Daughter of Zeus ✔

22

Ada wanted to survive, but she didn't want to be responsible for potentially reverting dozens, maybe even hundreds of people just to ensure their survival. When she changed Phennell, the guilt was almost too much. Now she had changed two more people, robbing them of their freewill.

"You might have to do something like it every time, if there is a next time." Moretz sipped his drink. "Will you be able to?"

She looked at Darcy, at Shylar, then back at Moretz. "I don't really have a choice."

"If you teach me how, I can help you," Darcy offered.

She thanked her little sister, but she knew she would never intentionally teach Darcy how to subvert a human being's essential personality. The power was too perverted to be used, and Ada hoped she never had to use it again.

That was when Shylar, seeming to read her mind, told her there was another way she could manipulate Sammies without re- wiring them. "Kressick used to erase portions of their memories, give them alternate time frames. You could try that if there's a next time."

She wished he'd told her that before she raped two more human minds. Why couldn't have Kressick imparted better communication and social skills into his mercenary? She held in her anger, frying the light bulb above them, but not shattering it.

"Thanks, I will."

They finished the rest of their lunch in silence. Shylar couldn't stop smiling, and Ada couldn't stop kicking him in the shin. By the time they were ready to leave, he winced as he rubbed his leg. An incoming message brought about Ada's automatic flick of the wrist.

"Hello?" She assumed it would be Cybil or Gemina, but it was neither.

"I have that list for you," Shana said.

Shock animated Shylar's face to a near comical degree, but Ada brushed him away.

"Send it to me."

Shana chuckled. "Yeah right. I'm not transmitting via this network."

"My connection is safe, trust me."

"It might be, but I don't know that for sure. I'm not handing this list over until you've guaranteed the safety of me and mine, and one other thing."

"Yes?" Ada drew out the word.

"We get my brother out, too."

"Done."

Silence.

"Just like that?"

"Just like that. We'll be in touch."

Ada cut the connection.

"What was that?" Shylar demanded.

"Our next stop after picking up my mother, or maybe our first stop. Haven't decided yet."

On their way out of the diner, Moretz held open the door for everyone. Ada was the last to leave, and he grinned at her. Her natural revulsion for him threatened to overtake her. She resisted, and it seemed a good sign for their future relationship. Her entire trip to Atlanta had been about finding the blame for what she had done to August, or so she believed.

Seeing her changed father and feeling more than disgust for him made her realize she had been searching for more than blame, she had been searching for the last part of her family. A part of her had wanted to reunite with Moretz, even if that meant murdering the bastard to accomplish it.

As she walked past her father, patting him awkwardly on the arm, she thought of how she liked the current outcome much better than her imagined one.