And then I did. I told her about Rascal’s accident, about the blood and the terrible damage to his body, about the way it had felt to carry him home, to put my face to his fur. About the rushing, needful urgency of the energy inside me flowing through my fingers into his wrecked body.
I told her about Milla, about how I barely remembered running to her side, about the words in my head, about Ms. Turnbull shoving me to the floor, and the way my senses came back with a prickling abruptness. About watching Milla roll over and throw up-and how she was fine after.
“The gift is strong in you,” Prairie said, a note of awe in her voice, when I finished. “I’ve never heard of anyone being able to do it without someone guiding them. Your mom and I practiced for hours with Mary in secret, so Alice wouldn’t know, but it took us months before we could use the gift.”
“But Milla says we’re cursed,” I said, hot shame flooding my face. “That we’re freaks.”
“No,” Prairie corrected me sharply. “You have a
That made me feel a little better. Just days ago I’d thought there was something wrong with me, one more difference between me and every other kid, but Prairie made it sound like something to be proud of.
But that didn’t change the fact that we were running from killers, that the kitchen floor was soaked in blood, that Gram was dead. “Who were those men at the house? Were they there because I’m a Healer?”
“Those men were… professionals.”
“What does that even
“More like trained… investigators, I guess you’d call them. They’re killers when they need to be, but I don’t think that was their main objective.”
She was so calm. It made me panic even more. “What did they want?”
“I’m pretty sure they wanted
“Me? Why would they want me?”
“Because you’re a Healer.”
“But how would they know that? I only just found out myself.”
Prairie sighed. “That’s a long story. I work for a man. Not a good man, though I didn’t know that until very recently. His name is Bryce Safian. We were doing research, in a lab outside Chicago. Trying to find ways to use my healing gifts, to replicate them so they could be used to fight disease.”
“What do you mean, like turn normal people into Healers?”
“Well, more or less. We analyzed my full genome and compared it with a control population to isolate the element that controls the gift. The next step would have been to figure out how to use a special process to change a person’s DNA to match mine.”
“I thought all that DNA stuff was, like…” I tried to remember what I’d learned in my science class earlier in the year, wishing I had paid more attention. “That it’s still not understood all that well. That it’s mostly a mystery.”
“Yes, that’s true to a great extent, but Bryce is very well funded. We had access to the latest research. We had a laboratory, equipment, a team of scientists. We were at the very forefront.”
“But that all sounds like a
“Yes, but… Bryce had other plans. Other ideas about what to do with the research once we isolated the healing gene, to put it in simple terms.”
“What do you mean?” I demanded.
“He… had figured out a way to use the healing gene in warfare. In a battle setting.”
“What, like to heal wounded soldiers? To fix up their injuries so that they could keep fighting?”
“That’s… well, something like that,” Prairie said hesitantly. “The point is that he was willing to sell the research, our results, to the highest bidder. He didn’t care who it was, as long as they paid.”
Her words sank into my mind. “You mean like… other countries?”
“Possibly,” Prairie said quietly. “Anyone who would pay.”
“But I still don’t understand why he needs
“It’s not quite that simple. You can’t really decode the DNA without a population, which means more than one person, and Bryce was desperate to find another subject. So he investigated me, and he found out things that even I didn’t know.” She gave me a small, sad smile. “Like, for instance, that I have a niece, someone who could be predicted to share the gift.”
“So he had those guys spying on me, those men that were at Gram’s,” I said. “It had to be. They were following me around. I saw them outside the house one morning, and in town talking to people.”
“Yes, I think that’s what happened. Bryce must have hired someone in Chicago to find out everything they could about my background. Once they figured out I was using a fake identity, they tracked down who I used to be. Who I really am. And once they got to Gypsum, it was just a matter of talking to the right people. You know how it is in a small town, everyone knows everything about everyone else. And if they offered money…”
“Everyone’s broke,” I finished the thought. People in Gypsum tended to mistrust outsiders, but if money was involved, it probably wouldn’t take a whole lot of convincing before they started telling everything they knew. “But nobody knew about the healing. I mean, I never did it before-I didn’t even know about it myself.”
“I’m afraid Bryce knew that it was hereditary because I told him,” Prairie said, her voice heavy with regret. “I just never imagined that there was anyone left. I mean, besides Alice, and she can’t heal.”
“So if your boss knew that Gram was weak, that she didn’t have the gift…”
“That’s why his men didn’t think twice about shooting her. She was useless to them. All they wanted was you.”
“So they came here and… someone in Gypsum led them to us for a few bucks.” I felt the bitterness build inside me, hot and sharp.
“I doubt anyone had any idea what it would lead to. These were professionals, Hailey. They would have had some story, some compelling lie that would make people trust them. And besides, the money Bryce would have offered-it would have been hard for anyone to resist.”
“Your boss has that much money?”
“He has more than you can imagine, Hailey,” Prairie said flatly.
“So if he’s so rich and powerful and all, how did you get away from him? I mean, how did you get here without him stopping you?”
Prairie glanced at me, her expression troubled. Even in the glow of the dashboard, I could see the worry lines etched between her eyes. “A man can be… a genius in some ways, and completely dense in others. Bryce was my lover, Hailey. And even though he managed to keep me fooled for a very long time about who he really was, I guess there were ways that he didn’t really understand me either.”
“You were in
“I thought I was. But when I realized what he intended to do, well, let’s just say I came to my senses fast. So fast that I was able to come up with a plan that would let me get to you first. I convinced him that I thought it was a great idea to find you, to involve you in our work. I pretended I didn’t know about the worst of his plans. I told him I needed a day to buy a few things for you, for your… room… the room he had already prepared for you at the lab. And instead, this morning I drove like hell to get to Alice’s, praying the whole way I would get there before he gave the order to pick you up.”
“But I first saw those men three days ago. Why did they wait until tonight to try to take me?”
“My guess is they weren’t allowed to do anything without the go-ahead from Bryce. And that they were trying to find a way to take you without drawing too much attention, ideally without getting the law involved. Bryce wouldn’t have wanted that kind of trouble.”
“So… how did he figure out you ran away?”
Prairie sighed, a long, sad breath that seemed to weaken her. “I don’t think he did. Bryce is so… confident, I don’t think it would have ever occurred to him that I’d go against his wishes. But his men must have recognized my car and tracked me to the house. I was sloppy; I didn’t stop to think that Bryce would have given them details like that. And I bet as soon as they reported in, he gave them the go-ahead to come and get us.”
“Oh.” I thought about the two men breaking into our house. About the way a gun looked when it was pointed at you. About the way bodies looked when they were dead.
