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  He doesn’t respond so I shove him softly. “Come on, open your eyes.”

  “Freya?” he whispers my name.

  I turn on the receptor and a soft blue light fills the room.

  “What’s wrong?” Finn says rubbing his eyes. “Is it Pip?”

  “No. Remember what you said about the box?”

  He nods although he seems a bit disoriented still.

  “You were right, we have to go get it, Finn.”

  “We?”

  “You didn’t really think I’d let you go by yourself, did you?”

  Finn sits up and I see the muscles on his neck tensing. “You couldn’t wait to tell me in the morning?” he asks.

  “No, because we are going tomorrow. It will be our last chance before the drones arrive.”

  “This is insane, Freya. I’ll go when I feel like it and you are not going with me.”

  “The hell I’m not. You’ll never make it out of there alive on your own. I have the receptor and I’m beginning to think there’s nothing it won’t do if I will it. We are going tomorrow night. We’ll sneak out. We’ll be back before anyone knows we’re gone. Trust me, it’s the best way.”

  I can see he’s still not convinced. “Why the sudden change of heart?” he says.

  “The sooner we get that box back, the better,” I say. “That way we can both stop thinking about it.”

  I leave his room quickly and return to mine. I feel satisfied that this plan might finally break Damian free of his weird fascination with me. I close my eyes and sleep invades me fast. It’s easier to fall asleep when you have a plan.

  11

  Finn gets down to the ground to check the fresh prints on the wet leaves. The drizzle has stopped but everything’s damp and glistening still.

  “It’s okay,” he says. “They’re animal prints. Probably a lone wolf.”

  There are very few wolves left in the forest and they are too scared to come out in the open. They stay hidden in the shadows and only emerge at night in search of prey. The Sliman have made sure of that.

  We have covered more than half the distance to the spot where Finn has hidden the box. He has marked the tree with red ink, something I didn’t notice the night I followed him. I think I could find the tree by myself anyway. The memory of that night is still very vivid and I can retrace every single step I took with surprising accuracy.

  I’m using the sensory receptor to create a shield around us in the form of a light purple mist. Radars or sensors could not see through it unless my focus goes down completely. It doesn’t take much effort, though, since there’s only two of us inside the shield and we stay close together.

  My brain can handle two tasks at the same time with growing easiness. I can hold the shield up and listen and respond to everything that Finn says. A third factor could make the equation tricky.

  The night feels cool and fresh. I have missed the sounds and smells of our forest, the familiarity of its unrest. Finn feels the same way. He walks right behind me looking through the faint light that the receptor casts.

  Everything reminds us of our life here. Every leaf, every trunk, every nocturnal creature has a story to tell about all the expectations and disappointments that we’ve experienced.

  We’re a few hundred yards away from the camp now. The images from the night that would be our last in the forest attack me with an intense clarity. I see Finn walking cautiously out of the camp with the nimbleness of a feline. I see him coming to a halt in front of a huge tree and then kneeling down. I see him holding a small box before placing it in the ground. I hear my fast heartbeat and I sense the sweat on my face and hands.

  “It’s here,” I hear him say now as he points to a tree. An old gigantic tree exactly like the one in my vision.

  He shows me the red mark, then searches with his hand for a soft spot on the ground. He finds it and calls to me to pour more light there. We get down on our knees and dig out the box with our hands. It looks a lot smaller than I remember it, about the size of my palm, but when I hold it, it feels heavier than I thought it would be.

  “Do you have any idea what’s in it?” I ask.

  Finn shakes his head. “No, none whatsoever. Daphne was very secretive when it came to Damian.”

  “She did say that she loved him.”

  “Yes, I’ve told you that.”

  “Do you think he loved her back?”

  Finn stands up. “Not according to Daphne,” he says. “We’d better get back. The sooner, the better.”

  “Could she be wrong?” I insist.

  “What difference would that make now, Freya?” he says impatiently.

  “I don’t know. It might explain why he’s acting the way he does.”

  Finn exhales hard as he sits back down. “Would it explain why he kissed you the night Daphne died?” he says without looking at me.

  His straightforwardness shocks me. It’s the first time he brings this up. This whole time I’ve felt like there has been a secret pact between us never to mention it. Things are going the wrong way. I want to say something but can’t figure out what that could be.

  “You know I saw you,” Finn goes on after a while.

  “It was a very strange moment,” I manage to say. “I was caught off guard. I was in shock, Finn. So was Damian.”

  “Freya, you know he came back for you that day. While I was putting your life at risk, unable to decide if we should fight or run, while I was giving confusing orders and allowing horrible things to happen, he put his animosity for me aside. He came back and jumped in front of you to protect you.” His voice has a gravity I’ve never heard before.

  “What are you talking about? He wasn’t the only one who came back. They didn’t know the kind of danger we were in, they changed their mind about us being separated, that’s all. Then they acted instinctively.”

  Finn turns to look at me. “You didn’t see his face when he saw you were in danger. I did. He cares about you and you know it. So the question now is, what are you going to do about it?”

  “Do about it? I don’t plan on doing anything,” I say stubbornly.

  “You can’t wish it away, Freya. It’s there and it’s staring at you. And I need to know the answer.”

  My head feels heavy. My focus is diminishing. I hold the receptor tighter and reinforce our shield.

  “There’s nothing to know, okay?”

  “Why are you avoiding the question?”

  “Stop it, Finn! Daphne is dead. Did you hear me? Dead. For him. He belongs to her. It’s the only thing that makes sense. Everything else is just pointless.”

  “The only thing that makes sense is that he belongs to a ghost? It’s the only thing that doesn’t make sense, Freya. Why are we even here? What are you hoping to find?”

  “This whole conversation is insane, Finn. Let’s just go.”

  I get up and walk away as fast as I can. I don’t want to keep lying to him but I can’t betray Damian’s trust either. I can’t just tell Finn about how Damian has been trying to get closer to me. About how I’ve been unable to put a definitive end to his attempts. And since I don’t plan on letting anything happen between Damian and me, there’s no point in discussing it either.

  My train of thought is interrupted by a whizzing sound I cannot place or recognize. It’s sharp and fast and immediately followed by Finn’s anguished voice calling my name.

  I turn around and find him dangling upside down from a tree branch, his left ankle caught in a loop.

  “A wolf trap,” I whisper and realize I have maybe two seconds before the concealed magnetic knives get automatically released. I squeeze the receptor and a thin energy beam slashes off the rope that’s been holding Finn’s leg. He falls to the ground with a dull thud and almost simultaneously a magnetic knife hits the tree and buries itself in the hard flesh of the trunk, right where Finn’s body would have been.

  I get down on my stomach and crawl to Finn. “Don’t move,” I yell as he tries to lift his head.
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br />   I get to him as fast as I can. “Are you okay?” I ask and use the receptor to scan his body for injuries.

  “The shield,” he whispers.

  It’s down. My focus has been divided. I turn it back on but it might be too late. Our position could have already been given away.

  “Let’s get the hell out of here,” I whisper. “You’ve got nothing broken.”

  We run. It’s all we can do. If we’re lucky, the Sliman won’t come looking for the prey that escaped right away. Maybe we can get out of the forest and into the tunnel in time.

  “Do you have the box?” I ask Finn.

  He nods and raises his hand so I can see he’s holding it. We keep running and I hold the shield in place although I don’t know what effect the bumpy motion of our crazy sprint will have on it.

  We’re near the edge of the forest. One turn to the left and we’ll enter the tunnel that will take us to the hills. From there, we’ll be able to reach the Sliman base within a couple hours. It will still be dark when we get back.

  I turn and smile at Finn, hoping for a reconciliation, when a Sliman jumps down from a tree and blocks my way. I collide with him. His skin has turned thick like an armor and I can hear my bones crushing against his body as we crash together. Sliman can do that with their skin if they have enough time to prepare for the transformation.

  A second Sliman attacks Finn but my main concern is the receptor. The collision has released it from my hand and I cannot see where it fell. I remember Wudak warning me about things like this, about how the receptor had to become a part of me if I were to be able to use it when provoked, scared or angry. When something unexpected happened.

  The Sliman tries to grab my arm but I spin away and get back up on my feet faster than he anticipates. My hand reaches for my pulse gun but so does his. And he’s quicker than me. He has me at the end of his barrel. He doesn’t pull the trigger though. He hesitates for a few seconds. Maybe he recognizes something about me. I am not to be killed after all.

  It doesn’t matter. His hesitation gives me enough time to fully comprehend the gravity of my predicament. I react instinctively. I call to the receptor. It explodes the Sliman into small pieces as it lands in my hand.

  I turn around. Finn has overpowered his opponent and has his boot on the Sliman’s throat. Finn knocks him unconscious with the back of his pulse gun.

  I run to him but a moment later we hear the heavy footsteps of what must be an entire army of Sliman.

  “What now?” I ask Finn.

  “We can take them on,” he says. “I know we can.”

  “I don’t know, Finn.”

  “I’ll be right next to you. We can do it, Freya.”

  I nod. Finn grabs me and pushes me up the closest tree. He follows immediately. He’d be on the top by now if he didn’t have to support me. The Sliman march right underneath us. A moment later they come to a standstill.

  They discover the remains of their companions. They would have felt our presence anyway. Their sharpened senses cannot be fooled. Not when we’re only a few feet away and we’ve left marks and prints all over the place.

  I count at least twenty of them. They sniff around the ground, looking at all directions and then turn their eyes upwards.

  “Now,” Finn whispers in my ear. I unleash my fury on the Sliman. The sensory receptor attacks them with all the ferocity I can channel into it. A prolonged energy blast wipes away five Sliman before the rest scatter.

  Finn jumps off to the next tree, then to the next and the next until he’s out of my field of vision. The Sliman are hiding and it won’t be possible to blow them up with big energy explosions. We have to hunt them down one by one until they retreat. Finn knows that. He can move fast without making a single sound. They won’t see him coming.

  I scan the area below but it’s hard to make out details in the dark. I wish Tilly was here with her bionic eyes and ears.

  The receptor lights up with a buzz. It’s a warning, it has sensed something. I look down. Some figure is attempting to climb my tree. Destroy him, I think and the receptor strikes the intruder with what can only be described as loud lightning. I smell something burning and hear footsteps retreating in a hurry. Nobody wants to share the fate of the Sliman who got fried.

  They know where I am now. They are no match for the receptor but Wudak said there are ways around it. Especially when I can’t see a thing.

  I should get to a different tree but I don’t have Finn’s agility. I’d probably end up falling right in the middle of the Sliman horde and all they’d have to do would be to trample all over me with their heavy boots.

  The air changes. It’s barely perceptible but I have no doubt. The Sliman are much closer than I would have thought possible and the receptor is none the wiser. They have concealed themselves from it but not from me. It’s as if my proximity to the receptor has sharpened my intuitive abilities.

  I hear some rustling noises among the trees, maybe twenty yards away. Finn is sending me a signal. I turn the receptor on and a white light envelopes the entire area around and underneath me. This will give the Sliman quite an eyeful of my position, but I have to trust that they don’t want to kill me. And it will keep them off Finn.

  I don’t see or hear anything at first. But a moment later the ground trembles and a handful of Sliman spring up from inside the earth. They’re covered in dirt and move faster than I have ever seen a Sliman move before. They have managed to dig their way to my tree in a matter of minutes.

  I turn the receptor on them. They are blown fifty feet off the ground, their bodies smashing hard against trees as they return to earth. Finn leaps off his tree and lands on the next wave of Sliman as they surface from the entrails of the earth. He thrusts his knife inside first one and then another before they even have time to know what’s hit them. There are two more standing. I try to calculate how to strike them without hurting Finn when I feel something tight around my left calf. I barely have time to turn and look before I’m pulled down with a vicious strength that I cannot match.

  I feel branches and twigs scratching my face and arms as I am dragged down. I try to hold onto whatever I can with my left hand but my right hand has only one mission: keeping the receptor safe. My whole existence tries to stay focused on this thought but the shock and pain have me almost paralyzed.

  Everything the Sliman have done so far has been a decoy. This is the real attack and it’s working. I feel helpless and frustrated and both of those are negative feelings that cannot produce a response in the receptor.

  I am halfway down the tree when the hand reaches higher, pulls me by the waist and throws me to the ground. I land on my elbow and the pain shoots through me like a poison arrow.

  Finn sees me as he takes his knife out of a Sliman throat. He runs to me but is caught off guard by a new opponent. He has no option but to fight him.

  I turn around and locate the Sliman that has pulled me down the tree. I can see him loading a tranq gun. The receptor lies a few feet away. If I close my eyes, I’ll be able to call it to destroy my attacker. But my fear is stronger than my logic. I reach for my pulse gun instead. I find it in its holster but my fingers are shaky and can’t pull it out fast enough.

  The Sliman takes a step towards me and raises the tranq gun when something falls on him and throws him to the ground. A dark creature bigger than the Sliman himself.

  “Shy Boy!” I cry out and reach for the receptor. It flies to my hand easily and I position it so as to get a good shot at the Sliman. It’s not easy. He and Shy Boy have turned into an amorphous mass, it’s almost impossible to make out who is who in the dark.

  Finn darts by me in an instant. He throws himself at the two huge, dark figures fighting on the ground and sinks his knife into the Sliman’s chest.

  It all happens so fast that I have trouble believing what I have just witnessed. Shy Boy? How? Did he follow us? How did we not notice? I look left and right in a haze. All the Sliman have been slain or blown to pieces. Fi
nn has risen to the occasion. He has saved Shy Boy and he has saved me.

  I collapse into Finn’s arms overwhelmed. Using the receptor still comes at great cost for me. Shy Boy lifts me and carries me most of the way back.

  12

  We say goodbye to Shy Boy outside of the Sliman base. He hugs me and picks at my hair a bit.

  “Why did you follow us here, you silly thing? I thought you’d be safe now, spending time with your buddies,” I say and hide my face in his fur. We underestimated the power of his bond with us. I’ll have to figure out what to do about this. He needs to be free from us.

  Finn opens the trapdoor and we jump inside. We rush to the hallway and then slow down. We don’t want to wake up anybody.

  Finn stops outside my door but I keep walking. He catches up with me and grabs my arm. “Now?” he asks.

  “Yes, now. Before he has time to figure out exactly what it is that we’ve done tonight. You know he’ll yell until he turns purple. We have to catch him unawares.”

  I knock on Damian’s door and I’m surprised to see him open it a second later. There’s light in the room, he has been up.

  He narrows his eyes when he sees us, trying to make sense of us showing up at his door at such a late hour.

  “Can we come in?” Finn asks.

  Damian moves to the side to let us in. I take a couple steps and then freeze on the spot when I see Zoe sitting on the bed.

  “Goodness, what’s happened to you?” she says. “You guys look horrible.”

  I take a look at Finn. His clothes are muddy, there’s caked blood on his hands, bruises and cuts all over his face. I imagine I don’t look much better. On top of everything, I can barely move my left elbow without feeling excruciating pain. I’m sure it’s fractured or at least twisted.

  “Yes, what the hell’s happened to you? Where have you been?” Damian says while he examines my disheveled appearance from head to toe.

  “That’s why we’re here. We need to talk to you, Damian,” Finn says.

  I turn to Zoe. “It’s kind of private,” I say.