“Something for Trish.” She also had a small piece of wood. It only made him wish he’d created something for her to remember him by.

  “Sadina . . .” He needed to tell her. He had nothing to give but the truth. That her mom was sick. That he wouldn’t be getting on the ship to Alaska.

  “What? You’re looking at me like you have some deep dark confession to make.” She laughed nervously but then got quiet. “Look, if you’re going to tell me you’ve always been in love with me or some weird sappy shit—”

  “No. Nothing like that. I don’t think I’m your type, anyway.” He rolled his eyes but Sadina started to laugh again, and he realized he couldn’t be the one to tell her. Not now. “I just want you to know that I really would go from the sea to the sky for you.”

  “I know.” She gave him a questioning smile.

  He wanted her to understand. “If we ever get separated, I’ll find a way back to you and everyone else.”

  “Isaac! Stop being so weird, we’re not going to get separated.” She snatched the hammer out of his hand, almost burning hers in the process.

  “You’re right,” he lied.

  With the ranks of the Evolutionary Guard to protect her, Alexandra confidently walked in front of the crowd that had gathered for Sunday Maze Mass. The air was icy on her arms and face, despite the sunny skies above. She folded the mustard-yellow wool cloak around her arms, holding tight to the disguise she’d once worn to fool Mannus into doing her bidding to kill Nicholas.

  It was time for a good old-fashioned uprising.

  It was time for the Evolution.

  “You’re sure you feel up to this?” Flint questioned her strength as she walked to the stage. She’d thought by getting rid of Nicholas that she was done having people question her.

  “Flint, I told you, the fainting was just a spell of grief that came over me. I’m fine.” But it hadn’t been from grief. She had no idea what caused her to black out. She handed Flint her cloak with a look that said don’t ever question me again.

  “Hello, Faithful Pilgrims!” Alexandra faced the simmering crowd and waited until all had eyes on her. The group before her included those who were silently devout, praying in basements, all the way to the extremists who performed rituals and Hollowings. She looked for Mannus’ horns which typically stood out in the crowd, but there was no sign of him. She needed to speak with him, make sure he’d kept his word and that the arrangement between them was still private. She didn’t trust any of the Pilgrims, much less one who’d killed a member of the Godhead. “Faithful Pilgrims, I bring sad news today, but first I bring you news of hope.” She placed both her hands over her heart as if to brace the people of Alaska for Nicholas’ loss.

  A crazed Pilgrim, almost naked, with jittery eyes as wide as two soap dishes, screamed at her. “The lights are solar flares! We’re doomed!” Those around him faltered in their faith, murmured agreement. She hated how easily the fear of simple things could affect their simple minds. She had almost no patience for this, for the uneducated. She counted the digits in her head while the crowd calmed again.

  “No, the lights are our hope.” She waved her hands before her, slowly, like the movement of the Aurora Borealis. She turned on the melodrama. “The colors in the sky represent the colors within us. Our light within is coming back, and just like the skies above have evolved, it’s time for us, too to Evolve.” Murmurs again rumbled through the Pilgrims, and Alexa wondered if they even knew what the term “evolved” meant. Society had been stuck in survival mode for so long that she doubted many of them had an ounce of hope left for the future, any hope that life could ever be anything more than what it was right then. But it needed to be.

  “My Pilgrims, we are at a crossroads in civilization and it is our job to choose faith. It is our choice to change history. And it is our responsibility to stand strong.” She again allowed space within her speech for the crowd to react and they did. She spotted a set of horns moving through the crowd, and as she made eye contact with Mannus, he tapped the side of one of his horns. She had all but forgotten her promise to remove those damnable things from his head.

  “What is the news?!” The crowd chanted for her to go on.

  “The news is of hope and our ending peril. The hope that we will soon become greater and more than we ever imagined possible in the past. We will become not only resistant to the Flare but Evolve with gifts that will allow each and every one of you to become a God within your own right.”

  She held up her hands to the sky as she took a breath but the crowd didn’t cheer, they only rumbled in confusion at this. Impossibly, she’d overestimated them once again. Surely they’d understand what she said next. “But the sad news I bring to you today hurts my heart to announce.” She cleared her throat and lowered her head for dramatic effect. “Our God Nicholas was brutally murdered by those who opposed his plans regarding the Evolution.” It wasn’t a complete lie.

  “Murdered!?” Gasps arose from the crowd.

  Pilgrims moaned in mourning and turned to each other for support.

  “Yes. It is true. Our dear Nicholas died defending his vision for this land. For each of you to have the privilege of living a Godly life.” She paused and rubbed her temples. The loud buzzing in her ears started again as if she couldn’t speak of Nicholas’ death without her body having a visceral response.

  “Who murdered him?” a loud scratchy voice asked and Alexandra looked up to see Mannus, the murderer, asking her. She squinted at him and shook her head before addressing the crowd.

  “We’re looking into who could have committed such a hideous, blasphemous, violent crime.”

  “The Hollowings must be increased!” a tattooed Pilgrim shouted. “Two a day!”

  Alexandra turned to Flint for crowd control but he was useless. “No! The Hollowings must stop at once. Nicholas asked this of us and it is the one thing we can do to honor his memory, to be more Godlike in his absence.” She reached for the mustard-yellow cloak from Flint. The Pilgrims clamored too many phrases for her to hear all at once, and calming them was much harder than she’d anticipated. The disbelief draped over the crowd’s faces, and this was the outburst of emotion that she needed in order to manipulate their reactions for her plans. She let them erupt and share each other’s pain a little longer. The more she let the outrage and fear simmer, the easier it would be to steer them into her intentions.

  The fear that annoyed her so much could be used to her advantage, now. “Dearest Pilgrims, you must understand the full truth.” Her eyes met Mannus’ in the crowd and she quickly looked away; she would not be sharing that truth. “You must realize that this horrible news comes about because Nicholas had discovered a Cure, an immunity to the Flare.” The crowd became quiet just as she had hoped. It was as if her eardrums had ceased to function all at once. Perhaps they weren’t too far out of her control after all.

  “A Cure? Finally? Could it be true?” a woman in the front row asked gently as she reached out to the Goddess. Alexandra took her hand and squeezed it as she answered with a giving smile.

  “Yes.” She needed to cement their shock. “What he discovered is a preventative that keeps you healthy from the world’s deadliest virus, but also will boost your DNA to be smarter, stronger, and more gifted in all areas of your life.”

  Nicholas had indeed discovered a way to be immune to the Flare but she’d never tell them the rest of it, that the same variant which kept them resistant could also cure the half-Cranks to be whole again. She didn’t want Alaska to turn into a refuge for Cranks. They’d likely be more dead inside than Mikhail and cause more Hollowings. Alexandra knew the majority of people might agree with her, that they’d be hesitant to let half-Cranks back into society. Those abominations of the world, no matter the internal ratio, belonged on the outskirts of every town and in the Flare pits of Crank Palace.

  “When can we get this Cure?” the same woman in the front row asked.

  “In due time. Patience is necessary, dear Pilgrims. But soon we will eradicate every strain of the Flare and each of you will Evolve to the infinite potential of the human race. Capabilities that until this moment, only members of the Godhead have possessed.” The time was right. She made a show of unfolding the cloak and she swung it wide around her shoulders before securing it at the neck.

  “You all will become Gods and Goddesses, if you accept the Cure. Some will oppose this advancement in medicine, but let me be the first to tell you that those who oppose the Evolution are as evil as the Flare itself.” The crowd cheered at her fanfare just as she knew they would. “Those who oppose the Evolution are themselves responsible for the death of the God Nicholas.” The crowd booed along with her. “The Cure is on the horizon. It is the dawning of a new day, and Alaska will be both home of the Maze and now home of the Cure.”

  The crowd’s faces lit up with hope, and joy, and something so intense that she hadn’t seen from the Pilgrims in a long time. A fight in their eyes. A willingness to do more than just survive. Hysteria. Fanaticism. Exactly what she wanted. “New Petersburg will be the most powerful of all cities, the highest of all populations. No longer a place to be feared, or to be looked down upon. New Petersburg, the sight of the Maze—will rise again.”

  The people cheered louder and louder. She breathed it all in like fresh air.

  She was their only remaining God.

  Their one true Goddess.

  Alexandra felt dizzy. Was this how Nicholas felt with all the power he’d once held? Her ears buzzed louder with each step she took into town. Now that she was the singular God, she wondered if her head could take the pressure. Her hands shook without reason, which she tried to hide from the Evolutionary Guard.

  “Goddess Romanov!” shouted someone from the crowd chasing behind them, but the guards knew to keep anyone from getting close to her. She wouldn’t be touching them on their foreheads, their noses, and then their mouths like dear Nicholas did. She’d never touch them at all. “Goddess Romanov, I’ve done your bidding now you do mine.” The voice of the follower rang clear.

  “Stand back.” The Evolutionary Guard pushed the man with horns. “She’ll speak again next Sunday.”

  But Alexandra held up her hand to stop them. “I’ll speak to this one now.” She motioned the Guard to give her space, “Please. Allow us privacy.” She knew such a request might cause suspicion and that heads might roll if she invited this monster of a man up to her quarters for a private talk. The middle of the street, south of the square would have to do. The Guard hesitated to leave her side, as if they knew Mannus was a Godhead killer. She motioned with a little more threat for just a few feet of privacy.

  “You’ve got a kindness owed to me, Goddess.” Mannus tapped his right horn.

  “Yes, I do. Thank you. It will be done.” She smiled so that the Evolutionary Guard allowed her to comfort a spiritually lost Pilgrim.

  “When?” Mannus forcibly demanded the when and the how of it, but the more he pushed the more she’d delay. She didn’t come out from under Nicholas’ reign to be bossed around by anyone ever again. She couldn’t let Mannus forget who the true God was.

  She held her hands in front of her, palms up to show dominance and leadership as she spoke to Mannus. “Dear Pilgrim, do you have faith?” It was something simple she’d learned about body language and casting doubt that easily controlled another. She doubted Mannus could even control his own body, let alone his mind.

  “Of course.” He was a simple man with simple words. Maybe she could mold him into being something more. She needed him and his closest allies on her side. They’d been a tool in her plan to get rid of Nicholas, but perhaps tools so useful should be kept close. “It will be done when my bidding is done. I have one last request.” She held up a single finger.

  “Our deal has already started and ended.” Mannus inched closer to her and she looked back to the Guard but they were distracted by a street fight.

  Alexandra took a deep breath and repeated the digits in her head. “Then I have a new proposition.” If Mannus was impulsive enough to get horns sewn on his head years ago to please a woman, then his curiosity could be manipulated again. And after all, Alexandra was more than just any woman, she was a God.

  “I’m listening.” He lowered his tone and took a step backwards.

  She held up her finger again. “You will be the first of New Petersburg to experience the full Evolution.”

  “The Cure?” His eyes glistened and it reminded Alexandra of the power that the Flare still had over everyone. The man in front of her was strong enough to kill a God with his bare hands, but his voice weakened to that of a child when asking about the Cure.

  “Yes, the Cure is the Culmination of the Evolution. We’ll remove your horns at that time, for a full transformation both inner and outer.” She allowed her words to linger, dance around Mannus

  “When?” he asked with a look of honor.

  “As soon as humanly possible.”

  She smiled at her use of the word humanly. Mannus and the other horned Pilgrims were about as odd looking as the half-Cranks. Some, with tattooed faces and necks, wearing hardly any clothes, looked more like animals than people. They were still human, but they could become more human-like, to humanity’s truest form. Their DNA needed to open up, to re-create all possibilities. She watched as Mannus walked away, his horns bouncing with every step. For far too long the world had veered off course. Humanity had given up on itself. But this turning point in history would be a sharp one.

  As sharp as the tip of a horn.

  CHAPTER NINE

  The Infinite Glade

  Nicholas had known better than to trust Alexandra completely but it turned out that their beheaded God hadn’t trusted Mikhail as much as Mikhail once thought, either. Was he as unhinged and as assumptive as Alexandra suggested? Why didn’t Nicholas tell him what he’d done with the real vials of Newt’s blood? The only thing Mikhail could do was walk the path of the Maze, amongst the stone ruins and rampant ivy, and try to decode where Nicholas had deposited the Cure. There were a hundred places he could have hid something if he meant for Mikhail to find it, but none of them were checking out. And Nicholas had been the telepathic one—not Mikhail. The best he could do was sit and meditate and hope a vision of the Cure’s concealment would come to him.

  The blood in his body still boiled deep with anger and a heat that reminded him of the sweltering inflammation he’d endured when he had the Flare. He breathed in for three seconds, held his breath for three seconds, and exhaled for a long three seconds to enhance his calm. He couldn’t get visions of information if he were angry; only being calm and centered—or asleep—would allow his intuition to flow.

  He leaned against prickly vines and mossy rocks. He closed his eyes and put his hands in his lap in the position of the first Mudra, something Nicholas had shown him: the gesture of knowledge. With his forefinger and his thumb joined, the other three fingers on his hand extended, together. Nicholas had compared it to the Godhead, to always standing together. His rage curled up inside him once again and he reminded himself that it was always supposed to be this way, he had prepared for this. Maybe not without Nicholas, but he had prepared nonetheless. For the uprising of all uprisings.

  For years Mikhail had prepared without fully understanding why—until Alexandra’s own Evolution became out of control. Nicholas had once quipped that he hoped he didn’t live long enough to see the aftermath of Mikhail and Alexandra’s love; they were once each other's moon and stars. But Alexandra’s star in Mikhail’s world became too much like the sun. Volatile flares, scorching all those around her. He breathed deeply. He concentrated on nothing except clearing his mind like the clearing of the Glade. He breathed in, held his breath, and exhaled. In the open, empty, vast space of nothingness and everythingness, he entered the place in his mind where anything was possible and all was revealed.

  The Infinite Glade.

  Colors and shapes seemingly swirled around as if to ask him what would you like to know? He focused his thoughts on the vials of Newt’s blood and the Cure and waited, but nothing appeared. The only time this happened—when he wasn’t able to see anything in his mind’s eye—was when he tried to conjure conflicting ideas.

  Was Newt’s blood not the Cure? he tried to see where the Cure was, the same Cure that had changed his blood and body back to humanity from the Gone. In the Infinite Glade of his mind, only one word grew bigger. The word was in itself a vision, big white capitalized letters growing in a sea of blackness: ISLAND. What in Crank’s breath did that mean? There were over 2,000 islands in Alaska alone.

  His mind itched with the unlimited possibilities. The frustratingly limitless. He had no reason to question the same man who had saved his life and raised him to power, but Mikhail often wondered if the power was worth it. Part of him still felt like a Crank inside and the pressure of being a man of Godliness clashed against the parts of him that still screamed with madness.

  Show me the Cure. He hoped for a vision that held something, anything of detail. And with another slow inhale and another deep exhale, the Infinite Glade opened up to show a rack of vials, hundreds of variants of the Cure. And within the room of his vision, Alexandra walked around, smiling and directing scientists. The future was changing but the constant of his fellow God obtaining the Cure for the Evolution remained the same. How could he let her be the one in control of others when she lacked so much self-control, herself? With the anger rising up in his chest, almost a comfort, the vision evaporated before his eyes. It didn’t matter. He had seen all he needed to see.

  With no clear path, he would plow his own. And it would be a war path.

  A war like Alaska had never seen before. Maybe the world.

  He walked toward a patch of light that shone down into the dark, damp tunnel. The light. Where the outside world leaked in just enough to guide Mikhail toward the exit. Some people believed that a light awaited them at the end of life. But he imagined only darkness. That’s why it was better to be a God in this life.