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“Yeah, you keep on saying that, but if we were so similar, you’d think we’d get along better,” I said with a long sigh. I worked my jaw around; it was already beginning to swell.

“If I can’t get you to talk or help me on your own”—Maksim paused here dramatically to let the tension build— “you’re going to force me to kidnap another.”

A sick feeling swept over me as I understood what Maksim was getting at.

“Who would I bring?” Maksim asked rhetorically. “I’ve seen the way you look at Stacy. She would be the obvious choice. But I wonder if you’d let an Eternal die right in front of you? I hear those abominations can grow back their own limbs. I wonder how many pieces I can cut them into before they would die. What do you think?”

I didn’t say anything. I knew this was all an act to try and get me angry. It was working, but I wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction. My mind was running on overtime, trying to see past the fog of pain and concentrate on an escape plan.

Think, I told myself. You’ve been in bad spots before. Think about how you’re going to get out of this one.

“The girl it is,” Maksim said as if he’d just made up his mind. “If you’ll watch her die, then I’ll grab an Eternal next.”

“What is it that you want to know?” I asked. “You know everything already if you were there inside our walls. Arun announced it. You know about the aliens, the virus, our numbers—you already know it all.”

“I know most, but not all.” Maksim turned to me again. “This virus, how is it spread? Where did it come from, and most of all, can it be manipulated to work on an Eternal?”

Puzzle pieces began to fit in place in my mind as I worked on exactly what Maksim was getting at.

“Why would you want the virus to work on an Eternal?” I asked, already suspecting the answer.

Maksim gave me a grin that held no true joy. The right side of his burnt lip receded up to show all of his teeth on that side of his face.

“What if there existed a narrative where the Eternals did all of this?” Maksim asked. He moved his hands in the air as if he were painting a grand picture. “What if the Eternals did this all on their own? A master plan to kill off hundreds of thousands of Transients while only sacrificing a handful of their own? What if, after the crash, they started a virus to kill the transients that remained, sacrificing themselves to the virus in the process?”

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I knew Maksim was crazy, but this was sheer insanity. It wasn’t enough that the Orion crashed, killing the vast majority of Transients. It wasn’t enough for him that we were all stranded. He wanted to kill us all and, in the process, smear the Eternal name.

“You know, when the Orion broke apart upon descent to this planet, I thought I was dead,” Maksim said, looking to the sky as if he were getting a divine moment of inspiration. “I thought that was it for me. When I landed in the water, I knew my purpose was not yet served. I still had work to do.”

“You are really drinking that Disciple Kool Aid, aren’t you?” I asked, tempting another beating. “You think that what you’re doing now is anything short of the work of a psychopath? I’ll tell you what, I’m going to get out of here sooner or later. I don’t know how, but I will, and when I do, I’m going to do what I should have done to you from the beginning. I’m going to kill you.”

“There he is! There he is!” Maksim turned and leaned down to look into my eyes. “I knew you were in there, brother. Two feathers from the same bird, you and I.”

Maksim reached down and tore the medallion off my neck. The thin chain broke with a single jerk. I bit my tongue, fighting the urge to yell out and tell him to give it back. I knew if he understood how important it was to me, he never would.

“Two swords pointed away from one another, you and I,” Maksim said, staring at the medallion. He ran a thumb over the design. “A single blade in the center, an unknown destiny, the circle around the blade the Orion itself.”

“I’m so sick of listening to your garbage. Kill me, leave me, and go kidnap someone or whatever you’re going to do, but listening to you drone on is torture I can’t take.” I raised my voice. “Come on, Maksim, what do you say you and I just finish this right now? You let me go and one of us walks away from the clearing. Let’s just end this, brother.”

That last word caught his attention, as I knew it would. He looked at me with eager eyes as if he’d wanted me to call him by this title our entire conversation.

“Yes, yes, maybe,” Maksim said, walking toward me. “Maybe I’ll beat you within an inch of your life and then untie you so we could finish this here. You’re a better fighter than I am, and I understand that, but you lack the cunning I possess. Maybe—”

A shriek from my right ended whatever nonsense Maksim was going to suggest next. Our eyes widened as the screams came from all directions, at once building to a crescendo of pure madness.

10

I knew exactly what those sounds meant: Legion. By the look on Maksim’s face, he knew what it was as well. How the Disciple managed to survive outside of the wall for this long without becoming infected was a question I couldn’t answer.

Maksim whirled around to put his back to me once more. Motion from every corner of the forest