Page 73 of Infinity Son (Infinity Cycle 1)

She’s all mine.

This girl possessed my mother and took my family away from me. There’s no sign of fear in her eyes. There’s still time.

I carry her into the air and slam her face-first onto the floor. I flip her over and lay into her. Punch for Mama. Punch for Papa. Punch for Finola. Punch for Konrad. Punch after punch for every celestial who’s been blamed and hurt and locked up and killed because of the Blackout. The flesh on my knuckles is splitting open, and my glistening blood is mixing with hers. I don’t even feel the pain. Having this assassin pinned under me and at my mercy is a surge of adrenaline like never before.

“Mari! Mari!” Atlas calls.

I keep my hand around June’s throat as I turn, feeling her struggling underneath me. The Spell Walkers are being overpowered by spellwork. Emil is up on the balcony with Ness at his side and he’s throwing fire-darts, but not at his usual speed or strength. Wesley is running around Stanton, doing his best to avoid that poisonous mist while also trying to get some hits in. Iris is fighting a six-armed Dione, whose neck is caked in blood. I finally find Atlas in the chaos, and he’s bleeding from his left shoulder and right forearm, making it harder for him to use his power against the onslaught of acolytes.

I have to end June now, otherwise Atlas and I will never truly be safe. She will eventually find our haven and slice our throats in the middle of the night.

I get a chill, a warning, and then shake and scream as something sharp digs into my side—a piece of glass June grabbed off the floor from a shattered display. She twists the shard in me, and I lose my grip long enough for her to shove me off her. I lunge, but she’s untouchable and staring up at me with her face masked in our blood.

June saunters toward me. She’s not threatening. She can’t hurt me unless she’s corporeal, and I can’t imagine this silent assassin is feeling good about round two. But she doesn’t stop, and her eyes that glow like flickering eclipses come closer to mine until she vanishes from sight, and I become so cold it’s like I’m naked in a freezing ocean.

My body doesn’t feel like my own anymore. I stand without meaning to and take steps like I’m on autopilot. June has possessed me. I don’t know if she can hear my screams. I’m panicking and suffocating inside my own body. I can feel the movement of every muscle, the floor underneath every step, but none of the decisions are mine. This is how helpless Mama must’ve felt, and out of all the experiences we dreamed about sharing together as mother and daughter, being occupied by a ghostly assassin wasn’t on the list.

There is so much chaos. Luna is watching by the door with the phoenix egg, and I want to call for Wesley to snatch it and run far, far away, but he’s dizzying Stanton. Atlas is hovering above the acolytes, dodging spellwork. He calls my name again, but this isn’t me walking toward him, not really. June picks up a wand with my hand, and I can feel a faint hum against my palm—there’s still enough charge in here for one spell. When June raises the wand, I expect to find it against my head—but to kill me, she’ll have to kill us both.

I aim—no, June aims—the wand at Atlas and the winds carrying him vanish as the spell hits his heart.

Thirty-Seven

Dark Yellow

MARIBELLE

Atlas crashes through glass right as June falls out of my body. I don’t bother with her as I run straight for Atlas. Iris is suddenly beside me, hurling acolytes far across the room. I push past the destroyed relics to reach Atlas. He has never been this still. I scoop up his neck.

“Atlas, Atlas. No, come on, my love.” His eyes are half open, and blood is soaking up his shirt. “Please see me, please see me.” I slip my hand underneath the vest that was too damaged to protect him and his heart isn’t speaking to me. But this doesn’t make sense, because this is Atlas and he has to be around because I wouldn’t be alive without him and we’re supposed to one day have kids who will fly through the air with us and we will live, live, live until we grow old.

I press my forehead against his and beg him to keep his promise. When that doesn’t work, I scream in his face, and that doesn’t wake him up either.

I shot him.

June made me.

My teeth clench, and I fight back this urge to vomit and my arms are shaking and a cold shiver runs down from my head to my heart. Then I’m warm like when I was sick in bed, always waiting on Mama’s tea with honey, lemon, and garlic. The fights around me continue, and June staring me down sets me off. I rise and scream, and my body feels so hot I swear I’m inside the sun. There’s pressure on my eyes, especially the left, and I hear a roar that comes out of nowhere. A ring of dark yellow fire explodes around me and collides into everyone twenty feet from me. I’m the last one standing.

Flames run up to my elbows.

How?

Everyone is looking up at me. Luna is watching me in awe by the exit when an acolyte takes her by surprise and punches her in the face. The acolyte snatches the egg and runs. He glows gray the closer he gets—Ness.

I don’t care about the phoenix or the elixir. I look back at Atlas, lifeless, and I want to put this fire to use before it goes away. A flow of dark yellow flames blasts from my palm, but June sinks through the floor before it can reach her. Dione has already charged away and I’m lucky enough to strike Stanton down, even briefly, before they all reach Luna and flee.

The flames vanish, and I feel faint, the emptiest I’ve ever felt. I stumble back to Atlas and fall on top of him, cuddling against his chest, and even though he doesn’t wrap his arm around me, I fall asleep.

Thirty-Eight

Ashes

MARIBELLE

I met Atlas on the Brooklyn Bridge.

I was there with Iris to take down a trio of celestials who were threatening to kill everyone if enforcers didn’t release their boss from the Bounds. It was a poetic moment for us since our parents were the reason their boss got locked up. But we were ambushed when people we believed to be potential victims in cars stepped out and began attacking us. We con

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