The Host

Melanie is horrified that Wanderer is willing to vacate their body and die; she tries to talk Wanderer out of her sacrifice, but Wanderer is resolute, though she is touched that Melanie loves her, as Wanderer also loves Melanie. 

Wanderer goes to Doc and tells him her secret: She knows how to separate souls from hosts without harming either. She also explains that she will reveal this information if he will give those souls safe passage to other planets. Then she tells him that he must take her out of Melanie, let her die, and bury her with Wes and Walter. Doc is horrified but clearly interested as well. As Melanie continues yelling at Wanderer to stop, Wanderer tells Doc that she will show him how to perform the procedure on the Seeker. Doc agrees to the other terms but does not think he can kill Wanderer. Wanderer tells him not to tell anyone about the other part of their agreement. Wanderer ends by telling Doc that she and Jared will go on a raid for cryotanks to store the souls. Then they will separate the Seeker from her host body.

Wanderer finds Jared and Jamie and tells Jared she needs his help: They need to get cryotanks. Wanderer feels conflicted about her actions, knowing she could be showing the humans how to kill souls with impunity. Nevertheless, they go to the car just as sunrise hits. Wanderer asks Jared why the community has been kinder to the Seeker than they were to her, and he explains that none of them wanted to feel like a monster. They have been kind to the Seeker because of Wanderer.

Wanderer and Jared sleep beside the car. That evening, they drive to Phoenix and find a hospital. The souls store the cryotanks at the maternity ward, and they have to wait while the souls unload them. Jared asks Wanderer if she is going to save the Seeker, and Wanderer confirms that she is. Wanderer tells him she has separated a soul from a body before. When she was on another planet, she and a friend were attacked by a “claw beast.” Her friend was cut in half, and she extracted him from his host body and inserted him into the beast that had almost killed him. Then she rode him to the city to find a healer. Jared is dumbfounded but finally says, “Yes, let’s finish this, Wanderer, Lives in the Stars, Rides the Best. Stealing a few unguarded crates won’t present much of a challenge for you, will it?” (527).

Jared and Wanderer return to the cavern with the cryotanks. Doc is preparing for the procedure and tells Wanderer that the others have agreed to her terms. Jared is frustrated that he doesn’t know what is going on, so Wanderer explains the plan, though not the bit about her death. Jared goes to return the Jeep to its hiding place but asks them to wait for him to return.

Doc goes to speak with Jeb, and Wanderer realizes Melanie hasn’t spoken to her since Wanderer revealed her plan to die. However, Melanie speaks now, saying she does not want to be the reason Wanderer dies. When Jared, Jeb, Doc, and others return with the Seeker, Doc and Wanderer work together to prepare the unconscious Seeker for the procedure. Wanderer has Jared ready the cryotank. After Doc makes the incision, Wanderer hides her movements slightly and coaxes the soul out of the host. She carries it to the cryotank gently and then holds the cryotank as Doc heals the host body.

Brandt and a man named Aaron talk excitedly about the possibilities, but Jeb reminds them that until the soul is safely headed to another planet, they will not be capturing any souls. Brandt and Aaron both look sour, which reminds Wanderer that she needs more allies. Specifically, Wanderer needs Ian to help her, which makes her feel conflicted.

The Seeker’s host wakes up, looks around, and thanks them.

The Seeker’s host is named Lacey, and she is so similar to the Seeker that Wanderer does not like her any better. Lacey explains that she’d been yelling at the Seeker the entire time; when the Seeker realized Wanderer was hearing Melanie, she was frightened that Wanderer would realize the Seeker also had a present host. The Seeker became a Seeker to better deal with resistant hosts.

Wanderer does not know how to explain to Jamie or Ian that she plans to leave Melanie and die. They plan to go on another raid to get the soul safely off the planet, but before they can do so, Kyle leaves the community. He slips out unnoticed and takes the Jeep. Now that he knows souls can be removed, he’s gone to get the woman he loves, Jodi, who was captured. 

Jeb and the others consider postponing the raid until Kyle returns, but Ian and Wanderer convince them to go ahead with it. The group deposits the Seeker’s soul in a shuttle bound for a planet that takes centuries to reach and return from. Then they go to kidnap Healers in the hope that when they remove the souls, some of their healing knowledge will remain. They kidnap two Healers easily and return to the caves.

When the Healers are in the hospital area, Wanderer makes Doc, Jeb, Jared, and Ian promise to meet her terms before she shows them how to remove a soul. Wanderer guides Doc during the procedure, and he separates one soul and hands it to Ian. Ian looks at it in wonder and then puts it safely in the cryotank. Then the second Healer wakes up. Jared tackles him, and the Healer asks Wanderer, “Why?” but it is too late. The Healer activates a defense mechanism souls possess, dying by suicide alongside his host.

The body of the Healer who died by suicide is buried. Wanderer tries to bring the Healer whose soul was removed back to herself, but she does not respond to any name that Wanderer tries, though her body is alive and healthy. Wanderer worries that the only humans who remain are the resistors.

Eventually, the word “summer” brings the host back, but when she opens her eyes, she’s terrified of Wanderer, afraid a soul will try to enter her. Summer Song was her soul’s name, and she cannot remember her own. Wanderer leaves to try to find someone to help Doc with the patient, but the hallway and huge cavern are empty, causing Wanderer to fear that the caverns have been raided.

Angry voices lead her to the group, and she learns that Kyle has returned. Wanderer is relieved but also sad, knowing this means it’s time for her to complete her plan. The community is furious at Kyle for risking everyone by going to get Jodi. Kyle spots Wanderer and pleads with her to help him.

Jeb sends almost everyone away. He’s furious with Kyle, but Kyle reminds him that threats of violence scare souls. He then shocks everyone by turning and speaking kindly to the person he’s brought, who is named Sunny. Wanderer recognizes the soul’s name—she was on one of Wanderer’s previous planets—and attempts to put her at ease. Jeb sends Jamie to class, and Wanderer and the rest of the group go to the hospital area.

Sunny does not want to leave Earth; she wants to stay with Kyle. Kyle is kind and comforting toward her. He explains that when he found her, he expected to need to kidnap her. Instead, she was pleased to see him. She’d been dreaming about him, and she cares deeply for him. Sunny does not hear Jodi’s voice, and she’s been in Jodi’s body for six years.

Sunny asks why Wanderer gets to stay while she has to leave, and Wanderer reassures her that she has to give her body back as well. Ian appears, asking what she means.

Ian is furious. He pulls Wanderer away and takes her back to his bedroom to talk. He tells her she’s not leaving him, but Wanderer pleads with him to understand, assuring him that no one is making her separate from Melanie and explaining that she loves her. Ian reminds Wanderer that he loves her. Wanderer tells him that she loves him as well but that Melanie’s body does not: “I can never love you in this body, Ian. It pulls me in two. It’s unbearable” (574). 

Melanie tells her she’ll make herself scarce, and Wanderer kisses Ian. Ian’s kiss is different from Jared’s, and Melanie’s body is a “fog,” but the kiss impacts Wanderer: “It was almost a metallurgical process deep inside the core of who I was, something that had already begun […] But this long, unbroken kiss finished it” (575). Wanderer begins to cry. She’s had eight full lives, but only now has she found a partner. She tells him that no matter what form she takes, she will always love him.

Ian refuses to let her die. He sends her to the game room, and he tells her that he is calling a tribunal. The situation will be discussed, and he tells her she has to abide by the decision.

Ian calls a small tribunal with just Jeb, Doc, Jared, and him. Sunny has already been separated from Jodi and put in a cryotank. Wanderer wants the tribunal to go quickly, but she also wants them to somehow find a way for her to stay, even though that’s impossible. 

Jeb asks what Wanderer’s argument is. She says that she must give Melanie’s body back, but Ian argues that Wanderer remaining benefits the community. Jared asks what Melanie wants, and Wanderer tries to lie that Melanie wants her body back. Ian and Jared almost come to blows because both believe that the one they love has a right to remain. Jeb says that Wanderer has a point—Melanie does deserve her body—but he does not agree that this means that Wanderer needs to die. Jared suggests getting Wanderer a new body, but Wanderer does not want to steal another life.

Wanderer tells them she wants a break to eat. Jeb agrees that the matter does not need to be decided now. Wanderer looks to Doc, silently reminding him that they’ve agreed that she will not only be removed from Melanie’s body but will die—something the others do not yet realize. As Ian and Wanderer leave, she thinks of three more deeds she has to do before she dies. 

After eating, she goes to see Sunny and Jodi. Kyle is cradling the cryotank and holding the hand of Jodi, who is still unconscious. Kyle and Ian banter back and forth. Unprompted, Kyle apologizes for attempting to kill Wanderer. He admits he was wrong. Wanderer then lies that she’s tired. Ian is quiet as they walk, and Wanderer asks Melanie to look after everyone, including Ian. When they reach their room, Ian falls asleep quickly, and Wanderer leaves him. Just as she walks to the southern corridor, a hand drops onto her shoulder and someone asks, “Going somewhere?” (588).

Wanderer shrieks in terror, and the person who intercepted her—Jared—apologizes. Jared guesses that Wanderer is going to see Doc, and she confirms that she is. He asks if there’s anything he can do for her, and she asks him to lie—to tell her that he wants her to stay. Melanie pushes herself to the back of their mind to give Wanderer privacy. Jared tells Wanderer he wants her to stay and then kisses Wanderer, not Melanie. When it’s over, Wanderer tells him she wants to do the rest on her own.

Wanderer goes into a hospital room where Doc is waiting for her. He begs her not to make him do what she has asked, but she holds him to his promise. He tells her, “You are the noblest, purest creature I’ve ever met. The universe will be a darker place without you” (594). Melanie and Wanderer say goodbye, and Doc puts a cloth over her face. The black gets brighter, becoming a “vibrant” blue. She enters it, at peace.

Wanderer expects everything to end, but it doesn’t. She wakes in a new body, which was once occupied by a soul named Petals Open to the Moon. Everyone is around her when she wakes. Wanderer finds out that Jared held Doc at knife-point, forcing him to put Wanderer in a cryotank instead of letting her die. Then Jared, Melanie, and Jamie went and found a body for her. They looked for one who had spent most of its time as a soul in hopes that it would not still have a human inhabitant. Wanderer does not feel a human presence inside the body with her or even a memory of an inhabitant. There was only the soul, Petals, who is now in a cryotank. Ian protected Wanderer while she was in the cryotank and did not join the raid. Jamie found Wanderer’s new body, which looks like what he believes Wanderer would look like as a human. 

Wanderer asks about Jodi and learns that she never reawakened. When it became clear that she was not returning and her body began to atrophy, they put Sunny back into Jodi’s body. Sunny says that she is still looking for any sign of Jodi, but there is none. Ian asks Wanderer if she’s happy to be back, and she says that she’s happy they’re happy. Ian presses her, telling her that’s not good enough. She admits that she thinks it might make her very happy. Ian kisses her, and it feels right. She does not feel any confusion. Wanderer agrees to stay and begin her 10th life.

Wanderer’s life is different in a different body. Her body is much smaller and weaker than it was as Melanie, and she also inherits Petals’ grief over her mother, Cloud Spinner. The community members treat Wanderer differently as well. The few children in the community adore Wanderer and seek her out. Ian and Wanderer’s relationship remains platonic, and Wanderer worries that he still has feelings for Melanie.

During a rainstorm, everyone sleeps in the game room. Jamie ensures that Ian and Wanderer sleep beside each other and then notifies Ian that he is moving out of their shared room. Ian and Wanderer speak quietly, and Ian asks how Wanderer feels about Jared. Wanderer says that Jared is her past and that Ian is her present. She asks how he feels about Melanie, and Ian says that he never had feelings for Melanie: His feelings were always for her. They kiss.

Ian, Jared, Melanie, Ian, Brandt, and Aaron go on a raid to refill their healing supplies. They go to where the van and the big moving truck are and find people waiting. Wanderer assumes they are Seekers as her companions panic. However, the group’s leader reassures them that they are not Seekers. He shows them his eyes, which are still human, introduces himself, and explains that he is part of another human rebel cell. They are in contact with other groups as well. The most surprising thing is that a soul named Burns is with them. Burns and Wanderer agree that Earth is a “strange world.”