“She’s so dramatic,” Magdalena said, sitting on the bed and looking at Sam. “She could have left you here by yourself for a few minutes. It’s not like you’d be able to use your powers or anything, right?”
Sam didn’t respond. Magdalena made a pouty face. “Don’t be mad at me,” she said. “I promise, I’ll take my little pet out of you soon enough.”
Hearing this, Sam felt fear stir inside of him. If he was right about how the parasite worked, taking it out meant that he would probably die. But if Magdalena was trying to provoke a response from him, he wasn’t going to give her one. Instead, he stared out the window.
Magdalena patted a small bag that she had carried in with her. “Anyway, Eleni should be happy. I brought her a surprise. If you swear not to spoil it, I’ll tell you what it is. Do you promise?”
Sam still didn’t respond. The Mog was irritating him. What he wanted to do was blast her across the room with his telekinesis. Instead, he could only try his best to ignore her. But she wasn’t going to make that easy. She stood up and walked into his line of vision, waving at him as if she had just spotted him and was delighted to see him there.
“I’ll tell you anyway,” she said as he turned his head and looked at the wall. “It’s a new batch of serum. I harvested one of the creatures.”
Sam couldn’t help himself. “Harvested it from who?” he said.
Magdalena clapped her hands. “Oh, you are interested!” she said. “Don’t worry. It was no one you know. At least I don’t think so. Just some human boy with a pyro Legacy. We have a lot of those, so he wasn’t anything special.”
“He was a person,” Sam snarled.
Magdalena rolled her eyes. “Yeah, well, and a hamburger is a cow before it’s a meal. I don’t see you getting all upset about that.”
“You killed someone,” Sam said. “For your experiment.”
Magdalena sighed. “You know, I haven’t brought this up before because I thought maybe we could be friends. But your people killed a whole lot of mine not that long ago. You might have killed a couple yourself, am I right?”
Sam shook his head. “You invaded our planet,” he said. “It was war.”
“This is why I hate discussing politics,” Magdalena replied. “Nobody ever wants to consider the other side. They say they do, but they really don’t.”
“You’re crazy,” Sam said.
“Or maybe I’m a genius,” Magdalena said. “See, there you go again, only seeing things your way.”
Before Sam could say anything else, the door opened again and Eleni stormed in, looking even angrier than she had when she’d left. “She’s gone,” she said.
“Who’s gone?” Magdalena said.
Eleni didn’t answer, but Sam knew exactly who she meant. Six had escaped. Magdalena too must have realized what Eleni was saying. “Well, she must be here somewhere.”
“Of course she’s here somewhere!” Eleni thundered. “And she’s probably contacted help.”
Magdalena looked at her watch. “The show starts in half an hour,” she said. “And she has no idea what we’re planning.”
“That’s more than enough time to cause trouble,” said Eleni.
“You worry too much,” Magdalena told her. “Like you said, she’s weakened. Her Legacies are all but gone.”
“And yet she still managed to escape,” said Eleni.
Sam laughed despite himself. Eleni walked over and slapped him hard across the face. Sam laughed again, knowing it would anger her. It did. Once more her hand crashed into his cheek with the force of a freight train. His head rocked to the side, and he tasted blood. He looked up at Eleni. Her face was a maelstrom of emotions, none of them pleasant.
“She’ll find you,” Sam said in a clear voice. “She’ll find you, and she’ll kill you.”
Eleni went to strike him again, but Magdalena caught her arm. “I have something for you,” she said. She held up a vial.
“What is it?” Eleni asked.
“Serum,” said Magdalena. “A new batch.”
The hint of a smile appeared on Eleni’s face. “And it’s ready?”
Magdalena nodded.
“Give it to me,” Eleni said. “Now.”
“Before the show has started?” Magdalena asked.
“What better time is there?” said Eleni.
As Eleni rolled up one sleeve, Magdalena retrieved a syringe from the bag on the bed. She uncapped it, inserted the needle into the vial of serum and drew some out. Eleni presented her arm, and Magdalena deftly slid the needle into a vein. As she depressed the plunger on the syringe, Eleni closed her eyes.
“It burns,” she said dreamily. “I can feel it.”
Sam watched with interest to see what would happen. He thought about the last time he’d seen someone attempt to create Legacies artificially. It was when the drug lord Bray had done it. That had ended with his gruesome death. Was Eleni about to suffer the same fate?
He watched for signs that she was reacting badly to the serum. But none came. Instead, she took several deep breaths and opened her eyes. “Something has changed,” she said. “What was the power of the person this came from?”
“Fire manipulation,” Magdalena said. “But that doesn’t necessarily mean—”
Eleni raised her hands, and Magdalena stopped talking. Eleni focused on the space between her palms. A moment later, a spark crackled and disappeared. Eleni tried again, and this time a small ball of flame formed. It remained intact, no larger than a gumball. Eleni grinned, and it flickered out.
“It works,” Magdalena said breathlessly.
Eleni conjured the fire again. This time, the ball grew in size and strength. The Mog moved it back and forth between her palms, like a child playing with a ball. “It doesn’t burn my skin,” she said. “I feel its warmth, but I am not hurt.”
“Careful,” Magdalena said. “You don’t want to set off the sprinklers, or start a fire.”
“Not yet, anyway,” said Eleni, making the fireball wink out, and they both laughed. Then Eleni looked at Sam and smirked. “Now I am like you,” she said. “Or like you once were.”
“We’ll see,” Sam said.
“Yes,” said Eleni. “We will. Speaking of seeing, I believe it’s almost time.” She picked up a remote that was sitting on a nearby table and used it to turn on the television. On the screen, a male news reporter was standing outside the entrance to the Saturn Hotel, where a limousine was disgorging its passengers, a trio of gorgeous young women all dressed in glamorous outfits. Sam recognized the three immediately. They were sisters from a popular reality television series.
The girls, seeing a camera, immediately gravitated to it, flashing dazzling smiles and posing. The reporter, fawning, said, “We’re here at the stunning Saturn Hotel for the grand opening of Cirque des Étoiles’s latest extravaganza. Ladies, are you looking forward to the show?”
They nodded and beamed. One of the them said, “I adore the circus.”
“Except for clowns,” another of them added. “There are no clowns in this one, are there?”