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The ht that Tally hardly saw it fro place, but she knehat had happened from the reactions of the others Their bodies shuddered, eyes widening with horrified fascination - like Tally, they couldn’t look away

Then she saw the blood begin to trickle fro down Shay’s upraised ar a color that was ive theood look, her slow, deliberatedown her arlances at one another

Shay finally lowered her ar a little on her feet, and held out the knife Ho stepped forward to take it from her, and she took his place in the circle

"What is this?" Zane whispered

Tally shook her head and closed her eyes The rain beca around her, but she heard her oords through the torrent "This is Shay’s new cure"

The others followed one by one

Tally kept on expecting the that if only one of them would make a break for it, the rest would scatter into the forest like scared rabbits But so rain, or maybe the crazed expression on Shay’s face - bound them to their spots They all watched, and then, one by one, they cut themselves And as each did so, their faces transformed to become more like Shay’s: ecstatic and insane

With every cut, Tally felt soet that there was ht of the costuh to pursue Croy but had left her still pretty-minded It wasn’t until after Peris’s knee had struck her as he hoverbounced - opening up her eyebrow - that Tally’s head had really become clear

Shay had ad a tattoo to commemorate it

Apparently she’d also understood how that injury had changed Tally, leading her to Zane, to the top of the transmission tower, and finally to the cure

And now Shay was sharing her knowledge

"This is our fault," Tally whispered

"What?"

Tally opened her gloved hands toward the tableaux before theiven Shay what she needed to spread this cure: citywide fa to beco "Cutters," Shay had said

"She’s not one of us any here?" Zane hissed His fists were clenched, his face reddening in the shadow of his hood

"Zane, calm down" Tally took his hand

"We shouldcough, his eyes wide

"Zane?" she whispered

He was struggling for breath, hands clutching at erabbed his other hand, staring into his bulging eyes He wasn’t breathing

Tally glanced into the clearing, desperate for help froures had heard her cry, but they only stared wide-eyed at her, blood flowing and flash tattoos spinning, too zoned out to be of any help

She reached for her cuff, tearing off the black scarf to send a distress ping But Zane’s hand reached out to grab her He shook his head painfully "No"

"Zane, you need help!"

"I’m okay " The words tore fro here in her arht both wind up under the surgeon’s knife, pretty- Shay’s cure as the only one in town "All right," she said "But I’ you to the hospital"

"No!"

"Not inside Just as close as we can get We’ll wait there and see what happens"

Tally rolled Zane onto her hoverboard and snapped her fingers, watching as it rose into the air

She lay on top of hiht The lifters held, and she pushed forward carefully

As the board began toAll ten of the toward thelare as cold as the rain

Suddenly, Tally was overwhelht of Specials She pushed off hard with her feet, leaning forward and cli the place behind

The ride down to the river was terrifying Zane’s liht threatening to tip the board over with every turn Tally wrapped her ar across the board’s knobbly underside She steered with her flailing legs, her turns as wide as a stu drunk’s The cold rain spat into her face, and Tally reles in her coat pocket, but there was no way of getting at the

And there wasn’t ti up speed as they descended toward the river

Pine branches, heavy and glistening with captured raindrops, reared up out of the rain to slash her face

When they finally burst out of Cleopatra Park, Tally cut across a belt oftoward the far end of the central island

At this distance, the hospital was invisible in the driving rain, but Tally spotted the running lights of a hovercar headed in that direction It wasso rain, sheits course

As the hovercar pulled out of sight, they reached the river, and the overweighted board began to lose lift over the open water

Tally realized too late as happening: The buried ainst was lower here - in the ground under ten meters of water As they neared the middle of the river, the board descended closer and closer to the cold and choppy surface

Halfway across, the board struck water with a slap, Zane’s hands bouncing off the river as if it was solid But the hoverboard rebounded into the air, and as the far shore grew closer, the lifters gained purchase and carried the voice caot you"

"Yeah Feels very under control"