Zanth took position in front of me, his dagger drawn. He pressed back and bumped into me. It brought me out of my trance.

“What is going on here, Lara?” Zanth’s voice was guttural. His hand tightened on his dagger.

Lara screamed at him. “What do you think is going on here? I am doing what needs to be done! She brought them here. They followed her. This is Elizabeth’s fault, all of it, and she needs to pay. They told me they would not hurt anyone else if I brought her to them. They will leave. They will forget about us.”

I shook my head. Zanth growled, and the Imani chuckled. So stupid. Did she really believe that fairytale?

“Yes, we will let you have peace,” Xade said. “Eternal peace.”

Nothing about letting them live in peace, I noticed.

“Get out of the way, Zanth, you do not like her either. You told me so. All you have to do is step aside. You agree with me. Right?” She reached out a hand to him.

“The Imani are our enemies,” Zanth hissed. “They are why we left our homes in the first place. They will not leave us ‘in peace.’ They will leave us in pieces behind them, you fool.”

“You are wrong,” she shouted back. “I have seen their ship. We have nothing they need.”

“They want the magic. You went to school, did you learn nothing? Are you this stupid?”

While they argued, the Imani as a whole moved toward me, crooning. “Elizabeth.”

They said it in eerie harmony with identical smiles, identical voices. Xade led the pack. “We have been looking for you.”

There was no echo to their voices. Were they speaking English? I couldn’t tell anymore. That explained Amalie’s comment that they had funny voices.

“Why have you been looking for me?” I asked. I moved to Zanth’s side, one hand on his shoulder holding him back, the other on my own knife.

“You annoyed us. You did not appreciate the gifts you were given. You owe us everything. You gave us nothing. You planned to betray us. Silly girl, using our own technology to try to kill us, thinking we would not notice.” Xade laughed and the clones mimicked him. A shudder slithered through me in visceral horror.

God, that laughter.

The ship floated near the mountainside. I fell. I woke up on the way down and watched the world hurtle toward me. All I could do was scream.

“No!”

Heat flashed, the air buckled underneath me.

The Imani swayed in unison, inching closer. Lara threw herself into Zanth’s arms, lips mashing his. Zanth gagged and shoved her away.

I remained focused on the Imani, on Xade, my tormentor. Their movements were coordinated, sinuous.

Zanth growled, tensing next to me. He was about to attack them, and I needed more information. I held onto his shoulder. Not yet, I thought to him.

“What do you mean, gifts? I don’t understand any of this. I’m from Earth. I don’t know you.”

“Yes, Earth was a wonderful place. You were all so robust, so full of life, so healthy, so curious. You remind us of…us. It was marvelous. You were perfect for our purpose.”

“You, who? You mean me?”

“No, we mean your race. We looked for a people genetically similar to our own, and we found you. So innocent. So easily molded. We needed to fix something. We needed to make it perfect. We looked for a specific characteristic, but it was hard to find those we needed among so many. So we gave you all a gift. Our genes mixed with yours. For generations that went on, and then the Madness, as you call it. You would know no more wars or violence, no more illness, just innocence and then sleep. With this, we weeded out the undesirable characteristics. They were useless to us. Those left were the strong, the ones who resisted the poison, or the smart, who figured out how we spread it, or the just plain lucky. All of those traits were acceptable. We had to have you.”

Sarah flashed through my mind; she lay her head down and ‘slept evermore, quoth the raven.’

“That wasn’t a gift that was a massacre.” I yelled. “How many did you kill? How many did you take? How many were desirable?”

“Oh, we did not count. A large number, I would guess.” A smile broke across Xade’s face, pale skin gleaming in the darkness of the trees.

I couldn’t comprehend that kind of destruction. My mom dead, my friends dead, my world dead… They talked about genocide so easily. “So you killed my family, my world, so it was easier to find the ones who had more of your genetics.”

“Yes, exactly. Now you understand our gift. Life and a chance to help make us perfect.”

It was a gift.

I was blessed.

Power coiled inside me. My gut grew tight as the rest of the clearing chilled. Anger roared through me, laughter poured out my mouth. I couldn’t stop. Zanth regarded me warily as I wiped away my tears.

“What did you do to me?” I paced in front of them. They remained swaying.

“We sampled you, tested your reflexes, your pain threshold. I find it funny when people declare, ‘you cannot do this to me.’ Oh, we can do anything we want,” Xade purred.

My breath came out in pants. A red haze started to encroach on my vision, and a mist formed in the air around me. Lightning flashed in the distance, thunder rolled.

“I should thank you, then.”

Godsmack ran through my head; they’d been my dad’s favorite band. Right at the end, before he left, he used to play Stay Away on a loop while he worked in the garage. Stay away from me. Those words floated through my head, soundtrack to the night.

“Yes, that would be an appropriate response, and we told you this, but you were not so reasonable before. You sought a way to hurt us. We did so much for you. and you tried to harm us! It was unacceptable. The drugs should have killed you. But you survived and jumped. Why did you not die?”

As if some signal had been given, the Imani moved toward me.

“Magic.” More laughter pressed to escape, but I clenched my jaw.

“Magic.” Xade shuddered. “We love magic. But how, how did you get magic? Is that why the Fost did not kill you? They do quite hate us. When you survived, we expected them to kill you. But they did not and now, look at you. Look. You bear the Fost marks, you clever girl. We cannot wait to figure it out. It has never taken us this long to get to the root of a problem. This magic, though. It is intriguing. I am sure we will need some local specimens, as well.

“Lara, go bring some more people here. Elizabeth, come here. It is time to go home.”

Lara turned and blinked at him as I goggled.

They thought I’d just do what they said, because they told me to? After the first time they had me, I figured they knew better. I spat at their feet. Their laughter rang out, an empty, soul-sucking sound.

“We do not have to leave anyone here alive, you know. We know you, we know your genetics. We can figure out this magic. We will be better. We will be perfect. Resist if you wish, but you know it is useless. Resist and everyone here will die.”

Zanth had been quiet throughout all of this. When I moved forward, he misinterpreted and stood in front me.

“We will die fighting. Land take them. We will die fighting.”

I put my hand on his shoulder. Trust.

He unwound enough for me to push past him. I faced Xade spine straight, head back, proud.

Xade cooed and held out his hand. Extending my own hand, palm up, I smiled. I let the hate shine from my eyes, my face. The power coursed through me, and I reveled in the feeling. I watched the Imani when lightning crashed into the trees behind them, too close to be random. Ozone filled the air.

They turned as one to look. “What is this?”

Lightning danced in my vision, across my eyes, along my fingertips. They didn’t look afraid yet. I wanted them afraid. I wanted Xade scared and weeping before me. So many times, it was me scared, weeping. Rage tightened my jaw. Lightning struck in the middle of them. They turned and looked at me, crouching. A few moved back toward the woods in a swift wave.

“Ungrateful child, still you would seek to hurt us after all the gifts you have been given? Your magic will not save you.”

Xade lifted his gun. The metal called the lightning. It struck the clearing. Once, twice…three times, too many to count. Electricity crackled in the air. My hair punked out. A blue haze covered my hands, sparks flying. The marks along my left wrist glowed with power. As I watched, the band spread up my arm, a bolt forming in the blue background.

Xade fired his gun. The bullets flew toward me. As if in slow motion, I swatted them aside. Xade tilted his head at me, a question in his eyes and finally, a trace of fear. He cocked his hand to Lara, who trotted up to him like a well-trained dog.

Zanth made a desolate sound beside me and sprang at the Imani. The crackle of the lightning covered the sound of his movements. His air magic lent speed. He reached the nearest one undetected, not Xade unfortunately.

I called more lightning and watched a bolt smash into the chest of another Imani. He arched back, screaming. Flames burst from his mouth, and he flew backward into a tree. The fire spread. Mist and smoke coated our surroundings, eerie in the daylight gloom.

The Imani didn’t realize the danger, from me or from Zanth. Zanth’s knife slid across the first Imani’s throat smooth as silk as he skirted behind him and shoved his dagger into his neck, decapitating him. Their shields were useless against the imbued dagger and my magic.

Zanth twirled in a deadly dance and moved to finish off the rest. They kept firing at me, not even noting the threat Zanth posed. I plucked the bullets out of the air. It was too easy. This felt too good. They all must die.

Shouts rang out in the distance. The Fost were coming; they’d seen my lightning. I needed to work quickly. None of the Imani could leave this clearing alive.

I forgot about Lara.

She wrenched her hand from Xade’s and charged me.

“No, you have to die. They will keep coming until you are dead. I have to save him!” She rammed me from the side. The lightning abated. I landed on my back. Lara scrambled on top of me, grabbing my dagger. I raised my arms up in defense. She straddled me and pushed down with the blade. I knew I was no match for her skill. She’d been training since she was a little girl; all Fost trained. But I was faster.

Again there was that eerie feeling and everything slowed. I saw her arm coming down, oh so slow and easy to block. Lara’s face twisted. The knife slashed down again and again. She aimed for my belly. I twisted, slammed my fist into her face. A spark snapped between us.

Taking advantage of her daze, I got to my feet. She was quick, but she wasn’t powered by the air, not like me. I laughed at how intoxicating this felt. There was nothing I couldn’t do. I feinted left and she fell for it, missing me by a mile. I feinted again.

She anticipated me this time, cutting right.

The blade skimmed the air next to me. That was close, too close. Pop, some of my bubble burst, and my power hiccupped. I tried to call lightning, but it didn’t answer.

I hit her again, but it stung my hand more than it hurt her. Lara laughed, unhinged, and jabbed in my direction. Even with magic, I wasn’t sure I could beat her. She had training and was fueled by god-awful crazy. Godsmack was right—sickness spilled through her eyes. Lara managed to graze me with the blade.

Damn that hurt. I struck out at her again. Weakness filled me. Fatigue pulled at my limbs. When I stumbled, she swept my legs, knocking me to the ground. She moved to finish me off.

“I must keep him safe. You have to die.” Her eyes apologized, even as she chopped down with her knife. I still wasn’t sure who the ‘him’ she had to save was, but too late now.

Her eyes widened and her mouth opened. Blood trickled from the corner of her mouth. She fell to her knees.

Xade balanced behind her with a knife. He’d shoved the blade deep into the back of her skull. She died instantly. I heard Zanth screaming. He stood across the clearing. Poor, crazy Lara.

Xade smiled at me as he wiped the blade on his uniform. “No dying on me now, Elizabeth. We need you alive. Little Lara knew that. She chose to disobey.”

He held out his hand.

Lightning flashed. Zanth tackled Xade from the side.

Xade fell back, arms up, halting Zanth’s downward strike.

Another Imani came up behind them and shot at Zanth. Zanth stumbled back, blood pouring from his shoulder.

Xade scrambled up, gave me one last burning glance before retreating to the trees.

I had a choice. I could kill him or I could kill the Imani currently focused on Zanth, his gun raised for another shot. I channeled and lightning cracked. He blackened before our eyes. My hair stood on end.

Xade escaped into the forest. Zanth blinked at me.

“You killed the wrong one,” Zanth muttered out as he staggered to his feet and turned away.