The Fate of Ten
Page 23

“Is this . . . is this a memory?” I ask Ella.
“Something I saw, yeah,” she answers. “I think—I don’t know. It might be important.”
As we watch, Setrákus Ra lifts his stolen Loric pendants over his head. He holds them in his thick hands for a moment, considering the blue Loralite jewels. He’s got several of them—three from the Garde he killed and the rest were probably taken from the Garde he captured at one point or another. He seems almost nostalgic for a moment as he gazes upon his trophies.
Then, he drops them into the vat. Four tiny little mouths open up on the egg and suck in the pendants, smothering their glow.
“What was that?” I ask Ella, feeling like I might be sick even in this dream state. “When did this happen? What’s he doing?”
Setrákus Ra’s gaze suddenly shoots towards us and he shouts something. A second later, he and the rest of the Mogs disappear back into thin air.
“That’s when he caught me spying,” Ella explains, biting her lip. “I don’t know what he was doing, John. I’m sorry. Everything’s a bit . . . fuzzy.”
We move on. Eventually, Ella brings me to the docking bay. It’s a huge area with high ceilings, filled by row after row of Skimmers. It’s from here that the squadrons of Mogs currently terrorizing New York City first took flight.
“They’re always coming and going from here,” Ella says, waving at the big metal doors at the end of the docking bay. “You might be able to get in through there, if they’re open. It’s where Five and I tried to escape from.”
I make a note of the docking bay doors. We’d just have to figure out a way to make the Mogs open them up. It’d be pretty easy to get on board if we had someone who could fly us up there.
“About Five . . . ,” I say, hesitating, not sure how much Ella has heard. “Do you know what he did?”
Ella bites her lip, looking down at the floor. “He murdered Eight.”
“But he also tried to help you escape,” I say, feeling her out. “Is he . . . ?”
“You’re trying to figure out how evil he is?”
“I’m looking for him right now. I’m trying to figure out, when I find him, if I should kill him.”
Ella frowns and walks away from me, looking at a dented spot on the floor. I assume it’s from when she and Five tried to escape.
“He’s confused,” she says after a moment. “I don’t know . . . I don’t know what he’ll do. Don’t trust him, John. But don’t kill him.”
I remember the last time Ella sucked me into one of these dream states, back when her Legacy was first manifesting and out of control. It was back in Chicago. That time, she didn’t bring me to her present location. Instead, we were trapped in a vision of the future, watching Setrákus Ra lord over the people of Washington in a world where the Mogadorians had won the war.
“Don’t we know what he does, though?” I ask, my fists clenching on reflex. “You showed it to me. Five goes back to Setrákus Ra. He works for the enemy. He captures Six and Sam . . .”
I trail off, not wanting to further dredge up the memory of witnessing my friends’ execution. I don’t want to remember that doomed prophecy of how we’re going to lose. Ella shakes her head. She opens her mouth, and suddenly I realize that there’s something big she isn’t telling me.
“That future doesn’t exist anymore, John,” she says after a lengthy pause. “My visions . . . they aren’t like the nightmares Setrákus Ra used to give you guys. And they aren’t prophecies. We aren’t locked into them, like Eight thought. They’re premonitions. Possibilities.”
“How do you know that?”
Ella thinks for a moment. “I’m not sure. How do you know how to make fireballs? You just do. It’s instinct.”
I take a step towards her. “So that vision of D.C., where everyone was dead and you were . . . ?”
“I can’t see it anymore. Something in the present changed what will happen.”
“If it’s a Legacy like my Lumen . . .” My eyes widen as I consider the possibilities. “Can you control the visions now? Can you look into the future at will?”
Ella’s eyebrows are scrunched, like she’s not sure how to describe what she’s seen. “I can’t control it exactly. The visions . . . they aren’t reliable. I don’t know if that’s because of me, because I’m just learning or if it’s because the future is so unstable. Either way, I’ve spent a lot of time searching through them . . .”
Now I know why Ella looks so exhausted even in this dream space, why she’s suddenly so wise beyond her years. She mentioned before how much time she’s spent hiding in the safety of her own mind. I wonder how much of that time was spent wrestling with visions of the future. It must be agonizing to sift through all those possibilities.
“What have you been searching for?” I ask her.
Ella hesitates, avoiding my eyes. “I wanted . . . I wanted to see if there was a future where I die.”
“Ella, no,” I say, my voice sharp. Five told me about the twisted Loric Charm that Setrákus Ra used on himself and Ella, the one that binds them together so we’ll have to kill her to get at him. “We’ll figure out a way to break the charm. There’s gotta be a weakness.”
Ella shakes her head, not believing me. Or maybe already knowing that I’m wrong.