While this happens, I reach out with my telepathy. Search for Adam’s mind. In the heat of battle, it didn’t occur to me until now that Six never showed up. Maybe she went back to the warship with Adam for some reason, I allow myself to briefly hope.

Nothing. I can’t find Adam’s mind.

Or Six.

Split seconds pass telepathically, but it feels like an eternity of searching. Finally, I manage to make contact with Ella, still floating above the mountain in our warship. The anxiety radiating from her mind is palpable as soon as we connect. She anticipates my questions.

Adam . . . Adam fell into a chasm with Phiri Dun-Ra, Ella tells me. And Six, she’s hurt bad. I think she’s unconscious.

Damn it.

I switch from Ella’s mind to Sam’s. I can sense him up there, pacing back and forth, watching the darkened entrance of the Mogadorian base through the warship windows.

Sam. I make an effort to keep my thoughts calm and collected. Like my friends aren’t dying. Like I’m not losing this war.

I need you to do something for me.

John? His mind practically leaps towards mine. Our entire conversation takes place in the space of one of his nervous strides, his foot hovering above the floor of the bridge. What’s happening? Ella won’t say.

I need you to do something for me.

Anything!

Use your Legacy. Command the ship to destroy the mountain.

. . . What?

Images flash to the forefront of Sam’s mind. He and I walking through the halls of Paradise High School. Nine grabbing him in a loose headlock. Most prominently, he and Six standing on a breathtaking mountaintop somewhere, gazing out at a crystal clear ocean.

It’s the only way to stop him, Sam. He’s strong, but we can trap him down here!

No! I won’t! Not while you’re all still in there!

All this telepathy happens at the speed of thought as I get to my feet, as Setrákus Ra crosses towards Marina and Nine. I’m out of time, though—he’s there; I need to act.

“Get up, Nine, come on,” Marina pleads, still trying to heal the dead flesh on his shoulder.

Holding Sam in my mind, letting him see what I see, I fly towards Setrákus Ra, hoping to buy Marina some more time.

He anticipates me. Backhands me with a force that cracks my jaw and sends me crashing to the cave floor, skittering through the broken shards of Marina’s ice wall.

Nine is still on the ground, moaning and shaking, probably going into shock. Marina presses both her hands to his stump. Our healing Legacies don’t regrow limbs, though. There’s nothing we can do.

Setrákus Ra grabs Marina by the hair and yanks her off her feet. She thrashes, raking her hand across his face. She hits the exact spot that Nine sliced with the Voron blade just a minute ago.

Setrákus Ra drops her, recoils and clutches at his cheek.

That part of his face slips off, the black oil holding it together receding into his body.

Marina and I make eye contact.

What did you do? My thought hits her mind with urgency.

Healing! she replies. I was still using my healing!

I remember New York City, right before the invasion. Secretary of Defense Sanderson and the black ooze running through his veins. It took minutes and it was exhausting, but I was able to burn that gunk out from inside his body by using my healing.

We can kill Setrákus Ra. We just have to make him Loric again. We have to expel these Augmentations and destroy what’s left of the man.

Marina’s already got the idea. As Setrákus Ra recovers, she flashes forward, hand extended in his direction.

Setrákus Ra sidesteps. He catches her by the elbow and twists, wrenching Marina’s arm behind her back and dislocating her shoulder. Then he slashes her face with his claws, opening up four deep scratches diagonally across her face. Meanwhile, his own sick visage has already been restored by the ooze.

I fly into Setrákus Ra before he can finish off Marina. I wrap my legs around his chest and grab him on either side of his head, pumping as much of my healing energy into him as I can. At the same time, I muster as much force as I can and fly us across the cavern, hoping that keeping him away from his vat will weaken him further. I can feel the Augmentations inside him, the oil writhing in every part of his body. There’s more of that inside him than there is man. It’s like I’m trying to beat back a tidal wave.

Still, I have to try. This is the only way it ends.

Setrákus Ra screams as I force healing into him. But quickly, he fights back. He bites down on my shoulder, his mouth hideously huge, teeth sharpened, and tears off a chunk of flesh.