Page 42 of Infinity Son (Infinity Cycle 1)

Atlas hugs Wesley before sitting with me and opening up about his parents being locked up in the San Diego Bounds after using their powers to rob a bank, since no one wanted to hire them. At ten years old, Atlas was acting out as he bounced between foster homes, but after the high of saving someone at seventeen, he ditched Los Angeles to make a positive difference with the powers he inherited from his mother. He changed his name, dyed his hair, and set out to New York with the air of someone enlisting in the military. He prayed he would attract the attention of the Spell Walkers with his heroic deeds, all tracked on his @AtlasCounts account, and he’s committed to creating a world where celestials won’t have to abuse their powers to make ends meet.

Iris cuts in before Maribelle because she insists she has to get back to surveying specter activity to figure out what the Blood Casters are planning with the Crowned Dreamer. Iris tells the story of what it has meant to not only be a legacy Spell Walker, but to come from a line of women who are stronger with each generation. Leading the Spell Walkers after the Blackout has felt like impossible work, but her parents never shied away from the importance of the mission, even when the stars felt dimmest, so Iris will continue carrying the world on her shoulders instead of letting it roll away, hoping she can one day live as an ordinary twenty-year-old.

Maribelle joins me onstage with a photo in her lap. She defends her parents, saying that the media has got it all wrong about the Luceros and the Chambers. Instead of harping on how the Spell Walkers are responsible for the Blackout, she urges a deeper investigation on the girl everyone saw on the surveillance footage. She holds the missing pages of the story that the country is misreading. I’m about to ask her about what it’s like to be in a relationship that was born from tragedy, but Maribelle storms off with red eyes, and Atlas chases after her.

Two more to go.

Eva’s dark hair flows out from behind her rainbow cap, gifted to her by Iris to beat any urges to yank more strands from her head. She doesn’t make eye contact with me or the camera as she introduces herself as the hidden Spell Walker the world has never met because her healing power has made her too valuable. Three years ago, after losing her parents, who were working in a celestial shelter that was annihilated by a terrorist, Eva moved in with her lifelong best friend’s family. Eva had exposed her power to heal a child who’d been hit by a car, only to be followed by men who tried to kidnap her and sell her off to some shady alchemists. Her friend’s mother fought them off long enough for a celestial to come to the rescue, but she was shot in the conflict and died before Eva could heal her. Her friend watched, powerless, and soon after that, the friend sought out power to protect herself—she became a specter. Even scarier, she’s now the Blood Caster with hydra blood.

I had no idea Eva was once friends with Dione Henri. I’ll admit, I was curious how Eva’s videos were going to track compared to the others in the series, but once this story gets circulating, I’m sure everyone is going to be holding their breath to see what happens between the Spell Walker and Blood Caster who have so much history together. I know I am.

Emil comes out from behind the camera, and Prudencia takes over.

“How honest should I be?” Emil asks.

“What do you mean?”

“Maybe if I own up to my past lives, we won’t lose the spotlight.”

“Solid.”

Prudencia shakes her head. “It’s not solid. Emil, there might be a bigger bounty on your head to make you pay for what Keon did. Violence against phoenixes will only increase. It’s all too risky.”

So we go with what’s safe for the video. Emil talking about how he was excited for college and how things were picking up at work. It’s fine, but it’s all surface level. Everyone would lose their minds to hear about how he was adopted, how he was found on the streets. It was a plot twist that shook us greater than our favorite stories. It doesn’t matter, I guess. If Emil is in it, people are going to treat it like a gigantic deal.

I pack up and immediately lock myself in the computer lab to work on edits. Ma makes sure I’m eating, and Prudencia urges me to rest, and Emil keeps me company while flipping through Bautista and Sera’s journal. I pass out at the table while polishing Atlas’s video, and when Emil wakes me up to go to bed, I get back to work. I clock out around five in the morning, only when I’ve done all my edits. I review everything when I wake up and present it to the team. Everyone is good, so there’s one last thing left to do.

I hit upload.

The Spell Walkers of New York have broken the internet. The #HumanPower tag is trending globally, and people are taking it on like it’s the latest Instagram challenge. It’s only been fourteen hours, and Emil’s video is leading with over two million views. The others have all crossed one million too.

My phone is absolutely blowing up with media requests and follower growth. I love the high of notifications, but I had to finally turn them off. Shooting past one hundred thousand YouTube subscribers was the big dream, and now that I’ve crossed that line, I want more—I need more.

I’m getting some heat from this conservative vlogger, which isn’t that surprising—the so-called Silver Star Slayer is always spreading conspiracy theories about celestials. Anytime Senator Iron gets caught saying something that should work against his campaign, you can count on him to upload a video about how a shape-shifter probably posed as Senator Iron or some other celestial used their technological powers to manipulate the footage, as if that’s even a thing.

The Silver Star Slayer has got his political neck of the woods believing the following: it’s only a matter of time until Atlas follows in his parents’ footsteps; Wesley’s sob story about Ruth cloning herself to help out with their baby is a disservice to single mothers who are actually struggling; if Iris wanted to be a hero, she would disband the Spell Walkers; Maribelle is calling for an invasion of privacy of a young girl’s life because she won’t accept that her parents are murderers; Eva is selfish for not healing patients in need of urgent care; and Emil is being groomed to assassinate Senator Iron and any other anti-gleamcraft politicians.

“I’m sorry,” I say to the group. “People are buying into it.”

I never wanted to give anyone more ammo.

“But not everyone. Anyone willing to believe his lies isn’t ever going to change their mind about us,” Iris says. “This is a promising sign. You’ve proven that they’re paying attention to us with their hashtag. Now we just have to figure out how to leverage this platform to cause some real change.”

Prudencia walks over with bottles of cider and champagne. “You did it,” she says with a true smile.

Everyone gets themselves a glass, and they toast me.

I may not be throwing fire, but I’m just as much a hero as anyone else.

Twenty

No One

NESS

Dione Henri is limping when she finally returns to Light Sky Tower with dark shadows under her venom-green eyes. Blood is caked in her curly red hair and splattered across her muscular, tattooed arms. I can’t help myself, I’m always drawn to the white scars around her body—the thick line across the tulips on her forearm, another splitting the pink rose on her shoulder, a deep one at the base of her neck, to name a few—and the new one below her knee is still healing, like flesh stitching itself together. Why people continue to cut away at the girl with hydra blood as if that will stop her is beyond me.

A few months ago, I would’ve been thrilled to see her return in one piece. Starting over with no ties to my old life was lonely, and Stanton is too ruthless for true friendship. Dione’s presence was more real, more human. I was sure we were in the same boat—indebted to the gang for saving our lives and heartbreakingly loyal because it was better than running from our pasts alone. Dione bad-mouthing the Senator when we watched the news together was a sign that she’s good people, and she was the only one who checked in on me the night I killed that alchemist who put a wand to my head. But she’s been on a power trip lately, throwing herself into more and more danger in the name of Luna’s grand design, which she thinks will make her safe forever. That it will make all of us safe forever. The mission is what matters. No friends.

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