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So I don’t see his and back down

I feel hi worry roll off Cassian But I don’t look back Not for either of them I can’t If I look, I’irl that quaked under the covers as Az whispered stories in the dark of the enkros and the terrible things they do to the draki they capture We have no way of knowing for sure because none of those draki ever return home

Finally, Will pushes the doors shut onhands to the cold metal and hold them there, as if I can somehow reach him, feel him on the other side Him Not Cassian

A moment later doors sla The van rurihtly, my stomach in knots

Inhaling deep breaths, I wait for the van to stop and for it to begin—the battle I’ve waited ht

The bue It’s all so fah this again The back of the van feels claustrophobic Little air No space to htmares My mind sticks on this, fastens on the memory of the last time I was a captive in a van like this Last time …

It’s the reason I’m here, after all

I take sled strands of hair from my face and try to keep my balance as we take a sharp turn

I make a mental list of the differences to steady my nerves I trust the drivers They have —I’ve seen our destination And I’m not in pain this time At least not physically But I’m also by myself No Miram

Mira To be honest, she’s only partly why I’ more for me A quest for truth Will knows it I don’t think Tamra realizes, or even Cassian, but Will knows this is about finding answers Finding Dad

The van slows and stops I holdIt’s not deliberate I can’t help it—I aht now e else

Fear Rage Doubt Was I kidding Will when I said this would work? Deluding myself? All of this rises inside me in a wash of char and cinder, ready to burst free in flame and fire

Voices carry fro the enkros Just as planned I wait, s pull against their binding Will did a good job I couldn’t break free if I wanted to And I don’t That’s not the plan The plan is for me to play the role of a believable captive

For afor the guys to return She smiled e parted ways, but the sleaaze and I know she broke down and cried as soon as we left

Taainst this whole scheme as soon as I proposed it Even after I persuaded Will and Cassian she continued to object As the bindings dig into hts of Taaze on the van’s back doors and wait Voices ride the air and I think I recognize the muffled sound of Will’s voice Or it could just be that I want to hear him so much, so badly

Cassian is there I don’t need to hear hier hits me like a fist, swift and fierce Hebreath escapes between e suffuses me in a cold so deep it freeze-burns me to the marrow of my bones

To combat this, I reach into myself for what I knohat I am Heat swells up inside me, smolders a path up my windpipe to ith Cassian’s icy fury

There’s a clang and the scrape ofas the door opens

Light floods e and I lift h the cracks innothing away At least outwardly Ahis tension to me even as he motions to me with his hand “There she is, boys …”

Cassian lingers a few feet behind him with several others—lab-coated individuals who peer at ht jars me I couldn’t have prepared for it

Cassian Standing with theh bubbles up in my throat

I force arage door A long narrow corridor of dull white stretches out before le steel door waits at the far end There’s no possibility of escape to the outside world, to the sky Not that I’m here to escape Not yet anyway

One of the lab coats steps forward He holds a prod with a loop around the end Before I realize what he’s doing, he drops the stiff circle aroundlimpse of the man’s detere from the van and hit the cold floor

Landing onthat these men should appear so ordinary in their lab coats Like doctors or researchers and not the secret

A fresh wave of Cassian’s rage sweeps over —ht, to unleash all that I am on these enkros And I can’t

A sound escapes Will Soaze collides with his His hands flex at his sides He’s barely restraining hi to communicate that he should hold himself in check

They should go I know this has to be killing thehtest sign that they’re affected by my treatment

“Get up! C’ cuts into ht lose my hands

Glaring at him, I’m struck by the dispassion in those pale blue eyes There’s nothing there—not even what I expected None of the venom, none of thethe right thing