He shoots me a look, and I think it might be a little bit vengeful. “It’s not fun when the people you care about sacrifice themselves, is it?”
“Yeah, yeah.” His dad is the one who answers this. “You’ve made your point. Put the pills away now. You know I can shoot you before you swallow those. Stalling will get you nowhere.”
“Just shoot him,” The Phantom says. “We’re wasting time.”
I can’t quite tell in the darkness, but I think Mr. Mitchell hesitates.
The Phantom turns to him. “Can you not shoot him because he’s your son? Then give me the gun.”
Seth’s dad slumps. “I…can’t do it.”
“Tsk, here.” The Phantom walks over, and I can’t believe what’s happening. Bea lets out a loud scream in an attempt to stop them, but they fight through the pain. Brady lunges forward. Seth moves the handful of pills toward his mouth.
And I’m too far away to stop any of it.
I should have never thrown that bottle.
The Phantom puts his hand on the gun, and I think that’s me screaming but I’m not sure. Then there’s a loud bang, and I freeze because surely it’s too soon. The Phantom barely touched the firearm. He couldn’t have shot at Seth yet.
But then The Phantom’s knees buckle, and Mr. Mitchell catches him before he hits the ground. It takes a second for my brain to realize what happened.
Seth’s dad shot The Phantom.
“You…” Blood sputters from his mouth as Mr. Mitchell gently lays him in the dirt.
“Sorry,” Seth’s dad says with a smile that says anything but apologetic. “Had to make sure you were solid when I pulled the trigger.”
“How…c-could…?” The Phantom goes limp.
I stand there, dumbfounded. When Seth’s dad faces his sons, I have no clue what to expect. From the looks of it, neither do they. He scratches his head and says, “C’mon, you really think I’m heartless enough to let you guys get hurt? I’ve done a lot of horrible things, but I’m not that far gone.”
“W-why?” Seth finally gets out. “You waited so long. You sold us out and everything.”
His dad holds his hands out to the empty desert. “No syndicate witnesses out here. All I have to say is that the girl killed him and then I killed her. Everyone thinks I’m still loyal.”
Brady frowns. “What about us? Won’t they expect you to take us back?”
“Maybe.” Mr. Mitchell stoops down and pulls something off The Phantom’s hand. My guess is it’s a ring. “But they won’t question me if I tell them I got the command ring from The Phantom before he died. Looks like I just got a promotion. Lucky me.”
My jaw drops. “You planned this, didn’t you? Your goal was to get second-in-command out of this somehow.”
He turns in my direction, his smile shrewd. “No better way to protect the ones you love than to be in power, right, Fiona? Yes, I’ve been working my way up so I could have enough sway to keep Juan’s eyes out of Madison. Did I know it’d happen this soon? Not exactly. But opportunity knocked.”
“So…” Seth looks extremely uncomfortable, and I can’t begin to imagine how he feels about this. “What now?”
His dad shrugs. “I take the bullet car, you take the truck, and we haul ass back to Madison. After that? I pull Juan’s men out, and you decide what you want to do with those pills. Because as far as I’m concerned, what Allie had was all a bluff—the wrong stuff. Damned Phantom was following a dry creek.”
Seth nods slowly. “And what about you?”
“What about me?” He looks confused for a second, but then seems to understand. “I imagine you won’t be seeing much of me anymore, though I don’t think you’ll mind that, will you?”
Seth and Brady look at their feet, seeming resistant to admit the truth.
“Take care of yourselves. Don’t get into any more trouble.” Mr. Mitchell turns his back to them at this point, heading for the car. He throws my clothes out and shoots off before we’ve made it to the road.
No one speaks as I get dressed. Or as we drive the dark road back to Madison. Or as we veer off towards the cave to dump the stolen merinite back where it belongs. It’s only as we pull up in front of my house, which looks just the same as ever, that Bea says, “Did that really happen?”
“I think so,” Brady answers.
“Let’s get inside.” Seth heads for my home. The second we step inside, we’re met with a crowd of worried faces. The Navarros, my mom, Miles, Lee Seol, Graham. They practically tackle us in relief, asking questions much faster than any of us can answer them.
“She’s dead?” Graham cries when we get to Allie.
My heart breaks for him. Maybe she didn’t make the best choices, but who does these days? I’m not proud of mine lately. “I’m so sorry, Graham. The Phantom just…”
He covers his ears, and his feet hit the ground. “No.”
“I know, hon.” Mom is right there with him, comforting, though she’s been through a lot today. It looks like Rosa has already healed Mom’s wound. I kneel next to them, adding my hug to Mom’s.
Then Miles comes, patting Graham on the back. “It’s a lot to take in.”
“Yeah…” Seth winces. “I don’t mean to intrude on the grief, but there’s still more to tell you.”
We talk until there are no more words to say and daylight brightens the windows. No one seems to care about that—we all agree it’s time to sleep, since it looks like everything has settled as much as it ever will.
Seth follows me up to my room, and when he shuts the door I already know what he’ll say. “What should we do with these?”
He pulls out the bottle of pills, which we somehow neglected to mention. I stare at them, my heart twisting with conflicting emotions. I want to keep them so badly, but I shouldn’t. It would be hypocritical, wouldn’t it? And yet to have just a few more opportunities to see myself…
I gulp. “I don’t know, Seth. I can’t pretend I don’t want them.”
“I know.” He comes closer, taking my hand and pressing the bottle into my palm. “I think we can all agree the caves have to go, but I don’t think I have a right to tell you what to do with these. Not now that they’ll probably be the last of their kind.”
Curling my fingers around the bottle, I take a deep breath. “I need to think about it. My brain is fried.”
“Mine too.” He wraps his arms around me, and for a second everything snaps back to normality. It feels weird, but also amazing. I can only hope there’s more of this to come, but who knows for how long? “Sleep well, okay? Call me when you wake up.”
He starts to pull away, but I grab him back. “Stay.”
“Are you sure I won’t get in trouble for that?”
“Not today.” I bury my head in his chest and take a deep breath, though we’re both grimy. After almost losing him however many times today, I don’t care what he smells like. “I can’t be alone after that. The more I think about what happened…it’s scaring me worse now.”
Seth runs his hand over my hair. “Okay, I’ll stay then. Don’t have to twist my arm.”
I look into his eyes, the ones that have always seen me better than I see myself. He kisses me, and I wonder if I’m better off believing his vision of me than my own. But still, I keep those pills under my pillow the whole night.
Chapter 46
Major Norton comes by a couple days later. He’s in shock about Allie, but he doesn’t seem as bad as Graham. My brother is a husk of a person, losing the girl he loved, knowing it was all a lie to her. I wish I knew what to do for him. All I can manage is trying to convince him to eat.
“It seems Juan’s men have completely pulled out of the area,” the Major says as he sips at some coffee I made. “My guess is you know why.”