Rain fell like ash.
The road out of the Dead Zone was empty, too empty.
Juvy felt it first.
"Stop."
Maxruell halted. Shadows pooled under his boots.
Varkos raised his rifle. "We're being hunted."
The wind shifted.
Then screaming came from the trees.
Cultists poured out white robes, bone masks, blades dipped in black liquid.
"Mother wants the girl alive!" one shouted.
"Break the boy!"
They rushed.
Maxruell's shadow snapped forward like a tide, crushing three at once.
Juvy raised a crystal wall but a cultist slipped through and slashed her arm.
It burned.
She screamed.
Something inside her broke.
Light exploded from her chest.
Gems burst out of the ground like teeth emerald, sapphire, ruby forming a storm around her.
A cultist lunged.
She pointed.
A shard flew through his throat.
Blood sprayed her face.
She froze.
He dropped.
Dead.
Her first kill.
"I..I didn't mean…."
More came.
Maxruell stepped in front of her.
"Behind me."
"No!" she shouted. "I can fight!"
He ignored her.
Darkness rolled over the attackers.
Bodies hit trees.
Bones popped.
A cultist tried to flee.
Juvy screamed, "STOP!"
The man tripped.
She looked at him shaking, begging.
Her hands trembled.
Then lightning burst from a floating crystal and split him in half.
Silence.
Juvy dropped to her knees.
"I killed him…"
Maxruell looked at the bodies.
"They chose it."
She stared at him.
"So did I."
They hid inside an old subway tunnel.
Juvy scrubbed blood off her face with dirty water.
"It doesn't come off," she whispered.
Varkos stood watch.
"I owe you both something," he said suddenly.
Maxruell looked up. "Talk."
Varkos exhaled.
"I knew your parents. Not just as friends. As soldiers."
Juvy froze.
"They were part of a unit," Varkos continued. "Special ops. Hunting things like Cain."
Maxruell's eyes burned. "Why didn't you tell us?"
"Because they died for lying once already."
He lowered his voice.
"Cain wasn't their enemy at first. She was their leader."
Juvy's heart pounded.
"They trained under her," Varkos said. "Until she wanted your powers. Wanted you born for her."
Maxruell clenched his fists.
"They ran. Hid you. She burned their church down for it."
Juvy whispered, "So you stayed?"
"I stayed to watch her. And protect you from the shadows."
Maxruell stood.
"You failed."
Varkos met his eyes.
"I know."
That night, Maxruell couldn't sleep.
The crimson stone pulsed.
They lied to you,
the voice whispered.
They will again.
He sat alone.
Juvy watched him from the tunnel doorway.
She didn't go to him.
For the first time, she was afraid of her own brother.
And far away, Mother Cain painted a symbol on a child's forehead.
"The girl has tasted death," she said softly.
"She will come closer now."