Grayson pulls himself back to his feet. “But he’s going against what Dr. Cook wants.”
“Sebastian isn’t in a position to make good decisions at the moment. And he has been in the custody of the Others until recently. So the Major gets to give the orders, and his orders are to make sure that the girl doesn’t get dangerous.”
“Even if that means killing Celestra?”
Phillipa shrugs. “It’s a moot point, dear. You shouldn’t have told her what you did. You certainly shouldn’t have let me hear that you’ve started remembering.”
She moves forward quickly, swinging the club. Grayson steps inside the movement, trying to use his elbows to knock Phillipa back, but the trainer is expecting the move, hitting Grayson viciously with her knee, then following it up with a kick as the attack forces Grayson back. He partly blocks that, but it still knocks the wind out of him.
Phillipa swings her club in an arc that ends with Grayson’s knee, and he goes down, crying out in pain with his leg twisted to an impossible angle. Grayson puts an arm up, trying to fend her off, and she breaks that with the club too. She moves down over him, pinning him with her legs while she raises the club.
“This is kind of a pity, Grayson, but we can’t have you spreading tales. You or her. Just one thing, what are you? After all, no one keeps their memories unless…”
I’ve had enough. I throw myself forward, reaching down to touch the woman. The power in me is only too eager to rise up, leaping into her in a glowing blaze of power. She sits there for a moment, almost seeming to glow with power herself as my energy wells up inside her, burning its way through every cell, every atom. Then Phillipa disintegrates. As thoroughly and quickly as the Others back at the Fortress, Phillipa burns to nothing.
Of course, nothing can’t support my weight.
I topple down, falling onto Grayson before I can stop myself, my hand still glowing with power. I try to will it back into me as I fall, but I’m too late, and I don’t know how to stop it anyway. I touch Grayson, and the power jumps into him, heat rising up through him, his skin glowing with it, exactly the same as Phillipa’s did.
I throw myself from Grayson, rolling to my knees with my hand over my mouth as the power subsides. “Grayson. No. Oh, please, no.”
Grayson is so still. So still as he just stares up at the night sky. Energy still crackles over him, making him look like he has been hit by lightning, and I can’t touch him. I don’t dare.
“Grayson, can you hear me? Please, talk to me!” I hesitate, not wanting to leave his side, but knowing what I have to do. “I’ll get help,” I say. “I’ll get Jack. Jack will know what to do.”
I stand to go get him, but then I hear my name.
“Celes…” Grayson repeats, barely audible.
I rush to his side, bending to touch him despite my fears. I shouldn’t do that though, it seems, because another jolt of energy leaps into him, making Grayson’s back arc with pain.
“Oh, Grayson. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
Grayson sits up, facing me as he does it. His arm and his leg are still twisted horrifically from where Phillipa hit him. Only they don’t stay that way for long. Grayson twists them back into place with a grunt of effort, and a second later it’s like he was never injured. As for the spot on his face where Phillipa’s first blow landed, there’s no sign of any injury at all. It’s like Grayson is putting himself back together piece by piece.
When he’s done, Grayson stands, and he looks fine. Like there’s nothing wrong. Like he hasn’t just been beaten half to death. Like I didn’t just nearly kill him with a touch. It’s… no, I can’t think of it as impossible, not with all the things I can do. Except that this is Grayson. Grayson is normal, isn’t he?
I guess not.
Grayson looks over to me, grinning in a way that suggests he can’t quite believe what has just happened either. It’s kind of nice to know that I’m not the only one, though Grayson looks less like it’s a total shock than just like something he wasn’t sure about has just come good.
“So it worked,” Grayson says.
NINETEEN
I
can’t help staring at Grayson. What he has just done is… incredible. And I’m saying that as someone who can burn people into a charred pile of ashes, like the one that sits where Phillipa was.
“Grayson, I don’t know what happened, but you just put yourself back together like…” I struggle to come up with anything, but then it comes to me. “It reminds me of some of the toy figures my brother had, where you could just repair them whenever they got damaged.”
Grayson smiles. “I know. It’s kind of cool, isn’t it?”
“You sound like you knew this was going to happen.”
Grayson nods, but then pauses. “I… I guess you could say I knew, but I forgot. When I was still just a kid, I had dreams about being able to do this. At least, I guess they were dreams. This would have been before my mother married Richard. Before I even met you. I forgot about them, though. I don’t know why I forgot about them.”
The word “Fading” jumps into my head. I know Grayson must be thinking it too.
“But just now, when your power went into me, it’s like it touched something in me. It woke it up. It’s like I connected with you.”
“Your eyes look normal,” I say, remembering how Jack’s eyes glowed after the moment when I brought out his powers.
“I feel normal,” Grayson says. “Didn’t you when you discovered you were something else?”
He has a point there. I know people wanted to make me feel like I was something special, or something frightening. And I was scared about what I might become, but Grayson is right.
“I felt like me,” I say. “Me, just with a lot of things I didn’t understand going on beneath the surface.”
I look around, checking the area. There are no signs of other Faders, but then there wouldn’t be. Most of them will be inside, recovering, while Lionel’s group will still think that Phillipa is watching us. It means we have time. Time to figure out what’s going on with Grayson. Time to figure out what all of this means.
“We should tell Jack,” I say. “He should know.”
“Why?” Grayson demands, suddenly angry. “Why must Jack know? Does he know everything about you?” His eyes narrow. “Has he been everywhere with you? Do you share everything intimate with him?”
“Grayson!” That’s not a question he should be asking, especially when I haven’t. I just
haven’t.
He has no right to go around asking me stupid, jealous questions like that. And why does he want to be so secretive about what has just happened? What does it matter if Jack finds out?
Except that I can’t imagine Jack wanting Grayson to know exactly what he is.
“Sebastian and his team of scientists could help if they knew,” I suggest.
Grayson grimaces, “Not when they think we’re both dangerous to them. Which they will. Celes, that was a Fader you burned, not one of the Others. Lionel will be able to say that you’re too dangerous.”
As if to prove his point, the door to the farmhouse opens letting a group of Faders out into the night air. They look like Faders from Location Two, which means that they’re almost certainly on Lionel’s team. They look over at us, and I know they aren’t just out there for no reason, even though they don’t approach us.
“Maybe we could explain that Phillipa attacked us,” I suggest to Grayson.
“Do you think they’d listen?” Grayson shoots back. “No one in the farmhouse would care.”
“My family’s in there,” I point out. “So are Jack and Sebastian. If we just tell them what’s going on, if we tell them what Lionel did, I’m sure people will listen.”
“They won’t,” Grayson says. “Think about it, Celes. I’m the kid whose father is the leader of the Others. You’re… well, they’ll point to the pile of ashes here and suddenly they’ll have all the proof they need that you’re dangerous. Whereas Lionel is their friend. They’ve known him for years.”
That sounds ominous. Grayson makes it sound like there’s no way out of this for us. Like the whole Underground will be trying to kill us as surely as the Others, the moment we go back inside.
“So what can we do?” I ask.
“First, we deal with what’s left of Phillipa. We scatter the remains and do our best to disguise the burn marks.”
“And then?” I ask.
“And then we leave, Celes. We run while we can. We get away from the Underground and try to stay safe.”
“Just like that?” I ask, hardly able to believe what Grayson is suggesting. “I can’t just leave,” I say. “I can’t just run off and abandon everything.”
“You can,” Grayson points out. “You have.”
I have. Of course I have. It’s what I did when I was Faded. I left without getting to say goodbye to my family. Without getting to say goodbye to Grayson. But that just means I know exactly how much it hurts to do it. And there are some people I can’t just leave behind.
“I have to tell Jack,” I say.
Grayson shakes his head. “It’s too dangerous.”
“I
have
to, Grayson.” I try to come up with a reason that will make sense to him. “Remember when I came to see you without telling him? How he followed me? How he thought it was a threat? And I have to tell him what’s going on.”
Grayson looks over to Lionel’s Faders, still hanging around outside the farmhouse. What are they waiting for over there? A signal from Phillipa? If so, it isn’t going to come.
“We can’t go in,” Grayson says. “We might not be able to get out again, Celes. It’s too much of a risk.”
“It’s a risk,” I agree, “but it’s one I have to take. I can’t just leave Jack hanging, and that’s not just because of what I feel about him. It’s about him and Sebastian. It’s about my family. Jack can’t do anything if he doesn’t know what’s happening.”
“So what are you going to do?” Grayson demands. “Walk in there and announce that Lionel is trying to make the Underground into something it shouldn’t be.”
“You know I wouldn’t do anything that risky, Grayson.”
For a moment, he looks disbelieving in the darkness. “Do I? You were quick enough to take a risk when it came to getting Lionel back.”
“And look where that got me.” I take Grayson by the arms. “I’m not going to do anything stupid. I’m just going to quietly let Jack and Sebastian know that there is dissention in the Underground. Then we’ll go from there.”
“I still don’t like this,” Grayson says. “There’s too of a much chance of Lionel’s people stopping you from leaving. And we might never get another chance to get away from them. We might be stuck with them following you, regardless of how much we do to try to lose them.”
“But it’s a risk we have to take.” I move away from him. Far enough that I can make a run for the farmhouse if I have to. “I’m going in there, Grayson.”
Grayson doesn’t look happy about it, but he nods. “Okay. We’ll need to get rid of Lionel’s Faders though.”
“How are we going to do that?” I ask. It’s not like we can just suggest to them that they might like to move out of the way, after all. And we certainly can’t tell them the truth about what is going on.
“Just leave that part to me,” Grayson says. “Phillipa’s remains too. I’ll deal with it. Hide them so that no one will guess what happened out here.”
“So what do I do?” I ask.
“Exactly what they think you ought to do. Go back inside like nothing has happened. Like you just came out here to talk to me.”
A minute ago, he was saying that was too dangerous, but I guess I should be grateful. Grayson has seen that my mind is made up, and he’s willing to help me out with what I have in mind.
“And when I’m inside, I find Jack and tell him?” I ask.