It hurt.
Her stomach burned, a deep, gnawing pain that pulsed with every breath. Zoey's eyes fluttered open, the world swimming into focus above her.
"What was all that noise about?"
Her voice came out weak, cracked. Someone was talking—Derek? He sounded concerned. His face appeared above her, blurry at first, then sharp.
"Sit down. Don't move."
She was lying on something soft. Bandages wrapped her stomach, tight and white. Lena sat beside her, a bowl of water in her hands, her face set in that calm, unreadable mask she wore when she was worried.
The boys were all standing. Except Wolfen.
He sat apart, his back against a broken wall, his eyes half-closed. His left eye was still black—the color hadn't faded—but the veins were gone. For now.
Zoey tried to get up.
Pain lanced through her, white-hot, stealing her breath. She fell back against whatever she was lying on, her hand pressing against her stomach, her teeth clenched.
Useless.
The word burned worse than the wound. She was useless. Weak. A liability. She'd tried to fight Jenny and gotten herself stabbed in seconds. Wolfen had taken the virus for her. He was dying because of her.
She put her arm over her eyes, blocking out the light, blocking out the faces, blocking out everything. She couldn't look at him. Couldn't look at the black eye, the wound that was barely closed, the virus eating him from the inside.
And Jenny had gotten away.
Could this situation get any worse?
"I'm fine."
Wolfen's voice cut through her thoughts. He was standing now, brushing off Leo's hand.
"Fine?" Leo's voice was incredulous. "Your eye is black. Your wound is barely closed. And you already radioed Eva, and she said if I let you go, she'll punch me. And I don't want to get punched by a girl."
Wolfen's lips twitched. "Come on. It's not like you're going to lose your aura if she punches you. You don't have any to begin with, nerd."
Leo's eye twitched. "I'm going to punch you."
"Try it, CLR."
Derek blinked. "CLR?"
"Cheap Lightning Rod."
Jordan let out a choked sound that might have been a laugh before he caught himself. A vein popped on Leo's forehead.
"Call me what you want. I'm not letting you leave. And I don't care if I don't have any aura like you do. HUH."
Wolfen's eyebrow rose. "I do have aura."
Leo stared at him. The silence stretched. Then Leo sighed, shoulders dropping.
"All right, fine. You have aura."
"All right. I'm leaving."
"WOLFEN. YOU'RE INFECTED. JUST SIT THE FUCK DOWN."
Derek's voice cracked like thunder.
Everyone froze.
Lena's eyes went wide.
"Holy shit."
Leo muttered something under his breath.
"Oh dang."
Zoey pushed herself up, ignoring the pain, ignoring the way her body screamed. "Don't let him leave."
Wolfen sat back down.
He didn't move for the rest of the day. Just sat beside Zoey, silent, watching the light fade. She reached for his hand once, just to make sure he was still there. He didn't pull away.
---
Eva paced the forest floor, her boots wearing grooves into the earth.
Wolfen's infected.
Leo's voice over the radio had been calm—too calm. Professional. The voice he used when something was wrong and he didn't want anyone to panic.
Eva knew him too well to be fooled.
Leo and Wolfen had been best friends for decades. Brothers, more like. They'd cracked stupid jokes together, annoyed everyone in earshot, been absolutely insufferable as a pair. In Eva's head, she'd started calling them the Dynamic Chaos Duo. The name fit too well.
Now one of them was dying.
Maya's face was pale. The Thantos-39 virus was killing Lily. And now it was killing Wolfen.
Eva was so lost in thought—in worry, in fear, in the desperate scramble for a solution that didn't exist—that she almost didn't see what was in front of her.
She stopped.
It stood in the path ahead, its strand-body writhing, its orange-gold eyes fixed on her. The same creature. The one that had fought her and Maya. The one that had injured Maya, won, vanished. The one that had fought Wolfen and Zoey, knocked him unconscious, run from Zoey.
The thing that almost killed my friend.
At first, Eva felt fear. The old fear, the instinct to run, to protect, to survive.
Then something clicked.
Beside her, Maya's posture changed. One of her eyes now held a white dot.
"Helena?" Eva asked.
Maya's voice was layered when she answered—her own, and something deeper. "Both of us."
Eva nodded once.
Maya's arms transformed. Black armored skin spread from her shoulders to her fingertips, spikes forming along her forearms. Her eyes changed—the left, the white dot remained, but the rest was black; the right, the whole eye was the same uniform darkness.
The creature charged.
The ground shattered beneath it, chunks of earth flying, trees splintering. Maya moved under it, her body flowing like water, and came up behind. Her hands closed around its waist, and she slammed it into the earth.
The ground shook.
A crater formed beneath the creature's body, cracks spidering outward, trees falling. Maya stepped back, breathing hard.
Eva's hands ignited. Purple fire shot forward, covering the creature's writhing form, its strand-body sizzling, black fluid weeping from wounds.
It emerged from the flames and bit her.
Its teeth sank into her arm—deep, grinding against bone. Blood ran down her fingers. The pain was immense.
But her arm didn't come off.
"Dominance Sphere."
Purple fire erupted around them, a dome of absolute control. Maya was outside, watching, ready.
Eva could see it now—the creature, the way it moved, the way it fought. It coated itself in concentrated Pulse, a layer of energy that absorbed impact, deflected damage. A mistake.
Her domain absorbed.
The Pulse around the creature began to flow—not outward, but into her. Into Eva. It flowed up her arm, through her chest, into her core. Her body burned, but she didn't let go. Her free hand was covered in thick, armored plating now—an old ability, reforged.
She punched.
The creature's body rippled with the impact. Something was wrong. It was weaker than before. Much weaker. It tried to fight back, tried to push her off, but the strength wasn't there.
It tried Dominance Rejection.
The sphere didn't break.
Purple fire raged inside the dome, scorching the creature, sizzling its flesh. Eva was absorbing its Pulse—draining it, pulling the life out of it strand by strand. The creature screamed, a sound like tearing fabric, and thrashed, desperate.
It was getting thinner. Smaller. Weaker.
Eva watched it struggle, watched it die, and felt nothing.
"You shouldn't have hurt my best friend." Her voice was cold. "Bitch."
She punched. The creature's face caved. She punched again. And again. And again.
Lily is dying.
Wolfen is dying.
There's no cure.
We don't know where Facility X is.
What if I never see her again?
What if Wolfen dies?
Her fist rose. Fell. Rose. Fell.
Hands caught her wrists.
Maya's face appeared in front of her, close, steady. "Eva." Her voice was low, gentle. "It's dead."
Eva looked down.
The creature was a ruin. Its body was thin, withered, barely recognizable. The orange eyes were dark. The strands were still.
Her sphere had collapsed.
She stared at her hands. They were covered in black fluid, shaking, empty.
"You okay?" Maya asked.
"No." Eva's voice cracked. "How the hell are we supposed to find Facility X when we have no idea where it is? We're just wandering around like we'll magically find it."
Maya opened her mouth. Closed it. Then her eyes went wide.
"Oh my gosh." Her voice was disgusted—with herself, with both of them. "We are so stupid."
Eva blinked. "What?"
"We could just ask the other you. Absolute 2."
Eva stared at her. The words didn't compute. She ran them through her head again. Again. Again.
Twenty whole seconds passed.
"Holy shit." Eva's voice was quiet. Reverent. "You're right."
"See? I'm smart."
"No, no, you're smart too. You're both smart."
"Uh-huh."
"I mean it!"
Maya was already walking, pulling out her radio. "We'll ask Wolfen. He'll know what to say to her."
"So I'm not smart?"
"You're smart, Eva. You're just stressed."
Eva fell into step beside her. "I am not stressed."
"You punched a dead monster seventeen times."
"It was mostly dead."
Maya looked at her. Eva looked at the ground.
"Okay," Eva said. "Maybe a little stressed."
Maya keyed the radio.
The forest closed around them, and somewhere in the distance, the sun was setting. They had a plan now. A direction. A chance.
It was more than they'd had an