And if it weren’t for Alden.
“I know,” he exhaled, taking quick stock of the small room.
The table remained between him and Agatha. Pixel cried quietly against Brick’s side at the end of the table. Reed held on to him from behind, his fingers tangled stubbornly in Nate’s shirt.
Think.
Another table against the far wall was covered in glass containers and tubes of strange shapes and sizes. He didn’t see any alarms or weapons. They could fight their way out if they had to—and Nate knew well enough to get out of the way if it came to that.
“If you won’t help us, I won’t force you to stay,” Agatha said, studying Nate.
“Good.” Nate frowned, uneasy. After all of this, he didn’t expect her to let him go without a fight.
“Of course, if you leave, you will die. Soon.”
“I’ll take my chances,” Nate said. “I don’t want to hurt people.”
Agatha gestured toward the door elegantly. “Like I said, you’re free to go. Gods watch you.”
“Pixel.” Nate held out his hand. “Come on.”
When Pixel moved, Agatha chuckled. “I didn’t say you could take the girl.”
Pixel’s eyes went wide. “Reed! Nate!”
Her sharp, frightened cry was like gasolex splashed on a bin-fire. Nate lunged for Pixel, and Reed and Brick launched toward Agatha in an explosion of movement. Reed slid over the table and tackled Agatha to the ground. Nate slipped on the polished floor and crashed to his knees.
Agatha was taller than Reed—and wickedly strong. They fell together in a heap and rolled across the concrete. She kicked him away, and he barreled into the lowest shelf of plants. Plastic pots tumbled down around him, spilling mud and sand.
Brick took her time, circling the scuffle, light on her feet. She watched them roll for a moment before swiftly dropping her knee onto Agatha’s middle and pinning her to the floor. She hunched over and jammed her forearm against Agatha’s throat, ignoring the volley of blows as Agatha tried to fight her off. Agatha was tall and strong, but she didn’t have a chance—not with two against one and Pixel at stake.
Nate scrambled to his feet to get Pixel and stopped short, frozen by what he saw.
Juniper, the frail young woman from the distillation room, held the gleaming tip of a sharp tool against the life vein at Pixel’s slender throat.
Pixel let out a muffled sob.
Pix.
He raised his hands slowly, numb with a new kind of fear. It stole the air out of the room, out of his body.
“Make them stop hurting her,” Juniper said, tears running down her pale cheeks. Her fingers dug into Pixel’s arm. “Make them stop!”
By the look of it, Reed wasn’t doing much of the hurting. Despite Brick’s strong arm against her throat, Agatha landed a punch to his gut that left him doubled over and retching. His wound still wasn’t fully healed.
“All right,” Nate told the girl, careful and soft.
Juniper’s wide eyes darted around the room, wild and scared as a caged gull’s.
“Brick.” Nate spoke around a knot of dread in his throat. He reached his hands out blindly, as if he could will them to quit fighting. “Reed. Stop.”
Juniper let out a piercing shriek. “I’ll kill her! Don’t care if she’s a GEM. Let Agatha go!”
That caught Reed’s and Brick’s attention. They froze and stared at her. Brick had dirt and hair on her face. She sagged and released the coil of tension in her arm enough to let Agatha speak.
“Juniper,” Agatha said, strained but utterly calm. “Good girl.”
Reed scooted away from Brick and Agatha, his eyes on Pixel. It hurt, a deep pang in Nate’s chest, to see his fear echoed on Reed’s face. They’d both failed to protect Pixel.
