staring at me with pure loathing. “You have no right to judge us by the laws of your species.”
“I don’t know.” Another cuckoo screamed somewhere behind me. Without their telepathy to help them target Annie and James, they were learning the hard way that sometimes it’s a good idea to take a self-defense class. “It sort of feels like you’re judging us by the laws of your species, all the time. You gave Sarah up. Not for her benefit. For your own. Also, it’s the laws of my species that tell me it’s not okay to beat up a pregnant lady, so maybe you should try to be okay with that.”
An oak two-by-four slammed into the side of her head. She staggered for a moment and then fell, landing heavily on her side, one arm curled around the vast swell of her belly.
Mark dropped the plank next to her. “My species doesn’t have any laws about letting women go unscathed just because they’re gestating,” he said. “Maybe we should, but I’m not the one who set the standards.”
I gaped at him. “You’re here. We—”
“You left me in Beaverton. Believe me, I noticed. But I’m a quick thinker and things got really confused and distracted when you stole the princess; I survived, no thanks to you.”
“Um.” Something shattered in the distance. Given that James was still in play, I was pretty sure it was one of the cuckoos. “I’m sorry about that.”
“I would have done the same thing to you.” Mark shoved his hair out of his eyes and glared at me. “You need to end this. We’re almost out of time.”
He wasn’t wrong about that. The air was growing thick again, not like honey this time, but like it had been saturated with electricity. This was the weight of a storm getting ready to descend, and I didn’t need to be psychic to know that we didn’t have long before whatever was about to happen was too far along to be stopped.
I turned and resumed wading through the cuckoos—what was left of them. Most had rushed off to confront Annie and James, apparently trusting the woman who claimed to be Sarah’s biological mother to stop me. There was another scream behind me, followed by a shout of pain. This time, I recognized the voice. Annie was in trouble.
Annie could take care of herself. I kept forcing my way forward until Sarah was right in front of me, her eyes glowing white, her hair floating several inches above her shoulders and belling out around her head like a corona, like she was underwater and no longer subject to the precise rules and regulations of gravity.
Lymph was still leaking from her nose, ears, and eyes, adding a damp slickness to her face. Her eyes were blazing white, so bright I couldn’t look directly at them. And still her hands were moving, swiping through the air, moving things I couldn’t see into place.
I didn’t allow myself to hesitate. Hesitation wasn’t going to help us now. I stepped up in front of her and grabbed her wrists, stopping her hands. She turned to stare at me, and I fought the urge to shut my eyes against the brightness.
You are interfering, she said.
“I’m here because I need you to stop before you destroy the world,” I said.
The equations must be finished.
“No, Sarah. You need to stop, and let them go, and come home.”
The equations will be finished.
Her voice was a roar of silent thunder, bouncing back and forth inside my skull, echoing off of everything. It was almost impossible to fight the urge to clap my hands over my ears and stop the headache. I forced myself not to move.
“Sarah. Come on. Come back to me. You’re better than this. You’ve always been better than this. None of these people are worth dying over. None of them are important enough to let them make you a monster.”
Let me go.
I took a deep breath. “Make me.”
Her eyes flashed white, bright as dying stars, and the air grew even thicker. I dropped her wrists and wrapped my arms around her, pulling her into a tight embrace, creating as much skin contact as possible.
I love you, I thought, as loudly as I could.
She didn’t pull away. She didn’t put her arms around me, either, and I found myself thinking about Mark, which was stupid. Here I was with my arms around the girl I loved, holding her, maybe for the last time, and I was thinking about Mark.