Light (Gone 6)

Her eyes blinked. They had changed, somehow. She had changed. She still had that impossible golden skin, but her hair . . . and her mouth was different, somehow more human.

“Taylor! Don’t bounce! Stay!”

Did she understand? Lana must have finally found a way to heal her. Although she was no longer the old Taylor who had flirted and teased him so often: unreliable, flighty, gossipy Taylor.

“Taylor, help me,” he said.

“I will,” she said.

“You can talk!”

“Yes,” she said, and she seemed a bit baffled by it.

“Okay, listen, Taylor. I need something to write on. Paper, a pen, a pencil, anything you can get me to . . .”

And she was gone. No nod of the head, not a word.

He dragged himself again, but his arms and shoulders were aching from the effort, cramping from the unusual work demanded of them.

He stopped.

They were all going to die. And he, the big protector, the warrior, wouldn’t even be there for the final battle. Eventually Gaia would come back down the road, find him, and finish him off, kill him as easy as stepping on a bug.

Why hadn’t she already?

Wait a minute, why hadn’t she killed him? It made no sense. She should have.

Taylor was suddenly in front of him. In her hand she had a single Post-it note. Orange. And a pencil.

“Thank you.”

Who should he write to? A last “I love you” for Astrid? She would sneer if he used this final opportunity for a stupid romantic gesture. No, no good-byes. Not yet.

He tried to think clearly. Edilio would have a battle to fight. Dekka would be in it, too, and if Sam asked her, she would come to save him, no matter what. He couldn’t do that to her and the others. It had to be someone resourceful. Someone with no powers necessary for the battle. Someone he could trust.

He began writing. The first word was “Quinn.”

Edilio was in the road, holding an automatic rifle.

It was an ambush. Caine saw it immediately. Not that he saw anyone out there aside from Edilio. But Edilio wouldn’t be standing there in the middle of the road if it wasn’t an ambush.

The leg was in Caine’s arms.

Gaia was behind him.

She was singing. Badly. The song was hard to decipher, not something he had ever heard before, or at least nothing he recognized. Gaia sounded as if she was singing, “Mmmm. Bop. Bop. Bop.”

“Mmmmm. Bop. Bop. Bop. There’s a person up there,” Gaia said. She took out her earbuds.

“Yes,” Caine said. He didn’t dare speak another word unasked. He tried to think, but inside he was cringing, waiting in mortal terror of the pain.

W

hat was Edilio up to? Did he think he could outfight Gaia?

Only Edilio was visible. They didn’t have Sam over there, obviously, which meant they probably had Dekka and Brianna, Jack and Orc. Could they really take on Gaia?

Maybe. If he helped them.