And now I had Alonzo’s attention.

  “Benjamin Murdock!” he shouted. “Welcome to the party!” His mouth split in an ugly grin. “So glad you’re still alive. Sucaath will be–”

  He turned away from me, putting up a hand to catch the sudden blasts of energy that came pouring in at him from somewhere overhead. Was it George? I didn’t waste any time activating the ring Colette had given me.

  I knew exactly what to do with it.

  “Adus,” I whispered, pointing my finger toward Alonzo. The tip lit up like I was E.T., but nothing else happened. This wasn’t what I pictured in my mind.

  Alonzo turned his other hand toward the shooter, ready to finish him off.

  “Distradus?” I said hesitantly, pushing my finger forward again.

  Light diffused was harmless. Light pushed into focus, on the other hand…

  The laser shot across the gap between me and Alonzo, a little off target at first. It cut through everything in its path like a massive, overpowered scalpel. Noticing it, Alonzo didn’t panic. He redirected his hand and erected a wall of energy between us, a shield of pulsating light to catch the laser.

  The beam made contact, slamming into the shield with enough force for Alonzo to finally flinch, his eyes reaching out to me, a hint of panic in them. He couldn’t increase the strength of his shield without stopping and reactivating the sigil, and as soon as he did the laser would reach him. Instead, he tried to back away, searching for cover to escape the tight beam, only visible because of the dust in the air that surrounded the light of it. Failing to find a way out, he gave up on his defense from the energy blasts, charging toward me as he activated another shield with his other hand, aiming to double his defenses.

  Except there was a problem. My beam punched through the first shield before his could, overcoming his barrier and slicing through his flesh and bone as if it was just more air. He screamed as it dug through his torso, painting a line from his abdomen up to his opposite shoulder. At the same time, George’s energy blasts began slamming into him, well-aimed despite the retired Marine’s single good arm.

  Succumbing to the overwhelming attack, he collapsed to the floor. Dead.

  CHAPTER 39

  I let go of my focus, immediately, crying out in pain as every nerve in my body seemed to explode in hot fury. Collapsing, I writhed on the ground in agony, the usage of the two rings causing some kind of insane feedback loop that left me feeling like I might combust. Waves of pain washed over me, one after another, and I screamed and cried, shaking and clawing at the ground, desperate for relief.

  It felt like hours. In reality, it was only about twenty seconds. The excruciating pain subsided, leaving me with a more manageable throbbing and stabbing hurt. I managed to get to my hands and knees, my stomach queasy as I put eyes on what was left of Alonzo Dellacqua.

  I leaned over and vomited painfully, spitting up bile and blood, my eyes watering fiercely, themselves leaking blood mixed with my tears. Had I gone too far and caused internal damage? If so, I would take comfort in the fact that I had stopped Dellacqua from delivering the catalyst to Sucaath. A single word, everything, echoed in my mind.

  “Ben,” Nick said, limping back to me from where I had thrown him, holding his broken arm against his chest. “Ben, are you okay?”

  I looked over at him. “I don’t know. I’m alive for now. I’m sorry about your arm.”

  “Don’t be. You saved my life. I’ll take a broken arm over burning to death any day.”

  He reached out with his good arm, helping me to my feet. I groaned as he did, the pain pulsating throughout my body. Surprisingly, the feeling had already returned to my left arm, even if it did hurt with even the slightest movement.

  “Keep,” I said.

  Nick held me up as we stumbled forward, headed for where he lay flat on the floor of the plant. From the paleness of his face and his lack of movement, I was sure Alonzo had killed him.

  “Keep,” I repeated as we neared him, louder so he could hear me. “Keep, are you dead?”

  Nearby noise demanded my attention, and I raised my hand, ready to push back anything that might be a threat. George stumbled out of the darkness, arm limp at his side, right foot dragging on a broken ankle he was able to put some weight on. I couldn’t believe he was upright.

  “Ben, Nick,” he said. “You both look like crap.”

  “Have you seen yourself?” Nick replied.

  “Did we get them?”

  “Yeah, I think we got them.”

  He noticed Keep. “Shit.”

  “Keep!” I dropped to my knees when we reached him, putting my fingertips to his neck, searching for a pulse.

  His hand shot up and grabbed my wrist, eyes snapping open. He must have thought I was Alonzo, because his sleeve flared before calming.

  “Bennie?” he said weakly, struggling to breathe and speak. “Where’s Alonzo?”

  “Dead,” I replied.

  “You killed him?”

  “We killed him together,” I answered. I didn’t think I would have been able to bust through his defenses if Keep hadn’t drained him already. And no doubt George’s distraction had helped get it done too. “All of us.”

  “Colette?”

  “Also dead,” I said. “But I didn’t do it. She was hit by shrapnel when you two practically blew up the place. She helped me beat her father. I don’t know why.”

  “He wasn’t her father,” Keep said. “He was her teacher.” He paused to cough, but made no move to get up. “You did good, kid. You too, Nickie. George. You should all be proud of yourselves. You took down a Gilded and are alive to tell the tale.”

  I gasped, surprised by the title he had given Alonzo.

  “What’s a Gilded?” Nick asked.

  “Bennie, go over and open his shirt.”

  “I don’t see how that—”

  “Go on,” Keep hissed. “And search him while you’re at it.”

  I didn’t really want to go back to Alonzo’s corpse, nearly sliced in half by my laser. I approached him slowly, feeling sick all over again as I unbuttoned his collared shirt.

  “What the hell?” I whispered, staring at his chest.

  It was covered in sigils, etched into his skin and filled with a gold catalyst in an ornate tattoo. I quickly counted seven symbols on his front, and the design suggested I could find more on his back.

  Gilded. It made sense to me now in all the terrifying ways.

  “The rarest and most efficient catalyst,” Keep said, knowing what I had seen. “The only one that can use the entire surface area of the body to extend the effect. Beyond painful to install, and difficult to master.”

  “And Sucaath wants an entire army of them,” I said as I patted down Alonzo’s pockets. A small bulge in his pants pocket caused me to reach in, as disgusting as it was.

  I pulled out a chunk of darker catalyst shaped like a smooth, flat river stone, save for the pin in the bottom designed to draw blood. It too was covered in a flow of sigils, all of them linked together. The only thing Alonzo carried, I brought it back to Keep.

  “What is this?” I asked.

  “I haven’t seen one of these for a long time. It’s how he communicates with Sedaya.”

  “Not Sedaya,” I said. “Sucaath.” Keep looked thoughtful but didn’t respond to the revelation. “When you say it’s been a long time, you mean what? Like a thousand years or so?”

  “You heard that?” Keep asked.

  “Yeah. Is it true?”

  “It’s true.”

  “How?”

  “You also heard me not tell Alonzo. Why would I tell you?”

  “Because he’s the bad guy and I’m not?”

  “It’s a long story, kid, and we can’t stay here forever.”

  I nodded. “I thought you were dead.”

  “Almost, but I’m not an easy kill.”

  “Guys,” Nick said. “Do you smell something?”

  I shook my head. “No.”

  “Nope,” Keep said.

  “I do,” George offered. He looked around before pointing. “Your starship is smoking.”

  We all looked over at Flippy at the same time. The starfighter had been behind Alonzo during our fight, and it appeared the laser had pierced the fuselage and hit something important.

  Like the already melting core.

  “I think it’s time to go,” Keep said.

  “Back to the Spiral?” I asked.

  “Do I look like I can send us back to the Spiral right now? How about Bill’s farm? Or anywhere but here. You probably lit the fuse on the core.”

  “Where’s Flippy’s catalyst?” I asked.

  Keep pointed to a Humvee parked nearby. Looking through the back window, I could see it was loaded with small chunks of catalytic element, both matte black and dark gold.

  “Help me up,” he said. “Hurry.”

  George and I lifted Keep to his feet, propping him up as we limped across the floor to the SUV. Nick ran ahead, reaching it first.

  “Open the back and dump out all the catalyst,” Keep called ahead to him.

  “Dump it out?” I said. “Are you sure we can’t use it?”

  “I’m sure we shouldn’t,” Keep replied. “If Sedaya or Sucaath had gotten hold of this much catalyst, the whole universe would be in a world of hurt.”

  “They’re really not going to like this,” I said as Nick used his good arm to drag the bins out of the Hummer and spill them on the floor.

  He laughed. “I know. Are you okay to drive?”

  My entire body still throbbed, my nerves continuing to fire off signals of pain, but it was bearable. “Yeah. I’m the only one here with two working arms.”

  “Don’t rub it in,” George said.

  “I’ve got the rest of the way,” Keep said, pulling himself free of George. “Hop in the back with Nick.”

  “Copy that,” George replied.

  I slid into the driver’s seat as Nick slammed the back doors closed and entered the Hummer behind me. Starting the engine, I looked into the rearview mirror to see the smoke pouring out of Flippy intensify.

  “You waiting for an invitation, kid?” Keep asked.

  I slammed my foot down on the gas, peeling out from the position and turning to face the plants wide bay doors, both closed.

  “I think we forgot a step,” I said, about to hit the brakes.

  “Better do something about that,” Keep replied.

  I was nervous about using the sigils again. Afraid of going through that pain a second time. But either I pushed open the doors or crashed into them, trapping us inside waiting for Flippy to explode.

  “Distra,” I whispered, not even trying to control the output.

  A wave of force hit the doors and pushed them outward from the center, buckling the metal with a deafening groan and leaving a space just wide enough for us to exit. We burst out of the plant, colliding with the front-end of a Humvee that had been parked outside while the guards had chased us in. The impact shook us up and shoved the other truck aside, denting the left front fender of our Hummer but otherwise not slowing us by much. I pressed the gas pedal to the floor, going out through the nearest opening in the fence and speeding across the dry landscape, desperate to get away from the meltdown.

  I didn’t see the explosion directly. Nighttime vanished in a bright flash of light that lasted for a few seconds and nearly blinded me. As it faded, a look in the rearview showed a massive fire engulfing the plant, energy spreading out from the fireball and a mushroom cloud billowing higher and higher into the sky. The energy continued expanding, racing along the ground, picking up and scattering debris before it as it gained speed. It was catching us faster than the Humvee had speed to offer.

  “Come on, come on, come on,” I growled, beating the heel of my hand on the steering wheel, as if that could make the truck go faster.

  We hit rougher ground at full speed, sending the Humvee bouncing and rocking along the terrain. Glancing in the rear view mirror, I saw the energy stop expanding, suddenly shrinking in on itself to reveal only slagged, disintegrated metal where the plant used to be. I exhaled in relief. We had made it.

  “That ain’t it,” Keep said, sensing my relaxation. “Don’t slow down.”

  The plant seemed to be hit with a secondary explosion. The fireball expanded outward, twice as fast while growing almost twice as large as had the energy wave. A thunderous boom finally reached us, the shockwave following along on the ground behind it, nearly launching the Humvee into the air. The truck rattled and shook, tossing us around inside, a wave of intense heat catching up and threatening to burn us alive.

  “Come on!” I shouted again.

  I found the road again, powering onto it and picking up speed. The second fireball retreated, and when it finally vanished I couldn’t see anything left behind.

  “Hold on tight,” Keep said.

  The second shockwave reached us, and this time the Hummer did leave the ground, rocking so hard I was sure we would roll over. I hit the brakes, bringing us to a stop nearly three miles from ground zero, shaking for a few more seconds before everything went still. The next wave of heat hit us, hotter than the last, and I gritted my teeth, certain my skin would blister and burn.

  It didn’t. The heat swept past, and everything was calm.

  “We made it,” George said after a moment of silence.

  “I think I wet myself,” Nick said.

  “Now that’s how you destroy all the evidence,” Keep added. “Badabing badaboom.”

  The thwip thwip thwip of a helicopter drew my attention out of the driver’s side window and up. Bill’s Black Hawk appeared in the distance, running lights back on.

  “George, do we have comms?” I asked. He was the only one whose headphones had remained on the entire time.

  “Bill, do you copy?” he said, shaking his head a few seconds later. “I don’t think so.”

  I flashed the headlights on the Hummer a few times. He flashed his lights back and then shot forward, clearing the area headed north. Slowly pressing down on the accelerator, I pulled away from the scene of the crime.

  “Police, fire, and probably the national guard will come from that way,” Keep said, pointing in our direction. “You should probably go the other way.”

  “Right,” I replied, slowing the truck again and turning around. As I did, I could see the flashing lights in the distance. I picked up speed and shut off the headlights, willing to take my chances that I might hit something.

  As fast as the Humvee could move, we escaped into the night.

  CHAPTER 40

  ONE MONTH LATER…

  “Here,” Mom said, holding out a brown paper bag. The bottom looked like it would give way any second from the weight of the contents. “I packed you lunch.”

  “I’m going back to the Spiral, not summer camp,” I replied. “They have food there. Sort of.”

  “Reconstituted elf doesn’t count,” Mom pointed out.

  “If Matt and Alter haven’t updated Asshole’s raw material supply by now, I don’t know if they ever will.”

  “I can’t believe you named it Asshole,” Sheri said. “Actually, I can.” She laughed. “I wish we had some of those here.”

  “There’s a lot of stuff there that would be nice to have here,” I agreed. “But I think we need to evolve on our own track, and keep Spiral influence on the other side of the universe for a while yet.”

  “Bennie, did you say goodbye yet?” Keep asked, approaching us. “Tick-tock, kid.”

  “Yeah, now that you’re all rested and recharged, you’re in a big hurry,” I replied. “A few more minutes won’t make a difference. What about you? Did you settle up with Bill and George?”

  “Yup,” he said sourly. “After throwing in extra to pay for medical treatment on top of the damages insurance won’t cover, plus the cash I kicked to Nickie to help him get over his dislocated shoulder and broken ribs and other expenses, I’m pretty much broke.”

  “But we did stop a Gilded from sending enough raw materials to make hundreds more Gilded back to the bad guys,” I said. “So that’s a win overall, right?”

  “I’m not saying it isn’t, but I didn’t part with the ship and the Star to wind up back to square one with regards to my financial situation.”

  “You aren’t back to square one. You’ve got me now, and by extension the rest of my crew. Come to think of it, I guess that’s the other way around. I’ve got you.”

  “What?” Keep said.

  “I’m with you on keeping sigiltech away from, well, everybody. And saving the Empress if that’s what it takes. But my ship, my rules. I will give you a senior citizen discount at the assembler, though.”

  He smirked and glanced at Mom. “You raised some kid here.”

  Mom beamed back proudly. “I know.”

  “He’s still got a lot to learn though.”

  “I know,” she agreed. “Maybe with your help, he’ll live long enough to learn it.”

  “I can’t make any promises, but I’ll do my best.”

  We all looked to the barn’s entrance as Bill and the others walked out of it. Both George and Nick’s arms were still in slings, but like Keep, they had mostly recovered from the events at the processing plant. A little more time to heal and some physical and possibly mental health therapy and they would both be right as rain. Everyone in the group wore party hats and had noise makers in their mouths, and Marie wheeled in a cart with a big, colorful sheet cake on it.

  “Surprise!” they shouted past the noisemakers, before blowing into them and making a racket that brought a huge smile to my face.

  “It’s been great having you here for the last month,” Marie said. “And we wanted to give you a big sendoff.”

  “Just can’t wait to get rid of us, is that it?” I joked.

  “Exactly,” Gloria replied.

  I looked at the cake, smiling when I read the message.

  BON VOYAGE in big letters. Followed by more writing in a much smaller script. Thank you for keeping Earth safe from asshole wizards from the other side of the universe. Love, Team Hondo.