Haatim leaned against the window as they drove down the freeway. Frieda and Dominick sat in the backseat, so quiet that he glanced over to check on them and make sure they hadn’t fallen asleep.

"What about the fist?" "The what?" Marcus asked.

The air sucked out of Abigail’s lungs, and the world spun. “What?”

Mitchell’s shop looked the same as Abigail remembered from a few weeks earlier. From the first time that she’d even known Mitchell existed—something that both Frieda and Arthur had kept from her for her entire life.

Haatim. The word hit him like a tornado, popping up in the middle of nowhere. It ripped through his mind, and an intense feeling of confusion hit him when he tried to understand.

The team burst through the tunnel entrance, slamming the heavy door shut behind them. They leaned against it, gasping for breath as the screeches and flapping of the winged creatures faded into the distance.

“Are you sure about this?” Nervous, Mitchell paced back and forth across the front room of his shop. “I mean, do you feel sure that we should do it this way? She can get kind of … angry.”

Marcus Reeves, age 29, grew up on a struggling agricultural colony on the outer rim of human-controlled space. The harsh environment and constant threat of crop failure taught him resilience and resourcefulness from a young age.

Lucas Reeves, age 32, grew up on a struggling agricultural colony on the outer rim. The youngest of three children, he was always fascinated by technology and dreamed of escaping the harsh life of a farmer.