Flint releases Rigel with a savage shove and barrels toward us. We sprint down the hallway.
The extraction doors are ahead. The twin steel slabs slowly begin to close. My theory was right. Aric was waiting by our door. And theirs was empty. Rigel and Tyson were going to lead us to him. They expected us to run in the opposite direction.
“Faster!” Rei gasps.
We throw ourselves through the narrowing gap just as the doors begin to close. Sweat drips down my hairline, clinging to my lashes.
We’ve made it to the opposite side.
“Wait!” Kaia calls.
She’s behind us. She must have just woken up. I take a step towards her when Rei grabs my elbow, fingers digging in tightly.
“The door will cut you in half,” Rei hisses. “Forget her. She was deadweight anyway.”
The door seals with finality. Kaia got her hand in before it came crushing down, and the howl of her pain makes my skin break out in goosebumps. I can see the crushed bones of her fingers. My stomach heaves as we are ushered into the training room.
Light floods the chamber, and I blink, adjusting to the brightness. My limbs shake from the adrenaline.
Tyson, Aric, and Rigel march into the room without Odessa. Aric’s team is staring at us with poison in their eyes, and Orion looks disappointed by the loss.
Ender stands above us on the observation deck, hands clasped behind his back.
“She needs a doctor.” I rush forward. “Kaia is alive, but?—”
“Your teammate failed,” Ender says. “And as a result, she will die a slow, painful death. Hunger and pain will eat away at her.”
“No, we won,” I say. “But we have to help her.”
“I will grant her mercy,” Ender says.
The thud of his boots sounds like a drum as he makes his way down the stairs. His eyes gleam with cruelty.
“We won,” Rei whispers, shaking my shoulder. “Let it go.”
My pulse thunders in my ears. My limbs are shaking. Something inside me dislodged when Tyson nearly broke my spine on the wall. But I refuse to cower in the face of a monster. If this saves Kaia, then it will have been worth it.
Ender walks ahead of us, a sign to follow him. We all trail after him. Everyone looks miserable and sick. It doesn’t seem like he’s going to fix things. He hasn’t shown us a sliver of kindness since we joined, and I would have to be a fool to think he’s changed.
Ender reaches for his holster and yanks out his gun.
“I’ll open the doors,” he says. “Only long enough for you to put her out of her misery.”
A cold sweat breaks down my neck. My fingers twitch by my side, quick and erratic.
“Vale, please,” I whisper. “Fix her.”
He grabs my wrist and curls my fingers around the weapon.
“You must not be weak,” Ender says. “You must not falter.”
Ender walks to the door and jabs the button. The door rolls up, and Kaia whimpers. Blood soaks her mutilated hand, and my stomach churns. Bile crawls up my throat.
“Now, Warrick,” Ender says coldly.
My fingers shake around the hilt. For one small moment, I contemplate shooting him between the eyes and watching him crumble to his knees. He must sense the dark turn my thoughts took, because his mouth tilts, daring me to try.
“Just do it,” Rei says nervously. “Or I’ll do it.”
