Page 37

Fire and Ice

Marsh is holding her breath as she plunges into the next scene—but there’s no wave now, no hotel room.

“Bara nokkrar mínútur eftir!” A booming voice garners applause.

Marsh spins, her green gown twirling.

Ezra managed to save her just in time—he’s skipped her to Iceland. She’s at the gala.

Moms4Marsh: Whew, this is so much better!

Notamackerel: Wake up!

“This is so exciting!” Ren says beside her, staring at the stage.

Marsh takes a couple of gulping breaths, trying to calm herself down to match the new, sophisticated ambience. There’s no siren, no encroaching wall of watery death.

“You want a drink?” Ren asks.

Marsh shakes her head, and tries to smile. The excitement in the ballroom is palpable, just like the first time. The grand hall is even more beautiful, and everything glitters. But up front, it’s not Talia holding the microphone and waving to the smitten crowd.

It’s Alexis.

“There’s still a little time to get your bid in!”

SharpTruth534: We came in late

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SharpTruth535: The auction’s almost over

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TopFan01: Is there not a permanent way to ban this guy?!

“Mom!” Harper laughs as she rushes over. “Your ísv?ngur is the highest-earning lot in the whole auction so far!”

“Incredible!” Ren says. “We’re so proud of you!”

Marsh studies the room as she hugs Harper back, trying to figure out what to do. She didn’t manage to find Chrysalis in Tahiti before she had to flee, but that’s because she didn’t know exactly where it was hiding. Here, she does.

The ísv?ngur.

She has to get to her photograph.

“Harp, let’s go,” she says. “I need your help with something.”

“Marsh!” Ren cries. “There are only a few minutes left. They’ll be waiting for you onstage, to thank the high bidder!”

“Then stall for me,” Marsh tells him, and disappears with Harper into the crowd as the applause continues.

This time, the photos up for auction aren’t displayed just in front of the stage. Instead, the exhibits are locked safely in the facility’s basement vault, “for everyone’s security,” the guard posted at the elevators says.

Why would the originals be dangerous to people? Marsh wonders as the sliding door opens to the basement, a partially unfinished level with low ceilings and harsh lighting. They’re just pieces of paper!

But as soon as they enter the vault, Marsh understands.

Monsterrific: Holy mackerel!!!

Marsh shouts the same thing as a bloodcurdling snarl makes her lurch backward, bumping into Harper and nearly toppling them both.

“Is that a...” Marsh gapes. “Is that a snow leopard in that cage?”

The photographs of various endangered animals aren’t just photographs anymore.

They’re real animals .

Instead of easels with gigantic prints set upon them, each lot is now a cage containing a live incarnation of its portrait. There are predatory cats slinking back and forth, eagles flapping their wings, snakes hissing, a tank with a dolphin, and more.

“What is going on?” Marsh whispers, still stunned.

“Hey,” Harper murmurs, surprised. “Where’s the ísv?ngur ?”

Marsh whirls toward the center of the room, where her ísv?ngur should be waiting in the middle of the alphabet. Sure enough, the pedestal is there where her butterfly should be.

But the cage is gone.

SharpTruth536: Uh-oh

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Suddenly, a blaring alarm goes off, and the room is bathed in a red glow.

“What’s happening!” Harper gasps, scampering to her mother.

“This is an emergency alert!” a robotic voice drones over the intercom. “Extreme volcanic activity detected. Repeat, extreme volcanic—”

“Mom!” she cries.

Again? Marsh wants to shout.

“It’s okay,” she says desperately. “Everything will be okay.”

The room plunges into darkness, and then the emergency lights kick on.

“What do I do?” she yells. “How do I stop it?”

SharpTruth537: Find the ísv?ngur!

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“Come on!” Marsh says, dragging Harper toward the elevators.

As the doors open to the main ballroom, she can see the elegant mood has evaporated. It’s chaos now. People are crying and screaming, knocking chairs over and scattering plates and glasses everywhere as they panic.

Where’s Ren? she wonders. Is he looking for me and Harper?

“What’s going on?” Marsh grabs the nearest frantic guest. “Why isn’t anyone evacuating?”

“The doors locked because of the emergency alert! We can’t get out of the Harpa!”

“What?” Harper screams.

“Which volcano is it?” Marsh asks as her daughter clutches her. “ ?r?faj?kull , again?”

“ All of them! ” he shrieks. “The whole island is erupting at once! There’s nowhere to evacuate to!”

“Emergency alert! Unprecedented volcanic activity detected over all of Iceland. Repeat, unprecedented—”

“It’s the end of the world!” he screams before he runs.

“What do we do?” Harper wails.

Moms4Marsh: How can this be happening?!

StrikeF0rce: Everything is collapsing!

LunaMágica: It’s not fair!

SharpTruth538: Marsh, the roof!

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“Come on!” Marsh orders. She drags her daughter back into the elevator, and sends it much higher this time—all the way up.

As the doors open and they scramble out, all she can hear is the shrill wail of the emergency sirens from every corner of Reykjavík. Around the Harpa, in every direction, the horizon is ablaze with an exploding volcano, a dozen peaks encircling the city in an apocalyptic ring.

Frónverji: My God... it’s like Ragnar?k...

“Marsh! Harper! Thank goodness!” Jo says as she hugs them. “We couldn’t find you in the ballroom; we didn’t—”

“The volcanoes!” Victor cries. “We can’t get out!”

More desperate guests are crowding onto the roof now, everyone fleeing to the highest point. Screams alternate with shouts of horrified awe as each new wave of arrivals encounters the view.

But there’s still one person Marsh doesn’t see.

“Stay with Harper,” she orders them, and throws herself into the throng, searching for Ren.

SharpTruth539: It’s here somewhere. I’m tracking—

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Finally, she spots him. Ren is on the far side of the roof, alone. All the way at the edge, right up against the safety railing. There’s something in his grip.

A small glass cage, no bigger than a shoebox.

His hand is on the little door.

“Ren!” Marsh screams. “No!”

But just before she reaches him and slams the door shut, the ísv?ngur flutters free—and disappears into the blazing night in a streak of blue.

No.

“Why?” she gasps, breathless with despair.

That was it.

Chrysalis is gone.

She grabs his arm fiercely. “Why would you do that?”

“What do you mean?” Ren asks, shouting over the melee. “For you, of course!”

The ísv?ngur has flown so fast and far, she can’t even see it anymore against the molten orange skyline. Marsh sinks to her knees in exhausted despair.

At last, Ren lowers himself beside her.

“I’m sorry,” he says. “I thought you would want me to.”

She snorts. It’s so absurd, it’s funny. “You thought I would want you to rob a gala?”

“No. Want me to free it.” He looks out, at the burning sky. “It’s the last of its kind. Even if we’re trapped on the roof, it has wings.”

Marsh sighs.

Tahiti turned out to be a bust, and Ren has just ruined her only shot at catching Chrysalis here in Iceland with his misguided noble aims.

There’s only one place left she can think to find it now.

SharpTruth540: C:\ATAM\Bubble\episodes\la_estrella

[ERROR]

SharpTruth540: C:\ATAM\Bubble\episodes\la_estrella\safemode

[ERROR]

SharpTruth540: Shit

Marsh sits up straighter as her vision flashes.

“Hurry,” she urges. The night air has grown so hot, her face is flushed, and sweat is running down her brow.

SharpTruth540: I’m trying. I’m having trouble accessing Mexi—

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“It’s all right,” Ren says, soothing her. He’s leaned back against the railing to allow her to cuddle into his chest. The look on his face is impossibly serene.

Marsh stares at him, her unease growing. Around them, people are falling to their knees, calling their loved ones’ names, praying to their gods. They don’t know this isn’t real, that she can undo it—hopefully. Marsh can see the lava now, glowing white-hot at the periphery of the city, oozing ever closer, obliterating everything it touches.

“Why aren’t you afraid?” she asks him, no more than a whisper.

There’s a pop, almost like a sink stopper being pulled out, and then a flare of music, as everything goes dark.