“I’m going to wake her up,” I whispered.
“What? She could make all kinds of noise in here-”
“I got her gun, right?”
“Yes, but-”
“She knows we won’t kill her, since we didn’t when we had the chance. But she doesn’t know how badly we’re willing to hurt her. Let’s take advantage of her doubts.”
I was pretending a bravery I didn’t feel. If we were caught, our few tiny freedoms would be taken away. I’d be a prisoner in my cell twenty-four hours a day. There would be no more visits with Chub. No chances for Kaz to see his mom. And I’d never know if Prairie was safe-unless they found her, in which case they’d drag her here to be a prisoner, like the rest of us.
“Now let’s make her take us to Bryce,” I said.
“I thought you’d want to get Chub.”
“Kaz, we can’t. Not yet. We can’t go for him until we’re ready. Until we’re sure.” As much as I longed to free Chub right away, he would only slow us down.
And if there was a chance to end this for good, it lay with Bryce. I longed to see Chub, to hug him and kiss his soft downy cheeks, but we had to fix this first.
The thought flashed through my mind before I could stop it. We were at a point of no return, having taken a hostage. In the past the staff hadn’t shot to kill, because we were too valuable. They might still spare my life, because my healing gift was too rare for them to risk losing. But Kaz… no one knew the extent of his gift but me. There was no reason for the guards to let him live if we got into a firefight.
“This has to work,” I whispered as I reached for Kaz. We squeezed each other’s hands in the dark, and then he guided my fingers to Dr. Grace’s neck and pressed them against her skin.
The thing I did, when I closed my eyes and emptied my mind, was the opposite of what I’d done before. The swirl was the same, the rushing blood, the voices, but I reversed the power of my touch, willed the stilled soul of Dr. Grace to awaken.
I felt her stir and then struggle to sit up.
“Where-what-”
I fumbled for the gun in my pocket. It was a good fit, heavy and smooth and warm from my body. I pressed the barrel against Dr. Grace’s neck, careful not to touch the trigger. I would not-could not-shoot her.
“This is your gun,” I whispered. “You are here with me and Kaz and in a moment we are going to open the door and you are going to take us to see Bryce.”
“Who?” Dr. Grace asked, and I realized she was thinking fast.
“Nice try, but I know you know who I mean,” I said. “Bryce Safian. I know he’s here. I saw him on the monitors.”
“I don’t-”
I jabbed a little harder against her neck with the barrel of the gun. “I don’t have a lot of patience right now.”
“Make it look natural,” Kaz said. “Lead us directly to him. Don’t stop and don’t talk to anyone. I’ll keep the gun hidden, but I won’t hesitate to shoot you this time.”
“Don’t be stupid,” Dr. Grace said. “If you shoot me, you’ll be dead in minutes.”
“I don’t think so,” I said. “I’m way too valuable to them.”
“And I’m a damn good shot,” Kaz said. Another lie, but he made it sound plausible. “I’ll take out as many as I can before I go down. Who knows? We might even get to the exit. You willing to take that chance?”
There was a silence while we waited for Dr. Grace to think it through.
“I’ll open the door now,” I said. “Remember, straight to Safian. If it makes you feel better, think about the fact that if we succeed, you’ll be free to go find some nice legitimate lab somewhere and do your little experiments in peace.”
And then I took a deep breath and felt for the doorknob, and we stood blinking in the bright sun. There was no one in sight. I handed the gun to Kaz and gave Dr. Grace a gentle shove.
The walk to Bryce’s room was uneventful. A couple of people passed us, but one was talking angrily into his phone and the other was so distracted by a printout he was carrying that he barely acknowledged us.
The longer Prentiss was gone, the more the place was falling apart.
When Dr. Grace stopped in front of a door and reached for her keys, she came up with nothing. I palmed her keys from my own pocket, resisting the urge to gloat.
But when I opened the door, one glance inside the room wiped the smirk off my face.
35
KAZ HERDED US INSIDE and pushed the door closed behind us, then took my arm and pulled me close.
I pressed my face against his chest, not wanting to go any closer to the thing in the bed. It was like the scene on the monitor, only real. In person, Bryce’s body was even more horrifying, the scabbed flesh red and black, his face a nightmare of agony.
After a moment I regained my composure and forced myself to step closer. “Can you see us?” I asked, my voice shaking.
Bryce’s eyes rolled in his head, but then they focused on me.
“Do you know who we are?” I asked, swallowing my revulsion and forcing myself to approach the edge of the bed. I was close enough that if I wanted to, I could touch his ruined skin. Instead I worked hard to focus my gaze on his eyes.
“Hehh…,” he said, a terrible, rasping moan issuing from deep in his throat. “Heeehhhlie.”
Hailey.
“That’s right. And Kaz is here too. And Dr. Grace.”
He looked at them, moving his head only the tiniest bit, his body racked with painful convulsions by the effort.
Suddenly the hatred I had stored up against him withered, and I felt only pity.
“Mr. Safian, can you help us destroy the data?”
He stared at me with a question in his eyes, a need, a hunger, and as much as I longed to shrink away from him, into Kaz’s strong arms, I forced myself to stay where I was.
“Yehhhh… ihhh you kihhhh eee.”
I glanced at Kaz, unable to understand Bryce’s words. His lips had split and peeled and burnt away and he could barely move his tongue.
Kaz shrugged, but I saw in his eyes a reflection of my own horror that anyone, even someone as evil as Bryce, was forced to remain alive in this condition. For weeks now, his every moment had been agony; I was surprised that he hadn’t gone insane.
“I’m sorry,” I said, my voice softening. “I don’t understand. You’ll help us… right? Just nod if you can.”
He ducked his chin a fraction of an inch but his gaping mouth worked, spittle forming at the corners, and he tried again. “Kihhh eee. Kihhh eee.”
“He’s saying ‘kill me,’ ” Kaz said. “Is that right?”
Bryce managed a nod.
He wanted us to kill him. To put him out of his misery. I rested my trembling hands gently on the starched white linens of the bed. There was no way I could do what he asked, even if it was the humane choice.
But I could offer him something else.
“I can heal you,” I whispered. “I don’t know if I can… bring you all the way back. I’ve never-Your injuries are too… but I might be able to heal you enough.”
It would be the greatest challenge I had faced as a Healer. I would not have attempted it a month earlier, or even a few days earlier. But I had healed Jess. I had healed Kaz. And each time I laid my hands on a wound, each
