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With that she turned and began to walk out of the hospital If she didn’t panic, they wouldn’t, either Slow and steady, easy does it

"Stop her!" came the shout, and then the footsteps pounded behind her, and Verlaine could only run

Her heart seeh it wanted to shatter her Verlaine’s first instinct was to run for her car, but already people were crowding the hallways all around her and blocking her way Their eyes ild, hardly even human They’d been pushed to the liht They bla in Captive’s Sound, and they intended to ht They wouldn’t hurt her if she ith the patients; they’d calm down if only to protect their own loved ones And if they remembered that someone she loved had been struck down, too, maybe that would snap them out of it

But they were close on her now--shouts and footsteps an ever-increasing roar behind her--and Verlaine nearly gave way to panic

She flung open the door that would lead her toward the elevator and dashed through, then skidded to a stop

Asa stood there Verlaine didn’t even have to wonder why he’d come; Elizabeth had sensed some small part of their plan and sent her de And now Asa could trap her, right where the mob could tear her apart

As the winds on the sound picked up, so did the waves Nadia clung to the weather-beaten white stucco of the lighthouse as water crashed right at her feet Sea spray soaked her clothes, heightened the chill

Now or never, Nadia decided

Hand on the garnet on her bracelet, she suhtiving what could not be forgiven

Once again the ground rulanced toward the dark, choppy ocean; even she could see hints of the bridge now The One Beneath was so very close

Holding Cole in her ar that there were nosister was here to protect hi about three weeks after Mo cereal in the kitchen without saying a word, and then a stupid old disco song froing and Cole started laughing and before Nadia knew it, she and her dad were doing the stupidest dance they could think of, just because it felt so good to have fun again

Crying quietly on the bus in Chicago, telling herself over and over again that Mo a terrible weight finally lift froh Nadia, shaking her even ely than the quakes had And yet it didn’t scare her; it didn’t hurt This hite er and more transformative than she’d ever worked before It felt like celebration, like sunlight It felt sweeter than anything she’d ever known except love

Nadia opened her eyes Had it worked?