“They will kill you!” No, that was not how this would go. The spring of tension inside her shivered, compressing.
“It was never about me surviving,” Lucas said. “I died when we opened the vault.”
“He’s right,” Henry said.
God, he pissed her off. “No.” She shook her head, trying to keep a lid on her anger. “We go to the stairs together and fight our way down. Together.”
Lucas grabbed her, jerking her close. “You will do as you’re told.”
“No,” she said into his snarl. “I won’t. We go together.”
The pressure inside her built.
“This isn’t a democracy!”
“Lucas, I can’t carry Emily and shoot at the same time. I can barely hold this stupid gun with two hands. Do you think I’m Rambo? It’s suicide for me, Emily, and you.”
“She has a point,” Henry said.
“See? They will kill me and your grand sacrifice will be wasted. I don’t want you to die for nothing. I don’t want you to die at all.”
“Why the hell not?”
“Because I care if you live or die! My God, you are a moron! We fight our way to the stairs together. We have a better chance that way.”
He shook her. “I’m trying to save your daughter, you idiot! I’ve been doing this a long time and I am telling you, if we go out there, we’ll all die.”
“He also has a point,” Henry said.
Karina exhaled. Emily’s life was all that mattered. “Then drink my blood and get her out of here.”
“I would have to drain you dry. I’m barely conscious!”
“Do it.” Karina told him, furious. “You have the best chance of getting out of here with Emily alive. Drain me.”
“No!” he snarled.
“Do it, Lucas!”
“That’s nice,” Henry said. “But the Ordinators are coming.”
“Drain me or we go to the stairs,” Karina said.
“No, we’ll do this my way.”
“Your way, I die, you die, Emily dies!”
“There is no time,” Henry said calmly. “You missed your opportunity. We are all about to die. Don’t let them take you alive. You will regret it.”
The back wall of the conference room shuddered. Cracks crisscrossed the wood. It shattered and rained down in a waterfall of tiny splinters. People stood behind it, people with automatic weapons and dark helmets shielding their faces. In front of them a tall man with pale hair down to his waist slowly lowered his hand, smiling. She looked into his face and saw her own death there.
It hit her like a punch. Emily, she, Lucas, and Henry—the four of them really were about to die.
For nothing. They would die for nothing.
Lucas surged to his feet, trying to shield her.
No. No, this was not happening. She was tired and scared and pissed off and she was done with this shit.
Fuck them all.
The coiled spring inside her snapped free. Fiery power surged through her in a glorious cascade. It was time to set things right.
The smile slid off the blond Ordinator’s face. He opened his mouth.
The power surged from her, up and over her shoulders in twin streams.
She looked right into his eyes and said, “Die!”
His face turned green, as if dusted with emerald powder. He crumpled and fell to the floor. She stared at the men behind him and they collapsed like rag dolls.
Two others burst into her view from the left. She turned and looked at them and watched them die in midstep.
“Anybody else?” she called out. Her voice rang through the building. “Does anybody else want some? Because I’ve got plenty!”
Nobody answered. She marched out into the hallway, turned the corner, and saw a hallway full of people.
Die.
They collapsed as one.
They wanted to exterminate humanity. They had declared a war. Fine. If the Ordinators wanted a war, she would introduce them to one.
Karina turned. Lucas was staring at her, his mouth hanging open. Next to him Henry stood, blinking as if he hoped that one of the times when he reopened his eyes he would see something different.
Karina looked above them and saw her own reflection in the mirror wall. Twin streams of green lightning spread out from her shoulders in two radiant green wings. Like Arthur’s red ones.
“A Wither,” Henry said in a small voice, still blinking. “She’s a Wither.”
The memory of burning faces flashed before her and she brushed it aside. Fine. She was a Wither and nobody would ever push her around again.
Lucas closed his mouth. His gaze met hers and she saw pride and defiance in his eyes. “Do it quick,” he said.
He expected her to kill him.
After everything she’d said to him, he expected her to kill him.
Karina stepped to him. Her lightning wings burned around them. “Don’t worry,” she told him. “I’m the biggest and the strongest and I’ll protect you. We are walking out of here.”
Henry stopped blinking.
It took them forty-five minutes to get down the stairs. Karina inhaled the night air. It smelled of acrid smoke and rotting garbage, but she didn’t care.
Behind her the building rose like a grim tower. It now belonged to the dead. She had walked through every hallway and checked every room, while Henry and Lucas sat waiting and bleeding on the stairs. She had no idea how many people she killed, but it had to be dozens. She checked their faces to make sure they were dead. They all looked the same: features sunken in, emerald green tint painting their skin.
And now, finally, she was done.
Her lightning wings had vanished, her power exhausted. Reality returned slowly, in bits and pieces.
Next to her Lucas stirred. “If you want to disappear, now is the time. You killed them because they were caught unaware. The House of Daryon won’t be. I don’t know what your plan is but I know that once Arthur realizes what you are, he’ll do everything he can to keep you within the House. You are too powerful to cut loose. He’ll kill you if you refuse, and I don’t know if I can stop him.”
“He’s right,” Henry said. “It’s alarming how often I keep repeating that. Withers, Subspecies 21, have several types. You’re type 4. Arthur is type 7. He is more powerful and he has a lot more experience. At your best you can’t take him, and it will take you a long time to build your reserves back up to do anything on a massive scale again. Sometimes it takes years. Not to mention that we will have to fight you if you try to kill Arthur.”