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24

Locked Out

“In this future, you failed,” Gaius explained to me and Nero. “You survived, but your daughter Sierra turned against you. She became the Guardians’ champion, a champion of nefarious intentions.”

“Are these really the only two options for our daughter?” I asked. “A life as a hero, but in a miserable, forsaken world where everyone she cares about is dead? Or a life where the world and her loved ones have survived, but we’ve lost Sierra because she serves the Guardians?”

“You can save the world and your daughter,” Gaius told me. “You just need to be smart about it. There’s always another way.”

“Your way.” I frowned in frustration. “You’re telling me the only way to save Sierra and the world is to do what you say.”

“I would never tell you that.”

“And yet you’re giving us no other option.”

“In fact, I presented two alternative options, Leda.”

“Neither of which is truly an option!”

He nodded. “I thought you might see it that way.”

“Of course you did.” Scorn dripped from my words. “Everything you showed me was to make me see it your way.”

“You still have a choice. No one can take that away from you.”

I made an exasperated noise. “Ok. I’ll bite. What is this ‘smart’ way? How do we save our daughter and the world?”

Gaius opened his mouth to speak, then shut it again. He glanced around, looking suddenly nervous. “Later. Need to go now.”

Then he faded out, but we were still here at the crossroads. We hadn’t returned to the real world, to the airship.

“What a drama queen,” I grumbled. “I bet he’s left us hanging so we have a chance to digest those awful future visions for a while. And then he believes we’ll pick his ‘way out’, whatever that is.”

“I’m not so sure he left to create drama,” Nero told me. “Gaius was so focused throughout our conversation, and then he was suddenly so nervous. He looked like someone had just walked in on his conversation with us. Perhaps he was attacked.”

“Great. Even better. The only person with answers is now out of commission.”

Nero touched my cheek softly. “You’re usually so optimistic.”

“I’m not usually dealing with the fate of our daughter.”

“Don’t lose heart, Leda. We will figure out how to protect our daughter, with or without his help.”

I set my hand over his. “Thank you. For being, well, you. And for not panicking.”

“Panicking serves no purpose.” Nero was pragmatic like that.

I chuckled. “I’ll try to remember that.” I turned to Arina. “Are there any more visions in the Vault?”

“There might be, but I can’t tell. Someone is blocking my magic, my access to the visions.” She looked like she didn’t like the feeling one bit. “But you’ve been connected to the Vault since you stepped into the Lost City two years ago. Maybe you can access them?”

I closed my eyes and tried focusing on the visions. I didn’t find a thing. I felt like a wall had sprung up, blocking them off from me. I was locked out.

I opened my eyes and shook my head. “Nothing. Gaius must have inserted himself into the memories by being there, at the Lost City, in the Vault. But now he is silent and so are the memories. Someone must have stopped him from sending them to us. And whoever that someone is, they don’t want me seeing these memories right now. They’ve turned off my access.”

“The Guardians,” said Arina. She looked like she wanted to punch someone. Yep, the Guardians were clearly at the very top of her shit list.

“That’s my guess,” I said. “The Guardians have the most to lose if Nero and I can find a way to save our daughter from suffering that terrible fate. We have to go there, to the Lost City. We have to expel the Guardians from the Vault. We have to hear what Gaius was going to tell us.”