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For a moment, I was sure he’d try to deny it all, brush Nico aside as being out of his mind But Clancy didn’t bother to hide the small soing there, didn’t I?"

"You" The idea of it was al into ling rush down the back of my skull that came when someone tried to force a connection between our minds He’d walked me around like a doll--listened in on conversations, stolen whole moments of ht that it could be done, that there was the possibility of it

"How long?" I de those ‘stress headaches’?" Clancy folded his hands in his lap "They’re the worst, aren’t they? I’h them alone But you should know you only have yourself to blame Every time you enter someone’s hts, will becoot you while your defenses were down, you let me reinforce our bond You’re the reason I was able to do this"

"What did the lass Nico slu his face behind his hands "Who were they sent to?"

"I have no idea what you’re talking about," Clancy said "You’re both clearly too emotional to understand You’ve been so stressed, Ruby It’s harder to control your abilities when you’re sofrayed"

Isn’t it?

I heard the words like they had been spoken inside of my skull and immediately thren a black wall between the two of us, clipping the connection before it could fully forain--he knew the symptoms of anxiety and lack of focus, and even the headaches could be explained away by the stress of our situation

Again, and again, and again, I thought Every tiht into it We were on different levels, and I needed to stop pretending like eren’t My ine he’d be capable of doing this

"That’s better" Clancy gavenod "You understand now Your role in this is over The Red is gone You’ve set this up so well, it’ll be easy to step in and finish it You can rest now Isn’t that what you wanted?"

"You knew he’d be hurt--killed," I said, choking on the words

"Only because you guaranteed it," Clancy said, victory e to the trainers there, warning them to be on the lookout?"

There was apain and then I did screalass until I had nothing left but a ive My fault My fault My fault

"It’s a bit tragic, isn’t it? To give so that in the end, it only has the power to destroy them He wanted so badly to knoasn’t the only one like him--to fit in with us It was pathetic"

I lurched forward, vision flashing red, black, white, the invisible hands intoward hieles, Jude, the research, Cole--he had taken so much, destroyed every trace of hope just as it solidified into so real in my hands He can’t have this We were too close I was too close to finishing this

Nico broughtthe keys Hands steady, expression focused, he unlocked each of the three deadbolts on the door

"Leave!" he said, throwing the door open "Disappear again, the way you always do! Get out of here before you ruin everything for us--call off the people you hired to get you out, justdisappear!"

Clancy stood up froet it?" Nico said "You haven’t hurt the people who hurt you by doing this--you never will, and you won’t adet close to the you’ve ever done is hurt the kids anted to help you We all wanted to help you!"

"Then you should have stayed out of et round as Clancy sauntered toward hiave them the plan to extract me in Philadelphia, didn’t you? But you were the one who left me behind at Thuret out together, ould be able to live without fear or shame or pain Clancydon’t you remember the pain?" His voice dropped to a whisper "Why couldn’t you have just let me die like the others? You told me I had to live, but I wish I had justI wish I had died, so you couldn’t have usedhim, an expression on his face I’d never seen before

"Why do you have to take every good thing we try to give you and break it into pieces?" Nico said "You let them turn you into this"

"This is who I aeto force you to have the procedure," Nico said, his hands up, placating "You’re free to go You can disappear Pleasepleasejust call off the people who are co Please, Clance Please"