Jane pulled her face away, staring down at him with her green eyes aflame. She put both of her hands around his neck, squeezing. Panic flared inside Tick. He kicked out with his legs, beat on her arms with his fists, but she didn’t budge.

“Let go of me!” he tried to yell, a guttural croak that barely came out.

Jane squeezed tighter. “Look at me, Chu!” she bellowed out, lunacy glazing her eyes. “I obeyed! I will be your apprentice!”

As pain enveloped him, as his breath left his body—squeezed from him—Tick thought distantly that he couldn’t tell her intentions. Is she really going to kill me? Is she acting? Would she really kill me?

Her fingers closed tighter, gripping his skin, pinching the tendons and nerves. Tighter still. Tick struggled, kicking, beating her arms, thrashing beneath her. She squeezed even harder. Tick couldn’t breathe, couldn’t find air.

“He’s almost dead!” Jane yelled. “Chu! I’ve won your test!”

Tick’s eyes bulged and he felt his face puffing up. He heard the choking sounds torn from his own throat. Black stars formed above him, swirling in the air, growing bigger until they blackened his vision. Darkness fell upon him, complete.

Images flashed across his mind’s eye almost too fast to register: his family, Sofia, Paul, the library back home, Master George, snow, school, Mr. Chu at the chalkboard, the Barrier Wand, the Grand Canyon, Rutger, Mothball . . .

I don’t want to die!

Something snapped inside Tick’s mind. He felt it—he heard it, like a branch cracked by a bolt of lightning. Heat surged through him, first warm then hot, pulsing through his veins, as if his blood had combusted into lava, burning him.

A piercing scream rocked the air. He realized it had come from him just as the blackness swept away, replaced by Jane’s face, hovering above him as she kept trying to strangle him.

Tick screamed again.

Jane flew off him, catapulting across the hallway and slamming into the wall. An unseen force pinned her arms and legs flat as her head thrashed back and forth. The ground shook as Tick struggled for breath, gasping in air, fighting to get his arms and legs under him. Sounds of bending and breaking filled the air. He looked up to see the metal panels of the walls warping and cracking, bubbling and melting. Tremors rocked the floor, ripples surging back and forth like waves on water, crashing into each other as large cracks rent the hard material.

Jane hadn’t moved, still pinned to the wall. The chaotic sounds of destruction hurt Tick’s ears. Everything had gone crazy; he couldn’t take it. Somewhere inside him, he knew it was coming from him, that it was all his fault. I’m a freak. I’m a freak! Knowing he had this power only made it worse, panicked him further, sent his mind and thoughts reeling.

I’m going crazy, he thought. I can’t do this. I can’t control it! What have I done?

Chu. Reginald Chu. This was all his fault. Everything was his fault.

Tick glared at the massive double doors, the black square still blank. The world around him rocked back and forth, things breaking and crashing and melting. The heat within him intensified. He felt certain his organs were about to burn, fry to a crisp, leaving him dead.

Tick threw all of his anger and pain at the doors. At Chu.

With a terrible squeal, the doors wrenched to the sides, crunching into a mass of twisted steel, leaving a gaping, smoking hole behind. Tick caught movement out of the corner of his eye—Jane falling to the floor in a crumpled heap.

I can’t do this, Tick thought. I can’t do this!

Screaming, he got to his feet and ran through the twisted and broken doorway.

Chapter

45

The Shower of Gold

A sea of metaspides littered the park outside Chu’s artificial mountain, crawling along the ground with their creepy, jointed legs. Sofia found it hard to believe they were machines because they seemed so alive. They swarmed together in a tight pack, heading straight for the Realitants.

“Ready yourselves!” Mothball roared.

Sally stood a few people down from Sofia. He lifted his left hand into the air and shouted something completely unintelligible. But he looked ready to fight.

A small tremor abruptly shook the ground, making Sofia stumble backward a step. The Realitants looked around in confusion, Mothball in particular. Sofia looked up at the black mountain. It shook as well; in the distance, she heard the sounds of breaking glass and twisting metal.

“Need be keepin’ our focus!” Mothball shouted. “Master Tick must be goin’ about ’is business. On the count of three—we charge! One!”

Sofia nudged Paul in the arm with her elbow. “For Tick and Sato,” she said, not caring if her voice betrayed how scared she felt.

“Two!”

Paul nodded without breaking his focused stare. “For Tick and Sato.”

“Three!”

Sofia sprinted forward before anyone else, her body acting before her mind could talk her out of it. Pumping her fist in the air, she screamed out one word, louder than she’d ever shouted anything in her life, almost ripping her throat raw.

“REEEEAAAAALITAAAAAANTS!”

The thunder of footsteps and echoing calls of her rallying cry sounded from behind her.

Sofia ran straight for the closing pack of metaspides.

The world shook.

Tick felt as if his mind was detached from his body. He rotated in a circle, staring at the huge open chamber he’d run into. He saw a vast open space with an artificial sky above him, complete with stars and a moon. Half-completed machines and menacing structures covered the hundreds of square yards of floor space. Workers hung on for dear life as scaffolding fell apart beneath them. Large holograms of floor plans and complicated designs hung throughout the chamber like see-through kites, countless lifts constantly moving between them, hovering and flying as if by magic.

Tick saw it all, but still felt his mind slipping away from him, out of control, on the edge of insanity. He staggered back and forth, the ground shaking and cracking.

To his right stood a huge tower made of gold that rose at least ten stories into the air. Near the top, partially obscured by a metal-grid catwalk, two words were stamped into the shiny metal.

Dark Infinity.

At the bottom of the tower, a panel of gold slid to the side, revealing a bright interior. A man appeared, then ran straight for Tick.

Don’t come near me, Tick thought. Stay away!

But then he saw it was Chu, and the anger and fear that had subsided flared anew.