“When you’re ready to begin, I’ll be in the lobby,” Tayte informs me.

“You’re extending the leash that far? Aren’t you afraid I’ll make a run for it?”

“My control extends for a surrounding mile, much like your friend Barry’s ability. Where his shield is restricted to visibility, mine impacts usage. Inside my shield, power runs free at my allowance. Outside power is innately negated and can’t be controlled by me,” he explains. “It wouldn’t benefit you to bypass my range unless you’re looking for a repeat of the earlier emotional overflow. If you go beyond my area of control, it’ll all come flooding back, as demonstrated. That should be enough of a deterrent.”

It isn’t a leash so much as electric fencing, but I’m wearing a collar either way. Noted.

“I understand why you got me into this,” I address the group once he leaves. “Now, how are you getting me out of it?”

Declan and Barry stand by the door. Tally and Derry replace them on the couch.

“What he’s asking for doesn’t seem that bad,” Derry reasons.

“Are you kidding me?” I glower at him. “He wants to learn what I can do so he can use their powers against them like he’s using mine against me.”

“Worse,” Tally points out. “He can already use your powers against you. He wants to use the powers on anyone he chooses, regardless of who he takes them from.”

“He might not accomplish that no matter how methodically he studies you,” Ryan offers. “These gifts can’t be modified.”

“Mine seem to change an awful lot.”

“Because you haven’t transitioned yet,” he contends. “You’re still coming to terms with everything you are. When you transition, things will be more stable.”

“What happened to if I transition?”

He sighs.

Ryan was my biggest resistance cheerleader. That he’s put down the pom-poms is discouraging. He has every right to, of course, but his lack of confidence merely validates my gravest fears. The concern is now when I’ll transition. If has been stricken from the record.

“Well, you got me here without me blowing up. Take me back home the same way.” If they dope me up, they could take me back to the bomb shelter and let me blow a gasket safely inside my sanctuary.

“We can’t,” Ryan counters. “We can’t ever go back there.”

I recall the bloody aftermath of the attack. It all happened too fast for any post-desolation cleanup. “We’re fugitives?”

“Not fugitives, no,” Derry corrects. “The security feed shows it was a raging bear attack. I wiped everything else from the hard drive that could incriminate us. There’s enough footage left to make it look like we’re an ordinary family who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

“We chose the time and the place,” I remind him.

He can’t look me in the eye.

“If we’re not going to jail, why can’t we go back?”

Ryan steps in. “We had to ensure they wouldn’t seek us out for questions. Even if we could’ve stayed, facing those families would’ve put more people at risk. You have to see we were doing what we thought was right.”

“We shouldn’t have to face those families?” I seethe. “They deserve more than a false memory pieced together by people who have no clue what they stepped into. We are fugitives. We are at fault.”

Declan whistles low. “With your escalating condition, we couldn’t stay, so we had to go permanently.”

“They think we’re dead?”

“As doornails,” Tally confirms.

I balk. “My whole life was there.”

“Your life is wherever you choose to live it,” Derry feeds me a line of garbage.

Not long ago, I truly believed these people were my magnetic north. Wherever they were was my home. Maybe that’ll be the case again once the shock wears off, but sitting on this couch doesn’t feel like home. Even with them beside me, I’m more alone than ever.

“You people have lived several lives. I only have this one. How can you be so calm after everything that’s happened? How can you sit here and stoically relay the administrative loose ends you’ve tied up? I’m dead. They’re dead. That means something. How can you grieve without an explanation? How are their families ever supposed to get over a loss like this? We lied to them. They have no closure.”

“They have as much closure as they can process,” Ryan interjects. “People need their blissful ignorance to carry on.”

Point to Ryan. Dad’s a perfect example of that. “What about us?” I wring my hands in my messy hair. “How do we carry on?”

“By leaning on each other. By trusting each other,” Kiley recommends.

Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

So much burning accosts my nostrils I gag reflexively. Fireplace. Hot garbage. Grease fire. House fire. Tally impassively hands me a waste basket. “Thanks,” I mutter.

Awkward silence follows until I get my hot mess under control.

“How could you let it happen?” I pull my knees up, wrap my arms around my shins, and hold the backs of my calves. “Why didn’t you stop him?”

“Sheyla, we were trying to keep Molly and Seán from shapeshifting,” Ryan clarifies. “We wanted them to see what Phelan was doing. We couldn’t stop him. We definitely couldn’t stop all three of them had they followed suit, rampaging with him.”

“It happened so fast.” Declan finger-drums the doorframe. “One minute, we were playing on the stage, and the next minute…he was attacking.”

“There was nothing we could do. When Phelan broke through the window, and Molly and Seán ran toward the house, I tried to help some of them, but it was too late. There was just too much blood. There was blood everywhere.” Ryan grimaces.

“I froze,” Tally mumbles. “I’ve seen a lot of things…taken lives. Death is no stranger to me...but I froze.”

I place my hand over hers. That’s exactly what happened to me. I froze the second I looked out that picture window, unable to do anything except watch the gross visual play out like a horror film on the television. It was far too much for me to process.

“Where are Molly and Seán now?”

“They didn’t come to the hotel with us,” Ryan answers hesitantly.

“Good,” I state sourly.

“Sheyla, I realize you’re hurting, but they’re no longer your enemies.”

“Yes, the enemy of my enemy is my friend.”

“Do you have any idea what Molly’s given up in staying here with you?” Ryan persists.

I shrug.

“Her brother took your mother,” he pushes on, “yet she stayed with you.”

“Well, it’s good they aren’t here. They can’t be trusted.”

“Brody had a change of heart,” Derry reminds me.

He has no right to say anything about Brody. Brody stood by my side from the beginning. From the instant he met me, and before that, his loyalty was to me. He protected, guided, and pushed me forward, giving me the knowledge I needed to advance. He didn’t keep things from me, hold me back, or make excuses for his choices.

“He was nothing like them,” I spit. “I don’t trust them. Nor should you. They’re still connected to the Sentry.”

“Can’t you disconnect their ties like you did Brody?” Ryan suggests.

“You’d have to ask my boss. He’s in the lobby.”

Tayte won’t let me use my power if it means more security guards to protect me. I’ll be seeing them again, no doubt. They have information I need. My leash may be short, but I’ll figure a way out of it. I have to. Mom needs me. Instead of being held hostage to a mental barrier, she’s being held hostage by the Tribunal. Breaking her out is mandatory, even if it means taking her place.

In the meantime, I’ll do as I’m told, playing the part they’re making me play. In the end, what it boils down to is me, only me. I’ll push them all away, which is the only way to keep them safe. I was lulled into believing I could have love, friends, and family. I can’t. Brody paid the price for that assumption. I can’t bear to see anyone else hurt. That means cutting towlines.

“Derry, I need you to go.”

“Go?” He seems confused, authenticated by wafted electrical fire. “Go where? Why?”

“Just away, and you shouldn’t tell me where. I should be out of the loop. You need to take Dad with you.”

“We’re safer as a group,” he argues. “The Tribunal has eyes everywhere.”

“Those eyes watch Sumairs and Solathairs. They don’t watch humans. They have no reason to. Am I wrong, Ryan?”

He sighs. “You’re not wrong.”

“You need to take my father and get gone. I might not stop my explosion. Who knows how many people will be harmed in the process? I’d be more at ease if you were gone.”

His shoulders slump.

“Barry should go to the airport,” I insist. “That way, they won’t see you’re leaving until it’s too late.”

“They could still find us,” he grouses.

“They won’t bother to. You mean nothing to them. The only one you mean anything to is me.”

“Oh, I mean something to you now?” he challenges. “Is that why you pushed me away? What? You didn’t push hard enough, so now you want another go at it? Hoping to more easily replace me since your last attempt went up in smoke?”

I lift a brow. “Do you really want me to respond to that dumpster fire with an audience?”

He stows his crap. “What if they use us as leverage?”

“There’s no reason to.” I stare straight ahead. “They have all the leverage they need to get what they want from me.”

“You’re just giving up?” He has tears in his eyes.

“Right now, I don’t have the option to give anything. That’s Tayte’s call. Not mine.”

“We’ll sort out something,” Derry assures me.

“I’ll sort out something,” I amend. “You’ll be safely away with my father. I can’t concentrate if you’re here. I’ll be too worried over what can happen to Dad…and you.” Better tack that on there. Save his precious ego from further battering.

“Well, what about my worry for you?”

“You don’t get to run with the big dogs anymore, Derry,” I slap him with the hardest of truths. “You have to stay on the porch.”

“She’s right,” Tally agrees.

Ryan nods. “Mel’s going with you.”

“I’m not going anywhere. It took me a thousand years to find you! We will not be separated,” Mel declares.

“I’d wait for you a thousand more if it meant you were safe.”

“I don’t have a thousand more years to wait!” she shrieks.

“Could be you don’t have any more years if things keep going as they are,” I fire back. “We need this separation if we’re making it through this. We need distance. As long as you’re where we are, we’ll have to hold back. We don’t stand a chance with you here.”

“How will you find us?” she asks quietly.

“Just stay with Dad. He’ll lead me right to you. My heart will always find him.”

I love them all in different ways from the same heart, enough to let them go despite wanting to crawl into their arms and pretend the world isn’t collapsing around us. Problem is, it’s very much collapsing with us square in the hot zone. Everything’s falling apart, and I want them far away when I go ka-BOOM. Maybe Derry and Mel don’t have blissful ignorance like my father for companionship, but I can keep them out of firing range.

“You can’t just put up this imaginary wall and expect it’s all going to be okay as long as we’re on the other side of it,” Derry barks.

“It won’t be okay, Derry. It hasn’t been okay in a really long time. We had our temporary reprieve. No more vacations. No more delays. This is real now, so much more real than I ever understood.”

“You’re just upset.”

“Obviously, I’m upset!” I roar. “My heart has been snapped right in two, and if you don’t leave, if you don’t take my father and go, not only will it be broken in two, I’ll have to anguish over it being smashed into a thousand tiny pieces. I might transition, but there’s still a chance, however small, I won’t. You’re the only hope I have. So, take my broken heart with you to keep safe. I’m counting on you to do that.”

“You know I love you, right?” When Derry leans forward, I jump up from the couch before that sucker finds purchase. Doesn’t take hints well, this one.

“That’s why you have to go.”

My extended family has held me together, but it’s tearing them apart in the process. This fission minimizes the people at risk. All I’ve worked toward, opening my heart and sharing it with them, did what I’ve consistently feared. It hurt them. In Brody’s case, it killed him. My fire is insatiable. It won’t stop until every piece of anything I care about is incinerated. I need to handle Tayte, I need to find my mother, then I need to douse my flame. Lucky for me, I know just where to do that.