Everything feels like a nightmare, shimmering and unreal. Ari can already feel the wrongness of the exchange in the pit of his stomach. He can smell the blood in the air. He stares at the silhouette of the city on the horizon, mesmerized by the blinking red lights. He looks at Rudra and remembers the way the man pierced his neck with thorns. He sees Reed and remembers the photos of his family. He searches and searches for Sam and finds nothing, only darkness and empty air.
The devastation in his chest begins to give way. Slowly, surely. Gives way to anger.
Diamond nods for her second captive crewman. He steps stiffly forward and makes it to Grand Central’s side.
Ari is thinking of Sam. Sam, who is gone now. But before she kissed him, she painted in his mind a vision of what could be. A path forward, instead of one stuck in an endless maze. A world where they can walk down a street together and talk about each other’s lives. Where they can sit together in a café and laugh until their stomachs hurt. Where they can sit under the stars at the beach and point out the constellations.
Ari glances toward the trees. Something caught his eye. A flicker, as if from a flashlight.
“Last one,” Rudra says with a nod, sending the final Grand Central captive across the line.
All eyes are on Ari now. He waits for Will to nod in his direction.
But Will stays silent and still.
Diamond lifts her chin. Ari tenses, knowing his end is about to come.
Then she nods at her men. They lift their guns and point them directly across the line, right at the Lumines captives they had just freed. They fire.
The first captive rocks violently backward. He collapses immediately, his brains sprayed across the ground in a bloody cone.
Isla moves faster—she jerks to the right, barely managing to dodge the hit.
Rudra lets out a snarl and pulls out his own weapons. Will lunges forward.
A third gun points to Ari.
He braces himself.
More gunfire splits the air—
—he flinches, expecting the fiery pain of a bullet in his chest—
But the shot doesn’t come from the gun pointed at him.
His gaze jerks to the side door right as it rockets open with a bang.
Suddenly, armed men in black gear are flooding into the space, rifles raised, eyes hidden behind visors.
There are shouts everywhere. Bright, searing lights.
“Hands in the air! Hands in the air!”
Ari squints and doesn’t know where he is for a moment. The other crewmen whirl around to face the police streaming in.
In the dancing light, Ari catches a glimpse of Diamond’s face. And for the first time he can remember, she looks surprised.
Shots ring out in the night. Ari glances over his shoulder. He sees more police flooding into the estate from the other side of the compound—Grand Central has scattered into position and he can see sparks from their guns in the darkness.
When he turns back around, Diamond and Will are nowhere to be seen.
Ari fixates on the open door. As he does, he catches sight of Reed right behind him.
He doesn’t even have time to shout. One second, Reed is standing there—the next, the man’s head rocks backward, blood spraying, body collapsing. Ari ducks to the ground, heart pounding furiously. Reed’s splayed on the grass, unmoving, dead. Ari looks over his shoulder, expecting to see the police—but it isn’t an officer who fired the fatal shot.
It’s Rudra, eyes dark and wild, an expression of grim satisfaction on his face.
He exchanges a brief look with Ari. And for a moment, Ari thinks he can see a hint of understanding on the man’s face—as if, once upon a time, perhaps Rudra had lost just as much as Ari had, that perhaps he had sacrificed as deeply.
