn't have to be like this, Zoey," Hero said. "Yes, there's a secret. But I can't tell you what it is. None of us can. It's for the greater good."

Zoey didn't drop her gun.

"Me going out there will be for the greater good," she said. "I can't be with you and your brothers and sisters. Not right now."

"Zoey," Hero said.

"Let her go, brother," Macy said. "She has her gun. Your girlfriend is going to be fine."

Hero had admitted he and his siblings carried a secret. As that fact hooked into Zoey's mind, her urge to step foot on Soy's tortured land grew larger.

"No, she won't be fine," Hero said. "Nothing is fine right now."

Zoey kept her back turned. A hand came to her shoulder.

"Zoey, you don't have to leave," Hero said. The boy stood behind Zoey, and he didn't move his hand off her shoulder. "I think you should stay. Stay home."

The girl didn't leave the spaceship, but she did leave the cafeteria.

"Zoey, wait!" Hero said, as he and Zoey walked in the hall. "Just wait. Stay inside. There are probably Freemans out there. Or worshippers of Lock."

"If I meet any, I'll kill them," Zoey said. She stopped, and faced Hero. A sigh left her. "I spent most of my life living with my kidnapper, and she kept a secret from me. A huge one. I hate it when people hide things from me, Hero."

"I want to keep you safe, Zoey."

Zoey's mother had prevented Soynites from hurting her, but the tall woman had forced pain onto the girl. The daughter she had taken, that person was Zoey.

Hero. He had uncovered the truth. Using his knowledge, he had reached the conclusion Zoey was Alice Endman. A former High's stolen grandchild.

Yet Hero didn't plan on telling Zoey their secret. Neither did Mitch's other children.

Zoey and Hero had spent more time with their adoptive parents than they had spent with their biological ones. But Hero hid something. Like Sydney and the teenagers inside the cafeteria, he kept a secret from Zoey. He did.

Muscular, blond-haired, blue-eyed, his focus on Zoey, Hero didn't wear his museum employee jacket. He donned a white shirt. It was the color of Freeman skin, and no Freeman stood in the blue hall. Zoey and Hero were in it. Zoey didn't stand beside Hero and he didn't stand beside her. They stood across each other.

A hidden truth occupied Hero's mind. The secret dwelled in him, and Zoey couldn't evict it.

"This secret that you and your brothers and sisters are keeping, does your father know about it?" Zoey said.

Mitch Shame.

His home was the spacecraft Hero and Zoey lived in. The man had five children he had adopted, and he opposed the Freemans. But did he know about the secret his children kept?

"I can't tell you what you want to know," Hero said. "Trust me, Zoey, some things have to be kept hidden. It really is for the best. What I can tell you is that I love my father. My siblings love him, too."

Armed, Zoey pressed her free hand against Hero's bicep.

"Your father isn't the only person you love," she said. "How long are you going to hide your secret from me?"

Hero toyed with his Soynite pendant.

"You have to stop pestering me and the others about that," he said. His hand went to Zoey's hip, touching the girl through her blue jeans. "We're together. Me and you. I need you to focus on that, not some secret. You're here. You love me and I love you. And my brothers and sisters love you. You're free, and no one here is going to hurt you. Not even Macy. She can be ruthless, but she wants what's best for you. Just like I do."

He brought his face closer to Zoey's, intent on giving her a kiss. She leaned back.

"Kissing me isn't going to make me forget that you're hiding something," she said.

Yesterday she had removed her pink shirt, and she had gotten undressed. She had done it for a boy who could fly. Her hero.

At the moment, Zoey wore a blue shirt with short sleeves, and she had adopted a dislike for Hero's secret.

"Still, you have to admit that kissing me is nice," Hero said. He stroked Zoey's hair. "Nice like you. You've been a nice addition to this home, you know."

He glanced around the hall.

"This is your home, Zoey," the boy said. "And it's my father's home. Even though he was taken by Freemans, this is still where he lives. He's just absent. But we're going to get him back. We will bring him back here. This is where he deserves to be, after all. I last saw him inside of a space station. A Freeman space station. You met Zodiac inside one, and you freed him. Wherever my father is, I'm going to find him. And I'm going to free him."

Yes, Zoey had found Zodiac within a Freeman space station. She had pulled a lever. That deed had made a prison cell door open, and Zodiac had stepped through it.

In exchange for Zoey's generosity, the man had tried kidnapping her.

Right now, her hand didn't touch a lever. A weapon was in it. Zoey held a laser pistol. But she didn't put it to use. Not now. Not yet.

"When you have your father back, maybe I still won't know the truth," Zoey said. "The truth that you're hiding. What kind of secret is so horrible that you can't tell your girlfriend about it? Are you working for Lock Tannis, Hero? Is that it?"

Thanks to Joseph Key, Hero had learned Boris Endman had allied with Lock Tannis. Zoey had met her grandfather. But she had never met Lock. Regardless, the longing to stab his heart filled her.

Had Hero done what Boris had done? Had the boy started serving the universe's worst Soynite?

Zoey doubted it. But that didn't mean Hero had never worked for Lock. She hadn't believed Archer and Holly were her parents, after all.

Hero scoffed.

"I will never work for that horrible Soynite," he said. Zoey put her free hand on the hall's blue wall. "Trust me. He's the reason why my father is gone. He was kidnapped by Freemans. Lock's Freemans. And me and my siblings haven't stopped wanting to find him. We don't have our father, and it's because of Lock. We wish he was with us. And we also know that our father wishes he was with us again, too. Me and my siblings are a lot like you, and we're like your friend Hailey. We have fathers we want to find. I'm going to find mine. My father is out there. He's somewhere. And I'm going to do everything in my power to get him back. If I were the one missing, he would try to find me."

Hero touched Zoey's gun hand.

"If you go out there, you might go missing, too," Hero said. "There might be Freemans outside, looking for Soynites to capture or kill."

"I have my gun," Zoey said.

"Sometimes a gun isn't enough."

"I have my gun."

A Freeman had thrown a knife into Boone Windsore's chest. The brutal deed had hurled death into him. In life, he had stood outside a spaceport, and he had seen Theo Majestic turn six children into Highs. Six Soynite rulers. And one of them was Boone's daughter. His blind one.

Lena had met Hailey, and she had struck Theo's child with her cane. It seemed like Lena loved that tool almost as much as she loved her brown-haired sister.

The High had met Zoey, and a hug had come.

Zoey being Boone's stepdaughter had spared her a painful welcome from Lena. But the girls' sisterly love for each other hadn't prevented a Freeman from murdering Boone inside Lena's throne room.

"If I see a Freeman out there, that would be a good thing," Zoey said. "I have a gun, and I can use it to turn Freemans into smoke. They're perfectly fine with making girls lose their fathers. I'm perfectly fine with killing them."

"The Freemans are your enemies," Hero said. "But me and my brothers and sisters aren't. You should stay here. Stay inside."

"With you and your secret?" Zoey said.

Hero frowned.

Zoey turned, and she distanced herself from the boy who could fly.

Less than seven days ago, they had been together. Close. Hero had flown and he had carried Zoey while red lasers sped past them. Right now, Zoey walked. She moved underneath a blue ceiling. Wind didn't make her brown hair sway. Her shoes slapped against the hard floor.

"Zoey, please!" Hero said.

Zoey needed to leave the spaceship, which harbored six fatherless secret keepers.

She headed out.

The Soynite girl moved beneath the morning sky. It lacked Freeman spaceships, and only one Soynite took steps under it. The sky, like the spaceship Zoey had left, was blue. Yet the sky didn't harbor someone with a secret.

Hero's home, it was not.

A few days ago, on planet Earth, Zoey had stalked Hero and the other Shame children.

She had left them in their spaceship. Before her exit, Hero had followed her into the hall outside the cafeteria. He hadn't joined her in Soy's not-so-great outdoors.

Minutes went by.

Noise erupted in Zoey's ears. A spaceship zipped over an area infested with gaping holes. Soynites planning on helping Zoey might have occupied the space vessel.

Did it carry friendlies?

Or it might have contained Soynites who prayed to Lock Tannis.

As far as Zoey knew, she had never seen a Lock Tannis Church member. But that didn't guarantee she never would.

Did the spaceship carry foes?

Zoey kept her grip on the gun.

The Soynite spaceship circled the air surrounding Zoey, and it landed. Its front faced the girl, a teenager who had survived an encounter with Children of Still. Zoey had lived through the invasion.

She could survive whatever problems the spaceship's crew might bring.

After the spaceship's door opened, two white-haired men and a girl emerged. Zoey had seen one of the three newcomers years ago. She gasped.

No. Not him again.

The unfamiliar old man had left the spaceship before his companions had emerged. Wind brushed his short hair.

Behind him was Zodiac Angel.

He had met Zoey in a place most Soynites preferred keeping their distance from.

Inside a Freeman space station, Zoey had given Zodiac freedom. As a reward, he had tried kidnapping her.

Zodiac's hair flowed past his shoulders. The long strands were white, and so was his beard.

A girl accompanied the wrinkled men. She walked near Zodiac. Like the lifeless soil beneath Zoey's shoes, the girl's eyes were gray.

Did she want to help prolong Zoey's life? Or did she intend to destroy it?

She kept her strawberry blonde hair short. Her leather jacket was black and her pants red. While she took steps near Zodiac, the girl trained her focus on Zoey.

Only one of the Soynite arrivals wore a pendant. Zodiac and the short-haired girl didn't wear any.

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The short-haired man circled Zoey.

"This is the girl you told me to find, Zodiac," he said when he stopped. His pendant rested against his blue shirt. "She is Alice Endman. Boris Endman's granddaughter."

He grinned. So did Zodiac.

The man wore a smile. Considering he had tried abducting her, Zoey preferred to make his smile vanish.

Did he deserve to be happy?

No.

"Welcome back to Soy, Alice," the short-haired man said. He gestured to the land, tortured land. "Your kidnapper took you away from this planet, didn't they? That was what everyone assumed. I remember. Alice, it's a pleasure to meet you. My name is Omar. Omar Pin."

He wore blue pants and a blue shirt, one with short sleeves that showed his forearms' skin. This man was taller than Zoey and the short-haired girl, but he didn't stand as tall as Zodiac.

Who was Zodiac Angel? Zoey's attempted kidnapper, no friend of hers.

Omar bent over, and he placed his hands on his knees. His breath shuddered.

"Are you okay?" Zoey said, furrowing her brow.

"He needs to be," said the short-haired girl, crossing her slim arms. She scowled. "You're going to find my sister after this. Don't think I've forgotten what you're supposed to do."

"I'm one thousand years old, Ruth," Omar said. The man straightened. He panted. "I'm dying."

Zoey held a gun. She could fire death into Omar, and she could kill Ruth and Zodiac.

"Omar, is Zodiac your friend?" Zoey said. "Did he hurt you? I met him before. He tried to kidna—"

Zodiac looked Zoey up and down.

"Look at you," he said. Zoey narrowed her brown eyes. "You've gotten older. You're sixteen now, and I know that for a fact. Zoey All. That's not your name. Your real name is Alice Endman. I assumed you were Boris Endman's granddaughter when I reunited with you inside that Freeman space station. My theory was true. You truly are Alice, the missing grandchild of Boris and Virginia."

Zoey had first seen Hero in a forest on Earth. Far from that planet was a Freeman space station, and it was the place where Zodiac had first seen her.

"Reunited," Zoey said. "Me and you didn't reunite inside that space station. That's when we first met, and then you tried to kidnap me."

"I did try to take you, yes," Zodiac said. "I wish you could remember when you and I first met."

The girl's first meeting with him had occurred inside that prison wing.

Right?

"Tell me how you know me," Zoey said. "Tell me where you know me from."

"I know you from that Freeman space station," Zodiac said. "And I know you from Soy, back when the invasion hadn't even happened yet. I know you from a variety of different places, Alice."

"Tell me how you know m—"

"I need to sit down," Omar said.

He sat on barren gray, and moved onto his back. Ruth slammed her foot against his leg, kicking him, hurting him. Omar yelped.

"Get up!" Ruth said. "Don't die on me now. I need you to find Christine."

"I'm sorry!" Omar said. His breaths shook. "Don't hurt me again. Please. Just let me die in peace."

"There are other Bloodhounds, Ruth," Zodiac said.

Ruth kneeled beside Omar. She grabbed his forearm, and part of it ignited. Fire ruined the man's skin and a scream exploded from his mouth. Ruth glared.

"Get up!" she yelled. "You need to find my sister. You're supposed to find Christine Cross."

"Stop!" Zoey said, as smoke rose toward a sky that wouldn't end the screaming man's pain.

If Macy were with Omar, she could heal him. The Bloodhound didn't have to spend the remainder of his dying life with a burn.

Smoke ascended.

Omar no longer screamed. His eyes were open, but they were as useless as Lena's. The ancient man's brown eyes saw nothing. He didn't breathe.

He was as lifeless as the ground beneath him.

Pain-filled noise didn't cloak the air. The old man's agony had ended.

Burnt flesh shrouded Zoey's nose. She grimaced.

"His life has been destroyed," Zodiac said.

Ruth punched the dead Omar's stomach, and she stood. A living Bloodhound could find her sister.

Christine.

Zoey knew about a Bloodhound, one who had raised Theo's daughter. The daughter who loved him more than his other ones did.

The name of Hailey's Watcher was Vera.

Vera Mod.

But she didn't have to locate Ruth's sister. Zodiac had tried kidnapping Zoey when she was eleven, and his ruthless friend had burned a man. Hailey's Watcher didn't have to locate Christine, but Vera had to maintain a long distance between herself and Ruth. She needed to stay far from the girl.

Zoey, like Ruth, had a sister.

Lena's eyes were darker than Freeman skin, but paler than the dirt underneath Zoey's shoes. Blind, she had never seen her older sister. Yet Lena couldn't deny she cared about Zoey.

"There were other people I wanted him to find," Zodiac said, aiming his brown eyes at Omar's corpse. "But he led us to Alice, Ruth. This wonderful girl gave me liberation when she was younger. Alice, are you alone? Have you come to this planet with any friends? Any companions?"

Zoey shifted her gaze. She said, "No."

Ruth glared. Zodiac did not.

"You have family here," he said. The man pressed a wrinkled hand against his chest. "So do I."

Zoey took a step back.

Zodiac took a step forward.

"My original name is Boris Endman," Zodiac said, his voice now sounding like Boris's. "I'm your grandfather."

"What?!" Ruth said.

Zoey dropped her gun. She bent over and she placed her hands against her knees, doing what a deceased man had done. But she wasn't close to her death.

Boris Endman was supposed to be like Omar Pin.

Dead and gone.

"No, no, no," Zoey said. She straightened. "Boris Endman is dead. I heard a Freeman say that."

"You heard a lie," Zodiac said, speaking in his Zodiac Angel accent again. "I assume that Lock Tannis told his supporters that he destroyed Boris Endman. The truth is that I was wounded during my fight with that former friend of mine. Lock didn't destroy me. Before he could do so, I escaped. I survived. And when I speak, I don't use my natural voice. After my fight with Lock, I decided to get longer hair and grow a beard, because I didn't want anyone to know my true identity. My new appearance fooled all of you. So did this accent."

Ruth looked Zodiac up and down.

"It's really you," she said, her voice holding awe, as if she had seen Zodiac resurrect Omar. "You're Boris."

"Use your teleportation stone to go back home, Ruth," Zodiac said, looking at Zoey and not his friend. "I need to speak to my granddaughter in private."

Ruth moved a hand into her pants pocket. She vanished, teleporting elsewhere. She had gone home. The man she had burned couldn't.

The gun.

Zoey's laser weapon stayed in contact with gray dirt. She grabbed it, and she lifted the weapon off Soy's land.

When Zoey and Hero pleasured each other in that crater, no grass had been underneath the blanket. Freemans had destroyed Soy's trees and green grass. One former High hadn't wanted that to happen.

Boris Endman's desire to fight for his planet had died. He had been Lock's minion.

"You betrayed your people!" Zoey said. "You betrayed our people. A Freeman killed my father Boone Windsore. He was one of Lock Tannis's Freemans. And you were one of his minions, too. You joined Lock. Why?"

Wind, like Zoey's anger, roared. It didn't blow through gaps between tree branches, didn't ripple grass, and it didn't brush against Hero Shame. A boy who could do what Zodiac could.

Mitch's son couldn't pick up Zoey and fly her to safety.

Alice Endman could receive an answer.

"Before the invasion happened, Lock made me realize that he was right," Zodiac said. "The Freemans did deserve to be destroyed, but Theo Majestic banished Lock for that belief. His exile led to Theo replacing him as High. So many years after that, I saw Lock again. Theo wasn't there. The other former Highs were. There are new ones, Alice. New Highs."

The new generation of Soynite rulers. High Lena had lost her sight, but she had found love for Zoey. An ordinary teenager.

Lena donned royal power. She was a special girl, not Zoey.

"There are six Soynite rulers," Zodiac said. He pointed a thin finger at Omar, who didn't breathe. He would never exhale again. "That man was a Bloodhound. How many of them do you think are left? Ten? One hundred?"

Like Vera, Crammer had been born as a Bloodhound. But life had drained from him. If someone wanted Crammer to find a person for them, they wouldn't get their wish.

"There has to be other Bloodhounds out there," Zodiac said. He looked at the dead man. "Omar brought me to you. He was no friend of mine, but I put him to good use. I found him earlier today, and he was so eager to lead me to Alice Endman."

"And your friend Ruth was so eager to burn Omar," Zoey said.

"And that was what she had done," Zodiac replied.

Zoey's own arm remained unburnt. The great Theo Majestic had the power to birth fire. But he and Ruth were different from each other. Ruth had made fire ruin skin on Omar's arm. Rampant orange had wrecked his flesh. Zodiac's friend had brought that heated devastation.

"I have a friend," Zodiac said. "Her name is Abigail Axe. Her Pure father abandoned her, but his ability to see the past was useful. As for that Pure named Theo, Lock Tannis wants to destroy him. He won't give Theo the choice he gave me."

Theo Majestic.

Zoey had worn a shirt with his face on it when she freed Zodiac. Years ago, he had held Zoey when she was a baby. Lock would grin if he caught sight of Theo's lifeless corpse. Zoey wouldn't.

"Either way, I'm not going to let Lock kill Theo," Zoey said.

"We both despise Lock, Alice," Zodiac said. "You and I are alike in other ways, too. We belong to the same family. You're an Endman."

"You're..." Zoey said. What was the older Endman? "I don't know what you are. Are you a good person? Or are you like Lock Tannis?"

Zoey was Alice, and Zodiac was Boris.

The girl had always been Boris's grandchild, and the man had become a Lock supporter. But a fight between the former High and Free's leader had raged. Lock had survived. Zodiac had escaped the conflict with his life, too.

It was the reason why he could stand in front of his granddaughter. His sole grandchild.

Zodiac had a variety of Saves. One of them gave him the power to fly. During the invasion, his intent to protect innocent Soynites had flown away.

"I'm your grandfather," Zodiac said. "I'm the father of your actual father. Who took you? Who abducted my granddaughter. What pathetic person kept her away from her real family for so long? Tell me."

He couldn't fight or kill Zoey's mother. Not now.

"Was it that woman who tried to destroy me a few days after the invasion?" Zodiac said. "She managed to escape from me that day. She introduced herself as Misty. She didn't tell me her last name. After you freed me back inside that Freeman space station, you mentioned that you had a mother. I doubt you were referring to my daughter-in-law. Your actual mother."

"Misty did kidnap me," Zoey said. "But you're not going to kill her. My mother will always get away from you. Always."

"Do you love that baby snatcher?"

"Yes."

"Your loyalty to your kidnapper is stunning," Zodiac said. "Why did she try to destroy me?"

He had already met Zoey's mother, and they had fought. Nothing Zoey would say could change the fact the former High already hated her mother.

"She thinks that it's her destiny to be your worst enemy," Zoey said. "She had a vision of the future. She saw herself fighting you, and that's why she believes that she needs to become your worst enemy. Don't kill her. Please."

"Your false mother tried to destroy me," Zodiac said.

"If you want me to, I could get on my knees and beg," Zoey said. "I can do it right now."

The man shook his head. "No Soynite needs to get on their knees for me anymore. Stay on your feet."

"Don't kill my mother."

"I won't hunt her down, I assure you," Zodiac said. Zoey let loose a relieved sigh, and she put her free hand on her chest. "But don't get too comfortable. If Misty hunts me down, I will destroy her. And she will hunt me down, Alice. Isn't it obvious?"

"I'm going to convince her not to."

"You could try," Zodiac said. "Misty hates me too much. Her longing to destroy me will never go away."

Zoey's mother had lost her fight with Zodiac, but she hadn't lost her life. The girl didn't know where the woman had gone. Zoey needed to keep believing her mother would survive any future fight with Zodiac. A former High. The person Misty hated the most.

She had advised Zoey to find her birth parents. But the girl needed to see her kidnapper-mother.

Soon, too.

"When you were taken from your parents, you hadn't even been in their life for a full year, Alice," Zodiac said. "Misty kidnapped you. And now you're so desperate to protect her, as if she's such a wonderful person. She isn't."

Zodiac pressed his palm against the back of Zoey's Soynite pendant.

"Omar didn't lie about you being Alice," he said. "You're wearing her pendant. Without a doubt, you are my grandchild. My only one."

Zoey took a step back.

Not far from her was the Soynite spaceship Zodiac, Omar, and Ruth had exited. Omar didn't get to his feet. He couldn't. The man had turned one thousand years old, and life had fled him.

"Get away from me," Zoey said.

Zodiac backed away, but he didn't fly to a different place. He and Zoey remained in the same area. They stood on Soy. Years ago, they had been together on the planet, but memories involving her time as a baby evaded Zoey. Like how Hero's secret evaded her. What did he hide?

"My mother stopped hiding this pendant from me," Zoey said. "She gave it to me. She wants me to find Archer and Holly, and I will. You don't know my mother like I do. She's good."

"I know her attempt to destroy me failed," Zodiac said. "If she tries to get rid of me for the second time, she will fail again. Destroying me will be very difficult."

Misty had raised Zoey. When the Freemans assaulted Soy and its people, Zoey had hidden behind her mother's dress. Boone had found them. Not Zodiac.

"I haven't found the rest of our family, Alice," Zodiac said. A gust arrived, and it rippled his hair and his black clothes. "But I found you. I didn't get that dead man to find you so I could destroy you. I'm not here to harm you. Is that what your abductor did? Misty took you away from us, and she hurt you. Didn't she?"

Zoey rubbed her cheek.

"Yes," she said. Zodiac sneered. He aimed his palm, but not at Zoey, and a yellow laser fired from his hand. It blasted into Omar's dead heart. "I'm not going to let you kill her."

"You hadn't been there to stop me when I destroyed your friend Crammer," Zodiac said.

Zoey bowed her head, then shook it. Lock Tannis hadn't succeeded in stopping Zodiac's heart.

Zoey wasn't Lock.

She had freed Zodiac. She couldn't blame Crammer's death on a Freeman. Because of her, he had died.

Zoey lifted her head, and aimed the laser pistol at Crammer's killer. His murderer.

She opened fire.

Blue laser beams shot through empty space.

"I cut short that life he was living!" Zodiac said, yelling while airborne. He hovered. "You belong to the Endman family. Misty isn't your mother. Holly Endman is."

Zoey's hands shook like her breaths, and she couldn't slow her rapid heartbeat.

She tossed the gun onto the ground. Her hands and knees went against Soy's barren land. Tears dropped onto it, but they couldn't bring life to the planet.

Zoey clutched the dirt, and lifted her hand. The lifeless gray slipped between the gaps between her fingers.

Crammer Cole's killer landed in front of her.

"I loved him," Zoey said. "He was my friend, and you knew that."

"I love you more than he ever did," Zodiac said. "Who was Crammer, anyway?"

"My mother's best friend," Zoey said. "He wasn't always nice, but he cared about me. And my mother does, too. She gave me my pendant back. She even called me Alice. I have to find Archer and Holly. That's what my mother told me to do."

Instead of reuniting with her birth parents, Zoey had found Crammer Cole's murderer. Her grandfather.

"Misty was never your mother," Zodiac said. He brushed Zoey's brown hair with a wrinkled hand. "I'm not a false relative of yours. I am your real grandfather, and you don't have to be afraid of me. I haven't caused you any pain."

Zoey stood. Zodiac, six and a half feet in height, stood taller.

"You killed my friend!" Zoey said. Her hands tightened into fists. Her gun remained on the ground, its owner unarmed. "A Freeman didn't do it. That was you."

"He was your kidnapper's dearest friend," Zodiac said. "Don't mourn him. Your abductor tried to destroy me on this planet, but she failed. She did succeed in taking you, unfortunately. Misty made a huge mistake when she decided to kidnap you. She took away my granddaughter. She did that, but she won't succeed in destroying me and my powerful companions. Believe me."

Zoey looked at the grounded laser pistol. Zodiac traced her gaze.

"Was that father of yours shot to death?" he asked.

"No," Zoey said. "My stepfather, Boone Windsore, was killed because of a Freeman's throwing knife. I couldn't save him."

"And I assume that this Boone person married your abductor, correct?" Zodiac said.

"Yes, he did."

Boone Windsore. Crammer Cole.

A Freeman had killed Boone, and a former High had slain Crammer. Hailey had tried burying a dagger into the heart of Boone's daughter Lena. Zoey had stopped her. If only she had murdered that Freeman before Boone's death could happen. If only she had convinced Zodiac to spare Crammer.

Zoey had reunited with her father Boone. It had been a privilege. The misfortune of seeing his corpse had afflicted her.

Boone couldn't give Zoey a fruit. Neither could Crammer.

Dead people can't give food to their loved ones.

Zodiac. He stood tall, and he could fire yellow laser beams from his palms. If a Freeman aimed their eyes and their gun at Zoey, Zodiac would kill the pale enemy.

He knew how to make people meet their deaths. What he had done to Crammer was proof.

Zodiac hadn't just hurt Zoey's friend. He had killed him. Crammer had lived through his first meeting with the former ruler. He hadn't survived his final encounter with Zodiac.

Lena. She had struck Hailey with her cane on the first day they met, but the blind High hadn't done the same to Zoey.

People were eager to keep Zoey safe. But who had protected Crammer? Who had prevented Lena from hurting Hailey?

Hailey.

Her father was a former High, the one who had established the High system. While Freemans spread massive agony on Soy, Theo hadn't known Lena would hurt his daughter Hailey. Regardless, he couldn't change the past. Neither could Zoey.

Lena and Hailey were sisters. Zodiac could argue about whether or not Zoey was Misty's daughter, but he couldn't kill her love for Lena. Her sightless sister.

Zodiac was part of the line of people who knew what it was like to have royal authority over Soy's people.

How many people composed that line?

Thirteen.

Lock Tannis. He was part of a long line of people who knew what it was like to have authority over the Freemans. A long list of leader slayers.

At the same time, Lock and Zodiac belonged to the list of former and current Soynite rulers.

When Zodiac was his granddaughter's age, he had replaced Lock as High. Zoey hadn't forgotten that.

"Do you have any Saves?" Zodiac asked, cloaked in the sun's light.

"No," Zoey said.

Zodiac rubbed his neck. "That's unfortunate."

"It's unfortunate that you killed Crammer," Zoey said. "I never should've let you out of that prison cell. If I hadn't done that, Crammer would still be alive."

"Assuming he wasn't an immortal man, Crammer would've been destroyed at some point," Zodiac said. He caressed Zoey's cheek. "But I need you to live. You need to get powerful, and that's what would make you and I be together for a long time. We will depart from each other again. But what matters is the fact that we're together now. You and I. No Misty. No Crammer. No Lock Tannis."

Zoey moved back. Zodiac advanced, and the girl took steps back. Fast ones. She fell onto her butt.

"I have memories of all of those people," Zodiac said. He kneeled beside Zoey as she stayed seated. He held her hand. "And I have memories of you, my granddaughter. When I first saw you, you were so beautiful. So adorable. Ending up with that horrible Misty wasn't what I wanted for you. She took away my son's baby girl. She hurt you. But I have never hurt you. No, I spent so many days wanting you back in my life. You're angry. And you're suffering. A Freeman destroyed your false stepfather. Your grandfather destroyed your friend. But I will do whatever I can to take away your grief."

Zoey breathed hard.

"Why?" she asked.

"Because I love you," Zodiac said, the wind making his long hair dance. His brown eyes focused on Zoey's. "You are loved. You are Alice Endman, and I'm not the only one who loves you. My son does. So does his wife, your mother. Your real mother."

Warmth from Zodiac's hand mingled with Zoey's. High above their heads was the sky the man had flown in more than once.

"You are a clever person," Zodiac said. "It's why you put your gun down. You know you can't destroy me. Let me ask you this. Who am I to you, Alice?"

"My grandfather," Zoey said.

Zodiac stopped holding her hand, and he wiped her face with his thumb. Liquid found it.

The former High didn't view Misty as Zoey's mother, but he and the girl couldn't deny they were grandfather and granddaughter. It was their relation. Their connection.

In unison, Zoey All and Alice Endman were the same person. Zodiac's original name was Boris Endman.

"Grandfather," Zoey said.

She embraced him. He hugged her back.

"I missed you, Alice," Zoey's grandfather said, holding her. "So much."

The hug broke.

Zoey's grandfather stroked her long hair, then he put his hands on her arms.

"Right now, we have to go to my space station," he said. He and Zoey stood. "No one else knows about it. Just me."

He moved his hand into his pocket. Zoey and her grandfather arrived inside a bedroom.

Taped to a wall was a photograph showing baby Zoey and her grandfather. Light bathed the desk pushed against the wall, the big bed, the blue walls, and the blue floor.

"This is the place," Zodiac's grandfather said. "This is my space station. I come here sometimes, but it isn't my main home. If you become a powerful Soynite, find me here. Then we would be able to stay together."

Even though her grandfather had murdered her friend, Zoey had embraced him. She stood in a room with Zodiac Angel. Boris Endman.

Zoey's grandfather put his hands on her shoulders, and kissed her forehead.

"If you become powerful, seek me out," he said. "Also, don't tell anyone about what happened today. Don't talk about how Zodiac Angel is Boris Endman. Keep pretending that you think I'm dead. Will you do that?"

"Yes," Zoey said.

Her grandfather hugged her. She hugged him back.

"Ruth Cross didn't find her sister today," the man said. "But I found my granddaughter. And she isn't going to tell anyone about me."

He had ended Crammer's life. And he had tried killing Lock Tannis.

Why? Zoey didn't know.

Whether or not her grandfather was a good Soynite, Zoey needed to become powerful. She had to learn more about Zodiac Angel, otherwise known as Boris Endman.

She would keep his secret.

The Shame siblings had one. A hidden truth. But would it be fair for Zoey to pester them about theirs, when she had one, too?

No.

Unbeknownst to Zoey All, she would become Jake Wayne's destroyer.