Marya didn’t think Malcav could hear Joran’s voice, even though it was getting louder. Her sister, though – Marya was still recovering from the awful shock of seeing her precious sister in Malcav’s grasp – Zinnia was clinging to the edge of the desk where Malcav had pushed her, staring wide-eyed at Marya. She didn’t deserve to be treated like this, but neither did Zinnia Questel, or Joran, or Cay. She couldn’t control Malcav’s injustices, but she could refuse to commit them for him.
…Could she?
Malcav was in her face now, lowering his tone to a harsh whisper, warning her of everything he could and would do, and she knew it was all true.
She’d seen it, felt it…dreaded it. And she’d allowed it control her – no. She wouldn’t hide from the blame. She had given in to fear, and given in to Malcav, but not anymore. No cost was higher than the price of her allegiance to Right.
“…but your sister!”
She hadn’t been listening, but Malcav’s now-calm words aligned so perfectly with her train of thought that they almost seemed her own.
“I know,” he continued smoothly, maliciously, aware of her surging emotions. “I know you would do anything for her. Anything at all. There are so many things I could ask you to do.” He smiled, reveling in his power.
By her ear, she caught a murmur from one of the boys – Cay, she thought. Already their lives had been changed so much because of her actions, and no matter her choice, they would be changed further. The three of them, and probably her sister Zinnia too, wouldn’t be able to go back to their families after this; they would always be in danger.
She knew what mattered here, and her fear bubbled up in a last stand against that knowledge.
No one will know what happened to you…
You should protect your sister first…
What will happen to me?
But the part of her that knew what was right only listened calmly and sadly, and her thoughts changed to imagination.
Cay, Zinnia, Joran – the three of them would think of the one relative no one even knew existed. The kind driver would help them find her, maybe the student too, and the three passengers wouldn’t sit quietly and wait. They would do something, and even if Marya didn’t live to see it…or even if the teens didn’t…change would come. Malcav would not win.
She looked up, meeting his eyes and his arrogant smile, and looked at her sister.
Zinnia looked back at her and nodded, and whatever that meant, however much she’d understood, it was enough to give Marya the strength to lunge forward and rip out the complicated wiring Joran had painfully described.
The passengers in the coach sat stunned for a moment. The audio had crackled to silence, drawing their gazes almost at the same moment that the Device began to spin crazily in the air, halting only to drip a clear fluid into the dust.
A new quest had just begun.