JACKIE:

  “What is this important news?” Zayne asked.

  Grace shrugged. “Maybe if you saw your daughter once in a while, she wouldn’t act so crazy.”

  “Enough, you two. Follow me.” I walked through the village gate back into the forest.

  My stubborn parents followed begrudgingly.

  After another trek through the woods with constant complaining, this time from both Grace and Zayne, we ended our journey in front of the warehouse where the boys in the cages were tortured.

  “How does it feel being back here?” I asked them.

  “Where are we?” Grace shrugged. “I’ve never been here before.”

  “Interesting.” I was still piecing together the disparity in the timelines.

  My mom’s voice was laced with annoyance. “What’s this all about? I’ve lost patience with your nonsense and this sweltering heat.”

  “Ah, okay…” I muttered as the puzzle pieces fell into place.

  If Grace had never found Zayne in that cage, they must have met under more normal circumstances. They knew less than I thought.

  Mom was clueless, but I saw a glimmer of recognition in my dad’s eyes, which he tried to hide by looking at the mossy ground.

  I needed to unlock more to show them the bigger picture.

  “Mom, what’s your parent’s wedding anniversary?” I asked.

  “Why? Drop this wild-goose chase and come back to Camp Claudi. I need a shower. I hope this place still has running water.”

  “Mom, please.” I stomped my foot. “What’s Mark and Beatrice’s wedding anniversary?”

  She gave a heavy sigh. “May twentieth.”

  I entered zero-five-two-zero into the warehouse’s rusty old keypad. A green light flashed, and the door unlocked.

  That got my mom’s attention.

  The steel door opened, creaking a warning not to enter.

  I didn’t know what we’d find, but it turned out to be as gruesome as I imagined.

  The shelves that greeted us were full of torture devices. Along the back wall, a line of cages had rotting carcasses inside; half phoenix, half human. It reeked of death and decay.

  Life Rite still made mutants in this new timeline, despite Beatrice’s protests. Her decision not to take the serum spared Zayne, but others were not so lucky.

  Mark never stopped, even after Beatrice begged him to.

  Grace choked on the dirty air. “What is this place?”

  “Mom, you need to see this.” Life Rite manuals lined a shelf. I grabbed one, opened it, and showed Grace the mutation photographs inside.

  She flipped through them, slowly at first and then quickly. “What am I looking at? Explain yourself, young lady.”

  I looked to Zayne for support.

  He shifted his eyes to the soiled floor instead of meeting my gaze.

  “It’s time you knew the truth,” I explained. “Life Rite harvested the Bennu eggs on this island and injected them into local boys that they… kidnapped.”

  Grace shook her head. “No way. We use these disgusting eggs for the face creams, but...”

  Zayne looked at Grace, dark circles forming under his eyes. “Listen to Jackie. She speaks truth.”

  I continued. “Mark injected the serum into the locals, and it caused them to mutate, morph, rebirth like a… phoenix.”

  Zayne refused to look at me, ashamed that I knew his darkest secret.

  “Mark takes the Carrier’s blood to make another serum that he gives to the highest bidder. The recipient can rebirth without the mutations. Get it?”

  “My father is a good man,” Grace declared, throwing the manual. “He wouldn’t run unsanctioned human trials.”

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  “Dad, tell her,” I begged.

  “Grace, it’s true,” Zayne asserted.

  “How would you know?” she asked.

  “They tested me as a boy. Locked me in a cage for many moons…” He choked on the words.

  Grace shook her head. “No… No, they didn’t… If they did, why wouldn’t you tell me sooner?”

  “One day, Father released me. Paid me to keep quiet and… introduced us.”

  “No, I don’t believe you.” She crossed her arms and kicked the manual further away.

  Zayne explained, “When Mark Claudi shows you a beautiful girl… When I saw you, it was love. I protected Father’s secret.”

  “I don’t understand.” Grace took a step closer to Zayne. “Why would you keep such a scandalous secret from me? From your wife?”

  “I didn’t want you to know my dark side.”

  She turned her back on him. “I refuse to believe this nonsense.”

  In front of the cages, Zayne took off his long-sleeved shirt. Dry, scaly skin covered most of his sculpted body.

  “Your eczema!” Grace cried.

  Zayne shook his head. “It’s not that…”

  He gritted his teeth and flexed his muscles. His veins pulsed underneath his skin.

  Grace gulped as his veins lit on fire.

  With a scream, he exerted all his energy to make every muscle in his body work overtime.

  Two vibrant wings burst from the back of his arms, flowing like silk sheets.

  Tears streamed down his face as he transformed in front of us. His scaly wings fell to the floor, massive and glowing.

  Grace gasped and stumbled backward.

  Zayne said, “I should have told you, Grace, but what would you think? I’m a monster because of Life Rite. This is why I left… To protect you from what I’ve become.”

  My heart shattered.

  Zayne still mutated, but the treatments stopped before the point of no return.

  “I guess it was the most probable outcome,” I murmured.

  He hadn’t morphed into Firestorm, but Mark’s dark secret still marked him. Beatrice’s sacrifice saved him from more injections, enough to stop the gruesome mutations from progressing further.

  Grace cried as she looked between the training manual on the floor and Zayne, struggling to process the truth. “Why do you still work for him? Here, with those disgusting eggs?”

  “My people protect the eggs. We make sure they don’t take too much,” Zayne rationalized. “They don’t test on my people anymore.”

  Zayne’s lip quivered, knowing Life Rite was still testing on someone.

  My broken parents looked into each other’s eyes and searched for a lifeline.

  I had faith in their love, but did they?

  They spent an eternity seeking the possibility of staying together, but it was never the most probable outcome.

  Was Beatrice’s sacrifice enough to tip the scales?

  I whispered, “I love you, Dad. You’re beautiful, inside and out.”

  “Thanks, Jackie.” Zayne smiled at me and looked to Grace for her reaction…

  What does she think of him now?

  As my parents stared into each other’s souls, their deep, magnetic connection snapped back into place. The fire was still burning, and I was the spark to reignite the flame.

  Grace took the first step.

  She caressed Zayne’s face, then his wings. “Yes, you’re so beautiful… inside and out.”

  He recoiled at her touch, but she didn’t relent. Her fingertips grazed his scaly chest and arms. There was no cage between them. Nothing stood in their way except their own limitations.

  “I wish you had told me sooner,” she said.

  “You already got heat for marrying a poor kid from Bennu. Face it, I ruined your life. After Jackie was born, you got invited to parties again. That seemed good for you to be accepted.”

  “We can’t live in the boxes society puts us in,” Grace reminded herself. “You’ve always been more important to me, Zayne. I chose you then, and I choose you now, dear.”

  “You do?”

  Grace nodded. “I do.”

  Zayne grabbed Grace by the waist and gave her the kiss of a lifetime, their lips pressing together for the first time in years.

  His blood glowed beneath his skin as she caressed his powerful arms.

  I clapped, happy for them. It wasn’t the first time I had seen my parents make out, and I hoped it wouldn’t be the last.

  Love can still win, even when it’s forbidden.

  I was finally healing some wrongs of the past, but there was still a lot of work to do.

  Grace blushed when she pulled away from their kiss. “Thanks for showing me the truth, Jackie.”

  “I can’t believe Mark still moved forward with Life Rite, despite B’s best efforts to stop him,” I whispered.

  “What do you mean?” Grace asked.

  “I guess it was the most probable outcome,” I mumbled, working the problem. “He’s still making mutants, and if it works how I think it does, his drone could end up killing the Dusters and Climbers.”

  “Jackie…” My mom started to speak, but I cut her off.

  “We’ve got to stop Mark. We’ve got to take down Life Rite.”

  “Whoa, Jackie. Hold on a sec.” Grace scoffed. “We can’t…”

  “Mom, your dad kidnapped and tested on kids. He turned them into mutants. Now he’s developing a technology that could end humanity. We’ve got to stop him. I know I sound crazy, but I am not on drugs again. You need to trust me.”

  “He also helps a lot of people,” Grace declared. “He cures diseases. And the Institute does important work with the Grid. After my big fundraiser, more discoveries will be made…”

  “Millions of lives are at stake, Mom. If Mark’s drone goes online, it means global genocide.”

  Her face dropped. “Don’t be so dramatic, Jackie.”

  “Zayne’s truth is the tip of the needle, Mom. Get ready for your mind to be blown. Are you finally ready to talk to me? Like, really talk to me?”

  A bell rang in the distance, capturing our attention.

  “The dinner bell still rings?” Grace asked.

  Zayne shook his head. “Never since you left Bennu all those years ago.”

  A gaggle of Bennu birds called outside.

  Someone else was in the complex, and the island was awakening from its slumber.