Footsteps come from the darkness.
I hold tighter to her wrist, assuming it to be Initiative guards. Soon they will come and bind her with MagnaCuffs, take her back to Headquarters. She doesn’t run.
She stays by my side. There is a sudden change in her eyes, a sadness that wasn’t there before, as she looks at me.
“I’m sorry,” she whispers. “I’m so sorry, Meadow.”
“Sorry for what?” I ask.
She opens her mouth, leans in to whisper. I hear her words, beg them not to be true.
What she is saying cannot be true. My world shatters.
“Meadow . . .”
“Stop,” I say. I shove her words away. Lock them deep in my heart and choose to believe they are false.
She opens her mouth to speak, and for one moment, I think she is going to apologize for everything. Everything she’s done to me, to my family, to the world, for the secret she just told me. I need this moment. To truly begin to forgive her, I need to hear her apology.
But she never gets the chance to say it.
Instead, she lurches forward, like she has been pushed from behind.
She gasps.
A trickle of blood slides from her lips.
“No,” she whispers. “No!”
Then she falls.
I see it all happen in slow motion, hear myself screaming, feel myself drop to her side. “Mom!”
There is an arrow protruding from her chest. Blood blooms like a fresh rose on the fabric of her shirt.
I don’t have to see the wound to know it was a perfect hit. I know she has seconds before she dies. I know that everything around me is a blur, and I can’t focus on the hidden killer.
All I see is my mother.
Dying.
Again.
She coughs, gasps for breath. She opens and closes her mouth like a fish. “You have to . . .” she gasps. “Stay.”
“I’m not leaving you,” I whisper. “You’re going to be okay.” I rip the arrow out, push my hands to her chest, but blood bubbles through my fingertips.
A gushing river.
It’s too much. Too fast.
She is going to die.
“No!” she yells, and her eyes go wild, like she’s staring into bright light. About to cross over. “The revenge order,” she gasps, and suddenly she’s gripping my wrists so tight that I cry out. “Stay!”
“I will,” I promise. She is leaving the world behind. Leaving me behind. I thought I’d gotten her back. I thought I wouldn’t be alone in this any longer. She could have taken control again, sent me to the Ridge, set Peri free, removed our Regulators, or demanded my family to be sent home. She could have fixed it all.
Tears splash down my cheeks, onto her forehead, as her grip goes slack. I can’t stop the bleeding. “Don’t. Don’t go. Don’t leave me again. Not now. You can’t!”
A tear rolls down her cheek. “Forgive me,” she says. She reaches up to touch my Regulator.
She takes a deep, sputtering breath.
Then her eyes glaze over. Her hand drops, leaving a trail of blood on my cheek.
I am vaguely aware of a voice that sounds like Zephyr’s, calling my name, and the footsteps of many, racing toward me.
But none of that matters.
Nothing in this world matters, not even me.
My mother is dead.
CHAPTER 25
ZEPHYR
Lark Woodson is dead.
The Creator is finally, finally dead.
And I shot the arrow that killed her.
It’s the only thing I can think. The only thing that comes to mind.
I should be happy. I should feel my entire body relax, my heart grow so full it’s about to burst. The woman who ruined my life has finally gotten what she deserves. I see Sparrow hobbling next to Rhone, rushing from the shadows.
Rhone reaches Meadow, tries to pull her away from Lark’s corpse.
Meadow is sobbing over Lark’s dead body. There’s something black and unnatural sticking out of Meadow’s skull. I freeze as I look at her.
This can’t be Meadow. A sobbing, shell of a girl, covered in cuts and bruises, half of her hair cut away. She screams, and the sound rocks me backward a step.
What did the Leeches do to her?
Meadow shakes Lark’s body, shouts curses at her.
I want to explain myself. I want to tell her why I killed her, that it was for us, for everyone.
But suddenly there’s a flash. Blinding white light behind my eyes.
A horrible ringing pierces my thoughts. It’s worse than the Night Siren, worse than Meadow’s scream.
I can’t hear anything but the ringing.
I can’t see anything but the white light.
And then there’s a word. A single word in Lark’s voice, that surfaces through the chaos. The word comes again, over and over and over, the sweetest one I’ve ever heard.
Revenge.
CHAPTER 26
MEADOW
My mother is dead.
My mother came for me, came to help me save Peri, and she tried to apologize, and now she is . . .
She is only asleep.
She is dead.
She is asleep, right here in front of me, waiting for me to wake her up.
She is dead.
“Get up, Meadow! Leave her!” A man’s voice, and I think I feel hands tugging at my shoulders, trying to pull me away.
I throw them off.
I need to hear my mother’s apology, to know that she was truly sorry for everything that she had ever done. She asked me to forgive her. I have to tell her that I want to, that I want things to be the way they always could have been.